Jesus Coming as the Son of God

Where In the Bible: The Gospels

Through the Old Testament, we have seen God respond to his perfect world being broken by calling a people to himself and making promises that through them the world would be blessed. God’s presence has dwelt in the midst of that people, but access had to be limited due to sin. God led his people into the land he had promised, but they turned from him. He spoke words of warning and hope to them, but they did not listen. In all of it, God showed his grace, but none of it solved the fundamental issues. It was clear that something more was needed. As we turn to the New Testament, we find the answer: God himself became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the serpent crusher promised in Gen. 3:15. He is the descendant of Abraham in whom the world would be blessed. He is the very presence of God in the flesh and in the midst of the people. He came proclaiming the kingdom of God, and unlike prior kings he lived in perfect humility and obedience to the Father. He is the one the prophets spoke of when they declared hope was coming. It is in Jesus that we see God’s answer to all of the problems of our world.

The Identity of Jesus (Mat. 3:16-17): The start of Jesus’s public ministry came as he was baptised by John the Baptist in the wilderness. As Jesus emerged from the water, there was a remarkable moment where the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove, and the audible voice of the Father was heard affirming Jesus as his beloved Son with whom he is pleased. This moment is a significant one, because it shows just how important the coming of Jesus is in God’s plan. We learn two important things about Jesus as God’s Son. Firstly, the title echoes Old Testament promises. Psalm 2:7-8 speaks of one who God calls his Son, to whom authority will be given over the whole earth, and Isaiah 42:1 promises a servant in whom God delights, who would be filled with the Spirit and bring justice to the downtrodden. In combining these titles, God is saying that Jesus is the fulfilment of all the Old Testament promises of a king and a saviour. He is the one we had been waiting for to put everything right. On an even deeper level, these words also say something about the eternal identity of Jesus. This is a Trinitarian moment, where Father, Son and Spirit are all present together, and when the Father refers to Jesus as his Son, he is not only speaking about a functional identity, but also an eternal relationship. Jesus is divine, the eternal Son of the Father, who has now come to earth to seek and to save the lost (see John 1:14; Luke 19:10).

The Mission of Jesus (Mat. 4:23-25): The majority of the gospel accounts is focussed on either the death and resurrection of Jesus (which will be the theme of the next sermon in the series) or his three years of public ministry. During these years of public ministry, there was a clear pattern to what Jesus did, and most of the stories we read about him fit this pattern. With a group of disciples, Jesus travelled around the towns and villages of Israel and he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God, healed sick people and cast out evil spirits. In other words, Jesus declared with his words that God’s rule was being reestablished to make things right in the world, and then he wielded his mighty power to make it so. The impact of the ministry of Jesus was that those who had been isolated were drawn into community, those who had been sick were healed, and those who had been plagued with guilt and shame found forgiveness. All of this is reminiscent of the Eden-like world that God had originally created, and also like the glorious new creation that is promised for the future. In the ministry of Jesus, Something of God’s perfect world is brought into the here and now. The disciples who were with Jesus were not mere spectators as Jesus carried out this ministry, but they were commissioned to do the same kinds of things themselves (Luke 9:1-2; 10:8-9). When Jesus commissioned the disciples on mission, part of his charge was to teach future believers to do these same things as well (Mat. 28:20).

The Teaching of Jesus (e.g. Mat. 5-7; especially 5:3-12): As we saw on the previous point, the main theme of the teaching of Jesus is the kingdom of God. This kingdom is about God’s rule and reign being reestablished on earth. Unlike worldly kingdoms it is not geographic in nature, and not established by violence (see John 18:36). The kingdom of God grows as hearts are reconciled to God, and as God’s will is done on earth just as it is in heaven. Jesus taught about the kingdom in lots of different ways. Often he would teach in parables, comparing the kingdom to things like a tiny seed that grows into a large tree or yeast that spreads through a dough (see Matthew 13). Sometimes his parables have a king or ruler as a central character and invited people to see God through this lens. Other times Jesus taught by asking questions, and in the gospels there are records of him asking over 300 questions – far more than he answered. The clearest block of teaching by Jesus about life in the kingdom of God is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). This is teaching aimed at disciples, and it unpacks what it looks like to live as a a follower of Jesus with regards to the law, anger, lust, non-violence, spiritual disciplines, money, anxiety, judgmentalism and more. Often this teaching is set in contrast with the ways of the religious leaders of the day. At the heart of the vision that Jesus has for his disciples is the beatitudes (Mat. 5:3-12), a series of blessings that show the character of those to whom the kingdom belongs – the poor in Spirit, the meek and the pure in heart.

Potential Applications:

• Jesus was sent into the world by the Father to make things right. This is a great moment to offer people the opportunity to follow him.
• The mission of Jesus is the same mission that he has passed on to us today. Invite people to think about how they are proclaiming the kingdom of God with their words and bringing it through their actions.
• The Sermon on the Mount has been called a ‘kingdom manifesto’ for disciples of Jesus. You could challenge people to read through it slowly each morning for the next week.