"Lighting the Fire"
Jotting – Week 24

Tell Who Jesus Is

Before we can tell people who Jesus is, we have to know who He is for ourselves.

We cannot look on Jesus only as a “great moral teacher.” “That is not a valid option. Once you examine the actual claims of Jesus and His eyewitness followers, there are really only three alternatives for who He really is–Jesus Christ was either a liar, a lunatic, or our Lord.” (Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter, Tyndale House Publishers, 1977, pp. 33-34) .

C.S. Lewis, British theologian and author of The Chronicles of Narnia, writes, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The MacMillan Company, 1960, pp. 40-41.)

Jesus is true God. The Father Himself declares that Jesus is His Son: “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17).

Jesus is true Man: He was tempted by Satan (see Luke 4:1-13); after He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, “He was hungry” (Matthew 4:2); He was so weary He fell asleep in a storm-tossed boat (see Mark 4:35-41, especially v. 38); He dreaded the physical and emotional agony He would suffer on the cross (see Luke 22:39-44; Hebrews 5:6-8); He died (see Matthew 27:33-50; Mark 15:22-37; Luke 23:33-46; John 19:17-30).

Jesus says, “‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world’” (John 6:50-51). Have you eaten at His table lately? Have you partaken of His body and blood through the bread and wine? Do you feed on His Word daily to grow more like Him? When you are becoming all that He wants you to be, daily growing in His likeness, others will notice and ask, “What makes you different?” Then you can tell them about Jesus.

Jesus said, “‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life’” (John 8:12). Have you basked in the Light? Do you let the Light shine in your dark corners, in your cold pockets to bring things hidden to His warmth and healing grace? When the SonLight soothes your sorrows and energizes you for His work, then you reflect Him to be “the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14, 16).

“Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. ... I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. (John 10:8-9, 11, 14). Take comfort in the fact that Jesus knows you. He knows you and loves you anyway. He knows your hurts and sorrow, your longings and hopes. He longs for your closeness, for your prayers, for your coming and your following. What a comfort to tell this to someone who struggles, who yearns to find direction for his or her life, who doesn’t know which way to go.

When Jesus’ friend Lazarus died, He spoke to Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:25-26) Have you mourned the death of a loved one recently or remembered how it was when someone close to you was no longer there to see, to talk with? In Jesus’ declaration to Martha, Jesus gives us the sweet assurance that we too shall rise from the dead and live eternally with Him in heaven. Does someone you know need to hear this about Jesus?

Jesus told His disciples, “‘You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am’” (John 13:13). Are you learning from Him? What is He teaching you these days–patience? peace? kindness? love? self control? joy? How are the classes going? What marks are you receiving? What a blessing to know that even when we fail, He is there with ready and open arms to love and forgive and give us another chance. Then He sends His Holy Spirit to empower us and to make the right choices. Is He Lord over every part of your life? If you are keeping something from Him, offer that up to Him now so He can bless you through it.

Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). There is only one way, one true way to the Father, and that is through Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior of the World. Who are you telling today that is headed in the wrong direction, down the wide path?

Jesus says, “‘I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you’” (John 15:1-7). Are you abiding? Is your life bearing fruit for Him, fruit that will last?

Jesus abides in the Father. His authority comes from the Father. He says, “‘Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves’” (John 14:10-11). Do you rely on God’s Word, on Jesus, the living Son of God, who came from the Father to bring us truth and life and salvation? Share this good news with others.

Scripture was written, God-breathed (inspired), so that we might know Jesus and the One who sent Him. John tells us, “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).

Jesus is the Christ. “But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 9:22). And again, “When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 18:5).

Jesus asked His disciples–as He asks us, “‘But who do you say that I am?’” Do you answer with Simon Peter, “‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (Matthew 16:15-16)?

Pray: Dear Lord Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I believe You are the One sent by God to be our life and salvation, not only to show the way but to be the way, to feed us at your table, to strengthen us in our weakness, to follow You wherever You lead, to listen to Your voice and at last go with You to heaven.  Help us to be more like You day by day, to light another’s darkness, to give comfort to another’s sorrow, to lead them to You. In Your strong name we pray. Amen.