and this series will be hopefully a part of that. So Brother Bill's handing out the note sheets from the lesson. We're currently, we're gonna hopefully finish that first set today, the set that we handed out last week. We're hopefully gonna finish that today. Next week we should begin the second half of this point as we wrap up the humanity of Christ in this study of Christology that we're doing. He also handed out a little one-page sheet that has some references and some prophecies dealing with Jesus Christ and the promises of Jesus and what he was gonna do and who he is. So if you need a copy of that, it's just a little one-page handout. We're not gonna go through it today. Just for your benefit and your study as you go through personally along with this Sunday School study. But if you need that, please raise your hand. and I'll make sure we get that out to you. If you need a copy of the notes that we're going through, let us know as well. So it looks like we're good. Excellent, all right. We are gonna begin just by a quick overview of what we covered last week. We're dealing with the proof of his humanity. This is point two, I believe, on page two of your notes. Point two, the proof of his humanity. This is what we were working through last week. We're gonna hopefully finish up, Lord willing, today. as we move through this, the proof of His humanity. And it all boils down to 1 John 4, 2 and 3. I forgot to put the three on there, on the slide up here. But it's, Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the world. So John here in his epistle that he's writing is just further demonstrating and proving the fact that he came as a man. Now of course we're building this study to the idea and to the truth That there is this union that happened with Christ that has not happened with anybody else. This hypostatic union, this merger of God and man being fully God and fully man. And this is what we're building to. We looked at the pre-incarnate existence of Christ dealing with his eternality in the first part of this study. Now we're dealing with his humanity. Then when we're going to move into the second half after Pastor works through his prophecy study that he's going through, we're going to go back into the deity of Christ and look at proofs of the deity of Christ. And then we're going to join it all together at the end in looking at the God-man and that union that we have as seen in Christ. But we looked at just a couple things last week. We looked at number one, letter A in your notes, his ancestry, and that's dealing with Matthew chapter one and Luke chapter three. The different ancestries, the lineage that we have of Christ leading back to his rightful place as the heir to David's throne, we see in Matthew. And then you also have in Luke dealing with the fact that he is simply a man. Going back to the line of Adam and becoming that second Adam that we read about in 1 Corinthians 15 and in other passages dealing with this idea that because of Adam, the first man, we have sin. But because of Christ, the second man, the second Adam, we have life. And that's the beauty that we're seeing with these two lineages of this ancestry here. And then we moved into letter B. He had the appearance of a man. He had the appearance of a man. Seeing that in John chapter four, verse nine, then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou being a Jew? So when she looked at Jesus, she saw a Jewish man. He had the appearance of a man. There's no way we can get around this truth that he came in human flesh. He had the appearance of a man. The woman at the well in John chapter four saw that. But we also see letter C, he possessed the elements of humanity, the elements of man, and that being one, two, and three, being body, soul, and spirit. And you see the references there, but he spake of the temple of his body, John 2 verse 21, Mark chapter 14 verse 34, and he saith unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. And then number three, spirit, Luke 23 verse 46, and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. And then we concluded, I believe, last week with Letter D, he is given names and designations or distinctions. He is given names and designations or even distinctions, you could say. These titles that we see throughout the Gospels and throughout the New Testament. Because you see in your notes, there are no less than 80 times we see the title Son of Man used. And this goes along with other titles, like you see in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. John 8, verse 40, and now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth. And then you see 1 Corinthians 15, verse 47, the first man is of the earth, earthly, the second man is the Lord from heaven. And you can go through the rest of them as we go through. But I wanna dive back into it this morning with letter E. He grew and developed. He grew and developed. We don't have a lot of information about this in the New Testament, we have some. But we don't have a lot, but it's understanding this aspect that just like each and every one of us, he grew and developed. Because you see these passages that I have put in your notes here, Luke 2 verse 12, and this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the babe. That's how each and every one of us start. We start as a baby. We're born into this world by a mother and a father, and we're born In all honesty, a helpless baby. There's nothing we can really do. We have to be fed. We have to be changed. We have to be taken care of. We have to be all these different things. We start, each and every one of us start as this beautiful baby. And that's exactly how Jesus started when he came to earth as this man. Now, he existed before that. He was eternal before that. He was God. He is God. But he came to earth to be born as a baby, just like each and every one of us. And then Luke 2 verse 40, And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. So we see now we've moved from babe to child. And then Luke 2 verse 52, It just further exemplifies this, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. So he grew like each and every one of us did. We start as a baby. We go to a toddler and start terrorizing everything in our existence. Then we move into children, then we move into teenagers, and we move into young adults and adults, and we continue through life exactly how Jesus did. And there's a reason we're getting to that. Of course, you can probably already figure it out in your mind, but I just wanted to prove and to point out this proof here, this truth of his humanity is that he grew and developed. And there's two little notes in your notes here, just something to think about. The fact that Christ possessed divine attributes such as omniscience and omnipotence does not militate against a perfectly human development. Once again, going back to this union of fully God and fully man, we do not separate the two. Okay, he was fully God and fully man. So something to think about is could Jesus have possessed divine attributes as a human and not have used them? Now, I believe it's a pretty simple answer, but I just wanna challenge some thinking a little bit. As you study this on your own, just work through this. Because a lot of people are gonna get to this in the next section, which hopefully we're gonna conclude with just introducing it this morning if we get to that point in time. But this idea that he could be fully God and fully man is something that, you know, naturally we can't fully comprehend. because I am simply just a man. I cannot fully understand and wrap my mind around all the attributes of God, this idea of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, this idea of true justice and love and wisdom. I can only get glimpses of that from God's standpoint because I'm a man. I'm a simple man that can only do so much. But we're going to prove through this study that he possessed those divine attributes and there was just certain parts he just didn't use them. He displayed, letter F, we're going to move into the next one here, letter F, he displayed common appetites and human limitation. Once again, sort of feeding off of that question I just posed, could he have possessed these? Because that's a sticking point for some people. It's a sticking point for some people to say, well, if he was fully God, then he would have known everything. We see glimpses of that in the Bible. He knew the hearts of men. There were plenty of times where he knew why the Pharisees or why those individuals were coming to him to test him. He knew their hearts. That is something we don't know. I can't look at Sister Chris and Sister Kathy and know their hearts fully. They could be fully deceiving me. I don't believe they are because they're some of the sweetest ladies I know. But I can't tell their hearts fully. I can judge their actions. That's the only thing we can do is judge their fruits of their actions. That's all we can look at. But it says many a times in the New Testament that Jesus knew the hearts of men. Okay, so he had that knowledge. He had that wisdom. But he also displayed common appetites and human limitations. Let's look at a couple of these. Turn with me to Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four, we're gonna go here later on in the next section, we're gonna go back to this passage. So next week, we'll look back at that. But Matthew chapter four, just to get this understanding here. Matthew chapter four, verse two. We'll start at verse one, just to get the context rolling. Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he afterward and hungered. So number one in your notes there, he was hungry. He experienced hunger just like each and every one of us. He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. If anybody has fasted for any period of time, you get hungry. Your body says, hey, we need something. We need something. 40 days and 40 nights, you would be hungry. I mean, I generally make it a practice when I'm teaching not to eat breakfast in the morning for cognitive reasons that help my blood flow to the brain to keep my brain function properly in the morning, because I don't always do that the best. But there's time we get home for lunch, I'm starving. I'm hungry. He hungered. He experienced that hunger. Because there's some people out there that hunger can be a driving force for temptation. Okay? All these things may seem simple to us. They may seem absolutely simple to us. But hunger can absolutely lead some people into temptation. Because there are people that have developed a mental addiction to food. It's a comfort. It's a band-aid. It's a cure for them in their mind. It's a dangerous thing for some people. And now we've trivialized it in modern society with these shows that show these individuals in their mental states of decline that are six, seven, eight, 900 pounds. And we laugh at them. How could somebody get to that point? There's a lot of things underneath there that hunger can easily just trigger. Stress, different things like that. So this aspect that he dealt with hunger, he dealt with number two, he was thirsty. John 19 verse 28. He was thirsty. These are, like I said, they seem simple to us, but once again, further proving a point we're gonna conclude with this morning, that these are necessary proofs for us to understand. So John chapter 19. John 19 verse 28. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, saith what? I thirst. He understood everything had been fulfilled. Now he was just showing on the cross this simple appetite of I thirst. A simple thing for us But he experienced. And that's where the whole point is. He experienced, he displayed, he showed all these different things. So as we continue on to your notes, number three, John chapter four. I'm going to go back to John chapter four. John chapter four and verse number six. It says, now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. So number three, he was weary. Like I said, some people try to, when you discuss the matter of Christ with some people, and some people that have a hard time understanding the fact that he was fully God and fully man, well, they say, well, God would never weary, so he couldn't be fully God because he got tired. Well, yes, he was in a human body at that point. He had purposely set aside some of that glory that we talked about in this pre-incarnate existence to take upon himself the form, the image of a man to live the life of a man. Which means, yes, he would get weary. But some people have a hard time processing that thought. They have a hard time understanding that fact that, yes, he was in a human body, he was gonna get tired. You're walking through a hot, humid climate you're gonna get tired. It's simple. I was cutting the grass yesterday after I got home from Lily's piano recital, and it was thick. It was thick grass. I had to do a couple of passes. Guess what? At the end of the day, I was tired. My riding mower was out, so I had to push mow the whole thing. I sat down. I was tired. But it's understanding that even Christ experienced this. Even Christ experienced this weariness, this hunger, this thirst. Mark chapter four. We'll look at number four here. Mark chapter four. In verse 38. We'll start in verse 36. And when they had sent away, Mark chapter four, verse 36, and when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship, and there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And we know what happened there. He arose and he rebuked the wind and said, Peace be still. in verse 40, and he said unto them, why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? We just went through some storms on Friday. St. Louis just got hit. Kentucky just got hit. Places got devastated with tornadoes and storms and winds. But even in that moment, Christ found some time to sleep. But guess what, sleep is needed for the human body. We get weary, we get tired, we sleep. He found time to sleep. Now, of course, the ultimate idea here is that he's dealing with the faith of these men, that nothing was gonna stop Christ from his purpose here on earth, and that is to pay for the sin debt of each and every one of us. But he found himself, even during a storm, asleep. So number four, he slept. Number five, he was weak. Luke 22. Let's look at Luke 22. Luke 22 and verse 43. And we'll go back to verse 39 just for sake of context here. Luke 22, starting verse 39, says, and he came out and went as he want to the Mount of Olives. And his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. Verse 43, and there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. Okay, so this idea of he was weak, it's not just necessarily meaning physical weakness. This is emotional weakness, mental weakness. He showed this limitation of weakness here. Because even God the Father sent an angel to minister unto him to strengthen him. Because we know in the garden, we know how passionate and how devoted he was for the will of God, but how he struggled with certain aspects of it, and he was pleading with God so much so that there flowed from his brow and from his skin as it was grape drops of blood. He was in stress. He was under a lot of pressure. So much so that he was weary. He was weak. And an angel had to come and strengthen him. Number six. He was limited in knowledge. I'm gonna get to that here in a second. Limited in knowledge, Mark chapter 13. Mark chapter 13. In verse 32. Mark 13 verse 32 says, but of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Okay, so let's think about that for a second. So I don't want you to say anything right here, and I got you, you said he knew everything. When he came to earth, he purposely put aside some things. He purposely put aside some knowledge, glory, all these different things, so that even when the disciples were coming to him and others were coming to him saying, when is the Messiah gonna come? When are we gonna take back Jerusalem? When are we gonna do all this? When is all this gonna happen that we're waiting for, that we're hoping for, that we're anticipating? He says, no man knoweth, not even the Son, but the Father does. There are some things he did not know, and that's okay. Because at this point, he was fully man. Matthew Henry, you see in your notes here, Christ as God could not be ignorant of anything, but the divine wisdom which dwelt in our Savior communicated itself to his human soul according to the divine pleasure. So even though he knew everything, there was that divide of saying, well, we just don't need to know everything right now. It's the best way I can sort of explain it to you there. He knew it, but once again, he purposely put some of that aside. So that, what do we see throughout the New Testament? He knew the will of God when he was here on earth, and that was to suffer and die for the sins of man. He knew that. He knew that was the will of God for his life was to die. To pay for sin that we could not pay for. But what do we see all throughout the life of Christ in the Gospels? We're gonna look at that when we go through the Gospels later on down the road. We see that he constantly spent time where? in prayer, to show us that each and every one of us need to spend time in prayer. so that God can guide us, he can direct us, he can teach us, he can mold us, he can strengthen us. It was in the times of prayer that the angel came to strengthen him. It was in times of prayer that God directed his steps exactly where to go. It was in times of prayer that he knew exactly what was going to happen. It was in times of prayer that he understood everything he needed to do to show us the example to how to live this life. Like I said, he knew all of that, but he purposely put some of that aside. He purposely limited himself so that he could set the example for us in how important spending time with God is. But yet, how often do we get so busy? Like I said, I just came out of a very busy weekend. Being a part of the wedding on Friday, Lily's recital on Saturday, we got a trip on Monday, everything's going on. I can easily forget to spend time with God. It's because I'm so focused on everything else, but we have to purpose in our lives that it's so important for us to spend time with God. Even more than just time we have in church, this is very important, this is vital. But it's so much more vital for you to spend time individually, because then God can work just so personally with you. He guides and directs pastor. on the messages that we need. He guides and directs the Sunday school teachers for the children and for the adults on what we need. But so much more so, he just wants to meet with us individually and just spend time with us. Just like a father and a son, or a father and a daughter. We want to spend time with them. So he was limited in knowledge. And number seven, he suffered and died. He suffered and died. And for sake of time, we won't go to John 19 there, but you understand through the course of the betrayal and the trial and the suffering and the death of Christ, everything that he went through. But you see there in the notes right before we get to letter G, 25 times we see it mentioned that Jesus prayed like we talked about. It was so vital for him. This is how he obtained the power for work and for moral victory as other men do. He had to spend time in prayer. But letter G, we'll move on to the next one here. Letter G, he showed or displayed human emotions. He displayed human emotions. Go with me to Mark chapter three, since we're already in Mark already. Mark chapter three, verse five. Mark 3, verse 5, we see number one, he was grieved. He was grieved. Mark 3, verse 5, and when he had looked around about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, stretch forth thine hand, and he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. If you go back to verse one, you can set the context here, and he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand, and they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day. So these leaders of the synagogue, these Pharisees, these Sadducees, all these different men are watching to say, is he really gonna heal this man on the Sabbath day? They're watching him, and they're waiting, And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. And he saith unto them, verse three, unto the man, verse three, which had the withered hand, stand forth. And he saith unto them, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil, to save a life or to kill? But they held their peace. So he posed a question to these leaders saying, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day or to do evil, to save a life or to kill? wanting them to answer, but they held their peace, and that's what led to the emotion of verse five. And when he had looked around about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. So he was grieved. It hurt him to see the hardness of these men's hearts. Have we become so numb to the hardness of the hearts of people today? I mean, think about it. We're inundated with wickedness, with debauchery, with stiffness of heart from social media, from news, from TV, from movies, from just life in general, walking about, seeing all the craziness that is taking place. We are inundated with all of this. Does it grieve you because of the stiffness of their hearts? Or does it just kind of feel numb? It's like, yeah, I've seen it before. It's crazy, I know, yeah, it's weird. But you don't really take time to really process what is going on behind the action, behind the attitude. That is what grieved Christ. It wasn't the fact that they set him up. He was grieved for the stiffness of their, or the hardness of their hearts. He was grieved with that. Number two, he was troubled. We see that in John chapter 12. John chapter 12, he was troubled. John chapter 12, verse 27. It says, now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. And he continues on in verse 28. Father, glorify thy name. But he says, my soul is troubled. So he was grieved, he was troubled. Of course, John 11, 35, a simple two-word verse, what does it say? Jesus wept. So we see number three, he wept. Jesus wept. Number four, he was called the man of sorrows. Isaiah 53 verse two. Man of sorrows, an acquainted, personal, That idea of acquainted is that idea of a close, personal friendship with sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Go with me to Mark chapter three. Mark chapter three, like I said, these are a lot of things we're gonna deal with as we go through the Gospels later on. But Mark chapter three. Number five, we see he was angry. Mark chapter three and verse five. We just read this earlier. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, you can also go to when he went into the temple and he saw the money changers and those that are selling and getting gain in the temple of God, what did he do? He didn't just walk in and say, excuse me, gentlemen, you can't be doing that here. No. It angered him. It angered him to see that kind of view of the temple, that kind of use of God's house. Just like if we were to walk in here and there's random people setting up booths in here selling stuff for our church service, that wouldn't make any sense to us. We would get angry. That's not the point. It's not why we come here. So he was angry. Number six, Matthew 26. Go to Matthew 26, verse 36 through 44. It says, then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane and saith unto them, unto the disciples, sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. We did read the Luke passage, I believe, earlier. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. And then saith he unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here and watch with me. And he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be possible, Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second time and prayed, O my father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink of it, thy will be done. Verse 43, and he came and found them asleep again, and their eyes were heavy, and he left them and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. So you see this phrase that he was exceeding sorrowful and all these things. Number six, he was distressed. He was distressed. He was troubled at this point in life. There's no mincing words about it. He was troubled. He knew why he was here. But this aspect that it's soon he was gonna take upon himself the sins of the entire world, past, present, and future, taking on all those sins upon himself, so much so that his father, who he had a personal, intimate relationship with, was gonna soon turn his back on him. Because God cannot view sin. And he was gonna become sin. And for once, the one time in his life, he was gonna be separated from his father. That troubled him. That distressed him so much. He did not want that to happen. He was distressed. But number seven in Luke 22. Luke 22, number seven. I'm gonna take it just a little bit farther with this. Luke 22. In verse 44, it says, in being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. That is how much he, number seven, he agonized. He agonized. The human body can only take so much stress before it starts to react. Okay, whether it be through heart complications, breathing complications, people that you ever come across people that have a panic attack, they hyperventilate. Some people that have heart conditions, they can have heart murmurs or even have a heart attack. All these different things, the body can only handle so much, so much stress. I was watching, for those of you who know, I enjoy watching strongman competitions and stuff like that. Years ago, like early or mid 2010s, the world record was set for a deadlift at 1,100 pounds, set by a man in Britain named Eddie Hall. And you can watch him. The people were telling him the body cannot handle lifting 1,100 pounds off the ground. He's like, physically, the body cannot do it. He was determined to do it. So much so that when you watch the video, it's only about 30 seconds long when you watch it. He lifts it and brings it up, gets into the position to count as a proper lift. And you see instantly his nose starts bleeding. He had a bleeding in his ear. He had bleeding in his brain instantly because his body was under so much stress holding that weight. Because the body can only handle so much. And Christ was in so much agony at this point in his life that he was so stressed, he was in so much distress and so much agony that his body, his capillaries were just bursting. Because the body can only handle so much. He showed these emotions, why? Why did he show these emotions? Hebrews chapter four, verse 15 and 16, led us all to this. For we have not in a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. It's also why he says, hey, take my burden upon you. Cast your care, 1 Peter, I believe 1 or 2 Peter. casting all our care upon him for he careth for us. Why? Because he went through all of this. Whatever we deal with, he has gone through that experience, the anger, the distress, the agony, the pain, the weariness, where you just feel like you can't do anything else. You cannot go any farther. You have tried, maybe it's you're witnessing to a relative and you want them to be saved so deeply and so passionately, but they just cannot stand it. They don't like, I don't want to hear any more of it. When you feel like giving up, he's been there. But he still fulfilled the will of God. So that we have a high priest that when we go to him, he understands. It's not like in the Catholic church where you go to a priest that maybe has never dealt with what you've dealt with. Maybe he's never gone through what you've gone through. And he just tells you, okay, do these couple things, you'll be fine. There's no care there. There's no concern, there's no compassion there. Whereas Christ went through this agony, went through pain, he grieved, he was troubled, he wept, he was angry, he was distressed, he was weary, he was weak. So that when we come to him and we cast our cares upon him, they're not falling at the feet of somebody who's never experienced that. He says, I understand. so that we can, verse 16 here on this verse, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, no matter what it is. We're stressed, we're weary, we're angry, we're whatever it is, Lord, I don't know what to do. He says, hey, you know what, I've been there. Let's walk together. Let me give you what you need, the grace, the mercy, strength, All these different things. So we've seen now here the proofs of his humanity which is gonna lead us to this question here that we'll start next week. The debate that happens in theological circles. The sin question. Was Christ capable of sinning or was he not? We're gonna look at that next week as we hop back into it. I hope you're praying for each other. have encouraged each other, had a lot of great things happening, but we have people, I'm sure, in our church that are going through trials right now, going through stressful times, whether because of physical things or mental problems or mental stresses or financial issues. We don't know what each other are going through. You can sit here and put up a face and smile at me, act like everything's perfectly fine, but let's not forget to just encourage one another. Like I said, we've experienced some great things here recently. Just had a wedding here. Got just beautiful weather right now. The ability to be with each other in freedom. Let's encourage each other. Say, hey, you know what, is there anything I pray for you about? Anything I can do to help you? What can we do for you? and just be willing to lean on each other, help each other out, pray for each other, and see what God can do. So we're gonna get to this next week as we begin this next section here, looking at the sin question, and then finally finishing up the reasons why he came as a man. So you are dismissed.