Can I Believe Jesus Is The Divine Son Of God?
Introduction:
A. In our study we intend to look with you at some evidence
which will allow us to answer confidently that He is
indeed....
B. There are many, even among those who profess to be
Christians, who attempt, in every way, to convince others
that Jesus is not..., but that He was only a man.
1. We're not just talking about atheist, but also modernists
- so-called friends..
2. The apostle Paul says about such unbelievers: "Professing themselves to be wise they became fools...." (Rom. 1:22).
a. I've never known one but that it was obvious that he
thought that he had superior intelligence.
b. Again in the Roman letter Paul rebukes those with
such an attitude.
Romans 12:3 "For I say, through the grace given
unto me, to every man that is among you, not to
think [of himself] more highly than he ought to think;
but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt
to every man the measure of faith."
C. Members of the Lord's church accept the N. T. as
God's word and we preach Jesus as the Son of God.
1. We have no interests in preaching a mere man
who assumed for himself godlike character and attitudes.
a. This would be vain... 1 Cor. 15:12-19
b. Such teachings of liberal theology cannot meet
the needs of men in bondage to sin.
c. We desire to preach Christ who is God.
2. The word teaches it and in view of other
evidences it is reasonable to accept it.
a. Matt. 1:18 "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was
on this wise: his mother Mary had been betrothed
to Joseph, before they came together she was
found with child of the Holy Spirit".
b. The apostle continues his account of Jesus' birth
by again affirming in verse 20 that "that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit"
c. In verse 23, he quotes from Isaiah 7:14, and
affirms that Jesus was the fulfillment of that old
testament passage.
1) In quoting this passage, he recognizes Jesus
as Emmanuel, or God with us.
d. Luke agrees with Matt. about the angel's
message to the virgin Mary: 2 (Luke 1:35) "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Most High shall overshadow
thee; wherefore also that holy thing which shall
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
e. John also proclaims His divinity and existence
from eternity.
1) John 1:1,14 - "In the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was
God...and the word became flesh and dwelt
among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten from theFather), full of
grace and truth."
2) We could present the teachings of other N.T.
writers that show that they viewed Jesus as
the Son of God but that would be
unnecessarily repetitious.
D. Before we could ask anyone to accept Jesus as the Son
of God we must first show that he claimed to be divine
and also present evidence to prove it.
Body
I. The Apostle John Records An Incident Which Clearly
Verifies That Jesus Claimed Eternal Existence For
Himself.
A. In dispute with the Jews, the Lord taught that he was
superior to Abraham when he said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was born,
I am" Jn. 8:58 A.S.V)
1. What is the significance of these words?
2. First let us notice the reaction of the Jews to Jesus'
statement.
a. They took up stones to cast at him.
b. This action is evidence that they understood
Jesus to mean he pre-existed Abraham.
c. The Jews then said unto him, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?"
1) This reveals that they understood Jesus to be
saying he had seen Abraham.
2) And, clearly they understood Him to be saying
he was divine and had existed eternally.
B. John makes it very clear to us just how He pre-existed
Abraham in the opening chapter of his gospel.
1. Jesus pre-existed Abraham because he was "in the
beginning with God and was God."
2. It was His claims to deity that caused the Jews to take
stones to cast at him.
C. In John 11:25-27, John records the conversation of Jesus
with Martha, sister of the deceased Lazarus.
1. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life..."
a. After hearing these words Martha confessed her
faith in Him by saying, "I have believed that thou art the Christ, the Son of God,
even he that cometh into the world."
b. Clearly Martha understood His claims.
2. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he
confirmed by his miracle his statement that he was the
"resurrection and the life."
II. The Christian need not be concerned about the
possibility of anyone showing by the Bible that
Jesus was a mere man.
A. The Bible is clear as to the fact of his being divine.
B. Before anyone can prove that he was not more than
human he must first discredit the Bible; and this many
have tried to do.
C. There is a difference between evidenced knowledge
and non-evidenced claims.
1. Evidenced knowledge is demonstrable knowledge.
2. Non-evidenced claims are not demonstrable.
3. Jesus' actions were in harmony with the
requirements for possessing absolute knowledge
of his divinity.
a. His miracles, His resurrection, and His
goodness belong to the category of
demonstration.
1) That is, He did not merely claim to be the
resurrection and the life, he demonstrated
His claim by raising a dead man (Lazarus)
from the grave; and by breaking the barriers of
death himself.
b. If the claim of the infidel and modernists that
Jesus merely thought He was a Divine Being is
true, then it would not have been possible for
Jesus to demonstrate His claims.
1) But because Jesus did demonstrate His
claims for divinity we can believe it, for it is
evidenced knowledge.
D. If it be objected that we of the twentieth century cannot
prove that Jesus demonstrated His knowledge, all we need
do is ask the infidel to prove He did not demonstrate it and
require that he establish his own claims (evolution) by
demonstrable evidence.
1. Until he can do so we have no reason to lose faith in
the Jesus . . .
2. The very influence of Jesus Christ on the history of the
world is a single evidence for his deity which is more
powerful than all the combined arguments that have
been made against Him.
a. Jesus is a figure of history, and His work and his
message are facts of history.
1) Therefore, we must approach the historical study
of Jesus as we would approach a study of King
Tut, Alexander the Great, or George
Washington.
b. In studying about Jesus, one must take into
account: the claims He made for himself; the claims
others made for him; His ability to convince others of
the truth of His claims; and the influence His claims
have on others.
III. Proofs In History
A. No reputable historian would discredit the great military
genius of Alexander the Great on the grounds that
modernists have decided the conqueror has been
overly rated.
1. Serious students would give little credence to such
a historian.
2. Likewise, no serious student of Jesus should give
much credence to those who fail to reckon with
His historical person.
3. Edward Carnell struck a heavy blow against those
who would fail to consider the Jesus of history when
he wrote: "Only upon the assumption of the
God who has revealed himself in Scripture
can one explain the historical Jesus. When one
leaves the documents of the Bible, which
portray Christ as God, there is no consistent
stopping point short of agnosticism over who
this one could possibly be that lived but thirty-
three years and yet in that time set the basic
pattern for western culture. Our moral
standards stem out of the Hebrew-Christian
tradition as found in the Bible and delineated
by Jesus Christ. If Christ is not God, He is an
inexplicable madman, for He went to great
length to make it clear that He was equal with
the Father. So thoroughly had Christ
convinced the Jews that He really claimed to be
the Son of God, that they used that point as a
basis for His conviction (Jn. 5:18). But He
cannot be a madman, for the sublimity of His
ethical teaching is incontestably secure. Then
is He just giving pious advice in his gospel?
Pious advice could not have started the
Christian church with its thousands of martyrs.
For almost twenty centuries, millions in every
age have testified to the veracity of Christ's
word. If His word be not truth - the mind of
God - what then is it?"
a. The very basis of apostolic Christianity was the
fact of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
4. Gresham Machen well recognized the force of this
truth when he wrote, "The great weapon with which
the disciples of Jesus set out to conquer the world
was not a mere comprehension of eternal principles;
it was an historical message, an account of
something that had happened recently, it was the
message, 'He is risen'."
a. To understand the truth of Machen's comment,
one only has to read Paul's statement to the
Corinthians concerning what he preached:
(1 Cor. 15:3,4) "For I delivered unto you first of
all that which also I received; that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures; and that he
was buried and that he hath been raised on the
third day according to the scriptures..."
B. To find the people in history who had the most to
gain by disproving the claims of Jesus, we must turn
to the Jews who were his contemporaries.
1. Their religion was in danger of extinction if Jesus
was the messiah.
2. They could not afford to leave a stone unturned
in their efforts to prove Jesus an impostor.
3. With everything to gain by proving that his
miraculous demonstrations were only tricks, it is
worthy to note that they made no attempt to do so.
a. His miracles were so evident that the Jews were
left with no choice but to believe them.
b. If Jesus had not raised from the grave, surely the
Jewish religious leaders would have been the first
to produce the dead body in evidence against
him.
1) Such evidence in the hands of the Jews would
have destroyed forever the claims of the
Christians that Jesus was Lord.
c. Can it be thought that those who killed the good
man Jesus in their effort to destroy the Christian
religion, would have deliberately refused to
expose his miracles as fraud if they could have
done so?
1) It seems strange indeed that the so-called
friends of Jesus in modern times have taken
upon themselves the burden of denying the
miracles of Jesus.
2) What we have is so-called friends living 2,000
years distant attempting to accomplish what
an enemy contemporary with Jesus could not
do.
3) The very fact that the Jews attacked Jesus on
grounds other than his miracles is strong
evidence in behalf of their validity.
4) The charge of the infidel that the miracle
stories about Jesus are but dreamed up
attempts on the part of the Bible writers to
glorify their Master is a charge that has no
grounds except the dreams of those who
would make it.
C. Though modern man has landed his spacecrafts on the
moon, such scientific accomplishments have absolutely
no bearing upon the person of Jesus Christ.
1. Scientific progress, however far it may take us, will
never cause Jesus to be, or not to be, the Son of
God.
2. Theories developed about a historical event after it
has occurred cannot in any way alter the truth of
the event as it occurred.
a. They may deny it, rework it, or refuse to consider
it, but they cannot change it.
1) The event will ever remain as it happened.
b. All of the scholars in the modern world could
say that Jesus was not the Son of God and their
combined statement would have absolutely no
bearing on His identity.
c. What men say and write about Jesus today
cannot change Him from what He was to what
they would have Him to be.
d. A common fallacy committed by those who have
been led astray from Christ in our age has been
their failure to consider Jesus as a fact of history.
1) He could not have been the Son of God in the
first century and merely a good man in the
21th century.
D. Other great characters of history also have influenced
the world in many ways.
1. But what other teacher ever claimed to be the Son
of God?
2. What other personality in history died willingly in
innocence that he might redeem the people of the
world from their sins?
3. What other figure in history laid claim to pre-existing
a man who lived and died hundreds of years before
he himself came to the world.
4. No other instance can be found in history where a
great teacher offered his disciples eternal
salvation through his own person as did Jesus of
Nazareth.
E. The average citizen of the western world today
considers himself capable of knowing the truth of Sir
Winston Churchill's existence.
1. The great W.W.II. leader is well know to modern
times.
2. He is generally accepted as one of the great
personalities of our century.
3. Mr. Churchill demonstrated his ability to do what
has been rightly attributed to him.
4. If we could project our lives 2000 years into the
future and hear philosophers question even the very
existence of such a historical figure as Churchill,
what would be our reaction?
a. Surely, we are in a better position to know the
man Churchill, and the truth about his deeds,
than would any critic he might have in 4000 a.d.
b. We ought to consider ourselves intelligent
enough to discern whether Mr. Churchill is a
fraudulent figure who was drawn up in the minds
of the English people during the dark days of
W.W.II. to help them win their battle against
Hitler.
1) Yet, there are those living today, 2,000
years distant from Jesus, who claim that
Jesus deceived the people of his day into
thinking he was the Son of God.
2) Who is more capable of knowing Jesus, his
first disciples or an infidel in the 20th century?
3) To conclude that the modernists and infidels
today are more capable of knowing Jesus
than was his chosen disciples is absurd!
4) The disciples of Jesus:
a) Walked the hills of Judea with him;
b) saw him with their own eyes;
c) heard him speak with their own ears;
d) felt his person with their own hands;
e) mourned his death with their own grief-
stricken hearts; and
f) finally gave their lives in martyrdom
because they saw him after he arose form
the grave.
i. Surely one will not be so blinded
against such evidence that he will
renounce it as a worthless bit of wishful
thinking.
Conclusion
I. On what can man place his hope for eternal security
if he denies the Christ of the N.T.?
II. If Jesus was not God's Son, then he offers no
hope to man.
A. But, you can be assured that He is.
B. And you can put your faith in Him.
C. On what have you placed your hope?
1. Is it in Jesus Christ?
2. If not, why not rest your soul this very hour, in the
salvation He offers?
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