M.Clugston

Feb 01/05

THE DA VINCI CODE DECEPTION

Matthew 16 & 19; 2 Peter 1:13-19

Intro:  Matthew 16 is a critical turning point in the ministry of Jesus Christ.  By this time He has been preaching for several months.  He was well-known and His fame had spread far and wide.  The common people had embraced Him.  They had seen his miracles and heard His teaching and word had spread from village to village and on the dusty roads of Galilee… but many wondered who He was.

    The religious leaders didn’t like what they were hearing.  He was a threat and there had been bitter confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees.  They had even said that He had come straight from Hell.

    When we come to Matthew 16 it is clear that His own people had rejected Jesus.  His fate was sealed… the shadow of the cross loomed overhead.  So Jesus in the midst of growing opposition and rising turmoil that would lead eventually to Golgotha did an unusual thing.  He took His disciples and went 120 miles north of Jerusalem to a place called Caesarea Philippi.    What happened there would change the course of history.  It was there that He conducted the first Gallup Poll.

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     He asked his disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” (vs.13).  The disciples knew what others were saying about Jesus.  Some thought that He was John the Baptist… or one of the prophets… but Jesus wanted a personal response:  “Who do you say that I am?” (vs. 15).   Jesus pressed for their answer because the question went to the heart of who He was as a person.  Was He just an extraordinary man, or was He something more?

    Peter answers for all the disciples, that’s because he was the D.L. – the Designated Loudmouth.  His answer was very specific… “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16).

    Today many different portraits of Jesus have emerged.  There’s black Jesus and white Jesus… there’s homely and handsome Jesus.  Jesus the capitalist… the socialist.  Jesus the countercultural hippie…the Jewish reactionary…Jesus the charismatic rabbi…even Jesus the homosexual magician… Jesus the hardworking social reformer, mystical comforter.    But the Da Vinci Code offers a different Jesus.  Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code says Jesus was a married man… that He was a feminist… a mortal prophet.  So it is clear that everyone has an opinion about Jesus.

     So who is the authentic Jesus?   This message is to give a credible answer to the question, “Who is Jesus?”

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     So let’s start with the deception that is found in the book called The Da Vinci Code.

I.  The Deception 

     If you’ve not read “The Da Vinci Code,” I’ll give you a Reader’s Digest version of some novel ideas that I hope will shock you.  Such as:

    . Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.

    . They had a daughter named Sarah and after Jesus’ crucifixion, Mary fled with their child to France and intermarried with the French royal family. 

    . All of this has been known for centuries, but the truth has been kept from the public for fear of destroying the power of the church!

    . The book also claims that Jesus intended Mary Magdalene to lead the church, but “Peter had a problem with that,” thus she was declared a prostitute and cut out of the role of leadership.

    . In Da Vinci’s well-known painting of the Lord’s Supper, it is not John who is sitting on Jesus right, but rather Mary Magdalene. 

    . Along the way, Brown also suggests the church invented the deity of Jesus.

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    In this best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown blurs the lines between history and fiction, leaving readers wondering, could this really be true?  By distorting the truth, Brown implies that Christianity is based on a lie.

    One character in the book says, “Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.  The New Testament is simply the result of a male-dominated leadership that invented Christianity in order to control the Roman Empire and to oppress women.  The real Jesus was the original feminist, but his wishes were ignored to foster the male agenda.”

     If The Da Vinci Code” were billed as just a novel, as it is, it would be an interesting read for conspiracy buffs who like a fast-paced thriller, but Dan Brown’s agenda is not so thinly veiled:  the book is a direct attack against Jesus Christ…against the church… and against those of us who are his followers and call Him Savior and Lord. 

    The upshot of this theory is that Christianity is based on a big lie or rather, several big lies.  What Brown does is he takes what the Bible says and adds to it significantly.  His statement that Mary was married to Jesus and that the marriage is a matter of historical record is simply not true.  There is no accepted historical record whatsoever to that effect.  What the Da Vinci Code does it presents heresy as historical fact.

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    So what drives this?  On his website, Dan Brown says he has a desire to promote the idea of the sacred feminine, that is, goddess worship.  In fact, one of the characters in the book says the quest for the Holy Grail is literally the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdalene. 

    But let me also expose you to a group of so-called scholars that discredit the New Testament portrait of Christ.  They are known as the Jesus Seminar.

II.  The Discredit

    The Jesus Seminar meets regularly in California to vote on what they believe Christ did or did not say and do.  The participants devised a creative plan on how to cast their ballots.  Each person drops a plastic bead into a bucket.  The color of the bead signifies the scholar’s opinion.  Red means “That’s Jesus!”  Pink:  “Sure sounds like Jesus”; Gray:  “Well, maybe”; Black:  “There has been some mistake.”

    Their conclusion is that He may actually have spoken only about 18% of the words ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels.  The rest of the saying were apparently made up by the early church and put into the mouth of Jesus.  Of course, the resurrection of Christ was rejected, along with all the other miracles and we should not be surprised that they concluded that Jesus did not say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:  no man comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

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    These left-wing liberals’ stated purpose is to change the way people think about Jesus.  They have gone public, and national newspapers regularly report their conclusions…just as ABC gave credence to The Da Vinci Code novel, ignoring serious Biblical and historical evidence in favor of sensationalist rumor and ill-founded speculation.  What is the media doing?  They want to “free the Bible from the religious right.”  They believe that our culture needs a new view of Jesus.  A Jesus who speaks to modern concerns such as feminism, ecology, multiculturalism, and political correctness.  What they want is a Jesus who is just a mere man.

    So you have a choice.  Either accepted Him as He is portrayed in the New Testament… or confess ignorance about Him… or believe some hogwash that Dan Brown and the Jesus Seminar are teaching.  Your choice!

    So what should we believe?  I want us to see what the Scriptures declare and then you decide.

III.  The Declaration    2 Peter 1:13-19

    Let’s begin with this question:  Is it possible, as liberal theologians suggest, that Jesus’ followers made up the stories about Him out of a desire to turn a mere man into the Son of God?  This is the teaching that we’ve just looked at from The Da Vinci Code, the Jesus Seminar and others who attempt to strip Jesus of His divinity.

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     From the great theologian, Oscar Meyer, these theories are baloney. 

    But let’s look at this realistically.   Jesus would have been a poor candidate to choose for deity.  His teaching contradicted the messianic expectation of the times.  The Jews of the day were expecting a messiah who would come with the sword to kill the Romans and restore the land to the Jews.  The common census was that the Messiah would unite Israel and Judah against the Romans.  This hardly sounds like the Jesus who said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).  Also the fact that Jesus was crucified for blasphemy is sufficient grounds for rejecting the idea that Jesus fulfilled the messianic dreams of the time.

    So there is only one rational reason why Jesus is portrayed in the New Testament as God:  Jesus Himself made such claims and the evidence convinced the disciples that He spoke the truth.  Now remember the disciples were hardheaded hardworking fishermen whose skepticism had to be overcome by a man who claimed to be the Messiah and had the miracles and wisdom to prove it!

    *Thomas, for example, was not about to believe in the Resurrection, not even on the testimony of 10 guys he had hung out with for 3 years.  He said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:25).

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    So what does Jesus do?  He graciously granted Thomas’s request.  Suddenly he came through a locked door and said, “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.”  Thomas’s response?  “My Lord and my God!”  (John 20:26-28)

    Does that sound like a gullible man who was willing to believe fanciful tales about a would-be Messiah?  Listen friends, the portrait of Jesus in the Gospels could not have been manufactured.  Like the centurion who watched Christ die, we are compelled to add our voices to those who say, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).

    Let me give you some more evidence:

    The apostle Peter, knowing that he was about to die, wanted to leave a final witness to his readers about the historical Jesus.  Please open your Bibles to 2 Peter.  Peter writes, “I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.  And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things” (1:13-15).

    Why did he say that?  Because the false teachers in Peter’s day… every age has had them… were attacking the doctrine of the glorious return of Jesus.  So Peter stands up and gives them 2 testimonies.

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  A.  Eyewitness Testimony    vs. 16

    Peter is speaking to those who disbelieve in a miraculous Jesus.  Peter said in vs.16, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

    We could translate it this way:  “We did not follow sophisticated myths.”  In other words, the apostles were not carried away by fanaticism… they were not prone to accept questionable accounts that could not be checked out.

    In The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown said that thousands of secret documents exist that disproves Christianity.  Let’s call his bluff and insist that he find them and present them to the world!  Man, it’s just a cheap shot to make such a claim without offering the tiniest shred of evidence.  How desperate one must be to build a case for unbelief on imaginary documents.

    Peter continued, “For he received honor and glory from God the Father…” (vs.17a). 

    What is Peter talking about?  Peter is referring to the Transfiguration of Jesus.   He saw for himself the glory and honor given to Jesus.  So what happened on the Mt. of Transfiguration?  There was a glorious change in the person of Jesus.  The face of Jesus began to shine with an intense light. 

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    His garments became white and His whole being radiated glory (Matt 17:1-8). 

    But just leave it to some critics who suggest that Jesus was praying on the mountaintop when the sun suddenly broke through the clouds and shone on Him, so that His appearance only seemed to be supernaturally changed.  But the Scriptures go to great lengths to underscore that this was a supernatural change.  Peter, James and John witnessed a brightness of light and a whiteness of white for which there was no earthly explanation.

    What happened to Jesus?  For a moment a glimpse of eternity shone through the veil of His humanity.  The disciples caught a glimpse of the glory that was the Son’s long before He was born on earth as a human being… a glimpse of Jesus’ pre-existent glory. 

    Let me remind you that in the great prayer of Jesus that is recorded in John 17:5: “And now, father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”  This glory, which belonged to God the Son before the moment of creation, was suddenly revealed to Peter, James and John on that mountaintop.  

    I am sure that this is what John refers to in his gospel when he writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory” (John 1:14).

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     Although John was an eyewitness to the Transfiguration, he does not record the event in his gospel.  Yet his statement, “We have see his glory,” leaves no doubt in my mind that John is referring to his vivid recollection of that astounding moment on the mountain.

    One further truth, Peter, James and John saw firsthand the glory the Son of God will have in the coming kingdom.  WOW!  They saw a glimpse of Jesus as He exists apart from the limitation of the flesh.  They were on the front row to His transfiguration and Peter knew that Jesus’ promise of a coming kingdom would not die with Him. Now Peter continues…

  B.  Ear Witnesses Testimony    vs.17b-18

    “…when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘this is my Son whom I love: with him I am well please.  We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.”

    Just think of the arrogance of those who believe they have a better grasp on what happened over 2000 years ago than those who were eye and ear witnesses of His majesty.  Who are we going to believe… those with a strong antisupernatural bias… or those who were actually there and saw it all?  Personally, I hope you join me in believing those who assure us that they did not follow sophisticated myths!

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    Peter then reminded readers that the disciples’ experiences confirmed prophecy.  “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart” (vs. 19).

    What is he saying?  What we saw on the Mount of Transfiguration makes it even more certain that what is foretold in the prophets about the Second Coming must be true.  The glory they saw on the mount is the strongest evidence that the prophets spoke the truth. 

   Ever wondered why Moses and Elijah were there?  Moses represented the Law and Elijah represented the prophets…. both the Law and the prophets pointed to Jesus.

    Then Peter added, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.  For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (vs.20-21).

    The mark of a false prophet in the O.T. was that he was making up the message or confusing his own thoughts with God’s thoughts (Ezekiel 13:3).  The true prophet often had to proclaim what he did not want to say or he often had to bring hard messages no one would be tempted to make up.

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    So what is Peter saying?  Peter says the Trinity confirmed the deity of Jesus:  the disciples saw the Son… they heard the Father… and they confirmed that the Holy Spirit inspired the writings. 

    So we are faced with a decision:  whose opinion should we believe?  Should we follow those who want to make Jesus a mere man… or… those who are credible eye and ear witnesses of these first century events?  If the N.T. were built on fabrications, its credibility would have been destroyed long ago.

    Did you know that no other book has been so chopped… sliced… sifted… scrutinized than the Bible?  No other book has had such a mass attack as the Bible.  It has been attacked with such venom… such skepticism… such thoroughness… every chapter… every line… but… the Bible is still loved and studied by millions.

    Perhaps the reason for the Bible’s longevity can be found, not in the men who wrote it, but in the God who inspired it.  “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

    As I close this message, I invite you to bow before Christ… not the Christ of The Da Vinci Code but the Christ of the N.T., who invites all to come to him for grace and forgiveness.

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    We do well to bow before the Christ of the N.T… accept His claims… and believe that His crucifixion was a sacrifice for sinners.  And when we do, we have the promise, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God”

(John 1:12-13).

    *When Lloyd C Douglas, the author of The Robe and other novels, was a university student, he lived in a boarding house.  Downstairs on the first floor was an elderly, retired music teacher, now infirm and unable to leave the apartment.

    Douglas said that every morning they had a ritual they would go through together.  He would come down the steps, open the old man’s door, and ask, “Well, what’s the good news?”

    The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair and says, “That’s Middle C!  It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now.  The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but my friend, that is middle C!”

    The old man had discovered one thing upon which he could depend, one constant reality in his life, the one “still point in a turning world.”  For Christians, the one “still point in a turning world,” is the unchanging Jesus.