Greshams 17-01-04
Introduction
Have you ever stopped to wonder why we have over 600 churches here in Norfolk, dedicated to a Jewish carpenter who died two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ
Doesn’t that strike you as a bit odd?
For many people today the words “Jesus Christ” are synonymous with swearing. They don’t know who he was.
But who was this man Jesus? What do we know about Him?
1. Background:
He was born in an obscure village, in the backwoods of the Roman Empire – in the little village of Bethlehem. He was born - apparently the illegitimate child of a peasant woman, in a society where illegitimacy was a terrible birthright.
He was a member of a defeated race - a second-class citizen in his own country.
He grew up in still another village, Nazareth where he worked with his stepfather in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty.
1..1 Itinerant ministry
Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.
He chose twelve men to be his closest associates. He trained them to preach His message. And in the end, they all deserted him.
1..2 Never wrote a book
He never wrote a book. Yet what he has said - has been preserved over two thousand years in a book, the Bible.
And the Bible has been the best seller for centuries - year in and year out.
What is it about this book that is so fascinating?
1.3 His moral teaching
His moral teaching is phenomenal.
Even non Christians, like Mahatma Gandhi – acknowledged that.
Gandhi rejected Christianity, yet was fascinated by the person of Jesus and tried to follow His teaching.
Jesus’ teaching should have been a turn off.
He preached a message of repentance from our sins. Not a message that Alistair Campbell would have recommended.
1.4 His mind
He had a brilliant, sharp and incisive mind.
Let me just give you an example. (Mt. 22:17-22)
One day, one of the finest Jewish lawyers wanted to set him up for a fall and so he asked him:
“Is it right to pay taxes the Caesar?
Jesus was in a no win situation.
If he said yes, the crowds – his main support would turn against him because Caesar was their oppressor.
If, on the other hand he said no he would be up on a charge of sedition before the Roman governor.
They had him either way. Or so they thought.
He asked for them to bring him a coin and said:
“Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s” they replied
Then he said to them: Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. (Mt. 22:21,22)
1.5 Public Office
He never held a public office.
If you want to make a name for yourself, you need to get the good and the great on your side.
1.6 No family
He never had a family to pass on his family name and, so far as we know he never owned a house.
1.7 University
He never went to University or college. Galileans, of which He was one, were the country bumpkins of Israel.
1.8 Travelling
If you wanted to get your message about the civilised world, you had to go to the big cities of the Roman Empire to find a following.
Jesus never visited any of those big cities - Rome, Alexandria or Athens.
In fact the only big city he ever visited was Jerusalem, which was in Roman terms - the back of beyond.
Indeed, He never travelled more than 200 miles from the place where he was born.
1.9 Conclusion
In short, He did none of the things we associate with greatness.
1.10 His death
And then to cap it all – when he was only thirty-three years of age, the tide of public opinion turned against him.
His friends all deserted Him.
He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was crucified, - an ignominious and painful death - hanging on a cross between two thieves.
While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.
And even when he was dead - He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
2. Political and Religious support
Jesus didn’t have any religious or political support.
The “Good and the Great” in the land did not flock to his gospel.
In fact quite the reverse. They rejected his message.
Only the common people took him to heart – and at the end they deserted him.
2.1 Contrast with Islam and Buddhism
Let’s contrast Jesus with the founders of two of the other great religions: Mohammed and Buddha
2.1.1. Powerful Army
When Mohammed died - he left an empire and a powerful army in place to defend it.
By the time the Buddha died, he had enlisted the nobility of Nepal in his cause.
When Jesus died, his followers fled from Jerusalem, back to fishing in Galilee.
2.1.2 The Duration of Ministry
When Mohammed died, he had ministered a good 20 years. He left a book that he had written – “The Koran”.
When the Buddha died his teaching spanned 45 years and he too left his “Writings”.
Jesus only ministered for three years and wrote nothing – and of course at the time of his death none of the books of the New Testament had been written.
2.1.3. His death
When Mohammed died with great honour
and had set up a state machinery to continue the
religion he had founded.
When the Buddha died he was venerated for seven days before his body was cremated with great honour in Nepal.
Jesus was put on trial on trumped up charges and crucified. His followers fled and left him to it. They fled back to Galilee and that should have been the end of it.
2.1.4 A man who it wouldn’t take long to forget
In short, Jesus had all the hallmarks of a man who wouldn’t take too long to forget.
Now conventional wisdom would say that this is not the way to start a world religion.
But then God seems to have a rather interesting
way of turning conventional wisdom on its head.
3. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Jesus made some very curious claims.
One of them was this : “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (Jn 11:25).
After his death, Jesus’ followers claimed to have seen Him risen from the dead. It should have been laughed out of court.
If Christianity wasn’t dead in the water by that stage – that preposterous claim should have been the final salvo to consign it to the depth of the deep.
How could the disciples have had the gall to suggest that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Let’s face it when the Romans crucified you – you stayed crucified..
I would like to suggest to you – that no one in their right mind would MAKE UP such a ridiculous story.
People don’t come back from the dead, do they?
And yet ten of the 12 apostles and St. Paul were prepared to die defending that claim. And whatever you think abvout Peter and the other 10 apostles, St. Paul was nobody’s fool.
None of the adherents of the other world’s great religions has ever even suggested that its founder has risen from the dead.
Surely making such a claim was the fast track to oblivion.
Unless it really happened!!
An English House of Lords Judge, Lord Darling had this to say about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ:
” In its favour as living truth, there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true “
4. Conclusion
I would like to leave you with three thoughts this
morning.
1. Christianity is not just a set of good moral ethics, though it embraces them.
2. Christianity is not simply how we “worship God” though that is an important component of it.
3. Jesus and the apostles offered the hope of life after death. And the proof of the genuineness of Jesus’ claim is that Christ was raised from the dead by God the Father.
The great mystery of Christianity is that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead – as we affirm each time we say the Creed. And because He has risen from the dead we can know Him today.
The important question I would like to leave you with is: Do you know the risen Christ today?
Because - in the final analysis – that is all that will really count.
