Luke 4:38 - 44 – Jesus is God’s Son – True or False?
I have been teaching Grade 7 RE since the beginning of the year and they are literally full of questions. I have a question box which is available for them to put questions in and we will attempt to answer them over the course of the year. Well, I’ve been swamped by questions about God, Jesus and faith.
One of the most common questions is how do we know that God is real. It’s a question that many of us grown ups ask also. And probably the best answer to this question is to take a look at Jesus’ life. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. In John 10:30, Jesus said “I and the Father are one.” He also claimed that God was his Father (John 5:18), and claimed many of the characteristics of God. For example, Christ claimed to have the authority to forgive sins (Mark 2:10). He claimed that one day he would sit at the right hand of God in power (Mark 14:62) and would come with power to judge (John 5:22). He asserted several times that he had the authority and power to raise the dead (John 6:39-40).
But words are cheap aren’t they – you or I could make the same claims right here and now, but it is another thing to be able to prove them. When Jesus was on earth, he spoke with authority and people marveled, but they still weren’t convinced by his mere words. It took more, it usually took miracles or wonders to prove to those watching that Jesus was who he said he was – God’s Son.
This Morning I want to attempt to answer the question – Jesus is God’s Son – True or False? This is the first in a series of messages which will lead us into Easter. Over the coming weeks, I want to ask these 3 questions …
Jesus is God’s Son – True or False
Jesus is the only way to God – True or False
Jesus died for you and me – True or False
But today I want to ask the question - Jesus is God’s Son – True or False? This is the first question which must be answered before we can believe in Him. And the only way to answer this question is to look at His life and actions and see whether they indeed prove Jesus’ self claims. Before we get to that, though, it is important to realize that when we talk about Jesus, we have 4 choices before us. By the end of today’s service, you will have to decide on one of these.
1. He is a liar - He knew He wasn’t God’s Son, but he deliberately misled those that heard Him. Maybe it was for a big ego trip, or maybe it was to gain popularity. Most people, even those who don’t believe he was the Son of God, believe he was a great moral teacher. Teaching people how to live right before God. But there is a problem here if you think he is a great moral teacher, but not the Son of God. Because Jesus could hardly be a great moral teacher if he was living a double life and lying about his own identity. He was either who he said he was in which case we should listen to him. Or, Jesus is a liar on all accounts and we can’t trust anything he says.
2. The second option is that Jesus was well meaning, but a bit confused. He was a lunatic. But when we look at his life, we don’t see an abnormal or imbalanced person who has no control of himself. Just the opposite. Jesus always seems to be in control even when faced with external pressure. There is little evidence that Jesus was a Lunatic.
3. The third option is that Jesus was a Legend. There is no doubt that Jesus of Nazareth lived. His life and death are testified by Roman historians living at the time. But some argue that while Jesus was a real man, the stories about him and the accounts of miracles were fabricated and the stuff of legends and stories. This is a difficult argument to support though, because our four gospel accounts (Biographies if you like) were written within the lifetime of eyewitnesses. To have made up such fairy tales and have them accepted as truth by the population at large would have been inconceivable. It would be like us saying that Slim Dusty was not just a country and western singer, but he was actually God’s Son who traveled around Australia doing incredible miracles. He healed people, rose people from the dead. He brought rain to drought stricken towns. He was God’s Son and actually has risen from the dead and is now in heaven. Now you and I wouldn’t believe a bar of it would we, because we could probably very easily track down some people who had seen Slim Dusty in the flesh and could discount any of these stories. That is what it was like for the Gospel writers. Their accounts were up for scrutiny, but instead of being rejected as fiction, they were universally accepted as accurate and true. And they are seen in that light even to today. So this option doesn’t really hold much water.
4. The last option we have is that Jesus is who he said he was – he was the Son of God who deserved to be Lord.
So for the remainder of today I want to look at some of the things Jesus did which confirm that this last option is in fact the only option left standing. Talk is cheap, so lets look at his life and find some proof.
Turn in your bibles to the passage that was read for us earlier – Luke 4:38-44. Jesus has just been confronted in the synagogue of all places by a person who was controlled by a demon. He cast out that demon and then leaves the synagogue and goes to Simon’s house. Simon, or Peter as we know him by later was married and his Mother-in-law was sick. Luke, the doctor says that she had a high fever and they asked Jesus to help her. Jesus bends over and rebukes the fever (Interesting choice of terms isn’t it) and Peter’s mother-in-law was healed. She was healed completely because she gets up and begins to wait on them.
We keep reading in this passage “When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.” It was the Sabbath and the people had to wait for the sun to go down, indicating that the Sabbath was over, so that they could carry the sick to Jesus. Though their compassion for their friends and relatives was evident, they were bound up by the rules and regulations of the Sabbath. So in the cool of the evening, Peter’s house becomes a hospital. But notice that no one stayed over night. ALL with sickness were brought to Jesus and HE HEALED THEM – All of them. Some even have demons and he cast them out.
Jesus had no medical training, but again and again we see him healing people without medicines, instruments or the modern technology we have today.
We see him healing blind men, lame men, dumb men, lepers. We see him raising dead people (not just one, but several. And not just recently departed people, but people who had been dead for several days). His healings, sometimes occur over a large distance and are often just by a spoken word.
This was not just an ordinary man. You or I could never do what Jesus did. He had special powers to perform miracles over people. Was He God’s Son as he claimed? Or was he a liar?
But that is not all that Jesus did. We read how Jesus had power not just over people’s illnesses, but over Satan. Again and again we read that he was able to free people from Satan’s grip. He freed young people and old people. He freed people with a single demon and with many demons. Satan and his demons were petrified of this Man.
This was not just an ordinary man. You or I could never do what Jesus did. He had special powers over Satan. Was He God’s Son? Or was he a liar?
But that is not all that Jesus did. We read that he had power over physical things also. We read that he turned water into wine. He fed 5000 hungry people with just a few loaves of bread. He walked on water and allowed others to do the same. He showed he had power over nature by calming the wind and the waves during a violent storm. He cursed a fig Tree and it curled up and died.
This was not just an ordinary man. You or I could never do what Jesus did. He had special powers to perform miracles over nature. Was He God’s Son as he claimed? Or was he a liar?
But that is not all that Jesus did. We read that he knew what others were thinking. There were numerous times when he knew what people were thinking and he confronted their thoughts. He did this to the people at Nazareth. He did this to the Pharisees. He did this to his disciples. He knew about people’s pasts – the woman at the well, the He knew the future. He knew what would happen to his disciples and predicted that Judas would betray him and that Peter would disown him. He knew what would happen to him and spoke openly of his death before it happened. But more than that, he predicted that he would come back to life no less than 5 times.
This was not just an ordinary man. You or I could never do what Jesus did. He had special powers to know all things. Was He God’s Son as he claimed? Or was he a liar?
But that is not all that Jesus did. We read that Jesus was arrested and was tried. He was falsely found guilty and sentenced to death. He suffered and was crucified. He died and was buried. But that is not all. 3 days later, Jesus rose from the grave and was seen in the flesh by over 500 people. The risen Jesus was no Legend. People saw him and touched him. They ate breakfast with him. – Imagine eating breakfast with a person who you saw die only days before. If anyone wanted to disprove the resurrection, all they had to do was to produce his bones and body. No one has because the tomb lays empty.
This was not just an ordinary man. You or I could never do what Jesus did. He had special powers that allowed himself to be raised from the dead. Was He God’s Son as he claimed? Or was he a liar?
Jesus Christ lived on this earth and did more amazing things than you or I could imagine in our wildest dreams. These are not just myths and fables. If they were, they would never had gained wide spread acclaim as fact. In fact, you will never ever find his enemies trying to deny what Jesus did. They couldn’t deny it, because too many people witnessed these things. All they could do was to plot to kill him (John 11:45-53)
There is so much proof of who Jesus is, it is mind blowing. But is you don’t believe me, believe some of the eyewitnesses who knew Jesus. We read in our passage this morning that the demons came out of people shouting “You are the Son of God”(Luke 4:41). They knew for certain who Jesus was. The Centurian guarding the cross was under no illusions said “Surely this is the Son of God” (Matt 27:54). His disciples (Matt 13:44), Angels (Luke 1:35), John the Baptist (John 1:34) and Martha (John 11:27) also concur. Jesus was the Son of God.
Who do you say Jesus is? He says he is the Son of God and his actions and the testimony of many eye-witnesses agree. But what do you say? Do you think he is a Liar, a Lunatic, a Legend or do you think he is who he said he was – the Son of God who deserves to be LORD.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the man who thought he was dead, when in reality he was very much alive. His delusion became such a problem that his family finally paid for him to see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist spent many laborious sessions trying to convince the man he was still alive. Nothing seemed to work.
Finally the doctor tried one last approach. He took out his medical books and proceeded to show the patient that dead men don’t bleed. After hours of tedious study, the patient seemed convinced that dead men don’t bleed.
"Do you now agree that dead men don’t bleed?" the doctor asked.
"Yes, I do." The patient replied.
"Very well, then," the doctor said. He took out a pin and pricked the patient’s finger. Out came a trickle of blood. The doctor asked, "What does ’that’ tell you?"
"Oh wow!" the patient exclaimed as he stared incredulously at his finger. "Dead men "do" bleed!"
Some people are just like this man. No matter what evidence is placed before them, they can not be convinced about the facts. I don’t believe that Jesus was a liar, a lunatic or a legend. I believe He is the Son of God. I pray that today that you are not like this man who thought he was dead despite all the facts. I pray that you will believe that Jesus is God’s Son - There can be no doubt that this is True.
