(Matthew 8:14-27) "And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. {15} And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. {16} When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: {17} That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. {18} Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side. {19} And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. {20} And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. {21} And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. {22} But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. {23} And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. {24} And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. {25} And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. {26} And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. {27} But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!"

    We would like to focus our attention this morning to a question found in verse 27 of the above Scripture text.

(Matthew 8:27) "But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!"

    This account of the disciples marveling and their question is also recorded for us in Mark 14:41 and Luke 8:25.

(Mark 4:41) "And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

(Luke 8:25) "And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him."

    There are two points which I believe are obvious to us from the above Scripture, "What manner of man is this?" or what type of man is this which is one point. And from that question we get our second point that will be our topic for this morning's Bible study. It is obvious that the Scriptures are also declaring that the Lord Jesus is indeed a man, that is that He has a human nature.
    Before proceeding any further we must, for clarity's sake emphatically declare unto you that when we say that the Lord Jesus Christ had a human nature we are also declaring that He did not in any measure have the sin nature that every mortal is born with!
    Because of time constraints this morning we will not consider the point which the question asks, "What manner of man is this?" or what type of man is this.
    But, we desire to declare unto you that the individual to whom this question pertained, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, was indeed a man, that is that He did definitely have a human nature.
    Perhaps there are those who, in a mistaken sense of respect or honor, will deny that the Lord Jesus was indeed a man.
    Many years ago while in a conversation with a young man who had recently made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior I used the word 'man' in reference to our dear Lord. He was quick to point out to me that the Lord Jesus is God. I rejoiced that he had been enabled to see that blessed fact, a Scriptural fact which so many of the cults deny. Yet, this young man mistakenly believed that being God prohibited or excluded the Lord Jesus from being a man.
    The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is a blessed and wondrous doctrine taught throughout the inspired Scriptures. It brings great joy and comfort to those who have been redeemed by His sinless blood to mediate on the fact that their Lord is also their God. This was declared by Thomas in John 20:28 after seeing the risen Savior.

(John 20:28) "And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God."

    However, it is not the deity but the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ that we wish to take note of in our brief study this morning.
    We would like to take a few minutes to show by the inspired Scriptures that although He is indeed God He is also very much a man.
    As with many things declared unto us in the Bible it is also true of the great fact of our Lords' possessing two distinct natures, a human nature and a divine nature, that our inability to understand these deep things of God in no wise negate their validity.
    The theological term which is used to denote the union of our Lords' human nature and His divine nature is 'hypostatic union'. Funk & Wagnells defines the term hypostatic in this theological context as:
    "Of, pertaining to, or constituting a distinct personality or substance: distinctly personal".
    What this simply means is that the Lord Jesus is distinctly human and distinctly God. There was no blending of the two natures of our dear Lord. Both natures are evident. We can see a type or picture of these two distinct natures in many of the furnishing of the Old Testament tabernacle, which furnishings were pictures or types of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of those furnishing we will briefly comment on is the ark.

(Exodus 25:10-11) "And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. {11} And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about."

    The ark or chest was made from Shittim or accacia wood which was a very close grained and incorruptible wood. It was overlaid with pure gold, inside and outside.
    In his book, "The Priesthood, The Tabernacle And The Offerings" I. M. Haldeman comments on the typology of the ark.
    "The ark was a perfect symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ as the enthronement of God in humanity.
    The incorruptible wood speaks of him as the sinless one, sinless in conception, sinless in life and character.
    The pure gold above the wood - inside and outside - speaks of that nature which was above His humanity and yet resided in it - His Deity.
    The ark with its two materials and yet, the one chest, repeats the continuous testimony, the two natures and the one indivisible personality or our Lord."
    The ark which is a picture of Christ was made from these two distinct materials. Neither of them ever lost their distinct nature or blended with the other. So it is that our Lord has two distinct natures yet He is but one person.
    William Shedd comments on the two natures but one personality of our Lord in his 'Dogmatic Theology'.
    "That the two natures constitute only one person, is also proved by the fact that in Scripture human attributes are ascribed to the person designated by a divine title; and divine attributes are ascribed to the person as designated by a human title. This interchange of titles and of attributes in respect to one and the same person proves that there are not two different persons, each having its own particular nature and attributes, but only one person having two natures and two classes of attributes in common."
    Though our Lord has two distinct natures, human and divine, it is His humanity which we wish to turn our attention to this morning.
    If there were no other Scriptures which declared the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ by precept (although there are many) there is certainly one that declares it by clear and plain words.
    Speaking of the mediatorial position of the Lord Jesus Christ the apostle Paul declared unto the young preacher Timothy the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Timothy 2:5) "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"

    So then let us now continue in our Scripturally based declaration that Christ was indeed a man, that is that He had a human nature. We will show, certainly only by the Spirit's enablement, that many of the things revealed to us in the Bible about Christ are only applicable unto a human.
    1.) First we maintain unto you that the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ declares that He is a man, that is that He has a human nature.
    The first reference to the incarnation of God is given us in Genesis 3:15.

(Genesis 3:15) "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

    When the fullness of time was come God sent His Son into the world in a human form.

(Galatians 4:4) "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,"

    The angelic messenger appeared unto the young virgin Mary and declared that she would bring forth a Son who was to be conceived of the Holy Ghost. In time she did indeed give birth to that Son, she did indeed call His name Jesus as she was instructed by the angel and He did indeed save His people from their sins all of which was declared of Him by that angel.
    Though conceived by supernatural means our Lord was 'brought forth' by the virgin Mary just as any other human was. She 'brought forth' that son, that is she gave birth to Him. He was delivered in the same manner that billions of other children have been brought forth. Discounting modern surgical procedures our Lord was born just the same way every other human has been born. Therefore we conclude that our Lord had a human nature.
    Mary was the mother of the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Catholics greatly err, and that blasphemously so, when the say that Mary is the mother of God. She is the mother of the human nature of the God man but she is not the mother of God for God has neither mother nor father.
    2.) Secondly we proclaim unto you that the maturing of the Lord Jesus Christ declares that He is a man, that is that He has a human nature.
    Shortly after the Lord Jesus Christ was born He was visited by a group of shepherds who had been given an angelic announcement of His birth.

(Luke 2:12) "And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

(Luke 2:16) "And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger."

    The Greek word here for 'babe' is brephos (bref'-os) and it means infant or babe.
    Some time later, probably about two years, the Lord was visited by wise men who had seen a star guiding them unto Him.

(Matthew 2:10-11) "When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. {11} And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."

    They found a young child, (Greek paidion (pahee-dee'-on)) in the house, not a babe in a manger as is so often depicted by the religious world.
    Then when He was twelve years old our Lord went into the temple to hear the doctors and to question them. After telling His mother Mary that He must be about His Father's business He returned to Nazareth with them and was subject unto them as a child ought to be. And he grew and matured.

(Luke 2:52) "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."

    The Greek word here translated 'stature' is helikia, (hay-lik-ee'-ah) and it means maturity (in years or size) being translated as age and stature.
    Then when He was about thirty years old our Lord began His public ministry after being baptized by John the Baptist.
    So we see that the Lord Jesus Christ matured from a babe, to a young child, to a young man to an adult. In His humanity the Lord Jesus aged. As God He is the ancient of days, He is ageless, He has always existed but as the 'man Christ Jesus' He matured, He aged.
    3.) Thirdly we affirm unto you that the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared by the Scriptural record of His becoming physically tired or weary.
    While traveling from Judaea into Galilee the Lord traveled through Samaria. Because of that journey He became physically tired and stopped for a rest.

(John 4:6) "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."

    The Lord also took rest in sleep as is the nature of humans to do.

(Mark 4:37-38) "And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. {38} 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?"

    Therefore we declare unto you that because He became tired, because He rested and because He slept the Lord Jesus has a human nature. A divine nature does not get tired and does not sleep.
    4.) Fourthly we submit unto you that the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared by the Scriptural record of His becoming hungry.
    After His baptism the Lord was forty days in the wilderness in communion with the Father prior to beginning His ministry of seeking out His sheep, building His church and preaching the gospel. During those forty days he fasted and as a consequence of that fasting He was hungry.

(Matthew 4:2) "And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered."

    As a man the Lord Jesus Christ ate and drank.
    The account of the barren fig tree being cursed begins with the proclamation that the Lord was hungry.

(Mark 11:12-13) "And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: {13} And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet."

    After His resurrection He ate in the presence of the apostles to demonstrate that He was not a spirit but their resurrected Lord.

(Luke 24:40-43) "And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. {41} And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? {42} And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. {43} And he took it, and did eat before them."

    5.) Fifthly we propose unto you that the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared by His death.
    As our sovereign Lord and Savior was pleased to take upon Himself the human nature of life through His natural birth He was also pleased to lay down that life through His cruel and unnatural death.
    The death of the Lord Jesus Christ is prophesied in many places in the Old Testament Scriptures and each of those prophetic Scriptures is fully and perfectly fulfilled in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ which is recorded for us in the New Testament Scriptures.
    The Holy Spirit has recorded for us in the New Testament several detailed accounts of the death of the Lord Jesus.
    When we read of how the religious leaders of Israel schemed for almost three years in order to bring to pass their wicked designs on the Lord Jesus and of how cruelly they did pursue those designs we are appalled. The Lord Jesus did not die from any illness for He was in perfect health. He was brutally murdered by those who professed to be followers of God but who in fact had a record of killing God's prophets.
    Speaking to the Thessalonians of those religious Jews the apostle declares that they had also killed prophets. These Jews claimed to be followers of God but Paul refutes that claim and says that their actions which they boasted of as being in God's service were not pleasing to God.

(1 Thessalonians 2:15) "Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:"

    These Jews were totally responsible for their sinful and wicked actions against the Lord Jesus but those actions were fully within the scope of God's 'determinate counsel and foreknowledge'.

(Acts 2:23) "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:"

    After paying Judas to betray the Lord they apprehended Him under the darkness of night and sought false witness against Him in an effort to legitimize their sinful actions. Finding no two false witnesses whose lies agreed they continued on in their depraved conduct and sought permission and approval from the political leaders to kill the Lord Jesus. Pilate knew that it was envy which motivated them but he succumbed to their evil desires and ordered the Lord to be killed in a most cruel and painful manner.
    Now while it is true that the Romans and Jews were guilty, accountable and responsible for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ we must hasten to point out that it was not done in opposition to the will and decree of the Holy Trinity. Nor was it an act done that in anywise was something that was not preventable if the Lord Jesus had wanted to prevent it.

(John 10:15-18) "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. {16} And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. {17} Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. {18} No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."

    It is a clearly taught Scriptural fact that the Lord Jesus died. And what a tremendous joy it is for us to know that the reason which He died was for the payment of our otherwise unpayable sin debt.
    The Scriptures declare that the Lord Jesus died, that He was buried and that He was raised from the dead.

(1 Corinthians 15:3-4) "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; {4} And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:"

    There can be no resurrection from the dead if one has not died.
    The Scriptures clearly and plainly teach that after suffering the full wrath of the Father which was due unto each of His eternally loved children the Lord Jesus dismissed His spirit and that he died. Then at the appointed time He rose from the dead to openly proclaim His victory over satan and death.

(Colossians 2:15) "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

    In His declaration that He has power to lay down His life and also has power to take it up the Lord Jesus is asserting His divinity.
    He was raised from the dead and God raised Him. At least eight times it is declared in the inspired Scriptures that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. We will quickly note a few of those times.

(Acts 13:30) "But God raised him from the dead:"

(Romans 10:9) "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

(Galatians 1:1) "Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)"

    Please be assured that we are in no wise suggesting that because of the physical limitations of His human body that Christ was not divine. But we are saying that He has a human nature that is distinct and separate from His divine nature.
    He is indeed the God, Christ Jesus but He is also 'the man Christ Jesus'.
    In closing we would like to take note of a few practical considerations that should give the child of God comfort in knowing that their Lord and Savior is both God and man.
    As a man the Lord Jesus Christ knows what it is to be sorrowful. He was sorrowful for others but never for Himself.
    In Isaiah 53:3 we are given a divine prophetic statement concerning the Lord Jesus.

(Isaiah 53:3) "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

    The grief of Lazarus' sisters and those with her caused the Lord to be sorrowful.

(John 11:32-35) "Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. {33} When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, {34} And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. {35} Jesus wept."

    As a man the Lord Jesus Christ knows what it is to be tempted.

(Luke 4:1-2) "And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, {2} Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered."

    As the Lord was preparing for the work which the Father had sent Him to do satan tempted Him in a futile effort to hinder or defeat that work. At the end of the forty days satan showed himself openly in an attempt to sway our sinless Lord from His mission of redemption. Our Lord rebutted each outward temptation with a proclamation of what God's inspired Word taught on the subject being discussed.
    Should we not follow our Lord's perfect example and flee to the Word of God when we are tempted?
    Our Lord was tempted in all of the same temptations that we are tempted yet He never surrendered to any of those temptations.

(Hebrews 4:15) "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

    What a wondrous and glorious thought that we have a Savior who is fully acquainted with our frailties and cares so much for us that He took upon Himself our human nature, lived that perfect life and then laid it down for our sins.
    He then rose from the dead for our justification and now is seated at the right hand of God where He is making intercession for us.
    Well did the hymn writer P. P. Bliss pen those words about our Lord in the hymn "Hallelujah! What a Saviour!"