INTRODUCTION
• Mel Gibson’s new movie, “The Passion of The Christ” has stirred up a lot of controversy. The movie has also touched the lives of many people in a profound way.
• The focus of this movie is the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus. The last twelve hours of the life of Jesus are by far the most violent of any period of his life, even more that the ordered slaughter of all male children under two that Herod ordered in Matthew 2:16.
• There have been over 100 known movies made about Jesus over the years, why has this one drawn so much venomous criticism? The movie claims to follows the gospel accounts of this very closely, yet some critics call this movie, ‘The Gospel According to Mel.”
• I believe this movie does a good job of staying true to the text. I am not a lone, many other religious leaders feel the same way, people like Billy and Franklin Graham, Josh McDowell, James Dobson, D. James Kennedy are but a few.
• Over the years, the death of Jesus has been so sanitized by beautiful bloodless artistic renderings that this movie hits us square in the face with the reality of the suffering Jesus endured for us.
• Even as late as 1999, CBS-TV bought the rights to The Jesus Mini Series. However they censored the “passion” of Jesus.
• CBS cut out the nail scene.
• CBS cut the screams of Jesus.
• CBS cut out Jesus loving the children in the final scene.
• CBS said they wanted a “more traditional Jesus.” (www.hollywoodjesus.com/passion.htm)
• I believe this movie has struck a nerve with people because if Jesus is who He claims to be and He suffered and died and rose again as we see in the Passion, then we are left with the dilemma of what to do now. This puts people on the spot.
• Today I am going to start of four-week series focusing in on Jesus. In our message today, we are going to focus in on deciding whether or not Jesus is the Son of God.
• If we determine that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, then we put in a dilemma. IF Jesus is the Son of God, then we either have to accept Him or reject Him.
• Today we are going to see if Jesus is indeed the Son of God. We will look first determine if there really was a “Jesus”. Then we will look at the issue of Biblical Prophecy, and then we will finish up by looking at the life of Jesus to see if His life reflects the fact He is the Son of God.
• READ MATTHEW 26:57-68 FOCUS ON VERSE 64
SERMON
I. JESUS, MAN OR MYTH?
• There has been debate in the past of whether or not there was a Jesus, but you do not hear that argument too much today. Even with that, I think we need to know that Jesus was not just some figment of the bible.
• The Bible is clear; Jesus was born of a woman under the law (Galatians 4:4). Jesus lived and was crucified, died, was buried, and rose on the third day.
• I want us to look at two areas outside of the Bible that attest to the fact that Jesus was not a myth, but a man.
• The one thing we must remember is that Jesus lived over 2,000 years ago. Back then there was no TV, no radio, no satellite technology or other recording equipment. All we have is bits and pieces of various writings.
• Those people who do not want to believe in the Jesus of the Bible are quick to dismiss the Bible because they do not like what it says. We have more evidence that proves the accuracy of the Biblical text than we do of ANY other ancient writing.
• There was a time when liberal scholars tried to say the New Testament was written in the second century. Evidence has all but proven that theory wrong. The gap between when the New Testament was written and the first available manuscript is closer than any other ancient writing. Not only that the number of available manuscripts for the New Testament dwarfs that of the next closest document from antiquity. Homer’s Iliad has a 500 year gap between the original and the oldest available manuscript. There are 643 copies of the Iliad from antiquity available. This is the best documented writing from antiquity next to the New Testament. There is only a 25 year gap between the writing of the New Testament and the oldest manuscript fragment available to us today. By the way, there are over 24,000 manuscripts of the New Testament available to us.
1. Secular Sources
• There are several sources outside of the Bible that speak of Jesus. Here are a few.
• These people cannot be accused of having an agenda when they wrote what they did.
• Cornelius Tacitus. (A.D. 55-120) This man was a Roman historian who lived through the reigns of over a half dozen Roman emperors. He has been called the greatest historian of ancient Rome and generally acknowledged among scholars for his moral integrity and essential goodness. He wrote two prominent works, “Annals” and “Histories.” “Annals” covers from Augustus’s death in A.D. 14 to the death of Nero in 68. “Histories” covers the time from 68 to 96 A.D. Tacitus speaks of Pontius Pilate putting Jesus to death. Tacitus is the only place outside the Bible where Pontius Pilate mentioned.
• Suetonius who was another Roman historian speaks of the Jews causing trouble because of Jesus. He writes they were expelled in A.D. 49. This is mentioned in Acts 18:2. He also writes of Christians being in Rome during the reign of Nero (less than 20 years later). He reports they were suffering and dying for their conviction that Jesus Christ had really lived, died, and risen from the dead.
• Pliny the Younger (A.D. 112). He was the Governor of Bithynia. He wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan asking how to treat the Christians. He speaks of Christians worshipping Jesus as God.
• Thallus. He is one of the first secular writers to make mention of Jesus. Dated around A.D. 52 he wrote a history of the Eastern Mediterranean world from the Trojan War to his time. He is quoted by Africanus who spoke of the darkness that enveloped the land during the late afternoon hours when Jesus died on the cross. He said Thallus tried to explain this as an eclipse of the sun. Africanus said an eclipse of the sun could not take place at the time of a full moon. Thallus did not doubt that Jesus had been crucified and that an unusual event had occurred in nature that required explanation.
• Mara Bar-Serapion. A.D. 70. He compared Jesus to philosophers Socrates Pythagoras.
• There are many more. Jesus was a real person, history bears that out.
2. Jewish Sources
• The Romans Historian Josephus mentions Jesus on a few occasions. He speaks of Pilate condemned Him on the cross at the urging of the religious leaders. Josephus was a Jew who was captured by the Romans, who served as an interpreter for the Romans and a historian.
• Jesus is mentioned in the Talmud also. (The Talmud is a vast compilation of oral Laws of the Jewish faith.
• Jesus was most definitely a man of history.
II. JESUS AND BIBLE PROPHECY.
• The Bible is the word of God. Since it is the word of God, we find prophecies in it concerning the one day coming Savior. There are many prophecies which were written several hundred years before the time of Jesus.
• There are roughly 332 distinct predictions concerning the coming Messiah in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was completed in about 450 B.C., or about 450 years before Jesus was born. The Greek translation of the Old Testament was completed in about 250 B.C., or about 250 years before Jesus was born.
• There are 61 MAJOR prophecies concerning the coming Messiah.
• Guess what, ALL 332 and which include the 61 major ones are fulfilled in Jesus.
• These prophecies range from the manner of His birth, the place, of His birth, to how and who he would die with.
• Some have said Jesus just read the prophecies and then followed them. Maybe that would work with some of them, but what about the ones concerning His birth? What about the ones concerning His death? Could you please hang me next to a couple of thieves and please do not break my legs? Silly isn’t it.
• Peter Stoner in His book “Science Speaks” states the probability of any man one person fulfilling a select 8 of the 61 prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17 power, or 1 with 17 zeros after it. If you took 1 by 10 to the 17 silver dollars, they would cover the whole state of Texas 2 feet deep. If you took on coin, painted it red and mixed it in with all the coins, the odds of you picking the red coin would be the same as one person fulfilling 8 selected prophecies concerning the Messiah.
• The prophets could not have guessed when they wrote the prophecies over 450 years to 1500 years before they happened. Isaiah wrote some 700 years before Jesus was born, yet he describes in detail what would happen to the Messiah in Isaiah 53 and other passages.
• How did Jesus come to fulfill at 332 prophecies? Accident? On purpose? By divine appointment?
• Jesus is the only person who fits the bill of the Son of God.
III. JESUS, THE LIFE.
• The last area I want to look at is His life. If Jesus was the Son of God, I would think His life would show it. I would also think He would know He was the Son of God. I would think He would do things that would show His power. Let’s briefly look at three areas.
1. His Claims
• There are many who say Jesus never claimed to be the God. In our passage, in verse 64 Jesus makes the claim. In verses 65-68, we can see the religious leaders knew what Jesus was claiming to be.
• Jesus makes direct or indirect claims to being God in the following verses: John 10:22-31; John 5:19-ff; John 4:26; Mark 2:1-14; Luke 4:16-ff; Matthew 16:16-ff; Luke 2:41-ff; Matthew 26:64 among many other places.
2. His Miracles
• If you are God, then you should be able to show it by some special works.
• Jesus performed many miracles. They were not done in some far away place, but in the public. He performed many miracles. He healed people, raised them from the dead, and cast demons out of them. Jesus showed power over nature by calming storms, by making water turn into wine. He was able to take 5 loaves and 2 fish and feed over 5,000 people with some left over. HE caused a fig tree to wither at His command. He walked on water.
• Jesus proved His position and backed His claims by His works.
3. His Sinless life
• Jesus led a sinless, selfless life.
• In verse 59 of our text we find the religious leaders looking for a way to accuse Him of wrong doing, but none could be found.
• HEB 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
• 1PE 2:21-22 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;
• The life of Jesus reflected the Holy God He claimed to be.
CONCLUSION
• This leaves us with what to do now. You either have to accept Jesus is the Son of God or reject it. Jesus could not just be a good teacher because He claimed to be God. This, as C.S. Lewis so aptly said, means that Jesus is either, a lunatic, a liar or Lord.
• Jesus could not be a good teacher if He claimed to be something He knew He was not. If He claimed to be something He was not, HE would be a lunatic.
• James 2:19 says, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
• If you believe, you MUST do something about it. I hope today if nothing else, it gets the wheels turning.
• Next week are going to see if Jesus is the ONLY way to God.
