Restoration 2013: Jesus.

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Restoration Ministry

Mark Howard

Jesus:  The Promised One

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for life, not just life, Father, but the life that is ours in Jesus, your Son.

And as we're here, Father, to see him more clearly, We pray the Holy Spirit would illumine our minds and give us an understanding as to who He is.

Not just who He is in general, but who He is to each 1 of us.

And I ask and pray these things in His name, the name of Jesus, And for his sake, amen.

I mentioned something to you this morning that I want to reiterate this evening.

For our, as we've started out here and we're in night 3, we're kind of putting together puzzle pieces.

And I asked this morning about those who were puzzle people and I don't know if there may be some others here that are here tonight who are puzzle people like putting puzzles together and when you put a puzzle together and I tested them this morning and I'll test you again this evening because I know who puzzle people are.

Puzzle people know that when you put puzzles together, you start with what?

You start with the corners, and you start with the edges.

And that's a lot of what we're doing here initially.

We've dealt with topics that are more broad.

You know, the divinity of Jesus and the character of Jesus.

And we've looked at, painted some broad strokes.

And I've had people ask me questions afterwards about more particular aspects of Jesus, his teaching, his life, the ideas of forgiveness, the ideas of justification, and some of the doctrine involved in this, but we're starting with the edges.

Tomorrow night we're gonna be looking at the subject of Jesus, the Lamb of God.

I guarantee you it will be a little more than generic.

And Friday night the subject is Jesus, the last Adam.

Talk about the significance of that to you and me.

But tonight we're going to talk about Jesus, the promised 1.

This morning I shared with you the story of the successful emergency landing of the United Airways flight 1549 that saved 155 passengers and the flight crew.

Not a person was lost as they technically, air technical aircraft term, or not aircraft, but airline term, They ditched the plane.

Just doesn't sound like a technical term, right?

You'd expect something other than they ditched it.

But they ditched the plane in the Hudson River successfully.

There were several factors that worked to make that a success.

They, the flight crew, received an award that in receiving it were told that it was the most successful ditching of an aircraft in history.

First of all, the captain of the plane, Captain Sullenberger, Captain Sully, had glider experience.

I mentioned this morning, you don't, a jumbo jet isn't like a glider, but the experience he had in working with gliders helped him to know how to bring that plane in in just the right angle into the water.

I mentioned to you this morning that had 1 of the wingtips, I mean you've got wide wings, if 1 of the wingtips just dips down and hits the water, the thing cartwheels and shreds to pieces.

The captain and the first officers calm in the face of emergency.

You know, of course, they're contacting the tower.

If they panicked in emergency, I mentioned for those who were here this morning, they had 5 minutes and 8 seconds from the time they took off to the time they hit the water.

And if you've ever been in a situation where you had a few minutes that you had to make some fast decisions and the pressure's on, I don't know about you, but sometimes when the pressure's on A lot with me, sometimes I blank.

Like there's a lot of pressure, you're supposed to be thinking, and you're just like, I don't know what to do.

The First Officer Skiles' recent Airbus training.

It was an Airbus that they were on, and it was his recent training that helped him to know those emergency procedures.

The quick thinking of the crew was a part of it.

The jet's proximity to the Hudson, they could have been a little bit further away, and they're over New York City, where are you going to land?

So the proximity to the Hudson, all of these things came into play.

The clear skies that day, the calm river that day, the quick response in deboarding the plane and the equally quick response of the ferries and the coast guards, a change in any 1 of those particulars would have made the crash more disastrous, if not fatal, to all passengers and crew.

I want to share with you another story tonight, Where the details and the consequences are far more important.

Only this plan was not an afterthought, it wasn't an accident.

The mission was in place from the foundation of the world.

Tonight we're going to look at Jesus, the promised 1.

It wasn't an afterthought in God's mind that he would send his only begotten son.

And the details that are given in Scripture before he ever came are absolutely fascinating.

Now 1 of the reasons, 1 of the reasons this is important, I was looking at a Wikipedia article on Jesus where they said that most critical historians agree that Jesus was a Jew who was regarded as a teacher and a healer, a real person who lived, historical figure.

He was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate, on the charge of sedition against the Roman Empire.

They agree on that, but they don't agree that he was the son of God.

And you've encountered people like that, and perhaps you've had those questions.

I was talking to a good Christian friend of mine, a young Baptist lady who I've been studying with.

When I first started studying, now she was raised in the church, she believes in the Bible, she studies the Bible, She asked me a crazy question.

She said, you know, my brother has been talking with me and he's studying prophecy and I'm thinking about the end of time and I'm thinking about all of these things that are going to happen and the Antichrist and everybody's going to be deceived.

And she said, I hate to say it, I don't even want to admit this to you, that I've thought about this, but I'm going to tell you.

She said, what if Jesus really is an imposter?

It would make sense because everybody's supposed to be following him and look at all the Christians who follow him.

And again she said, I'm ashamed for even thinking it, but I need more certainty.

And I was able to tell my friend Sally, Sally there is more certainty and we went and looked at the things we're going to look at tonight.

I want you to go to the Gospel of Luke with me to start out with.

Now as Luke writes, as he begins his Gospel he says something here that is very crucial for you and me as we're contemplating this entire theme of Jesus.

Well, if Jesus is an imposter, if he isn't who he says he is, then we need to scrap the whole thing, right?

Luke chapter 1, verse 1, Luke's writing to his friend Theophilus, That's who he addresses his gospel to.

He says, Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, " and notice the next part, "...and that you may know, " what?

"...the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.

How meaningful is our faith without certainty?

Sometimes we treat, the words don't go together, right?

You have faith and certainty, they're not near.

The faith we have in Jesus Christ is not built on uncertainty.

We have not, in the words of Peter, followed cunningly devised fables.

Luke says I'm writing these things to you so that you may have certainty.

And I want you to know tonight, you can have certainty in what you believe.

That's what the scripture is telling us here.

I want you to go with me to Acts chapter 1.

Same author, part 2 of his extended story.

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Jesus: The Promised One

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