The Character of Christ - Dan Weaver

Good morning and greetings in the precious name of Jesus

this morning. If you want to open your bibles to

John one for a text this morning, there's a there's

a word. It's actually used many times in scripture, both

in the Old and New Testament, in fact, almost thirteen

hundred times that and that word is behold, behold, and

it's often used as an interjection. But it's just sort

of caught my attention as I was as I was reading,

and maybe especially through the Gospels, that sometimes it's almost

used more as a verb. And it's interesting there's different

Greek words, Greek words that are used and interpreted that

are also interpreted low or see, but they're all they're synonyms.

But this behold when it's used, when it's used more

as a verb and action, it's more it's to observe

or to hold up and look at. And like if

if you want to show somebody something something you made

or something that's that you bought, that's you say, behold this,

look at this, I know features the characteristics and I

would like to specifically this morning, and that word used

that way is not used that many times. If you

go through it's probably less than less than five percent

of the times, and in the even in the Gospels,

where it's used like a couple hundred times, I believe

it's like eighty times. No, there's something else we'll get

to later. It's about a couple hundred times used there,

but it's only maybe ten times that it's used like

behold Christ, or behold something about Christ, behold the character

of Christ. And so my goal this morning, as we

look at these different different phrases we're going to go

through some of these, is to hold up Christ and

think about these these This could be a time of

worship where we we think about these different characteristics of Christ,

because it's a little like we were looking at Martin

Luther's list this morning. If we take any one of

these characteristics of Christ by himself, by itself, it isn't complete.

But as we look at the at the nature of Christ,

he is all of these things, infinitely all of these things.

And so let's I want to read, well, John twenty

nine to thirty seven is the passage I want to

look at. But just to get the context, if we

go back to verse nineteen, the people that John is

baptizing and they come to John and ask who art thou.

In verse twenty he says, I am not the Christ.

And they said well and verse twenty five, well why

do you baptize? Why do you baptize if you're not

the Christ? And John's answer to that verse twenty six.

I think we'll start reading there. John answered them, saying,

I baptize with water. But there standeth one among you

whom you know not. He it is who cometh after me,

is preferred before me, whose shoelatchet I am not worthy

to unloose. These things were done in Bethaba, beyond Jordan,

where John was baptizing. So that's the context where I

would like to start my text for the message this

morning verse twenty nine. The next day John seeth Jesus

coming and unto him and said, behold the lamb of God,

which taketh away the sin of the world. This is

he of whom I said, after me cometh a man

which is preferred before me, for he was before me,

and I knew him not, but that he should be

made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing with water?

And John bear record saying I saw the spirit descending

on him from heaven like a dove, and an a

bode on him. And I knew him not, but he

that sent me to baptize with water, the same said

unto me, unto whom thou shalt see the spirit descending

and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizeth

with the holy ghosts. And I saw in bear record

that this is the Son of God. And the next

day after John stood and two of his disciples, and

looking on Jesus as he walked, he saith, So Jesus

is walking by, and he says, behold the Lamb of God.

And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus,

behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin

of the world. The characteristics of the lamb, thinking the

lamb is the one that follows the shepherd. And you

consider this with Jesus relationship with the Father. In John five,

verse thirty says, I can of myself, I can of

my own self do nothing because I seek not mine

own will, but the will of the Father which has

sent me. And that goes along with brother Ben's devotions

this morning about being led by the Spirit of God

as we make application for ourselves today the lamb, but

probably the thing we think about more and probably the

reference that was that John was making. And you know,

we don't have any record that I'm aware of of

John sacrificing, but his father was a priest in a temple,

and his father, I would imagine John at times as

a young child watched in awe as his father went

through these temple ritual sacrifices. And we know that Zachariah,

he was a man of faith, and John had seen

these dymes saying perfect lambs, and I believe it was

that reference, probably more so that John was making, says,

behold the lamb of God, the sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice.

And we could turn to Hebrews and read a couple

chapters about that. In fact, each one of these things

could probably be a message that we're looking at today,

could probably be a message in themselves. Jesus said in

John ten and this is such a beautiful another place

we could turn and read and spend a week of messages,

probably on Jesus is using the parallel there in the

good shepherd, and he has himself as the shepherd, and

there's the under shepherds, and then also the sheep and

he says in verse fifteen, as the Father knoweth me

even as I know the Father, and I lay down

my life for the sheep. And that's Jesus acknowledging himself

as the perfect, as the perfect sacrifice. Behold the Lamb.

And it's interesting to me that John, when John said this,

behold the Lamb, Behold the Lamb of God the second

time in verse thirty six, he actually lost a couple

of disciples over it. Did you notice that? And in

these things, as as we go through them, you know,

what does it mean to be a Christian? The term

Christian means little Christ or like Christ. And how worthy

we are of that name? I think we had in

our if you read your lesson and talked about those

that weren't worthy to be counted Anabaptists weren't be worthy

to be called Christians because of their character, because of

how they lived. And I believe in all these aspects

we're looking at this morning, there are aspects where we

should be like Christ. These are aspects where we should

be like Christ. We should be sacrificial. But I also

believe that there's a tendency within man in each of

these aspects aspects to try to be Christ rather than

to be like Christ. And I'd just like us to

think about that. And John was an excellent example of that.

He was there baptizing and they came and said, are

you Elias? Are you the Christ? He said, no, no, no,

I'm not Christ. But behold the Lamb. Look at Christ.

Are we pointing others to Christ? Sometimes maybe as the

Lamb We're trying to be the ultimate sacrifice. We're trying

to save men, rather than point to the Lamb of God,

which taketh away of the sin of the world. There

was an element of success for John to lose a

couple of disciples over his statement, because as he held

up behold the Lamb of God, the disciples said, yes,

here's the Lamb of God. This is the one we've

been waiting for. We will be we will be his disciples.

A couple aspects of the sacrifice also Mark sixteen six,

is that the resurrection and he saith unto them, be

not affrighted. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified.

He has risen. He is not here. Behold the place

where they laid him. Behold the resurrection. Christ not only

became the ultimate sacrifice. He was resurrected on the third day,

and another scene as in the Upper room after the resurrection,

as Christ came the second time, he appeared onto the disciples,

and he said to Thomas and John twenty verse twenty

seven says, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands,

and reach hither thy hand to thrust it into my side,

and be not faithless but believing. Luke twenty four and

thirty nine uses the terminology in the that you behold

my hands and my feet. And we can look at

this aspect as evidence. There's an aspect of evidence in this,

in this event, but as also a reminder of the sacrifice.

You know, that's just the beauty of the better sacrifice.

As Hebrews brings that out. It it cured the conscience,

but it doesn't need to be done again and again.

This sacrifice it had Christ made once. He's still saying,

behold my hands and my feet. It's still that sacrifice

is still sufficient for us now. Matthew three point sixteen

is referring to this same event going to the next one,

and here it's it's it's interesting, he said. Apparently apparently

John didn't know it didn't recognize Jesus as physical appearance.

He didn't know it. It said that he was told

it'd be well the one that the spirit descended on.

And Matthew gives a little more detail to that. It

says that Matthew three sixteen and Jesus, when he was baptized,

went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the

heavens were open unto him, and he saw the Spirit

of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him,

And lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my

beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And now

that word low there, and lo, a voice from heaven

is more. That's the same word as behold. It's the

interjectory form of it. But not to get this is

my beloved son, and whom I am well pleased. Behold

my son, and this is the voice of God. And

it came again in the mount of transfiguration. In Matthew seventeen,

verse five, it says, well he yet spake, Behold a

bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold a voice out of

the cloud, which said, this is my beloved son, in

whom I am well Please hear ye him and behold

the Son of God he is. And that's interesting enough.

As we're going through this excuse me, this study of

church history, we tend to focus on what the what

the other groups had wrong of what we disagreed with

them on, as I'm saying we as Anabaptists as we

but there is something that came down through the churches,

and if you study history, it's it's crazy how some

of it all came about. But one of the debates,

and this is actually going clear back to the Apostolic times,

to the Apostles times, the nature of Christ was a

was a big debate for the first five hundred years

in the church and in the Catholic Church. And and

I believe your first lesson referred to some of that

in fact, but that is one thing that we we

would ascribe very close to where the Catholics came out

in both the Council of Nicea and in the Council

of Chelsea. Don't Chelsea, Dawn, I think it is that

was in three d and four fifty one, that Christ

is fully man and fully God and has different natures

and we see them expressed at different times. And can

we explain everything about it? No, but it's it's easier

to explain and back up by scripture than the other positions.

One is Arianism. Now it's not our Medianism, which is

as opposed to Calvinism, but Arianism claimed that the Son

was not the same, but was the first created being,

or was created by God, or another form of it

is that he was adopted by God. And the Council

of Nicea in three twenty five was primarily to address

this false doctrine. Now, of course, if you know your history,

the tragedy of the Council of Nicea, as that Constantine

presided over that council, but according to the script he

allowed the the church leaders to to make their arguments.

But they in that Council of Niceah, they they declared

this Arianism as a heretical position. And then the in

the Council of Chelsea down they denounced Nestorianism. And Nestorianism

is the belief that God Jesus is two separate persons,

one divine and one human. But he's like I guess,

maybe bipolar, but he's completely he's simply two persons or

a spiritual person, an earthly person somehow combined. And now

there's there's aspects of that after the resurrection, depends on

your definition of it. But behold, the Son of God

speaks of the divinity of Christ. He was God's son,

and the incarnation is something that's very, very crucial to

our belief. And as we think of that other aspect.

John nineteen five when Pilot Pilot held Jesus before the Jews,

he said, behold the man. Behold the man. And John

one fourteen says, in the Word became flesh and dwelt

among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is

of the only forgotten, begotten, of the Father, full of

grace and truth. So the son of Man behold a man.

And Jesus himself seemed like he. I believe he referred

to himself as the son of Man more than any

other term. I didn't count every term, but it was

very common. It was over eighty times in the four Gospels.

You talked about this. The Son of Man is used

in all four gospels, and speaking of his humanity, he

was in all points tempted like as we are, yet

without sin. As a man. He was greater than Solomon.

Luke eleven thirty one says, behold a greater than Solomon

is here. And the next verse says, behold, a greater

than Jonas is here. I think I'll read both those verses.

The Queen of the South shall rise up in the

judgments with the men of generations and condemn them, for

she came from the utmost parts of the earth to

hear the wisdom of Solomon. So just talk about the

queen of Sheba came to see Solomon, and remember her

testimonies that the half has not been told. But Jesus

said of himself, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

There's greater wisdom. And then he talked of of Jonah.

The men of nine of us shall rise up in

judgment with this generation, shall condemn it, for they repented

at the preaching of Jonahs. And behold, a greater than

Jonas is here. And now Jesus was actually berating them

for their lack of faith in this dissertation. But he

was greater than Jonah. And I believe Jonah he spoke

of here. Also as Jonah was a type of the

resurrection in coming back in three days from the whales belly,

Christ was superior. He was he was the son of man.

He was fully man, but he was superior as a man.

There's no man like him that walk this earth. He

was sinless because he was sinless, not I believe, because

he was divine, because he but because of his divine power,

he remained sinless. I believe sin would have changed the

nature of Christ, as it does, as it did Adam,

as it does us or anyone else. The next one,

behold the cornerstone. And I'm going to take that text

from the Old Testament, and then we'll come back to

the New Testament. In fact, it was it was quoted

in the New test This verse in Isaiah twenty eight

sixteen was quoted in the Old in the New Testament. Therefore,

that's the Lord Jehovah. Behold, I lay in signed for

a foundation of stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone

of sure foundation. He that believes shall not be in haste.

And skipping forward to then to Mark verse thirteen, and

this is in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.

I've chosen to read it from Mark. And as he

went forth out of the temple, one of his disciples

saith on him, Teacher, behold, what manner of stones, and

what manner of buildings. And Jesus saith on him, Thus

seest thou of these great buildings, there shall not be

left one stone on another which shall not be thrown down.

And so he's coming out with his disciples, and disciples

are saying, look at this, look at this magnificent structure

their haird built. And you'll get different data when you

go back into the what the cornerstone of the temple mount.

But there's a there's a stone they believe to be

the temple mouth. It's over eighty tons this stone. It's

hard to it's out of huge limestone. It's hard to

imagine how that could have been. It would be a

feat to move that today, an eighty ton stone with

the equipment we have, so as we're talking eighty to

one hundred and sixty thousand pounds to move that you

put it in place, it's hard for us to imagine

how it would have done then. And the cornerstone was

key in holding the building together in the in the

stone structure. And as they went out, and Jesus actually

referred to this verse in Isaiah. At one point I

failed to write down that reference. As they went out

and they said, look at this this, look at these

great look at this great building. It's amazing. They were

still amazed every time they walked by at the feet

of this Soon it was over forty feet long, this cornerstone.

And Jesus said, there shall not be one stone left

upon another. And Peter was no doubt they're that day,

and I'd just like to I'd just like to read

turn to first Peter too, and read some of Peter's writings,

and then thinking about this corner stone, and maybe before

we go into that. Just according to secular history, when

the Romans went in and destroyed the temple and there

was not one stone left upon another. Every stone was

crumbled because and part of the motivation for that is

there was gold interwoven in the stones in the building

of the temple, and so they they moved the stones

to plunder the gold. But archaeologists today, when they found

the stone, they concluded that, well, this temple must have

been somewhere else, because the stone was not where they

thought the temple was. Well, that's inconclusive at least if

this secular history is correct, that when the Romans said

when they went in, when they destroyed the walls of

the city. The first stone they removed. They actually dug

out below the cornerstone and let it fall, moved it

so the rest of the building could crumble. I just

thought that's as it's an important thing to think about

as we consider this lesson of Christ being the cornerstone,

is that we can try to make it without Him,

but we actually crumble without Christ as our guide as

a chief cornerstone. It said, it's tried stone, it's a

precious stone, it's a sure foundation, and we'll crumble without it.

Going to I'm going to read verses four to ten

of One Peter two, to whom as unto a living stone,

disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.

It's going back. He also our lively stones are built

up a spiritual house, and holy priestsad to offer up

spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. Wherefore, also

it is contained in the scripture. Behold, I lay Zion

a chief cornerstone, elect precious, and he that believeth on

him shall not be confounded. Again is quoting Isaiah. Unto

you therefore, which believe he is precious, but unto them

which be disobedient. The stone which the builders disallowed, the

same is made the head of the corner. And Jesus

quoted this also, and it's some prophecy in Psalms when

eighteen and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,

even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient,

whereunto also they are appointed. But ye, but ye are

a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation of

peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of

Him that have called you out of darkness unto his

marvelous light, which in times past were not a people,

but are now the people of God, which had not

obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. It's some interesting

to me that Peter went through life and he's still

this idea of the building and still in his mind,

and probably as he's writing this, he still remembers that

time at the temple where Jesus made these statements. But

he's making this application of the living stone and you

being lively stones and fitting together because the church is

a living organism. It's not just something that's stayed and

lives forever. And that and his his I'm just blessed

with verses nine and ten. His summary, his conclusion of

this discussion is, but ye are a chosen generation, a

royal priest, and and holy nation that fits right in,

is meant to fit right in with that living stone

and remain a lively stone. The question is how am

I aligned with the head of the corner with the cornerstone.

Another one that's maybe one of the more familiar one

of the beholds, and it's in the same chapter as

John nineteen where Pilot said behold the man. Nine verses later,

as he brings Jesus presents him to the Jews and says,

I'll read verse fourteen. It was the preparation of the Passover,

in about the sixth hour, and he sayeth unto the Jews,

behold you're king. But they cried out away with him,

away with him, crucify him, saith under them, shall I

crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king,

but Caesar, behold your king. And Jesus talked of himself.

We think of Christ as king. And again this is

prophesied in Zacharai A nine to nine. It says, tell

you the daughter's design. Behold the King cometh unto thee

meek and sitting on an ass, the coat the colt,

and full of an ass. Behold the King cometh. And

that's also in John twelve, Behold the King Cometh. And

I believe we have many opportunities in life when Christ

is to present Christ as king, as Christ as our king.

And is that our answer that Christ is my king? Yeah,

look at my king. See my king. I represent this king,

I serve this king. Or is it like the high

priest said, we have no king but Caesar. The last

one I have. I have some conclusions so that I'm

not saying in conclusion yet. The last one I have

is behold the Bridegroom. And we sang a song about

this this morning, but it also talked about Christ as

our king and Christ as the lamb in that song

in the Sins of Time our Sinking, but the focus

was more was more so as Christ is the bridegroom,

and especially in the last two verses in Matthew twenty

five six. And this isn't a parable, not Christ speaking

of himself directly, but in type Matthew twenty five to six,

and we're just breaking into this parable. And at midnight,

there was a crime made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh, going

out to meet him. Speaks of Christ as the bridegroom,

and the Church as the collection of believers, is the bride.

And this is one that you know. The others maybe

we can relate to more individually. But this is back

to the discussion we had this morning. As a bridegroom,

we can't do as the bride of Christ. We can't

do that by ourselves. That is something we do with

other believers, as other ones that are the bride of Christ,

going out to meet him. Are we ready? And that

was part of the of the parable there the parable.

The unwise visions that didn't were not prepared, They didn't

have oil in their lamp. Are we ready? The bridegroom cometh,

And in Revelations he says, behold, I come quickly, says

that three times in Revelations, behold I come quickly, Hold

they'll fast, which they'll have in Revelations three eleven, that

no man take that crown. And then in the last

chapter of Revelations, behold I come quickly. Blessed is he

that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book,

and behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me.

In verse twelve of Revelations twenty two, to give every

man according as his work shall be. He also says

in Revelations three, verse twenty behold, I stand at the

door and knock, speaking of invitation. He's coming. The bridegroom

is coming. But he stands at the door and knock.

He's We're in the land of opportunity. If any man

hear me, hear my voice, and open the door, I

will come in to him and will sup with him,

and he with me. So I hope this looking at

the character of Christ this morning can inspire us to

continue that effort, and to inspire us that it's worth

the effort to continue to be like Christ. And and

the beauty of it is that Christ taught that when

he left, the comforter would come. And you know, as

and been read about the spirit and the spiritual life

in us this morning, this one verse. And I believe

he made comment on this verse as well, and verse

fourteen of Romans eight. As many as are led by

the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

We can be co errors with Christ uses that terminology

it says as many as are led by the spirit,

and that word led in the original has more of

the idea of those that are driven, those that are

driven by the spirit of God. And so it's a

life in us and the miracle as I consider this

the character of Christ and a miracle of it all.

In Luke seventeen twenty one, it says, neither shall they

say lo here lo there, for behold, the Kingdom of

God is within you. And so the Christ's character was

not developed to be some nebulous thing we read about,

think about, are amazed about, or just study. It's christ desires,

God's desire, that it's within every one of us. Plausian's

one twenty sevens to whom God would make known, what

is the riches of his glory? Of the mystery, this

mystery among the gentiles, which is Christ in you, the

hope of glory. Let's have a closing song.