This is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning celebration of Christ’s first coming and the anticipation of Christ’s second coming. We will break from our monthly message series to help us prepare for Christmas in a meaningful way. This is a tough task. I’m competing with the millions of dollars that are spent to commercialize Christmas.
Since Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, we will look at who Jesus was, why Jesus came, what Jesus left behind and what difference Jesus makes in our lives. In C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, he writes about a place “where it is always winter, and never Christmas.” The difference between celebrating winter and celebrating Christmas begins with knowing who Jesus was. So this morning, we’re going to look at who was Jesus?
A couple of weeks ago, during the break at the Bible study training session, one participant commented that even she received answers to questions she had about God, doubts still return. I can identify with that. As someone has said, “Doubts are the evidences of belief. Those who don’t believe don’t ever doubt.”
Earlier this week, I spent a few minutes before falling asleep asking myself what I believed about Jesus. I questioned whether I really did my homework and came to a rational conclusion that Jesus was the Son of God, who came to die on the cross for the forgiveness of mankind’s sins. Or did the Christian church manage to gradually brainwash me over the last 15 years?
So this week, I did some pondering, some research and some reading to sort through the question, “Who Was Jesus?” To answer the question, I asked three other questions. These questions are not original with me. Many people have asked these questions, and their findings have led them to the same conclusion about Jesus. Let me share with you what I found.
My first question was, “Was Jesus a created man?”
In other words, did someone create a character and named him “Jesus”? Did Jesus really exist at one time? Or was Jesus a character out of mythical writings like the Arabian Nights or the Monkey King?
Over the last two thousand years, Jesus appeared to have been recreated by the people to fit into a particular time and culture. I’ve seen pictures of Caucasian Jesus, of African Jesus, even of Asian Jesus. I’ve seen pictures of Jesus in tears and in laughter. We don’t see other historical characters, such as George Washington, being recreated this way. How can we be sure that Jesus really lived, and was not a figment of imagination?
Well, the one source most people point to is the Bible to testify to the existence of Jesus Christ. After all, the Bible is a credible book. Unlike the Book of Mormon, which contains people and locations that cannot be verified, the Bible contains characters, geographical locations and historical events which all can be verified.
There are also non-biblical testimonies. Tacitus of Rome, Suetonius, Pliny the Young, and at least a dozen other non-Christian historians referred to Jesus as an actual, historical person. Even the mostly highly respected Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote about Jesus being a wise man and a wonder worker (Skeptics Answered by D. James Kennedy).
Tacitus, one of the most famous Roman historian included the following accounts: “Christ, the founder of the Christian sect, was put to death as a malefactor by Pontius Pilate…. Christianity began in Judea and spread in spite of Christ’s ignominious death (p. 74, Skeptics Answered by D. James Kennedy).”
Jesus did live. The existence of Jesus Christ is not hard to prove. There is an abundance of historical evidence. But who was he?
The second question I asked was, “Was Jesus a con man?”
Someone wrote about Jesus with these words, “All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as much as that One Solitary Life.”
As I thought about His great influence, I wondered if he was simply a charismatic conman. His life was so convincing that eleven of his twelve disciples willingly suffered death and exile to follow Jesus. And almost two thousand years later, Jesus holds the allegiance of one third of the people living today.
The hypothesis that Jesus was a conman doesn’t make sense. What conman would purposely get himself crucified? Con men deceive others for personal gain. Con men are hypocrites. Yet, all that Jesus taught and all that his life represented was self-sacrifice. Throughout his life and even on the cross, he lived his own teaching of love for others.
Napoleon Bonaparte once wrote, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded great empires; but upon what did the creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for Him.”
Many non-Christians I know admire Jesus for his compassion and integrity. Jesus was not a con man. He was an honest and loving man. His life of integrity, love and servanthood continues to inspire people around the world.
The third question I asked was, “Was Jesus a crazy man?”
Jesus may have existed. He may have been honest and loving. But no one in his right mind could have said the things he said about himself, unless he was crazy or he was whom he claimed to be. Jesus, in many ways and many occasions, lived as if and claimed to be the Son of God, equal with God.
We read in John 8:56-58, a dialogue between other Jews and Jesus. Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
The Jews replied, "You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham!"
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!"
Pre-existence is an attribute of God. When Jesus said he existed before Abraham, the father of the Jews, he was saying was pre-existent, like God.
We read in Matthew 24 about Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of temple in Jerusalem. Jesus made the prediction around AD 30. The destruction of the temple took place in AD 70. Some claim Matthew inserted this prediction when he wrote in AD 66, because the political circumstances could be seen leading to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Yet, the Roman historian, Tacitus, wrote about this event as the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy (Skeptics Answered by D. James Kennedy).
Omniscience, or all-knowing is an attribute of God. Jesus, on many occasions knew what people were thinking, and he knew about future events.
I can go on and on to list how Jesus’ life and claims fit the attributes of God. But I want to begin drawing a conclusion for this morning. Listen to the words of C.S. Lewis from his book, Mere Christianity:
“I’m trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus]: [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 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 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.”
If Jesus was not a created man, a con man, a crazy man, then he is whom he claimed to be, the Creator became man. Matthew 1:22-23 reads, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ --which means, ‘God with us.’”
Someone tells the story about an art class in an elementary school. The teacher walked behind each child to see what he or she was drawing. Over the shoulder of one boy, the teacher watched and asked, “Johnny, what are you drawing?”
Johnny replied, “I’m drawing a picture of God.”
“But, Johnny, no one knows what God looks like.”
Johnny looked up with a smile and said, “They will, when I get done.”
If I were there, I would say to Johnny, “People don’t need to know what God looks like. We need to know what God is like. What is God’s character? Is He mean? Is He powerful? Does He know everything? Does He love? And does He love me?”
If Jesus is God became man, and I believe He is, then we have the answers to the question, “What is God like?”
