Did You Get the “TEXT” About My Son? – God
NIELSEN: TEXTING NOW MORE POPULAR THAN CALLING
The Nielsen Company, recently, released figures showing that the typical U.S. mobile subscriber now sends and receives more SMS text messages than they do mobile telephone calls.
As of Q2 2008, a typical U.S. mobile subscriber sends or receives 357 text messages per month, compared to placing or receiving 204 phone calls.Though the number of calls has remained relatively steady, the number of text messages is up 450% from just two years prior.
When a friend or a co-worker asks, “Did you get my Text?” Are they just asking if you received it? Of course not, they want to know that you took the time necessary to read it.
If you brought your cell phone please get it out and turn them on. In a few moments some of you will receive a text message, if you receive a message please share it with those around you.
Text Message Reads – “You have the text message God sent you, it has 774,746 words…The Holy Bible” (Have congregation turn their phones off)
God is ‘texting’ all of us and from every word of the Bible. In the “Text” of Scripture God is speaking to us in Old Testament history, calling us to rejoice in His marvelous works in creation and providence. He’s speaking to us in the Psalms, giving us magnificent examples of repentance, worship and commitment. He speaks to us through the Prophets, proclaiming His sovereign dealings with mankind and warning us of judgment to come. He’s speaking to us in the Gospels, drawing us to Christ, the only Redeemer and Savior of sinners. In the “TEXT” of Scripture God calls us to salvation. He’s speaking to us in Acts of the Apostles, as we read the story of the young churches and gives us the necessary blueprint for what the church should look like today. He’s speaking to us in the Letters to the churches from the apostles, showing us how to live in a way worthy of the gospel. He’s speaking to us in Revelation, allowing us to get a glimpse of heaven and let’s us know we are victorious because His Son is victorious. God is speaking, He has sent us the completed “TEXT”, are we paying attention?
If God were to ask you, “Did you get my Text?”
Our answer would be yes Lord, we have your Holy Word, all of us have Bible’s. But what if He asked the followup question, “Did you pay attention to what it said about my Son?
God has revealed to all a complete text about His Son.
Hebrews 1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
God has revealed to all a complete text about His Son and He expects us to Pay Attention
Hebrews 2:1We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (NIV)
This is the first of five admonitions found in the Book of Hebrews and its purpose is to encourage all readers to pay attention to God’s Word (His text message to us) and obey it. This warning is written to believers and the writer includes himself when he writes “we.”
Don’t drift away; don’t neglect your salvation, pay attention to the great salvation you have received from the Lord.
But what if you have drifted away, what if you have neglected God’s Word, prayer, worship and worshipping together with God’s People. Then you are in the right place at the right time, because together we will examine the man Jesus and much more…
We all can benefit from a Historical, Intelligent and Rational Faith, based upon real people, places and events, which actually took place during New Testament times. You will be encouraged to use your minds as we examine historical evidence that logically supports first placing your faith in the fact that Jesus the man existed and this Jesus of Nazareth is who He said He was, the Son of God and our Savior.
Evidence’s for a Historical JESUS
Warning – This next section will be a bit dry for some who hear or read this Sermon, “but” please remember many people come to me and ask to go deeper in their walk as a Disciple and we all need to be able to give reasons for the hope that we have.
Let’s begin - Evidence’s for a Historical JESUS
Thallus – a Samaritan historian. 52 A.D.
Wrote about the darkness which occurred at the crucifixion of Jesus and tried to give it a natural explaination, “that it was an eclipse of the sun.”
Luke 22:44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
The 9th century Christian chronologer George Syncellus cites Julius Africanus as writing in reference to the darkness mentioned in the synoptic gospels as occurring at the death of Jesus:
Thallus calls this darkness an eclipse of the Sun in the third book of his Histories, without reason it seems to me.
Africanus then goes on to point out that an eclipse cannot occur at Passover when the moon is full and therefore diametically opposite the Sun.
Special Note - Thallus did not deny the existence of Jesus; he only tried to explain the strange circumstances that occurred at His death.
Letter of Mara Bar-Serapion –a Syrian writer
Mara Bar-Serapion was a Syrian who wrote a letter to his son, sometime between the late first century and early third century. This letter is now in the British Museum.
According to professor F F Bruce
(http://www.facingthechallenge.org/serapion.php)
Mara Bar-Serapion was in prison at the time, but he wrote to encourage his son in the pursuit of wisdom, and pointed out that those who persecuted wise men were overtaken by misfortune. He instances the deaths of Socrates, Pythagoras and Christ.
This is what Bar-Serapion said:
What advantage did the Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samon gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after this that their kingdom was abolished. God justly avenged these three wise men: the Athenians died of hunger; the Samians were overwhelmed by the sea; the Jews ruined and driven from their land, live in dispersion. But Socrates did not die for good; he lived on in the teaching of Plato. Pythagoras did not die for good; he lived on in the statue of Hera. Nor did the wise king die for good; he lived on in the teaching which he had given.
CORNELIUS TACITUS 55A.D. – 120 A.D. - Ancient Roman historian
The most famous passage in which Tacitus mentions Christianity is as follows (Annals 15.44):
Such indeed were the precautions of human wisdom. The next thing was to seek means of propitiating the gods, and recourse was had to the Sibylline books, by the direction of which prayers were offered to Vulcanus, Ceres, and Proserpina. Juno, too, was entreated by the matrons, first, in the Capitol, then on the nearest part of the coast, whence water was procured to sprinkle the fane and image of the goddess. And there were sacred banquets and nightly vigils celebrated by married women. But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order.
Consequently, to get rid of the report, 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, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed.
Pliny the Younger - was governor of Pontus and Bithynia from 111-113 CE.
We have a whole set of exchanges of his letters with the emperor Trajan on a variety of administrative political matters. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/pliny.html
Please allow me to share some exerts;
Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96-97 Pliny the Younger to the Emperor Trajan
It is my practice, my lord, to refer to you all matters concerning which I am in doubt. For who can better give guidance to my hesitation or inform my ignorance? I have never participated in trials of Christians. I therefore do not know what offenses it is the practice to punish or investigate, and to what extent. And I have been not a little hesitant as to whether there should be any distinction on account of age or no difference between the very young and the more mature; whether pardon is to be granted for repentance, or, if a man has once been a Christian, it does him no good to have ceased to be one; whether the name itself, even without offenses, or only the offenses associated with the name are to be punished.
Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome.
Trajan to Pliny the Younger
You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it--that is, by worshiping our gods--even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution. For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age.
Let’s review who acknowledged Jesus so far and the Geography they represent… (
Show Map of Palestine in New Testament Times)
Thallus a Samaritan historian. 52 A.D.did not deny the existence of Jesus; he only tried to explain the strange circumstances that occurred at His death.
Letter of Mara Bar-Serapion – a Syrian
Cornelius Tacitus 55A.D. – 120 A.D. - Ancient Roman historian wrote of Christus and Christianity multiple times in his historic writings.
Pliny the Younger - governor of Pontus and Bithynia in Asia Minor wrote to the emperor Trajan about Christians and their devotion to Christ.
None of these leaders and historic writer’s who represent large area’s of the known world were Christian and yet they didn’t deny the existence of the man “Jesus”.
But what about the Jews, after all wasn’t Jesus a Jew, do they acknowledge he existed?
THE TALMUD
Consists of two separate books dealing with Jewish law, written during the period from 100 A.D. to 500 A.D. and it speaks frequently of Jesus.
He is not spoken of in friendly terms and yet they never dispute His status as a historical figure.
FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS - Jewish general turned Roman historian, born 37 A.D.
Makes several references to Jesus in his History of the Jews – "...and brought before it the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, whose name was James."
There are two passage in which first century Jewish historian Jospehus speaks of Jesus of Nazerath. This passage is known as the Testimonium Flavianum (hense forth "TF").
The TF:
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 wonders, A TEACHER OF SUCH MEN AS RECEIVE THE TRUTH WITH PLEASURE. He drew many after him BOTH OF THE JEWS AND THE GENTILES. HE WAS THE CHRIST. 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 DAY, AS THE DIVINE PROPHETS HAD FORETOLD THESE AND THEN THOUSAND OTHER WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUT HIM, and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day" (Antiquities 18:63-64). (caps represent the disputed sections)
THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS EVIDENCE
It provides a solid basis upon which one can intelligently believe in Jesus as a person who actually existed in history.
It requires everyone to give some sort of answer to the question posed by Jesus Himself: "But who do you say that I am?" - Matthew 16:1
Conclusion
For now, we have simply laid one block as we build a foundation upon which we can rest our faith...
We have seen that it is more logical to believe that Jesus did in fact exist and since He actually existed, that requires our giving an answer to the question Jesus asked: "WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?"
We only have two choices, He either is the Lord or He is a lie. The evidence (Text Message’s from the Lord or from historical evidence) will continue next week, please plan to be with us.
Let us pray!
