The Claims of Christ

 

Here is C.S. Lewis most quoted paragraph from “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 t 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 a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make it 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 patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

In John Chapter 5, Jesus gave his claims. They are unmistakable claims of deity.

·         Jesus is equal with God (5:19-20).

·         Jesus is the giver of life (5:21, 26).

·         Jesus will raise the dead (5:25, 29).

·         Jesus is the final Judge and arbiter of our final destiny (5:22-23).

·         Jesus is always doing the will of God (5:30).

These claims are what make Jesus dear to the believer and cause him to fall at Jesus’ feet and worship him. However, for the unbeliever, they are what causes her to stumble. The very things that endear Jesus to his followers cause rejection in those who do not embrace him. Jesus’ caused immediate reaction wherever he went—some followed him, and some rejected him. It is no different today.

What name of any deity or founder of religion do you hear used in a profane way? Only that of Jesus, not Buda, not Mohammed or Ali or Confucius but only Jesus. Is that not odd? It is because of Jesus’ claims to be God and the final Judge. His claims provoke anger and rejection. Jesus predicted they would:

Luke 12:5
1-53

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.”

We live in an age of political correctness where you can be condemned for how you talk and what you believe. Believing that Jesus is the only savior of humanity and the final Judge of human beings will be criticized, but it is the true message of Scripture. As C.S. Lewis says, we can accept him as God or reject him as an imposture but let there be no middle ground—it would not be rational.

Daring to Step Out in Faith

 

In the Old Testament, there is an exciting story about Samaria suffering from famine because of a siege by the Syrian army. The situation had reached a hopeless stage. However, there were four lepers outside the city walls. They were living under the sentence of death from disease and famine. They decided to get up and go to the enemy camp and plead for mercy. As they walked toward the enemy camp, God made their steps sound like a mighty army, so the Syrians fled in a panic 2 Kings 7:6).

What the lepers did that day was incredibly bold. Most people would not have done what they did. Not one member of the Israelite army had ventured out to the enemy camp. They were all paralyzed with fear behind the walls of the city. Even though the army and the people behind the wall were doomed to die the horrible death of starvation, they did not reach the audacious conclusion the lepers had arrived at by themselves.

It’s that decision to try that I applaud. Did the lepers know they would be successful? Did they have certainty of not being harmed? Did they have the assurance they would be better off? Absolutely not! They did, however, know they had to try—yes, and that is what they did.

The lepers found food, gold, clothes, and everything else they shared with the starving city. God did a fantastic thing, but it involved that step of faith by the lepers.

A few years ago, I returned to revisit the city of Corrientes, Argentina, where we spent four years. I was reminded of a beautiful testimony to God’s power and mercy while I was there. During our last year in that city, we began a tent crusade on a piece of property that belonged to the province. We had permission to use the property for three months, but I asked for another three months’ extension, the answer was an emphatic “No.” I kept returning, hoping that in the end, persistence would pay off. However, I was finally told not to return anymore and that the tent must come down on the expiring date.

The newly formed group of believers began to pray with us that God would open up a way to keep the tent up. Not long after that, I received a call from the United States Embassy in Buenos Aires. They informed me that an 82-member orchestra from Long Island, New York, would tour several South American countries. They had a cancelation in Brazil and would like to come to Corrientes, so they asked me if I would help. They informed me that they would set a meeting up with the governor, and he, in turn, would assign the minister of culture to work with me. I accepted the offer, and soon I was appearing with the minister of culture on the radio and doing promos for TV.

At times I wondered what this orchestra had to do with my work, but somehow I felt it was connected. It took a few weeks to arrange everything. The minister of culture told me he appreciated everything I had done to help make this event possible for the people of Corrientes. He was excited about the orchestra. He also mentioned that if there was ever anything he could do to help me in my work, just let him know. So I took advantage of the opportunity to tell him that my lease for the tent campaign would expire in a few days, and I had not been able to renew it. He said, “Isn’t it ironic that I am going fishing tomorrow with the chief executive of the provincial housing department. He is my friend. I am on my way there now. Please come with me, and I will introduce you to him.” We went to the same building that I knew so well. However, this time we went to the top floor. We were shown into the spacious office of the president of this agency. The minister introduced me and explained my situation, and asked if there was anything that could be done to alleviate the problem? Without consulting anyone else, he said: “Of course we can help. I will give you an extension for as long as you like.” He signed the papers, and I was on my way. As I was getting off the elevator, I met the man who had informed me not to return. My appearance irritated him, so he demanded to know why I had returned. I chose not to speak to him; I decided to show him the signature. His reaction was priceless! God had arranged every detail right down to this last encounter.

We kept the tent up, and many more people came to know Jesus during the crusade. The orchestra arrived on schedule, and I even had the opportunity to share my testimony with them before they left. We moved from the tent to a piece o

f property where we constructed a building for this congregation to call its home. God made our steps be heard thousands of miles away in New York and he arranged everything so we could stay on that spot.

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Taking Jesus at His Word

 

John tells us about seven miracles in his gospel. The second is about an influential man who was an official in Herod’s court. He was also a man of wealth, but he had a seriously sick son near death.  As a result, this man was desperate for help. The account states that Jesus returned to Cana, where he had performed his first miracle, and this nobleman lived in Capernaum some eighteen miles away. No doubt he had heard what Jesus did at the wedding, turning water to wine, so he went to solicit Jesus’ help to heal his son.

Upon finding Jesus, he begged him to come and heal his son. Jesus’ reply was puzzling, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe” (John 4:48).  Jesus’ answer seems harsh, but in reality, Jesus was lifting the man’s faith. People were viewing Jesus as a showman who does miracles and not as the savior.

Jesus then said to the man, “Go, your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed (John 4:50). Jesus did not go to his home, but he gave him something to take—it was his word. The man took it and believed it. For this nobleman, believing was seeing his son healed. He didn’t rush home. Maybe he stayed to listen to Jesus for the rest of the day because it wasn’t until the next day that his servants met him on the way with the news his son was well. He realized it was the same hour Jesus said his son would live.

When he returned and talked with his family, they were all impacted by his testimony of Jesus. John writes: Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed (John 4:53). The influence of a believing father over his family is powerful. All of his family—including servants believed. His wife, Cuza mentioned in Luke 8:3 may have been the woman who helped support Jesus’ ministry.

The takeaway from this story is learning to take Jesus at his word. If we are people of the Word and believe it, we can take it to heart and accept it, which is the definition of faith.

 

 

Getting Free

 

Getting Free

October 4, 2021

Biologists named them Bonnet and Crossbeak, two California Grey whales that were trapped under the ice. This happened around Barrel, Alaska, sixty miles from the Arctic Ocean back in 1988. The whales had miscalculated the weather and found themselves trapped under the ice. If not for the Eskimos, the whales would not have been able to get air and would not have survived. They were, however, trapped and not able to get back to the ocean. The Eskimos first started helping by breaking the ice with their chain saws and long poles. The newspapers followed with interest. However, as hard as everyone worked, it still became apparent they would never make the sixty miles without some additional help. Luckily more support came in the form of an 11-ton arcamedian screw-tractor that rode on two giant pontoons. It broke up the ice, but it was still too slow. Next came the National Guard, who brought in two CH54 sky crane helicopters that dropped 5-ton concrete bashers on the ice mile after mile. Then the Russians came with two ships, one 11 stories tall. It was a joint effort of the US Navy and the Russians, and finally, the whales were freed as the exhausted creatures swam to the sea.

Just as the whales finally broke free of the restricting ice and were able to swim into the open sea, so is forgiveness to those who carry the hurts of unforgiveness. The Apostle Paul mentions the need for forgiveness to live free:

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:12-14).

I want to suggest three areas that we all need forgiveness: First, we need to get free of the wrong I have done. This is the wonder of God’s forgiveness; no matter what I have done, God will forgive me if I am repentant and ask for forgiveness. The second is, getting free of the wrong done to me. This is the area that becomes obvious in our lives as we grow older. We simply can’t get past the hurts done to us by others. Forgiveness helps us do that even when those who hurt us are not acknowledging what they have done. Thirdly, getting free of the good I have done. Believe it or not, getting over the good I have done is an obstacle. We somehow believe the good balances out the bad—it doesn’t. We all need God’s forgiveness, the murderer, and the good moral person because we are all sinners. Finally, we can be free to Focus on Christ as Paul said to the Philippians. He is the prize for which we are running this race of life.