THE MAIN IDEA
Jesus is God. 

JESUS IS THE MESSIAH
The Sanhedrin, the governing body of the Jewish people,  convened a special meeting to try Jesus for blasphemy. But the outcome of the trial was a  foregone conclusion: Jesus would be found guilty, no matter what. They try to bait Jesus into  announcing that He is the Messiah, which of course, He is. But their understanding of the  Messiah was a great military leader who would overthrow the power of Rome—someone from  their own ranks, the ranks of the elite—not some poor carpenter from the tiny little town of  Nazareth who they thought was born out of wedlock. The elders of the people were supposed to  uphold the truth, but they were not interested in the truth. They wanted God’s salvation and  God’s Messiah on their own terms, not on God’s terms. It’s the very same problem that Adam  and Eve struggled with. It’s the very same thing that we all struggle with today. But if Jesus is  our Messiah, then He is our King, and we should give our lives to Him every day. 

JESUS IS THE SON OF MAN
By referring to Himself as the Son of Man, Jesus is referring  to a vision that the prophet Daniel had about the end times (Daniel 7). By referring to Himself as  the Son of Man, Jesus is saying that He will come as the Judge over all the universe with all the  power and authority of God, making Himself equal with God. Jesus is coming back, and Jesus is  coming back as Judge. And He really could be coming back today. But the world already stands  condemned (Genesis 3; John 3:17). When Jesus comes back as Judge, all that He is going to do  is to sort out those who believe in Him from those who do not. For those who believe, we need  not fear. We can hold onto God’s promise. We can hold onto faith. We can hold onto the  cleansing of all our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. But there is a world out there that  desperately needs Jesus and desperately needs Jesus now. Until Jesus comes back, every person  has an opportunity to be saved and not be sorted with the world that already stands condemned. 

JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD
In ancient Rome, the emperors and their children were called  sons of god. If the Sanhedrin could trap Jesus into making that claim in court, they could justify  the death sentence to the Roman governor Pilate. Of course, Jesus knew very well that He is  literally the Son of God. In all the ancient Jewish literature that exists, nothing has been found  where a person refers to God as his or her own Father, except by Jesus. In the Old Testament,  that birthright as the Son of God was reserved only for the coming Messiah (2 Samuel 7; Psalm  2). And Jesus knew that all the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah were fulfilled in Him. But when the Sanhedrin asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He knew what  their game was. So He wasn’t going to say, “Yes, I am the Son of God,” because their  understanding of the Son of God was not the true Son of God of Scripture. But Jesus is indeed  the Son of God; Jesus is indeed the Son of Man; Jesus is indeed the Messiah. He is God in the  flesh, God among us, Immanuel. Jesus is God. Period. But knowing this is doesn’t mean  anything. The devil knows that Jesus is the Son of God. Stepping out in faith, following Jesus as  Lord, saying the things He said, doing the things that He did, going to the places that He went,  loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and loving our neighbors as ourself,  being Christ’s witnesses here in the South Bay, California, the US and the world—that is what it  means to know that Jesus is God—the Messiah, the Son of Man, the Son of God. 

DISCUSSION QUESTION
Thinking about the relationships in your life, who are some people who have a  big influence on you? And in what way?