Part 6 Jesus is Real

A.M. Sermon

Spring Hill, TN

2/18/07 a.m.

Series: “Discovering the Spiritual Realm” (Pt. 6)

Text(s): John 8:24, 58; Joel 2:38; Acts 2:21-22, 36; Acts 4:8-12

Summary: In PART 6, we probe the spiritual realm to discover the evidence of the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth and his true identity.

“Jesus is Real”

Introduction:

A. Various Views of Jesus of Nazareth

1. There are many different views about Jesus Christ within the religious world.

2. The Muslims believe Jesus was merely a prophet, the Jews believe he was an imposter, secularists believe he was merely a good moral teacher, Gnostics believed he was an apparition, historical revisionists deny that he was an actual historical figure, modern heretics claim Jesus was invented by Catholic theology, and the Jehovah Witness cult believes Jesus was a was the first created being.

B. Is Jesus for Real?

1. In our exploration to Discover the Spiritual Realm, in this lesson we are going to investigate the true identity of Jesus.

2. Can it be proven that Jesus was a real man documented in the historical record?

3. Can Jesus identity be truly discovered? Was Jesus really the Son of God come to earth?

I. THE HISTORICAL JESUS

A. Critics of the Historical Jesus

1. The recent media frenzy over the book The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown has created a renewed interest in the historical reality of Jesus Christ.

2. Although a fictional work, the book affirms, “[…] almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false” (235).

3. During the hype of the book’s release, Timothy Freke was asked in an interview, “In your opinion, is there any evidence that Jesus lived?” His answer was succinct, “None at all” (45).

4. Freke and many others are on a crusade to erase Jesus of Nazareth from the historical record.

5. However, the evidence from history (outside of the Bible) is extremely strong that Jesus was an actual historical figure.

6. What is most convincing is that the strongest historical evidence for Jesus is found in the unbiased and hostile sources of the enemies of Christianity.

B. The Historical Record

1. Tacitus’ Testimony. Roman historian who lived A.D. 55-117. Tacitus’s most acclaimed works are the Annals and the Histories. In his Annals, Tacitus makes this statement:

[…] Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. (Annals XV, 44).

2. Pliny the Younger’s Testimony. Roman governor of Bithynia and Pontus around 110 A.D. Reporting to Emperor Trajan about his procedure of attempting to coerce Christians to renounce Christ, Pliny wrote:

I thought I should release those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when following my lead they first invoked the gods and offered incense and wine to your image, which for this purpose I had ordered brought in with the image of the gods, and afterwards cursed Christ. It is said that those who are really Christians cannot be forced to do any of these things. […] They testified that this was the whole of their crime or error, that they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day and recited an antiphonal ode to Christ as to a god, and took an oath not for committing any crime but instead for not committing thefts, robberies, or adulteries, nor to refuse to repay a deposit. (Epistles X, 96)

3. Flavius Josephus’ Testimony. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (a non-Christian), who lived in the first century and died some time shortly after 100 A.D., makes several references to the historical reality of Jesus:

[…] Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim (sic) of the judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned […]. (The Antiquities XX, 9.1)

There is abundant evidence from the unbiased record of history that Jesus of Nazareth was a real historical figure and was not some hero invented by the supposed “imaginative inventors of Christianity.” Jesus was a real man who existed and lived in the Roman providence of Judea and died by Roman execution in the third decade of the first century.

II. THE BIBLICAL JESUS

A. The Biographies of Jesus of Nazareth

1. Previous in this series of lessons (“Discovering the Spiritual Realm”) we have set forth to prove (1) the existence of God (2) the Bible is the exclusive message to mankind from God.

2. If we are convinced by the evidence that both of these propositions are true, then anything that the Bible teaches must be accurate and without any error; for “God is not the author of confusion” (1 Cor. 14:33).

3. Having established that Jesus was an actual historical figure, the explorer of the spiritual realm next discovers that the New Testament documents contain four biographies of the life of this man.

4. These biographies were written by four different men from different backgrounds and levels of education.

5. Two were of the closest of Jesus’ followers, called “apostles” (Matthew and John). The former writing to a Jewish audience and the later to any that would follow Jesus.

6. One was a close associate of Peter (Mark) who wrote an account of the life of Jesus to a Gentile (likely Roman) audience.

7. The forth biographer was a first century physician (and traveling companion with the Apostle Paul) who likely set forth to research and record an account of Jesus’ life and teachings to a Roman official named Theophilus to demonstrate that Christianity posed no rebellious threat to the stability of the Empire.

8. One of the main purposes of these biographies of Jesus life and teachings is to demonstrate Jesus true identity. John makes this clear in his biography, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in his name” (20:30-31).

B. God’s Self Identity

1. We have already established that a supreme Designer of the world exists and that the Bible is a message from Designer revealing himself to mankind.

2. That powerful being manifested Himself to Moses on Mt. Horeb in the land of Midian (cf. Ex. 3:1) about 1,400 B.C.

3. Moses asked the God of all creation what name should be used to identify Him to the exiled Israelites; God said, “’I am, who I am’; and He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you” (Ex. 3:14).

4. This verb meaning “to be” is derived from the Hebrew word “HAYAH.”

5. Related to this word is the specific name that God identified himself with to Moses in Exodus 6:3 when god spoke to Moses and said, “…I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by My name, LORD (YHWH), I did not make Myself known to them.”

6. The God of heaven and earth identified himself to Moses as “Yahveh”—the Great “I AM.”

C. Jesus’ Self Identity

1. What does this have to do with Jesus of Nazareth’s true identity?

2. In John’s biography of Jesus, he tells us that on one occasion Jesus was teaching in the temple (7:14), and there was considerable discussion among the people about Jesus true identity, some thinking he was the Prophet (of whom Moses spoke—Deut. 18:15), while others though he might be the Christ (7:40-43).

3. At first Jesus gave his identity as “the light of the world” (8:12), but the Pharisees proclaimed his testimony was false (8:13). Jesus proclaimed that his Father even testified about his true identity (8:18).

4. Jesus proclaims that he is “not of this world” while his audience was of this world (8:23).

5. It is at this point that Jesus makes a shocking statement about his true identity, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe I am, you will die in your sins” (8:24). [the pronoun “he” is not found in the original text, although it is in many English translations].

6. Jesus identifies himself as being the “I AM” who spoke to Moses, the very God “Yahveh” himself!

7. As Jesus continues speaking, he proclaims that Abraham rejoiced to see his day and was glad (8:56).

8. The Jews then questioned Jesus, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” (8:57).

9. And again Jesus identifies himself, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” (8:58).

10. Jesus identifies himself as being pre-existence and equally divine with Yahveh, the Great I AM. He has always existed along with God the Father and is not a created being (John 1:1; Col. 1:17).

11. Because of this, the Jews picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple (8:59).

D. Disciples’ view of Jesus’ identity

1. Jesus identified himself as being divine and equal with God the Father, proclaiming himself to be the Son of God.

2. Jesus followers firmly believed this to be Jesus’ true identity as well.

3. The Old Testament prophet Joel prophesied approximately 5 centuries before Jesus’ birth into the flesh, and proclaimed, “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD (Yahveh) will be saved” (2:32).

4. On the day of Pentecost, Peter quotes this passage from Joel (Acts 2:21), but applies it directly to Jesus the Nazarene (2:22), who Peter proclaims God raised from the dead making him both Lord and Christ (2:36).

5. Quoting this same passage from Joel, Paul in Romans 10 equates “calling on the name of the LORD (Yahveh)” with “confessing with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” (10:9, 13).

6. Again, Peter equates salvation by the name of Yahveh with the name of “Jesus Christ the Nazarene” in Acts 4:10. Regarding the name of Jesus, Peter says, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (4:12).

7. The followers of Jesus certainly equated Jesus of Nazareth with the God of creation (Yahveh), identifying him as the very Son of God.

Conclusion:

A. Response to Jesus’ Self Identity

1. Contrary to modern skeptic’s claims, the historical record demonstrates that Jesus of Nazareth was an actual historical figure.

2. During his life Jesus identified himself as being the uncreated, pre-existed Son of God equal to the God of all Creation.

3. Either Jesus of Nazareth was a lunatic in making these claims, or he was a liar trying to mislead the masses, or his claims were true and He really is the LORD.

4. The facts of the case prevent us from simply saying that Jesus was a “good moral teacher.” Either he was a liar or he is LORD. We must each decide for ourselves based on the evidence.

B. Response to Disciples’ Identity of Christ

1. The disciples that walked with Jesus would have known his true identity.

2. Had there been even a shred of doubt in their minds about whether Jesus really was who he claimed to be, these men would have renounced a belief in Jesus when faced with persecution.

3. Yet, after Jesus’ resurrection, these men were so convinced that Jesus really was the Son of God that they were each martyred for that very belief.

4. Why would they hold so strongly to the belief that Jesus is Real even in the face of heinous torture and death?

5. They had personally witnessed Jesus resurrection from the dead, and they knew that Jesus is Real.

6. All doubts were removed, and all would proclaim with Thomas, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28).