1. JESUS - MORE THAN JUST A MAN

Transcription

1 Jesus True God

2 1. JESUS - MORE THAN JUST A MAN

3 As the apostles and those who followed Jesus spent more and more time with Him, they gradually came to realise that Jesus was not just any ordinary another man.

4 The way He lived, spoke, preached and taught was very different from the rest of the other Rabbis at the time.

5 2. JESUS WORKED MIRACLES

6 The wonders Jesus worked left the apostles in awe and wonder.

7 To the apostles and the evangelists who later wrote the Gospels, these were signs which showed that Jesus had the power to put into practice what He preached.

8 A good example of this was in the first miracle Jesus performed at the marriage of Cana in Galilee where He revealed His glory and the disciples believed in Him. (Jn 2,11).

9 The miracles were signs which clearly showed that Jesus had come to heal and save - to win over evil and its effects, once and for always.

10 When Jesus healed the man who was blind since his birth some people began to understand that there was more to Jesus than just an ordinary man when they said: Since the beginning of the world nobody has ever heard of anyone giving sight to a person born blind. (Jn 9,32-33).

11 In his preaching, Peter sought to help his listeners to come to know and to acknowledge Jesus as more than just another holy man : this is Jesus of Nazareth who went everywhere, doing good and healing all who were under the power of the Devil, for God was with Him. (Acts 10,38).

12 3. JESUS DID GREAT THINGS WHICH ONLY GOD COULD DO

13 The people already believed in God and knew that God had the power to do things which were beyond human ability.

14 They believed, for example, that if they did something against God s law, then God would punish them.

15 Therefore, somebody having a physical or mental handicap was considered to be the result of God's punishment of some sin which was done by the handicapped person, or even by his/her parents or ancestors.

16 The people considered hardship in life to be God's direct punishment to His people for their sins. As such, only God could forgive someone's sins and heal that person from physical or mental impairment.

17 Those who followed Jesus saw Him doing things which only God had the power to do.

18 An example of this can be seen when Jesus was preaching to the crowds and some people lifted down a paralytic through the roof. Jesus first forgave the man's sins and then He healed him.

19 The people said who can forgive sins if not God. To show them that He had the power to forgive sins, He healed the man in front of everyone.

20 The Law was considered to be reserved exclusively to God. However, Jesus not only explained the law of God but He also showed people how liberating this law was intended to be.

21 Those who killed Him were unable to understand that Jesus was really the fulfilment of the Law of God.

22 Jesus spoke with authority and did not need to call on anyone else when helping others through the many miracles He worked.

23 4. JESUS REVEALED HIMSELF THROUGH HIS OWN WORDS

24 Jesus also sought to spread the Good News the message of God's promise of eternal life with Him.

25 Jesus called God Father and Abba which means daddy or pa.

26 Through this, Jesus showed the level of intimacy which He shared with the Father and even today, He invites us to be open to Him and to share in this intimacy too.

27 Jesus said He knew the Father well: no one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. (Mt 11,27).

28 The people who did not accept Him thought He was blaspheming when He said that He is the Son of God.

29 John's gospel gives one example of this: You are only a man, but you are trying to make yourself God. (Jn 10,33).

30 On at least two occasions they tried to stone Jesus when He tried to help the people to understand who He really was. The bond between the Son and the Father was so great that Jesus and the Father were and are truly one.

31 When the priests and Pharisees arrested Jesus, the charges they brought against Him centred on the fact that He had referred to Himself as being on an equal level as God

32 5. IN THE LIGHT OF JESUS RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD

33 The best witness Jesus has given us about who He really is and about the truth He spoke is that He rose from the dead.

34 Jesus, who is now known to be God-made-man' or God Incarnate, revealed Himself to the people slowly because the Jews believed in one God but not in one God who is triune, i.e. A Trinity.

35 If God was not a Trinity, the importance of Jesus life would have ended with His death on Good Friday.

36 Jesus would have been forgotten or simply remembered as a man who had power in word and deed like many other holy men who came before Him and after Him.

37 Immediately after Jesus crucifixion, the apostles together with Mary were hidden and locked in behind closed doors in fear of the Jews and Romans.

38 However when Jesus rose from the dead and some time after He entered into the room, He showed them the marks left by the nails and the lance and they understood that He really was the Lord, the Son of God.

39 Thomas saw Him on the second Sunday and it was only then that He believed and confessed: My Lord And My God! (Jn 20,28).

40 In order to verify to the apostles that what they were seeing was not an illusion, Jesus ate with them (Acts 1,4) and He allowed Thomas to touch His wounds (Jn 20,27-28). Jesus also kept appearing to them for forty days (Acts 1,3).

41 Simply by reading through the events that took place, we can see that it would have been very unlikely for the apostles to invent the resurrection of Jesus.

42 Through the way Jesus had given in to those who abused Him and through His public and humiliating death, the apostles were already bitterly disappointed with what had taken place (Lk 24,14-24).

43 The apostles had been overcome with fear and had escaped. They did not expect Him to rise again since they had never understood Jesus when He referred to this. This lack of comprehension showed itself in the apostles total disbelief when the women told them about the events at the tomb.

44 Jesus knew that there were some people who could not accept His message and that these people would eventually try to silence Him.

45 However, Jesus spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, Or Messiah. "The Christ" (Greek) and "the Messiah" (Hebrew) both mean "the Anointed One"; that He had not been abandoned to the grave, nor did His body see decay.

46 God invites us to have a living hope in the reality of heaven and in how we can best live our lives.

47 Such a hope does not come from our arrogance or by being bigheaded. It is rooted in understanding the victory of Christ.

48 The Resurrected Jesus Christ Has New Powers - He is able to go through doors and the apostles could still touch Him - unlike a ghostly apparition which could only be seen or imagined.

49 Jesus was so transformed that even Mary of Magdala did not recognise Him at first, thinking that He was the gardener (Jn 20,14-19).

50 What does Christ's resurrection mean to us as Christians?

51 For His disciples, the resurrection of Jesus was something which changed their lives completely and forever.

52 In declaring Jesus resurrection, the apostles would leave themselves open to hardship, hunger, cold, beatings, persecution and even to a death which could be as violent as that of Jesus.

53 However, God had proven that Jesus had the power of life beyond death and He made Him Lord: The Christ.

54 Through Jesus, God shows us that we need not look anywhere else for the truth. Jesus is the truth.

55 He makes life interesting and we need to listen to what He is saying to us in our daily lives. We need to take this very seriously in order to live happy and fulfilled lives

56 Questions 1) How is Jesus seen as more than just a man? 2) What are miracles? 3) Why Jesus did give an example to people with miracles? 4) What are the great things done by Jesus which only God could do? 5) How Jesus revealed himself through his own words? 6) How was the relationship between Jesus and God? 7) How the resurrected Jesus has new powers?