Jesus is the God of history who entered into history to explain God and explain to us how we can experience a relationship with God...

Last week, we started addressing the question “Who was Jesus and how can we know?” In other words, “How can we really know who Jesus was? What sort of historical evidence do we have?” We looked at the first type of historical evidence that we have concerning Jesus as a historical figure, which comes from the accounts of Jesus life that are recorded for us in the letters that make up the Bible. We discovered that all of the accounts of Jesus life were written within 30 years of Jesus death, which is hardly enough time for legends to develop.

We looked at another skeptical objection that is often raised, which is that the manuscripts, or copies of these accounts of Jesus life have been corrupted or altered and therefore cannot be trusted as being reliable. We discovered that if you are going to maintain that Homer wrote Iliad and that we can trust that work; if you are going to maintain that we can trust the accuracy of Caesar’s the Gallic Wars, then we must hold the same view of the letters that make up the New Testament of the Bible.

Another skeptical objection is that the writers of these accounts of Jesus life were only concerned about was making sure that people believed Jesus spiritually, not who Jesus was in history. In other words, the Bible is about religious and spiritual stuff and is not accurate historically. However, we discovered that one gospel writer, Luke, is universally recognized, by skeptics and followers of Jesus alike, as being a scrupulously accurate historian. One archaeologist carefully studied Luke’s references to thirty-two countries, fifty-four cities, and nine islands, without finding a single error.  As a matter of fact, many have credited the gospel of Luke as being one of the most beautiful and historically accurate pieces of literature ever written.

We discover that when we read the accounts of Jesus life is that the story of Jesus in history is a part of a much larger story of God’s activity in history. In the Old Testament of the Bible, we discover that God had promised a man named Abraham, who was the person from which the Jewish nation descended from, that through his offspring that all the nations would be blessed. In addition, God had promised the Jewish nation’s most famous king, King David, that one of his descendants would be the Messiah. So the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of Abraham, from the line of David that would be the promised Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world as He ushered in the Kingdom of God here on earth.

And throughout Jesus life, Jesus repeated talked about the kingdom of God. However, how Jesus talked about the kingdom of God and His role in the kingdom of God was very different than what the Jewish people had come to believe about the kingdom of God. You see, the Jewish people of Jesus day believed that the Messiah would be a political and military leader who was going to kick the Romans out and bring them back to God and back to prominence in the world.

However, Jesus seemed to have no interest in bringing judgment on the Roman Empire. As a matter of fact, Jesus had no interest in even judging people from within the Jewish nation that lived in rebellion against God. Instead, Jesus seemed to be saying the He came on a different mission, to provide a different and deeper deliverance. And Jesus unwillingness to follow the script when it came to what the Jewish people expected Him to do as the Messiah was not the only problem. In addition, Jesus had the audacity to call God His Father. Jesus had the audacity to claim that He was equal to God.

Jesus was eventually arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified. And for Jesus closest followers, at that moment, all their hopes and dreams for a new kingdom of God died with Jesus. It seemed that all that Jesus had promised concerning the opportunity to enter into a new covenant, or agreement, with God that would result in a right relationship with God died with Jesus. Like all the would-be Messiah’s before Him, Jesus was now dead.

And if that is how the story had ended, if that is what happened in history, there would be no Christian church, there would be no Christians. But that is not what happened. Instead, shortly after His crucifixion and burial, Jesus followers were proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead.

Now, a natural objection that any skeptic could make at this point is this: Well, Dave, that is what his disciples said. How do we know that they were telling the truth? How do we know that they did not just make all of it up? If that skeptical question or objection is running through your mind, my response would be this: When people make up a story that they are a part of, do they tell the story in a way that makes them look better or worse than what actually happened?

When we look at the accounts of Jesus life, death, and resurrection as contained in the letters that make up the Bible, we discover that these accounts do not place His followers in the best possible light. Actually, the accounts do the exact opposite

In addition, all that the enemies of these early followers of Jesus had to do to silence them and destroy their new movement in history that we know today as the church would be to produce Jesus dead and decaying body for everyone to see. After all, they knew where Jesus was buried, as they had the tomb guarded by Roman Soldiers. You see, these early followers of Jesus viewed Jesus as a historical figure who was crucified and killed in an event from history, and who was raised from the dead as a historical event. These early followers of Jesus talked about Jesus resurrection of the dead as a historical reality that was witnessed by other people who lived in history.

You see, for Paul and other followers of Jesus, Christianity was not simply about doctrine, theology, or philosophy. Instead Christianity, at its core, was about an event that occurred in history. We see this reality revealed for us in a section of a letter that was written to an early church that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of 1 Corinthians. So let’s look at this section of this letter beginning in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,  

In these verses we see Paul remind a first century church that was located in Corinth Greece that what was of first importance; what is the closed handed and non-negotiable center of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ, who is God in an bod, entered into humanity and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Jesus Christ died after being crucified. Paul then states that not only that Christ died for our sins; Paul also states that He was buried. Now the reason that Jesus was buried was because He was dead. Jesus was crucified by professional executioners and these men knew a dead person when they saw one.

When Paul uses the phrase according to the Scriptures, he is reminding us that Jesus life, death, burial and resurrection was predicted and proclaimed in the Old Testament. When Paul talks about resurrection here, he is referring to a literal, physical, bodily resurrection. Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a tomb dead as a door nail, and was brought back to life as a result of God’s transforming activity.

You see the core message of the gospel; the essence of Christianity is not about theology. The core message of the gospel and the essence of Christianity revolves around an event that occurred in history. What makes the Bible so compelling and different than other religious literature is that Christianity is rooted in history. These are real events that occurred in real time and at real places that you can visit today.

What we believe about God, or our theology, flows from events that occurred in history. And as Paul continued his letter to this early church, we see Paul point to those who were witnesses to the resurrection. So let’s look at the response of each of these witnesses, beginning in 1 Corinthians 15:5:

            and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Now it is important to understand that when Paul uses the word appeared, he is not referring to seeing Jesus is a dream or vision; this word refers to an actual visual encounter with the Risen from the dead Jesus Christ. Paul then provides a list of people who had an encounter with Jesus after he was raised from the dead.

First, in verse 5, Paul lists Peter, who had denied Jesus three times while he stood outside his trial. Paul then lists the remaining eleven disciples. And while one could easily argue or question the truthfulness of the testimony of his closest followers, as Paul continues by expanding the scope of who had an encounter with the risen Lord in verse 6:

After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;

Here we see Paul explain that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at one time, most of who were still living. Paul is saying to the church “if you do not want to believe me or the disciples, then go ask these five hundred people. Do you think five hundred people would have the same dream or vision at the same time?” Paul’s point here is that there were people who were still alive that could testify as to the reality of the resurrection.

You see, this letter to this early church was not written hundreds of years after the claim that Jesus was raised from the dead. This letter was written within 25 years of the events that took place that first Easter Sunday outside of the city of Jerusalem. And while some had fallen asleep, in other words died, the vast majority of those who had this encounter with Jesus were still alive and could be questioned by any skeptic who did not necessarily buy the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. And as Paul continued his list of people who had this encounter in history with the resurrected Jesus, we find a most convincing name mentioned next in verse 7:

            then He appeared to James,

Paul then explains that James, the half-brother of Jesus, the same James who had mocked Jesus claims during His life on earth, he saw the resurrected Lord. The same James who became the Senior Pastor at the church that was located in Jerusalem.

Now here is a question that would help provide us some perspective on how significant James is to this claim that Jesus rose from the dead: What would your half-brother have to do in order for you to believe that He was God? What would cause someone to worship His brother and serve as a leader in His new movement called Christianity? But not only did Jesus appear to James, Jesus also appeared to another group of people:

then to all the apostles;

Paul then explains that Jesus also appeared to all of the Apostles, which we read about in another letter in our Bibles, called the Book of Acts, in Acts 1:1-11. It is important to understand that these appearances did not occur decades or years after Jesus crucifixion, they occurred within 40 days of His crucifixion. In addition, these appearances occurred in Jerusalem, within sight of the very place where Jesus was killed and buried. Paul then concluded his list with an autobiography, which we see in 1 Corinthians 15:8-11:

and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Here we see Paul refer to his own encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road, which we read about in Acts 9. This morning, think of it this way: what else do you think would cause someone like Paul who persecuted the church to become the greatest missionary of the early church? What else would cause someone who zealously opposed the movement known as Christianity to become the very person who wrote the majority of what we know as the New Testament in our Bibles? Paul’s point is that the resurrection of Jesus is a historical reality that was witnessed by hundreds of people over forty days’ time.

Again, all that was needed to stop the fledgling movement that was Christianity was to produce Jesus dead and rotting corpse for all to see. They did not have to travel far. And they did not need to search for where Jesus was buried, as Jesus tomb was just outside the city of Jerusalem and had been previously guarded by Roman soldiers. And for 2,000 years people have been trying to find Jesus corpse, with absolutely no success, because the reality is that Jesus has been raised from the dead by God’s supernatural activity. And it was the reality of God’s activity through an event that occurred in history that resulted in the transformation of lives and the spread of the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel throughout history.

What I find so interesting is that virtually no one denies that Jesus existed. Both secular and religious historians agree that Jesus was a historical person. This leads us to the second type of historical evidence that we have concerning Jesus as a historical figure, which comes from the writing of historians who lived in the first century.

For example, The Jewish historian Josephus wrote a non-biblical historical account in the first century A.D. that substantiated that Jesus did live and was said to be the Christos, or Messiah. In addition, the Roman historian Tacitus referred to the death of Jesus by crucifixion at the hands of Pontius Pilate and the existence or early Christians in his historical work, the Annals, which was written within 80 years of Jesus death. 

You see, the vast majority of scholars believe that Jesus is a historical figure. And the vast majority of people, across continents and cultures, across various religious systems, believe that Jesus was a good moral teacher that had many great things to say about life. And it is here that we discover the timeless answer to the skeptical question “Who was Jesus and how can we know?” And that timeless answer is this: Jesus is the God of history who entered into history to explain God and explain to us how we can experience a relationship with God.  

The timeless reality is that people do not differ when it comes to whether or not Jesus was a historical figure. Where people differ when it comes to Jesus is not about His life; where people differ when it comes to Jesus is not about His death; where people differ when it comes to Jesus is whether or not He was raised from the dead. Throughout history, humanity has disagreed as to whether Jesus was really brought back to life and lives for all eternity as God in a bod. And just as it was for Jesus closest followers, Jesus still asks a timeless question that requires a response. And that question is this: Who do you say that I am?

You see for Peter to proclaim that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, he was proclaiming that Jesus was his Lord and Leader. Peter was pledging his allegiance to trust and follow Jesus. And that is why this timeless question that is asked by Jesus to all humanity is so personal. That is why this timeless question that is asked by Jesus is the most important question that any human being will ask and answer.

The possibility that God has acted in history through Jesus in a way that provides us the opportunity for forgiveness and rescue so that we can experience a relationship with God places us face to face with the reality that we have to take what Jesus said seriously when it comes to how one experiences a relationship with God.

And it is this reality that leads us to the next skeptical question that we will look at this week…