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Who
Is Jesus Of Nazareth?
Faith Community Church, Pipestone, MN
September 16, 2001
Mark 14:61-62 But he [Jesus] held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I Am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
As you can see from the Biblical text, Jesus clearly claimed to be God. His statement caused quite a reaction. Every person confronted by the Biblical claims of Jesus’ deity has three possible options. You can conclude that;
1. Jesus was a liar (willfully knowing that He was not God).
2. Jesus was a lunatic (mistakenly believing Himself to be God).
3. Jesus was Lord (having consciousness of being a man whose identity was God).
These are the only options, but what conclusion does the evidence support? And what will you do with Jesus of Nazareth?
I. What did Jesus say about Himself?
You have before you, a thorough discussion of the evidence in the Scripture for the deity of Christ. Clearly, Jesus believed Himself to be God, and claimed to be God. He claimed oneness, and unity with God the Father, and said in many ways, that He was indeed, God.
II. What did others say about Jesus?
There are others, besides Jesus, who claimed that he was, indeed, the Son of God. The Scripture also recorded their testimony.
III. What evidence is there to support what Jesus said?
His teaching: Jesus’ deity is further evidenced in the New Testament by what He did and said. No one ever taught like Jesus taught. If everyone lived by Jesus’ principles taught in the Sermon on the Mount, our world would become a paradise.
His miracles: Jesus said that the miracles He performed were in themselves evidence that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father, John 10:38.
His character: Jesus was a man who exemplified supreme unselfishness but never self-pity; humility but not weakness; joy but never at another’s expense; kindness but not indulgence. He was a man in whom even His enemies could find no fault and where friends, who knew Him well, said He was without sin.
Prophecy: There are four hundred and fifty Messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Bible which focus on the coming Redeemer of mankind. At His First Advent, Jesus fulfilled three hundred and thirty-three prophecies. Thirty-three of those prophecies were fulfilled on one day; Good Friday; between the time of Jesus’ betrayal to His burial. Only God, Himself, could have made these predictions with accuracy.
His Resurrection: The Bible proclaims that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest proof that Jesus is the very Son of God. Between the Resurrection and the ascension, there was a period of forty days. During this time, the Lord Jesus appeared to at least 516 of His own followers on at least ten different occasions as recorded in Scripture. These eyewitnesses put the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth beyond a reasonable doubt. In fact, it would be foolish not to believe in our Lord’s Resurrection.
Life Application
There are those today who would have us believe that we can accept a totally human Christ as our example in life. But He cannot truly be our example until He is first our Savior. And He cannot be our Savior until we accept His deity. In John 8:24 Christ says these words: I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I Am He, ye shall die in your sins. By his saying, “I Am,” He was clearly indicating His deity. Jesus said in John 8:24 that a person will die in his sins unless he believes in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many may teach that Jesus was a great religious leader, or a great moral teacher, or a great prophet of God. Those labels do not answer the claims of who Jesus really is. To say what Jesus said and to claim what He claimed about Himself, one can not conclude that He was just a good leader, or a moral man, or a great prophet. That alternative isn’t open to an individual, and Jesus never intended it to be the issue.
Based on Jesus’ claims, you must conclude that He was either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. These are your only options.
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, consider that His claim to be God was false. If it were false, then we have two and only two alternatives. If Jesus knew it was false, then He was a liar. If He didn’t know it was false, then He was a lunatic.
If Jesus was a liar (knowing that He was not God), then ;
● He was deliberately deceiving His followers.
● He was a hypocrite because He told others to be honest.
● He was a demon because He asked others to trust Him for their eternal destiny.
● He was a fool because it was His divine claims that led to His crucifixion.
How could Jesus be a great moral teacher and knowingly mislead people at the most important point of His teaching; His own identity? On the other hand, if Jesus were a liar, how can it be explained that His teachings have changed countless lives? There is no solution to this question other than that Jesus could not have been a liar.
If Jesus were a lunatic (believing mistakenly that He was God), then;
● It’s possible that He was both sincere, but wrong.
● His claiming to be God would certainly be a retreat from reality.
● His mind would have been mentally disturbed.
On the other hand, how can it be explained that Jesus spoke some of the most profound sayings ever recorded and that His instructions have liberated many individuals in mental bondage? The Sermon on the Mount alone provides a blueprint for successful human life with optimism, mental health, and contentment. How can it be believed that Jesus was a lunatic?
If Jesus were neither a liar nor a lunatic, then the only other alternative is that He was the Christ, the Son of God. He is LORD!
Secondly, the whole weight of His teaching, His works, His character, His fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, and His conquest of death make those suggestions (liar and lunatic), absurd, illogical and unbelievable. On the other hand, they lend the strongest possible support to Jesus’ own consciousness of being a man whose identity was God. C. S. Lewis sums it up like this: “We are faced then with a frightening alternative. The man we are talking about was (and is) just what he said or else a lunatic or something worse. Now it seems to me obvious that he was neither a lunatic nor a fiend; and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that he was and is God. God has landed on this enemy occupied world in human form.”
The evidence is clearly in favor of Jesus as Lord! To call Jesus ‘Lord’, involves both moral implications and personal responsibility; a challenge that some refuse to confront. You cannot review the evidence honestly, and refuse to make Jesus your Lord and Savior! The proof is overwhelming... Jesus is Lord!