What About Jesus?…I’m Glad You Asked!

Introduction

Question: How do we know Jesus is the One and Only? How can we trust we are following the One True God?

This is not only a great question…it is the question!

It is estimated that there are thousands upon thousands of belief systems in our world today. The vast majority of those fall within the big 4: Christian beliefs (~2.3 - 2.5 Billion), Islamic beliefs (~1.9-2 Billion), Hindu beliefs (~1.2 Billion), and Buddhistic (~500 million) beliefs…

Outside of these categories there are many others including Judaism, Sikhism, Jainism, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, folk/traditional beliefs, etc.

Out of all of these varying beliefs…how do we know which one is real? How can we know which one is true?

What we should not rely on:

Numbers of adherents…

Popularity or trends…

Sincerity of followers…

You can be sincere and passionate…and still be wrong!

Every religious ideology makes claims about truth…those truth claims have hold up under their own merits or they are false.

These truth claims are so distinct and so different, that we must acknowledge that they cannot all be true!

Not going to explore all the truth claims of the most well known belief systems…

You don’t search for counterfeits by looking for all of the marks that are false…you seek to establish firmly the marks that are true…when you know all of the true details, the counterfeits will flush themselves out.

If that is a topic of interest, let me know and we could spend some better time on Sunday evenings deep diving into how to give a defense of the hope that we have in the context of other belief systems.

How do we know Jesus is the One and Only? How can we trust we are seeking truth and following the One True God?

1) The Proclamations of Jesus!

Jesus claims divinity

John 8:58 “58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.””

John 10:30 “30 I and the Father are one.””

John 14:9 “9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

His opponents understood this words to claim divinity:

John 5:18 “18 This was why the Jews 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.”

John 10:33 “33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.””

John 17:5 “5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

John 8:23“23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

Jesus claims exclusivity

John 8:24 “24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.””

John 14:6 “6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 3:16–18 “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

These proclamations and several others of Jesus eliminate the idea that Jesus was just a good teacher or a good prophet.

C. S. Lewis, the 20th Century British Skeptic and Atheist turned Believer is quoted as saying, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Lewis does what we all should do…let the claims of Christ stand within their own merit!

Lewis’ conclusion is that the claims Jesus makes about Himself lead one to trilemma: Jesus is either a Lunatic, a Liar, or He is indeed Lord!

2) The Prophecies Jesus Fulfills!

Birth and Origins

Isaiah 7:14 “14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Micah 5:2 “2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

Isaiah 9:6–7 “6 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. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

2 Samuel 7:12–16 “12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ””

One aspect of OT prophecy says that Jesus must be born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, and of the direct lineage to King David…in Jesus’ life…this is what we see!

Ministry

Isaiah 40:3–5 “3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.””

Malachi 3:1 “1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

Malachi 4:5–6 “5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.””

Matthew 11:13–14 “13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.”

Zechariah 9:9 “9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Matthew 21 tells us that this prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus

Isaiah 61:1–2 “1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;”

Luke 4:16–21 “16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.””

The Prophecies regarding specific aspects of Messianic ministry we fulfilled by Jesus: He had a forerunner in the spirit of Elijah; ministered to the poor, broken-hearted, and oppressed; He healed the blind; and proclaimed the Lord’s favor; rode into Jerusalem triumphantly on the colt of a donkey.

Passion and Death

Isaiah 53 describes for us a suffering servant that was to come…

Psalm 22 describes many of the details we see in his crucifixion…1000 years before He was crucified and nearly 600 years before the Romans invented crucifixion!

Psalm 69:21 “21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”

Psalm 34:20 “20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.”

Psalm 41:9 “9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”

Jesus’ death and crucifixion was foretold long before He came…He fulfilled even some of the craziest, minute details!

Resurrection and Exaltation Foretold

Psalm 16:10 “10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.”

Isaiah 53:10–12 “10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

In regards to fulfilling Messianic prophecy, mathematician Peter Stoner has concluded, “Imagine covering the entire state of Texas with silver dollars two feet deep (about 10^17 coins). Mark one silver dollar, stir them thoroughly, blindfold a person, and have them pick one coin at random. The odds of picking the marked one are the same as one person fulfilling eight specific prophecies by chance.” Extending the math to fulfill 48 of the over one hundred prophecies that Jesus is demonstrated to fulfill is 10^157. It is currently estimated the total of atoms in the known universe equals around 10^80!

3) The Power of the Resurrection!

1 Corinthians 15:1–20 “1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first 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 five 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. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

John 20:24–28 “24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” 26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!””

The greatest and most audacious claim of Christianity is that after Jesus was crucified, He was confirmed dead, buried in a tomb, rose from the dead 3 days later, later ascended into heaven, and is awaiting a return at the appropriate and destined time!

No other religious system of belief makes such an audacious claim!

This claim above all others must stand in its own merit…and if found to be true would solidify every claim and every prophecy. It would give us all that we need to reasonably place our faith and trust in Jesus as the One and only!

Romans 10:8–9 “8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

1 Corinthians lays out the case for us:

1-Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures (Isa. 53)

2-He was buried and raised on the third day

3- Eye witnesses: Peter, the 12, more than 500 at one time (most of whom were alive at the time of writing and collaborate the claim!), James and to Paul (who is writing)

Beyond the writing of 1 Corinthians we have realities of death of the eye witnesses for refusing to change their testimony of what they have seen: It is nearly impossible that many would die in brutal ways for a lie!

Closing

We can have great confidence in Christ because of His Proclamations, the fulfillment of Prophecies, and the Power of His resurrection!

The next greatest question is what will you do with Jesus?

Faith in Jesus is not blind…It is placing trust and confidence in the One who is demonstrably worthy! Denying Christ is denying life itself in order to love a lie more than truth!

You may be there today and the Holy Spirit is drawing you to get off the fence and to place your faith and trust in Jesus. You can’t just write Him off as a good moral teacher. He is Lord! What will you do in regard to Him?

John 3:18 “18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

It’s Your move!