Humanity of Christ Pt1

is to do just that, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so this morning's topic really is the humanity of Christ.

If you remember last week, we talked about the reality of, what did we talk about last week?

Anybody know? Anybody remember? I wasn't here, so I can't remember. No, well, then you've got a viable response.

Was it holiness or? Yeah, we talked about the holiness of God and how that was the subordination of Christ.

The holiness was before. And how Christ put himself willingly as co -equal and co -eternal with the

Father underneath, and again, that's an essential doctrine because if you don't get that right, it leads to a whole bunch of errors.

Well, anyway, this morning I wanna talk about his humanity and if you think about that, again, this is one of the topics that has been a trouble to the church history since the very beginning because there's always been a misunderstanding or rather not just a misunderstanding, a misrepresentation of the

Lord Jesus, right? Whether it be to deny his deity or to deny his humanity, that's really the characteristic of a cult is that they never seem to get the person of Christ right.

And when you think about that, that has been going on now for well over 2 ,000 years and the range of the errors really are far and wide as far as what people think.

Again, some people just deny the fact that Jesus was a man and that's what we're really gonna think about this morning and that some of the things that popped up that he was really just an emanation, that he wasn't really physically a man, and then you go to the other side and some will say that's all he was was a man and therefore he wasn't

God and all those reasonings like did God die on the cross or was it a man who died on the cross?

So again, I think it's important for us to have a good understanding that he was not only what?

Fully God, but fully man. Sir. Yeah, funny you mentioned that.

I actually watched a short clip yesterday. It's a podcast that is pretty credible in what you might call a

Christian, well, they like it, they lean in the Christian, perhaps space

Christian, they're pretty credible as far as like, you know, talking as far as like, you know, so they say, so one guy said,

Jesus sacrificed his deity on the cross. I'm like, that's not true.

He was God the whole time, he was human. Yeah, and again, so the reality is fully

God fully man, and that in and of itself is very difficult to understand, isn't it?

If you think about it, what's it called? It's called the hypostatic union, right? Where you have two distinct natures in one person, not two distinct persons making up a third person or one is bigger than the other.

He was fully God, fully man. And again, that's one of the errors that have kind of perpetuated throughout church history.

And if you think about it, there's a difference between somebody who doesn't understand and someone who is consciously trying to deny that truth.

Right? So in other words, there have been people that have come to our church, and I know a couple in particular, who did not believe in the

Trinity. The reason why they didn't believe in the Trinity is because they didn't understand it.

And there's a difference between not understanding. See, if someone doesn't understand, you could teach.

Correct? If someone willingly opposes, that's totally different.

At least in my mind. Someone who is consciously, willingly trying to deny truth is someone different than someone who just doesn't understand.

And again, how do we understand fully God, fully man? Not the easiest thing to do.

But I want to read, I'm gonna read something from, this is

Arthur Pink. And this is from his teaching on the attributes of God.

And so I thought the way he said this was good. And I just wanted to read this little thing that he wrote.

So he says this. He says, the humanity of Christ was unique.

History supplies no analogy, nor can his humanity be illustrated by anything in nature.

It is incomparable, not only to our fallen human nature, but also to unfallen

Adam. The Lord Jesus was born into circumstances totally different from those in which

Adam was first found, first found himself. But the sins and griefs of his people were on him from the first.

His humanity, listen to what he says here. His humanity was neither, was produced neither by natural generation, as is ours, nor by special creation, as was

Adam's. The humanity of Christ was under the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit, supernaturally conceived.

But just think about what he's saying. His humanity was neither by natural generation, as is ours, right, or by special creation, as was

Adam. And I think that's important for us to think. That's why he says that the reality of Christ as both

God and man is absolutely unique because Adam was formed, right?

He was formed out of what? The dust of the ground, right? And Christ came as everyone else has ever come since Adam, right?

Remember, and I don't know if you were there at that time, we got into that big conversation that set free about did

Eve have a belly button? Oh, yes, I remember that. Yeah, because again, it was, the point was, well, how do you understand it?

And if you think about what he's saying here about Christ being unique in his person as both fully

God, fully man, it does present to us something that is incomparable to anything else.

Because again, all of us came from where? All of us came from the womb, right?

No matter how you cut it, that's the only way, except Christ.

And if you think about it, Adam was an exception in that he was formed out of the dust of the ground.

So when we think about these things, it's essential for us to - Christ, he came from the womb, but was a virgin.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, and we're gonna get into that as far as the virgin birth, but he was conceived of the

Holy Spirit, right? He wasn't conceived as anyone else has been, and in that sense, not even

Adam, because Adam was formed, right? And God gave him, put within him the breath of life.

So again, we're talking about something that is absolutely unique. So I wanna look through some scriptures, and I always, when people talk about whether he was fully

God or fully man, or was he fully God and fully man, and the whole thing with the hypostatic union, and which, again, is two distinct natures in one person, not a mixture of both, not a third person coming out of that.

I usually go, and this is the first one I wrote. Just look at Luke for a minute, and chapter eight, and see what you think concerning this, because to me, it demonstrates both his deity and his humanity, right?

In verse 22 of Luke, chapter eight. Now, it happened on a certain day, he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, let us go over to the other side of the lake, and they launched out, but as they sailed, he fell asleep, and a windstorm came down on the table, and they were filling with, came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in jeopardy, and they came to him and woke him, saying, master, master, we are perishing, and he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a calm.

Now, does that not demonstrate both his deity and his humanity?

Is it not human to fall asleep? It absolutely is. I don't know about you, but if I get to a certain point, as far as staying awake,

I start to lose it, and I would admit, when I was younger, I could probably go longer.

Mario, you probably have more juice, and Elliot, I hope you have more juice, but do we not remember how we used to be able to stretch things out to the point, and even from a woman's perspective, we used to be able to go,

I used to be able to go like 50, 60 hours, and I was, but I realized

I started to lose my edge. I started to lose my ability to think correctly, yes, and yet, it really is a testimony of being a person, being a fallen, sinful person, and yet, in this, we see both his ability to calm the winds, which, at least up until this point,

I've never heard of, seen or been proved that anybody could do that, right, and yet, he fell asleep, so there is his humanity, there is his deity, but particularly as we concentrate this morning, we think about his humanity.

We could read in the scriptures about, one of the things would, that the scriptures, and particularly in the

Gospels, but not exclusively in the Gospels, but in the Gospels, we get such a clearer picture of the

Messiah. What other things can you think of that happened to him that comes upon every man?

So we said he was tired, what else? Yeah, he had emotions.

He had emotions. Hungry. Okay, he had emotions.

He went to Lazarus' grave and what? He wept. He was hungry, right?

Thirsty, right? That's what Brother Keith's been doing, going, where do you go to?

The woman at the well. And he said, what? Give me a drink. So when you think about this, there are so many things that, here's another one, and this one

I think we might bypass at times, and we'll look at a scripture.

He was also this. He was tempted, right?

Yeah. He was tempted, and the important part of it is what?

He was tempted, but he did not sin. And so you could think about it,

I mean, if we read just the account of when he was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness, was that not a great temptation?

But where did that temptation come from? That temptation came from the evil one, and it was from the outside in, if you think about it.

If you'd be the Son of God, turn these rocks into bread. And well, of course,

Jesus answered, said, man shall not live by bread alone, or cast yourself down, for he gave his angels charge over thee.

Or when you think about that, he definitely was tempted, and can any man say that he is exempt from temptation?

I wouldn't wanna call you out, but if you ever said that, basically just a liar.

Yeah, you're saying not human. Yeah, yeah, because again, and that's important to say, think of it that way, because we associate these things with true humanity, don't we?

Again, emotions, and being tired, and being hungry, and being thirsty, and being tempted, and if you will, not only that, but even in suffering, right?

Would we not say that suffering is a consequence of being a person, a man, or a woman, or whatever?

Oh, well, that's the way you think about them. I mean, you never say anything about laughter. Well, it doesn't,

I don't know of anywhere where it, although if you go to Psalm 2, it talks about how

God will laugh at the ungodly when they cry out to him. Just one second, let's think about that for a second.

Do you know anywhere in the scriptures where it says Jesus never laughed? I will tell you what he did do, he rejoiced.

Remember how he rejoiced in the Spirit. So, whether it actually says, like it says he was hungry, says he was thirsty, says he was sad, no, they don't even say he was sad, it says he wept at Lazarus's tomb, but I do think the fact that he rejoiced is a characteristic of humanity, because wouldn't we all say that?

We all experience, and that's part of this, the emotions, but there's a wide range involved in that, right?

Sometimes it's more prevalent in one way than another, but we all do rejoice, we all are at times troubled, right?

Even under the thought of suffering. How often was he, if you will, misrepresented?

And that's a form of suffering, to be misrepresented. Even if you will, even if you want to take it under the thought of having a prejudice against us, he suffered that also.

Mario, go ahead. Well, time goes on with suffering. He bled, like on the cross.

Sure, absolutely, and we're gonna look at that. As we started to talk about this,

I'm not even sure we'll get through this, this morning probably, because I was - He could feel physical pain.

I was blabbering before we started, but yeah, so again, when you start to think about what humanity really means, and how the scriptures truly display much of his humanity, and then for all of that, many people will deny that he was truly a man.

And it's easy to say that he wasn't fully

God, fully man. It's hard to prove that if you really look at the scriptures and see that he was in, what does it say?

It says, in all points, he was tempted like as we are, yet without sin, in all points.

So if you run the gamut of human experience, would you not agree then that the scriptures truly say that he experienced all of that with the exception of sin?

And again, how many people really think about that when they think about his humanity versus the fact that he was born of a woman?

And again, so many people will misrepresent that one truth and not even think about the others.

But I wanna look at some more scriptures that absolutely define that for us in a very scriptural way, in a very clear way.

So let's just look at Hebrews 10 for a minute. In Hebrews 10, you see, one of the things that I think is important for us is to not only know what we believe, because a lot of people have facts.

It's to know it not only experientially in our own souls, but to be able to, in some way, articulate it, some way to represent it.

In other words, if someone comes up to you and says to you, I don't believe

Jesus was a man, was truly a man. Do we really know, or they say to you even better, show me from the

Bible. Can we do that? Or can we just say, well, no, he was a man?

Or is it more required of us in contending for the faith to say, no, let me take you to this scripture, let me take you to that scripture.

So anyway, in Hebrews chapter 10, and this one is maybe not always the one that people might run to at first, but it says, therefore, speaking of Christ, therefore, when he came into the world, he said, sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but look, but a body you have prepared for me.

In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you had no pleasure. Then I said, behold,

I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me to do your will,

God. So a body, that's another characteristics of humanity, right?

Is it's not just spiritual, it's corporal. There's something in that.

In other words, if you think about the makeup of us, and we can get into a big discussion about what makes up a person.

There's some terms that people use, dichotomous or trichotomous, and one says that we're basically body and soul.

And then you can get into a trichotomous, and he'll say, well, no, we're body, soul, and spirit.

And so that man is made up of three essential parts, but with that, you can then start to go down the road.

Well, it talks about, what about the mind? What about this? What about that?

And so I think for the moment, at least we need to understand that Jesus was in bodily form as a man, just like we are, because every one of us,

I mean, there's someone inside of us. I think about that, there's something inside of me, right?

And can you really put your finger on it? I mean, I know when

I raised my hand, or I know when my feet hurt, or this, that, the other thing. And so I can understand that realm of, but even when you begin to think about it, what moves my arm?

Is it not because I'm telling my arm to move? Is it not because I will it to take place?

And therefore, there's something inside that's like the headquarters, that whether you wanna define that as spirit, and mind, and heart, and all these other things, that's a different discussion.

But the reality of part of humanity is the reality of having, if you will, at least something from the physical realm, and something from the spiritual realm, just like God breathed into Adam, what?

The breath of life, right? Or in Ezekiel 37, where the prophet's looking at the dry bones, and he said, and God says, can these dry bones live?

And he says, you know, Lord, and what does he do? God begins to put sinews on their bodies, and flesh around them, and then there's the breath of life that comes into them.

So when you think about Christ, and you think about his humanity, we would have to say that all these things are given to us in the scriptures, and certainly here where it says, a body you have prepared for me, that it's important for us to be able to understand it from an aspect of totally man, and yet totally, again, totally divine.

And that's why I think Pink said what he said. It's incomparable, because no one has ever done that.

It is absolutely unique that God, and so what does it say in 1

Timothy 3 .16? It says, God was manifest in the flesh.

And you know how many people deny that he actually came in the flesh?

Just like the Holy Spirit. How many people think the

Holy Spirit is not a person, but, and I think you have heard of him, but a force, and then the nation.

Something that is not anything that we could truly understand, but the fact is, it certainly is something that we,

God was manifest in the flesh, and therefore, if you just take it from that one standpoint, that's why he's the only mediator between God and man, why?

Because he was both God and man, and again, how people deny his humanity is beyond me for how they can understand someone who could be the mediator, and it has to be that as we think about these things, that all these things begin to work in our mind.

He had to be a man to die for us, too. Yeah, absolutely, he had to, well, yeah, and we can take that, and we're certainly going to have to look at that from the standpoint of how could he ever be the surety or the sacrifice for what it says that he came to save his people from their sins, unless he came in the form, and let's go back.

We've read this probably 10 times already in our study, but let's go back to Philippians chapter two, because these scriptures have not only a one -pronged understanding, but they're many -pronged.

It's, to me, many times when you look at a scripture or you look at something, depending on how you look at it, it presents a whole lot of, you know what

I think about in, I don't know how many guys really are into diamonds, but I'm going to take a general shot that most women like diamonds.

Riri, would you like a big diamond? Yeah, of course, yeah. Okay, ask your daddy.

That's all I can say. But think about this. When you hold a diamond up and you look at it, depending on how you look at it in a certain way or in a certain light or how you turn it, it presents prisms of light that, and I think many times the scriptures do the very same thing.

In other words, we can look at a passage like this in Philippians chapter two to talk about his deity, right?

Because it says, let me just read it with you. In verse five, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

So as we hold that diamond up and we look at it in the prism of his deity, it shines, right?

It comes out, it presents itself. But then also, but he made himself of no reputation and taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found.

Look, I don't know you can get much clearer in verse eight, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name.

Again, depending on how you want to examine that diamond, you could find the deity of Christ, you could find the humanity of Christ.

Listen, you could find the authority of Christ. Therefore in verse nine, God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name that the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow of those in heaven, those on the earth and those on the earth and every tongue shall confess.

So again, the scriptures are so full and many times, like if you talk to a

Jehovah witness, and you take them to a scripture, like where it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was

God. What is the pattern answer for that from a

Jehovah witness standpoint? Well, say he was a God, but he wasn't the God.

He wasn't Jehovah God. And again, you can twist or you can present truth from so many different angles.

And I do think it's essential for us, if you will.

And that's why I said to you in the beginning, I usually go here when people deny his humanity, I go to that passage in Luke only because it demonstrates by his deity and his humanity at the same time.

All right, let's look at a couple more while we still have a little bit of time. Maybe we'll just look at this one,

Galatians chapter four. And again, I think you have to be desirous to deny the truth when you look at a scripture like this to say

Christ wasn't a man. And so look what it says in Galatians chapter four. Now I say that an heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ from at all from a slave, though he be his master of all.

So again, even in the context of it, he's talking about children and he's talking about slaves.

And that is something we associate with what? Humanity, right?

But is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.

Even so when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth his spirit of his son into your hearts crying

Abba father. But is that not what's told us in verse four? When the fullness of time had come,

God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law. Here's a question, just something to take and think about.

Was Christ always a man? He had to take on the form of it.

Yeah. Which is what Philippians said, he took it on. So there was a place in space and time, which again, even in Hebrews one says, in the fullness of time,

God sent his son and he sent them as what? In the form of a servant, in the form of a man.

So there is a place, like when we see a

Christophany in the Old Testament, when we see an appearance of God in the Old Testament, and I agree with some of what other brothers have said, that when

God walked in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden, that it was Christ. I really believe that, that he heard the voice of God walking in the cool of the garden.

So when you and I think about it, here's a real question to think about.

When we see him, how will we see him? Will we see him as God?

Or will we see him as man? Or is he forever the

God man? Hey, that's an interesting thought, right?

Is he forever the God man? Is that union, if you will, something that came to us at a point in time and continues for all eternity?

Now, maybe the immediate response was, well, wait a minute, because when he rose from the dead he walked through the walls, right?

Okay, but didn't he have some sort of corporal body attached to him?

Because it does say he ate, right? Now, it doesn't say he was hungry, but it says he ate.

So my understanding is that forever I will see the

God man. Remember what it says in Revelation? Every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him.

Does that mean we shall see him with the marks in his hands and the marks in his feet?

Kind of like Manny Crosby saying, I shall know him by the nail in the front of his hand. Absolutely, absolutely.

Mario? Yeah, it made me think of the disciples, those who, obviously, when they walked with Christ, they knew what he looked like when he was human.

And then, so they could prove it. I was thinking, when you say you see as a man or God, or the

God man, I would think they're probably the best examples of seeing him as a God man, because they know what he actually looked like.

Yeah, and if you think about the transfiguration when he went up on the mount, right? And his outward appearance was changed because it really was a demonstration of his deity and his divinity.

But again, as they came down from the mountain, what did they see? That didn't last.

They then saw a man. Who did they lead to the cross? Did they lead to the cross that one who was on the mount of transfiguration?

No. They led a man, and like I said, we'll pick this up next week, because I find it interesting.

There was so much to discuss, and sometimes, to me, when you begin to discuss it, more things open up.

Like, in other words, that's why the scriptures are so explosive, is because they, it's almost like one door leads to another door leads to another door leads to another door.

And I think sometimes, to go back to what we originally said as we stop, is

I think sometimes we hesitate to think about, if you will, the deep things of God.

Like in other words, again, was Jesus a man? Oh yeah, Jesus was a man. Well, what does that mean?

Means he was a man. No, when you begin to start to unfold it and you begin to unpack it, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

So, just something to think about. All right.