Who Was Jesus?
(The Da Vinci Code – Part 2)
Various Scriptures
May 28, 2006
(With grateful acknowledgment of the book, Cracking Da Vinci’s Code, by James L. Garlow and Peter Jones, from which much of the material in the first two sections comes)
Introduction
After taking a break last week, I’m back to talking about The Da Vinci Code, that world-wide best-seller. The movie version came out last week, and in its first weekend out, was the second-biggest opening weekend for a movie in history.
The book, by itself, is a fun book to read, if you like murder mysteries. I enjoyed reading it, and found it hard to put down.
For a story takes place in the space of about 2 days, it has brought a fire-storm of criticism and praise, and the book has been the center of many books and documentaries examining the “facts” that author Dan Brown puts forth.
One of these “facts” was that the Bible cannot be trusted and was put together as a political tool of the emperor Constantine.
In the first message of that series two weeks ago we examined just why we can trust the Bible we have.
Next week, it’s my intention to look at another major figure in the book, Mary Magdalene, and the role she played in the life of Jesus and the early church.
The week after that, I’m going to look at just what place popular literature should have in the life of a Christian.
How should we decide what we should read or what we should avoid? Should Christians read secular literature, especially for entertainment? Can Christians learn anything from secular literature?
And what is the point of all this? Simply to help us become better equipped to meet the challenges to the faith in a reasoned and reasonable manner.
Jonathan Morris, a Catholic priest who writes a column for Foxnews.com had this to say a few weeks ago:
“Dan Brown is capable of passing fiction for fact because Christians don’t know their faith — what and why they believe. That’s not Mr. Brown’s fault.” (Foxnews.com, The Da Vinci Code - A Positive for Christianity, Fr. Jonathan Morris)
How true that is, folks. Too often Christians walk around in a fog of belief, never really solidifying just what they believe and why.
Today we examine the question, “Who was Jesus?” This question comes from the declaration in The Da Vinci Code that Jesus was not who the church believes He is today.
I’ve printed a bit of the book in your note-taking guide to give you the context of the comments from the book.
Sir Leigh Teabing, a “former British Royal Historian, is talking with Robert Langdon, a cryptologist who is the main character in the story, and Sophie Neveu, a cryptographer who works for the French Authorities.
They are running from the police who believe that Langdon may have killed the curator of the Louvre museum in Paris.
He is discussing how Christianity as we know it came to be, at least in his opinion. And we find this interesting discussion on page 233 –
“At this gathering [The Council of Nicaea],” Teabing said, “many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon – the date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of the sacraments, and, of course, the divinity of Jesus.”
“...until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet...a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.”
“Hold on. You’re saying Jesus’ divinity was the result of a vote?”
“A relatively close vote at that,” Teabing added.
To be sure, Dan Brown is not the first person to make this claim. It’s been around for a long time.
But today I want us to examine the validity of that claim, by examining three main questions: What was the Council of Nicaea, What did the early followers of Jesus believe about Him, and thirdly, “How did Jesus view Himself?”
And it’s my hope that you will walk out of here today with not just more knowledge, but also a stronger faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So let’s dive in and take a look at Jesus, okay? The first question to deal with is...
What was the Council of Nicaea?
A quick review is in order here:
In the first message in this series, I discussed the view put forth in the book that Constantine, the roman Emperor was the one who basically put together the New Testament, intentionally choosing which books would be included, with the idea of putting forth a particular political agenda. The idea is that Constantine wanted to unify the empire under one religion, and chose Christianity as the vehicle, because of its growing influence.
And in putting together the New Testament, he would make sure that the “right” beliefs would come through and solidify his hold on the empire.
Well, I went into quite a bit of detail about how we got the New Testament and the trustworthiness of the gospels last week. If you would like a tape of that message, go ahead and talk to Jim or if you want the printed version, you are welcome to talk to me.
Now regarding the Council of Nicaea:
A man named Arius was teaching that Jesus was not divine. A debate between him and Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria caught the attention of Constantine, who called the council to help prevent instability in the empire over this issue.
These 300+ bishops were primarily from the east (which should have favored Arius’ cause, since that is where his influence was greatest).
From this council came the Nicene Creed, which is very similar to the Apostles Creed, and which refuted the heresy of Arius. It contained these words that many of us are familiar with:
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God...
In the novel, the vote taken at this council was “a relatively close.” In actuality, however, the vote was 316 to 2. I’m not sure what definition of “close” you use, but that’s not close by any stretch of the imagination. And my imagination can be stretched a long way!
That’s why it’s possible for me to continue to have hopes that the Minnesota Twins can still make the playoffs this year, in spite of having a losing season so far!
By the way, the teachings of Arius are alive and well today, particularly in the form of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who deny the deity of Jesus.
But now I want us to take a look at the heart of the argument put forth in the book, and that was that even his early followers didn’t believe Jesus was God.
What did the early followers of Jesus believe about Him?
Now remember, it’s the contention of the book that Jesus’ early followers did not believe that Jesus was divine.
But is that really the truth? No, it’s not. I want us to look at two different sources to see just how these people viewed Jesus.
First, I want us to look at just two quotes from a couple of apostles, one of which was a disciple of Jesus when He lived on earth, and the other who came to faith after the resurrection.
* Apostles:
Thomas - "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28)
This was just after Jesus’ resurrection. Thomas had heard that Jesus had risen, but wouldn’t believe it until he had put his hands in Jesus’ wounds.
And when he gets the chance, he understands who Jesus is, and he utters these words.
Have you ever had one of those “Aha!” moments? You know – when you finally get something like a joke you heard three years before?
“Oh – I get it! A duck...!”
Well, Thomas had one of those, only it was a lot more profound than finally understanding a punch line.
Thomas’ life was altered forever, and he went on to spread the message of Jesus into present-day India.
And then we find Paul, who started off by hating Jesus and persecuting those who followed Him.
Paul - For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form... (Colossians 2:9)
Paul was a Jewish theologian and knew the implications of calling someone God. He knew the first commandment to not put any other gods before the true God.
He came kicking and screaming into the kingdom of God, but when he came around, he ended up being a force through which God changed the world.
It was serious business for Paul to say that Jesus was God. But he believed it and he gave his life for it.
There are other instances of this kind of thing, but I wanted to bring up two people who were the hardest to convince.
But what about people outside of the Scriptures? Did they really believe that Jesus was God, or was that just the result of political pressure by Constantine to help keep his grip on the empire?
Well let’s take a look at just a few people from the earliest days of the church until the time of the Council of Nicaea.
I’ve written out just five of the many that are out there.
* Other followers after the New Testament:
Ignatius (AD 105): “God Himself was manifested in human form.”
Clement (AD 150): “It is fitting that you should think of Jesus Christ as God.”
Irenaeus (AD 180): “He is God, for the name Emmanuel indicates this.”
Origen (AD 225): “No one should be offended that the Savior is also God...”
Lactantius (AD 304): “We believe Him to be God.”
It’s nice to have quotes like these, because it disproves the theory in the book, but really that’s not the most important thing.
The most important thing is whether or not Jesus thought of Himself as God.
It’s been claimed by a lot of people, and implied strongly in The Da Vinci Code that Jesus did not think of Himself as God, and that He never claimed to be God.
So I want us to look at this all-important question.
How did Jesus view Himself?
I’m going to cover just five things Jesus says about Himself that should leave no doubt as to how He saw Himself.
1. He claimed to have authority to forgive sin (Matthew 9:2-6; Luke 7:47-48).
In the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man, he said something to the guy before He healed him.
He said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” And it threw the religious leaders into a tizzy, because only God can forgive sins. But here’s Jesus claiming he had authority to do just that.
2. He received worship from His disciples (Matthew 14:33; Luke 24:52)
3. He said He would be the ultimate Judge at the end of time (Matthew 25:31-46).
4. He used the “Divine Name” for Himself (John 8:58).
This is very important, because one of the arguments people give is that Jesus did not say, “I am God.”
The problem with that argument is that they are only looking at how it would look in English.
It’s true that Jesus did not say, “I am God,” in English. But He did say it in the language of His people.
He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM!” He was quoting the Greek Old Testament wording of Exodus 3:14, where when Moses asks God at the burning bush who he should say is sending him.
God’s answer to Moses is, “I AM who I AM.” This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you.”
And the Israelites in Jesus’ time knew exactly what He was saying, because they picked up rocks to stone him for blasphemy.
5. He claimed to be of the same essence as the Father (John 10:30-33).
Again, Jesus makes the claim for divinity. And it was so explicit, the people once again grabbed rocks, and when Jesus asks them which miracle they’re stoning him for, they answer –
"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
Sounds to me like they got it!
Conclusion
The title of today’s message is, “Who was Jesus.” But really the title should be, “Who IS Jesus?”
Why? Because Jesus is still alive. He wasn’t just a mystical religious figure who lived in first century Palestine.
He is the living Son of God who during His time on earth died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and gave us the hope of heaven by rising from the grave.
Those who were closest to Him believed He was God, later followers believed He was God, and He believed He was God.
Folks, it’s incredibly important to understand this. Because if it’s not true, then we have no hope.
This is one of those issues where I think we need to be willing to go to the wall if necessary.
I’ve told you that there aren’t a lot of things I’m willing to die for or that any follower of Jesus should be willing to die for, but this is one of them.
If Jesus was not God, then He was wrong about what He said His mission was – to seek and save what was lost and to be a ransom for sinners.
And I don’t know about you, but I’m so glad that He is who He said He was. Because that means that I’m secure in the forgiveness He bought with His blood and in the heaven that He gained for me and for whoever will call on Him for it.
So let me ask you this, as we get ready to close: is your faith in the Jesus of books like The Da Vinci Code, or is it in the Jesus of Scripture?
If it’s in the Jesus of Scripture, then you’re on the rock. If not, you’re on sinking sand.
But the good news is that you can move to the solid ground by recognizing that the divine Jesus died for your sins and rose from the grave, calling on Him to forgive you and give you a home in heaven.
Put your faith and trust in Jesus and have eternity squared away, with help for living in the here and now. Let’s pray.
