Jesus Unfiltered - Believe - Jesus - The Authorized Biography, Part 1

What do you really believe about Jesus? I mean, think about it. What do you really know about Jesus? Is it just what people have told you?

Maybe you saw it in a movie. But what about the authorized biography? Do you know who Jesus really is, according to Scripture?

That's today. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. And after his setup, how would you describe Jesus to someone?

Because believe it or not, there's a lot of people who've never heard of him. So if you were put on the spot, what would you say? Well, today Chip's going to point us to the answer as he begins his series, Jesus Unfiltered Volume 1, titled Believe. Over the next handful of programs, we're going to explore Christ's early life and ministry through the Gospel of John and discover what that teaches us about his true character and purpose. So if you're ready, let's join Chip as he begins in Chapter 1 with his message, Jesus, The Authorized Biography.

I'd like to ask you four really important questions as we get started. Question number one, who is Jesus? Question number two is who is Jesus to you? And then maybe behind that, why do you believe that? Whoever he is in your mind, why do you believe that's true?

And then finally, what difference does that make? I mean, any real difference in your life and the way you live, your hope, your dreams, how you answer those four questions really will determine the quality of your life on this earth and the future of your life after you die. Regardless of your belief system or your background, I can tell you that the most influential person that has ever lived on the face of the earth, that have ever walked on this planet, is Jesus Christ. And whether he's just the great prophet who's mentioned actually more time in the Qur'an than Muhammad or whether he's the divine ideal of the new age or whether he's a miracle worker or just a great moral teacher, those are some perspectives of Jesus. Or whether he's the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the founder of Christianity.

Here's what I will tell you. Regardless of where people come from, on all the spectrum of who they think Jesus is, his life and his teaching is the center of more than just debate and controversy and ardent devotion. It's the center of human history. Every time you write a date down, you testify with all the world that the history of mankind is B.C.

and A.D. And here's what I learned. About 82%, not outside the church but those of us in the church, 82% of all of us Christians only read the Bible, at least nationally in America, when we come to church. So what I know is that for most Christians, our view of who Jesus is, is primarily what someone tells us or what we heard or what our family said or what we heard on the radio or what some book tells us about Jesus.

But here's the thing. Most people, even followers of Christ, have not personally said, for me, I'm going to look at the evidence and I'm going to examine the research and the original New Testament documents to find out who he is, who he is to me, why I believe that and what difference does it make. And so that's what we're going to do on our journey and we're in for a ride and it's going to be great because I will tell you that when you discover who he really is, how much he actually cares about you and how relational and real he wants to be in your life on a daily basis, it will make a huge difference.

So are you ready to roll? There's some critical questions as we begin to examine not what other people say, not what commentators say, not what church says, but this is the authorized biography, not the culture. This is the first-hand eyewitness documents. This is the authorized biography of Jesus Christ. So why study the book?

Well, I basically said because you owe it to yourself. When I was a basketball coach and a teacher, I would do basketball and coach by day and then we'd go up on a college campus and I would cheer Christ, play a little pickup ball, and I admit that I sort of manipulated with what I'm about to tell you, but it worked. And so I'd be playing ball with these guys and, you know, afterwards we'd be all sweaty sitting down and say, hey, have you ever examined what the New Testament says about Jesus Christ?

I mean, these are college guys. No. And, you know, once I got to know him a little bit, I said, so you mean to tell me you're here getting a higher education and you're studying philosophy and mathematics and computer science and the most important, most influential person in the entire world, you're going to just take other people's opinion? You know, can what you heard at church, what you heard on TV, or what some guy said, or what your parents even said, you've never examined the documents for yourself, you know?

And they would go, no. I said, what do you want to? And you know what, I didn't preach at him, I didn't tell him anything, so we just read chapter one and I ask a few questions, we talk about it. Next week we got together, we played hoops, we read chapter two. Next week we played hoops, we read chapter three. Next week we read chapter four.

I cannot tell you the amazing things that happened in those guys' lives. And I never tell them, they said, you ought to do this or you should do this, or I didn't even do a lot of explaining. We just read it, I said, what do you think it means? Have you ever done that?

You are in for the ride of your life, and so that's why we're going to dig in. Second is, got to ask, why was it initially written? Two reasons. Externally, it's 90 AD. There's only one apostle left, it's John. Matthew, Mark, Luke, they're called the Synoptics, they've already been written. The story about the genealogy of, you know, his life, Matthew, the Jewish side of Luke, Mark is written to the Romans, it's all done. And we know the story of Mary and Joseph, we know the parables, we know his teachings. But now, fast forward 50 years, almost 60 years. The last living apostle, everyone else has been martyred.

He's about 90 years old. And then here's what's happening, externally mysticism and materialism is creeping into the church. Something called Gnosticism.

Everything is these higher emanations and angels and sort of this real spiritual mystical side, but the reality of Christ, the resurrection, who is he? It's all beginning to infiltrate the church. And so John will give us 93% new material.

The Gospel of John has 93% material that's not in the other three Gospels. Writing from this perspective to this need of this church that's multiplied and there's thousands upon thousands, hundreds of thousands of believers going all over the world. And what they need to hear clearly now is, who is Jesus?

Where did he really come from? What did he really teach? And that's the Gospel of John. And what he's going to talk about is, unlike any of the Gospels, from chapter 2 to chapter 12, he's going to give seven specific signs. A sign is a miracle. Supernatural, amazing things that happened that validated in space-time history who Jesus is and was.

And then there's seven specific interviews with people. So you can see, so what was Jesus like to really religious people or people that really blew it? So you can exactly get to know him. And then he gets to the end of the book and he says, do you want to know why I wrote this? Here's why I wrote it. Chapter 20, verse 30, Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. In other words, this is just a sample.

Man, he did a bunch of stuff. Now here's the purpose. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. If you have your own Bible or in your little one that I just gave you, circle the word signs, circle the word believe, and circle the word life.

And that's the theme in this book. He said, I want you to know, I want you to check out, there are signs, there are specific things you can know about. And what's a sign do? It points, right?

A yield sign or an arrow that goes one way, it points. It's pointing to who Jesus really is. And the signs are so that you would believe, and in John's vocabulary, believe is not I intellectually agree with or just comprehend. The word believe is used 98 times in this gospel.

And believe means to understand relationally, connect, commit, entrust, follow, develop deep relationship, and be transformed. And that's the word life. And the word life here isn't bio. It's not like animal life or plant life. It's zoe.

We get our word zoology. But zoe is this eternal life, this relational life. In fact, in chapter 17, he'll explain exactly what this kind of life that happens from belief is. It's that you might know him, the father, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. It's this supernatural relational thing that happens, God visiting the planet, living this life, offering forgiveness, then coming to live inside a mortal human being, transformationally for today, but then as you die, translated to ever and ever and ever.

That's why he wrote it. So what are the parallels today? Externally, we live in a day that's characterized by pluralism, which basically means there is no one right or wrong.

Every opinion, every truth claim is equal. And that's beginning to infiltrate the life of the church. The second is what I just call spiritual erosion.

You know what? Every season of the church has its ups and downs. Our season of the church, most people are biblically illiterate. Most people are taking other people's words for it.

We're seeing some real drift. Teaching and doctrine of Jesus that's been solid for 2,000 years is drifting inside the church. And the average believer is not having the kind of dynamic relationship that God wants, so that's why we're going to study it.

Then the final question is, well, how are we going to get our arms around this? I mean, it's a pretty thick book. I don't know about you. I did not grow up reading the Bible. I never opened it. Actually, I did.

I think it was about junior high, about 14. My parents were gone. Family life was not real, you know, going all that well. And, you know, I thought maybe God can help. And we had, some of you remember the old days, we had a coffee table with a Bible in the middle of it. A big Bible. With golden pages, you know. And then you open it up and had scribbly writing like grandmother, grandfather, so-and-so, born, you know. And so I thought, okay, if God exists, so I opened it up.

Hitherto, unsentithine, givens, whothy, hitherto, shebbedabadoo, you know. You know what, I don't know what they're talking about, but it makes no sense to me. And I think a lot of reasons, some of us, we don't read the Bible, because down deep you're thinking, I can't understand it. And it doesn't really make that much sense. And you've tried, right? I mean, you've kind of read a little bit. So you know what we're going to do?

Here's what I want you to get. The picture on the front of your notes, here's the box. The book of John, written in the first century, Revelation is delivered in AD 90 to a specific group. Okay? And there was a historical context. It's written to what's going on in the world then.

And guess what? The author has an intent. I mean, this isn't just kind of mystical little words. The author has an intent that you would read these signs, see these interviews, and that you would believe, and because you believe, you would experience life, supernatural life. And it's revelation. It comes from God.

The Spirit of God is given. Now, our job is to take the timeless principle of that same truth, and we're not going to get truth delivered. We need to discern the truth. And so what we have here is they had a historical context. Well, so do we. So what's this truth got to do with our world?

The author's intent is exactly the same. That we might believe that we could experience God's power. And then finally, theirs was revelation. It came from God. Ours is what we want.

We've got the truth. It's illumination. The word illuminate, does that ring a bell like light?

It means the lights come on. It means that instead of like just a few people or pastors or you hear someone speak and you think, oh, wow, that really makes sense, it's like you begin to read the Bible and it goes, whoa, I get it. God speaks clearly, personally, and powerfully to me. That's the journey we're going to go on. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and we'll continue our series, Jesus Unfiltered Volume 1, Believe in Just a Minute. But first, our desire is to help you deepen your faith in God. So let me encourage you to keep listening after this message as Chip explains what it means to come before God daily and identifies a few resources we've bundled together to support you. Stick around to learn more. We'll hear again as Chip to finish his talk. I hope you're asking, how?

How could that really happen in my life? I'm glad you ask. Were you asking that, maybe? Okay, turn the page.

Are you ready? We're not only going to learn what the Gospel of John says and teaches, we're going to learn how to study it for ourselves. You're going to see there's about five specific things you can do.

They're very, very simple and they're revolutionary. Number one, ask three questions whenever you study God's Word. That's the number one thing first.

Ask these three questions. Question number one you want to say is, just what does it say? And it's observation, right? I mean, just what does it say?

I mean, not rocket science, not like... I mean, just what's it say? I write it. It's talking about this. Second, what's it mean? That's interpretation. Okay, he said this, but what he meant by that is... So you want to get there. The third question you ask is, what does it mean to me? That's application. And so as you study the Bible, it's so simple.

I've been doing this for over 30 years and you get better and better and better. It gets easier and easier and easier, but you just say, okay, I read this, what does it say? As I look into it, study it a bit, what does it mean? I ponder and reflect and I'm open to the Lord, the Holy Spirit, what's it mean to me? He'll speak to you and tell you, and before you leave today, you'll actually experience and see how it works. The second thing that you do is not just ask those three questions, but read the passage repeatedly to get the big picture or the general idea.

It's just like anything. I mean, you've got to read it over and over in order to let it sink in so you just get the big idea. Personally, I often, when I'm going to say I'm going to read Chapter 1 of John, I'll read it as fast as I can.

Twenty seconds, I may get the whole thing, maybe 35 seconds or a minute. I read it as fast as I can, just what's it about? Talk about the beginning, John the Baptist, something about the first disciples, got it. Then I read it again slower and out loud, because now my eyes are seeing the text, I'm hearing the text, I read it out loud.

Then I'll read it a third time and I'll just read it slowly and I'll ponder and begin to, you know, what's going on here? Kind of talks about creation, talks about Jesus, the Word becomes flesh. Okay, this John the Baptist, he keeps saying this word testimony, testimony delivered, okay, you know, there's something here.

And so I start making a few observations. Here's what I like to do in honor of God's Word. The first section is one of the most dynamic in all of Scripture.

It's really, really powerful. So, for the first 18 verses, why don't you stand with me and follow along as I read the book of John. We're going to have a few different translations, just sort of go with the flow, right? But, you know, when you listen in here, you'll think, oh yeah, we're all on the same page.

And before I read, here's what you've got to get. Imagine this. Imagine yourself, because if you don't get this down clear, you'll never get what God wants to say.

Imagine yourself. It's 90 A.D. You came to Christ about 20 years ago. Your kids have come to Christ. There's been persecution and it's happened like crazy. There's tens of thousands of Christians everywhere. And then these false teachers are coming through and they say, Jesus didn't really come. He just came as a spirit and there's all this stuff happening and you're getting confused. And then all of a sudden, the old man, the apostle of love, John, he's written the last living apostle. And it's being passed around and word for word carefully recorded and orally memorized by all 80% of the church that were slaves. And you're hearing this in the midst of your confusion.

You got it? Now you are. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made.

Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not understand it.

Or literally, some of your translations did not overcome it. He introduces a battle, light and darkness. There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning the light.

Why? So that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light, or the real light that gives light to every man, was coming into the world. He, the true light, was in the world.

And though the world was made through him, the world didn't recognize him. He came to that which was his own, the Jews, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right or authority to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father full of grace and truth. John, the Baptist, testifies concerning him. He cries out saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. From the fullness of his grace we've all received one blessing after another.

Why? For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No man has ever seen God, fullness in his face, in his glory. But God, the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. Literally the last word is exegete. Jesus exegeted the Father. The word exegete means to explain. So later in the book Jesus will say, if you have seen me, you've seen the Father. John is introducing at the very beginning. You really want to know what God is like? Jesus, his life, his speaking, how he treats people, will tell you exactly how God thinks, exactly how God feels, and exactly what God is like. That's a huge promise.

Okay, you can be seated. So in your notes, let me encourage you then, if we read the first 18 verses, then we would say to ourselves, okay, what was that really about? What would I learn? A quick overview would be, it introduces the word, right? The word, the logos, we'll talk about what that is. The origin, we could say the origin of the word, well, he's the creator. There's no beginning, no end. His identity, it said, well, it says, I just read it pretty quickly, but it says, he was God and he was with God.

Uh-oh, my head hurts. Hmm, was God and was with God, I'll have to come back to that one. And we know his purpose.

He came to reveal the Father and he came to be the light. So now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go through the whole passage. I'm gonna read it quickly. I want us all to get on the same page, but before I read it, what I wanna do is I'll give you my overview of it so that you listen through the filter or the lens, and all I'm doing is what you would do if you were by yourself.

In fact, it's exactly how I studied it. Verse 19 to 28 reveals John the Baptist's identity and his role. And so if you were getting this and you're 50 years away from when Christ died and rose in the early disciples, one of the big questions is, I hear what you're saying, but how do you validate it? Is there an eyewitness? And so what you're gonna find is John says, of course there is.

We pick it up at verse 19. Now this was John's testimony. When the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, he did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, I am not the Christ. Well, they asked him, are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? He answered, no. Finally, they said, who are you? This was an answer to take back to those who sent us.

What do you say about yourself? John replied in the words of Isaiah, actually Isaiah 40, I am the voice of the one calling in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord. Now some of the Pharisees who had sent him questioned him, why then do you baptize if you're not the Christ or Elijah or the prophet? I baptize with water, he replied, but among you stands one that you do not know.

He is the one who comes after me, the thongs whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie. This all happened in Bethany. Notice space, time, location.

This isn't dreams, this isn't people making claims, you can go check this out. On the other side of the Jordan, where they were baptizing, and there were still, we learned from the book of Acts that there were actually people that were still followers of John the Baptist that didn't hear about the Messiah until Acts 19. And so it validates what's going on.

Here's what's going on. John's telling us the story. He's gonna take it back to historical rooting, and here's the religious hotshots, the scholars.

They value the Torah. There's this wild man with a leather belt eating locust, eating honey, he's nuts. Long hair, you know, Repent for the kingdom of God is coming. I mean, he's nuts.

And thousands of people are coming out. He's talking about the demand for life change, and the Roman soldier goes, what do I do? He says, quit abusing people. Tax collector, what do I do? Only charge what's right.

Regular pay, what do I do? Take one of your cloaks and give it to another. See, he was preparing the way. He helped people see where their life wasn't measuring up. He wasn't the answer.

He was creating the dynamic that would make way. And so in the Old Testament, they always promised a Messiah, and when you read the word Christ, Messiah, Greek word is Christ, Messiah, same thing. Literally, it means anointed one. In the Old Testament, Moses said, God will raise up a prophet like me.

Well, like me being what? He brought the truth, the revelation, Ten Commandments, the prophet will bring greater truth. So Jesus' role was king, but he also has a prophetic role. And then finally, Elijah, it promised Elijah is gonna come before Christ.

And so they're asking, are you one of these three? He goes, no, no, no. But how he answers, he reaches back in the Old Testament. He says, this is my role. And so all of a sudden, all I want you to get is, you're reading this, you're thinking, okay, it's starting to make some sense.

Now it shifts, and he's gonna say, okay, how did this movement get going? Because you're 50, 60 years away from the early church. You have friends. There's been persecution. You don't live near Israel. Your friends are asking you about this relationship. How can you go through this persecution? Why do you love your wife that way?

You raise your kids different. You guys are so generous. In fact, the early church, they were accused of being some weirdo cult because they greeted one another with a holy kiss and they shared their resources and loved each other and they thought, you're crazy. And so they're asking questions about, where's this all coming from? And so John is giving them not only who Jesus is and not only the historical verification, but now John is going to be the testimony to point to Christ. The next day, John was there again with his two disciples. He says, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

This is the one I meant when I said, a man comes after me who has surpassed me because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but the reason I was baptizing with water was that he might be purpose revealed to Israel. Then John gave this testimony. I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.

And I would not have known him except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain on him, he will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God. And so in your notes, what John does is he identifies who Jesus is, his mission and his identity. This is the Lamb of God. He uses the word for lamb using the Old Testament of a sacrificial lamb like at Passover. His mission is the Lamb of God to do what?

Take away the sins of the world. His identity, he's the Messiah. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, Jesus, The Authorized Biography, which is from the first volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series titled Believe.

Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. To believe in something is to fully accept it as true or reliable. Through this 10-part study in the Gospel of John, Chip will unpack what it means to believe in Jesus, learn how Christ's life, ministry, and message prove he is our Savior and King, whom we can completely trust. For more details about this or any other volumes in our Jesus Unfiltered series, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org. Well, Chip's back with me in studio, and Chip, our passion here at Living on the Edge is to see Christians all over the world living like Christians, and we've come up with a simple path believers can follow to live God-honoring lives.

That's right, Dave. You know, I've pastored for many years, and what I've learned is that so many people want to grow. They want to become more like Christ. They want to be a better dad, a better mom.

A person who's single that really lives a life. But they don't know the path. And over the years, what I've developed is a little acronym called BIO, B-I-O. The B represents coming before God daily. The I is doing life in community weekly, and the O is being on mission 24-7.

And so I can just tell you that if you want to change, it's not about trying harder. It's about really seeing who God is. It's about connecting with Him. When you come before God and you experience His presence and you see Him for who He is, He does something from the inside out that changes our life. And so we have three specific resources right now to help you learn to come before God so that you can grow to know who He really is. The first is a book called True Spirituality, Becoming a Romans 12 Christian. The second is called The Real God. It's a perspective of high, holy view of God, but it's kind of in a very practical way where you can get your arms around what's it mean that He's loving or kind or just or holy. And what does that mean to you? And finally, we have a prayer journal that helps you track your journey with the Lord as He speaks to you.

The Real God, a prayer journal, and true spirituality, these tools can help you or the people that you love draw near to God and have a pathway for intimacy. That's absolutely right, Chip. To get your hands on this three-book bundle, go to specialoffersatlivingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app. And if you'd like to gift any of these resources for Christmas, place your order by December 13th to receive it in time. Again, to get our Before God bundle, go to specialoffersatlivingontheedge.org or on the Chip Ingram app.

Well, with that, here again is Chip to share a few final thoughts for us to think about. As we wrap up today's broadcast, I just want to remind you that when you open the Bible, you can understand it. The Spirit of God will teach you exactly what it says.

Now, you need to ask these three questions. What does it say? What does it mean? And what does it mean to me? Now, this is one of those times where, literally, if you'll go on the journey with me today, this is the first chapter of John, the Gospel of John. And just ask that question and read it through two or three times slowly. And here's what I'm going to tell you.

You're going to begin to understand what God wants to say to you and who exactly Jesus is. Second, go to the website, livingontheedge.org. Download the notes.

They're absolutely free. There's an outline. I have these questions. There's a format there where you can learn to study the Bible for yourself. I'm going to tell you this. There's so many people that are basing their life or think they're basing their life on a Jesus that doesn't really exist. He's the Jesus in a Bible story book when you were a kid. He's the Jesus of a movie. He's the Jesus that your dad or mom told you he was like. You need to know the real Jesus. He's the one that is the truth, the life, and the way.

He's the one that promises you'll know the truth and it'll set you free as you learn to study the Scriptures for yourself. Go on this journey with me. You'll find the message notes Chip just mentioned in a couple of places. Go to livingontheedge.org and click the Broadcasts tab.

App listeners will find them by tapping Fill In Notes. You'll get his outline, all of his Scripture references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. They'll really help you get the most out of every program, so I hope you'll take advantage of this resource when you listen again. Well, join us next time as Chip continues his series Jesus Unfiltered Volume 1 Believe. Until then, I'm Dave Drouy thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. .