The Christology Of Christmas Series

Over the last few weeks we have scraped the salty soil of Israel and searched the starry skies of Bethlehem for the reliability of the claims of Christmas - and what a journey so far! So now we begin to study the supernatural sending of the Savoir of the world for the accuracy of the claims of Christmas!

It was September 18, 1910 on a Saturday at the Hiller home in Chicago. Clarence Hiller had spent the day painting his house. By early evening everyone was in bed asleep. The Hillers woke up in the early morning and noticed. Clarence went to investigate why a gas light near his daughter’s room had gone out. As he came to her door a fight broke out with 2 gun shots fired and Mrs. Hiller got to the room to find her husband dead at the foot of the stairs with blood everywhere.

The police arrested Thomas Jennings a convicted burglar who lived less than a mile down the street from the Hillers. There was blood on his clothes when they picked him up that he said was a result of falling off a street car. In his pocket the police found the same kind of gun used to shoot Clarence Hiller – but they could not determine if it was the murder weapon in those days – they need more evidence – but from where?

So the detectives returned to the Hiller’s home to search for more clues and they found that the killer came through a rear kitchen window and there next to the window forever imprinted in the white paint Clarence had painted earlier – they found 4 clear fingerprints from someone’s left hand.

What is amazing about this story is this crime was the first one where police used a fingerprint to convict a person of a crime – and it worked! Thomas Jennings was convicted of the terrible crime because of leaving his fingerprints at the scene of the crime!

Using another kind of evidence today, we are going to get at the Christology of Christmas to establish a degree of certainty that Jesus Christ is Messiah!

Just who is this man behind the claims? If you’ve thought that before you would not be the first!

Mark 4:41 “Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Luke 5:21 “Who is this man…who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Luke 9:9 “Herod said…who is this man of whom I hear such things?”

Matthew 16:15 “He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?”

Christopher Hitchens in his best seller, “God Is Not Great” writes,

“The Gospels agree on many things about Jesus, most of which are fictions, and all of which are rubbish because he was a failure on a grand scale.”

“The sayings and teachings of Jesus are hearsay upon hearsay upon hearsay, which helps explain their garbled nature…This is why some of the Gospels report people (including his family members) saying at the time that they thought Jesus must be mad.”

Let’s take Christopher Hitchens on!

Jesus did put everything on the line when He said concerning Himself…

Luke 24:44 “This is what I told you while I was still with you, everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” NIV

Luke 1:2-4

“Having perfect understanding” = literally he’s saying, “having traced out”

“Certainty” = firmness or stability

LifePoint: If Luke can get this vital information right then the reliability of his historical account of his claims of Christmas logically has to be trusted!

Dr. Norman Geisler writes, “Luke references 32 countries, 54 cities and 9 islands without a single mistake.”

Dr. Bruce Metzger of Princeton Theological Seminary writes, “There are an unprecedented number of New Testament manuscripts and that they can be dated extremely close to the original writings. The New Testament is 99.5 % free of textual discrepancies, with no major Christian doctrines in doubt.”

Dr. Gary Habermas writes in his book, “The Historical Jesus” – “One expert documented 39 ancient historical sources that corroborate more than 100 facts concerning Jesus’ life, teaching, crucifixion, and resurrection.”

So let’s investigate the Christology of Christmas for ourselves. Why Jesus and not some other 1st century want-be holy teacher? Why Jesus and not a 2nd century want-be messiah? Why Jesus and not a 7th century want-be prophet of God?

Let’s look at:

1. The Conspiracy Attempt.

A valid question could be asked, “Isn’t it possible that the gospel writers faked everything including the birth of Christ to make it look like this man Jesus fulfilled everything needed?”

For example: The bones of Jesus not being broken as the O.T. predicts?

Or the prediction of being sold out for 30 pieces of silver? Born in Bethlehem? Couldn’t the Apostles played a little loose with the facts? Played make-believe with so-called truth?