Sermon Series: Jesus Is…

The Mighty God

PSBC ~ 12/10/00

In a nutshell: Testimony, evidence and the fact that He knew who He was are proofs of Jesus' deity. But as our God, He is our hero, warrior and champion. The baby born in Bethlehem, truly is the Mighty God.

I. Introduction

A. M + H Concrete

Illustration: When we lived in Missouri, the church office was in our home. One Monday morning, while I was studying in that office, our dog, Bentley started to bark loudly, and a couple of seconds later, there was a knock at our front door. The man who was knocking was dressed in work clothes, and he politely introduced himself as the person from M&H Concrete who had been hired by the county of St. Charles to break up, dig out and repair a 24ft. x 14ft. section of the concrete road, which just happened to be directly in front of our driveway. He pointed to a large tractor that he had already unloaded from a trailer that his truck was pulling.

I had a choice at that point. I could choose to believe him, accept what he said he came to do, and not hinder his work; OR I could refuse to believe him, park my car on top of that section of concrete he wanted to remove, and call the police to run him off of my property. Now, my response was a no-brainer. I let him proceed with the demolition and clean-up. Why?

Basically, I let him proceed because he presented three pieces of evidence that convinced me that he really was the man who was supposed to dig up our street, and he had the authority to do that.

1. First, there was his testimony. He said he was from the M & H Concrete Company–he showed me his business card, and his driver's license. He also showed me his work order that bore the official seal from the county of St. Charles.

2. Second, there was direct evidence. He drove a truck that had M&H Concrete stenciled on the side, and he had unloaded a good sized tractor with a huge contraption on the back of it that was designed to break up concrete.

3. And third, the man knew his identify. He obviously knew how to operate the tractor, since he had unloaded it already. And he was following specific written orders from his boss, and from the county.

So, because of those three things–testimony about him, the direct evidence, and the fact that he knew who he was in relation to the job he had to do–I gave him permission to tear up the road in front of my house.

B. Transition to Isaiah 9:6

Friends, the prophet Isaiah said in

Isaiah 9:6
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

As you'll remember from last week, to the Hebrew mind, the name of a person was directly related to the character and essence of who that person was. Last week we saw that Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, because He is the king who comes with a miraculous plan to give meaning to life now, and unfailing hope for eternal life with God in the future.

And this week, we are going to examine the meaning of yet, another name Isaiah uses to describe Jesus. Isaiah calls Him the "Mighty God". And with that name, two questions will form the outline for today's message.
1. How do we know Jesus is God?
2. Why did Isaiah qualify the name God with the word Mighty?

II. How do we know Jesus Is God?

Let's examine that first question. We know Jesus is God for the same three reasons that I knew that concrete man was really the man who was supposed to tear up the concrete in front of my house in Missouri. Testimony about Him, the evidence, and He knew who He was.

A. Testimony

To find out testimony about Jesus we can look in many places in the Bible. Let me just give you three this morning...

John 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

One of the ways of translating that word, Word–which is logos in the Greek–is messenger. One of the reasons Jesus came into the world was to be a messenger of the love, holiness and justice of God to the human race. Jesus, then, being God's messenger, was called the Word by John. And John plainly testifies that this Word or messenger "was God." So there's John's testimony.
Luke 1:35
35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

At the announcement of Jesus birth to his mother, Mary, an angel told her that the baby she would give birth to, would be the Son of God. A son of God has to, by nature, come from God, and therefore is a part of God. And being a part of God, means that He is God. So we have the angel's testimony.

John 20:28
28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Upon seeing Jesus' nail pierced hands and wounded side, after Jesus' death and resurrection, Thomas, the doubter–the skeptic of the disciples calls Jesus, God. So we have Thomas' testimony.

I could give you many more testimonies, but because of time, these three will have to suffice.

B. Evidence

We also have direct evidences that Jesus is God. For this we could look at the historical record of His miracles or events supernatural events that surrounded Him, but the most compelling evidence, to me, is encapsulated in the quote on the front of your bulletins this morning...

"...Jesus' life was remarkable, as it fulfilled one after another, after another of the prophecies that told of God's Son, the Messiah. In some cases, these predictions were made thousands of years before He was born. In analyzing the evidence, we see that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled just eight of the major prophecies that Jesus fulfilled are 1 in 10 to the 17th power. That is, one in 100,000,000,000,000,000."
–Max Anders, Basics of Christianity: Jesus

So we have the direct evidence of His fulfillment of prophecy.

C. He knew His identity

Next we have the issue of, did He know He was God?

As I mentioned last week, in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, Moses stood before a burning bush in the desert, and out of that burning bush, God, Himself, talked to Moses. One of the things God told Moses was a new name–or a character of God–that had not previously been realized or understood by Moses, or the people of Israel. That name in Hebrew is "ach-yah"–I AM. This name became the cornerstone of God's revelation of Himself to His chosen people.

Now, in a passage of scripture, in John, chapter 8, the Jewish leaders were arguing with Jesus about the authority of His teachings and His right to forgive sins. The discussion got around to who had the ultimate authority in religious matters. The Jewish leaders said they had authority based on their lineage as direct descendants of Abraham. But Jesus makes an incredible claim about His authority that trumps theirs, hands down...

John 8:58
58 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

Before Abraham was..."Ach-yah"–the "I AM WHO I AM" name of God. Make no mistake about it. Jesus just called Himself, God. Now, for a mere man to make this claim in the Jewish culture of Jesus' day, meant that he was committing blasphemy. And such a person was automatically sentenced to death by Jewish law–no trial was even necessary–only the collaboration of two or more witnesses.

And if you have any doubt that this was the case, just look at the dialog that ensued…

John 10:30-33
30 I and the Father are one."
31 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him,
32 but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"
33 "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."

Friends, Jesus knew His identity–He was God.

D. Putting all three together

So,
–based on testimony of others about Him,
–combined with direct evidence, and
–Jesus' own belief in His identity,
I have to come to the conclusion that Jesus is God.

And you'd think that being God would be a good enough name for Isaiah to use regarding Jesus. But it wasn't. You see, Isaiah called Him, Mighty God. That word "mighty" demands we look even closer at the identity of the baby who was born in Bethlehem's' manger.

III. Mighty God

In the Hebrew this word mighty is the word "gibbowr {ghib_bore'}. It is a word that has three distinct meanings, all wrapped up into one.
A. Hero

The first of those meanings is HERO. Isaiah is saying that Jesus is our HERO.
Friends, according to the dictionary, heroes are people who are recognized as noble individuals because of their exceptional service to other human beings and their valor in times of great adversity. Usually considered to be at least partly divine.

True heroes are people whom we can pattern our lives after. People we can emulate. But unfortunately, many of our heroes, today have feet of clay.

Illustration: We are being reminded of this all the time, when we read the sports section in the paper. It seems that at least every week I read about something concerning the trial of former Carolina Panther's defensive back, Ray Caruth. Caruth was a great football player in college and the pros, and a hero to a lot of boys and girls in the eastern part of the country. But right now he is on trial for murdering his pregnant girlfriend, because he didn't want to pay child support.

Or you may remember the name of professional basketball player, Latrell Sprewell. About two years ago, he was the San Francisco Warrior's leading scorer. He was a hero to a lot of kids in the Bay area. But he got into a disagreement with his head coach, P. J. Carlisimo, and this led to an all out fight on the basketball court, during practice, in which Sprewell tried to choke his coach to death.
Latrell became the first player in the history of professional basketball to be terminated from his contract by the team's owners. And he was banished from professional basketball for an entire year.

I could go on and on about modern day heroes who are musicians, or athletes, or politicians, or church leaders who have all proven themselves less than hero-worthy.

Let's face it, human hero's usually disappoint us. Do you know why? Go back to the dictionary definition on the screen. They disappoint us because "They aren't "divine". They aren't God. Only divine heros are perfect.

But Isaiah looks at the coming Messiah and sees the perfect Hero. Jesus is indeed someone that we can look up to and someone we can model our lives after. He is a Hero-God –A Mighty God. And unlike human heroes, our divine hero will not disappoint us–He is perfect in everything He does.

B. Warrior

Besides meaning "hero", that word "gibbowr also means WARRIOR. So another thing Isaiah is telling us about Jesus is that He is a WARRIOR GOD. But what battles did Jesus fight where He showed Himself to be a Warrior God?

1. Battle in the Wilderness

In Matthew 4:1-11 we read of the temptation of Jesus, by Satan. This took place right after Jesus had come to the end of a 40 day fast, was all alone in the wilderness, and was very weak. Now this temptation was a significant battle, because if Jesus had given in to just one of Satan's temptations–either turning the stones into bread; or jumping off of the highest point of the temple so angels would rescue Him; or worshiping Satan in exchange for the kingdoms of the world... His righteousness would have been compromised. Jesus would have no longer been sinless, and God's plans to rescue people from the consequences of their sin would have been thwarted. So, make no mistake about it, Jesus, our Mighty God, fought an incredible fight for you and me on that day. His victory over temptation by God's enemy, allowed God's plan of salvation to remain viable.
2. Battle for Grace

Jesus also battled self-righteousness and pride. In John 8:3-11 we read about what I call the battle for Grace...

The Jewish leaders brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses said that such a person was to be stoned to death–no mercy or grace was to be shown. So the religious leaders wanted to find out what this compassionate Jesus was going to do. They wanted to trap Him–either He was going to side with the woman, at which point they could accuse Him of breaking Moses law; or he would side with them, and they could claim that Jesus had validated their strict unmerciful interpretation of the law, and therefore their entire Pharisaical way of life. But Jesus turned the tables on them when He said...

John 8:7
7 "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

And the Bible tells us that one by one, from the oldest to the youngest, all the accusers left. And finally it was just Jesus and the woman.

John 8:10-11
10 Jesus straightened and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11 "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

This is just one example where Jesus engaged in a battle to rid people of pride and self-righteousness. And He did it by wielding the weapons of grace, mercy and forgiveness.
3. Battle in the Garden

Then there was an incredible battle on our behalf, that the Warrior-God had to fight in the garden of Gethsemane. He went there to pray. He begged in His prayer, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."

Again we read that he prayed and asked "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."

Just think, if Jesus would have said, "I can't do it...or...God, these humans are not worth it!" The battle would have been lost and Satan would have won.

Friends, don't ever forget that Jesus came as a WARRIOR GOD. He fought the fight in the desert, in the marketplace, and in the garden for the miraculous plan of God concerning salvation to take hold in the hearts of human beings.

C. Champion

But there is a third meaning of the word, Mighty, that we have to know. The word "gibbowr also means CHAMPION.

Now the use of Champion is some-what different from how we use champion today. Most champions we talk about today have to do with sports or some other kinds of competitions. We have champions of bowling leagues, and champions of World Series, and champions of Super Bowls. We have champions of tournaments, meets, and games. But the champion that "gibbowr" is talking about is the champion of a cause or way of life–and that's something far more significant than any human competition.

1. Example of Goliath

In 1 Samuel 17, we read about a giant by the name of Goliath who agreed to be a champion for the Philistine nation, against the Israelites.

A champion in Bible times was someone who was strong, proven and willing to stand up for a person or a nation by taking their place in a battle. So, Goliath, 9 feet tall and 750 lbs. took the place of the Philistine nation; while David, 5 foot something and 130 lbs., eventually took the place of the Israelite nation. Most of you know how that story ended up. But the idea I want you to grasp is the idea of a "champion" as being one who takes the place of someone or some other group of people.

Because as Isaiah looks at the coming Messiah and sees the MIGHTY GOD, he is seeing a champion who will take our place.

Jesus did that very thing on Calvary's cross. He took our place–the place we deserved because of our sin against God. He died for us and then rose in victory over death so that we could have forgiveness of sin, a meaningful life, and an everlasting future if we choose to accept His miraculous plan.

IV. Conclusion

What more could we ask for?
–In Jesus Christ we have a HERO God–who will never let us down, one that we can look up to and whom we can pattern our lives after.
–In Jesus we have a WARRIOR God–who deemed each of us worthy enough for Him to fight the greatest and most difficult spiritual battles of all time.
–In Jesus we have a CHAMPION God–who represented us by taking the consequences of our sin on Him and dying in our place, on Calvary's cross.

Friends, Isaiah is telling us in this name, The Mighty God, that a super-miracle has taken place. The God of the Universe, the Creator, and our Judge; has now become our Hero, our Warrior and our Champion. Of all the miracles and mysteries you could ever name, this is the most staggering!

Amen.