Can Jesus be trusted?
Intro
Something funny = Meals on Wheels
Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die!
Modern Mans quest for immortality.
Modern man’s quest to live forever by modern science or future science … frozen bodies to be re-animated when the science gets here. One podcaster fully expects to live to at least 150.
Quite honestly, the spectre of death scares us to death!
Yet, last time I checked life is fatal. Nobody gets out alive.
Job 14:14 (ESV)
If a man dies, shall he live again?
Jesus answers Job’s question this way in John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Do YOU believe this?
Can Jesus’ claims be trusted?
Modern Context before I go any further about Notre Dame Cathedral’s historic fires last week in Paris
Would believe any engineering firm who would claim to rebuild Notre Dame 3 Days?
The Temple to Yahweh in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus was even more magnificent and imposing than Notre Dame.
Jesus made a wild claim that He would rebuild the temple in 3 days!
Can Jesus’ claims be trusted?
John 2:13-22 (ESV)
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.
15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Ask Jesus’ closest followers if His claims to be God and to be able to make people live forever can be trusted and what would they say?
They were transformed from a cowardly bunch of ordinary nobodies into a force that would shake the temple in Jerusalem all the way to the great palaces of the Caesers in Rome because of their unwavering belief that Jesus was EXACTLY WHO HE CLAIMED TO BE.
Many of them would face untimely deaths at the hands of ‘THE ESTABLISHMENT’ for spreading the news that Jesus was God and that He had risen from the dead on that first Easter over 2,000 years ago.
Those followers I take to be exhibit A on why I place the trust of my life on Jesus’ claims and that you, too can take what He says to the bank. —Jeff Fuson
Remember what Jesus said according the writer of the book of John in John 11:25-26:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Do YOU believe this?
So, let’s say that you do believe in the resurrection of Jesus on Easter 1 over 2,000 years ago. What does that mean for you in 2019?
The Resurrection does these three things:
1. Validates Jesus’ claims.
John 14:6 (ESV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
2. Gives absolute hope for the future.
John 14:19 [ HCSB ]
“In a little while the world will see Me no longer, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live too.
3. It offers spiritual life right now!
For God so loved
_ that he gave his one and only Son; so, that if
_ believes in him,
_ shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn
but to save
through him.
John 3:16-17 (modified by author)
So, let’s return to Job’s question and Jesus answer that we started with today:
If a man dies, shall he live again? Job 14:14
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
Jesus Christ as quoted in John 11:25-26
Do YOU believe this?
Can Jesus be trusted?
His resurrection at Easter 1 over 2,000 years ago says YES He is who He claimed to be and you can bet your life - AND YOUR AFTER LIFE – on His ability to save you completely in this life and in the life that follows this one.
End of Message
Homework
If you’d like to explore the Resurrection of Jesus further. These are listed in order of rigor:
[ by the way I used all of these sources in building today’s sermon. I’m grateful to each of these people for their contribution to this most important message. Pastor Jeff Fuson ]
https://billygraham.org/story/billy-graham-the-greatest-news-ever-heard/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7EVW8nV3-g&feature=youtu.be
Chip Ingram’s Message on why he believes in the resurrection here: https://livingontheedge.org/broadcast/why-i-believe-in-the-resurrection/?media=daily&type=broadcast&part=2
Lee Strobel’s book: The Case for Christ – classic easy to read primer written by a former atheist.
N.T. Wright’s book: The Resurrection of the Son of God – this is the toughest homework assignment of all but if you love theology and history then you’ll love this!