Jesus is the Son of God – True or False?
Introduction
A. The movie “The Passion of Christ” has sparked many conversations
B. You can turn on the talk shows, the news, and various other programs and hear people discussing the movie
C. I do not recall a movie that has sparked this much debate, conversation, and controversy
D. This films makes several claims, some people will tell you that these claims are not true
E. We are going to look 4 of these claims in the next 4 weeks and decide if they are true or false
• March 21 – Jesus is the Son of God – True or False?
• March 28 – Jesus is the Only Way to God – True or False?
• April 4 – Jesus Died for You – True or False?
• April 11 – Jesus is Alive – True of False?
F. This week we are going to look at the Claim of Jesus Being the Son of God
G. We are going to look at a variety of passages put them all together and find out if Jesus really is the Son of God
H. Were are going to key in on 3 different areas
a. Jesus’ Humanity
b. Jesus’ Deity (Deity is another way of saying _______________
c. What Jesus’ disciples said
I. Lets dive into it.
I. His Humanity
A. Explanation
1. Born
a) Yes Jesus was born.
b) It can be historically documented that Jesus was born and lived
c) We read about Jesus’ life in the Bible – Now at that moment someone might say that you cannot believe that Bible because it is just some made up story.
d) Let me respond in two ways: #1 every historical event recorded in the Bible has been proven to be true. It is generally recognize as one of the finest History books we know of
e) #2 There is evidence outside of the Bible that there was a Jesus of Nazareth
2. Experienced Human Experiences
a) In Mathew 4:2 – He hungered, after fasting for 40 days you too would be hungry
b) John 19:28 – He was thirsty
c) Mark 4:38 – Tired
d) John 11:35 – Jesus Wept – He cried
3. Died
a) Must everyone an accept that fact that Jesus was crucified
b) We know that was a common method of capital punishment back at the time of Christ
c) We have records of Jesus being sentence to hang on the Cross
d) However, some of said that he did not die on the cross
(1) Understand he was beaten unmercifully before he went to the cross
(2) Then he was nailed four times to the cross
(3) Hung on the cross
(4) And to make sure he was dead, the Roman guard stuck a spear up his rib cage, to his lung and pierced his heart
(5) Surely he was dead
B. Application
1. What can we conclude with from all of this information?
2. We can conclude that this person Jesus that we talk about all the time really existed,
3. That he was really a person
4. That we know that He was here on the Earth
5. All of this proves that Jesus was a real person
C. Illustration
1. Someone one did a studied and found out that we have more evidence that Jesus Christ was a person then we have for George Washington being the first president of the United States!
2. Impressive huh?
3. At this point someone might say, yeah so Jesus of Nazareth was a person, there were a lot of people back then, just because He was a person does not mean that He was the Son of God
4. Well let’s look at Jesus Claims about being the Son of God
II. His Deity
A. Explanation
1. God
a) Some people over the ages have said that Jesus never claim to be God, that He never claimed to be the Son of man
b) That is just not the case, he said he was God
c) Look at Mark 14:61-62. Notice how Jesus responded, “I am!”
d) He did not respond with a I could be, or a I guess, Or a It is possible, he responded with “I am:
2. Accepted worship
a) To accept worship would be considered one of the worst sins you could commit. The Old Testament strictly forbids it, unless it is worship to God
b) A numerous occasion people would worship Jesus
c) The leper who He healed came and knelt before him (math. 8:2) a sign of true worship
3. Equal authority with God
a) Not only did He accept their worship He told them that He was equal with God
b) The Great commission found in Math 28, how does it go? Therefore go an make disciples of all nations, …
c) Look right before that, verse 18. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me
d) Jesus is claim to be equal with God
4. Requested prayer in His name
a) To ask someone to pray, no big deal right? Hey, could you pray for me about this issue, and then you tell them the issue
b) Well Jesus takes it to a whole new level, He says pray in His name, and Him
c) Read John 14:13-14
B. Application
1. What does this all prove?
2. Clearly Jesus thought that He was God
3. Many people claim that He did not think he was God, but by doing all of this
4. He was saying, without any hesitation that He was indeed God
C. Illustration
1. Sometime we can get confused about thing. Sometimes we are not able to understand differences.
2. Take Ezra and Arze, The bought 2 horses. They were trying to figure out which horse was which. The houses both had four legs, both had tails, both had mains and poor Ezra and Arze just couldn’t figure out the difference. Finally Ezra got his tape measure and guess what He discovered? The Brown Horse was 3 inches taller then the White Horse.
3. There is nothing to misunderstand here, Jesus Claim He was the Son of God
4. So, that is what he claim, well lots of people claim that doesn’t make him any different that the other people right?
5. Let us look at the reaction to his claims by the disciples
III. His Disciples
A. Explanation
1. Attributed to Jesus the titles of deity
a) They called Him using titles of God
(1) The first and the Last (Rev 1:17)
(2) The true Light (John 1:9)
(3) Their rock (1 Cor 10:4)
(4) Bridegroom (Rev 21:2)
(5) The Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4)
(6) Forgiver of sins (Acts 5:31)
(7) Savior of the World (John 4:42)
2. Considered Him to be Messiah-God
a) Take a look at Phil. 2:10-11, Right there they are stating the Messiah – the Savior and God are the same
3. Attributed the powers of God to Jesus
a) We are told in John 11 that Jesus is able to raise people from the dead
b) We are also told in Acts 5:31 that He is able to forgive sins
c) Col 1:16-17 we find out that Jesus created the earth and is responsible for sustaining all the earth
4. Called Him God directly
a) John 20:28 – Take a look at that verse “My Lord and My God”
b) That is spoken to Christ and make no mistake about it, Thomas was saying that Jesus is God!
5. Believed He was superior to angels
a) Eph 1:21 tells us that Jesus is “Read 21”
b) Unmistaken proof that they thought He was superior to angels and any created being for that matter
B. Application
1. What does this mean?
2. Everything that the Disciples said about Jesus confirms what Jesus said about Himself
3. Everything is in complete line, everything agrees
4. Where not doing any of the all famous “He said this, but meant that” type of things, no what Jesus said, is exactly what He disciples said
C. Illustration
1. I enjoy listening to politicians try and wiggle around what they said. Senator Kerry is quoted at saying leaders of other countries are hoping I win the election. When asked about his sources for that information he backs off his statements.
2. Jesus does not back down from His statements
3. Neither does His disciples, they say He is the Son of God
Conclusion
A. What do you get when you put this all together?
B. The Son of God
C. Clearly He was on this earth
D. Clearly He thought that He was the Son of God
E. And Clearly His disciples called him the Son of God
F. Folks Jesus is the Son of God
G. There is only One Son.
H. That is Jesus
I. Because God loves us, he sent us Jesus,
J. Since we know that we all have sinned, and deserve death, here is the good news
K. That whosoever—anyone – who believes in Christ, ask him to save you from your sins
L. Will have eternal life with Christ
M. If you are here today and you have never accepted Christ as your savior, I want you to come and talk to me after the service
N. If you are here today and you are still struggling with the concept of Jesus being the Son of God, come talk to me, if you don’t have time today, hey I would be glad to schedule a time that we could meet
O. Jesus is the Son of God
