Who Is Jesus?

Text: Colossians 1:15-20

Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah

December 24, 2024, Christmas Eve Service

Who is Jesus? Why does the world still think about him? Usually when someone dies the memory of that person fades away. But this isn’t true with Jesus. And while many historical figures are still mentioned none hold the sway of Jesus. There are no people gathering to sing, hear messages about, pray to and study Alexander the Great, or Plato or Galileo.

Tonight we are here because of Jesus. You may be here out of obligation or tradition, but this building would not be here and this service would not be held if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ.

Who is he?

Colossians is a letter in the New Testament of the Bible written by a man named Paul to some of the first Christians who lived in the place called Colossae. In the first chapter we get one of the fullest statements about who Jesus is.

Paul said that Jesus is the Son of God and the image of the invisible God. No one has seen the Father, but Jesus makes him known. N.T. Wright, a theologian and Bible teacher, said “Jesus is the mirror-image of the God who is there but who we normally can’t see.”

Paul says that all things were created through Jesus. He was present and active in the creation of the world being the eternal Son of God.

He is the head of the church. He has supremacy over the entire Christian body of all believers in every time and place, regardless of what building they worship or the name on the sign.

God was pleased to have everything that he is dwell in Jesus. Jesus is fully God. As John begins his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word (the Word being Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

And finally, through Jesus and his death on the cross, God has made peace with us. The breach that humanity made between us and our Creator was closed by Christ.

Tonight we especially remember how Jesus came into the world. He did not come into the world as a strong man, not as a celebrated king in a prominent family, and not through some angelic appearance. He was born as you or I, from the womb of a woman.

He lived in the region of Galilee in first century Palestine. The four Gospels are the only firsthand witnesses to Jesus. From them we learn of his teachings, his life, and his ministry, a ministry that only spanned about three years.

How Jesus left the world is deeply significant. He was unjustly arrested, condemned, tortured and crucified. But he did not stay dead. The witnesses to him saw him alive after being buried in a tomb for three days. And they saw him ascend back to the Father.

Teacher

Jesus was a teacher. No one said the things he did. He said we should love our enemies and pray for those who make life hard for us. He said we should forgive others, and then forgive again, and then again, and again. He modeled this when he was crucified. Jesus prayed for the Father to forgive the very people who were putting him to death.

He said that how one responded to his words was the difference between a life that would ultimately stand and a life that would fall.

He often taught in little stories called parables. Some of them have become well known even to people who have nothing to do with Jesus. He told a parable we know as the Prodigal Son about a father and two sons. It was to show the extravagant grace of God and that anyone can come home to the Father no matter how far they have wandered. He told a parable about a Samaritan who helped a beaten man to show that God wants us to live with great mercy.

Jesus wasn’t highly educated. He didn’t go to a university or special school to study the Hebrew Scriptures. He was a carpenter by trade. Yet people wondered where he got such wisdom and knowledge.

Jesus taught using children as examples of what he wants us to become. He said if we didn’t become like a child we would not enter his kingdom. Nor was he too big to welcome children. One time he let his disciples have it when they were blocking children from coming to him.

Jesus said to give to the state what belonged to the state but give to God what belonged to God. The two were not the same thing. There are things that don’t belong to Caesar.

He said if you love God and love others you fulfill everything in the Hebrew Scriptures, all those laws and everything God prescribed.

Jesus said he didn’t teach his own words but only what he received from the Father.

Claims

Jesus made incredible claims.

First of all he called God his Father. He said that he and the Father were one. The religious leaders of that time knew exactly what he was claiming – he was claiming to be equal with God, which is one of the reasons they sought to kill him.

He said that how someone stands with the Father depends on that person’s relation with him. Jesus said, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.”

Jesus said he could give living water and a person would never be thirsty again. He said he was the resurrection. He said he could forgive sins. Of course, only God can forgive sins. The religious leaders knew this. Jesus was claiming something about who is.

He invited people to come to him if they were weary and carrying heavy burdens and he would give them rest. He said he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He didn’t point somewhere else and say “there is the way, the truth, and the life.” No. Jesus pointed to himself.

He said he had a kingdom. A kingdom! This peasant, carpenter, from backwater Galilee. And people wondered and questioned him about this. Some mocked him. But he said this kingdom was not of this world. It touches and operates in this world but ultimately it stands in opposition to so much of the values of this world.

Jesus said that to receive him was to receive God.

He never taught that to believe in him would make a person’s life easy and without trouble. In fact, he told his followers that they would be hated by the world and that in the world they would have trouble. He said that to follow him involved a cross, meaning dying to one’s own ego and selfish ways.

Signs

Jesus did many signs. We often call these miracles, but the Bible calls them signs. They weren’t spiritual show stoppers. They said something about who Jesus was, his purpose and his mission.

He healed people with diseases. Jesus gave blind people sight. He multiplied a few loaves of bread and fish to feed thousands. He raised a dead man named Lazarus. Jesus didn’t heal every disease, nor every blind person, nor raise a bunch of dead people.

Our modern world is right to understand the natural laws of this world. I believe in science and the natural order of things. But if you assume that God can’t intervene in this world then of course you won’t believe that Jesus did any of this.

There are so many parts to Jesus Christ.

Jesus didn’t cozy up to Rome. He didn’t call well-educated, proper, impressive people to be his closest followers. He spent a lot of time with the ordinary and unimpressive, lepers, the blind, tax collectors, prostitutes.

He was human. He had to eat. He got tired. He could get frustrated. He felt sadness, compassion, and joy. He felt pain. He bled. But yet he was fully God. He could heal. He said he had perfect unity with the Father. Jesus took the words of that God had spoken and took them even further, as if he had authority of God’s word. He did things about God could do and said things only God could say.

He didn’t hold any high position. In fact, he kept distance from seeking fame.

He said he existed before Abraham when he said, “Truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” And he used that designation “I am” for himself. “I AM” was the name for the Lord.

He said, “I am the light of the world.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” “I am the good shepherd.”

When people bowed down to worship him he didn’t tell them to stop. And that happened again and again. Only God is to be worshipped.

Yet, on the night before he died he took a water basin and towel and washed the feet of his disciples. Washing of feet was an important act in that time and it was done by household slaves. Yet, Jesus was doing it to his own friends. He said that he was setting them an example that he wanted his followers to do for others.

When he was betrayed and arrested, they accused him with lie after lie in hopes of removing him from this world he didn’t teach or make great claims anymore. Instead, he remained silent.

The pastor John Ortberg notes that Christianity traces is origin to one particular event that took place in one moment on one day in history. This is not true for Judaism, Buddhism, Islam or atheism. That event is his resurrection.

When Jesus sent his Spirit a flame was lit and his church was birthed. It is comprised of those who believe, worship and live for him. Jesus’ church is in much of need of redemption as the rest of the world. Maybe the difference is we know it. Christ’s people have also withstood persecution, been outlawed by governments, and survived the centuries. As a Communist leader in Russia once said, “Christianity is like a nail. The harder you strike it, the deeper it goes.”

That Church – in all its many traditions and forms – has brought love, hope, compassion, healing and reconciliation through hospitals, orphanages, schools, shelters, homes, soup kitchens, and rescue efforts all because of him and all in his name.

His titles are Messiah, Christ, Shepherd, the Word, Son of God, Son of Man, Lamb of God, Redeemer, Savior, King of kings, Lord of lords.

Jesus doesn’t just remain on the outside of our lives but can live inside of us if we will receive him. He said that if we love him then he and the Father will come and live inside of us. He said I will never leave you nor forsake you. And “take heart, I have overcome the world.”

Tonight the world is worshipping him. People have and are gathering in places of worship all over the world, in every time zone, some in places where it isn’t even legal for Christians to gather. Several years ago I was in Myanmar and a pastor told me how they had to pay the police to be allowed to have a Christmas Eve worship service.

We are gathering because the maker of all things isn’t just on the outside but he has come into this world and into the lives of those who accept him by faith. The Scripture says, “The Word became flesh and lived among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father.”

The Bible teacher John Stott said,

To know him was to know God;

To see him was to see God;

To believe in him was to believe in God;

To receive him was to receive God;

To hate him was to hate God;

To honor him was to honor God.

This is who Jesus is. Embrace him or dismiss him. But we can never get away from the Son of God in the manger. He is still alive in this world.

Jesus of Nazareth, born under the Roman Emperor Augustus, raised in the time of Quirinius and Pontius Pilate and Herod, the child of Joseph and Mary, who was God but became human for our sake shows us who God is. Somehow the fullness of God and the fullness of humanity are in this one person. He became like us so that we could come to him. So that we could know love, life, and peace as only we find in God.

A blessed and holy Christmas to each and everyone of you. Amen.