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:
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)
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).
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.
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:
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).
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.
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.
31 comments
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Douglas Robert Spindler
Which Jesus are we talking about? Jesus was a very popular name like Donald, Elon, Joe, George or Bill is today. And just as today, many of the people named Jesus claimed to be God or the son of God and were good at performing magic tricks.
Is there any difference between a magic trick and a miracle? At the time all of those Jesuses were alive people were very poorly educated and could not read or write. The believed everything they were told... except for the "smart" ones.
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Lionheart
I bet David Copperfield could have taught him a few things. 🤭
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Rev. BH
Lionheart! We agree on something! Peace, brother.
Check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_Jesus
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Lionheart
Wonderful list. Thank you. 🤗. ✌🏼
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Billy Heckstall
The sad truth is that many researchers over the millennium have misinterpreted the writings of the Old and The New Testament. The Scribes even quote Jesus as informing the disciples that they still had no understanding of his teachings even though he was with them.
How much more can we expect from those that were not there? If you follow the linage of Jesus, back to that beginning, and research the people whom may have passed down information from generation to generation to his family. Then it might shine more light on this subject, at least more than the author of the article above seems to have been exposed to, or knew.
No matter, who can swear that Jesus said anything? I can only say, the wisdom he shared, (if he indeed he did). To this day many researchers have confirmed that much of his teachings and wisdom cannot be denied as valid and some by noted psychologists.
I’d like the one thing that resonated with me and that is, blessed are those that believe that did not witness the miracles but were called by Creation (God).
My take is, I believe he, or the Scribes were referring to the bread crumbs and the ‘Way’ he left those who were called to follow.
Whether Jesus thought himself to be God, the son of God, or merged with God doesn’t matter, just for me!But as for his behavior and prayers, and everything I understand in the writings of the Scribes canonized, or not. I stand with many others seekers with my self proclaimed understanding of Jesus’s wisdom that he was indeed someone very special; and I follow his understanding and wisdom to the best of my abilities.
Peace…
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Merlin
Power emits from belief. Cultures throughout history have understood this and developed pantheons of gods to leverage control over the populace. Grandiose pageantry and ritual were essential tools of influence; thus, massive temples were built, and elaborate rites and costumes became central to religious practice. Before Rome (through Paul), Jesus taught that divinity was within, as indicated by His claim to be “the Son of Man.” Untampered apocryphal or non-canonical gospels contradicted the Church’s efforts to consolidate power and control. Jesus was, in fact, anti-religion in the sense that He taught freedom from institutional control—specifically opposing ritualistic external cleansing, such as prayer baths, in favor of spiritual cleansing through forgiveness, repentance, and love. This posed a threat to Jewish tradition and the revenue of the rabbis. The biblical Gospels that depict Jesus as explicitly claiming to be God are likely the result of “translations” that facilitated the establishment of an external power structure. Notably, Paul—a Roman citizen who never met Jesus in person (except in a vision on the road to Damascus)—managed to assume leadership of the early Jesus movement, effectively overtaking Jesus’s brother James. The Christian religion was ultimately shaped by the most powerful empire on earth, and this is how Jesus became God.
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Tecla Caryl Loup
I was taught that each of us has the Divine Spark. So we (and all that is) share in godhood. I guess I don't feel the need to prove that Jesus was divine separate from the rest of us.
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Jimmy Moon
There were 365 Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The odds of one man fulfilling only 8 of them is 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. https://www.clintbyars.com/blog/2020/7/20/jesus-fulfilled-over-300-prophecies. HE is GOD.
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Lionheart
Awe, bless your heart. Please get well. 🤗
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Rev. BH
Jimmy,
Jimmy, your link doesn't work. However, I did find Clint Byars site. One of 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 evangelicals selling stuff and asking for money. But I did find his "informative" article entitled Quantum Superposition and the Kingdom of God. Wow! Just the info I needed!
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Lori Mongillo
If that works for you, go for it.
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Mary Haviland
Are you all crazy. If course Jesus was different. Not only could he do things no other humans could do, other then the miracles, he should create clay birds and breath life into them and they would turn into rela birds and fly off. The roman soldiers and officials who saw him said they could even see when they saw him, that's there was just something different about his continace. And anybody who could do all that he did, I clueing to die, gó to hell, come back and enter back I to his body, leave a negative photographic unorint in hai should, all of these things no other kan, before him, during his present time or at any time afterwards even until this day has even been able to do that. I. Addition, the archeologist who found the ache, and was allowed to collect samples of the blood from off if it, found that even the blood after two thousand years was still said to be alive according To the lab techs, and that blood also had DNA which also demonstrated that Jesus was different than any other human to ever exist in that he had one set of genes the exact same DNA as him mother with the exception of the sex gene which was the x y gene that made him male. No other humans ever in the history of man kind ever could have and be in existence. If that doesn't prove and demonstrate his Divinity, then I dont know what kind of craziness a person would expect as proof.
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Nicholas J Page
If God doesn't exist who invented him and how was Jesus born from the Virgin Mary Magdalena remember it takes two to create life excistance.
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Lionheart
It’s looking very much as though us hominids created all of our gods. As for the mythical story of a 13, or 14 year old virgin girl, supposedly called Mary, being inseminated by a deity, it clearly is a very fanciful story to help Joseph deal with his underage girlfriend getting pregnant. He obviously got away with it. I bet he couldn’t believe his luck. 🤭
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Lori Mongillo
Mary Magdalena? I think you need to revisit your info
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David Cox
Satan has always tried to twist God's word and he has put people in the church to deceive the elect. And people like you turn away from God because of people that do that in the church. Those people will be judged for there wrongs.
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Lionheart
Until you can prove man’s constructs of things like Satan, Devil, God, Beelzebub, Imps, etc, they will permanently remain to be mythical creatures. You are more than welcome to believe whatever you like to read in religious books, which of course is no different to everyone else on earth that have their own belief from what they like to think is scripture.
As a heads-up, the Harry Potter books are also mythical stories just in case you are starting to think differently.
Be well my friend. 🤗
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Lori Mongillo
Satan is a bad excuse for the bad things people do. A scapegoat. Education is key to a deeper understanding. If you don't research beyond what the Bible tells you, you cannot grow. You remain within the confinement of conditioning.
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David Cox
You can tell that to God when you go before him
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Lori Mongillo
I won't need to. She is very loving.
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Matthew Mastrogiovanni
God is a sadistic, narcissistic , genocidal maniac, who made an adulterer of Mary so that she could have his demigod son that he planned on murdering. Lucifer is a revolutionary trying to free us of the slavery and oppression of god.
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Michael Howard Schrader
Did Jesus really say these things, or were those words put into his mouth by the evangelists who wrote the gospels? I go with the latter, as such bombast seems at odds with what we know about the historical Jesus.
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Lori Mongillo
The things that Jesus actually said are debated by historians. The things they believe he actually said, cover about two pages. Everything else is hearsay. The Bible is a collection of stories. Period. The old testament was a collection of stories from Jewish history. Some Jewish scholars say many of the stories should not be taken literally. Since Jesus never wrote anything down, the very human writers of the new testament embellished and manipulated the stories to suit the power of the church. Some gospels were not even allowed into the new testament. They weren't compatible with what they wanted people to hear or know. So, the point is, you can believe what you'd like. Each person does, but it should not be considered truth. Belief is a language that aids in our connection to the great mystery.
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Rev Samantha Counihan
he wasnt any Gods, he was a man, and he was a Pagan Witch, he only proved that he can do Witchcraft
I'm not surprised, lots of people have claimed to be a deity, or a Prophet of some sort. It's what ego often does, especially today if it helps to bring in money to pay for expensive homes, and even jets.
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So much of what Jesus portrayed was twisted into something else, by so many manipulators, and so it continues. If Jesus existed, he was a man. Not god. All most Christians focus on is glorifying Jesus. Few actually adhere to the messages he was trying to convey. Love one another. Accept each other. Lift up those who need lifting. We are all imperfect, but as long as we allow our egos to lead the way, we will wallow in our imperfections. Those who are self-righteous and arrogant, believing they know the true will of god, will continue to live in their illusions, driving the fear of god into the brains of those who are susceptible. And yes, Lionheart---it does bring big money to the few, when it should bring big money to the many. People will always fall for the charismatic preachers that stir the emotions. They are fishermen. People want to be on the hook.
Believe what you want to believe. Why are you twisting some bodies belief. Maybe you are wrong and going down a dark path and you are thinking it's the right .
You see....that's the biggest problem. You think it's okay to share what you believe, but you think I should not say what I believe. Beliefs are simply tools to connect with something greater than ourselves. They are not real. We just think they're real. We create our own realities, that includes Satan. If you prefer to live in fear, that's your choice, but there are many, many ways to connect with the Source of creation. Your way is just one of them. We're all climbing the mountain. Each person has a different path.
He was a demigod like Hercules, Perseus and the rest. Upon death, the mortal coil was shed leaving only the divine part.
Except Jesus never acquired any such material wealth.
Where is your evidence to support your claim? You may well be right, assuming that is, if he really existed. I feel kinda confident that if he did exist he never bought a plane, but stories have it he didn't need one, he could elevate himself up into the air without the use of a helicopter. People actually believe this stuff, right? 🤗
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