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Well, good morning, ladies and
gentlemen. G'day, my name's Josh Williamson. I'm out here this
morning, as we are most weeks, with the Open Air Mission. And
we come out here today quite simply because we have a very
important message for you. In fact, even though I've introduced
who I am, I'm not here today to talk about myself or introduce
myself to you. Rather, I want to introduce you
to the most famous person in all of history. I want to introduce
you this morning to a man that you've heard of, a man that you
know about. Perhaps it's even a man you've
used his words, maybe in a good way or a bad way. I want to introduce
you to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the question
we have to ask is this, even though we've all heard of Jesus,
even though some people use his name in cursing, the question
we have to ask is, who is he? Who is Jesus Christ? Now something
I've noticed about Portsmouth is it's a very multicultural,
multi-religious society. And if we were to go up and down
this busy street asking people this question, who is Jesus Christ,
if we were to pull out a clipboard and have a survey questionnaire,
I'd probably find that each person I speak to would answer that
question differently. Some people would say that Jesus
was nothing more than a good teacher. Others would say he
was a good religious man, a moral leader. Some might even say he
was a social revolutionary. If I spoke to people of the different
religions, they would have different views as well. The Muslims would
say that Jesus is nothing more than a prophet. A Buddhist would
declare that Jesus is an enlightened person. A Jew would say that
Jesus may have been a good rabbi. The Mormons would declare that
Jesus was created and the half-brother of Satan. The Jehovah's Witnesses
would say that Jesus is a God, but not the God. And then other
people would quite simply say, I don't know who he is. And all
these people would give a variety of answers and opinions as to
who is Jesus Christ. Yet what is fascinating, despite
all the chaos, despite all the confusion that we see in the
society about Jesus Christ, He is still the central figure in
human history. Now you might say, I don't agree
with that, we live in 21st century Britain, Jesus is no longer the
central figure of human history. I'd simply ask you this question,
21 centuries from who? Our dating system all revolves
around Jesus Christ. When you write the date, you
are declaring the centrality of Christ. We are in a world
that revolves around Jesus, yet so many, so often of us, don't
actually know who He is. So who is Jesus Christ? How do
we answer that question? Well, it's no point us doing
a survey. It's no point us turning on the BBC and asking them what
they think. What we need is for God Himself
to tell us who Jesus is. And God does just that. Did you know when you pick up
the Bible, what you are reading is God's Word? And God speaks
to us through the Bible, and in the Bible, God answers the
question, who is Jesus Christ? He tells us who Jesus is. And
what I'm going to do is just put up a couple of quotes from
the Bible that reveal who Jesus is. And the first here comes
from the book of Colossians. It's in the book in the Bible,
chapter 1, verse 16, that says these words, speaking of Jesus.
For everything was created by Him in heaven and on earth, the
visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers
or authorities, all things have been created through Him and
for Him." You see, the Bible here, when answering the question,
who is Jesus Christ, steps back and makes a grand declaration.
Jesus is the God who creates. You see, ladies and gentlemen,
the Bible says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. The book of Colossians reveals to us that it's Jesus
Christ who is the God who creates. Now that tells us something about
you and it tells us something about me. It says that you and
I are not an accident. We are not a mistake. You are
not some kind of cosmic burp where the universe decided to
vomit you out and here you are. No, you were created by God to
know God and to love God. And the Bible says that Jesus
is the God who creates. He made everything. Everything
you can see and everything you cannot see has been made by Jesus. If it exists, if it has been
created, then it was made by Christ. The world and all things
therein. That means when you look around
and you see the beauty of nature, you have to sit back and say,
God is a creative God. When you look at the complexity
of your life, your DNA cells, it has more information in it
than all the encyclopedias put together. You have to say, Jesus
is unique. He is the God who creates. So the question is, who is Jesus?
The first answer the Bible gives us is that Jesus is the God who
creates. The second quote from the Bible
I want us to consider says these words, He, that is Jesus, is
before all things, and by Him all things hold together. You
see, Jesus is not just the God who creates and then sits back
and watches the world as if it's some kind of giant cosmic television. That's not the Jesus of the Bible.
The Jesus of the Bible looks at the world He has made, He
looks at you, He looks at me, He looks at everything around
us, and He has an ongoing interaction with the world. The Bible says
that Jesus is the God who sustains. You see, God is near. Jesus is
near even this day in that He gives you life. In Him you live,
move, and have your being. The breath that you have within
your lungs is a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus
is the God who sustains. He's more than a prophet, more
than a good teacher. No, He is God Almighty who creates
and sustains all things. Now I have a picture here on
the board of an atom, a nucleus of the atom. Now in the atom
there are 16 particles, 8 of which have positive energy, 8
of which have no energy. And based on all the positive
energy, scientists say everything should be flying apart. The atoms
that make up you and I should be flying apart according to
science, but we're not. Why? Because Jesus is before
all things and by him all things hold together. Jesus sustains
you. He sustains your life. You know,
I've been doing this now for over 20 years, speaking to people
in different parts of the world. And oftentimes people ask this
question, what has Jesus ever done for me? What has Jesus ever
done for me? And often when they ask that
question, they're thinking, why haven't I got the brand new Porsche?
Why haven't I got that luxurious mansion? Why haven't I got that
pretty wife or that handsome husband? That's what people often
think when they ask that question, what has Jesus ever done for
me? But ladies and gentlemen, that question can simply be answered.
What has Jesus ever done for you? The life you have, the breath
that you enjoy, your existence is a gift from Jesus Christ. He's more than a prophet. more
than a good teacher. He is the God who sustains. He
is the God who holds all things together. And right now, God
is holding you together. Jesus holds you together and
gives you life right now. But the question for you is this,
do you acknowledge Him? Do you worship Him? Have you
trusted in Him? You see, that's the problem,
isn't it? Jesus is the God who creates. Jesus is the God who
sustains. He does all these good things
for us. The problem is what we do as humanity, myself included,
is we turn our back on Him. And we live our lives in ways
that shouldn't be lived. And then we have the hide to
look at society and see how messed up everything is and say, well,
it's your fault. No, it's not. It's our fault.
We're the ones that corrupted the world. We are the ones that
messed up everything. You see, Jesus made us, He sustains
us, but we turned our back on Him. And the Bible says that
turning our back on God is called sin. And the Bible says, for
all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of
God. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, how rich
you may be, how poor you may be. It doesn't matter your country
of origin. The Bible is clear that every
single one of us has sinned. The Bible says that sin is breaking
of God's law. When we lie and steal and lust
and hate, when we blaspheme the name of the God who creates and
sustains us, we are sinning. And the Bible says our sin brings
about a consequence. I mean, think about it. We understand
that out here, don't you? If you do something wrong out
here, there's a consequence. And it's the same with God. When
we sin against the God who created us and sustains us, there's a
consequence. And the Bible says the consequence
for our sin is death. The Bible makes it very clear.
The soul that sins, it shall die, and the wages of sin is
death. We face physical death because
of our sin. We face spiritual death because
of our sin. And we face eternal death in
hell because of our sin. And that's what you and I deserve.
Now, you may not like to hear that this morning in Portsmouth,
that because of your sin you deserve hell, but it's true. But who is this Jesus who creates
and sustains? He's also the Jesus who can rescue
you. You see, the Bible says this,
For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and
through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, whether things on
earth or things in heaven, making peace through His blood shed
on the cross." You see, ladies and gentlemen, the Bible declares
that Jesus is the God who rescues. Our sin proclaim death and judgment,
but Jesus Christ in love goes to the cross and He pays the
penalty that we should pay. He dies the death that we should
die. And in love, this Jesus who creates and sustains is the
God who comes to rescue us. The Bible says, here is a saying
worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save, to rescue sinners. Now, I'm a sinner who's been
rescued by Jesus. Are you a sinner who's been rescued
by Jesus? Have you been forgiven this day?
Have you trusted in Jesus who died and rose again? Have you
turned from your sins and trusted only in Him? You see, ladies
and gentlemen, Only the Jesus who is God, the Bible Jesus,
can rescue us. Because He is the one who took
our full punishment on the cross. He died. He rose again. And now
He calls on everyone to repent and believe. You see, our starting
question is, who is Jesus Christ? The Bible makes it clear. He
is the God who creates. He is the God who sustains. He
is the God who rescues. And in love this day, He offers
you rescue. He offers you forgiveness of
sins. He offers you a brand new start. No matter who you are
or what you've done, because of what Jesus has done, you can
be completely forgiven and made brand new. But there's another
question you need to answer. And that question is, do you
know Jesus Christ? Do you know Him? You might say,
well, how am I meant to know a historical figure? Well, the
Jesus who creates and the Jesus who sustains is the Jesus who's
right now here in this city centre of Portsmouth. holds out His
hand of forgiveness and says, you can know Him if you would
turn from your sin and turn to Him, trusting that He died and
rose again. And if you would do that, you
would be completely forgiven and made brand new. You would
know the God who creates and sustains. Ladies and gentlemen,
we're out here today because we love you and we care for you
and we know that Jesus loves you and Jesus cares for you and
wants you to know him for yourself. So we have a free gift here that
will help you understand who Jesus is. It's the Gospel of
John. It's the biography of Christ.
I'd love to give you one of these free of charge so that you can
discover Jesus for yourself. Discover the One who creates,
sustains and rescues. Discover Jesus, the One who in
love died and rose again and offers forgiveness of sins to
all those who would turn and trust in Him. God bless you.
Who is Jesus Christ?
Series Open-Air Evangelism
Preached in Portsmouth, UK.
| Sermon ID | 924241524506441 |
| Duration | 13:09 |
| Date | |
| Category | Open-Air Ministry |
| Language | English |
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