”Why Believe in Jesus?” - Chapter 3 of Know Why You Believe

Know Why You Believe
By K. Scott Oliphint

Why Believe in Jesus? – Chapter 3

Introduction

⦁ What makes someone worthy of worship?

⦁ Teaching?
⦁ Miracles?
⦁ Creator of a movement?
⦁ Sacrificing for others?

⦁ Many have done these things, so why worship Jesus? What makes Jesus worthy of worship?

Where Do We Begin?

⦁ Will we start with a search for a “historical” Jesus where only the natural is allowable?
⦁ Beginning with this premise, the conclusion is already predetermined. Jesus can be nothing more than an influential teacher who started a movement.
⦁ If we start with our own assumed authority, rather than the Bible’s authority, we wind up with teachings and ideas that have no more authority than our own basic prejudices.
⦁ We cannot begin with our own prejudices based on our own authority.
⦁ Why believe in Jesus?

⦁ The Bible gives us the answer. The Jesus we are to believe in must be the Christ of the Bible. The Jesus we create with our own ideas is not the real Jesus.

The Jesus of the New Testament

“In simple fact, Jesus’ career was not that of an ordinary man: and the dilemma is inevitable that He was either something more than a normal man or something less. We, like His contemporaries—and His contemporaries like us—have only the alternatives: either supernatural or subnormal, either Divine or else `out of His mind.’” Benjamin Warfield

⦁ The Bible’s claims are too extraordinary for Jesus to be just an ordinary man:

⦁ Jesus is both God and man.

⦁ John tells us that Jesus Christ is the one who was in the beginning, who created all things, who is, as fully God, with God and who took on human flesh in order to live among us. (John 1:1-3, 14)

⦁ From the very beginning, Jesus’ life was supernatural; nothing was ordinary.

⦁ From his virgin conception and birth to his death, resurrection, and ascension, nothing was ordinary.
⦁ His birth marks the center of world history.

⦁ Jesus’ mission was to rescue sinners and end the reign of sin and its devastating effects.
⦁ The eternal divine Word took on human nature and lived among us. He did not remain distant and aloof. He lived among the people and exposed himself to the hardships, ridicule, and persecution.
⦁ Jesus engaged in a public ministry, healing the physically afflicted, liberating the demon possessed, and encouraging the downtrodden.
⦁ The claims that Jesus made about himself do not allow us to think of him as a normal teacher:

⦁ Authority to forgive sin
⦁ Existed before Abraham as the “I Am”
⦁ Identified himself as the Son of Man (Messiah) and Son of God
⦁ Predicted that he would rise from the dead on the third day after his death

The Jesus of the Old Testament

⦁ The revelation of who Jesus is does not start in the NT; the biblical picture of Jesus begins immediately after the entrance of sin in humanity.

⦁ He is the eternal Word and Creator.
⦁ He is the “seed of the woman.”
⦁ He is the Angel of the Lord.
⦁ He is the “Man” who appeared to Abraham.
⦁ He is the fire in the burning bush appearing to Moses.
⦁ He is the Captain of the Lord’s army who appears to Joshua.
⦁ He is the “fourth man” in the fire in Daniel 3.
⦁ Ultimately, he is the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, born of the virgin Mary.
⦁ The Son of God is the “revealer” of God from the beginning.
⦁ The NT writers routinely apply to Jesus texts that speak of Yahweh.
⦁ After his resurrection, Jesus taught his disciples how all of Scripture pointed to him.

⦁ All of Scripture reveals to us who Jesus, the Son of God, is—not just the New Testament.
⦁ The same Son who permanently took on a human nature and came to earth was the one who had been coming to all of the saints ever since sin entered the hearts of people.

Jesus and the End of History

⦁ Jesus ascended to heaven to reign as King over the earth with all authority.
⦁ One day he will return to judge the earth.
⦁ John’s record of his vision in Revelation points to the reign of Christ over all the kingdoms of men.
⦁ The lordship of Jesus is moving toward a specific goal: the return of Christ as judge over every human being and the consummation of history.
⦁ This final judgment will seal the fate of every human being who has ever lived:

⦁ The unbelieving (the default condition of everyone) will be eternally condemned.
⦁ The believing (by God’s grace) will live eternally in a new creation.

Why Believe in Jesus?

⦁ Son of God, Messiah, and Savior?

⦁ Hundreds of years of prophecy fulfilled
⦁ A supernatural birth
⦁ A ministry of authoritative, clear teaching
⦁ Healing the ill and disabled, liberating the demon possessed, raising the dead to life, controlling nature
⦁ Predicting his own death and resurrection
⦁ Voluntarily laying his own innocent life down in sacrifice for the sins of others
⦁ Rising from the dead the third day
⦁ Ascending to heaven 40 days after his resurrection
⦁ All of his ministry, death, and resurrection testified to by hundreds of eyewitnesses.
⦁ The radical transformation of lives, including Saul of Tarsus.
⦁ The endurance of his church and disciples for 2,000 years.
⦁ The abundant written manuscript records of his life, ministry, and impact.
⦁ Starting a movement that served as the foundation for all of western civilization.
⦁ The current and ongoing transformation of lives, families, and societies.
⦁ The powerful and divine testimony of Holy Scripture.
⦁ The living and active testimony of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of people.