Week 4 - Room For Doubt 1 Why Do Christians Say that Jesus is God s Son? For much of my life I was a skeptic, wrote Lee Strobel. In fact, I considered myself an atheist. To me, there was far too much evidence that God was merely a product of wishful thinking, of ancient mythology, of primitive superstition As for Jesus, he continued, didn't you know that he never claimed to be God? He was a revolutionary, a sage, an iconoclastic Jew but God? No, that thought never occurred to him! I could point you to plenty of university professors who said so and certainly they could be trusted, couldn't they? Let's face it: even a cursory examination of the evidence demonstrates convincingly that Jesus had only been a human being just like you and me, although with unusual gifts of kindness and wisdom. But that's all I had ever really given the evidence: a cursory look, he concedes. I had read just enough philosophy and history to Qind support for my skepticism a fact here, a scientiqic theory there, a pithy quote, a clever argument As far as I was concerned, the case was closed, he concluded. There was enough proof for me to rest easy with the conclusion that the divinity of Jesus was nothing more than the fanciful invention of superstitious people, or so I thought. Thus begins Lee Strobel s story in his best-selling book, The Case for Christ. In it, Lee details the spiritual journey he embarked on after his wife, Leslie, became a Christian and how, after nearly two tumultuous years of investigating the evidence for Christianity he, too, @inally became persuaded that it was true, and gave his life to Christ. In between, Lee encountered a number of historical facts that convinced him Jesus really was, in fact, the Son of God. Are you convinced of that as well? Perhaps you ve long believed it, but doubts sometimes arise in your mind when people question your faith when you hear them say things like Lee said, that the idea of being God in human Qlesh never even occurred to Jesus. Or when they say, as one skeptic put it, Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God. In fact, if he knew you guys were worshipping him today he d roll over in his grave!
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 2 Well, news 2lash: he s not in his grave anymore! We ll get to his resurrection later in this message. But what is the evidence that Jesus really was the Son of God? Did he even claim such a thing? If so, did he back it up with any kind of proof? And why does it matter? Those are the questions we ll address today, so let s start with the Qirst one. 1. Did Jesus really claim to be the Son of God? Let s look at a few passages from the Bible, knowing that as we discovered last week we have all kinds of great reasons to trust what it says! In Matthew 16:13-17: Jesus asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? 14 And they said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. 15 He said to them, But who do you say that I am? 16 Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For Qlesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Jesus is very clear here that, yes, he was the Son of God something that he said was afqirmed by God the Father himself! Now, most of our friends probably won t challenge whether Jesus claimed this, though it might be interesting to know that Muslims do challenge it. According to Islam, Jesus was a prophet, but he never said he was God s Son. However, Jesus makes his claim very clear, and it was recorded by eyewitnesses and preserved in historical documents like the Gospel of Matthew. The way most people will challenge this is to say something similar to what one of the people in the beginning video said: Of course he was claiming to be the Son of God, but we re all children of God, so this is not really a big deal. But Jesus is making a unique claim about his identity here. Let s look at another passage that makes this clear. In John 5, after being challenged for healing someone on the Sabbath Day, Jesus equated the work he was doing with the work of his heavenly Father. As a result, John 5:18 tells us that the religious leaders were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. It s important to understand that these experts knew exactly what Jesus was claiming. He was claiming to be the unique Son of God who shared the nature
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 3 of divinity with the heavenly Father. He was not just an adopted child of God like we can become. Later, in John 10:30, Jesus is again talking to the Pharisees and makes another bold claim when he says, I and the Father are one. Now, the Greek word for one here is neuter, not masculine, so he was not saying, I and the Father are the same person. Rather, he was saying that he and the Father are of the same nature or essence. His listeners understood exactly what he was claiming, and in response they picked up stones to kill him. In verse 32 Jesus said to them, I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? They replied: We are not stoning you for any good work, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God. Now, think about this. Jesus is making a clear claim that he is divine, and his listeners understood exactly what he was saying. In fact, they condemned him for it, because they would not allow themselves to accept it. What s interesting is that Jesus had ample opportunity to clear up any misunderstandings about what he was really saying! He could have said, Whoa, boys, put down those stones for a minute and explain what you thought I was saying!... What? You thought I was claiming equality with God? Are you kidding? Let me set the record straight, right here and now. But he never did that. In fact, he did just the opposite, and actually reinforced his claims, which further conqirmed that they had correctly understood what he was saying: he was the Son of God, true deity, and equal in nature to God the Father. In Mark 14, during his trial prior to the cruciqixion, Jesus was asked by the high priest: Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? 62 And Jesus said, I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. Now, what did Jesus mean by calling himself the Son of Man? Some people assume this simply indicates his humanity. But that s because they don t understand that Jesus was actually referring to a prophecy in the Old Testament book of Daniel, chapter 7.
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 4 Daniel 7 says that one like a Son of Man was going to be presented to the Ancient of Days, who was God, and receive authority to rule over the whole world forever (Dan. 7:13-14). This Son of Man @igure has sovereign power and is worshiped by all the peoples, nations and men of every language. But only God can legitimately be worshiped. So by coupling the title the Son of Man with the description of his coming on the clouds of heaven, Jesus was clearly claiming that he was the divine person described in Daniel 7:13 where it says, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. Jesus was explicitly identifying himself as the One who would rule forever over all nations, all peoples, all over the world, for all time. That is a staggering claim for any human being to make! Again, the response by Jesus listeners in Mark 14:63-64 said it all. Refusing to believe, the high priest tore his clothes. Why do we need any more witnesses? he asked. You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? They all condemned him as one deserving death. If Jesus were merely claiming to be human, he would not have evoked this kind of reaction. Much more could be said, but you get the point: Jesus made it clear, over and over, that he was the unique Son of God God in human @lesh! 2. Did Jesus back up his claim to be the Son of God with solid evidence? Anyone can claim to be God. I could claim it, and so could you. In fact, hospitals for the mentally disabled have plenty of patients who make such claims! The question is whether the person making the claim can back it up with any good evidence. Jesus could, and he did so in a variety of ways. Let s look at a few: A. Messianic Prophecies We mentioned last week that Jesus fulqilled numerous prophecies about the Messiah the one who was God s special anointed one. This includes the fact that he would be born in Bethlehem, as it had been predicted hundreds of years earlier in Micah 5:2. He was cruciqied as our substitute, as was predicted 700 years prior by the prophet Isaiah (chapter 53) a passage
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 5 that includes the amazing detail that he would be pierced for our iniquities, which is an amazing prediction, especially when cruciqixion had not yet been invented! Here are a couple of other prophecies that point more speciqically to his divine nature: Isaiah 7:14 This passage, which we often hear around Christmas, predicts that Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. There are two interesting aspects of this: the Qirst is that the virgin birth was foretold here, but the second is that this son to be born would be called Immanuel, which literally means God with us. So when was God with us? According to Matthew 1:23 - Matthew uses Isaiah 7:14 referring to the virgin Mary and her son Jesus. Isaiah 9:6 This passage comes just a couple chapters later, and says: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isn t that interesting? The coming Messiah the son who would be born would be called Mighty God. Jesus divine nature was predicted centuries before he arrived on the planet! B. Jesus Sinless Life If God is holy, and if Jesus is God s Son, then surely Jesus would prove it by living a life that was completely free from sin. Jesus enemies knew this, so they followed him around for years, watching closely for any kind of character Qlaw, moral or ethical inconsistency, or even old-fashioned human mistake. But they were never able to Qind any defects or weaknesses! In the end, these opponents were the ones who went out and paid false witnesses to invent stories in order to accuse Jesus of wrongdoing. Knowing as they did that none of it was true, you can imagine their frustration when at one point Jesus threw the reality of his sinless life back in their faces. He said in John 8:46, Which one of you convicts me of sin?
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 6 By contrast, I know of no other major religious leader who even made the claim to be sinless. Muhammad, for example, was very open about his need for God s forgiveness. In the Qur'an (Surah 40:55) he says he was told, So be patient, [O Muhammad]. Indeed, the promise of Allah is truth. And ask forgiveness for your sin and exalt [Allah] with praise of your Lord in the evening and the morning. But Jesus extraordinary life backed up his extraordinary claim to be the Son of God, and the sinless life of Jesus serves as another strong indicator that his claim was true. C. Jesus Miracles In addition to fulqilling the prophecies of a divine Messiah, Jesus backed up his claims to deity by doing a variety of miracles from walking on water to healing the sick to raising the dead. And he pointed to those acts as evidence that backed up his claims. Going back to John 10, in verses 37-38 Jesus told his listeners, If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Over and over Jesus performed miraculous signs, not to impress people or merely to get their attention, but to reveal to us who he really was the true Son of God. One miracle in particular stands above all the rest. Let s look at that next. D. Jesus Resurrection Jesus pointed to his coming resurrection as the ultimate evidence for his claims when he said in Matthew 12:39 that he would give them one sign, the sign of the prophet Jonah. In v 40 he explained: For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great 2ish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jesus was saying that his resurrection would be the proof of all of his other claims. Later, the apostle Paul would also recognize the centrality of the resurrection. If Christ has not been raised, he said in 1 Corinthians 15:17, your faith is futile; you re still in your sins.
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 7 So the resurrection of Jesus is, as they say, the ballgame! People will say that the problem is that you can t prove it scientiqically. ScientiQic proof is based showing that something is a fact by repeating that event in the presence of someone who is questioning the fact. That is a great method but it doesn t work for everything. It can t prove that George Washington actually lived. It doesn t help us answer the question, Was Martin Luther King Jr. a civil rights leader? Nor will it answer, Was Jesus raised from the dead? Instead we use the legal-historical method where a verdict is reached by showing the weight of the evidence such as oral testimony, written testimony or exhibits (gun, notebook, or bullet). So what evidence do we have that he really did rise from the dead? Jesus' tomb was EMPTY Starting with the women who Qirst visited the tomb and then the men who followed soon after, the disciples of Jesus universally testi@ied that it was empty, though they were in bewilderment at Qirst because they didn't fully grasp what had happened. But nobody, not even the disciples' enemies, disputed the fact that the tomb was vacant. Instead, the religious authorities made up a story, bribed the guards, and coached them to say, His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep (Matthew 28:13). If you reqlect on this story for a moment, however, you'll realize how ridiculous it was. If the guards had really been asleep, they wouldn't have had any idea what happened to the body. On the other hand, if they had been awake and seen the disciples stealing the body, they would have stopped and arrested them. Clearly this was a cover story designed to mask what really happened. But it does one signiqicant thing: it acknowledges that the tomb of Jesus was indeed empty and it reveals that the Jewish religious leaders had no idea how to explain it. Let me add that there's no good reason for saying that anyone stole or moved Jesus body. The Romans were the ones who cruciqied him, and they certainly wouldn t want to make it look like he had risen. And the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus dead in the Qirst place, so they wanted everyone to forget about Jesus and believe that he stayed dead! Also, if there were a body to be found, you better believe they would have put it on display to quash this upstart Christian movement that was already threatening their authority.
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 8 That leaves us with the disciples. Did they remove the body? The fact is that they were terriqied and disillusioned after the cruciqixion and were hiding in a room trying to decide what to do next.. So the disciples had neither the motivation, the will, nor the means to overcome the guards and steal Jesus body. If they did move the dead body, then they would have to lie about it, be persecuted because of it, and eventually die for it why would they do that if it was all a lie! That just doesn t make sense! The risen Jesus was seen by EYEWITNESSES The early disciples did not believe in Jesus resurrection merely because of the empty tomb. Another reason they believed in the resurrection is because they saw the risen Jesus, talked to him, and even ate with him. They were eyewitnesses. Summarizing the biblical narratives, two leading authorities on the resurrection of Jesus (Gary Habermas and Michael Licona) put it this way: Friends as well as foes saw Jesus not once but many times over a period of forty days. We are told that these numbers included both men and women, hard-hearted Peter and softhearted Mary Magdalene, indoors and outdoors, and so on. In fact Paul tells that he appeared to over 500 believers. And let s not forget the doubting disciple, Thomas. Maybe you can relate to him. Thomas would not believe in any resurrection claims without solid evidence. But then he met the risen Jesus and saw the scars on his hands and side. Convinced, Thomas humbly exclaimed in John 20:28, My Lord and my God! This is certainly the appropriate response, once one understands who Jesus is and what he has done for us. Jesus does not scold Thomas for his doubt. He gives Thomas evidence to overcome it. Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. We can believe the testimony of those who were eyewitnesses of Jesus and his resurrection. The accounts of Jesus resurrection were EARLY After the followers of Jesus realized what had happened that he truly had conquered the grave they immediately started telling others about it. Their reports were verbal at Qirst but were soon written down as well.
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 9 Last week, we talked about the evidence showing that the four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were early accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But one of the earliest creeds of the church, recorded by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, is believed by most scholars to date to no more than 2ive years after Jesus resurrection. And many scholars contend that it goes back to within months of Jesus resurrection. Here s what it says: 3 For I delivered to you as of 2irst importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than 2ive hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. British New Testament scholar, James D. G. Dunn, puts it this way: This tradition, we can be entirely conqident, was formulated as tradition within months of Jesus death. Imagine! The basic formula that afqirms the resurrection goes back to within months of the resurrection. As one author put it, That s historical gold! In addition, the Qirst public preaching about the resurrection of Jesus (recorded in Acts 2) occurred in Jerusalem in the same city where Jesus was cruciqied just 50 days after his cruci2ixion! These considerations obliterate the notion that the resurrection of Jesus was a mere legend that developed over many years. The resurrection of Jesus was the centerpiece of the Christian faith right from the start! 3. Why should Jesus claim to be the Son of God matter to us today? It matters because, quite frankly, it changes everything! Box - If you are like Anisha, you have much of Christmas already planned out, maybe even purchased, however if you are like me we still have 11 weeks before we need to even think about it. Anisha and I like to come up with good gifts for our girls and kids in our extended family. Sometimes we have planned and thought and saved so that we could get them a great gift at least in our minds. I remember one Christmas all the family was together the gifts had been unwrapped the little ones were playing with a box on the Qloor with their gifts against the wall or under the couch. And the funniest things was
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 10 one of my nephews was in the kitchen playing with a hanger pretending it was a Qighter plane of some sort. My guess is you have been there too. If you're one of God's children, you have been given the most awesome gift that could ever be given. It's gorgeous from every perspective. It's a gift of such grandeur that it's hard to wrap human vocabulary around it and explain it. It's the gift that every human being needs. It's a gift that in all of your work and all of your effort and all of your achievement you couldn't have ever earned; you could have never deserved, you could have never achieved. It is absolutely without question the gift of gifts. It's the gift of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, [but] I am deeply persuaded in the face of this gift, there are many Christians who are content to play with the box or a hanger. Let me end with a list of implications from Lee Stroble s research, these can be found in A Case For Christ. I hope you ll take these to heart for your own life: 1. If Jesus is the Son of God, his teachings are more than just good ideas from a wise teacher; they are divine insights on which I can conqidently build my life. 2. If Jesus sets the standard for morality, I can now have an unwavering foundation for my choices and decisions rather than basing them on the ever-shifting sands of culture and self-centeredness. 3. If Jesus did rise from the dead, he's still alive today and available for me to encounter on a personal basis. 4. If Jesus conquered death, he can open the door of eternal life for me, too. 5. If Jesus has divine power, he has the supernatural ability to guide me, help me, and transform me as I follow him. 6. If Jesus personally knows the pain of loss and suffering, he can comfort and encourage me in the midst of the turbulence of my world that is corrupted by sin. 7. If Jesus loves me as he says, he has my best interests at heart. That means I have nothing to lose and everything to gain by committing myself to him and his purposes.
Week 4 - Room For Doubt 11 8. If Jesus is who he claims to be, then as my Creator he rightfully deserves my allegiance, obedience, and worship. Well, I hope you see how great it is to know that Jesus is the Son of God. The evidence from history strongly backs up that fact, and therefore all of these things are also true. And that adds up to really Good News for me, and for you! Please be sure to be here 2 weeks and bring a friend as we talk about the challenging question of why a loving God would allow pain and suffering.