Say What?

I’m baffled by what people will believe. The old saying, “If they don’t stand for something, they will fall for anything,” still holds water because it seems that people are falling for anything and everything these days. For example, there are those who believe the earth is flat. Unlike the rest of us, I guess they never learned about Magellan when they were in school. I want to ask them where exactly the edge of the earth is because I don’t want to miss it and fall to my death.

While I think a flat earth is a preposterous notion, there are many people who think the same thing about Jesus. They scoff at the thought of faith in a God who cannot be seen or touched, and they shake their heads in disbelief at the idea of Jesus’ death and resurrection. They wonder why anyone with any intelligence would believe in such nonsense, but we know that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.” (1 Corinthians 1:27)

Paul was not saying though that Christianity is foolish or against rational thought. Believe me, Christianity is far from it. In his book, The Case For Christ, Lee Strobel does an excellent job walking you through the mountains of evidence which led him to the conclusion that what the Bible says is true. The evidence is there; however, it does take faith to accept God’s gift of grace through Jesus Christ and it’s that step of faith that utterly confounds the world around us.

This topic came up when my nieces were visiting recently. Emma shared that a friend asked her this question: “How do you know? How do you know any of this is true.” Emma is thirteen and wasn’t sure how to answer other than telling her friend she needed to come to church and hear for herself, which is not a bad answer.

But what about us? If someone were to ask you, “How do you know what they say about Jesus is really true?” What would you say?

We are told in Scripture to, “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15) Therefore, we need to be able to communicate with others what we believe and why, so let’s look for a moment at some of the evidence available to us.

I have always been a voracious reader, and as a kid, I read anything I could get my hands on which included All the President’s Men. It was written by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists who investigated the 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building. It’s been a long time since that I read the book, but what I remember most was their hunt for reliable sources. Who would talk to them and be willing to go on the record?  

Friends, that is who the writers of the Gospels are for us. They are our reliable witnesses to the life and ministry of Jesus. I think about the apostle John. For three years, he was an eyewitness to the miracles and teachings of Jesus. He saw Jesus turn water into wine (John 2:1-12), cast out demons (Luke 4:31-44), heal the blind (Mark 10:46-52), and raise the dead to life (John 11:38-44). He was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13), and he saw Jesus feed a multitude with only a few loaves and fishes (Luke 9:10-17). He saw Jesus calm the storm (Mark 4:35-41) and walk on water (Matthew 14:22-33). He was also a witness to Jesus’ death on the cross (John 19:25-27) and he saw the empty tomb (John 20:3-10). With his own eyes, he beheld the risen Christ (Luke 24:36). Yes, John knew Jesus!

John wasn’t the only one who saw the risen Christ though. We know that Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damacus (Acts 9:1-9), and he listed out for the believers in Corinth others whom Jesus had appeared to after his resurrection. He concluded by saying, “…most of whom are still living though some have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:6) In other words, Paul was saying, “If you don’t believe me, go ask them!”

However, over time there was a new generation of Christians; believers who had never seen Christ and the church was faced with a new crisis. You see, false teachers, such as the Gnostics, were spreading a distorted version as to who Jesus was. It was a dangerous heresy because it embraced a dualism regarding spirit and matter, claiming that matter was inherently evil while the spirit was good. This line of thinking caused them to deny that God came in flesh through his Son, Jesus. Instead, they taught that at the baptism the divine Christ descended into the man Jesus in the form of a dove. Jesus was then allied, so to speak, with the Christ until he departed from the man Jesus before the crucifixion. They claimed it was only the man Jesus who was crucified and afterwards resurrected.

Such a view destroys Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross. Christ, the sinless lamb, took upon himself the sins of many, “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He willingly paid the price with his own life, and if you reject that Jesus was fully God and fully man, you are rejecting his substitutionary sacrifice for our sins (Hebrews 2:17).

These were some of the ‘conspiracy theories’ that John was arguing against when he wrote the letter that we refer to as First John. John wanted them to know that his testimony was reliable; thus, he went on the record and wrote this letter to assure a new generation that what they had been told about Jesus was, indeed, true. However, they didn’t have to accept just his testimony, because God also offered his:

We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. (1 John 5:9-10)

We have now come upon the million-dollar question: Do we believe God’s testimony about Jesus? Do we believe he is God’s Son or are we calling God a liar?

Another sobering thought for us to wrestle with, so stop and consider that a person can say they believe there was a man called Jesus who lived two-thousands years ago. They can say he was a good man, a good teacher, or even a prophet. Muslins even claim that about Jesus, but saying you believe in Jesus is something else altogether. If I say that I believe in Christ, this means that I have accepted his claim to be God’s Son. I believe that God's Word, the Bible, is true, and I willingly submit my will to his authority. C.S. Lewis, though, explains it so much better than I ever could in his book, Mere Christianity:

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. 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. 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….

I know what you are thinking though: “Enough already! Jesus is God’s Son…Got it!” But friends, we need to know what we believe and why so we can tell the people around us - who are falling for everything - the truth. This means you need to discover for yourself the historical evidence of Christ. You need to know why you believe the tomb was empty and be able to explain the impact this has had on your life. You need to be able to talk to people about Jesus because their eternity literally hangs in the balance.

Therefore, my challenge for you is to be ready with your answer when someone asks you, “How do you know this is true?”

Tell them what you know about Jesus.

For the glory of God!  Lisa

Discussion Questions

Have you ever had someone ask you how you know Jesus really is God’s Son? If so, how did you respond?

What things get in the way of you studying God’s word?

What constitutes a reliable witness for you? Do you think the testimony of the Apostles measures up?