Sermon preached by John A. Huffman, Jr.
December 11, 2005
Copyright © 2005, John A. Huffman, Jr.
All rights reserved.

JESUS-THE MIGHTY GOD

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)

Aslan is on the move! The Lion of Judah has prevailed. Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, the ransom for our sins, is victor!

These are the opening words of this message and will also be the concluding words.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah uses four specific names for Jesus. Among scores of others used throughout the Old and New Testaments, he writes, "For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

Last week we saw Jesus as the "Wonderful Counselor." Next week, the Sunday before Christmas, we will see Jesus as the "Everlasting Father." The following week, having celebrated our four Christmas Eve services the night before, we will gather at 10:15 in one great service here in the sanctuary on Christmas Day to see Jesus as the "Prince of Peace." Today we see Jesus as the "Mighty God."

I'd like to share with you three major biblical assertions. Each one builds on the previous. Each one is gargantuan in its implications. When taken together, you will have an understanding of who Jesus Christ is in one magnificent dimension of His being that will cause you to bow in humble adoration before Him.

Assertion One: Jesus is God.

What a powerful statement.

This very fact, among several others, makes Christianity unique among all the world's religions.

What other religion declares that its foremost historical character is God? Did Buddha, Mohammed, Moses and the many other great prophets of human history make this claim? No way!

Reduce Jesus to the position of one of the great prophets and you have cut the heart out of historic Christianity. Yes, He was a good example. Yes, He was the finest man who ever lived. Yes, He taught us outstanding ethical and spiritual truths. Yes, He died a martyr's death. Most people would grant these facts. But something is missing. There is more to a description of Jesus than these facts, which also parallel the lives of many great religious leaders.

The difference is that Jesus is God.

This fact is counterbalanced with another powerful truth.

Jesus is also Man.

The early church surveyed all the biblical teaching about Jesus and concluded in the words of the Nicene Creed that, in a way you and I cannot fully understand, Jesus is at one time both fully God and fully man.

In the first three centuries, the Church found itself in a hostile environment. On the one hand, it grappled with the challenge of relating the language of the Gospel, developed in a Hebraic and Jewish/Christian context, to a Greco/Roman world. On the other hand, it was threatened not only by persecution but also by ideas that were in conflict within the biblical witness as to the true nature of Jesus Christ. Arius, priest of the church in Alexandria, Egypt, argued that the divinity of Jesus was created by God before the beginning of time. Therefore, the divinity of Christ was simply the divinity of God, but not of the same essence.

Constantine convened a council in Nicaea in A.D. 325. The creed reflecting the position of Alexander and Athanasius was written and signed by a majority of the bishops. Nonetheless, the two parties continued to battle each other. In 381, a second council met in Constantinople. It adopted a revised and expanded form of the earlier A.D. 325 creed, now known as The Nicene Creed. It is the most ecumenical of the creeds. The Presbyterian Church (USA) joins with Eastern Orthodox Roman Catholic and most protestant churches in affirming it. It reads as follows:

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

You see, what we extract from the Scriptures are two strands of revelation. The one strand declares that Jesus is fully human. The other strand declares that Jesus is fully God. Our human minds cannot comprehend how He could be both at one time. The Nicene Creed presents, in a systematic fashion, an articulation of the creative tension that exists in biblical Christology.

The statement that "Jesus Christ is God" startles many persons.

For three and a half years in Miami, I hosted a Sunday night open-line talk show on the secular NBC station WIOD. In fact, I sat in the same studio using the same mic being used most of the other nights of the week by a young broadcaster of whom you may have heard--Larry King. Mine, as his, was a commercially sponsored program that had the top ratings of any radio station in Southern Florida between 10:00 p.m., Sunday evening, and 1:00 a.m., Monday morning. As you know, Miami has one of the largest Jewish populations of any city in the world. I began every program of The John Huffman Show with a statement of my three-fold ground rules. I said, "Ground rule one is that I believe that Jesus Christ is God. Ground rule two is I believe that the Bible is God's Word to us today in which God tells us: not everything, but everything we need to know about Him; not everything, but everything we need to know about ourselves; not everything, but everything we need to know about our fellow human beings; and everything we do need to know to get along with God and ourselves. Ground rule three, this is the program that cares, not only for your opinion but for you as a person. You do not need to accept the first two ground rules to participate in this open-line dialogue this evening."

Every single Sunday evening for three and a half years, the eleven incoming phone lines to that radio station would light up. Many of the callers were Jewish. Most, very graciously, a few not so kindly, would declare their amazement at the statement, "Jesus is God." Many claimed they had never heard that. In fact, many Protestants would call in and say, "I thought Jesus was the Son of God, not God himself."

During these same years, back when they still allowed them, I was invited to give invocations at many public occasions. Every time, I concluded, "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." The mention of the name Jesus Christ became quite controversial. I would reason with the occasional Jewish person who protested, saying that I would not expect their rabbi to pray in the name of Jesus. How could they expect a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to refrain from praying in His name?

Finally, I devised a method that I thought would help solve the problem. I was asked to give the invocation at the Orange Bowl before 85,000 persons gathered to see the Miami Dolphins play the New England Patriots. I concluded the prayer, "Hear our prayer, which we pray in the name of the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--who some of us call Jesus Christ. Amen." You could have heard a pin drop in that great stadium. Why? Because that conclusion stated unequivocally the difference between a sincere Jew or Gentile who does not accept the Messiahship of Jesus the Christ and the Christian who declares Jesus to be Savior and Lord. For us, Jesus is God. That's the bottom line.

The name of Jesus is an offense to many. That is why we are no longer allowed to pray in His name at the city council meetings of Newport Beach. So when I now go there, I no longer pray. I make a statement of this sort. "Since the Council in its wisdom has prescribed that the name of Jesus Christ, who some of us believe to be God should not be mentioned in prayer, I would request that we would all now bow silently and pray to God as free people in whatever way we understand God, thanking Him for our leaders and praying that they will have wisdom as they make decisions for our community."

The name of Jesus Christ is an offense to those who do not believe He is God. This year's big discussion is over whether it's a "holiday tree" instead of a "Christmas tree." For years, we've debated whether or not it should be a "holiday season" instead of the "Christmas season." Frankly, I don't really care what is decided, because I myself would not want to live in a community in which the largest prevailing religious group dictated for me the language I must use. I spent too much time in other cultures and seeing the persecution of Christian minorities who encourage us to be insensitive to others in our use of language.

At the same time, we dare not allow ourselves to lose touch of the real nature of who Jesus is. Jesus Christ is God.

How do we know this?

The biblical record is clear. The Old Testament prophetic utterances promised the coming of Emmanuel. The very definition of this word is "God with us." The heartfelt cry of Jews, century after century, was, "O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!"

Not only do the Old Testament messianic references to the Son of Man and the Son of God ascribe divinity to Jesus the Christ, the New Testament witness is also clear. Jesus, time after time, made this self-proclamation in statements such as, "I and the Father am One," and, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." The very nature of His life and His actions declared His divinity. He forgave sins. He spoke as one with authority. He had healing powers. He lived a sinless life. He did miracles. He died as an atonement for sin. He rose from the dead. He changed lives then. He ascended into heaven. And He continues to change lives now!

Not only did the Old Testament predict the coming of God in human form. Not only did Jesus' utterances attest to the miracle of the incarnation. The early church declared, "Jesus Christ is Lord." This was basic to its every utterance. Peter at Pentecost attested to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in Acts 2. The Apostle John expresses in Greek formulations that Jesus is the Logos, the Word, the very reason of God. It was that Logos which created the world.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

The Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:5-11 declared:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The author of Hebrews begins his letter with this statement.

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:1-4)

In the book of Revelation, we have an enormous declaration of the power of Jesus Christ as He states, ". . .Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades" (Revelation 1:17-18).

My friends, Jesus Christ is God.

II

Assertion Two: Jesus is the Mighty God.

This second assertion builds on Assertion One and is implicit in it. Not only is Jesus God. That in itself is an enormous statement. This Jesus is also the "Mighty God" of whom Isaiah wrote 700 years before His coming.

On the one hand, the addition of the word "Mighty" enlarges our understanding of who Jesus is as God. On the other hand, it narrows our understanding in that it specifies one of His magnificent attributes among scores of others--that being His might, His power or what theologians call His omnipotence.

Time after time, throughout the Bible, we read references to the power, to the might of God. The Apostle Paul capsules both Assertion One, that Jesus is God, and Assertion Two, that Jesus is the Mighty God, into this powerful statement written to Greek Christians in Colossae:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-17)

Periodically, articles appear in major publications questioning whether God is all-powerful or not. In the 1930s, liberal theologians came up with the notion of the "finite God" to explain the existence of pain and suffering. In the 1960s through the 80s, this concept was referred to as "process theology" in which God was somehow limited and in some ways even growing along with us. More recently, the theological trend is called "openness theology," which questions the historic orthodox understanding of the sovereignty of God. These three movements, in my estimation, are variations on the central theme of us human beings, finite ourselves, trying to grasp the infinite, puzzled as we are by some of the contradictions we see in this world. However, the basic underlying presuppositions of such theology is that God is not "wholly other." God is not transcendent above His creation. And in some forms of this theology, God did not become man in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not God. Instead, such theology, with all the significant questions it raises, is a human endeavor to philosophize to some kind of understanding of a God who may not even be personal. This certainly is not the God of the Scriptures. It is not the God in the miracle of the incarnation who seeks after you and me as the "Hound of Heaven." Instead, this is the God created by us in our quest for some kind of meaning and significance to our existence.

The Apostle Paul makes at least four basic assertions in regard to Jesus being the Mighty God in this first chapter of Colossians.

First, Jesus is ". . .the image of the invisible God."

An image can be a representation or, if perfect enough, a manifestation of someone. Jesus is the perfect manifestation of God. To see what God is like, you must look at Jesus. Jesus is the Logos, the Divine Word, the very reason of God. What the Greeks for centuries tried to come to through philosophy, the Apostle Paul declares, "Jesus is this!" And it can be restated for you and me today.

William Barclay puts it so beautifully.

Your dreams and philosophies, your speculations, and your adventures of thought are all come true in Him.

In fact, Jesus is really a double revelation. He shows you and me not only the image of God. He also shows you and me who we were created to be in the image of God. When it says He is the "firstborn of all creation," it doesn't mean that He was created. This is a title of honor. Paul goes on to say that in Him all things were created, visible and invisible, for ". . .All things have been created through him and for him."

Second, Jesus is ". . .before all things and in Him all things hold together."

Do you capture the glory of this statement? Jesus is the Creator and Sustainer of nature. All things find their coherence in Him. He holds everything together. He is the "cosmic epoxy." Every law of nature reflects His divine glory. He is the coherent mind of God. The mind of Jesus Christ keeps the very universe from disintegrating into chaos.

Some years ago, I came across the little poem titled God's Magnitude. It reads:

If you could leave this world in a flight
As straight as that of a beam of light,
Traveling a million miles in a wink of an eye and then on
And still on, till a million, million years be gone,
You will have traveled but a meager rod
In the boundless width of the realm of God.

When we sing "How Great Thou Art," we are making a declaration of a majesty and honor due to Jesus Christ, who is the "Alpha," the beginning, and the "Omega," the end, who is before all things and is after all things and in whom all things hold together.

Third, Jesus is ". . .first place in everything."

Do you catch this? It says that "He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything." He is what theologians refer to as "preeminent." This says that He is the beginning. The world was His creation. The Church is His new creation. The hymn so aptly states it, "She is his new creation, by water and the word." Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. He's not a dead hero. He's not the past founder of the Church. He is the living, present Lord of the Church. His is the supremacy in all things.

"For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell."

Fourth, Jesus is ". . .the reconciler."

This is the reason he came. Paul writes, "Through Him, God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven by making peace through the blood of His cross." It doesn't say just reconcile human beings to other human beings. Some of the first-century Greek philosophers were gnostics. They believed that matter was evil and that the spirit was good. Jesus Christ is the Lord of all that is physical and that which is spiritual. He is come to unite you and me with the very purpose for which we were created. He comes to reconcile you and me to himself.

Do you capture the progression here? Jesus is not only God. Jesus is the Mighty God.

There are many people who have great respect for Jesus but do not acknowledge these two great statements. No one has addressed the contradictory nature of Jesus being not God but one of the great ethical teachers of all human time better than has C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity. He 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 a 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.

Assertion Three: Jesus is the Mighty God whom you can trust.

On the basis of Assertion One, Jesus is God, and Assertion Two, Jesus is the Mighty God, would you then come to the conclusion that He is worthy of your total trust? The starting point for being the person God would love to have you be is to come to the realization that Jesus is the Mighty God, Emmanuel, alive in all His power today.

Henry Carter was pastor of a church that had a home for emotionally disturbed children. He describes how tough Christmas is for some of these youngsters. Three quarters of them go home at least overnight. The ones who remain react to the empty beds and the changed routine.

He tells about little Tommy. He had crawled under a bed and refused to come out. The floor mother pointed to one of six cots in the small dormitory. Not a hair or a toe showed underneath it. Carter describes how he addressed himself to the cowboys and bucking broncos on the bedspread. How he talked about the brightly lightly tree in the church vestibule next to the door and the packages underneath it and all the good things that awaited Tommy out beyond that bed.

But still no answer.

Carter who himself was frustrated by the time this was costing, especially as he had been feverishly working on his Christmas sermon, dropped to his hands and knees and lifted the bedspread from the floor. He writes:

Two enormous blue eyes met mine. Tommy was eight, but looked like a five-year-old. It would have been no effort at all simply to pull him out. But it wasn't pulling that Tommy needed--it was trust and a sense of deciding things on his own initiative. So, crouched there on all fours, I launched into the menu of the special Christmas Eve supper to be offered after the service. I told him about the stocking with his name on it provided by the women's society.

Silence. There was no indication that he either heard or cared about Christmas.

And at last, because I could think of no other way to make contact, I got down on my stomach and wriggled in beside him, bedsprings snagging my suit jacket. For what seemed a long time I lay there with my cheek pressed against the floor. At first I talked about the big wreath above the altar and the candles in the windows. I reminded him of the carol he and the other children were going to sing. Then I ran out of things to say and simply waited there beside him.

And as I waited, a small, chilled hand crept into mine.

"You know, Tommy," I said after a bit, "it's kind of close quarters under here. Let's you and me go out where we can stand up."

And so we did, but slowly, in no hurry. All the pressure had gone from my day, because, you see, I had my Christmas sermon. Flattened there on the floor I realized I had been given a new glimpse of the mystery of this season.

Hadn't God called us, too, as I'd called Tommy, from far above us? With His stars and mountains, His whole majestic creation, hadn't He pleaded with us to love Him, to enjoy the universe He gave us?

And when we would not listen, He had drawn closer. Through prophets and lawgivers and holy men, He spoke with us face to face.

But it was not until that first Christmas, until God stooped to earth itself, until He came to dwell with us in our loneliness and alienation, that we, like Tommy, dared to stretch out our hands to take hold of love.

This Jesus, Mighty God, has actually come in human form to wrap His arms around you, to look you in the eyes, to tell you that He loves you, that He went to the cross in your place for you, that He rose from the dead in victory over sin and death on your behalf, and that He has made an escape for you from the reality of hell, inviting you to join Him for eternity in heaven. He wants you to come to Him with your sins and receive His forgiveness. He wants you to come with your financial burdens, your broken relationships, your sicknesses, your doubts, your fears. He looks into your eyes and tells you that he is willing to walk through the rest of this life hand in hand with you in the person, presence and power of His Holy Spirit.

Everybody's talking about The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I remember reading it to my daughters when they were little children and watching their eyes dance with delight. I took my daughter Janet to see the movie late Thursday afternoon. You must see it for, in fantasy form, it tells the story that I've been trying to get across to you today.

Those youngsters, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, are the "sons of Adam" and the "daughters of Eve" who were sent away from bomb-blasted London during the Nazi threat to take refuge in the countryside home of Professor Kirke. During a game of hide-and-seek, first Lucy and then the other three crawl through the clothing stored in it to discover the frozen wonderland of Narnia. It was held in captivity by the White Witch who, in symbolic expression of Satan, had temporarily captured some territory from the good and all-powerful great lion Aslan, symbolically representative of Jesus Christ, the Mighty God.

Edmund, distraught over his father's wartime absence, in competition with his siblings, betrays them, seduced as he's been by the offer of "Turkish delight" by the White Witch. In the process, he finds himself in bondage to her.

As the movie plays its way out, there's an encounter between the White Witch and the lion Aslan. The White Witch emerges from the tent in which the private negotiations took place and releases Edmund. We only discover later that a bargain made was that Aslan would allow himself to be bound and killed in exchange for her release of the young man.

Aslan's troops are dispirited and, in the battle that ensues, the ice cold forces of the White Witch prepare to prevail against the heartbroken troops of the warmhearted slain lion Aslan. Then suddenly, in that great epic scene of battle when it all seemed to be lost for the forces of warmth and righteousness, there was a sound of the mighty roar as the slain Aslan is risen from dead. The roar of his coming echoes through the mountains and valleys of the land, and ultimately the White Witch and her gruesome forces are destroyed, and all creation is brought to peace at last with forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration.

Have you put your trust in the promised delights of Satan or in the strong, loving person of Jesus Christ, the Mighty God? Are you determined to handle your own life, thank you very much. You say, "I'll handle my job, my money, my health, my future? After all, why not? I know better. I can do it on my own." Or, instead, are you willing to put your trust in this Mighty God named Jesus Christ, who can in reality change your life, forgive your sins, reconcile you with the Father, and provide a future beyond this life better than you could ever dream.

What's your decision?

I urge you today to trust Him. I urge you today to confess Jesus Christ to be your Savior, your Lord. I urge you today to acknowledge Him to be the Sovereign of the Universe. I urge you today to entrust yourself, everything about yourself, to Him and to be part of the community that is His new creation, the Church.

Yes, Aslan is on the move! The Lion of Judah has prevailed. Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, the ransom for our sins, is victor! Amen