The Case for Christ
by Scott R. Bayles, preacher
Church of Christ, Freeport, Illinois
One day, a handful of Greek men approached Phillip and said, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21). Seeing Jesus has been on the minds of spiritual seekers ever since. Jesus is the world’s preeminent character. We date our letters, our birth certificates, our checks, and everything else from the year of His birth. The greatest event in human history was the coming of Jesus into this world. The greatest words ever spoken were His words. The greatest deeds ever done were accomplished by His hands. The greatest gift ever offered was His blood at Calvary. Whatever progress the human race, especially in Western society, has made has been due to His influence. Jesus stands alone in all of history.
The would-be world conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, once said, “I search in vain in history to find anyone similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach His gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature offer me anything which I am able to compare Him or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
Of course, to claim that Jesus was the greatest or most influential man to ever live is on thing. To claim that He was and is God Himself, that’s quite another. How do we know that Jesus really was who He claimed to be? How do we know that the carpenter from Nazareth is the God through whom all the universe was crafted?
I have encountered so many people who don’t believe in Jesus. What amazes me is that some people still doubt whether Jesus ever lived—they think that the stories of His life fall into the same category as fairy tales and legends. Of course, no serious student of history questions Jesus’ existence. In addition to the New Testament, 39 ancient sources such as Pliny, Josephus, Tacitus, and the Jewish Talmud, all refer to the life of Jesus, His teachings, crucifixion and sometimes His resurrection. Ignatius, who was a pupil of the apostle John and martyred for his faith in Jesus, wrote about Jesus just 70 years after the crucifixion, saying, “He was condemned: He was crucified in reality, and not in appearance, not in imagination, not in deceit. He really died, and was buried, and rose from the dead.”
In reality, there is more attestation or evidence for the life of Jesus Christ than there is for the life of Julius Caesar. But believing in Jesus means much more than simply believing that He existed. Jesus once asked His disciples, “Who are the people saying I am?” (Matthew 16:13 TLB). They gave a variety of answers but Peter capped the discussion by saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16 NKJV).
Many months later, Peter would back up his claim as he preached the first recorded message after Jesus’ death and resurrection to a standing-room-only crowd on the day of Pentecost—50 days after the resurrection. As Peter preached, he was building a case. And as he reached the climax of his message that day, he announced: “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Christ!” (Acts 2:36 NLT). The word Christ was the Greek word for Messiah.
It’s important to understand that the words “Christ” and “Jesus” had two different meanings to Peter’s audience. The revelation that Jesus is the Christ/Messiah changed the lives of many of his listeners, and they would never be the same. But let’s back up a step. In this sermon, Peter offers three pieces evidence in his case for Christ—evidence that confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. The first item that Peter enters into evidence is the miracles of Jesus.
• THE MIRACLES OF JESUS
Peter began his morning message, saying, “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know” (Acts 2:22 NLT). Miracles, wonders, and signs are three words the New Testament often uses to refer to the same thing. The word “miracle” refers to what was done; the word “wonder” refers to the effect a miracle had on people; and the term “sign” indicated the purpose of the miracle. These miracles were signs that God was with those who did them.
In the book of John, we read of seven great miracles that Jesus performed, beginning with the changing of water into wine and ending with the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The four Gospels together record more than three dozen specific miracles that Jesus of Nazareth performed during His ministry. Peter’s audience was well aware of these acts of divine power. The deeds Jesus did had not been done in a dark corner somewhere; the fact He had performed mighty miracles was common knowledge. The Pharisees had accused Jesus of performing miracles by the power of Beelzebul, but they could not deny that He had performed them. The Talmud, a Jewish book of history and law, claims that Jesus was a sorcerer and he performed miracles through the dark arts. But the fact that they record this validates that Jesus really did perform the miracles. The Talmud actually provides accidental corroboration for the Bible’s claims.
When Peter said “as you well know,” he probably flung his arms wide. During the past fifty days, the hottest topic of conversation in the city of Jerusalem had surely been Jesus of Nazareth—His life, His crucifixion, the empty tomb where His body had been placed, the rumors concerning what had happened to His body. Everyone present, even those who did not live in Palestine, would have been acquainted with the name of Jesus and the well-documented miracles He had performed.
Jesus performed miracles of healing, miracles of nature, and even miracles of restoring life. And all of them were carefully documented by not just one, but four biographers who believed so fully that Jesus was the promised Messiah, that they gave their lives for sharing their faith. When confronted with the signs and wonders of Jesus, Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish high council, concluded: “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher sent from God, because no one can do the miracles you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2 NLT). Can we conclude anything less? The miracles of Jesus are powerful evidence that He was, in fact, the Christ, the Son of God. But, then Peter provides another piece of evidence—the prophesies of Jesus.
• THE PROPHESIES OF JESUS
Peter says that “Jesus was given to you, and with the help of those who don’t know the law, you put him to death by nailing him to a cross. But this was God’s plan which he had made long ago; he knew all this would happen” (Acts 2:23 NCV), then goes on to quote one of the many prophesies made by David concerning the coming Messiah. The Jews would have listened closely at the mention of David. “The sweet psalmist of Israel” remained a favorite of the Israelite people. They believed that the Messiah would be a descendant of David and a rightful heir to David’s throne. Why would they believe that? Because it was prophesied many centuries before Jesus was born.
The religious leaders and the Jewish people in the first-century fully believed that the prophets spoke of a coming Messiah. For example, when the wise men came from the east to Jerusalem seeking the newborn Messiah, Herod called on the chief priests and scribes to tell him where the Christ was supposed to be born. In reply, they cited the prophet Micah, who wrote, “O Bethlehem, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past” (Micah 5:2 TLB). Thus, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Of course, that’s just one prophesy. There are over a hundred predictive prophesies in the Old Testament Scriptures concerning the Christ that were recorded centuries before Jesus was ever born: He was to be called the Son of God (Psalm 2:7); He was to be a descendant David (Psalm 89:3); He was to be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14); He was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); He would minister in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1); He would be betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9); He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12); He would face His accusers in silence (Isaiah 53:7); He would be crucified with sinners (Isaiah 53:12); His hands and feet would be pierced (Psalm 22:16). The list just goes on and on. These prophesies act like a fingerprint that only Jesus could match.
The prophets wrote from different countries, in different languages, on different subjects, to different people, and from different points of view, yet their testimony makes Christ the grand center and objective. The coming of the Messiah was so definite and specific that no impostor could ever usurp the scepter. Jesus fulfilled every detail. Not one of the predictions concerning Jesus missed the mark. Have you ever seriously analyzed the implications of those prophesies?
Peter Stoner, a distinguished mathematician, calculated the odds of just eight of the predictive prophecies about Jesus having been fulfilled coincidentally in the life of one man. Based on the laws of chance and probability, the odds are 1:1017 (a one with seventeen zeros following it)! Let me help you make that huge number sink in a little more sensibly. A dollar bill is six inches long. It would take 10,560 dollar bills laid end-to-end to extend one mile. The moon is about 239,000 miles from the earth. So, it would take 2,523,840,000 dollar bills laid end-to-end to extend from the earth to the moon. But that’s just a little over two and a half billion; the number Peter Stoner calculated is mind boggling. If you possessed that many dollar bills, you could lay them end-to-end and stretch them from the earth to the moon and back twenty times. Now imagine that one of those bills is counterfeit, and you have to randomly pick it out on the first try. And that is just eight prophesies. Jesus fulfilled over a hundred of them to the smallest detail.
But even if we are not convinced by the miracles of Jesus or prophesies of Jesus, Peter goes one to provide one final piece of evidence: the resurrection of Jesus.
• THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
Peter may have pointed a finger at the crowd saying, “you put him to death by nailing him to a cross” (Acts 2:23 NCV). But then He announces: “God raised Jesus from the dead and set him free from the pain of death, because death could not hold him” (vs. 24 NCV). And Peter repeats it emphatically, “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this” (vs. 32 NLT).
In the time between Passover and Pentecost, curious Jews had probably gone to the empty tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and peered into its darkness. Many were probably asking the question, “What happened to the body?” This question must still be answered by those who do not believe in the Resurrection. To destroy Christianity, the enemies of that fledgling movement had merely to produce the body of Jesus. They couldn’t do it. It was common knowledge that every precaution had been taken to assure that the body of Jesus was not stolen. It was also common knowledge that the next morning, the tomb was empty. What happened to the body? The friends of Jesus could not have taken it (it was too well guarded); the enemies of Jesus would not have taken it (that would have accomplished the opposite of what they wanted). Nevertheless, it was gone. Peter said, in effect, the answer to the puzzle was simple: Jesus has risen!
Rumors may have been circulating: “I know a man who knows a man who claims to have seen Jesus of Nazareth alive after He died.” Peter answers all the spoken and unspoken questions: Jesus has risen! He had been given the sentence of death, but God had reversed the verdict: “God raised Jesus from the dead!” When the time arrived for Jesus to come forth from the tomb, “death could not hold him.”
How exciting are the words, “God raised Jesus from the dead”! These words are the heartbeat of Christianity. The Resurrection is mentioned over one hundred times in the New Testament. More than anything else, the Apostles were witnesses of the Resurrection. In addition to the original twelve, Paul (who was once a persecutor of Christians) also saw Jesus risen form the dead. Paul writes, “He was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:4). The Resurrection gave their voices strength, their hearts courage, and their feet wings! The apostles believed not in a dead Savior, but in a living Redeemer, who helped and strengthened them. Every day, they risked their lives for a resurrected Lord.
When Peter said “we are all witnesses,” he probably waved him arm, indicating the other eleven Apostles. The Law of Moses said that “The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Deuteronomy 19:5 NLT). The case for Christ was established not by just two or three witnesses, but twelve men and at least a half dozen women. Peter’s audience was looking, but at twelve men of unimpeachable character who personally had nothing to gain and everything to lose by preaching Jesus Christ. Even if you reject the miracles, the prophesies and everything else the Bible says, you’ve still got to deal with the testimony of twelve men who say they saw Jesus come back from the dead. They believed it with all their hearts and they died for their belief. How else can we explain that?
When Peter said, “God raised Jesus from the dead,” every listener probably wondered, “Could it be true?” Everything hung on that question. Peter had presented the facts. He made his case. Finally, he was ready to put the two thoughts together: “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Christ!” (Acts 2:36 NLT).
Conclusion:
Jesus is all we imagine Him to be—and so much more. If we give the case for Christ a closer look, we will never come away disappointed. He’s not less that we’ve heard, He’s more—much more! His claims are not empty; He is the fullness of God. He is limitless in the extent of His power and wisdom, and in the sweep of His existence. He is without beginning of years or end of days. As Napoleon said, “Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature offer me anything which I am able to compare Him or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.” He is infinite, eternal; He is “the Christ, the Son of the living God!”
Invitation:
Before stepping down from the podium, Peter issued a challenge and a promise. He said, “Change your hearts and lives and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38 NCV). The challenge is the same. The promise is the same.
If you want to answer that challenge and claim that promise, now’s the time.
