Argument for Jesus

Josh Lotzenhiser

Scripture & Truth • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Colossians 4:2–7

Jesus

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Part 4 - Who is Jesus

Colossians 4:2-7 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.”

Who is Jesus?

May you love him more. May you be amazed and awed by Him. May his incarnation be as a surprise and joy today as it was for the shepherds. May his resurrection be a cosmic changing historical event that changes your every thought and action. May you worship him.

I want to share today as if you are hearing a conversation between me and someone who doesn’t know who Jesus is, wit some of their statements and biblical response.

I recently had this very conversation. For I have come to realize that everything revolves around who people think Jesus is.

“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild”

Yet if one read the Gospels for the first time and taking the words of the story as they stand would come away with much more than any mere impression of mildness.

It is full of sudden gestures evidently significant except that we hardly know what they signify, of enigmatic silences; of ironical replies. The outbreaks of wrath, like storms above our atmosphere, do not seem to break out exactly where we should expect them, but to follow some higher weather-chart of their own.

We would imagine Peter’s compassion for Jesus’ word of going to the cross as something praised, yet it was Christ who turned to him as if he were the devil “Get thee behind me Satan”

And to the city Jerusalem that was to reject and murder him he cries and displays love and prayer over them.

The realistic world for Jesus was the supernatural, the only thing practical and regular about him was that he was an exorcist.

There is 30 years of strange silence, from which we would imagine a hero or mythical god to not have.

This creates the strange thought that he who of all humanity needed the least preparation seems to have had the most.

There was missing the expected and common ethical platitudes that have existed with all the great moralists of history.

Rather we receive imagery about throwing mountains in the sea, and worrying about tomorrow as much as the birds do.

He says nothing in regard to organized warfare, but he does seem to like roman soldiers.

His statement “the humble shall inherit the earth” is anything but a humble statement. Rather it is quite offensive. The earth does not belong to the self-made man.

We find it fascinating that instead of sermons only being filled today about the Joy of service or the gospel of hard work that would have had Martha at the center of discussion, instead we have Mary, who chose the one needful thing, sit, listen, love Christ.

And just when we think he came simply to teach, we see water turned to fine wine at his mother’s request.

Jesus does not fit into our nice categories. He is beyond them. He is God. He is human. He is Lord.

The Bible is outdated

And there the moderns of today that say his ethics are outdated. I was once told that I shouldn’t follow the bible’s teaching on sex because it’s old and outdated. Times have changed they say.

The simple Moderns today are duped into thinking that the tax collectors and roman soldiers of the day had no thoughts about money, sex, love, or tomorrow. The people of today with smart phones and electronics are the same of 2000 years ago. Turning the other cheek is just as wild today as it was then. Moderns are guilty of generational snobbery.

Christianity is just Western Buddhism

Christianity has also been called the Buddhism of the west due to the similarities of ethics.

This could not be further from the truth. What they teach is something quite polar opposite.

Buddhism is centripetal (it looks inward), but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out.

Huston Smith says in The Religions of Man that there have been only two people in history who so astonished people that they asked not “Who are you?” but “What are you? A man or a god?” They were Jesus and Buddha.

Buddha’s clear answer to this question was: “I am a man, not a god”; Christ’s clear answer was: “I am both son of Man and Son of God.” Buddha said, “Look not to me, look to my dharma [doctrine]”; Christ said, “Come unto me.” Buddha said, “Be ye lamps unto yourselves”; Christ said, “I am the light of the world.”

For the circle (looking inward in Buddhism) is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed for ever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its heart a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms for ever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox in its centre it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travellers.

The Buddhist is looking with a peculiar intentness inwards. The Christian is staring with a frantic intentness outwards.

The Buddhist says seek first the kingdom of God and then you will need none of these things.

Christ says seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added to you.

Christianity is just one religion out of many.

Unlike all “isms,”:

Christianity is not a set of timeless truths but a faith in a historical person and historical events, the most important of which were miraculous: God’s creation, lawgiving and prophet-inspiring, and Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection.

This is precisely what differentiates us from every other religion.

The center of Christianity is Jesus because Jesus is not just a great human being; Jesus is God.

The center of Islam is not Muhammad, because Muhammad, claimed only to be a prophet, not God.

The center of Buddhism is not Buddha, because Buddha, like the Hindu gurus, claimed only to be an “enlightened” man, not God.

The center of Confucianism is not Confucius, because Confucius, like other Chinese philosophers, claimed only to be a teacher and a moral reformer, not God.

But Jesus is the center of Christianity because Jesus claimed to be God.

Jesus is the center because Jesus is God, and God is the center—the center of reality. Jesus is the center because God is real.

Jesus claimed divinity

Jesus claimed to be divine in many different ways.

John 8:58 ““Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!””

“I am” was the name God called Himself when He revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush (Ex 3:14). It was a name so sacred that no Jew would even pronounce it. It was blasphemy to speak that word. Only God could speak it, for to say “I am” is to claim to be “I am”. All other names (like “Zeus” or “Joe”) can be spoken to.

The Jews clearly understood that this was a claim to be God, for as soon as Jesus said this, they picked up stones and tried to stone Him to death (Jn 8:59), for that was the penalty for blasphemy under Mosaic law, and it is the height of blasphemy for a mere man to claim to be God.

“I and the Father are one” (John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”)

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9)

Mark 2:5-8 “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things?”

“Forgive Sins” Another way Jesus claimed to be God was in His claim to forgive sins—all sins, any sins, against anybody. The Jews understood that this was a claim to be God, for when they heard this, they said, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” I have a right to forgive you for your sins against me—for instance, if you steal money from me, I have a right to forgive you for it if I want to—but I have no right to forgive you for stealing Harry’s money. Only Harry has that right. So why could Jesus forgive you for stealing Harry’s money? Because when you sin against Harry, you also sin against God, because God is the giver of the moral law “Thou shalt not steal”, and God is the one who is offended in all sins against all people because God alone is the Father and Creator of all people. We are all God’s children, and to sin against His children is to sin against Him. So Jesus said what God alone had a right to say: “I forgive you for all your sins, against everybody.”

Truth/Reality - we are left with 4 options.

1. Jesus was a madman

2. Jesus was a devil

3. Jesus an invented myth

4. Jesus is God

Jesus a madman

Jesus thought he was God but wasn’t.

It would not be uncommon to find someone in the asylum claiming to be God. We wouldn’t be surprised, we wouldn’t be concerned.

But we would be surprised if they began to teach the famous words in the Sermon on the Mount, for those are not the words of a mad man, nor of a man of this age but of another world. Words of Heaven.

No modern critic thinks that the man who preached the Sermon on the Mount was an insane and would be found scratching on the walls of a cell.

So I leave a question in the ears of the atheist. How could a mad-man be so wise?

Jesus a liar

He knew he wasn’t God but deceived followers into thinking he was.

Even the enemies of Christ like Nietzsche were captivated and compelled by the character of Christ in the Gospels.

Most nonreligious people, even people of other religions, like Gandhi see him as history’s greatest moral example and teacher.

In other words, Jesus is entirely trustworthy. If he isn’t, then what he teaches, cannot be good and wise.

There is an instructive parallel in Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lucy has entered another world, Narnia, through a wardrobe, and told her siblings about it. They disbelieve her, of course. A wise old professor adjudicates the argument by asking Peter, Lucy’s older brother, whether Lucy is a liar. Peter is confident she is not; he knows her too well. Well, then, is she insane? It is obvious from her behavior that she is not. Then there is only one possibility left, concludes the professor: Lucy must be telling the truth.

This Jesus who claimed to be God was found:

Feeding the multitudes

Giving His life for his friends

Healing the sick

Freeing the captives

Embracing the children

Forgiving those who rejected and crucified to him.

The question I leave in the ears of the unbeliever is, “How could a liar be so good and loving?”

Jesus a myth

The disciples invented the lie that he said he was divine.

They too do not show the psychological traits of liars.

If they did, what was their motive?

All they got was suffering and death. They proved their sincerity by martyrdom.

But lets say they did invent it.

They invented the most compelling fictional character in history. No lunatic or liar could have invented a single chapter.

Philosophers Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky conclude, that no mere man could possibly have invented this story.

Nor could this lunacy and invention have changed so many lives for the better over 2000 years.

It takes a lot more faith to believe that the 4 Gospels by 4 different men, at 4 different times invented the most incredible, amazing piece of fantasy fiction ever invented than to believe Jesus is God.

The question I leave in the ears of the unbeliever is, “Why does Jesus seem more real than anyone I know?”

Jesus is Lord

And if Christ is divine, he has a right to our entire lives, including our inner life and our thoughts. If Christ is divine, our absolute obligation is to believe everything he says and obey everything he commands. If Christ is divine, the meaning of freedom becomes conformity to him.

If Christ is divine, then the incarnation of God, is the most important event in history. It is the hinge of history. It changes everything.

He knows what it feels like to suffer as he suffered too.

He knows what it’s like being rejected and wrongly accused as he was too.

He knows the depth of our sin and gave us his blood

He knows your daily needs as he had them too and being God He is able to richly provide.

And because Christ is God, when he died on the cross, everything has changed. Everything is new, access, relationship, reconciliation, forgiveness with the Father given to all who believe. And just as God walked in the garden with Adam and Even in the cool of the day, they found Jesus who looked like a gardener in the dawn. The new day has come.

No event in history could be more important to every person on earth than that.

Turn to God with all your heart, Jesus is Lord and loves you.