Jesus The Christ sermon 10-25-15

The new challenges we face in sharing the Good News

Making the Case for Christ:Is Jesus really God?

JESUS THE CHRIST?This sermon will make the case for the deity

and exclusivity of Jesus. It is increasingly popular to see Jesus as one of many ways

to God, or to diminish Jesus’ role to being a “great moral teacher.” We will explore the

clear evidence for Jesus’ deity and His unique role as savior and redeemer.


Jesus Has Been In The News This Week!

Did Jesus Appear To a Colombian Family As They Posed By

Gigantic Christ Statue?

October 21,2015


Who Did Jesus Claim To Be?Mark 14:61-62 ESV61 “But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the blessed?”62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”


What Did Jesus Say He Was?“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” John 14:1 ESV6 ”Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.[d] From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7 ESV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John 14&version=ESV#fen-ESV-26664d


Liar, Lunatic or Lord?C.S. Lewis addressed

whether Jesus could be a good moral teacher but not who he said he was.


Good but a Liar?“...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.”


A Lunatic?“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.”


Lord?“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 with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” “Mere Christianity” C.S. Lewis


Dr. William Lane Craig“Reason can be used to defend our faith by

formulating arguments for the existence of

God or by refuting objections. But though

the arguments so developed serve to confirm

the truth of our faith, they are not properly

the basis of our faith, for that is supplied by

the witness of the Holy Spirit Himself.”


Prophecies Fulfilled?Some critics like to say that some of the prophecies could’ve been faked like paying someone to walk around and talk about you (John the Baptist) or riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.


Messianic Prophecies Fulfilled•From the Tribe of Judah. (Genesis 49:10)•From the line of Jesse’s youngest son David. (Jeremiah 23:5)•Born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2)•Preceded by a messenger who will prepare the way.(Isaiah 40:3) •Will ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)


29 Prophecies Fulfilled In One Day!•Betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9)

•Price of his betrayal will be 30 Pieces of Silver (Zechariah 11:12)

•His betrayal money thrown on the Temple floor. (Zechariah 11:13)

•Betrayal money used to buy the Potter’s Field

(Zechariah 11:13)


29 Prophecies Fulfilled In One Day!•Deserted by his Disciples (Zechariah 13:7)

•Accused by false witnesses. (Psalm 35:11)

•He will be silent before his accusers. (Isaiah 53:7)

•Wounded & Bruised (Isaiah 53:5)

•Hated without a cause. (Psalm 69:4)

•Will Be Struck & Spit on. (Isaiah 50:6)


29 Prophecies Fulfilled In One Day!•He was mocked & rejected. (Isaiah 53:3)

•He will collapse from weakness.(Psalm 109:24-25)

•He will be taunted with specific words.(Psalm 22:6-8)

•People will shake their heads at him.(Psalm 109:25)

•People will stare at him. (Psalm 22:17)

•He will be executed among sinners’.(Isaiah 53;12)


29 Prophecies Fulfilled In One Day!•His hands & feet will be pierced. (Psalm 22:16)•He will pray for his persecutors.(Isiah 53:12)

•His friends & family will stand far off & watch.(Psalm 38:11)•He will thirst. (Psalm 69:21)•He will be given Gall & Vinegar.(Psalm 69:21)•He will commit himself to God. (Psalm 31:5)


29 Prophecies Fulfilled In One Day!•His Bones will be left unbroken. (Psalm 34:20)

•His heart will rupture. (Psalm 22:14)

•His side will be pierced. (Zechariah 12:10)

•Darkness will come over the land at midday.

(Amos 8:9)


29 Prophecies Fulfilled In One Day!•His garments will be divided up & awarded by the casting of Lots. (Psalm 22:18)•He will be buried in a Rich Man’s Tomb. (Isaiah 53:9)

•He will die 483 years after the declaration of Artaxerxes to rebuild the temple in 444 B.C.

(Daniel 9:24)


Peter Stoner Figured out the Probability of The Fulfillment of the Messianic Prophecies

He mathematically figured out what the probability

was of all of the Messianic Prophecies being fulfilled in

one man.


Probability of just 8 Messianic Prophecies being Fulfilled in 1 Man?

1 in 10^17That’s a # with 17 0’s in it.


The Probability of 8 fulfilled prophecies.

1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000


What’s 10^17 Look Like?Covering The 268,820

Square Miles Of Texas with Silver Dollars 2 feet deep & picking out 1 you marked.


Comparing The Odds-Odds of being struck by Lightening 1 in 700,000

-Odds of becoming a Movie Start 1 in 1,505,000.

-Odds of being Drafted by the NBA 1 in 6,864,000

-Odds of being President of the USA is 1 in 10,000,000

-Odds of being attacked by a shark 1 in 11,500,000

-Odds of winning the Powerball 1 in 175,000,000


The Probability of 48 Messianic Prophecies Being Fulfilled In Any One Man?

1 In 10^1571 with 157 0’s After It


The Probability Of Just 48 Messianic Prophecies Being Fulfilled.

1 In 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00


How Big a number is 10^157?It would take 2.5 TIMES 10^15 of electrons,

laid side by side, to make one inch. Even if we counted 250 of these electrons each minute, and counted day and night, it would still take

19 million years just to count a line of electrons one-inch long.


All But A Certainty?According to Emile Borel, once

one goes past one chance in 10^50, the probabilities are so

small that it is impossible to think that they will ever occur.


Mathematical CertaintyWith these odds Stoner

concludes, “Any man who rejects Christ as the Son of God is rejecting a

fact…”


Fyodor Dostoevsky“The Genuine realist, if he is an

unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the

miraculous , and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses

than admit the fact. Faith does not… spring from the miracle, but the

miracle from faith.”


Refusal To Come To Christ?“When a person refuses to come to

Christ, it is never just because of lack of evidence or because of intellectual difficulties: at root, he refuses to come because he willingly ignores and rejects the drawing of God’s Spirit on his heart.”


We Must Work To Keep Belief In Christ As a Reasonable Option In Our Culture Today

“It's no longer enough to teach our

children Bible stories; they need

doctrine and apologetics.”

Dr. William Lane Craig


Reason & Logic Isn’t Enough6 ”And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw

near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek

him.” Hebrews 11:6 ESV


Jesus Heals The Man At The Pool John 5:5-7 ESV5” One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”


John 5:8-11 ESV8 ”Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”


John 5:12-15 ESV12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.


John 5:16-18 ESV16 ”And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”


John 5:19-21 ESV19 ”So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.”


John 5:22-24 ESV22 ”The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”


John 5:30-33 ESV•30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.•32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.”


John 5:34-36 ESV•34 ”Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.•36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.”


John 14:12 ESV 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.


Jesus The One & OnlyJesus did what no one else would or could do.•Jesus chose the uneducated. •Jesus healed and fed people asking nothing in return.•Jesus called his disciples to be a part of his ministry and to do mighty works, healing, casting out demons etc…•Jesus put us first and died in our place.

The new challenges we face in sharing the Good News

Jesus The Christ sermon 10-25-15

Spiritual