Download The Jesus We Believe In - Northwest Community Church

Northwest Community Evangelical Free Church
(July 12, 2015)
Dave Smith
SERMON SERIES: Believable
(Growing faith’s root; Going deep in God’s truth)
You have almost certainly traveled more broadly than Jesus
did. His life’s activities all took place within the space of little more
than a one hundred square miles.
Study #3
(Philippians 2:5-11)
Introduction: Jesus is…
From September, 2014 through March of this year, The Barna
Group conducted surveys about what Americans believe about Jesus.
The findings were released on April 1 (a sad bit of timing, it
seems to me…) and, not surprisingly, among “We, the people” there is
lots of disagreement about Jesus.
The vast majority of us believe - along with almost all
historians - that Jesus existed, but from there, opinions vary widely.
It seems that the older we are, the more confident we are that
Jesus was a divine figure. If you are in your fifties or older, there is a
better than 50% chance that you believe that Jesus was God. That
percentage drops when the question is posed to younger and younger
Americans.
According to Barna’s survey and others I looked at, over half of
American adults believe that Jesus committed sins during His life. Most
of us admire Him, but a sizable percentage don’t take the virgin birth
seriously - or the Bethlehem birth story or accounts of His miracles or
the resurrection.
Jesus.
1
Jesus lived roughly thirty three years. Think of that. If you are
thirty four today or older, you have outlived Jesus. He had a short life
compared to what most of us today expect to live.
Sermon manuscript
The Jesus We Believe In
And yet, there He stands, a Figure who towers over history, a
Man whose life divides history - BC and AD.
It seems that more and more of us are making less and less of
So, He had a short life and a relatively narrow range of cultural
exposure. Yet Jesus - a man described in the Bible as gentle and bold,
courageous and compassionate, loving and holy, a servant
revolutionary - has sparked the imaginations of men and women,
worldwide, for two thousand years.
It’s not at all difficult to find impressive statements from wellknown figures about Jesus. Everybody from Napoleon1 to H.G. Wells2,
from Einstein to Bono has some quote-worthy comment about Jesus.
I read a lot of those this past week. And in addition to perusing
those quotes, I also spent time listening to “person on the street”
interviews that are posted online. They are easy to find and you would
find them interesting, too. In these I heard the widest array of opinions
about Jesus.
So, the theme of our time together this morning is Jesus. He is
the Person around whom our faith revolves. So, who, exactly, is the
Jesus we believe in? What did He do? And, no less important - so what?
Emperor of France (1769-1821), “I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ
is no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no
possible comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I founded empires.
But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Force. Jesus Christ
founded His Empire on love; and at this hour millions would die for Him.”
2
British author H.G. Wells (1866-1946) wrote, “I am an historian. I am not a
believer, but I must confess as an historian that this penniless preacher from
Nazareth is without question the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily
the most dominant figure in all history.”
1
This morning we are looking at the Jesus who is revealed in the
Bible. We are turning to the Bible because it is the best source material
we have for learning about Him. You should know that the books that
make up the Bible give us an extremely reliable set of documents.
In fact, I am convinced that if you don’t think that the record of
the Bible is reliable, you should toss out all that you think you know
about history, because the external and internal witness of the Bible is
much, much better than that of any other ancient literature.
So, to Jesus we turn. Lots of people would argue that He was the
most influential Person who has ever lived. He casts an unbelievably
long shadow over all of history. And we believe in Jesus.
The organic community that formed in His Name - the church struggled to understand Him, and we can understand that. He is the
object of our faith,3 but it is hard to get a handle on Jesus. He defies
categorization and there really is no one like Him.
But, we can and we should try to understand Him. And
whatever else we might say about Jesus, it is clear from the Bible that
Jesus was a man. He was a human being. In many, many respects He
was just like you and me.4
Who Is This Jesus?
He enjoyed the fellowship of friends and experienced all of the
wide-ranging emotions you and I do.
2
Maybe it is worth mentioning that He had to breathe to survive,
and that He got tired and sleepy.5
His body was precisely like that of every other man. His
muscles would have ached after a long day of working at Joseph’s
carpentry shop and He would have been physically weary at the end of
a long day walking the roads of Galilee with His disciples.
Jesus’ temptations to sin
As a man, Jesus knew what it was to be tempted by sin. After a
forty days long period of fasting in the wilderness of Judea, the devil
appeared, tempting Him - unsuccessfully - to sin (Matthew 4).6
And the author of Hebrews tells us plainly: [4:15] For we do
not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without
sin.7
Jesus’ humanity is also seen in that He learned (Hebrews 5:8),
He grew (Luke 2:40). And of course He tasted that most human of all
experiences: He died (Mark 15:37).
Jesus - One of Us (fully human)
Jesus’ human experience
5
Look at the Gospels and you see a man. In every respect in
which you are a human being, Jesus was a human being. So, would it be
pointless to list the attributes of humanity that Jesus possessed?
3
The early church identified heresies concerning the nature of Christ, including
Docetism Ebionitism, and Modalism (which all denied His humanity), and
Nestorianism (which said that Jesus was actually two Persons - God and man while orthodoxy has always said that He was one Person with two natures.). The
early Christians grappled with how they should understand the truths revealed in
Scripture about Jesus.
4
The Athanasian Creed (AD 381) states, “It is furthermore necessary for eternal
salvation truly to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ also took on human flesh.”
How else do you explain Him falling asleep in the hold of a fishing boat in the
middle of a storm at sea? (Matthew 8:24)
6
On another occasion, when He told His disciples that He was going to suffer and
die, Peter rebuked Him. Jesus recognized a temptation to avoid the cross in Peter’s
words and said, [Matthew 16:23] “Get behind Me, Satan!”
7
While Jesus was truly tempted, was it possible for Jesus to actually sin? He was a
man, so was subject to temptation. However, He was also God, and therefore not
susceptible to sin. This does not mean, though, that the temptation was not genuine,
and that He does not know what it is like to be tempted. Think of asbestos vs. balsa
wood. Both may be exposed to fire, but only one will burn. So, too, Jesus’
temptations were real without the necessity that He be “burned” by sin. This idea
has long been debated by theologians and is discussed as “the impeccability of
Christ” - whether He was able to not sin, or whether He was not able to sin. My
position, with most orthodox theologians, is that He was not able to sin.
Jesus was homo sapien. In Christianity, a faith that centers on
the Person of Jesus, it is possible to forget the mundaneness of His
physical body and the routineness of His human experience.
Jesus’ “emptying” of Himself
When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in the city of
Philippi, he urged them to love each other and to serve each other. And
he based his exhortation on the example of Jesus.
[Philippians 2:5] Have this attitude in yourselves which was
also in Christ Jesus, [6] who, although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being
made in the likeness of men.
So, during His earthly life, Jesus “emptied Himself.”8 OK. Of
what, exactly, did He empty Himself?
Not of deity. Jesus did not empty Himself of deity. He emptied
Himself of the prerogatives of deity. He purposefully chose to
temporarily set aside the privileges and rights of deity. He became,
really, one of us.
There was not a luminous glow about Jesus. He didn’t wear a
halo. When you looked at Jesus in a crowd, He would not have stood
out. There was nothing about His physical appearance that said, “God.”
At the same time, Jesus was fully God. He was not 50/50
God/man. He was fully God AND fully man. That’s what the Bible
teaches and that is what Christians have believed from Day One.
Jesus - “My Lord and My God!” (fully God)
The characters presented in the Gospels did not all believe in
Jesus’ deity. They did, though, without exception, understand that He
was making a claim to be God.
One time, Jesus was speaking with a group of Jews. The
conversation became heated, as He invited them to place their faith in
Him. They balked. He pressed and promised that anyone who believed
in Him would live forever.
His opponents pointed out that Abraham, the father of the
nation, had not lived forever. Abraham died and they challenged Jesus,
[John 8:53] “Surely you aren’t greater than our father Abraham…?”
Jesus said, [58] “Before Abraham was born, I AM.”
And when He said that, the Jews picked up stones to kill Him,
because they “got” that He was claiming to be God.
When Jesus said “I AM” He was quoting Exodus 3:14 where God
identified Himself to Moses at the burning bush as “I AM.” There was
no missing that Jesus was claiming to be God. His audience understood
Him to be claiming to be God. They didn’t like it. But they got it.
When the apostle (“doubting”) Thomas saw the resurrected
Christ he cried out, [John 20:28] “My Lord and my God!”
And significantly, Jesus didn’t say, “Now, Thomas, don’t get all
worked up over this. Don’t exaggerate. Let’s not get carried away here.”
No. Jesus received Thomas’ worship.
Jesus was comfortable being worshiped as God. The authors of
the twenty seven books that make up our New Testaments all affirm
that Jesus is God.
Jesus’ claims to be God
You simply cannot read the four Gospel accounts and miss that
Jesus wanted to present Himself as God.
The doctrine of the “emptying” of the prerogatives of deity is called the “Kenosis
of Christ” from the Greek word “kenow” - to empty.
8
3
The New Testament authors’ claims that Jesus is God

When John wrote at the beginning of his gospel, [John 1:1] In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God he meant to equate the Word - the communication
of God - with the Man, Jesus of Nazareth.




The Apostle Paul said that in Jesus [Colossians 2:9]…all the
fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.
The author of Hebrews writes that Jesus is [1:3] the radiance of
His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and
upholds all things by the word of His power.
Peter affirms that all glory will go to Jesus [2 Peter 3:18] both now
and to the day of eternity.
In his first letter, John calls Jesus [1 John 5:5] the Son of God.
The New Testament witness to the deity of Christ is solid and
consistent.
Much of my life has been spent learning about Jesus and I have
learned that the Bible clearly affirms both His humanity and His deity.
I was tremendously helped when I was a young Christian by
what C. S. Lewis, Oxford professor, brilliant scholar, and committed
Christian, wrote in his book, Mere Christianity, about Jesus and His
claims to be God.
A reasonable conclusion that Jesus is God
(with thanks to C.S. Lewis)
“But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about
His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that option open to
us. He did not intend to.”
Or, as Bono, the long-time lead singer of U2 put it, “When people
say, you know, 'Good teacher,' 'Prophet,' 'Really nice guy'... this is not how
Jesus thought of Himself. So you're left with a challenge in that, which is
either Jesus was who He said He was or He was a complete and utter nut
case. You have to make a choice on that.”9
The conclusion I come to is that Jesus of Nazareth was fully
human and fully divine.
Some who have studied Jesus have erred on the side of
embracing one truth or the other or have emphasized one aspect of
who Jesus is over the other. Scripture invites us to embrace mystery,
fall on our faces and worship the God/Man.
And what about the life Jesus lived? Having thought about the
Person of Jesus, let’s take time to briefly consider His works.
The Life and Times of Jesus
Lewis starts out with the logical premise that His claims to be
God were either true or they were not true. I’ll let him take it from
there.
A Distinctive Life
“I am trying here to prevent anyone 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.’
It’s good to think about Christmas in July. We need to
remember that it won’t always be hot. And each year, the month of
December arrives with an invitation to marvel at the message of
Incarnation as we celebrate Christmas. God became one of us in the
Person of Jesus.
“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.
Lewis concludes, “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.
4
His early years
The Bible teaches that without sexual activity, Jesus was
conceived in the womb of His mother, Mary, by the agency of the Holy
Spirit. He was raised as the Child of Joseph, a Galilean carpenter, who
was in the line of King David and all the ancient kings of Israel.10
9
In a 2013 interview on Focus on the Family.
Theologically and biblically, the Virgin Birth is very important. First, it was
necessary for Jesus, the Messiah, to be of the line of Jewish kings. However, He
couldn’t be of the physical descent of Coniah / Jeconiah, one of the last kings of
10
5
But then, aside from the stories of the overcrowded inn at
Bethlehem, the visit of the wise men from the east, Herod’s slaughter of
the babies in Bethlehem shortly after Jesus’ birth, and the flight of the
family to Egypt, we know very little of Jesus’ first three decades.
He spoke of Satan and He spoke to Satan. He spoke about
humble servanthood and about worldwide impact. He called His
followers to the most radical kind of discipleship and then promised
them that they would be with Him in glory forever.
There is the one scene where the twelve year old Jesus was
asking profound questions of the elders in the Jerusalem Temple.11 And
there is Luke’s comment that Jesus [2:40] continued to grow and
become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was
upon Him.
Halfway through His three year ministry, opposition became so
fierce that He changed His speaking style with the crowds.
But we really don’t see much of Jesus until He turns thirty.
That’s when the four Gospels pick up the story in earnest. That’s
because it was during these three years that Jesus recruited and
trained followers, spoke as no one had ever spoken, and performed
miracles the world had never seen.
His three years of active ministry
He began telling parables, stories that are windows that let us
see the world and God as they truly are AND mirrors that let us see
ourselves as we truly are.12
We love Jesus’ teaching, His speaking style, His parables. But in
addition to His profound teaching ministry, the earthly life of Jesus was
marked by the miraculous.
Yes, He did voluntarily “empty Himself” of the prerogatives of
deity. But He was free to access those powers when they were required
to accomplish His Father’s purposes.
Teaching
Of His teaching, even those who didn’t follow Him remarked,
[John 7:46] “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.”
After His most famous sermon (what we call The Sermon on
the Mount), the crowds marveled. Matthew tells us, [7:28] When Jesus
had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching;
[29] for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as
their scribes.
Miracles
The Gospels record about thirty five separate miracles of Jesus
and they refer to others that are not recorded.13
These miracles show His love and they show His power over
nature, demons, disease, and death. He healed paralytics, cleansed
lepers, fed hungry crowds, and out-fished professional fishermen.14
He taught about God and salvation. He taught about the past as
if He had been there and the future as if He knew.
When we think of Jesus’ teaching ministry we think of the parable of the soils
and the sower, the parable of the prodigal son(s), the parable of the talents.
13
We know this because of comments throughout the Gospels that mention Him
healing people of diseases, casting out demons, etc... without recording details;
Matthew 4:23; 9:35; Luke 4:40; 6:19; 9:11; John 21:25.
14
So central to His mission and message were miracles that John’s Gospel is
arranged around seven “signs” that attested to Jesus’ deity. Water into wine (2:111); raising up of the nobleman’s son (4:46-54); healing of the man at the pool of
Bethesda (5:1-18); multiplying fish and loaves (6:1-14); walking on the water
(6:16-21); healing of the blind man (9:1-41); raising of Lazarus (11:1-44).
12
Judah. Coniah was so utterly sinful that God declared that no king of the line of
Coniah would ever sit on Israel’s throne. Jesus was officially, but not physically,
Joseph’s - and therefore, Coniah’s - heir. Second, the nature of Adam is transmitted
through the father to the children (Theologians refer to this as Adam’s “seminal
headship” or “federal headship”). Taking the human father out of the equation for
the birth of Jesus means that Jesus did not inherit the curse of Adam (death), nor
Adam’s propensity to sin.
11
Luke 2:41ff…
So Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us of His life. But all four
of the Gospels emphasize His death. Most of the material included in the
Gospels centers on the final week of His life.15
The legal proceedings were a sham during which He endured
physical and verbal abuse. False witnesses lied to get Him convicted,
and by morning’s light, the Jews had convicted Him of blasphemy and
the Romans of treason, both capitol offenses.
A Distinctive Death
The final week
We read about His Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday and His
cleansing of the Temple.
We read about how He bested the religious rulers who tried to
trip Him up and wept over the unrepentant Jewish nation. His final
week was filled with constant activity as He taught and faced conflict.
And as full as the last week of His life was, His final days were
aimed at what had always been the point of His life: His death.
The final hours
Watch Jesus as He and His disciples have come together on that
final Thursday evening to eat a meal in an upper room in Jerusalem.
Watch Him wash His followers’ feet. Watch Judas leave to betray Him.
Watch Jesus pray so fervently in the Garden of Gethsemene that
He sweated great drops of blood - and then watch Peter, James, and
John fall asleep when all He had asked them to do was “watch and
pray.”
We see Judas approach under cover of night to arrest Jesus in
the Garden. Judas identified Jesus for the officials with the friendly kiss
of greeting. Judas has now betrayed Him and Simon Peter, the lead
apostle, will soon deny Him.
That night Jesus bounced back and forth between trials before
Caiaphas and Annas and Herod, finally ending up before the Roman
governor, Pontius Pilate.
About one third of Matthew’s, Mark’s, and Luke’s Gospel, and about one half of
John’s, details the last six days of Jesus’ life.
15
6
From this point forward Jesus’ sufferings, if possible, increased.
He was scourged, scourging being a pre-crucifixion beating
designed to bring death on the cross more quickly. After the scourging
He carried the heavy crosspiece to Golgotha and then was nailed to the
cross through the wrists and ankles.
Mercifully, we have almost no details of Jesus’ gruesome death.
Crucifixion was well understood by the original readers, so there was
no need to explain the terrible process.16
After six hours on the cross, Jesus was dead. In the middle of
the afternoon His death was confirmed by a soldier who was
experienced in these things. The soldier thrust a spear between two of
Jesus’ ribs, causing water and blood to gush out, a sure sign of death.17
He was then taken off the cross, moved into the borrowed tomb
of Joseph of Arimathea, a “secret disciple” who had offered its use for
Jesus’ burial.
A stone was rolled in front of the tomb, a seal was set in place,
and a guard was put on duty so that no one could tamper with the
tomb.
16
A widely circulated article in the Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA) written in 1986 by three men (William D. Edwards, MC; Wesley J. Gabel,
MDiv; Floyd E. Hosmer, MS, AMI) details the atrocity that is crucifixion from a
purely medical viewpoint. The article is titled, “On the Physical Death of Jesus
Christ.” It is a gruesome article detailing a gruesome process, but gives insights
into what Jesus endured for those He came to save. The authors confirm that there
is no room to doubt that Jesus was dead when He was taken from the cross.
17
“Socrates dies with honor, surrounded by his disciples listening to the most
tender words - the easiest death that one could wish to die. Jesus dies in pain,
dishonor, mockery, the object of universal cursing - the most horrible death that
one could fear. At the receipt of the cup of poison, Socrates blesses him who could
not give it to him without tears; Jesus, while suffering the sharpest pains, prays for
His most bitter enemies. If Socrates lived and died like a philosopher, Jesus lived
and died like a god.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher (1712-78)
By Friday night, Jesus’ disciples were scared out of their minds
and spent all Saturday huddled together in a common room.
Then came Sunday morning - EASTER Sunday morning!
A Uniquely Temporary Death…
Christians have believed from the beginning that Jesus rose
from the dead. That belief has grown out of the testimony of those first
disciples who saw the empty tomb and later, the resurrected Jesus
Himself.
Read through the last chapter or two of Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John and you’ll find a breathless energy.
Mary, the first one at the tomb (she had come there to finish
embalming His body), found the stone rolled away.
She ran to tell the disciples that somebody had stolen the
Lord’s body. Peter and John listened to Mary’s report and ran to the
tomb, looked inside, and were convinced of the resurrection without
ever seeing a living Jesus.
Back in the garden, Mary was the first to actually see Jesus,
post-crucifixion. He gave her the first “great commission” telling her to
go back to the guys and tell them that He was alive.
Later that day, two disciples were joined by an in cognito Jesus
while they were walking the road to Emmaus. When they recognized
who He was, He vanished. Then, they turned around and went back to
Jerusalem to spread the news.
And on that same first Sunday Jesus lovingly ambushed His
followers, who were all there, except Thomas. He passed through
locked doors to enter the room and then ate fish with them.
We believe that Jesus rose from the dead, just like He said He
would, just like the Bible describes.
The overwhelming evidence for the resurrection has
convinced seekers for centuries.18
7
It convinced Frank Morrison, an attorney who, after sitting
down to write a book to refute Christianity, investigated the evidence
for the resurrection and ended up writing the apologetics masterpiece
Who Moved the Stone?.
It convinced the skeptic and literary scholar, C. S. Lewis, the
journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, and the Civil War General, Lew Wallace
(who ended up writing Ben Hur).
It has convinced millions more that death could not defeat
Jesus. It convinces me, too, that Jesus [1 Corinthians 15:4]...was raised
on the third day, according to the Scriptures.
(And as I have made clear in previous messages, I want you to know
that I’m eager to talk with you if you have questions or wonderings and
want to explore more about the claims of Jesus. I’ll also direct you to
the Appendix at the end of today’s written manuscript that has
significant detail on the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection.)
There is so much more we could say, so much more to highlight
about the Person of Jesus and about the works of Jesus. He has made an
indelible mark on history and He has changed our own stories.
And here is the way we say what we believe about Jesus in our
Statement of Faith:
We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man,
one Person in two natures. Jesus - Israel's promised Messiah - was
conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived
a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from
the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the
Father as our High Priest and Advocate.
So, based on what we have seen together today, let’s conclude
by asking the question of relevance.
Christianity says that if Jesus didn’t defeat death, our faith is in vain. If His
bones stayed in Joseph’s tomb, then we might as well “eat, drink and be merry”
because Christianity is worth ZERO without a risen Savior.
18
What is our personal “take away” from seeing Jesus’ miraculous
conception, His humble birth, His perfect life, His redemptive death,
and His glorious resurrection from the dead? So what?
First, Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord.
So What?
Jesus is Lord
A few minutes ago, we considered Paul’s comment in
Philippians that Jesus “emptied Himself.” Jesus temporarily emptied
Himself of the glorious prerogatives of deity while He was on earth.
Today, Jesus is no longer “emptied.” He has now taken up all of
the glory and majesty of deity again, as Paul makes clear in what
follows in Philippians 2, which is Jesus’ “rest of the story.”
[9] Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on
Him the name which is above every name, [10] that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on
earth, and under the earth, [11] and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus is the Sovereign Lord. Jesus rules. He is currently seated
on a throne but will return one day - perhaps soon! - to exercise His
Lordship as Judge.19 He is in charge. What He says, goes.
He is Lord over the earth’s climate and our nation’s economy.
He is Lord over the plans of every human ruler and He is Lord over the
future. He is Lord over you and me.
That is the first “so what.” Jesus is Lord. The second “so what”
builds on the first. As the sovereign Lord, He is the only One qualified
to make a legitimate offer of eternal life.
The Lord Jesus is also the Savior.
19
See 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 4:1.
Jesus is Savior
8
Only the sacrifice of a perfect Lord would satisfy the righteous
demands of God to take the penalty for your sin and mine.
And the Bible teaches that when Jesus was crucified He took
our place. On the cross, Jesus suffered the wrath of God so that we
would never have to. He died to bring us forgiveness.
By His death and resurrection, God’s demand for justice was
satisfied and His wrath was turned away. Now, the way is clear for you
and I to be declared justified. We can be reconciled to God. We can find
redemption from the penalty and the power of sin. We can find
forgiveness, full and free.
It is all found in Jesus, who offers all of this to those who
believe.
Conclusion:
What you think about Jesus really matters. He was not just a
good, moral teacher. He was not just a model for passive or aggressive
revolution.
He is the God/Man. He is the Sovereign Lord of history. He is
the only source of eternal life - and He offers it to all who will come to
Him by faith.
He will stabilize your rocky life. He’ll center your out of focus
thoughts. He’ll make whole your fragmented soul.
THIS is the Jesus we believe.
[John 1:14] And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the
Father, full of grace and truth….[18 No man has seen God at any
time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He
has explained Him.
APPENDIX - Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus
The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that if we have hoped in
Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
In other words, if Jesus’ body is still lying in the tomb of Joseph of
Arimathea, then the Bible’s not worth the paper it’s printed on, we’ve
placed our faith in an unworthy Jesus, and we might as well all go
home. The resurrection is THAT important.
So, let’s first consider the historical facts surrounding the death of
Jesus.
Historical facts
Pre-resurrection events
Then, friends placed His body in the securely guarded tomb of Joseph
of Arimathea and guards were posted. A seal was set and a large stone
was rolled in front of the cave.
All we know about the disciples is that at this point they were very
discouraged and fearful, most of them having fled the night before
when Jesus was arrested.
The Bible goes on to tell us that after the Friday afternoon death and
burial, two women found a very different scene when they went to
Joseph’s tomb to finish the embalming work that had been cut short on
Friday because of the onset of the Jewish Sabbath.
Post-resurrection events
When they arrived at the tomb, they found no soldiers and a rolled
away stone.
He was put to death by crucifixion, a most gruesome and agonizing
form of capital punishment.
The grave clothes in which Jesus had been wrapped were empty and
Jesus’ body was nowhere to be found.
Jesus had spent the evening before His crucifixion in the Garden of
Gethsemene praying fervently, had been violently arrested by the
Romans and Jews, and had been passed back and forth all night
standing trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman governor,
Pontius Pilate.
So, how can the empty tomb of Jesus be explained?
In other words, by the time He was crucified, He had already been
abused and was already exhausted.
It is plausible to wonder if the confused, grieving women went to the
wrong tomb and that Joseph’s tomb was actually still occupied by the
body of Jesus on Easter Sunday morning.
Before He was ever nailed through His wrists and ankles to the cross,
He had been crowned with a crown of thorns that had three inch long
spikes, scourged (a brutal beating that sometimes killed its victims)
and had carried His cross (with some help from Simon of Cyrene) the
distance from Pilate’s Praetorium to Golgotha.
Following six agonizing hours on the cross, the Roman guards (experts
at such things) pronounced Jesus dead after piercing His side with a
spear and watching blood and water gush out - a sure sign of death.
9
How to explain the empty tomb
The tomb was still occupied
What is IMplausible is to think that after the women went to the wrong
tomb NOBODY would have checked the right tomb.
Surely somebody, eventually, would have checked Joseph’s tomb to see
if Jesus’ body was there.
No, Joseph’s tomb was empty. How did it get empty? Perhaps Jesus’
disciples stole the body.
This is an ancient theory, but it stretches credulity to the breaking
point.
The tomb was empty
PERHAPS JESUS’ BODY WAS STOLEN
Those who would consider this are asking us to believe that fearful
disciples purposefully perpetrated a hoax that they knew would result
in their becoming the enemies of Rome.
The idea is that they intentionally stole Jesus’ body, knowing that they
would be arrested, tortured and finally executed for proclaiming that
Jesus - who had been crucified as an enemy of the state - was Lord, not
Caesar.
Now, of course, people around the world will often die for what they
believe in. But very few willingly give up their lives for what know to
be false.
And that is what we are being asked to believe the disciples did, if they
stole the body of Jesus and then proclaimed Him raised from the dead.
We are also being asked to believe that the disciples fought off a Roman
guard and rolled away a two ton stone in order to carry out the heist. I
don’t find this idea compelling…
On the other hand, it has been suggested that it was the Jews who stole
Jesus’ body. This is the other option for body snatching, but it is even
less likely than the first.
PERHAPS JESUS “SWOONED” ON THE CROSS
This theory says that Jesus, only appearing to be dead, was taken off
the cross, and then was resuscitated in the cool air of the tomb.
But, when we trace this idea to its logical end, we have to exercise more
faith than we do in simply believing the resurrection.
It would mean that Jesus endured the beatings at His trials, the crown
of thorns, the terrible scourging, the crucifixion, and even the spear
thrust into His side and somehow managed to survive.
Of course He was dead enough looking to have convinced the
professional executioners that He was actually dead, who took Him off
the cross and let Him be wrapped in a hundred pounds of gummy
spices.
But if we assume that He was not wholly dead, but only mostly dead,
then we have to say that in spite of great loss of blood and many hours
in the cold tomb without food, water, or assistance, He revived and
managed to escape from the grave clothes and spices and replace them
neatly in the tomb.
Following this, He then rolled the huge stone up an incline away from
the opening, overcame armed guards, walked miles on nail-pierced
feet, and convinced His disciples that He had conquered death and was
the resurrected Author of life.
This theory would also have us believe that Jesus lived on after all this
and died a natural death in obscurity.
Even while He was alive, the Jewish leaders were trying to put an end
to all the excitement about Jesus.
It is actually a challenge to explain the empty tomb except on the
grounds of resurrection.
And if, after He was dead, they could have produced His body, THAT
would have put an end to the Jesus movement. No doubt if they could
have produced the body, they would have.
But in addition to the empty tomb, we also have to explain the many
appearances of Jesus to His disciples after His resurrection.
Another possible explanation for the empty tomb is that Jesus, perhaps,
did not actually die on the cross.
10
How to explain the appearances
It does as little good to suggest that they were lying about this as it did
to suggest that they were lying about His resurrection.
For by proclaiming that they had seen Him, they were setting
themselves up for extreme persecution.
And to say, “They were just hallucinating” doesn’t ring true either, for
His appearances violate everything we know about the nature of
hallucinations.

Hallucinations are usually experienced by people who are
longing to see what they hallucinate about (i.e. - a mother longs to see
her son who is off at war). But the disciples who saw Jesus weren’t
expecting to see Him and had lost all hope of ever seeing Him again.

Hallucinations don’t happen to groups. Yet Jesus was seen by
individuals, by two disciples on the road to Emmaus, by the whole
group of disciples on several occasions, and once by as many as 500
people, many of whom were still alive when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.

Hallucinations usually persist for a long, long time in the
imagination of the one who has a hallucination. But Jesus’ appearances
abruptly ceased exactly forty days after His resurrection. During those
forty days, He appeared often, ate fish, walked through walls, cooked
on the beach and walked along dusty roads with His followers. But
after forty days, none of His disciples ever claimed to see Him again.
Added to the empty tomb and the appearances, there is other evidence
for Jesus’ resurrection.
Other evidence
11
I believe that the best explanation as to what happened on Easter
Sunday morning two millennia ago is NOT that anybody went to the
wrong tomb, NOT that anybody stole the body, NOT that the early
disciples simply made up the story, NOT that Jesus didn’t die, and NOT
that anybody had hallucinations about seeing Jesus.
He rose from the dead “according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians
15:4)
For further study on the evidence for the resurrection, I recommend
the following:
I’m Glad You Asked (Kenneth Boa and Larry Moody) - deals with
apologetics questions, with an excellent section on Jesus’ resurrection.
The Reason for God (Tim Keller) - excellent, well-reasoned, winsome
spirit.
Mere Christianity (C. S. Lewis) - philosophically and logically
persuasive arguments for the Gospel of Jesus, biblical throughout.
Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Josh McDowell) - an oldie but
goodie with lots of historical and archaeological evidence for the
reliability of the Scriptural account of Jesus’ life and death and
resurrection - and much, much more.
For further reading on the Person and work of Jesus, generally:
Jesus: Lord and Savior (F. F. Bruce)
Dinner with a Perfect Stranger (David Gregory)
The Jesus I Never Knew (Philip Yancey)
Consider the following…
 Christ predicted His own resurrection;20
 Jewish leaders never contradicted claims of Jesus’ resurrection;21
 The disciples exhibited newfound fearlessness;22
 The church shifted to Sunday worship;23
 The church disregarded Jesus’ tomb as a point of interest;24
20
Matthew 17:23; 20:19
While there was great opposition to the movement that followed Jesus, the fact
of His resurrection was never challenged
22
How can the psychological change in the disciples be explained apart from their
actual experience of a resurrected Jesus?
23
The switch of devout Jews from regular Sabbath worship to worship on the first
day of the week is a powerful argument for the resurrection.
21
24
Monuments are normally built to venerate the memory of dead heroes. The lack
of a monument for Jesus tells us that the disciples knew full well that their Hero
was not dead.