This morning we are beginning a sermon series based on Mel Gibson’s new film, The Passion of the Christ, and as I’m sure you know, EVERYONE is talking about this film-Christian, and non-Christian, Democrat, Republican, the religious and the non-religious-everyone seems to be ENTHRALLED by it. I mean, it’s on all the magazine covers. I’ve read articles and editorials about it in everything from The Gaithersburg Gazzette to The Washington Post and The New York Times. This film is being discussed on all the talk shows not to mention several segments addressing various aspects of the movie on cable, network, and local news casts. It’s as if everyone is captivated by the message of this film. They can’t seem to avoid talking about it. Here’s some quotes to give you an idea of the kinds of things people are saying.
Jack Valenti, CEO of the Motion Picture Association wrote Gibson and said,“I thought Passion was a superior recounting of the greatest story every told…I cannot but believe that people of all religions will find this truly an impressive and respectful piece of art and realism emerging from the New Testament.”
James Dobson says,“It is deeply moving, powerful, and disturbing. A film that must be seen.”
Michael Medved, Jewish film critic and Radio Show host said, “It is by a very large margin of advantage the most effective cinematic adaptation of a biblical story I have ever seen. And it’s the kind of movie that’s going to touch people.”
Cal Thomas said,“As one who has seen virtually every modern biblical epic, I can say…’The Passion’ is the most beautiful, profound, accurate, disturbing, realistic, and bloody depiction of this well known story that has ever been filmed.”
Rabbi Daniel Lapin writes,“Mel Gibson not only closely follows the narrative of the Gospels, giving the viewer a new appreciation for those Biblical passages, but his artistic choices also make the film faithful to the meaning of the Gospels, as understood by the church.”
Cardinal Carstillon Hoyos says, “In my opinion one of the greatest achievements of this film is to have shown so effectively both the horror of sin and selfishness and the redeeming power of love. Seeing this film provokes love and compassion. It makes the viewer want to love more, to forgive….”
Well, I could go on quoting people all day-because, as I said, EVERYONE is talking about this film-everyone wants to get their two cents in when it comes to their opinion. And for the most part, everyone who has actually SEEN the movie is positive about it. Most people agree that it is powerful and moving story.
But-the question I want us to deal with is this: IS THIS STORY TRUE? I mean, are the messages contained in this popular film accurate?
Well, for the next few weeks that is the issue we are going to strive to resolve. We’re going to take our sermon time these next four Sundays to examine the validity of four of the main messages that this film proclaims, namely;
- Jesus is the Son of God
- Jesus the only Way to God
- Jesus died for our sins
- Jesus rose from the dead
We’ve entitled this series “True or False” because in these messages I’m going to give you information to help you decide whether or not each of these statements is RIGHT or WRONG, accurate or inaccurate, TRUE or FALSE. By the way, we’ll also be discussing each sermon on Wednesday nights in greater depth and I hope you’ll plan to attend.
Now, I’ve pointed out that Gibson’s film is POPULAR and it certainly is, but another word I could accurately use to describe it is “CONTROVERSIAL”-this is ONE REASON everyone is talking about it. People are divided over the message of this film that focuses on the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life. And, that is nothing new because Jesus and His message have always been controversial. In fact, that is how He described Himself. In Luke 12:51-53 Jesus said,
“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
So, just as Jesus said here, He has always upset people. He’s always been controversial. Well, why is that so? I mean, what is it that makes Jesus so divisive? What is it about Him that drives a WEDGE between people and sparks so many disagreements? Well, let me ask you,
1. Could it be His existence?
I mean, do people argue because they can’t agree if Jesus was a real historical person or not? You can go ahead and check the “no” blank on your Sermon Notes page, because Jesus’ existence is part of the historical record. No one really argues about that. In fact, the Encyclopedia Britannica lists Jesus Christ as a bona fide first-century historical person. It calls Him the Founder of the Christian faith. If you don’t like dealing with bulky encyclopedic volumes-if you’re more comfortable with the Internet-do a web search and you’ll find all kinds of articles about the historical Jesus. And, in your study, whether you’re turning pages or clicking your way through web sites, you’ll find that the New Testament is not the only place where Jesus is mentioned. For example;
- Flavius Josephus, a Jewish Historian, who was born in 37 A.D. wrote all about Jesus’ life and ministry, including His crucifixion by Pilate and His resurrection. He wrote all this in the third volume of his book, Antiquities.
- A Roman Historian by the name of Cornelius Tacitus, writing about the reign of Nero, in his Annals also refers to Jesus Christ and to the existence of Christians in Rome.
- And, in his book Life of Claudius, another Roman historian named Seutonius refers to Jesus as well. He writes about Him being a real, historical person.
For what it’s worth, I’ve visited Israel-I’ve even stood in Jesus’ birthplace. Millions of pilgrims have done so over the millennia. Like me, they’ve toured the town where He grew up, seen the river where He was baptized or stood on the mountainside where He delivered the Sermon on the Mount. I remember standing in the courtyard where He was put on trial and on the hill where He was crucified and in the empty tomb where He once laid. So the existence of Jesus is not really in dispute. It’s part of the historical record. This is NOT something that divides people. In fact in 1999 an article in Time magazine said this about Jesus,”It would require much exotic calculation…to deny that the single most powerful figure-not merely in these past two millenniums-but in all human history-has been Jesus of Nazareth.”
So-no one ARGUES that Jesus lived and breathed and walked this planet.
2. Well, if his existence is not a source of dispute, is it his basic teaching? His ideology?
And again you can check the “No” blank in your outlines because Jesus’ basic ideology is not something that forces people to take sides. You see, most people deeply respect Jesus’ teachings-even Jews and Muslims.
- People compliment His emphasis on the need for love and honesty and integrity.
- They appreciate His concern for the poor, the oppressed and the forgotten.
- They even admire His courage in confronting the religious hypocrites of His day.
No-people don’t argue about Jesus teaching-in fact they tend to think very highly of it.
When I was in seminary, the Monty Python players released a movie entitled, The Life of Brian. Now I never saw the movie-I avoided it because I had heard it was sacrilegious. But this week I read about an interview with Eric Idle-one of the writers and the star of the film. Idle said that when they began work on the movie they read the gospels for research. You see, their ORIGINAL INTENTION was to satirize the life of Christ. But when they began to read the teachings of Jesus, recorded in the Gospels, Idle said,
“We discovered that Jesus made a lot of sense. He had many good things to say. We wanted to make a parody of what religious people have done in His name, but we didn’t want to make fun of Him personally. We think He’s an all right guy.”
So, the controversial thing about Jesus is not His existence, nor is it His basic ideology. No, the thing about Jesus that divides people and sparks so many disagreements…
3. …is His CLAIM to be THE SON OF GOD…the SAVIOR of the world.
In fact, that’s why they arrested Him, tried Him, and sentenced Him to death. I mean Jesus wasn’t scourged and crucified because He went around saying, “Be nice to each other.” No-He was executed for claiming to be the Messiah-the Son of the Living God.
Bill Hybels writes,
“In the middle of some of Jesus’ most brilliant moral discourses, His sermons on ethics that had everyone saying, ‘Amen! This is the smartest person Who ever lived.’ In the middle of this, Jesus would say, ‘Oh, and by the way, I am God’s Son, the Savior of the world.’ People must have thought, ‘Now, why did You have to include that? We were doing just fine. The Nielsen ratings were going up and now You go and say something like that.’ People must have thought, ‘Why don’t You stick to Your basic teachings that we all like so well? Philosophize…tell us how we ought to live our lives. Just lay off all this deity stuff.”
Well, Jesus didn’t lay off the deity stuff. He repeatedly claimed to be God’s Son-the Messiah-the Savior of the world-worthy of people’s worship and praise. And that statement is the WEDGE that divides so many people. It’s what has caused so much disagreement both now and then-That statement is what got Jesus arrested and crucified.
You see, no other major religious leader has ever made a statement quite like this. Jesus alone claimed to be God in the flesh. I mean, Buddha did not claim to be God. Moses never said he was Yahweh. Muhammad did not identify himself as Allah and nowhere will you find Zoroaster claiming to be Ahura Mazda. But Jesus, the humble Carpenter from Nazareth said in John 14:9,”If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” In fact, in John 8:58, Jesus used the same “name” that God used to identify Himself to Moses when He said,”Truly, truly I say to you. Before Abraham was born, I AM.” He complimented His disciple, Peter, on his conclusion that He was indeed, “The Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16) In Mark 2:5-7-and in several other places in the Gospels, we find records of the fact that Jesus claimed the authority to forgive sins, which the Bible teaches is something that God alone can do. Jesus also put His words on par with God’s. In Matthew 5:21-22, He said,”You have heard that the ancients were told…but I say to you…” He even taught His followers to pray in His name (John 14:13-14). So Jesus repeatedly claimed to be the SON of God. And as I have said, this infuriated His enemies! In John 10:33 they said,
“For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, a Man, make Yourself out to be God.”
This claim is what led them to seek His arrest and execution.
If you’ve seen The Passion, then you know that the controversy over this particular teaching of Jesus is portrayed very clearly in one of the first scenes. In fact, it is taken from our text for this morning. Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 26:57-68 and let’s read together. If you’ve seen the film I’m sure you’ll see this scene again in your minds as we read.
57 – Those who had arrested Jesus took Him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled.
58 – But Peter followed Him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.
59 – The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put Him to death.
60 – But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward
61 – and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’
62 – Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against You?”
63 – But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to Him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
64 – “Yes, it is as you say.” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
65 – Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.
66 – What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered.
67 – Then they spit in His face and struck Him with their fists. Others slapped Him
68 – and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit You?”
Now, this morning, what I want us to do is put Jesus “on trial” ourselves to help us determine whether or not His claim to be the Son of God is true. And, just so no one can say I’m biased-after all I am a Christian Pastor-I’ll make it hard on Jesus by ignoring the American legal principle, “innocent until proven guilty.” So, let’s assume that Jesus was NOT God’s Son-that He was NOT the Savior of the world.
Well, with that assumption-we are left with two options. Jesus either KNEW that He was spreading false claims, which would have made Him a spectacular LIAR or, Jesus didn’t know He was lying. He just THOUGHT He was the Son of God which would make Him a self-deluded LUNATIC-several fries short of a Happy Meal. But, if He was NOT the Son of God, He would have to be the one or the other-either a premeditated LIAR, going from town to town for three years spreading falsehoods about Himself, or He would have to be a LUNATIC, tragically trumpeting claims that He thought were true about Himself but, in fact, weren’t.
Okay-let’s get to it. Which of these options makes sense?
1. First, could Jesus Christ have been a LIAR?
Well, from what historians tell us about Jesus, one thing that we must conclude is that His life and His teachings, set a new standard for morality and ethics of that day. Even His detractors highly respected His honesty and His teaching about truth-telling. Well, let’s ask ourselves, is it reasonable to believe that someone who became known and admired and respected for His moral teaching would also be actively spreading lies about His true identity? Would Jesus-who was known for His integrity-would He knowingly challenge family and friends to abandon their careers, risk everything to follow Him, even at the risk of death? I don’t think so.
Further, when Jesus was finally arrested and beaten and spit on for claiming to be the Son of God-and then threatened with death for this claim, I mean, if He was pulling everyone’s leg about the deity thing, don’t you think that about the time they were holding the hammer and the nail, putting the sharp end of the nail into the tender palm of His hand, don’t you think right about then a con artist or liar would say, “Time out. Just kidding. Can’t you people take a joke!? Hold everything! I mean the truth of the matter is, I was a carpenter who got tired of the construction trade and all I really wanted to do was make a buck a better way. So, I’m sorry that you all took this so seriously, but this is not my idea of a good way to spend a Friday afternoon. Let’s stop the whole crucifixion thing right here. I am so sorry. Lock me up. Tell Me I was a bad guy…but put away the hammer and nails because I was just fooling!”
I for one think if Jesus was lying-early on in the beating He would have confessed. And I say this because if you look at history carefully, what you learn about liars it that people tend to tell lies until the cost of the lie gets higher than they’re wiling to pay. I mean, history has shown us again and again, people tend NOT to die for lies. Pain has a way of flushing deceit out into the open.
Richard Bandler tells the story about visiting a mental institution and dealing with a man who insisted he was Jesus Christ-not metaphorically, not in spirit, but in the flesh. One day Bandler walked in to meet this man and said, “Are you Jesus?” “Yes, my son,” the man replied. Bandler then said, “I’ll be back in a minute.” This left the man a little confused. But within three or four minutes Bandler came back, holding a measuring tape. Asking the man to hold out his arms, Bandler measured the length of his arms and his height from head to toe. After that Bandler left again. The man claiming to be Christ, the Son of God, became a little concerned. A little while later, Bandler came back dragging in two pieces of lumber and a hammer and some long spiked nails. He used some of the nails to attach the boards so they formed a huge cross. The man asked, “What are you doing?” And as Banler put the finishing touches on his cross, he again asked the man, “Are you Jesus Christ, the Son of God?” And again the man said, “Yes, my son.” Bandler replied, “Then you know why I’m here. You know what I’m doing.” At this point the man suddenly recalled who he really was and he yelled, “I’m not Jesus! I’m not Jesus!”
One thing that impressed me about Gibson’s film was that it did a very good job of giving us an accurate picture of the horror and pain that people sentenced to crucifixion endured at the hands of the Romans: the scourging, the beating. It showed very graphically exactly what Jesus went through that first Good Friday and the Gospels record the fact that Jesus never even HINTED that He believed He was not Who He said He was-the Son of God, the Messiah, the Redeemer.
The Bible says they beat Him and plucked out His beard and scourged Him and His response, first to the Sanhedrin and then to Pilate was,
“Yes-it is as you say. Do what you need to do but I am the Christ, the Son of God.”
Friends that doesn’t happen. Con artists and liars get flushed out of the bushes when pain is introduced yet Jesus stuck to His story until the very end. People don’t die for lies. So this option just doesn’t work. Well-what about the other one?
2. Was Jesus a lunatic, a mere man Who was deluded enough to sincerely THINK He was the Son of God?
And before you answer let me remind you that this kind of delusion is fairly common. Hundreds of people in mental institutions have thought they were Jesus. Hundreds of self-deceived glassy-eyed weirdos have claimed to be on missions from God. For example, several years ago David Koresh led his followers into the suicide fires down in Waco, all the time claiming to be the Messiah, the Son of God. Remember? But, when a background check was done on Koresh, there were all kinds of patterns of mental instability. Experts who interviewed his followers and studied his writings found numerous manifestations of psychosis. When the leader of the Heaven’s Gate suicide cult, Marshall Applewaite-when his record was studied all the signs of lunacy were there as well. And that’s the way it is with mentally ill people-when you look closely at them-you see patterns of psychosis-indications that there are mental deficiencies.
And that’s where we run into trouble when we conclude that Jesus was a self-deluded lunatic. You see, experts of psychology and psychiatry have gone over the records of the life of Jesus with a fine-tooth comb, looking for any telltale signs of psychotic behavior but none exists. There isn’t a trace of evidence-not a shred of a piece of information-that would even suggest cause for concern about His psyche. In fact quite to the contrary, by all indications Jesus was a picture of emotional, relational and psychological health. As I alluded to earlier, His teaching was brilliant. It stunned the scholars. The scope of His knowledge was breathtaking. His relationships were strong and secure. He was steady in adversity, calm in a crisis. He demonstrated appropriate levels of courage without manifesting senseless acts of bravado. He showed no propensity for any kind of erratic or psychotic behavior. In short, there is no basis by which to assess Jesus as being anything less than a healthy, whole, integrated person deserving respect and admiration. Not a single sign of lunacy.
Well, looking at the evidence-even from this negative slant-seems to point to the truth that Jesus was indeed Who He claimed to be-the Son of God, doesn’t it?
And the fact is, there is abundant evidence to PROVE this verdict to be true. Let’s review some of it.
1. First, there is the fact that Jesus fulfilled all the PROPHECIES concerning the coming of the Son of God…the Messiah.
If you’ve seen The Passion, then you know the first thing you see when Gibson’s movie starts is a passage of Scripture from the 53rd chapter of the Old Testament book of Isaiah, words that were written over 700 years BEFORE Jesus’ birth saying,
- “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we are healed.”
- “He will be raised and lifted up….there were many who were appalled at Him-
- His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness…
- He was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrow and familiar with suffering…”
Do those words sound like the crucifixion of Jesus or what? And understand-they were written long before the idea of crucifying a man had even been conceived. The fact is centuries before Jesus’ birth sixty specific predictions were given about the identity of the Messiah and Jesus Christ matched every single prediction. It was like a one-of-a-kind divine DNA match because they predicted things like, where He would be born, Who His ancestors would be and how He would die. They predicted certain events that would take place, how He would react in certain situations, how people would react to Him.
Now, at this point skeptics might say, “Yes…but what if He deliberately staged events in His life to appear to be prophetic fulfillment?” For example, one of the prophecies stated that the Messiah would ride triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey? He could have set that up. And another prophecy said the Messiah would come from Capernaum-He could have moved to Capernaum when He began His ministry-kind of like politicians who move to New York to be elected as senators FROM New York.
Well-a FEW of the Messianic prophecies could have been fulfilled intentionally-but not many.
For example, one prophecy says the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. You couldn’t set that one up. Nor could you another that said He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and another that said He would come from the line of David and that His bones would not be broken in death.
Another says people would gamble for His clothes….and how could He have faked the prophecy that the Messiah would perform miracles when He was constantly surrounded by skeptics? Other skeptics might say, “Yes…but what if the writers of the gospels fabricated those events to make it look like Jesus was the Messiah?” Well, if Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John had all become millionaires off of royalties from their gospels then maybe one would suspect such a thing. But that isn’t what happened. They didn’t become celebrities. In fact they became wanted men. Tradition says that Matthew was axed to death in Ethiopia and that Mark was dragged to death in Alexandria. Luke was hanged on an olive tree in Greece and John died in exile on the isle of Patmos. I for one find it hard to believe these men would embellish the truth to the extent that it would cause their death. Remember, as I said earlier, no one dies for a lie. Other skeptics look at the way that Jesus fulfilled all these prophecies and say, “Okay…but what if it was just an honest coincidence?” And this is an easy conclusion to dispute because it is mathematically IMPOSSIBLE for a person to be born and accidentally fulfill all these prophecies.
Trust me-expert statisticians have done the math-and the odds of one person accidentally fulfilling even just eight of the prophecies is on in one hundred million billion. That is a number that is a million times greater than the total number of people who have ever walked this planet!
The chances of one person fulfilling 48 of the 60 prophecies is one in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion. That’s a number too big for our minds to comprehend. The odds are impossible for anyone to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies, yet Jesus-and only Jesus-managed to do it. As Peter said in Acts 3:18, “The things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled.”
2. And then a second indication of the truth of Jesus’ claim was His SINLESS life.
You see, if I-and I’m a pretty decent guy-if I were to say, “I am the Messiah, the sinless Son of God.” My wife would say, “No-he’s not!” In fact it would take her quite a while to describe the full list of my sins and shortcomings…but if I were to make this claim she’d say, “Mark can’t be the Son of God. I know, I’m his wife. I’ve lived with him for nearly 25 years He’s committed far too many sins and if you’ve got a couple days I’ll tell you all about them.”
But, the Bible says that Jesus’ detractors could not point to a single time where He said something or did something that violated laws of character, ethics, or morality. Not a single time. Look at verse 59 of our text. It says that “the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for FALSE evidence against Jesus so they could put Him to death.” This verse points out that even His enemies knew they couldn’t charge Him with doing anything morally wrong. They couldn’t charge Him with one legitimate sin. It is just as the Hebrews 4:15 says, “He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” And as 1 Peter 2:22 says, “He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.”
By the way, if you were to go poking around the private lives of the heads of other religious movements: Mohammed or Buddha or Gandhi or Joseph Smith or Reverend Moon. If you were to peek behind the curtain and look at the personal lives of these religious leaders you would see that they have no right to be held up as paragons of virtue. They are guilty of all kinds of sinful shenanigans, everything from embezzlement to plagiarism to adultery to murder. But not Jesus-He was squeaky clean. Even His enemies had to admit that. His sinless life indicates that He was and is the Son of our Sinless, Holy God.
3. And then the third evidence of the truth of His claim is seen in Jesus’ MIRACLES.
You see, we’d expect the Son of God to be able to do supernatural stuff, wouldn’t we? He should be able to do things that only God can do. Well, Jesus did. He performed dozens of miracles. In fact, even secular historians in that day referred to Jesus’ wonder-working power. Luke 23:8 says that King Herod wanted Jesus to do a miracle for his entertainment. And he wasn’t alone. Everyone knew of Jesus’ ability to do miracles because everywhere He went people were healed, the lame walked, the blind regained sight. The dead were raised. He even stilled storms at sea. And these miracles weren’t done in a corner. No…hundreds of thousands of people saw and gave attestation to them as eye-witnesses. Jesus had supernatural power at His command. He did things that only God should be able to do. In fact, whenever Jesus performed these miracles He said they were signs that indicated His divinity-and they were.
Okay, we have examined the evidence-and I think you would have to agree that it points to Jesus being exactly Who He said He was-the Son of God-the promised Messiah-the Savior of the World. I mean, there are clear objective reasons why a person could, from a purely academic perspective, rationally believe that Jesus is Who He claimed to be. To leave it at that however, would be to miss out on the best thing that can happen to you. It would be like buying a ranch somewhere and discovering on your new property a cave filled with colorful rocks. You call in the geologists and all the other experts who confirm that this cave is in fact filled with gold. And you say, “Imagine that. It’s real gold.” And then you go back to watching TV…but you never mine the gold that you’ve discovered and you never enjoy the riches that it has to offer. Stopping at this point would be just as foolish as doing something like that. You see belief that Jesus is the Son of God isn’t enough.
Saying-“Mark-this first statement is true. Jesus is the Son of God. You’ve convinced me.” That’s not sufficient. No, You’ve got to go a step further. You’ve got to ACT on what you know in your head in order to enjoy the benefits of this head knowledge. You’ve got to pray and say to Jesus, “I believe You are the Son of God and I need Your forgiveness. I want You in my life. Forgive me and help me follow You as Lord.” In that simple prayer you will move from knowing ABOUT Jesus-to KNOWING Jesus.
As someone who prayed this prayer over 40 years ago, I will bear witness to the fact, that when you pray this prayer, Jesus answers it. He becomes your personal, constant companion. And, not only does He give you the gift of eternal life-He helps you to live this life as it was meant to be lived-ABUNDANTLY! I would also point out that you can’t really avoid this decision. You can’t be neutral when it comes to Jesus. You have to decide-will I accept Him or will I reject Him?