Who Is This Jesus? Lesson 1

The misunderstood Jesus

• Jesus Christ has been misunderstood by some people. His origin and life among men have been misunderstood. Jesus came to earth. He lived among men. He was misunderstood. People have misused and twisted scriptures, to teach and say who Jesus is not, and what the scriptures do not support about him. Why do people have misunderstandings about Jesus?
• Matthew 16:13-16
  When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
• 2 Peter 3:15-17
  Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.

Jesus co-existed with God the father at creation

• Jesus coexisted with two other divine beings in creating all things. All three divine beings are called God. The pronoun us is used to show that God exists with other individuals. The plural pronoun us is never used referring to one person. These three persons are distinct, but they work as one. They are united in what they do.
• Genesis 1:26
  Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
• Genesis 11:6-7
  The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
• 1 John 5:7
  For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

Jesus is everlasting

• The word everlasting in referring to God the father and son, means that they always existed and will always exist. The same as Alpha and Omega. They had no start, origin and beginning of time, neither will they have an end. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem that was not his beginning. He lived before his birth.
• Micah 5:2
  “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”
• Revelation 22:12-13
  “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Jesus is part of Deity and the Godhead

• Jesus is part of the three beings that always existed and will always exists. They are called and translated; God, Deity, Divine Being, Divine Nature and the Godhead. They are also called Trinity. The three in one. They share the same divine qualities or nature. One is not more or less than the other. All of what makes up God the father is in Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The three beings in heaven share the same divine qualities. They are like three beans in one pod.
• Colossians 2:9
  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily
• Romans 1:20
  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse
• Acts 17:29
  Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

Jesus shared in that union and relationship with God the father

• God is called the father in that union. He is the leader. God uses human terms to communicate with man. Jesus shared in a relationship with God the father before creation. Jesus called God father.
• John 17:1
  After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
• John 17:5
  And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
• John 17:24
  “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
• 1 Corinthains 11:3
  But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

Jesus is a son in the Godhead relationship

• God uses human terms to communicate with man. God is spirit. He is not physical. When the bible says God has ears and hands, this is not physical. When the bible says; God is a father, it does not mean that he is married to a woman in heaven, and that marital union gave birth to Jesus. Father is used to communicate with man, a father and son relationship that existed. The relationship existed before any thing or person was created. So, Jesus could not have been a created being. God called Israel my son. Israel was not born to God. He served as a father figure to the nation of Israel.
• Isaiah 59:1-2
  Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
• Matthew 3:17
  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
• Hosea 11:1
  “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
• Matthew 3:13-15
  When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So, he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Jesus was creator and part of creation

• Jesus was present when all things were created. The bible confirms that he was the agent by who all things were created. A person cannot be creator and created at the same time. That confirms the use of the plural pronouns us and our in Genesis, when God the father said, “Let us make man in our image.”
• John 1:3
  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
• Colossians 1:16
  For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him.
• Hebrews 1:2
  But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.
• 1 Corinthians 8:6
  Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist.

Jesus is called God

• Since all the divine qualities that dwells in the father also dwells in Jesus, both are called God. Again, the preposition with used in John indicates relationship, and shows they live and dwell along side each other. So, when the world was created, Jesus was along side God the father. He could not be created if he was there actively involved in creating the world.
• John 1:1-2
  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Jesus took human flesh and was given a name

• When he took human flesh, a name was given to him, to identify him. Names have purpose and meaning. Bethlehem was not his origin. This teaching is called the Incarnation. God dwelling and manifesting himself in human form.
• Matthew 1:20-21
  But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
• John 1:14
  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The name Jesus was given to him

• God the father gave him the name Jesus which means saviour. He came to earth to save. Only God can save. That makes him equal with God the father.
• Philippians 2:9-11 
  Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
• Matthew 1:20-21
  But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”