“PERPLEXED BY JESUS”
Small Group Lesson: The Issue of Herod
Luke 9:7-9
7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, 8 others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. 9 But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.
Questions:
1. Who the heck was Herod?
2. What were the people saying in order to explain Jesus?
3. Who do modern people say Jesus is?
4. Okay, since I am honest, I too am perplexed? How can Jesus be both God and Man?
5. How hard did Herod try to see Jesus?
Answers:
1. For the record, and this information really doesn’t make great small group material. The Herod the Tetrach in this passage is referring to Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the freak king who when he heard about the magi’s proclamation that the new born king had been born, went out and had all the baby boys killed. So this is the biological son of one of the great murderers in history. We do not know if the story of Jesus’ birth and magi was passed down to him, but it’s at least probable.
We also know that Herod Antipas was a killer, this is the man who had John the Baptist beheaded. This man was also an adulterer who did not like to be reminded of his sin, which was the main reason for John’s beheading. I feel it’s reasonable to look at him as any ultimate despot leader would have been seen.
For the purposes of small group, it is possible that all or none of this information is pertinent, so please let the Spirit lead you accordingly.
*One more knowledge base word here is the word “perplexed.” Literally, it is the word diaporew, which means “at a loss.” Perplexed is a good translation, it is obvious that this man really no idea what to think. I guess he was sort of like the guy from the classic musical The King and I, pretty clueless.
2. As the Lord leads, begin here by asking the students what their classmates think of Jesus? When the name Jesus is spoken, what is said? Do people make fun of God or Jesus? Can anyone tell some stories?
Biblically, the people said he was Elijiah, John the Baptist, or one of the great prophets. Wrong on all accounts. Modern day people say he is a good teacher, a religious leader, a baby, or even that they are not sure (perplexed like Herod in other words).
None of those answers are very good at all! There are a couple things active here. First, people are willing to say Jesus is great by proclaiming him to be equal or close to equal as other great humans. This, in their mind, allows them to show the proper respect (just in case). But at the same time, it voids them with the reason to have to worship Him, which includes following Him, and that includes putting some sins aside. So, it’s a cop out.
“Are you copping out?” –tough question.
Talladega Nights Example: In the movie, which was pretty dang popular a number of years ago, Wil Farrel stars as a race car driver, and quite honestly, a person who has no respect for the Lord Jesus. Here are some lines from the movie:
Will Ferrell (Ricky Bobby):
... dear tiny Jesus, with your golden, fleece diapers, with your tiny little fat balled up fist ...
Ted Manson (Chip): ... he was a man, he had a beard ...
Will Ferrell:
... look, I like the baby version the best, do you hear me?
From Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Leslie Bibb (Carley Bobby): ... sweety ... Jesus did grow up, you don't always have to call him baby, its a bit odd and all praying to a baby ...
Will Ferrell (Ricky Bobby):
... well, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I am saying grace ... when you say grace, you can say it to Grown-up Jesus or Teenage Jesus or Bearded Jesus or whoever you want ...
From Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Remember, those lines came during their prayer before a meal? Wow! It doesn’t really represent a high view of God does it? Moreover, aren’t they making fun of Jesus.
Now read this scripture from the Bible (I suggest to have everyone look it up and wait for them, the power of this verse is greater when each student has read it before its been read aloud)…
1 Corinthians 1:18
…the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing…
What does this verse mean? Well, if someone is okay to make fun of the cross, then they are…perishing. Get it? When your friends make fun of Jesus, they are telling you something—that they are perishing! Now that you know, what are you going to do about it?
3. In my opinion, and my opinion only, the most common thing I hear from non-believers is: Jesus was just a good man. Now, the Lord, Liar, Lunatic argument refutes this (if you have not heard that before, please pause right now and read about it in the extras). But let’s begin by looking at the Bible.
Mark 10:17-18
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.
Jesus refutes the term good teacher, though he was a GREAT teacher, it’s almost as though he knew the future (sort of like God knows the future), so Jesus slams this reference to himself.
Let’s put it another way. Jesus spent most of his ministry days telling people that…
A) we are doomed to hell.
B) we need to give up our entire lives and follow him.
C) that he is going to be killed.
D) that the world is going to end some day.
E) that there is a way to heaven, but only a few are going there.
HOW IS THAT A GOOD MESSAGE? I mean, there are some real great blessings that are bestowed on us, we receive heaven, we get to eat free bread and fish with 5000 people, that stuff is amazing. But there are some things that were said that were punishable by death! How is that a “good” (in the world’s eyes) message.
4. This may not be the best question/answer to cover with Middle School, but since we are preparing our students to defend the very nature of God against a doubting world, let’s cover this technicality.
First, there are some things that God is, that is scientifically impossible. How can someone be lion and a lamb? Those two are opposites. How can something be first and last? No way, if I eat the first piece of bread, it is not the last piece too (I guess unless the whole loaf is one piece and I was really, really hungry). But you get the idea.
Jesus had always been God (John 8:58 states …before Abraham was born, I am). But Jesus also became flesh (John 1:14 states the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us). As a man, Jesus could be thirsty while standing next to Jacob’s well, or frightened in the garden where he prayed and sweat droplets of blood just prior to his execution. As God, he had power to drive out demons, heal lepers, and even had the knowledge to know a coin could be found in the mouth of a fish.
This “God-Man” connection is technically called the hypostatic union, it is absolutely a true and Biblical doctrine, despite the fact that it reaches beyond our human understanding. Jesus, who was always God, became a person when he was conceived in Mary’s womb. When I was debating this issue with a Muslim friend, he couldn’t come to grips with this concept (for God-Man to him was something out of Greek mythology and he considered it to be false because it didn’t make sense). I didn’t argue with him about it making sense, instead, I just pointed out that every other god in the universe, including his, was 100% predictable, and acted like humans act, almost as if humans had made them all up!
Think about it…if everything about a god could be readily explained by us people, couldn’t we either conclude that either those gods are very limited in their abilities, or that they aren’t even needed for they have exactly the same characteristics as us?
In this passage, Herod is perplexed. But he is also cynical. A cynic doesn’t deserve to have their questions answered because they won’t believe even if every problem in the universe is solved and laid out for them. There is a big difference between a doubter and a cynic. When a doubter has his answers provided, they believe (technically, they become an ex-doubter).
That’s the reason for the extremely technical question in this week’s small group, got some meat here in my opinion.
5. Not very hard. Herod was a man of great power, living in an age of absolute rule, in a city that has a population much closer to O’Fallon than St. Louis. If he really wanted to seek Jesus out, he would have done it. If he really wanted to figure out the mystery of this man who everyone was talking about, it would have been at his fingertips.
So why does Herod make the statement of “trying to see him?” Easy, because as long as someone is “trying” to do something, they don’t really have to do it. All of us know of tons of people who are “trying” to plug into church. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, “trying” to plug into church and not going is about the same as “trying” to find a job but never applying anywhere. The person applying for a job thinks about work all the time—but that’s it, they just think about it.
Is it okay to think about Christ? Well, thinking about Christ is a very good thing! But, ultimately, on judgment day, the great evaluation is going to be whether we know Christ or don’t know Christ—not if we ever thought about him.
As always, we tend to work in the gospel message, and we do that as much as possible. Now may be a good time to hear someone’s testimony about how they came to the Lord, testimonies sometimes help people evaluate whether they too know the Lord.
EXTRAS:
Question: "Is Jesus God? Did Jesus ever claim to be God?" Answer: Jesus is never recorded in the Bible as saying the precise words, “I am God.” That does not mean, however, that He did not proclaim that He is God. Take for example Jesus’ words in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” We need only to look at the Jews’ reaction to His statement to know He was claiming to be God. They tried to stone Him for this very reason. “… you, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33). The Jews understood exactly what Jesus was claiming—deity. Notice that Jesus does not deny His claim to be God. When Jesus declared, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), He was saying that He and the Father are of one nature and essence. John 8:58 is another example. Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!” The response of the Jews who heard this statement was to take up stones to kill Him for blasphemy, as the Mosaic Law commanded them to do (Leviticus 24:15). John reiterates the concept of Jesus’ deity: “the Word was God” and “the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 14). These verses clearly indicate that Jesus is God in the flesh. Acts 20:28 tells us, “Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Who bought the church—the church of God—with His own blood? Jesus Christ. Acts 20:28 declares that God purchased His church with His own blood. Therefore, Jesus is God! Thomas the disciple declared concerning Jesus, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Jesus does not correct him. Titus 2:13 encourages us to wait for the coming of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ (see also 2 Peter 1:1). In Hebrews 1:8, the Father declares of Jesus, “But about the Son He says, ’Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.’” The Father refers to Jesus as “O God” indicating that Jesus is indeed God. In Revelation, an angel instructed the apostle John to only worship God (Revelation 19:10). Several times in Scripture Jesus receives worship (Matthew 2:11, 14:33, 28:9, 17; Luke 24:52; John 9:38). He never rebukes people for worshiping Him. If Jesus were not God, He would have told people to not worship Him, just as the angel in Revelation did. There are many other verses and passages of Scripture that argue for Jesus’ deity. The most important reason that Jesus has to be God is that if He is not God, His death would not have been sufficient to pay the penalty for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). A created being, which Jesus would be if He were not God, could not pay the infinite penalty required for sin against an infinite God. Only God could pay such an infinite penalty. Only God could take on the sins of the world (2 Corinthians 5:21), die, and be resurrected, proving His victory over sin and death.
LORD, LIAR, LUNATIC ARGUMENT IN DETAIL…
Jesus: God or Just a Good Man?
Analyzing our 3 options to explain His identity: a liar, a lunatic, or Lord?
By Josh McDowell
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Jesus' distinct claims of being God eliminate the popular ploy of skeptics who regard Him as just a good moral man or a prophet who said a lot of profound things.
So often that conclusion is passed off as the only one acceptable to scholars or as the obvious result of the intellectual process.
The trouble is, many people nod their heads in agreement and never see the fallacy of such reasoning.
Analyzing Jesus' Claim To Be God
C. S. Lewis, who was a professor at Cambridge University and once an agnostic, understood this issue clearly.
He writes: "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.' 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."
Then Lewis adds: "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 up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
In the words of Kenneth Scott Latourette, historian of Christianity at Yale University: "It is not His teachings which make Jesus so remarkable, although these would be enough to give Him distinction. It is a combination of the teachings with the man Himself. The two cannot be separated."
Jesus claimed to be God. He didn't leave any other option open. His claim must be either true or false, so it is something that should be given serious consideration.
Jesus' question to His disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:15) has several alternatives.
First, suppose that His claim to be God was false. If it was false, then we have only two alternatives. He either knew it was false or He didn't know it was false.
We will consider each one separately and examine the evidence.
Was He a Liar?
If, when Jesus made His claims, He knew that He was not God, then He was lying and deliberately deceiving His followers.
But if He was a liar, then He was also a hypocrite because He told others to be honest, whatever the cost, while He himself taught and lived a colossal lie.
More than that, He was a demon, because He told others to trust Him for their eternal destiny. If He couldn't back up His claims and knew it, then He was unspeakably evil.
Last, He would also be a fool because it was His claims to being God that led to His crucifixion.
Many will say that Jesus was a good moral teacher. Let's be realistic. How could He be a great moral teacher and knowingly mislead people at the most important point of His teaching ‑- His own identity? You would have to conclude logically that He was a deliberate liar.
This view of Jesus, however doesn't coincide with what we know either of Him or the results of His life and teachings.
Wherever Jesus has been proclaimed, lives have been changed for the good, nations have changed for the better, thieves are made honest, alcoholics are cured, hateful individuals become channels of love, unjust persons become just.
William Lecky, one of Great Britain's most noted historians and a dedicated opponent of organized Christianity, writes: "It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal character which through all the changes of 18 centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments and conditions; has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice.... The simple record of these 3 short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists."
Historian Philip Schaff says: "How, in the name of logic, common sense, and experience, could an imposter -‑ that is a deceitful, selfish, depraved man -‑ have invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to end, the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality? How could He have conceived and successfully carried out a plan of unparalleled beneficence, moral magnitude, and sublimity, and sacrificed His own life for it, in the face of the strongest prejudices of His people and age?"
If Jesus wanted to get people to follow Him and believe in Him as God, why did He go to the Jewish nation? Why go as a Nazarene carpenter to a country so small in size and population and so thoroughly adhering to the undivided unity of God? Why didn't He go to Egypt or, even more, to Greece, where they believed in various gods and various manifestations of them?
Someone who lived as Jesus lived, taught as Jesus taught, and died as Jesus died could not have been a liar.
Was He a Lunatic?
If it is inconceivable for Jesus to be a liar, then couldn't He actually have thought Himself to be God, but been mistaken? After all, it's possible to be both sincere and wrong.
But we must remember that for someone to think himself God, especially in a fiercely monotheistic culture, and then to tell others that their eternal destiny depended on believing in him, is no light flight of fantasy but the thoughts of a lunatic in the fullest sense.
Was Jesus Christ such a person?
Someone who believes he is God sounds like someone today believing himself Napoleon. He would be deluded and self‑deceived, and probably he would be locked up so he wouldn't hurt himself or anyone else.
Yet in Jesus we don't observe the abnormalities and imbalance that usually go along with being deranged. His poise and composure would certainly be amazing if He were insane.
Noyes and Kolb, in a medical text, describe the schizophrenic as a person who is more autistic than realistic. The schizophrenic desires to escape from the world of reality. Let's face it; claiming to be God would certainly be a retreat from reality.
In light of the other things we know about Jesus, it's hard to imagine that He was mentally disturbed. Here is a man who spoke some of the most profound sayings ever recorded. His instructions have liberated many individuals from mental bondage.
Clark H. Pinnock asks: "Was He deluded about His greatness, a paranoid, an unintentional deceiver, a schizophrenic? Again, the skill and depth of His teachings support the case only for His total mental soundness. If only we were as sane as He!"
A student at a California university told me that his psychology professor had said in class that "all he has to do is pick up the Bible and read portions of Christ's teaching to many of his patients. That's all the counseling they need."
Psychiatrist J. T. Fisher states: "If you were to take the sum total of all authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene ‑- if you were to combine them and refine them, and cleave out the excess verbiage -‑ if you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley, and if you were to have these unadulterated bits of pure scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward and incomplete summation of the Sermon on the Mount. And it would suffer immeasurably through comparison. For nearly 2,000 years the Christian world has been holding in its hands the complete answer to its restless and fruitless yearnings. Here ... rests the blueprint for successful human life with optimism, mental health, and contentment."
C. S. Lewis writes: "The historical difficulty of giving for the life, sayings and influence of Jesus any explanation that is not harder than the Christian explanation is very great. The discrepancy between the depth and sanity...of His moral teaching and the rampant megalomania which must lie behind His theological teaching unless He is indeed God has never been satisfactorily explained. Hence the non‑Christian hypotheses succeed one another with the restless fertility of bewilderment."
Philip Schaff reasons: "Is such an intellect ‑- clear as the sky, bracing as the mountain air, sharp and penetrating as a sword, thoroughly healthy and vigorous, always ready and always self‑possessed -‑ liable to a radical and most serious delusion concerning His own character and mission? Preposterous imagination!"
Was He Lord?
I cannot personally conclude that Jesus was a liar or a lunatic. The only other alternative is that He was the Christ, the Son of God, as He claimed.
When I discuss this with most Jewish people, it's interesting how they respond. They usually tell me that Jesus was a moral, upright, religious leader, a good man, or some kind of prophet. I then share with them the claims Jesus made about Himself and then this material on the trilemma (liar, lunatic, or Lord).
When I ask if they believe Jesus was a liar, there is a sharp "No!"
Then I ask, "Do you believe He was a lunatic?" The reply is, "Of course not."
"Do you believe He is God?"
Before I can get a breath in edgewise, there is a resounding, "Absolutely not."
Yet one has only so many choices.
The issue with these 3 alternatives is not which is possible, for it is obvious that all 3 are possible. Rather, the question is, "Which is more probable?"
Who you decide Jesus Christ is must not be an idle intellectual exercise. You cannot put Him on the shelf as a great moral teacher. That is not a valid option.
He is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord and God. You must make a choice.
"But," as the apostle John wrote, "these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and" ‑- more important ‑- "that believing you might have life in His name" (John 20:31).
The evidence is clearly in favor of Jesus as Lord. Some people, however, reject this clear evidence because of moral implications involved. They don't want to face up to the responsibility or implications of calling Him Lord.
Sources:
Gotquestions.org. Did Jesus claim to be God?
McDowell, Josh. Jesus: God or Just a Good Man? Campus Crusade for Christ International, copied with permission.