Church of Christ at Allenhurst

The Grace Commission

PowerPoint Sermon: Living Core Values

PowerPoint Sermon: The Prodigal Dad

PowerPoint Sermon: Who Has the Best Accident Forgiveness Plan?

PowerPoint Sermon: Fathers, What is Your Legacy?

PowerPoint: Freedom From Sin

PowerPoint Sermon: Are We Afraid of the Dark?

PowerPoint  Sermon: Public Repentance

****************

Who is This Man Jesus?

Text: Matthew 16:13-16

I. INTRODUCTION
A. In Matthew 16:13, Jesus asks His disciples a question, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
B. Who he is to you is the most important question you will ever answer.
C. The answer that was given to Jesus was, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
D. Wrong answers, all of them. Jesus then asked them, “But, who do you say that I am? Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
E. “Not everyone accepts Peter’s answer, but no one can avoid Jesus’s question” (Josh McDowell, p. 158).
II. WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS?
A. People say that Jesus was a good teacher and a good man.
B. Others say that he was simply a religious leader but that Paul was the one who started Christianity.
C. C.S. Lewis said, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying that the really foolish thing most people often say about Him: “˜I’m ready to accept His claim to be 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 things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic ““ on a 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 mad man or something worse. 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 up 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, p. 55-56).
D. Using Lewis’ blueprint, Jesus was either a liar, lunatic or He was the Lord.
E. We will see what the Bible, men and enemies say about Him.
F. Kenneth Scott Latourette said, “It is not His teachings which make Jesus so remarkable, although these would be enough to give Him distinction. It is a combination of the teachings with the Man Himself. The two cannot be separated.”
G. Jesus claimed:
1. John 10:30, “I and My Father are one.”
2. John 8:58, “before Abraham was, I am.”
3. Matthew 4:7, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”
H. There are three alternatives:
1. He made these claims and knew they were false and told them anyway. He was a liar.
2. He made these claims and actually thought they were true. He was a lunatic.
3. He made His claims and knew they were true. He was Lord.

III. THREE ALTERNATIVES
A. Was He a Liar?
1. “If, when Jesus made His claims, He knew He was not God, then He was lying. But if He knew He was a liar, then He was also a hypocrite, because He told others to be honest, whatever the cost, while at the same time, was living and teaching a colossal lie” (McDowell, p. 159).
2. He would also have been a demon because he deliberately told others their eternal destiny depended on belief in Him as the Son of God. If He could not back up these claims and knew they were false, then He was unspeakably evil. He would also have been a fool because His claims led to His crucifixion (Mark 14:61-64).
3. If Jesus was a liar, a con man, and therefore an evil, foolish man then how could He have left us with the most powerful, moving, moral example and have given us such profound teachings? How could a liar and deceiver of such monstrous proportions have left us such unselfish moral truths?
4. John Stuart Mill, philosopher and enemy of Christianity admitted that Jesus was a possessor of such profound insight that he was of the first rank of geniuses of mankind.
5. Jesus would have had to be the greatest actor who ever lived for no one else has ever created such a following with their teachings.
6. Philip Schaff said, “This testimony, if not true, must be downright blasphemy or madness. The former hypothesis cannot stand a moment before the moral purity and dignity of Jesus.” Schaff discusses the fact that Jesus was so accurate in His prophecies, so brilliant in His teachings and answers and so perfect in His life that it would have taken
“more than a Jesus to invent a Jesus.”
7. Schaff also said, “How, in the name of logic, common sense and experience could an imposter ““ that is an deceitful, selfish, depraved man ““ have invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to end, the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality?”
8. The obvious answer is that He could not have. No fakir could possibly have made such an impact on the world, even today.
B. Was He a Lunatic?
1. Could He actually have thought He was right and have been wrong? What would we do today who claimed to be God? He would have had to be completely insane.
2. Rasputin fooled Czar Nicholas and Alexandria but almost no one else in Russia.
3. But, what of the life of Jesus? Does it evidence any insanity?
4. C.S. Lewis said, “The discrepancy between the depth and sanity of His moral teaching and the rampant megalomania (disorder marked by feelings of grandeur or omnipotence) which must lie behind His theological teachings have never been satisfactorily explained.”
5. John 7:45-47,

6. The Apostles and disciples were with Jesus all the time. Only when He went to pray was He ever alone. Therefore, how did He hide His insanity from all of them?
7. Jesus created the wisest, most profound teachings ever assembled. Teachings that have surpassed the greatest teachers who ever lived. How could a lunatic have done so?
C. Was He Lord?
1. This is the only reasonable explanation left.
2. Testimony says:
a. Matthew 16:18, John 11:27; John 20:28; Matthew 27:54; Luke 2:11; Mark 5:7; Matthew 3:16-17

3. Other self-proclaimed gods and saviors have come and gone. Only Christ has had the life and teachings that changed the world.
4. John 20:31; Acts 5:33-39
5. Hymn # 274 “What Will You Do With Jesus?”
IV. CONCLUSION

Trackback URI | Comments RSS