Real Answers: Is Jesus God's Son?

Real Answers to Big Questions: Is Jesus God’s Son?

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 7/5/2015

Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds? Why is a boxing ring square? Why are yawns contagious? What causes hiccups? Why don’t we say first-teen and second-teen instead of 11 and 12? We all have questions, don’t we? Some questions—like these—are inconsequential. Other questions are more meaningful and thought provoking. Where do we come from? Why are we here?

Last Sunday, I began a short series in answer to three very big questions. I call them the God questions:

• Is God real?

• Is Jesus God’s Son?

• Is the Bible God’s Word?

Being able to provide compelling answers to these three questions will not only strengthen our own faith, but we’ll be in a better position to share our faith with others. Last week, I shared three good reasons to believe that God is real, which included the evidence of cosmology, creation, and conscience. Having a sound, solid answer to the question of God’s existence gives our faith a rock-hard foundation. But lots of people believe in God who aren’t necessarily Christians. The difference between Christianity and every other religion in the world is Jesus. If God exists, the next question we have to ask is: Is Jesus God’s Son? In other words, was Jesus really divine or was he just a nice guy? How do we know that Jesus really was who He claimed to be? How do we know that the carpenter from Nazareth is the God through whom all the universe was crafted?

Jesus once asked His disciples, “Who are the people saying I am?” (Matthew 16:13 TLB). They gave a variety of answers but Peter capped the discussion by saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16 NKJV).

Many months later, Peter would defend his answer as he preached the first recorded message after Jesus’ death and resurrection to a standing-room-only crowd on the day of Pentecost—50 days after the resurrection. As Peter preached, he built a powerful case in defense of the divinity of Jesus. In this sermon, Peter offers three pieces evidence in this case for Christ—evidence that confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This morning I’d like to elaborate on each piece of evidence Peter submits. The first item that Peter enters into evidence is the miracles of Jesus.

• THE MIRACLES OF JESUS

Peter began his morning message, saying, “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know” (Acts 2:22 NLT). Miracles, wonders, and signs are three words the New Testament often uses to refer to the same thing. The word “miracle” refers to what was done; the word “wonder” refers to the effect a miracle had on people; and the term “sign” indicated the purpose of the miracle. These miracles were signs that God was with those who did them.

Unfortunately, you and I weren’t there to witness them, so we have to rely on others’ eyewitness testimony about these miracles.

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the Bible is not the inspired word of God. Instead, let’s simply treat each book of the New Testament as the personal testimony of its author. The four Gospels—written independently by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—together record more than three dozen specific miracles that Jesus of Nazareth performed during His ministry. Peter’s audience was well aware of this and the fact that Jesus carried out a ministry of healing and other miracles was common knowledge. The Pharisees had accused Jesus of performing miracles by the power of Satan, but they did not deny that He had performed them. The Talmud, a Jewish book of history and law, claims that Jesus was a sorcerer and he performed miracles through the dark arts. But the fact that the Talmud records that Jesus really did perform the miracles, inadvertently corroborates what Matthew, Mark, Luke and John claimed.

Even the most skeptical critics cannot deny that the historical Jesus carried out a ministry of miracle-working and exorcism. Rudolf Bultmann, one of the most skeptical scholars this century has seen, wrote back in 1926: “Most of the miracle stories contained in the gospels are legendary or at least are dressed up with legends. But there can be no doubt that Jesus did such deeds, which were, in his and his contemporaries’ understanding, miracles, that is, deeds that were the result of supernatural, divine causality. Doubtless he healed the sick and cast out demons.”

Back in Bultmann’s day the miracle stories were thought to be influenced by stories of mythological heroes and, hence, at least in part legendary. But today it is recognized that the hypothesis of mythological influence was historically incorrect. Craig Evans, who is considered one of the world's premiere historical Jesus scholars, says that "the older notion" that the miracle stories were the product of mythological influence "has been largely abandoned." He says, "It is no longer seriously contested… that miracles played a role in Jesus’s ministry." The only reason left for denying that Jesus performed literal miracles is the presupposition of anti-supernaturalism.