Pastor Mark is taking the next few weeks off from preaching, so in the meantime, fans over at the Mars Hill Facebook page have been voting on their all-time favorite sermons. To kick things off, we asked:

If someone asked you what it meant to be a Christian, what one sermon would you give them?*

You gave us sermons from the Galatians, Luke, Doctrine, John series and more. But we had one winner: “”http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/vintagejesus/how-human-was-jesus">How human was Jesus?" the second sermon in 2006’s Vintage Jesus series, which tackles the issue of Jesus’ divinity and humanity, often one of the most controversial and confusing issues in all of Christian theology.

"… The question is, ‘Well, is Jesus God or is he a man?’ And the answer is, yep, he’s the God-man. That’s what he is. He is God become a man. And we need to keep both of these truths together.

Blaise Pascal, a philosopher – a Christian philosopher in the 17th century – wrote, ‘The church has had as much difficulty in showing that Jesus Christ was man against those who denied it as in showing that he was God, and the probabilities were equally great.’ What he’s saying is this: Some people say, ‘He’s God, but not man.’ Others say, ‘He’s a man, but he’s not God.’ And the truth is, he’s both and we need to maintain both vigorously.

Madeleine L’Engle, a great American writer, said, ‘To be a Christian is to believe in the impossible. Jesus was God. Jesus was human.’ She got it right. Martin Luther, the great reformer, said, ‘You should point to the whole man, Jesus Christ, and say ‘That is God.’ The man, Jesus Christ, is God.’

And Saint Athanasius, who was Bishop of Alexandria in the 4th century, wrote, ‘He – meaning Jesus – ’became what we are, that he might make us what he is.’

So Jesus God? Yes. Jesus man? Yes. You say, “Why is this important to maintain?”

For more, you can download the sermon transcript as a pdf and check out other resources over on that sermon’s page.

Pastor Mark wrote a book the following year based on that series with Dr. Gerry Breshears, with one chapter for each sermon in the 12-part series, each one expounding upon a crtitical element to Jesus’ character and nature (Why did Jesus’ mom need to be a virgin? What did Jesus accomplish on the cross? e.g.). The two later followed up with Vintage Church , in which they wrote about key concepts such as what defines Christian life, a Christian church, church leaders, the importance of preaching, baptism and communion, church unity, among other topics.

*On a theological note, many of you interpreted the question as implying that, if someone asked you about Christ, your first reaction should be to share a sermon and not tell them about Christ yourself. We certainly didn’t mean it that way: We as Christians should each always be able to give reason for the hope we profess to anyone who asks; we simply meant that offering someone a sermon was one of many resources or ways to give – and give support for – those reasons.