Who is Jesus — E.A. Johnston

About three years ago, I met with the head of the mission board of my denomination in my part of the country. I told him I'd just moved to town and I was available to preach in any capacity he would have me to do.

I said I'd do revival meetings or I'd teach pastors about revival. I would do pulpit supply at any church that needed me. No matter how far I had to drive, I would do it. I said here I am and I'm available and at your disposal.

And as he listened to me, he looked at me like you would humor an insane person. And he smiled and quickly escorted me to the door. I've never heard from him again. Even though I repeatedly made contact with his secretary, leaving message after message for him to call me, he never did.

That was over three years ago. Well, I had to digest that rejection and try to understand it. It wasn't that I wasn't qualified by training as a preacher. In many ways, I'm overqualified. Stephen Oldford was the one who personally trained me to preach and I was in the first graduating class of his school of preachers.

It's not that I lack seminary training, for I've graduated from two different seminaries with two different doctorates, one a Ph .D. It wasn't because there was no need for my services, for there are many churches who desperately need a preacher within a 200-mile radius where I live to fill the pulpit for them each week.

The Popular Jesus Versus the Biblical Jesus

Well, I had to ask myself, why was it that my own denomination did not want to use me? I finally realized it wasn't the preacher they had a problem with, but the Jesus I preached. Because the Jesus I preach is different from the one most Southern Baptists preach today.

Why on earth would they let me loose in front of a congregation of folks who accepted another Jesus other than the one I preached? That's it in a nutshell. Because our denominations today decided a long time ago, if you wanted to be successful at growing a church, then you needed to broaden the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did.

And preach a Jesus that was more appealing than the one found in my Bible. People would be glad to take a Jesus who had his pocket stuffed with free tickets to heaven that he handed out to all comers who would just accept him and remain unchanged individuals.

Who were now baptized church members, but who were strangers to repentance and regeneration. That's why that man never called me. And this brings me to the title of my message today, friends. Who is Jesus?

Because I don't believe many in our church today have the slightest idea who Jesus really is. Because we don't preach the gospel of the Son of God anymore. Few have heard of a bloodstained Christ who demands repentance and obedience from every follower of his.

The One Message: Who Is Jesus?

My text can be found in the Gospels and in the New Testament. But I want to tell you a story first, friends. I'll never forget Ralph Barnard telling about the time he met the evangelist Mordecai Ham. He said he met Mordecai Ham in a hotel room.

And he asked him, Brother Ham, do you have any advice for this young preacher? I'll do what you say to do. Mordecai Ham looked intently at the young Ralph Barnard and said, There is but one message to preach.

It is the only message to preach. And it has always been the one message to preach. And that is, who is Jesus? Well, what did Mordecai Ham preach? I have his biography before me. Let me read you his words.

My objective has always been to enter a town and change the thinking of the residents towards Christ. To direct their lives to center on Christ. I preached the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ. I allowed for no compromise, but hammered this one thought, that Christ Jesus must have first place, first call, and first allegiance.

I made that the keynote of all my meetings. Well, in my message today, friends, I'm going to tell you four things about who Jesus is. About the biblical Jesus. The one found in the New Testament. Number one, Jesus is a risen lord.

Jesus Is the Risen Lord

This is seen in Philippians chapter two. And in verses eight, eleven, which state,. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

You listen to me, friends. This stuff we've passed out in our churches today, about a little impotent Jesus who stands helplessly at the door of your heart, knocking, hoping you'll let him in. You won't save a flea, much less a sinner, hoarding in sin.

Jesus is Lord. Jesus is a risen living Lord. And if you want him, you must submit to his Lordship in your daily living. A self must be dethroned, and another enthroned there, the Lord Christ. Number two, Jesus demands repentance.

Jesus Demands Repentance

In Luke chapter five, verses thirty-one and thirty-two, Jesus declared,. And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

And in Luke thirteen-five, Jesus declared, I tell you nay, but except ye repent, and that means you, friend, ye shall all likewise perish. The Jesus of the Bible is not the Jesus of the only-believed gospel so predominantly preached today.

That's a different Jesus from the Jesus who demands repentance from every man, woman, boy, and girl. If you got into the church, friend, and bypassed repentance, then you missed Christ, and you are as lost as a goose.

Jesus Insists on Regeneration

If you are a pastor, and you don't preach that men should repent, then you should repent or resign your position. Number three, Jesus insists on regeneration. In John's gospel in chapter three, we see how Jesus insists that men must be born again.

Jesus told Nicodemus, and he tells every religious Nicodemus, in every generation the same conditions for entering the kingdom of heaven. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

You listen to me, friends. This evangelism stuff we call salvation today, which is making a decision for Jesus, is nothing more than a person making a mental flip and going on in their unregenerate state to a devil's hell when Jesus was here in his earthly ministry as he passed from towns to villages.

All who encountered him experienced change. Regeneration is an utter necessity to salvation as much as repentance is. Regeneration is the supernatural act of God wrought in the heart of man by the Spirit of God through the new birth.

Where a person has a new disposition implanted in them and a desire for holiness. Our churches are loaded with baptized heathen who've never ever been born from above or washed in the blood. They merely accepted a Jesus not found in the Bible.

Jesus' Claims and the Cost of Discipleship

Number four. Jesus has rights and claims on all followers of his. In Matthew chapter 16 and verses 24 through 25 we see this to be true. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. The cost of discipleship is the missing note in our churches today. You will be hard-pressed, friend, to find a faithful preacher who will be true to your soul and to tell you about the cross and the life of a believer much less the need of repentance and the necessity of regeneration.

Who is Jesus is the title of this message to this generation.