Restoration 2013: Jesus.

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Restoration Ministry

Mark Howard

Jesus: The Almighty God

The topic for restoration is Jesus period.

And just reiterating a few things that we talked about this morning, the subject of Jesus, Jesus period, it seems so open, in fact it seems fairly inviting.

Most people, at least in some degree, would be very happy to talk about Jesus.

What kind of challenge can you have when you're talking about somebody who, in the words of scripture, just went about doing good.

But some of you know that you can actually get into quite heated discussions about Jesus.

It just depends what about Jesus you want to talk about.

And I shared this morning, and I apologize for those who are here, I just think it's important for reiteration that sometimes we have a personal desire to overemphasize 1 attribute of Jesus to another attribute of Jesus.

There are some people that like the fact that Jesus was very straightforward and when he went into the temple and he had the whip of cords and he drove the money changers out, they like that Jesus.

Because that Jesus might fit very well with their way of dealing with things.

And while Jesus did drive the money changers out with the whip of cords, That wasn't his whole ministry.

And so we can emphasize 1 part of the ministry versus the other part, and then we can say, well that's your view of Jesus and this is my view of Jesus.

Our goal this next couple weeks is to get God's view of Jesus, to see who Jesus is, not who we want Jesus to be.

And each evening, we're going to take a different facet of the character of Jesus, or a different facet of the role of Jesus.

Tonight we're going to talk about Jesus the Almighty God.

A lot of people believe in Jesus as we'll go on in the presentation tonight, that he was a historical figure, he lived, he walked this earth.

They don't necessarily believe he was the son of God and God himself.

Tomorrow night we're going to talk about Jesus, the unknown God.

How we may view Jesus differently from the way Jesus really is.

The next night we're going to talk about, we're starting out with some fairly basic material, Jesus the Promised 1.

We're going to look at the evidences that the Bible gives us in abundance.

Something that amazes me is my brother Jim and I just finished up filming a series for 3 Angels Broadcasting on the book of Acts.

And something that's really amazing in the book of Acts is how repeatedly through Acts the apostles proved that Jesus was the Messiah from the prophecies of Scripture.

And that was the bulk of their preaching.

They preached the gospel from the Old Testament, repeatedly.

Now further on in the series, I'll throw this title out, You can just scratch your heads about it until we get there.

Why was it made and why is it significant?

What we're doing at noon every day is we're sharing stories, Typically human interest stories that emphasize an aspect of what we're covering each evening.

And so I want to get into our topic tonight.

I'm going to review a little bit of what we talked this morning about in our story, but I want to begin with a word of prayer.

I'm going to ask if you bow your heads with me, but also that in your hearts you would ask the Lord that He would reveal His Son to us this week.

Jesus says nobody knows the Father unless the Son reveals Him and nobody can see the Son unless the Father reveals Him.

And let's join our hearts together and ask God to reveal His Son to us this next couple of weeks.

Bow your heads with me if you would, please.

Father in Heaven, oh Father, we thank you for the privilege we have of knowing Jesus.

The privilege we have of getting to know him and getting to know him more.

But Lord we know that spiritual things are only understood aided by the Holy Spirit.

And we pray here this evening, I want to pray for myself and for each 1 gathered here, that we would receive a fresh revelation of who Jesus is.

Tonight and the following nights, Lord, not just an intellectual knowledge of who Jesus is, but an experiential knowledge.

And I pray that this time we spend together would be the means of transforming us to reflect Jesus more fully.

Now I ask this evening in the name of Jesus that you would bless us to that end.

Now this morning, I shared that with the whole concept of Jesus, there's actually kind of this divide today about Jesus and then Christianity.

There are churches that are advertising their services now as a 100% religion-free church.

And the reason for that is that they say, well, we don't want to be lumped in with the organized Christian church because there are so many, what am I going to say, there are so many negative viewpoints that come from that.

People are seeing that there seems to be, at least in some places, a disconnect between Christianity and the Christ of Christianity.

While some seem to be drawn to feel themselves drawn to the Christ of Christianity, they feel a little bit of distance from Christianity itself.

And this was well summarized in the words of a young man named Matt Owen.

He's 1 of the young subjects in the documentary Beware of Christians.

It was made by Christians, but they're emphasizing that point.

And Matt Owen said this, he said, being raised a Christian, he said, I know I'm a Christian, I just don't know if I'm following Jesus.

And he said that in all sincerity, it wasn't a tongue in cheek.

I know I'm a Christian, I grew up as a Christian, but Is the Christianity I've grown up with really following the Christ of Christianity?

I share with you then the story of the very first conscientious objector in history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, Desmond Thomas Doss.

Doss was also the subject, he was a Seventh-day Adventist incidentally, and the subject of a book written by Francis Doss entitled The Unlikeliest Hero.

He went into the army and he went in as a conscientious objector.

He didn't like the title conscientious objector because he felt that it painted up the wrong picture.

Most conscientious objectors objected to wearing the uniform, objected to saluting the flag.

He said, I'm for my country, I believe in my country, I just don't want to carry a weapon.

Well, the recruiter said, if you don't want to carry a weapon, you have to have this label, this conscientious objector status.

He said, I'd prefer to be called a conscientious cooperator, But they wouldn't let him do that.

First 1 in history to receive the highest national honor that can bestow the Congressional Medal of Honor.

As the men who worked with him saw this 150-pound man that didn't carry a weapon and he was going to go into battle with them, they had no confidence in him.

And furthermore, the mindset of a conscientious objector was that these guys really just wanted to get out of fighting so it's the last person you want to find yourself in battle with.

But they were only seeing Desmond Doss according to the flesh.

It was a fitting title in that book by Francis Doss.

A fitting title for none of the men who served with him in the 77th Infantry Division could have seen the hero that Desmond Doss emerged to be.

There he is getting President Truman pinning on him the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Truman's words to Doss was, this opportunity, this opportunity for me to pin this medal on you is what I consider a greater honor than being president.

Kind of an interesting, wow, that'd make you feel good, wouldn't it?

And I showed you, those who were here this morning, I almost forgot to show these.

In fact, that gentleman on the left is my father, just happens to be sitting right over here.

It's just a few years back, Dad, just a few years back.

My dad lives out here in the Beaumont area.

That's me right there, my mom's holding me, so I can't say I ever really met Desmond Doss, but that's Desmond Doss right there holding my older brother, Dan.

Doss' commanding officer, Jack Glover, had told Doss at 1 point that he wasn't going to ever go into battle with him unless he carried a gun.

Desmond Doss ended up saving that man's life along with hundreds of other soldiers and exemplified a bravery on the battlefield unseen in other men.

And Jack Glover said That when he first met Doss, Doss was in his words, a skinny little kid in front of me that I felt couldn't carry the load.

But he said, I didn't know him as the man.

It was knowing him as a man that made all the difference, knowing Him for who He really was.

The point I made this morning and the point I want to make tonight is, what do we see when we see Jesus?

Well Jesus, we see Jesus, we see Him as the Son of God.

Jesus: The Almighty God

Transcript

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