is Jesus Really God?

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Old Testament reading, a reading from the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 52, 13.

Behold, my servant shall act wisely.

He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.

Isaiah 53, 3-9.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised.

And we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

And with his wounds we are healed.

All we, like sheep, have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted.

Yet he opened not his mouth.

Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent.

So he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

And as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made him his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah 53, 12.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.

Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.

New Testament readings.

A reading from the Epistle to the Philippians.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 through 11.

Philippians 2:3–11

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

A reading from the first epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1, verses 18 to 29.

1 Corinthians 1:18–29

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom,

it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified,

a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,

Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise, according to worldly standards, and not many of you were powerful.

Not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not,

to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

This is the word of the Lord.

Praise to God.

Is that you?

Oh.

Do we know what that buzz is, Scott?

Oh, there we go.

Thank you.

Well, thanks for that reading, Melissa, that long reading.

That's my fault.

I kept adding verses this week because I had so many ideas, so many things I wanted to say.

Welcome to Christ Church, everyone.

My name is Andrew, one of the pastors here.

And I ask that you'd pray with me as we get into God's word.

Father, I pray that you would simply open our eyes and lift up our eyes to the crucified and risen Christ,

who is your son, who is God.

And would we behold you, Father, Son, and Spirit, as the wonderful God that you are, for whom there is no one like you.

So would you be honored, Lord God, in the preaching of your word, and would we behold Christ.

In his name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so we're in week six of our seven-week series, right?

Exploring God.

And today we're addressing the question, is Jesus really God?

And, you know, this is, I think, really where the rubber meets the road in our series.

Because if Jesus is not God, then we can just view him maybe perhaps as some kind of legendary hero of Christianity,

someone whose legend has left a mark on the world, but also someone we can't really know the truth about, right?

Or maybe we could accept him as a wise, rabbinical lecturer and teacher,

someone with some pretty good ethical teachings that we can, you know, for the most part,

add to the best of human conventional wisdom.

Or maybe we can reject him as a liar or as a lunatic, someone who claimed to be God,

someone who said, eat my flesh and drink my blood.

If Jesus isn't God, these are our options.

He's either a legend, he's either a lecturer, or he's a liar, or he's a lunatic.

But really, if he's any of these, there's nothing too compelling about him.

There's nothing life-changing about him.

But if Jesus really is God, then he isn't just a legend.

He's not just a lecturer.

He's neither a liar nor a lunatic.

He's Lord, all right?

If Jesus is God, he's Lord.

Our maker, our sustainer, our only hope and comfort in life and death.

And he's the only one who can save us.

He's the only one who can save this broken world.

If Jesus really is God, then that means we were made for him and for his purposes,

and that we owe our entire lives to him and our exclusive devotion.

So whether you believe that Jesus is God or not,

this could have major life-changing implications.

But now, why consider it at all?

Why are we even talking about this?

Why aren't we considering whether or not Steph Curry is God, right?

Why Jesus?

Well, we're not asking this like in a historical vacuum, right?

No one can deny that Jesus and his followers have birthed, you know,

the largest world religion in history.

Even today, there are 2.8 billion Christians in this world.

Our world population's 8 billion, all right?

2.8 billion people in this world right now who believe that Jesus is God.

And more important than the numbers is the impact that belief in Jesus' divinity has had on the modern world,

even the secular modern world.

But now, how do we tackle this question, though?

Is Jesus really God?

How do you prove or disprove that something or someone is God or not?

And like what God or what kind of God are we even talking about?

How do you define the divine?

There are multiple complexities, right, to this question, multiple rabbit trails that we could pursue.

Should we try to define God first?

Maybe get some consensus on a basic, universal, lowest common denominator definition of God

and then see if Jesus measures up to that?

Or can we maybe get philosophical and talk epistemology?

What's our method for knowing for sure that Jesus is God with any degree of certainty?

Or maybe you're here today and you're not even sure if you can believe in God

and, you know, you maybe would like me to rehash a sermon I preached a couple weeks ago.

You know, is there a God?

We could go down all these different rabbit trails

and unfortunately we can't do that in the next 20, 25 minutes, right?

But what I think will be most fruitful

is addressing this question by paying attention to the person of Jesus himself.

See, because, you know, I get it.

If you have trouble believing in God,

and honestly, you might be right to not believe in that God that you have in your head.

We Christians might even agree with you that that God doesn't exist either.

But what I've found is that when people gaze upon and behold the man Jesus, right,

Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be God, whose tomb was empty,

who sparked a movement that altered the world more than any other movement in world history,

when people consider the life and legacy of Jesus,

his claims, his character with an open mind and an open heart,

when people see Jesus for who he really is,

even those who formerly didn't even believe in God,

often I find that they find themselves encountering the one true God

that they actually can believe in.

And so we're going to look at Jesus today.

I want to invite you to just come and see.

Just come and see this morning.

Let's explore the data on this incredible person named Jesus of Nazareth.

Whether or not you end up believing he's God,

you have to at least reckon with this guy who's incredibly unique,

his incredible uniqueness.

Like, if you studied the world religions,

if you considered all of world history,

there really is, like, no one like this God.

You know, there's this scholar, he's passed away not too long ago,

right here in Berkeley.

His name was Huston Smith.

And he's a really big deal, religious studies scholar,

spent the majority of his career at MIT and Syracuse,

and then he retired here in Berkeley,

and he was a visiting faculty there at Cal.

And in his classic textbook, The World's Religions,

he observes something really interesting.

He observes that in all of history,

there have only been two people

who have lived with such influence

and who've lived such compelling lives

and who've gained, like, hundreds of millions of followers

across multiple millennia

and made such an impact that it provoked people

not just to ask, who are you,

but what are you?

And he says, not Caesar, not Napoleon,

not Socrates, only two,

Jesus and Buddha.

All right, but then he notes that for Buddha,

Buddha consistently denied that he was God.

He only ever claimed to be human,

but Jesus, on the other hand,

this was a human who claimed to be God.

This was a human who let people worship him.

Now, when Jim Jones and Charles Manson claimed to be God,

they only ever managed to, you know,

convince a tiny group, right, of unstable people.

They never changed the world,

and their legacy is really just that

of being toxic mad men, right?

No one's gathering to worship them today,

even just decades later.

But with Jesus of Nazareth,

he too claimed to be God,

and yet this is someone you could make a case for

as perhaps the most influential human

to ever have lived,

with hundreds of millions of followers,

again, over multiple millennia.

Think about that for a second.

Think about that for a second.

Like, try to come up with a list

of, like, all the most positively influential,

impactful, compelling, wise, loving,

and compassionate people

throughout world history.

All right, got that list?

And then a list of all the people

who ever claimed that they were God.

There is only one person

who is on both those lists.

Only one person who claimed to be God

and got tons of people

to also believe it,

to devote their lives to him

and gather in churches

to worship him 2,000 years later.

And we ourselves are here listening right now,

entertaining this question,

because you know,

we all know, right,

that this is a question that's worth our time.

We know that if one of the most important,

if not the most important,

impactful person in history

claimed to be God,

this is a person that we cannot ignore.

And as the late, great pastor Tim Keller

would put it,

the magnitude of Jesus' claims

and the magnitude of his impact

indicate you'd better

not just doubt he's not God,

you better know he's not God.

He gives this illustration, Keller,

he says like,

let's say you got a letter from the IRS,

official IRS stationary,

and it says you owe $50 million in taxes,

and you think to yourself,

like, that can't be true,

because I only made 50,000, right?

Right?

Will you not at least pick up the phone, though?

Right?

Even let them place you on hold

just to make sure.

Why?

Because of the magnitude of the claim.

When Jesus says,

I am the way, the truth, and the life,

you only come to God through me,

if you're gonna live as though that's not true,

you'd better know that that's not true.

You'd better do your homework,

you'd better do your due diligence.

Because again, if you live without Jesus,

and he really is God,

the way, the truth, and the life,

then you're living estranged

from your maker and sustainer.

You're going the wrong way.

You're living in falsehood,

and you're closer to death than life.

And contrary to what you think,

you're only inching further and further

away from the most ideal version

of yourself and the world.

You're forfeiting love and joy

and peace and satisfaction,

the satisfaction that your soul

was made to enjoy.

So with that said,

I wanna turn to the data.

I wanna turn to the data this morning,

the most basic, undisputed data points

surrounding Jesus,

the facts that everyone can agree upon,

whether you believe Jesus is God or not,

the historical facts

that no honest and thinking person can deny.

Just put them out there for all of us

to try to make sense of

and account for, all right?

And there are five things I wanna say.

First, there was a man,

Jesus of Nazareth,

lived 2,000 years ago in Palestine

who claimed not only to be Messiah,

not only to be the servant of God,

but he claimed to be God himself.

He let people worship him.

He said he could forgive sins.

And he said to know him and to see him

and to receive him is to know and see

and receive God himself.

All right, so that's number one.

Number two, thousands of people,

thousands of people,

people who liked him

and people who hated him,

they saw him do things

that appeared to be miraculous.

Thousands of people fed

by five loaves and two fish,

paralytics made to walk,

lepers clean, right?

The blind able to see,

even the dead alive.

And again,

not all of these thousands of witnesses

even liked or believed

he was who he said he was,

but they saw it, all right?

It appeared to them as miraculous.

Number three,

Jesus of Nazareth,

he didn't just claim to be God,

but he managed to convince

the most staunchly monotheistic people,

the people with the most transcendent view of God,

he convinced thousands

of first century Jewish people

who lived to uphold

the first and second commandment, right?

Don't have any other gods besides Yahweh,

don't worship anything

that's created or material as God,

the last people in the world

who would have believed he was God,

he convinced them that he was God.

They were convinced

that he was who he said he was.

Number four,

he was crucified, dead, and buried.

And yet hundreds of people

saw him again after that.

Even at one point,

there were 500 who saw him at one time.

And there is no record

in all of ancient history

of anyone ever surviving

a Roman crucifixion.

And in fact,

there are five ancient sources

outside of New Testament

that can corroborate

that he really was crucified to death

and then seen again as alive.

Number five,

this apparent experience

that people supposedly had

of this supposedly risen Christ,

what changed people?

It changed the world.

It changed people so much

that they went out into the world

and even died to spread the news.

They spread it all throughout

the Mediterranean world,

even though many were flayed for this,

many were burned for this,

thrown to the lions,

crucified themselves.

They continued to spread the word

and it's still being spread today

across every continent.

Now having laid out

these undisputed points about Jesus,

I know they don't prove

that Jesus is God, right?

It doesn't prove

that Christianity is true,

but my question for you

is how do we account

for these data points?

How do we make sense

of these facts?

Now maybe you're inclined

to think all this Jesus stuff

is just a myth,

just a legend.

Like sure,

this Jesus guy,

maybe he was kind of special,

but we can't really know

the truth about him.

I mean that was

thousands of years ago.

Maybe he was a pretty amazing,

pretty special dude,

but aren't these accounts

about him in the Bible

just kind of embellished tales

that his followers

kind of wove together?

Maybe his followers,

followers, followers

put them together

long after he died?

How do we know

they didn't put these words

into Jesus' mouth,

spin the stories about him

to make him sound extra special?

You know,

especially with their biases,

right,

and their ancient superstitions.

Can we even read

the New Testament

as history?

Well,

I want to say

that if we approach

the scriptures literarily,

right,

as their authors intended,

if we pay attention

to how the New Testament

is written,

it is very much written,

not as a myth,

not as a legend,

like any other ancient text

that was written

as a legend in that time,

but it's actually

quite intentionally historical.

Luke's gospel,

how does Luke's gospel open?

He says,

as many have undertaken

to compile a narrative

of the things

that have been accomplished

among us,

just as those

who from the beginning

were eyewitnesses

have delivered them to us,

it seemed good to me also,

having followed

all things closely

for some time past

to write an orderly account

for you

that you may have certainty

concerning the things

you've been taught.

Luke's intention

is accuracy,

being historical,

an accurate historical

account and record

in line with the eyewitnesses.

And the rest of the New Testament

is full of tidbits

that you wouldn't expect

to find in myths and legends.

You have historical

and geographical details,

right,

details about the apostles' flaws.

And not only that,

but legends usually take

over 100 years,

150 or more years

to develop.

But you know,

even the most liberal scholars

of the New Testament

would say

there's a consensus

that the latest dates

are within 70 to 80 years

of the time

of Jesus' crucifixion.

Meaning that these writings

were written

during the lifetime

of eyewitnesses.

These writings

would have been falsifiable.

Someone could have said,

hey, I was there,

that it was a lot more

than five loaves

and two fish, all right?

Someone could have said that.

These accounts were written

far too early

to be fabricated

and embellished.

And not only that,

but who would die?

Who would die

for a mere legend, right?

Who would die

for a hoax

like the apostles did

and like many

early church Christians did?

Would they really have

given their lives

for a lie?

Like if they were the ones

who hid Jesus' body?

Now some have suggested,

okay, maybe they,

were seeing visions.

They were hallucinating

because they just wanted

to believe it so badly.

But really,

over 500 people

having the same hallucination

and vision

all at the same time

and then able to convince

another 3,000 Jewish people

to follow them

at Pentecost?

I mean,

what sounds like

the bigger miracle?

And speaking of bigger miracles,

okay,

could Christianity

really have even spread

and endured

the way it has?

Especially as a minority

religious movement

that was violently

persecuted by the Roman Empire.

What legend

has ever been

that powerful

and that successful

when it wasn't true?

Are we here today,

2,000 years later,

because some Jewish fishermen

overpowered

or slipped past Roman guards,

stole their rabbi's corpse,

hid it,

and then somehow

wove together

a legendary religion

about a God

who became a crucified man

whose followers

eventually won over

like the Roman Empire?

Thomas Aquinas said

that if these

miraculous events

about Jesus

didn't actually happen,

an even more

unbelievable miracle

happened,

the eventual conversion

of like the Roman world,

all by the biggest lie

in history.

Like sure,

it's hard to believe

in miracles

and it's hard to believe

Jesus is who he says he is.

I get that,

but might it be harder

not to believe

or to construct

some other narrative?

See, all this is to say

that it is very unlikely

that Jesus is just

some legendary figure

that we can treat,

you know,

like Odysseus.

He's more than that.

But now,

if he's not some

mythical legend,

then what options remain?

Well, again,

some would say

he was just a good

rabbinical teacher,

a lecturer,

a do-gooder.

But the question is

what kind of a good

teacher claims

to be God,

tells you to eat

his flesh

and drink his blood,

right?

Jesus wasn't just

teaching people

to be nice.

He was saying stuff

like I am the I am,

the one who's always

existed.

I forgive sins.

I'm gonna judge

the world.

To esteem Jesus

as simply a nice teacher

is to engage him

with very,

very selective hearing

and not to take him

in his entirety

seriously.

And this is why

C.S. Lewis said,

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

or he would be

the devil of hell.

You must take your choice.

Either this was

and is the son of God

or else a madman

or something worse.

You can shut him up

for a fool

or you can fall

at his feet

and call him

Lord and God.

But let us not come

with any patronizing

nonsense

about us being

a great human teacher.

So it cannot be said

that Jesus was simply

a good teacher

up there of Confucius

and Buddha,

Dr. King,

Mother Teresa.

Buddha and Mother Teresa

would never have made

such brazen claims.

So then what?

If not a mythical legend,

if not a mere lecturer,

is he a liar

or a lunatic?

Well if you think he is,

I want to at least

commend you

for taking all

of his words seriously

and viewing him

in his entirety.

But then I would ask,

are you really ready

to call him

a liar

or a lunatic?

Are you really ready

to reject him

and put him

on the crazy list

with Jim Jones

and Charles Manson

and all the other

power hungry cult leaders

who claimed

to be God?

Does it seem like

he belongs

on the same list?

Have you studied

his life,

his character

and is that really

the most logical

conclusion that you

can come to

that he is

just a nut job?

Or do not resonate

with or at least

find it hard

to disagree

that he is

an incredible person?

As one Presbyterian

theologian wrote,

no one has ever

yet discovered

the word Jesus

ought to have said

or the deed

he ought to have done.

Nothing he does

falls short.

In fact,

he is always surprising

you and taking

your breath away

because he is

incomparably better

than you could imagine.

He is tenderness

without weakness,

strength without harshness,

humility without

the slightest lack

of confidence,

holiness and

unbending convictions

without the slightest

lack of approachability,

power without insensitivity,

passion without prejudice.

There is never

a false step,

never a jarring note.

This is life

at the highest

when we're looking

at Jesus.

Like sure,

when we consider

Jesus' shocking

divine claims,

right,

it might sound

like he's a liar

or he's a lunatic,

but it's hard

to make that call

when we also consider

his character.

And we might not

be ready to adore him

in faith and honor

as the self-attesting Lord,

but doesn't it seem

just as difficult

to abhor him

in fear and hatred

as the self-aggrandizing

liar and lunatic?

Even if we don't believe

that he's God,

even if we don't believe

he's sent from God

or that he's

the suffering servant

and savior of the world

who died on a cross

to pay for the sins

of the world,

what's clear

is that he believed

this about himself.

And he consistently

lived for that purpose

and to that end.

He said,

I came not to be served,

but to serve

and to give my life

as a ransom for many.

He said,

I am the good shepherd

who lays my life down

for my sheep.

And then just as

was prophesied

by Isaiah,

Isaiah chapter 53,

Isaiah 53:7

verse 7,

it's in our bulletin today,

he was oppressed,

he was afflicted,

yet opened not his mouth,

like a lamb

that is led

to the slaughter,

and like a sheep

that before its shearers

is silent,

so he opened

not his mouth.

Like whatever you believe

about Jesus of Nazareth,

this is incredible stuff

that on the one hand

he opens his mouth

to wildly claim

that he's God

and yet on the other hand,

the moment he's about

to be crucified,

he sees himself

as the suffering servant

of fulfillment

of prophecy

and he does not

open his mouth

in fulfillment

of Isaiah's prophecy.

He doesn't say a word,

but instead

as both

self-proclaimed

God

and suffering servant,

he says in verse 4,

he bears our griefs,

he carries our sorrows,

stricken,

smitten,

and afflicted

in our place.

Verse 5,

he was pierced

for our transgressions,

crushed

for our iniquities,

wounded

so we could be healed.

Verse 6 says

he bore our sins.

Verse 8,

that he was cut off

from the land

of the living.

So now seriously,

what kind of a man

was this?

What are we supposed

to make of him?

I mean,

maybe after hearing

of his taking on

of this identity

as a suffering servant,

maybe now you are convinced

that he was a lunatic

because who would do this?

Who would do this?

Who would claim

to be God

and subject himself

to such suffering?

And if he was God,

why would he silently

allow himself

to be an innocent

sufferer

of such injustice

and how could he even die?

And like,

maybe you're thinking

to yourself,

well,

if I were God,

I would never

let this happen.

But what I want to say

to you this morning

is maybe it's a good thing

then that you're not God

and that Jesus is.

What if the lunacy

of Jesus

as both God

and suffering servant

is not evidence

against his mighty lordship,

but evidence

for his merciful lordship?

Not evidence

against his forceful divinity,

but evidence

for his forgiving divinity.

What if Jesus came

to defy

our very notions of God,

notions of God

that we've made

after our own images?

As one Christian

origin scholar,

he writes,

humanity wants

and sometimes creates

gods in its own image.

Gods who serve

the interests

of the elites,

gods who rule by power,

but not gods who love,

and especially

who love the poor

and the powerless.

But the God

of the early Christians

did not follow

that script

because they believed

God revealed himself

as Jesus Christ,

not as a wise man

like Socrates,

not as a strong man

like Hercules,

not as a powerful man

like Augustus,

not as a military commander

like Alexander the Great.

Instead,

Jesus appeared

to be a humble,

foolish,

weak man

who was born

in a stable

and who suffered

on a cross.

Like, get this.

What if Paul is right

in his letter

to the Corinthians

that we read earlier?

What if it's precisely

the folly

and the foolishness

of the cross of Christ

that's actually

the power of God

on foolish display?

Because see,

this is actually

what faithful Christians

have always believed

and celebrated

about God.

This paradox,

this mystery,

this God

who has not only held

the oceans in his hands

and numbered

every grain of sand,

but a God

who has also felt

nails upon his hands

and who bears

the guilt

of sinful man.

A holy God,

set apart,

holy, unique,

unlike any other,

so holy

in his righteousness

that he had to die

for the heinous sins

of the world

and at the same time

so holy in his love

that he was glad

to die

for the heinous

sinners

of the world.

And my question is,

don't you at least

want this to be true?

And if so,

might it be

that it is precisely

the unbelievability

of Jesus as God

that makes it so believable

after all?

Might the second century

African theologian

Tertullian,

might he have been

on to something

when he wrote,

the Son of God died,

absurd,

and therefore

utterly credible.

He was buried

and rose again,

impossible,

and therefore

a fact.

Now,

I want to admit

that none of this,

again,

none of this proves

beyond a shadow

of a doubt

that Jesus is Lord,

that Jesus is the God

of the universe.

But my question

for all of us is,

what's our better story

of the world?

What's your

more intellectually

credible

and more

existentially

satisfying story?

How else

shall we account

for the data

concerning

Jesus of Nazareth?

How shall we account

for the empty tomb

and the eyewitness accounts?

How do you account

for the impact

that he and his followers

have had on world history

such that we are sitting here

2,000 years later

and we're still celebrating

the same virtues

that came

from his beautiful life,

the virtues of humility

and service

and unselfish,

sacrificial love

that Paul commended

2,000 years ago?

Look with me at our text

in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Paul's saying,

do nothing from selfish ambition

and we say amen,

all of us,

if you're Christian or not.

Do nothing from selfish ambition

or conceit,

but in humility

count others

more significant

than yourselves.

Let each of you

look not only

to his own interests

but also to the interests

of others.

Have this mind

among yourselves

which is yours

in Christ Jesus

who though he was

in the form God

emptied himself

by taking the form

of a servant,

becoming obedient

to the point of death

on a cross.

Therefore God

has highly exalted him.

Do you see that humility,

servanthood,

selfless,

sacrificial love

commended as virtues

because they are grounded

in the reality

of a crucified

and risen God?

Like what genius,

what genius

could have made

this world

transforming story up?

Either we believe

that some fisherman,

a tax collector

and a former Pharisee

invented a legend

about a crucified God

that stretched

into every atom

of our culture

or we believe

that Jesus is God

in the flesh,

crucified and risen

2,000 years ago

and the world

could never be the same.

You know,

there's this historian,

his name is Tom Holland,

he's not Spider-Man

and he wrote

this incredible book.

A few of us read it

a couple years ago,

it's called Dominion,

How the Christian Revolution

Remade the World.

And if you ask him,

he'll tell you

that he's not a Christian

but also that he is

at the same time

thoroughly Christian.

And what he means by that

is he doesn't worship Jesus,

he doesn't pray,

he doesn't go to church,

but he most definitely

understands himself

in all of Western culture

as a product

of the movement

that Jesus Christ sparked.

You know,

this is in line

with a growing body

of literature

testifying to the

undeniable impact

of Christianity

even on our secular

modern Western culture.

And so, you know,

in an interview,

Tom Holland,

he says that,

you know,

as a boy

and as a young historian,

he was always fascinated

with, like,

the strong men

of the ancient world.

The Egyptians,

the Assyrians,

the Babylonians,

the Spartans,

like, he calls them

the big T-Rexes

of the ancient world.

The empires

that our history books

feature and highlight,

right?

And he says he found,

you know,

the little lambs,

like the nation of Israel,

to be unimpressive

and actually quite boring.

But in his studies,

he says he's begun

to be horrified.

He began to be horrified

by how mercilessly

these strong man empires

treated the weak.

And so he began

to ask himself,

why am I horrified

at, like,

the Spartans

throwing babies

who didn't meet

their standards

down the ravine?

And why am I glad

to live in a time

and in a society

where we put babies

on life support?

Why do I value

compassion,

service,

and sacrifice?

Why can't I follow Nietzsche

in casting off

all moral absolutes

and viewing life

as all about

self-interested power

and control

rather than selfless love?

Well, although he isn't

yet a churchgoer,

he's not a man of prayer,

what he ultimately

ascribes this to

at the end of the day

is what he considers

the heart

of the Christian revolution.

Quote,

the image of God

dead on a cross,

a twisted and defeated corpse

that's found to be

the glory

of the creator

of the universe.

This is why I believe

that Jesus is God.

There is no other story

like it.

It's so unbelievable

that I have to believe it.

So the question is,

what will we believe?

Is Jesus crucified

and risen?

Is he really God?

Well, again,

I can't think of any

better news for the world,

news that's both

intellectually credible

and existentially satisfying.

And my prayer

is that this church

would believe that

with all their hearts,

that those outside

these walls

would believe

that Jesus

is this kind of a God,

that God

is this kind of a God,

crucified and risen

and for us

in Christ.

This is the gospel.

Will you pray with me?

Lord, if we are not amazed

at the kind of God

you are

as revealed to us

in the crucified

and risen Christ,

would you make us amazed?

And would you open our eyes?

Help us to see,

I pray.

in Jesus' name,

amen.