Lie #3: Jesus Became The Christ – 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Some say the disciples of Jesus invented all sorts of stories to turn a simple teacher into the Messiah. In other words, the Jesus of history was given the role of Christ by His followers. Today, a look at a third major lie being propagated by those who reject the real Jesus.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, tell us more about today's message on lie number three, that Jesus became the Christ. Well, you know, Dave, Jesus, of course, has been the object of a lot of speculation throughout the centuries. And as you indicated in your intro, many people have thought that the disciples made him into the Christ. It's not that he was the Christ at birth. It's not that he was the Christ from all of eternity. But he became the Christ because the disciples thought that they could take this figure and turn him into the Christ. And then, of course, there are others who say he became the Christ at his baptism and so forth.

But we believe that Christ has always been God, a very God. I want to thank the many of you who support the ministry of Running to Win. Let me ask you a question. If you've been blessed, would you consider becoming an endurance partner?

That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Of course, you need info. Here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. I'm going to be giving you that contact info once again after this message. For now, let us listen. Whenever I see a picture of Jesus on Time magazine or Newsweek, I always make sure that I have that issue and I read the issue.

But I do it always with misapprehensions. And I do it because I know that Jesus is going to be dissected, analyzed, stripped down. It'll be a no frills Jesus.

And it will be a Jesus who will be the object of interest and even an object of fascination, but not an object of worship. This is a series of messages entitled The Jesus Deception, lies that are being told about the man who claimed to be the Son of God. And today we come to lie number three. The first lie was that Judas did Jesus a favor. The second lie was that Jesus is one among many. And the third lie is that Jesus became the Christ. He wasn't the Christ, but his followers made him into a Christ. Many years ago, Rudolf Bultmann, one of the great German scholars says that the gospels are unreliable. Quote, we can now know almost nothing concerning the life and the personality of Jesus. Isn't that interesting? In California, you have the Jesus seminar, a group of scholars that meets together to dissect the New Testament to try to determine what is authentic and what isn't. And perhaps you've heard that when they vote on the very sayings and the miracles of Jesus, they all have beads.

And so they vote on these. If you throw a red bead into the dish, it means that you think that Jesus said that. A pink bead means maybe he said it.

And a gray bead means it's unlikely, but maybe. And black means, no, that's not Jesus. Is it any surprise that only 18 percent of all of the words that are attributed to Jesus in the New Testament are believed by these scholars to have been uttered by him?

What's going on? How can scholars come to that kind of a conclusion? What you need to do is to realize that they are driven by a strong commitment, an unswerving commitment to naturalism, the idea that miracles can't happen. And once you begin there, you dissect the New Testament to make it come out the way you want it to come out. These scholars wrote in something that they published, the Christ of Creed and Dogma, who has been firmly in place in the Middle Ages, can no longer command the ascent of those who have seen the heavens through Galileo's telescope. The idea is we've seen the stars through a telescope.

We have modern scientific inventions. Miracles can't happen. Throughout the years, there has been a concerted effort on the part of religiously liberal scholars to separate the Jesus of history, the actual Jesus that lived, Jesus the mere man, from the Christ of faith, the man that he was made into by his followers who told legends and stories and made up the miracles of the New Testament. And so they tried to separate the Christ of faith from the Jesus of history. I need to say that this has been going on for centuries, actually, and the whole enterprise has become a great colossal failure.

And let me tell you why. It's because they're basing this on no new scientific discoveries archaeologically or in any other way. It is basically based on hunches and subjective opinions of various scholars. So you have a whole welter of beliefs about Jesus. And as Albert Schweitzer himself, who wrote a book about Jesus and concluded that Jesus was insane to make the statements he did about his deity, Schweitzer himself said that this is like a Rorschach ink block test. Those weren't his words, but the idea is that it tells us more about the different scholars than it does about Jesus because each one sees in Jesus whatever he wants to see.

So you have a blizzard of contradictions. Many years ago, there was a celebrated painting, Love Among Ruins by Jones Burn. And that painting was a watercolor. And the art firm that was supposed to restore it was told take special care. They used the wrong solvent.

And as a result, it totally dissolved and the picture was ruined. Throughout all these generations, scholars have been trying to find the right solvent that can take the beautiful hues of the New Testament, its strong colors, and to somehow reduce it, to reduce it to a dull canvas portrait of Jesus the mere man. And no one has been able to do it except on very subjective premises. Because the portrait of Jesus in the New Testament is stubborn.

It is immune to various solvents. No matter how you try to cut the New Testament, you always realize that you can do it only, only on the basis of personal opinion and not sober, careful historical concerns. Now today I'm not going to discuss the Jesus seminar in any kind of detail. That would involve technical material far beyond the benefits that would come through a sermon. After all, you are here to be edified and strengthened. I'm going to look at this a little differently. We're going to ask this question. Why can scholars look at the Jesus of the New Testament and try to make him into a man and deny his deity and deny the miracles, whereas you and I read the New Testament and we are blessed and we are encouraged and we sense that work of the Holy Spirit of God within our hearts and we fall before Jesus in worship.

Why the difference or to bring it more closely to home? Why can somebody hear the Bible taught week after week and still not come to trust Christ as Savior? Many years ago we had an atheist that attended Moody Church here and I was told that he attended because he enjoyed hearing me speak. But so far as I know, he never converted from his atheism.

Why? In fact, even here today there may be some atheists. If you're an atheist, would you come up and shake my hand afterwards and look me in the eye?

I'd like to just have a brief word with you and it'll be an encouraging word. I'll probably tell you as I look at you that you're too smart to be an atheist. You're too smart to be an atheist. There was a cameraman here a couple of weeks ago and he said that he was an atheist. In three minutes I gave an explanation why atheism is impossible, totally inconsistent, and he said, you know, you're right. No sober person is an atheist. But why is it that people can come, they can listen, they can hear, and they are unchanged? That's the agenda for the next 15 or 20 minutes.

Thank you for joining me on the flight. Could I say this? The whole idea of looking at Jesus and everybody seeing something different is not a new phenomenon. It didn't begin with critical scholars. No, it started right in the New Testament. You find some people looking at Jesus and some called him a glutton and a drunkard and they dismissed him. This is in Matthew chapter 11 verse 19. Some said that he was Beelzebub, the prince of demons, and through the prince of demons he cast out demons. Some called him the deceiver. They said, when will this deceiver do this and that? They looked at the same Jesus that the disciples looked at and they concluded something very, very different.

Why? I'm going to read one passage to you and then I'm going to ask you to turn to another, but listen carefully as I read the words of Jesus as he gives his own explanation for this interesting phenomenon. He says, this is why I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says you will indeed hear but never understand.

You will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull and with their ears they can barely hear and their eyes they have closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. Jesus is contrasting the disciples with the opinions of those around his disciples. Now when Jesus was on earth here the blaze of glory that he is going to have at his return was not visible but they should have known that Jesus spoke the truth. But what Jesus is saying is that spiritually speaking you need eyes in order to see, special eyes, transformed eyes and you need transformed ears in order to hear.

Without that you can listen to the scriptures, you can listen to sermons and you can read the Bible and be unmoved. Now to illustrate this I'm going to ask that you turn in your Bibles if you would please to John chapter 9. John chapter 9 this is a remarkable passage of scripture. I say it's remarkable because Jesus heals a man who is born blind and to see the response of the people afterwards is very interesting. It's a trove of interest in human nature but it says in chapter 9 verse 1 as he passed by he saw a man blind from his birth and his disciples asked him rabbi who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind. Jesus answered it was not this man who sinned or his parents but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

This is a parenthesis. I'm not speaking about this man from the standpoint of his healing per se. I'm looking into the aftermath but what Jesus is saying is is that there's not a tight connection between the sin of his parents and his condition.

Some of you may be struggling with a child who has a disability or maybe you know someone who has a disability. Don't say to yourself that they are being judged for their sin. Jesus didn't mean that the parents had no sin.

He says that there is no tight connection between what they did and what happened here. I have a purpose in the life of this blind man that shall be to my glory. Well how do we look at this chapter very quickly and the answer is we look at the four times this man was asked how he was healed. Jesus took mud, put it on his eyes, he went to the pool of Siloam, he washed, he came away seeing. Verse 8, the neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some said it is he, others no, but he's like him but he kept saying I'm the man so they said to him how were your eyes opened?

That's the first time he's asked. In verse 11, the man called Jesus. He said made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me go to the pool of Siloam and wash so I went and washed and received my sight. Well they bring him to the Pharisees and that was only right. The Pharisees were the custodians of the law.

They're the ones who should know what happened and to analyze it. Verse 13, they bring him to the Pharisees. Verse 14, now it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes so the Pharisees again asked him how he received his sight and he said to them he put mud on my eyes and I washed and see. So the Pharisees are divided. They say this man doesn't keep the Sabbath day, he can't be of God. Others say yeah but you know the miracle apparently happened.

Well in verse 18, there's a broader category. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked him is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?

This is such an interesting answer. His parents says we know that this is our son and he was born blind but how he now sees we do not know nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him he's of age he will speak for himself. John says his parents said these things because they feared the Jews for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be the Christ he was to be put at the synagogue. All right so they go back to him. Verse 26 they said to him what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them I've told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? I have to read the rest of this. This is so interesting.

Makes you smile doesn't it? Do you also want to become his disciples? They reviled him saying you are his disciple but we are Moses disciples we know that God spoke to Moses but as for this man we do not know where he comes from. The man answered why this is an amazing thing. You don't know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God he could do nothing. They answered him you were born in utter sin.

You're going to teach us? They cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him he said do you believe in the son of man? He answered who is he sir but I may believe in him. Jesus said you have seen him and it is he who is speaking with you and he said Lord I believe and he worshipped him.

I'm going to pause there but keep your finger in the page. Verse 39 comes next in the text. Why is it that people in the presence of Jesus in the presence of miracles can still disbelieve? Three reasons first of all the commitment to naturalism that I've already told you about. Miracles can't happen because we've never seen them happen before so they close their minds to the possibility of miracles. Now it is true that we should not be gullible. All kinds of things in the history of the church have been purported to be miraculous and careful investigation has shown them not to be so let's be careful students here but but here you have a remarkable story. I mean you know everybody the neighbors know that this is the man who was born blind the parents know it and still they can't believe it. I think of the great skeptic David Hume who wrote an essay against miracles. It is used in philosophy classes nowadays as a classic example of circular reasoning. Hume says miracles don't happen because they've never happened and well and so he discounts all the miracles because miracles don't happen why because they just never have happened circular reasoning.

Why not investigate whether or not they have happened? Just because miracles don't happen often that doesn't mean that they can't happen and furthermore in the case of Jesus you have a man here who does a whole series of miracles. He feeds 5,000 people with a boy's lunch.

He is able to still the storm. He's delivering people from demons so when you look at the whole constellation of miracles that Jesus performed there was plenty of evidence that this man was doing what had not happened before and that this man was of God but if you're committed to a naturalistic worldview you will not believe no matter what. A person convinced against his will is still of the same opinion still. Jonathan Edwards says that Jesus Christ has diverse qualities in the New Testament, an admirable conjunction of diverse excellence. We don't have time to go into it but if you look at the total package of Jesus it's powerful, it's compelling. So a commitment to naturalism but also second now and now we get to the real heart of the matter a commitment to spiritual darkness or to blindness. Jesus is speaking there in verse 39 and he says for judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see.

Let's pause there just for a moment. This man was blind physically. He was also blind spiritually. Jesus healed him physically but Jesus also healed him spiritually. The man ended up worshiping Jesus. He ended up seeing Jesus for who he was. For judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see. Something like this man he was able to see physically but also spiritually and those who see may become blind.

Of course what Jesus is really saying is that there are some people who think they can see and yet they are blind, sobering. I want to ask you a question today if you have been blessed as a result of the ministry of running to win did you know that it is because other people just like you have invested in this ministry. I want you to pause for a moment and ask the Lord as to whether he might want you to become what we call an endurance partner. Of course you need info and you can find that very easily by going to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Very quickly I want you to understand what your investment means. We received this letter from someone in West Africa. I must testify that your teaching is making an impact. People in my neighborhood are confessing changes in their lives. Why do we receive letters like that?

It's because of people just like you. We're so grateful for your prayers, for your support, for all that you are doing to hold our hands as we get the gospel to many. Consider becoming an endurance partner once again that contact info.

Go to rtwoffer.com, click on the endurance partner button or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You and I have the privilege of having access to so much material but there are many people who don't. Help us to get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Some scholars want to strip Jesus of anything supernatural. They approach the Bible as its judges, not realizing that the book they scorn will one day judge them. Next time on Running to Win, more on slandering Jesus.

We'll see that in the Scriptures, Jesus is not on trial. We are. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.