Was Jesus Even a Real Person
Believable Hope • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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missions moment—Chuck and Carole Fennig work with Wycliffe Bible Translators—we have supported them for over 40 years.
Chuck is an editor for a project called the ethnologue—a database of the world’s languages…for the purpose of equipping Bible translators for people on the field doing that. it is a website — 7,168 languages.
even the academic community, even non-christian scholars have been amazed at this database and research tool. wikipedia—most comprehensive database of the world’s languages
and Carole works for Human resources for Wycliffe…
we want to pray for them…we are going to post today on our social media a video that you can watch of their interview...
If I were to ask you, How hopeful are you right now for the future, what would you say?
on a scale of 1 to 10…with 1 being the least hopeful—or hopeless....and 10 being incredibly, abundantly hopeful—what score would you rate yourself on the hopeless and hopeful scale? this is the personal scale...
here’s another question—as we look at the future of our world overall—are you filled with hope or hopelessness? and why? this his hope more on a global scale—what sense of hope do we have for our world overall—10 being the most hopeful or 1 being completely hopeless?
according to one author, even before the Covid-19 pandemic era, the western wold has been experiencing a growing crisis of hope.
he argues that when America first started, for the first couple hundred years of our country—there was this belief that overall every generation o f human beings would experience a better world than the previous generation. it was thought that scientific and technological progress—life would be better.
and then the 20th century hit—2 world wars, the great depression, global pandemic, and nuclear danger—the cold war—all kind of crashed that idea. the 1960’s were a pivotal time of losing hope...
but then after the cold war—1989 ish—belief in a brighter future emerged again...
but then the 2000’s came, 9-11 happened, economic crisis, another pandemic, deep division—
and most surveys now in our country... reveal a deep pessimism for our future.
add into that...
—political fighting on both sides of the aisle?
—growing tribalism (my tribe vs. your tribe…however you define tribe), and if I don’t like your opinion—I would figure out if it is right or wrong—I will just cancel you.
—inflation...
—technology that was supposed to help us—only seems to make these things worse—social media
and then many thinkers note that in advanced nations like ours—we often find very high levels of discontent, depression, drug abuse, addiction, despair, and loneliness and suicide rates…
despite all of the “progress” and levels of comfort—we still lack hope at a very personal level. We can feel pretty hopeless and overwhelmed.
and that’s not just looking out there at our culture—but looking in our human heart. If we are honest, relationally, and even in my own heart— we find ourselves shocked by the behavior of others in our lives—people that we trust and love—and if we are honest—shocked at our own feelings and behaviors towards others...
so what do we do? how do we have hope...
because...
you can’t live without hope...
and it makes all the difference in how we live our lives...
younger generations actually don’t believe they will be better off than their parents generation, and in some places in our country—younger generations are afraid to have kids b/c they don’t like the world they are bringing them into....i mean without hope—we fail to keep the human population going...
this is the question of our series—seeks to answer...
I called this series “Believable Hope” — because we are looking at it from a head level—looking at tough questions that help us believe it—
but also a heart level.
this series is inspired by a few things:
* walking with people over the years....these are questions that have been asked both on a head and heart level (at a mtg with a group of pastors and we asked the waitress how can we pray for you---and she answered that during the holidays she goes into a deep depression—she misses her mom who passed and also her stepdad…)
* questions that have come to me from my own children.
* One book that helped me shape this series is a book by Rebecca McLaughlin “Is Christmas Unbelievable?” 4 questions everyone should ask about the world’s most famous story...
(in the Book Nook)
these questions about hope—especially arise during the holiday season—when we get reflective about our life, our family—and the meaning of Christmas.
we are going to answer this question about hope by looking at the person of Jesus...
and along the way—we are going to answer this question—Was Jesus Even a Real Person? b/c if Jesus is our hope—did He even exist and how do we know?
Jesus being a real person helps give us believable hope.
before I look at if Jesus was a real person—look at John 1—this is actually one of the best Christmas passages--
and it’s all about Jesus and really hope...
Please turn to John 1.
John 1:1–14 (NIV)
1 In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
btw—what book of the bible does “in the beginning…remind us of...” Genesis—when God made all things...
God’s Word in the OT was how he revealed himself in creation, in revelation, in salvation—it is God’s disclosing and expressing His power...
now we see that this Word is in the person of Jesus
2 He (Jesus) was with God in the beginning. (here we have this full blown doctrine of the Trinity—that God the Son is with God the Father and is God)
3 Through him (Jesus) all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John (John the Baptist).
7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him (Jesus) all might believe.
8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
10 He (Jesus) was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
at Christmas time—we are expressing this incredible hope—that the Word—Jesus Christ—the eternal Son of God (He’s always existed)—he added humanity or flesh to his already existing divinity...
without losing his divinity
fully God and fully man 100% God, 100% man
and He came — according to vs 5 to shine in the darkness of our world
vs. 4—to give his life..
and he came vs. 12—so that we could become the children of God (all through the cross)
and he came in vs. 14—to show us God in the flesh—his glory…so we could dwell in this loving, enjoyable relationship with God forever!!
by being our mediator in our place in his life, death on the cross and resurrection—so we could experience the radical love of God
this is our hope...
but how do we know this is true?
how do we know this is not wishful thinking?
Definition of hope....
John Piper...
hope is the desire for something good in the future (I hope we can go out to eat after church at Raisin’ Cane’s Restaurant) hope is a desire
hope is the good thing in the future that we are desiring—the object of our desire. “My hope is that we will eat at Raising Cane’s Restaurant—Cane’s restaurant is the object of our desire.
hope is the reason why our hope might indeed come to pass. “getting out of church early is my only hope to eat at Raising Cane’s b/c I have to go all the way to Muncie.”
we talk like this all the time...
hope is thus...
a desire
the object of our desire
the reason/basis for thinking that our desire may indeed be fulfilled
we use this kind of language all the time...
I believe the Bible uses language like this when it talks about hope—but there’s a difference. when we talk about hope—there is often uncertainty… “I hope this comes to pass...” but we aren’t sure.
but Biblical hope is a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future...
in other words—Biblical hope not only desires something good to happen in the future—it expects it. it expects it and is confident it will happen.
a certainty and confidence...
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,
20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
this hope—is an anchor…firm and secure—enter the presence of God...
and it’s related to the concept of faith
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
there is a relationship between faith and hope...
I think faith is the larger category here—and hope is faith aimed towards the future
when faith is aimed towards the future—you get hope.
faith can focus on the past, and present, but the future aspect of it is hope.
it is a certain hope—that what God has promised will come to pass…even though we can’t see it yet...
and it is embrace faith—in the past and present—we look back and look presently at what God has done and is doing—to have hope (future faith)
one writer says it like this— “wherever there is full assurance of hope, there is faith. faith is the full assurance of hope. biblical faith is a confident expectation and desire for good things in the future.”
that makes all the difference...
Let’s look at a reason for the head…try to answer this question…was Jesus even a real person?
or is it just wishful thinking and naive?
Reasons of the Head — from History...
in 2012, a NT Scholar named Bart Ehrman (University of North Carolina) wrote a book called “Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth.” now Erhman doesn’t believe in God—yet He is a NT scholar (that may seem weird to us) but he is one of the most famous NT scholars in the world..
and he says this: “whatever else you may think about Jesus, He most certainly did exist”....he goes on to say “this is held by virtually every expert on the planet.”
and the most information we have about Jesus is in the 4 Gospels of the NT—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—we read from John… and we will look at the case for those next week...
but did you know that even if we didn’t have the 4 Gospels from the Bible—we have other sources in history that tell us about Jesus’s life—the basics of Him?
Josephus (AD 37- 100) (Jewish historian turned Roman support) says this (AD 93) He says in AD 62 (about 3 decades after Jesus died), the Jewish high priest “Had a man names James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, and certain others stoned (executed).”
this quote from Josephus fits in from what we know about Jesus and early Christians.
at this point in history—the Jews/Israelites were living under Roman rule. but God promised to send a Messiah or anointed one to deliver them called the Christ. and in the 4 Gospels—Jesus claimed to be that Christ. the NT also identifies James as Jesus’ brother and as a leader in the early Church.
here is one more quote from an ancient Roman historian named Tacitus (AD 56 - c.120)…he wrote how the Emperor Nero blamed the Great Fire of Rome of AD 64 on “a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd called Chrestians’ (another spelling of Christians).”
look at some of the details Tacitus says:
“Christus the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstitution was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but in Rome itself...”
obviously Tacitus was not a fan of Christians—but these historical details confirm what we know from Scripture...
Jesus was executed during the reign of Tiberius Caesar and under the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate
we read all of that in the 4 Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
here is one more---Rebecca McLaughlin says that by the 2nd century—Christianity had become a Roman headache.
Pliny the Younger (AD 61 - 113) (Roman governor that ruled in Turkey (reigned 98 - 117) (109-111 AD)) he has a letter that has survived where he wrote to the Roman governor asking how he can persecute Christians better.
Pliny required those who were Christians to worship Roman gods, offer adoration to a statue of the Emperor, and curse Christ b/c he knew real Christians would not do these things. he had learned that Christians saw Jesus not just as one god to be worshiped but rather as the one true God.
he tortured 2 female slaves who were called deaconesses to learn more.
in fact, these female slaves were what many thought of the kinds of people who were the early Christians. Christianity seems to have been really popular among women and slaves back then…so much so that another historian and Greek philosopher named Celsus (2nd century) said that Christians “want and are able to convince only the foolish, dishonorable, and stupid, only slaves, women, and little children.” he called Christianity a “Contagious superstition.”
so all of these historians are not Christians—in fact—many are anti-Christians. we read from:
*Josephus (Jewish Historian)
*Tacitus (Roman historian and politician)
*Pliny the Younger (Roman governor of Turkey AD 109-111)
*Celsus (2nd century Greek Philosopher)
but even these anti-christian historians—based on the info they gave—attest that Jesus was a real person. that Christianity was a movement (in their opinion—a problem) this helps build some certainty about the hope we have about Jesus.
now you may say that all sounds good—we know Jesus was a real historical person...
but how is he the one that John 1 says is the Word—that means God’s self expression and power.
How is he the one through whom all things were created…vs. 3
the one who brings life vs. 4
the light that shines in the darkness of our lives and world and sin (vs. 5)
the one who enables us to be forgiven and accepted by God so that we become His children (vs. 12)
the one who displays the glory of God (vs. 14)
how can we be absolutely sure…that Jesus says who He says He is…how can we know that He is the eternal Son of God who added humanity to his already existing divinity—how do we know?
it is just wishful thinking...
i wish I could convince you 110%...
but let me give you…a reason of the heart...
Reason of the Heart...
now this different than a reason from the head based on science or history or logic...
this is getting at our intuitions, dare I say our feelings and desires...
if we don’t believe what the Bible says about Jesus and Christmas...believe that this life is all there is…that all that exists is material and matter…and there is no god…and there is probably no afterlife—these are common secular views. matter is all there is. what does that mean for life?
it means that life is pretty random…it means that the strongest survive—survival of the fittest…it means that our greatest desires to live forever in love with our loved ones…none of that will happen. when we die—it’s lights out. and those who believe this—some say—we should just accept that reality and do our best to make this life better while we have breath.
if you think about the movies and stories we love—why is it we love big epic stories—for a while Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien—a fantasy work and CS Lewis Chronicles of Narnia are still some of the best works of fiction. why do we love those?
or take the Marvel movies and its massive movies and the Avengers—why do we love these epic tales that don’t have connection to reality.
JRR Tolkien said we love fantasy b/c it expresses what our Creator made us for—we love in fantasy and sci-fi surveying the vastness of the universe, to get lost in them, and to escape death itself.
we desire to live in harmony with all living things—nonhuman and human.
we want to live long enough to realize our dreams and see them last forever...
we want to see good triumph over evil
we want to live forever with our loved ones...
Tolkien believed we have intuitions of the Biblical story in our heart—that the world was a paradise orignally made…but it had been lost.
we know deep down that something is not right with the world, and we can imagine something greater.
he goes on to say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy tales.
think of our favorite fairy tales—you want to be turned from a beast into a beauty by love—that’s what Jesus does in the Gospel for us...
you want to fly and never grow old (Peter Pan)… in heaven, we will never grow old—and have amazing delight in God
you want to see the evil dragon slayed or the wicked witch defeated—in the Gospel, God has begun to defeat and will defeat all enemies.
this is a reason of the heart...
so what do we do with this now?
Application:
Ask Hard questions…don’t be afraid to ask them. we will look at a couple more—how can we trust the 4 Gospels which give us the Christmas account? how do we know a virgin birth happened and miracles can happen? and why does it all matter. I pray we would be a people that doesn’t shy away from hard questions, and isn’t afraid of doing some digging. as you are digging compare them to other belief systems…do you have someone you can talk to and can you actually listen to them?
Ask, “What is my hope right now?” (psalm 42:5)
Andrew Delbanco (Tim Keller Making Sense of God)—a writer that says that here in America in our history—we have looked to 3 primary things for our hope...
at one time, it was God…we looked to the Christian God to make sense of life, give us meaning and hope
nation - as something called the Enlightenment happened—where we could reason—belief in God started to slow and weaken. and so our people put our hope in the nation— “America is the greatest nation on earth—we show the rest of the world..
but now he argues—we as Americans—are looking to one primary thing for our hope...
self — our self...
this comes out in non-religious and religious way. non-religious people - “I am going to express myself—I will be me. look in and discover my authentic self—and no one can tell me who I am...” “I will pursue my own happiness…to find it myself in my way...”
another way this comes out is in a very religious way “I am going to work hard, earn my right status before God. As long as I do a lot of good that outweighs the bad...”
both though—are crushing burdens.
if you follow the religious way—how do you know you are ever good enough? when is enough enough? if you succeed you will be an arrogant jerk, and if you don’t, you will feel horrible
or if you live your way— “I will do me. you do you. just express.” The problem with that is it’s very unstable…and how I feel one day for my authentic self—can quickly change. and if my authentic self is a really bad person—a jerk—why should that be allowed? “I’m just a jerk b/c I am expressing my authentic self...
the problem with having me as the center of the universe—I will not handle suffering and trials well—if I am all about me.
what is your hope in? It may be this—or career, money...
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Be honest with your need for Jesus
if Jesus came to bring light into this dark world—I have darkness
if Jesus came bringing life—I am dead
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
before we can have ultimate hope—we have to realize our ultimate need for the one who brings hope. we have to be very honest—that we are desperate and need God’s intervention to deal with our problems, and our sin before God.
and we can’t become God’s children by our last name…or even our own good works or decisions—or our family’s decisions—but God must intervene…God must work to show me my need for Him so that I look to Jesus for hope.
look to Jesus—preach to yourself--
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
-preach it to yourself...
—are you staying connected to Jesus daily—do you look to him for your life, your light, everything you need—do you have an intimacy with Him in prayer and the Word and community...
He shall reign song...
plug...
Children’s program tonight at 6 in person and online
Wednesday—some stories of hope—your story matters
—dinner at 6pm in fellowship hall
—storytime at 7pm in the sanctuary
Conclusion: the gospel writer John wrote this about Jesus—giving us a tangible hope...
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
4 We write this to make our joy complete.