INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• SLIDE #2
• Mark 8:27–29 (NIV) Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
• Jesus asks His closest disciples an important question, “Who do people say I am?” The answers varied from John the Baptist to one of the prophets. Jesus then turns to His disciples and asks them who He is, and of course Peter speaks up and proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah.
• As we dive into chapter 25 of The Story, we are faced with the all-important question, “Who Is Jesus?”
• The question reverberates through history about Jesus: “Who is this guy?” Peter, at Jesus’ bidding, walked on water.
• Peter helped feed over 5000 people. He saw Jesus whip the animals out of the Temple and chase out the money-changers. “Who is this guy?”
• C. S. Lewis was an Oxford medieval historian, popular writer, Christian apologist, and former atheist. He used the argument outlined below in a series of BBC radio talks later published as the book Mere Christianity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis%27s_trilemma
• “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 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 the 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 with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.” Lewis, C.S., Mere Christianity, London: Collins, 1952, p54-56.
• Lewis was not the first to make such arguments, but he is the one who is best known for it.
• This question is of the upmost importance because the way you answer this question will determine HOW you live out your life.
• Even if you are a Christian, how you answer this question will determine how deep you will allow your faith to go.
• Every thoughtful person has to raise and answer this question. Just as in Jesus’ day, there were various popular answers, so there are many answers in our own time. In The Story, let’s consider some of the answers to the question about Jesus, “Who is Jesus?”
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. Jesus is a decent fellow. (Good teacher)
• This first possibility lines up with Lewis’ contention that many are willing to see Jesus as a good teacher, but nothing more.
• Many will acknowledge that Jesus was a decent fellow or a good teacher.
• Jesus had some awesome teachings that showed how we are to treat people, we have the golden rule, you know, he with the gold rules.
• SLIDE #4
• Matthew 7:12 (NIV) So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
• Jesus had a lot of great teachings and people pretty much loved to hear Him teach.
• But there is a problem, with just leaving Jesus in the “decent fellow/god teacher” box.
• Jesus made some claims that would take Him to a higher level than just a “decent fellow”.
• Jesus kept asserting that He was God. He kept referring to Himself as the “Son of Man”.
• Daniel used this term to refer to the coming Messiah.
• SLIDE #5
• Daniel 7:13–14 (NIV) “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
• In the Daniel passage, in verse 13, “the Son of Man” is a reference for a divine being!
• In the Gospels, there are at least 80 references to “the Son of Man,” a favorite term used by Jesus when referring to Himself.
• Another thing Jesus kept doing in His teaching was that He kept using these pesky “I AM” statements! This phrase was a title God gave to Himself in the Old Testament.
• Jesus got Himself in some real trouble with the religious leaders over the use of that phrase when referring to Himself.
• SLIDE #6
• John 8:58–59 (NIV) “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
• So some of Jesus teachings take Him way above the level of a “decent fellow/good teacher.”
• Jesus did a few other things that would make you question if He would accept the title of just a decent fellow or good teacher.
• HE claimed to forgive sins of which the religious leaders said only God could do, He claimed to be greater than Jonah, Abraham, Solomon, and John the Baptist.
• He was greater than the Temple and the Sabbath also!
• Jesus was transfigured before a small group of His disciples.
• SLIDE #7
• Matthew 17:1–3 (NIV) After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
• Option 1 does not seem to fit for many reasons, and option one is not one Jesus Himself would gravitate toward.
• Who is Jesus? Let’s take a peek at option #2!
• SLIDE #8
II. Jesus is a demented fool. (Lunatic)
• I a person who thinks they are God and are not would be considered demented or as C.S. Lewis put it, a lunatic!
• If Jesus thought He was who He CLAIMED to be, but was not, He would be delusional.
• Someone who is delusional has a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. He would be considered to have a symptom of a psychiatric condition.
• He would be suffering from a mental condition in which you believe things that are not true.
• WE have seen many folks who were demented throughout history and they spoke and acted like crazy people. Jesus did not do that. Many times the followers of people Hitler, and Manson were themselves delusional and crazy.
• People were deeply devoted to Jesus, and yes there were some through history that were misguided in their actions, but those who were truly devoted to Jesus did not become murders or power hungry, they were changed at their core!
• Jesus won the admiration of men and women and people from all levels of the social structures. There has never been another like Jesus!
• Jesus did not make people into lunatics, He made them better.
• Jesus changed my life, Jesus changed who I am and what I am. I will be forever grateful for what Jesus has done for with, with me, and to me!
• Jesus KNEW who He was so He was not delusional or demented so we can safely knock this option off the table!
• Who Is Jesus? Let us look at option #3!
• SLIDE #9
III. Jesus is a deceiving fraud. (Liar)
• This option is what C.S. Lewis called the “LIAR”. This implies that Jesus KNEW He was not the Son of God, the Messiah and just lied about it trying to trick people int following Him.
• SLIDE #10
• John 7:12 (NIV) Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.”
• The religious leaders had to say something because Jesus was attracting way too many of the people from them.
• There are some real problems with Jesus being a liar. First, Jesus KNEW who was. We read one of the many passages on that subject.
• The other problem is, what do you do about the over 36 recorded miracles recorded in the gospels that Jesus performed?
• There was a historian around 120 AD named Quadratus who wrote to Emperor Hadrain concerning Jesus and the faith. He states, “The works of our savior were lasting for they were genuine. Those who were healed and those who were raised from the dead were seen not merely while our savior was on earth, but also after his death they were alive quite awhile so that some of them lived even to our day.” Reference from Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. IV.3.
• Pretty hard for a fraud to do what Jesus did.
• As a side note, Jesus never made a profit or took a penny for His miracles!
• He never performed miracles to merely draw a crowd to make a name for Himself. Most of the time he told people not to tell what happened.
• When Jesus calmed the wind and the waves as we looked at last week, the disciples were stunned asking…
• SLIDE #11
• Mark 4:40–41 (NIV) He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
• A final note on the liar card concerns ones of the greatest testimonies, the explosive growth of the New Testament church!
• Basically started with 12 and then grew and grew! The church is a testament to who Jesus is as well as the preservation of the Bible!
• I do not think Jesus being a deceiving fraud hold any water, so let’s look at a final option!
• SLIDE #12
IV. Jesus is a divine friend. (Lord)
• Could it be that Jesus is who He KNEW He was, and said He was, the Son of God?
• I had an image of God growing up that God was out to get me and that He was not the friendly type.
• When Jesus did miraculous things, when He healed, He did so with a wonderful heart. He showed tenderness and compassion. He was one who befriended and truly helped people.
• When Jesus saw all the people hurting when His friend Lazarus died, He wept.
• SLIDE #13
• John 11:33–36 (NIV) When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
• Jesus cared for people, He loved them and even asked the Father to forgive them as He hung on the cross!
• Peter got it right in John 8:29 when Jesus asked who they thought He was.
• “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”
• Jesus went to a cross on a hill named Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, on that hill He SHOWED you what He thought of you, He SHOWED you how deep His love is for you!
• He gave His life for you!
CONCLUSION
• Who Is Jesus?
• Set against the backdrop of our generation with all its different options from secularism to atheism, materialism, to Buddhism, whatever background in which you find yourself considering, look closely at Christ and let him ask you the question, “Who do you say that I am?”
• When you look at the evidence, Jesus is not just a good teacher. He is not a lunatic, and He is not a liar.
• When you look at the evidence it becomes very clear that Jesus is indeed Lord! The one and only begotten of the Father who came to save you from your sins!
• Go to your own Caesarea Philippi, the setting where Jesus asked His disciples the question and let Jesus ask you, “Who do you say that I am?”
• The answer will change the course of your life!
