God or Myth?

This morning I’m going to start a series entitled, “Who Is Jesus?”

We’re going to look at Jesus and see if there is any evidence that Jesus was real outside of the scriptures.

We’re going to study and see if he was real, was he just a man or was he truly the son of God.

Throughout the next few weeks we’re going to ask if he is a friend or foe?

A way or the way?

Along with other questions about him.

Today we’re going to talk about whether Jesus was God or Myth?

A study in 2015 from the Church in England showed that 22% of adults thought Jesus was not a real person.

That he was a made up character.

Many other people are not sure.

They think he could be real but aren’t 100% confident.

We’re going to look today at some things that might help us see what’s really true.

And if you think about it he is definitely worth investigating.

Whether you are a believer or not, just knowing the impact this character has had in the world is worth looking into.

I mean this is a man whose teachings are illegal in many countries.

This is a man who has split history in two.

Our calendar B.C. and A.D. is based on the life of this man.

And the bottom line is 2 Billion people choose to follow him and his teachings.

I think he is worth looking into and seeing who he really is.

But the biggest question that you will be asked in this series is the question Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew 16.

Matthew 16:13 “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

Jesus is asking them, so what are people saying about me?

Who do people think I am?

Matthew 16:14 “They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

So people think that he’s basically an old prophet that's been brought back from the dead.

Or at least the spirit of those people may be living through him.

But then Jesus asks the most important question any of us will ever answer in our lives.

Matthew 16:15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

This is the question that we all need to answer.

And I want to start today by helping you answer that question by looking at what other people in history around Jesus’ time said about him.

These are writings and people not found in scripture.

But outside sources who mentioned Jesus in their writings.

I think this will help us see if Jesus was a real man or just a myth.

First let’s take a look at the writings of a man named Tacitus.

Tacitus was born in 56 A.D. and died in 120 A.D.

He was a Senator and one of the most well known Roman historians of his day.

He writes, “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 Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome…”

Suetonius, another historian at this time writes, “Claudius banished the Jews from Rome, who were continually making disturbances, Chrestus (Christ) being their leader.”

What’s interesting about this is that it goes along with what was written in Acts 18.

Acts 18:2 “There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.”

Pliny the Younger writes during this same time, “The Christians were accustomed to convene of a given day before dawn and sing a hymn antiphonally to Christ as if to a god…”

Again these are not the writings of the disciples but of Roman and Jewish historians at the time of Christ.

And then we go to Josephus.

Josephus was the best known Jewish historian during this time period.

He wrote, “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.”

This was written around 90 A.D.

So when we ask the question, “who is Jesus?” and we wonder if he was even a real person to begin with, I think we have answered that question.

We see that the writings of other people outside the disciples who mention him by name and whose writings line right up with what was written in the Gospels about him.

Some of these early writings are written by people who weren’t even believers in Christ.

They were just writing what had actually happened.

The bottom line is that any historian who has done any kind of research into this will tell you that Jesus was definitely a real man.

I remember I was listening to a radio station years ago and the host was interviewing a historian.

He made the comment to this historian that we don’t even know if Jesus was real.

The historian quickly said, “well actually yes we do.”

The host started to almost debate this man and the historian said, “I’m not even a Christian, I’m agnostic but any historian will tell you Jesus was definitely a real man who walked this earth.”

So you can have confidence that if someone tries to tell you that Jesus isn’t real or we don’t know for sure he ever existed, that person has clearly not done ANY research at all.

Anyone who has done any kind of intelligent research will acknowledge Jesus’ existence.

Anyone who denies it is most likely someone who is extremely anti-God and just can’t accept this truth.

So we answered the first part of who is Jesus?

We know he was a real person.

But what kind of person was he?

That’s the next question.

So let’s just see what Jesus himself said about who he is.

John 10:28-33 NIV “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

What did he just say?

He is the same as God the Father?

That didn’t go over well.

31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

So the problem with Jesus wasn’t that he did some pretty cool things.

It had nothing to do with the works he was doing.

It was the fact that he claimed to be God.

So this Jesus who was a real man went around claiming to be God.

So with that being the case there are only 3 options with who Jesus is.

He’s either a LIAR

A LUNATIC

Or He is the Son of God

There are no other options

You can’t just say he was a good man

He was a good moral leader

But he’s not the Son of God.

He’s either a pathological liar or a psycho!

Or he is who he said he was.

Think about this.

Jesus wasn’t crucified because of what He did.

That’s not what ticked the religious leaders off.

It was because of who he claimed to be.

So wouldn’t you think if Jesus wasn’t really the Son of God and he was just lying to everyone don’t you think he would have said something when they arrested him?

Don’t you think he would have been like, “whoa whoa whoa! I’m just kidding. It was just a joke.”

But he didn’t.

Look at what Jesus says to the religious leaders after they arrested him and asked him if he was the Messiah.

Mark 14:61-62 “Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Needless to say that’s all he needed to say for them to take him away.

And as I read before from the Jewish historians, we know that Jesus the man WAS crucified.

So the question that we have to wrestle with when it comes to Jesus is not whether he was real or even if he was crucified.

The evidence is overwhelming that those things did happen.

The question that we have to wrestle with is, are the claims that Jesus made true?

Is he who he said he was?

Let’s go back to Matthew 16 again.

Matthew 16:13-15 NIV “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

And then Peter, who we talked about a few weeks ago, who had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth and make some bad choices speaks up.

Matthew 16:16 NIV “Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Peter says that you are the one the prophets foretold about.

You are the One we’ve been waiting for.

But how did Peter know that?

Matthew 16:17-19 “Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, e and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus tells him that you didn’t come to that conclusion because someone else told you that.

Maybe that’s why you first started following me.

But you came to that conclusion because my Father, through the Holy Spirit, revealed that to you.

You see it’s all our jobs to investigate who Jesus is.

But at some point hopefully that investigation turns into revelation.

You’ve done your part, you’ve studied about Jesus and then something just clicks.

God gives you that revelation of who He is and just how real He is!

We’ve seen many people have this moment.

People like Lee Strobel who wrote the book, “The Case For Christ”.

Lee Strobel was a journalist and was on a mission to prove that Jesus was not who He said He was.

After his investigation he couldn’t deny it anymore and his investigation led to his revelation.

Now he has written many books defending Christianity and travels all over the world to teach about his findings about Jesus.

J. Warner Wallace had the same thing happen to him.

He was a Cold Case Detective and thought he could use his skills to prove that Jesus was not real or at least not who he said he was.

Once again his investigation led to a revelation to where he too has written books about his findings and he also travels and speaks about what he found.

The first book he wrote is called, “Cold Case Christianity”.

I recommend these books by either of these authors if you are wanting to study more about the evidence we have of the stories in the bible.

I believe if you truly looked up the evidence we have about the bible and Jesus, that your faith would grow tremendously.

That you would be one of those people whose investigation turns into a revelation.

And you too will be able to stand tall and say loudly that Jesus IS the Christ, the Son of the living God!

Because Jesus is asking you today, “who do you say that I am?”

It’s not about who your friends say he is.

It’s not about who your parents told you he is.

The question is who do YOU say that he is.

And that question is the most important question you will ever answer in your life.

That question will determine where you spend eternity.

But I’m here to tell you that you can have confidence in who Jesus is.

You see some people will say that there were lots of men who claimed to be the Messiah.

That had many followers.

What makes Jesus so different?

The difference is, and it’s the only difference that matters, is that those other men are lying in a grave somewhere today.

Jesus’ tomb is empty because on the third day he rose again PROVING that he wasn’t a liar or a crazy person but that he is the Son of God!

And now he is standing at the right hand of the Father!

Church I assure you Jesus is very real.

But the question you have to wrestle with today is who do you say he is?

And if you say he is the Christ the Son of the living God then it’s time to give your life to Him!

Altar Call