Jesus Is Different – Jesus Claimed to Be God

The following guest sermon was submitted by ULC Minister Jeff Allen. All ULC Ministers are invited to contribute their own sermons for consideration/publication. To submit a sermon, please email it to sermons@ulc.org.

Many times Jesus either unequivocally asserted that he was God or made statements and performed actions that implied the same thing. His words and actions so infuriated the religious leaders of the day that they tried several times to kill him for “blasphemy” (claiming that he was God).  Eventually they succeeded in putting him into the hands of the Roman government, which technically crucified him (though Pilate “washed his hands” of the act, which he opposed, see Matthew 27:24).

If we look at Jesus’ actions and words, we can see four specific ways in which he indicated he was divine:

1. Jesus indicated he could forgive sins. The Jews believed that only the single God of the universe could forgive sins. When Jesus made this claim, the religious leaders said he was blaspheming (Matthew 9:1-8)

2. Jesus accepted worship. In the Law of Moses, God specifically commanded the Israelites to worship only him. Jesus demonstrated that he was in fact God by accepting the worship of, among others, his disciples (Luke 5:8; John 20:28).

3. Jesus specifically said he was God. Jesus said “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). He also told the religious leaders, “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58, “I am” was one of the names that God used of himself). The leaders clearly recognized what Jesus was saying and started to pick up stones to stone him for blasphemy.

4. Jesus performed miracles only God could do. Jesus did the same miracles Isaiah had prophesied would be signs of God’s presence (Isaiah 35:4-6).

Here are more examples of Jesus’ actions and claims:

• He forgave the sins of a man who had been paralyzed since birth. The religious leaders recognized his action as either evidence that he was God (“only God can forgive sins”) or blasphemy. Jesus silenced them by healing the paralyzed man in front of them and other witnesses, a miracle that only God could performed (Matthew 9:1-8).

• Jesus called himself the “capstone” (the highest and most critical part of a building) that was rejected by the “builders”, in this case the religious leaders. Again they tried to find a way to arrest him (Matthew 21:42-46).

• At his final trial, when Jesus was asked whether he was the “Christ, the Son of God,” he replied that he was. At this point the high priest tore his own clothes, a sign of great distress over, among other things, blasphemy, and the religious leaders emphatically demanded that Jesus die for his “blasphemy” (Mathew 26:63-66).

Jesus Proved He Was God

How can anyone prove he is God? Based on God’s words in the Bible, there is literally only one way that Jesus or anyone else can proved he is God:

1. Demonstrate first that he is a prophet of God by proclaiming perfectly fulfilled prophecy. Only God can predict the future (Isaiah 46:10). The Bible tell us to “test everything” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) and specifically tells us to use prophecy as the test to confirm that something is from God (Deuteronomy 18:14-22).

2. Then prophesy that he is God, and that he will prove it by performing miracles only God can perform. In addition to maintaining that he was God, Jesus told both his disciples and the Jewish religious leaders that he would be resurrected from the dead, which would be a confirmation of all his words and prophecies.

3. Finally, fulfill the prophecy and perform the miracle that he predicted. Jesus fulfilled his prophecy of the miracle of the resurrection. Its fulfillment verified his claim to be God and confirmed his triumph over death. 

In addition to fulfilling his own prophecies, Jesus fulfilled more than 100 Old Testament Messianic prophecies, giving further evidence that he is God.

The Miracle of the Resurrection

Jesus precisely prophesied his own miraculous resurrection from the dead. Despite making this remarkable prophecy many times, along with others, he did not make any errors in any predictions. Furthermore, he professed to be God. And God tells us to use prophecy as a test to know whether something is from him. Therefore, the prophecies Jesus made, along with their fulfillment by the events of his death and resurrection, verify his claim to be God.