Who Is This Jesus Christ? Is it not very interesting that spirituality comes under the banner of Self Improvement? Here is Someone Who can help us improve in ways in which no other person can. Yes, that is some claim but it is true.
The incarnation (or birth) of Jesus Christ was the most important watershed in history. We date our days from His birth, but very few people really know who HE is.
This is an increasingly violent age, with an escalation in terrorism and various people trying to take over and rule. Problems are many, no matter where one looks, and the only solution is Jesus Christ. Again that is a big claim to make, but then we have a big God.
Some of us have known that, but now we also need to know why we know that. Once you know and see Jesus Christ, you can never be the same again.
People outside the Church ask, “Who Is This?” They asked that in Jerusalem. I believe today many would really like to know Jesus Christ and receive the blessings and riches which He and He alone has to give.
Remember our Christian faith is first and foremost and essentially about God. It is not primarily about morals or ethics or preaching, or a social programme or philosophy, although all of these are involved, and much more. It is about GOD, and it is a message about God and from God.
The living God – eternal – immortal – the Creator – has broken through into history in an unprecedented way. Now, to stop and consider the immense and massive implications is just astonishing.
Some years ago I came to the conclusion that there is really no such thing as Church History, but there is Kingdom History. At all the main points over these past 2,000 years, when something spiritually significant has happened, it has been a breakthrough of The Kingdom of God. In Jesus Christ God has come amongst us, and when we speak about the Holy Spirit, we are speaking about God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem and spent much of His Life working as a carpenter in Nazareth. He was a builder, just as Noah was. When Jesus left home, after having been baptised in water at the Jordan River, and baptised in the Holy Spirit, His family and friends thought he was beside Himself – mad – insane. The crowds that initially gathered dwindled away.
His best and closest friends almost left – John 6 – but they had nowhere to go. He was reviled, hated, detested, crucified by the authorities, and buried in a borrowed grave.
But Jesus was raised from the dead.
Even His first disciples were accused of being drunk when they were filled with the same Holy Spirit Who filled Jesus when He emerged from the rivers of the Jordan, and no-one has been able to stop this thing, although many have tried and continue to try to eliminate the Church of Jesus Christ.
So, who is this Jesus Who has made such an impact upon the world, as no-one else has ever done? I will seek to develop this is the next article.
The early disciples called Him, Lord – all except Judas. Judas never made that essential transition from Master to Lord. That change has to happen.
What do you call Him? What is He to you? Your answer will reveal much about your spirituality.
Sandy Shaw
Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children’s Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled “Word from Scotland” on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.
His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.
Sandy Shaw
sandyshaw63@yahoo.com
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