Rev. David Holwick Y
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
July 23, 1989
Matthew 16:13-15
|
I. Controversy over who Jesus really is.
A. Complacency in the church.
1) Jesus is the guy holding the lamb or knocking on a door.
2) Sunday School image, memories of stories. (Unreal)
a) We often don't take him seriously.
B. Curiosity in our culture.
1) TIME magazine cover story last year.
a) Montage of images of Jesus down through centuries.
b) Generated more letters to editor than any other story.
1> Article does not come to a conclusion.
2> Implies everyone sees a different Jesus.
2) Dispute among scholars. (Reductionism)
a) "Jesus" seminar says only original word in Lord's Prayer
is "Father."
1> Rest is questionable; probably worked over by church.
3) Dispute among lay people.
a) Everyone has an opinion.
b) How many really know?
C. Dispute is ancient, going back to time of Jesus himself.
1) He had to ask his own disciples, "Who do you think I am?"
II. Importance of controversy.
A. Must be one truth.
1) (Could everyone be wrong?)
B. Eternity rests upon our conclusion.
III. Options in controversy.
A. Jesus is good man.
1) He did good things. Acts 10:38
a) Healed people.
b) Multiplied food. (Even beats ShopRite's half off sale.)
c) Blessed little kids.
2) Problems:
a) The Bible also reveals a hardness about Jesus.
1> He whipped people.
2> Cursed a fig tree.
3> Preached more on Hell than anyone else in Bible.
b) Jesus was too extreme to be "good."
1> He had radical ideas about God.
2> He had radical ideas about himself. (not "one of boys")
A> He separated himself from disciples.
1: My God and yours; not "ours."
B> Claimed to be God.
B. Jesus is religious teacher.
1) Even most Jews in this area would see Jesus as a misunderstood
reformer of first century Judaism.
a) Other religions readily accept him.
1> Hinduism - another guru.
2> Islam - great prophet, only surpassed by Mohammed.
2) Problem:
a) Jesus saw himself as the only way to God.
b) He was not giving good advice, he was giving absolute
truth.
C. Jesus is insane.
1) Those closest to him believed this. Mark 3:20-21
2) So do some modern scholars.
a) Albert Schweitzer - Jesus was a deluded visionary.
He thought he was the Messiah, but was wrong.
b) Others: Resurrection stories are due to funny mushrooms
at the Last Supper.
3) Problems:
a) Could an insane person come up with these teachings?
1> They are impossible, yet have grabbed imaginations of
people for 2000 years.
2> Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Leo Tolstoy.
D. Jesus is Satan himself.
1) Jewish opponents accused him of this. Mark 3:22
a) Due to exorcisms, opposition to religious establishment.
2) A few modern doubters, humanists.
a) Bloodshed done in Jesus' name makes him sinister.
3) Problem: If Satan, he would be defeating himself. Mk 3:23-24
E. Jesus is God.
1) Only reasonable choice.
C.S. Lewis:
"It is a very foolish thing when people say,
"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 a 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 His being
a great human teacher.
He has not left that open to us.
He did not intend to." #931
2) Not only what Jesus taught, but his effect on others.
a) His disciples were changed by contact with him.
1> Acts - "Weren't these with Jesus?"
b) Many of them paid for their beliefs with their lives.
3) We can't take wishy-washy stance.
IV. Testimony of Ron [Smith].
Born in New Jersey.
Nominal Catholic family.
Heavy set, so everyone called him "Tiny."
His parents divorced, so he was sent to live with friends in Ohio.
Fell into wrong crowd.
Heavy drug use.
Once took a Seconal tablet, cooked the contents,
injected it into his arm and experienced a black tunnel.
Another time, a drugged-out buddy shot a girlfriend to
death.
Marriage weaned him off drugs, but not alcohol.
Escape from reality.
Attempted to have a child, but couldn't.
Doctor said if fertility drugs didn't work, only God
could help them.
His wife Susan took him to church.
Soon after, she got pregnant.
Ron thought he was in charge of his life, and it was going great.
-Then he got permanently laid off. No income.
Susan attended a Bible study at our church and accepted Jesus as her
Savior.
Ron was glad she was happier, but it wasn't for him.
One day he came across a book called, "JESUS: God, Ghost, or Guru?"
For some reason, he bought it.
The book took away all his reasons for not believing.
On a Sunday afternoon soon after that, I sat with Ron in a friend's
living room.
I asked Ron if he was finally ready to commit his life to Jesus Christ.
He said, "Yes," and prayed right there to receive him. #932
V. Really knowing Jesus.
A. Not just accepting the claims he makes for himself.
1) Savior.
2) God.
B. Accepting his claims on you.
1) Admit sins.
a) Feel sorrow and change direction. (Repentance)
2) Follow Jesus as a servant.
VI. What do you say about Jesus?
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Full featured multi-format Help generator