April 18, 2004

 

It was Saturday, the day before Easter, and Joanne Hinch was sitting at the kitchen table coloring eggs with her three-year-old son Dan and her two-year-old daughter Debbie. She told her kids about the meaning of Easter and taught them the traditional Easter morning greeting and response, "He is risen...He is risen indeed!" The children planned to surprise their Dad, a minister, with that greeting as soon as he awoke the next morning. Easter arrived, little Dan heard his father stirring about in his bedroom, so the boy got up quickly, dashed down the hall and shouted the good news: "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, God's back!"

So simple, isn’t it?A child can understand exactly who Jesus is.He is God.And God came and died for us and rose again so that we might live too.Ask my son, he’ll tell you.But what happens when we grow up?What happens when we get so smart with worldly wisdom?We begin asking, “How can this man Jesus be God?”And we want Him to prove it to us. Just like Thomas.Thomas wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus appeared to them on Easter evening.And when they told him about it, he refused to believe.He said he would have to see and touch the nail marks before his doubts would be erased.Look what he missed when he wasn’t there with the other disciples!Just what we miss when we miss church!The presence of Christ!

But the story doesn’t end here.The next time Jesus appeared to the disciples, Thomas was there.He got to see Jesus.And this time he believed.Not only that Jesus had risen.He believed something beyond that.He calls Jesus “My Lord and my God!”Not just Lord.Not teacher.Not Messiah, or Prophet.But God!This is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind!This confession is uttered with conviction as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact.2+2=4. The sun is in the sky. Jesus is God.These no longer sound like the words of a doubter!What about you?Do you unequivocally recognize Jesus as God?Jesus is the Son of God – True or False?In our weakness, we may struggle with that at times.

Because there have been so many false claims about Jesus.The first false claim is that Jesus was Just a Good Moral Teacher.Has anyone ever tried telling you that Jesus never claimed to be God – but that he was just a great moral teacher?This is a very common belief!There are whole religions that believe Jesus was just a great moral teacher.And most non-religious people would say that Jesus was just a great teacher - but not God.

But there is a huge problem with that!You see, Jesus repeatedly claimed to be God!And you can’t forget about those claims as you are enjoying all of his other good moral teachings!C.S. Lewis said: “I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.”That is the one thing we must not say.A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.You must make your choice.Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God.But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about Him being a great human teacher.He has not left that open to us.He did not intend to.”

Another false claim is that Jesus is Just a Myth.This can mean two things.First, people can mean by it that Jesus never actually existed in history.But even non-Christian historians and secular publications don’t accept that theory now.There is no way to deny that Jesus really did live in history.Go to Jerusalem.His “footprints” are everywhere.There is no other person who made such a dramatic effect on all of history.Our calendar of years is based on his life.Even a skeptic like H.G. Wells admitted, “I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history.Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”

Jesus must be the Son of God!The truth is that Jesus did exist.The truth is that He claimed to be the Son of God.Listen to his trial before Caiaphas: “Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”“I am,” said Jesus, “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”(Mark 14:61-62)Here Jesus is asked point blank in front of his judge and jury if He was indeed the Son of God.He must give a direct answer.And He does.“I AM,” He says.And they begin angrily yelling at Him, beating Him, and condemning him for this ultimate blasphemy!It’s very clear Jesus claimed to be God, and that’s what made them want to put Him to death!Even though Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, they didn’t think it was true.

If someone you knew claimed to be the Son of God, would you think it was true?No, you would think they were mentally ill! Richard Bandler tells the story about visiting a mental patient who insisted he was Jesus Christ – in the flesh!One day Bandler walked in to meet this man.“Are you Jesus?” he said.“Yes, my son,” the man replied.Bandler left for a few minutes and came back, holding a tape measure.He measured the man’s arms and height and then left.The man claiming to be Christ became worried.Then Bandler came back with a hammer, some large nails, and some long boards.He began to pound them into the form of a cross.The man asked, “What are you doing?”As Richard put the last nails in the cross, he asked, “Are you Jesus?”“Yes, my son.”Bandler said, “Then you know why I’m here.”The man suddenly recalled who he really was: “I’m not Jesus.I’m not Jesus!” the man started yelling.Case closed.

But when Jesus claims to be the Son of God, hardly anyone laughs.He is taken seriously.And either people love Him and accept He is God, or people get angered by his claim and seek to refute it or destroy Him.So why is Jesus believable?Why do we need to take his claim of being God seriously?Let’s put Him on trial ourselves and look at the evidence.

His Life!Jesus lived a perfect life!He was sinless.Look again at his trial.In Matthew 26 it says, “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put Him to death.”Even his enemies knew that they couldn’t charge Him with doing anything morally wrong.Not one legitimate sin!The Bible says, “He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb.4:15).And He “committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” (1 Pet.2:22).Jesus lived a perfect life!First, that proved He was God – no one else can live a perfect life.We certainly can’t!And second, that was necessary for our salvation!Because God took his perfect life and gave you and me credit for it!

His Miracles!Jesus’ miracles are also evidence.Jesus called them signs.These signs pointed to Jesus’ divinity.He did hundreds of miracles – things we can’t do.In his life: healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, turning water to wine, feeding multitudes, stilling storms, walking on water, and raising the dead!And miracles at his death: the sky turning black, the temple veil torn, the earth shaken, and the dead raised!All pointing to Jesus as the Son of God!

His Resurrection!The best evidence was his resurrection!This was the thing that nailed it for Thomas.If Jesus could rise again, then certainly He is God.Then we know for sure that He did all the things He promised.We know that He really is our Saviour – that He really did pay for our sins, that He really did defeat death.No human being can come back to life.But God could.Romans 1:4 says that Jesus “was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.”

His Prophecies!Finally, the prophecies.Hundreds of years before his birth, many predictions were given about the identity of the Messiah.Jesus matched every prediction.It was like a one-of-a-kind divine DNA.Isaiah, 700 years before his birth, described in detail how He would suffer and die for our sins.Other prophets told whose family Jesus would come from, that He would be born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, march into Jerusalem on a donkey, killed on a tree, that none of his bones would be broken, that He would rise again, and much more.The Old Testament contains over 300 references to the Messiah that were all fulfilled in Jesus!The odds of that happening for a normal man are absolutely impossible.

Jesus is the Son of God – True or False?The answer must be TRUE!The evidence is too heavily in favor of it.We can’t do it full justice today.But the real evidence – the only evidence that will change your heart or strengthen your heart in what you already know to be true is right here in God’s Word.After Thomas was presented with the evidence, “Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”Jesus accepted the fact that Thomas called Him “God” only because Jesus is God!Then Jesus looks to you and me, and says that even though we won’t get to see what Thomas saw, how blessed we will be when we believe He is the Son of God, even without touching his hands!And He points us to the Scriptures for faith, and tells us the whole purpose of the Bible.Everything about Jesus was written in order to lead us to faith in Him as the Son of God, our Savior!Jesus is the Son of God – True!

So how does this affect our lives?If Jesus is God’s Son, the consequences are enormous!1. God must exist and He can be known through Jesus.2. God is perfect, and so is Jesus, and we have failed that perfection.3. Jesus, God’s Son, would rather die than live without you.That is how much He loves you!4. Jesus is alive here and now.5. He has revealed the way to peace and purpose in life.6. He has reconciled us to God with his life, death, and resurrection.7. His perfection is ours.8. We are forgiven for not being perfect.9. We will rise again one day. 10. And as our text promises, eternal life!Victory will be ours!

A long time ago, there was a crucial battle between the Greeks and Persians upon the plains of Marathon. The battle raged for hours. It was a fight to the finish. Finally the outnumbered, underdog Greeks managed a tremendous win, but there was a problem. The Senate, miles away in Athens, was about to vote to ratify surrender. In desperation they sent a runner in full battle gear to go the twenty-six miles to tell of the news. By the time the young boy got to Athens he had run a Marathon. It is said he was totally spent, that he literally ran himself to death. In his exhaustion he was able to utter only one word to the Athenians: "Victory."

We have been to the empty tomb. We have heard the glad news of resurrection!And now it is time for us to send a message back to the world.What should that message be? May I suggest that it could be a single word:Victory!Victory made complete, because Jesus is God!

Jesus once asked his disciples the crucial question: “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say that I am?”Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” (Mt.16:15-17).You must answer the question – who do you think Jesus is?I pray that the Scriptures, which were written for this very purpose, as they show you Jesus’ life, miracles, death, and resurrection, lead you to confess as Thomas once did about Jesus: “My Lord and my God!”Amen.

 

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