The God-Man

00:00 - Speaker 1
Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture.

00:09 - Speaker 2
Hey you guys. Here's the deal. We're going to be discussing a post-Christmas analysis of who's Jesus after his birth. What does that mean for him to become flesh and live among us? How long did he live in those 33 and a quarter years of his life? By achieving what? Who is he now that he's born into this world and we just celebrated Christmas? What's up? We're going to find out right now.

00:41 - Speaker 1
You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast Today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five-star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen Now. Open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you.

01:07 - Speaker 2
Here is Jack Hibbs hey everybody, welcome to this edition of our podcast together, the Jack Hibbs podcast. The greatest thing that you can do in fact, I'm going to ask you you did not get me a Christmas gift, I noticed, so you can still make it up. Here's how you could tell people about this podcast. You can copy the link and send it to other people. The best thing that you could do for me and the team is to spread the word and get our efforts out there. That's the greatest compliment, that's the greatest blessing. That's the greatest blessing.

01:46
Think about it. It makes everything that we're doing worthwhile because of reach. Reach is somewhat of a modern term when it comes to ministry, but let me put it to you this way A reach matters. George Whitefield preached in Boston and when he preached, ben Franklin said that Whitefield was able to speak without a microphone, mind you, to over 30,000 people. That was his reach, and so we want to reach millions of people on our podcast, but we need your help to do that. Help to do that, and the content I trust is stimulating and applicable and relevant because it's biblical. Okay, very, very important.

02:35
So today in the new year, happy new year to you, holy I tell my friends and everybody. Holy new year to you. I don't really care about it being a happy new year. I think God cares about it being a holy new year, and so may you have a holy new year. And I base that on Galatians. I base that, sure, galatians, but I base that on Psalm 65, verse 11, where God says there to your new year that he'll bless your new year with his direction, with his path, and he will supply for you in abundance, for you this year as you walk with him. Psalm 65, 11. It's a great, great new year's blessing to people. So let's do this.

03:23
We just came out of Christmas, right, and we did Christmas sermons, we did Christmas parties, we did Christmas family, we did Christmas, we did Christmas radio or news interviews, christmas, christmas, christmas, and it is awesome. But almost in every, if not all, of those interviews and or sermons or statements, we made mention of the fact that Christmas is something that, for the believer, is every single day, and that's not some little cute thing that we're supposed to say, it's a theological reality. Why? Why is that a theological reality? What do we mean by, as believers? You know it's for us, theological reality. What do we mean by as believers? You know, for us, we celebrate Christ every day. We celebrate his birth into the world, we celebrate his life, we celebrate his coming to the temple in Palm Sunday, we celebrate Good Friday, we celebrate Resurrection Sunday. Why why? Why? Why? Why? Because every moment of it all is a sense that it is Christmas daily, meaning the gift was given daily. That's how we take that as believers. So, coming out of Christmas, which was all about God being born in a manger or laid in a manger, born in Bethlehem, laid in a manger, we, you know, we got the Christmas cards, we heard the sermons, we saw the verses, but what was the depth to what was really going on?

05:00
And today, I think we'll have some time together on this one. So if you're a note taker, I'm going to ask you to write this down. In fact, I'm going to read and, please forgive me, I'm having trouble with my eyes. I'm healthy, I'm fine. Thank you for your concern, but here in Southern California our winters are so dry that it's painful and my eyes don't do well. My eyes were built for Hawaiian humidity or Florida, so when it's very dry, our humidity is nasty. It affects my eyes terribly. So I have to use these right now. So pray for us that we might get rain right. So listen to this.

05:42
We're going to be talking about the Jesus after Christmas. How about that? Who was Jesus after he was born? What are we talking about, in fact? Is there even a separation between the Christ who was and then the Christ who was born, and then the Christ who died and then the Christ who rose again from the dead? This is a pretty heavy topic if you think about it. So this is no lightweight journey through some theology, but I do understand what I'm going to talk about will be very controversial to some of you because you've never thought about some of the things that we're going to think about and yet they are literally freshman year seminary issues and topics that every theologian, every pastor, I hope, has to get over before they go on into deeper things. For some of you this might be radical stuff and it shouldn't be, so let's dive into this.

06:50
If you have a Bible, turn in your Bible to Luke, chapter 2, and it's beginning at verse 42. Luke, chapter 2, verse 42. And at the top of your notes, write down kenosis, k-e-n-o-s-i-s. Kenosis, the doctrine of kenosis. You say, pastor, I've never heard of that. I understand that. Just write it down. It's Bible the doctrine of kenosis is Christ's physical, physical, spiritual existence on earth. Okay, so here we go. Luke, chapter 2, verse 42.

07:33
And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the customs of the feast, and when they had finished the days as they returned. So now they're heading from Jerusalem, they're going to be heading back up north into Nazareth. So when they so, when they had finished the days, as they return, the boy Jesus I love that lingered behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother did not know it. That's not a shock, because they traveled in a family pack. They traveled in a big, big family congregation. So we're talking about many, many hundreds of people, if not more, leaving Jerusalem and heading back up to Northern Galilee, all the while thinking. Joseph and Mary are thinking I haven't seen Jesus in a while. That's cool, we're just one big family. He's probably been hanging out with his cousins, he's probably been hanging out with friends and all is well. Not a problem, they're not. You don't have to call CPA on Joseph and Mary.

08:48
This is a family migration back home and it is a huge family. It's a Middle Eastern family. It's loud, it's lively and it's large. Hey, I just made that out, made that up, live, loud. What did I say? Large, loud, lively. Imagine being in that group. That's what's happening. Put your, put your sandals on. That's where you're at, verse 44,.

09:17
But, supposing him to have been with the company, they went a day's journey, wow, and sought him among their relatives and acquaintances. So when they did not find him, can you imagine the fear? They lost God's son. They returned back to Jerusalem seeking him. Now. So it was that after three days isn't that something? Three days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers all of these were adults and listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. I'll describe that more in a moment, because many people at that come to the wrong conclusion. Many people think at that that he understood and he asked them questions, that he was somehow some sort of savant or none other than perfect God in all of his knowledge, at all times, because he's God the Son.

10:30
I understand your assumption and you would most likely be right on, if not for the doctrine of kenosis. I'll explain in this podcast. So when they saw him, they were amazed and his mother said to him Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I sought you anxiously and Jesus said to them why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my father's business? But they didn't understand his statement in which he spoke to them. To understand his statement in which he spoke to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subjectature and in favor with God and men, kenosis. What is going on here? This is a great topic to kick off the new year after celebrating Christmas.

11:40
So the word kenosis in Greek, speaking of Jesus, is this that kenosis is that Jesus Christ, the second person of the triune, godhead. You say, where do you get that? From Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, god Elohim. That's the introduction of the triunity of God. Genesis 1.1, god Elohim is God El. God Him is a singular plurality. There's one God, israel. Right, the Bible says here O Israel, the Lord is one, he's one.

12:23
But Genesis 1.1 introduces us to the plurality of his singleness. There's one God that manifests himself in three individually sovereign individuals, all co-eternal, co-equal, in perfect harmony. That God is made up of the triunity and if you take the Holy Spirit. Out of that triunity. He's still perfectly the Holy Spirit. He's perfectly holy, perfectly omniscient, perfectly all, omnipotent, perfectly omni, in all areas. The Holy Spirit. Same is true about Jesus over here, same is true about the Father. One is not above the other. Remember this. This is Bible doctrine, this is the divinity of the nature of God. The Father is not bigger and smarter and stronger than the Son, and the Son is not bigger and stronger than the Spirit. They are literally identical.

13:33
You say, well, that's mysterious. Yes, it is, isn't it? Absolutely it is. And so check this out. What in the world is going on in Luke's Gospel, chapter 2? What and who is Jesus after he's born? Well, the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. God never changes. So what are we talking about? And this is the crux of his incarnation, it's the crux of Christmas, it's the crux of the gospel For you and I, it's the crux to everything. And it's this when God came into the world, he came, the Son of God came, and he, at the moment of conception friends, listen, at the moment of conception.

14:24
Now, in Mary's situation, the Holy Spirit spoke logos, which is cool, remember. The angel Gabriel announced that the Holy Spirit will overshadow you. The Spirit of God would have spoken, the. Can I put it to you this way? The Holy Spirit would have spoken. The logos, the teleonomic, the teleos. He would have spoken. Can I use this term? You'll recognize it immediately. The Holy Spirit spoke, the telemetry information communicated into Mary and her womb and her womb. The Holy Spirit, god, the Father, the Logos of God. Logos, the communicated wisdom and knowledge of God. Jesus is the Logos. The Word of God was communicated and in Mary the conception took place, where the Word was spoken and the word literally ordained conception using the human existence of Mary and her egg was fertilized by the word spoken.

15:54
This is so basic and yet it's so fascinating. It's deep, of course. It's deep. Mary's now pregnant. That's why we argue, as evangelical fundamentalists, that a woman is pregnant at the moment of conception. Thus, the life is viable, the life is important, the life must not be extinguished. Did you know biologically, both in chemistry and biology, both in physics I'm talking about worldly knowledge Was Mary more pregnant at three months than she was at the second?

16:34
She was pregnant. Was Mary more pregnant at seven months of pregnancy or was Mary most pregnant at nine months? What's your scientific answer to that. That's right. You're only pregnant once and you're pregnant for nine months, unless there's a miscarriage or an abortion. The moment conception takes place, mary's pregnant and she doesn't get more pregnant, she just gets more bigger. Why?

17:09
All the stuff that's happening in her womb is just the exact same information that is communicated in the human genome and the DNA. Is that, at the moment of conception, the engineered information? There's no more information added after pregnancy. Is that awesome? This is true both for Jesus and it was true for you, and it was true for me at the moment of our conception and it's true today. If you're pregnant. It's fascinating. In that nanosecond of moments where fertilization takes place, all the information is there in an instant. That is greater than the information that is provided by the Hubble telescope and the Webb telescope, observing the entire interstellar multi-universe of universes. There's more information in the human DNA than all of space observed. And that's what happened with Jesus, that's what happened with you.

18:14
Why, what's going on? God is becoming flesh for us. He's taking on human nature. He's taking on human skin, human bone. He's taking on human psyche. He's taking on human frailty. He's taking on human limitations. He's taking on all that you and I are are as our Savior and our Redeemer.

18:49
All of a sudden some of you need to hear this your life's drama and situation is not outside the feelings of Jesus Christ. We can't explain this. We just know it's true Bible says so that in all points Christ was tempted like us, yet he did not sin. He feel when the temptation comes to you. The temptations came to him. He fought them, though with the word of God, and he fought them perfectly, because even though he was 100% human Because even though he was 100% human, he did not have a fallen nature. He had the nature of God, because he's God, but he had 100% human existence, yet without sin, even to the point where temptation hit Jesus, just like it hits us. But what he would do is he would fight off the temptation using the word of God.

19:47
Do you remember when Jesus meets up with Satan in the Judean wilderness? How did Jesus deal with Satan? I know what I would have done if I were him. I would have went like this this would have been the best to Satan. Jesus didn't do that. What did Jesus do? He used the Bible, quoted Deuteronomy every time at Satan. By the way, did you know Jesus quoted Deuteronomy more than any other book of the Bible. Deuteronomy Jesus fought evil with the word of God.

20:20
That's what we're supposed to do now that we're born again. So we fight. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10, bring every thought under the captivity of Christ, under the subjection of God, of Christ. Right, that's what we're supposed to do. When we fail to do that, that's when we sin. To be tempted is not a sin. To entertain the temptation is now where we cross the line and we sin. And we do that because we have a sin nature. Jesus did not have a sin nature and that's part of the great kenosis you say, jack, what is kenosis? Here we go. Kenosis is that the moment Christ was conceived, the moment Jesus, the son of David in his genealogical DNA through Mary, was conceived, jesus, his mission was. He laid aside his power Watch me. He didn't stop becoming God.

21:18
I was talking to a Muslim. He said I can't believe that Jesus is God. That's so stupid, because if Jesus is God, then when he died, god died and the whole world would have blown up. But see, that's Muslim doctrine. Islam does not have Jesus dying on the cross. Did you know that? To Islam, jesus never died. He was a great prophet. In fact, islam teaches that the Jews and the Christians thought Jesus had been crucified.

21:47
There was a switcheroo. I'm not joking. If a Muslim is going to be honest with you, that's what they'll tell you. No, no, no. Christianity is. Christ did die on the cross. That God did die for us. That's how you get forgiveness of sins.

22:01
Listen, muslims, they don't have forgiveness of sins. Every Muslim that's listening to me right now. They are lost in their sins. They cannot, they have no way of absolving their sins. By the way, the same is true today for Judaism, because they reject that Jesus is the Lamb of God. They, as Muslims, try to do away with their sins by working harder and doing good deeds. Depends on what sect that you belong to is how that's worked off.

22:29
That said, what are we talking about here? We've got Jesus. Listen. Jesus was born as a baby. Did Jesus wear diapers?

22:41
Some of you, I can hear your brakes slamming on right now and you're going to be tempted right now to mess up. Did Jesus wear diapers? What are diapers for? Did Jesus wet his diaper? Did Jesus soil his diaper? Well, did you? The answer to that is yes. Some of you are saying I can't think like that. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Listen, the real Jesus of the Bible doesn't break. In fact, this podcast might help you shatter a false view of God, but it may help you understand just how much he loves you and what he went through to save you from your sins. Save you from your sins. Did Jesus ever have a mood or an attitude? Yes, did Jesus, when he was playing games, fall down and skin his knee? Did Jesus ever cut his fingers working in the carpenter shop? Yes, so how could you say that? Because I understand what the Bible teaches about kenosis and I understand about what the Bible teaches about incarnation.

24:03
Christ became one of us. Did Jesus burp? Yes, did Jesus burp? Yes. Did he get hungry? Yes, of course he did. Yeah, did Jesus go to the bathroom? Yes, he had the exact same body that you and I have. Did Jesus feel cold and heat? Yes, did Jesus get thirsty?

24:30
We know the answer to that, don't we? Are you hearing me? See, we have a tendency, when we religionize our Jesus and make him somebody who is so deified to the point where we've actually misappropriated and wrongly defined the word deify that Jesus actually, when he walked on earth, didn't touch the ground. That's false. That's false. His feet got dirty, his feet got cold. Jesus had dreams. Jesus was tempted. Jesus had dreams. Jesus was tempted, tempted to respond like we do to things, but he only responded according to what pleased the Father, because he had such a grip of the Word of God that he yielded to the power and the authority of the word of God. That's why the Bible says he grew in grace and knowledge, both with God and man. He had any found favor and grew in stature. He grew in body. He grew up. This is fun.

25:43
Listen, I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, my mom God bless her, my mom used to rub my knees when I was a little kid and my ankles because I'd have severe leg aches. Do you guys remember Anybody? Remember Bengay, bengay? What's the word? Anesthesic balm? How about you know? Like tiger balm, something like that Voltron, where you know you rub on your joints because they hurt so bad. Did Jesus have groin pains like we have? Yep, he had them.

26:19
Did Jesus get dust in his eyes? Yes, all of this Jesus lived and did without sin. In other words, jesus didn't get an eye dirt in the eye and cuss about it. Jesus got dirt in the eye and might have even thought doggone it. This is the third time today somebody threw dirt in my eyes. Ouch, that was the end of it for him. The thought could have come out here on the porch, as it were, of the mind man, you ought to go punch that guy, jesus. Nope, that would be carnal. That would be not pleasing to my father. I'm not going to do that. He actually went through this stuff and some of you theologians who can't cope with Christ being so applicable, are having a hard time with that right now. He was tempted in all points, like us, yet without sin.

27:09
The scripture says and so when the Bible tells us that Jesus grew up, he did so that you and I might relate to him and be able to cry out to him and say things like this if you're 15 years old, jesus, I'm scared. I don't understand. This is what's happening in my life, or this is what's going on. Do you even know what I'm talking about, jesus? Jesus will speak to you back and say I know exactly what you're talking about, to the fullness. I know exactly what you mean, jesus. People, nobody wants to talk to me. People have cut me off, I'm the black sheep of the family or I'm the weirdo at school, the weirdo meaning I'm the nerd. Should I even be living? Jesus will say to you I know exactly how you feel. It's very painful to be misunderstood and it's very painful to be ostracized. I know exactly what you're talking about.

28:21
See, we think that God is so God and Jesus is Jesus, that this setting is so removed from us that we believe in God, but he's so far away that he doesn't really know. That's agnosticism that God created, but he cannot be known, and nor does he really know much about us, because he created it all and then he walked away. Where does the Bible teach that? Nowhere, nope, the Bible teaches the opposite. So how much can we press this truth? We can press it pretty far without at any time going off of our center line.

29:06
When Jesus said, for example, in the Gospels it records that Jesus does a miracle, and the scribes and Pharisees are down the street grumbling about it and they decide to go approach him to confront him on it. The Bible will tell us that Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them right. Or the woman caught in the act of adultery. Jesus, knowing, said to them he who is without sin. Let him cast the first stone right. Watch this. Jesus did not. Are you listening? This is going to get your attention. Wake up. Jesus did not. Are you listening? This is going to get your attention Wake up.

29:51
Jesus did not walk around knowing everybody's thoughts when he was in human flesh. That's kenosis. Could he? Yes, in an instant he could have. He could have said I want to know all of Jack's thoughts right now. Kenosis is this I, jesus, willfully lay aside I said it right over here all of my knowledge as God. I'm living my human life before my creation. So that listen, so that they will be able to relate to me, to know that I do know what it's like to obey my father. I know what it's like to obey the word of God, the very thing I'm asking them to do. I'm their forerunner, I'm their prototype.

30:49
So when Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments, well, I do love the Lord, so do you. But we find it hard to keep his commandments. We want to, but what gets in the way? Our sin nature, doesn't it? Jesus had a human nature, but he didn't have a sin nature. He was tempted, yet without sin. So what is this. He's flesh, he's 100% human, but he's 100% God at the exact same time. The incarnation. It means that Jesus did not have a sin nature like you and I have. Jesus came to us from perfection and took on our humanity. You and I came from sin and grew up as human adults as we are today. How about this? David said, speaking on behalf of all of us I was conceived in sin. I was conceived in sin. Jesus was not conceived in sin. That's why God the Father is his father, not Joseph, of Joseph and Mary.

32:00
Very important you think that through, think that through. You have to think that through. How about this? Everybody In 1 Timothy 2.5, for there is one mediator between God and man the man, christ Jesus. The man, christ Jesus is a dilemma. Right there for many people, not for the Christian. It's comfort are right there for many people, not for the Christian. It's comfort Because the man, christ.

32:38
The Bible doesn't teach that Christ is man as you and I are. The Christ. Christ is Messiah, christ is Messiah. The Messiah, according to Genesis 3.15, the Messiah promised is divinity, genesis 3.15. Listen, my Jewish friends, go read Moses, genesis 3, verse 15. Go read it. That's all you need to read Genesis 3.15. And then contact me, email me, let me know. Genesis 315 says a human female is going to bring into the world divinity that has always existed. He'll be a son and he will crush the works of Satan that man cannot save ourselves. God will become a man to save us. All of that is in one verse in the Bible Genesis 3.15. If you're Hebrew and you can read Hebrew you are going to. You should be happier than anybody else once you read it.

33:50
So what are we talking about here? Hang on, hang on here. Here we go. You know what? We're out of time. We have to stop here. I can hear you screaming at me from. I can hear that Look, you got to go, I got to go. We keep our podcast to about 30 minutes. We've been going for 33 minutes. We have to stop. We're going to pick it up. I'm going to stay right here. I'm going to go to the bathroom, I'm going to come back, I'm going to have some tea and I'll be talking to you again in a few moments. So do I do my normal stick? Listen. We at Real Life and the Jack Gibbs Podcast, we believe it's time for you to live out what you believe. It's time for real life. Authenticity is what's needed in the church today True, sanctified individuals living their lives for God. As imperfect as we are, but we are authentically following Jesus. That's called real life. So we'll pick this up in a few moments.

34:54 - Speaker 1
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