#1 JESUS – BEHIND THE SCENES

SERMON SERIESSERMON SERIES

#1 JESUS – BEHIND THE SCENES

#2 CHRISTOS – TITLE, NOT SURNAME

#3 GOD IS IN THE HOUSE #3 GOD IS IN THE HOUSE

#4 JUDGE AND FRIEND

#5 CROSS EXAMINED

#6 LIFE REVISITED

#7 RSVP

The Jesus Files: BEHIND THE SCENES

In a world which seems distracted by anything other than encountering truth and the GOD who is its author…

• What do we understand of this world and its view of God?

• What of our faith do we feel confident in presenting to this world?

• Can the Jesus of the Gospels be relevant to this world?

THE LAW OF GOD …written on our hearts

Don Richardson wrote this fascinating book about the amazing revelation that as missionaries encountered many primitive tribes in many parts of the world, quite often their oral traditions reflected an understanding of a single creator God and the loss of a close relationship. Words in native languages and Words in native languages and understandings of these matters were often so close as to enable the missionaries to be welcomed as ones long expected , and who would restore again this relationship.

A sneaking suspicion ….. A sneaking suspicion …. A sneaking suspicion ….

Encountering the divine

IS THIS THIS

POSSIBLE ????

The Jesus Files: BEHIND THE SCENES

1. Can we rely on the scriptures?

2. Is there any useful evidence from other sources?

3. What of Archaeology?3. What of Archaeology?

4. Is a belief in God rational in a modern world?

5. So who created God?

6. What of all the other religions?

1. Can we rely on the scriptures?

Reading for Today: ACTS 1: 1-7Luke was known to be meticulous and he desired to put forward an orderly and truthful account of the amazing life of Jesus Christ, for it must not be lost.

As we read this we are somewhat encouraged to give the scriptures a ‘High’ view. They are perhaps reliable??

This is not well reflected in the world…This is not well reflected in the world…A book of inaccurate stories…Made up…Added to…Truth and accuracy lost due to copying errors and the many years since the events they describe took place.

SO: CAN WE RELY ON THE BIBLE???

Torah: An example of the Old Testament Scriptures

•Any copying mistake at all, meant starting a whole new skin over again.

•Any mistake involving the name of God meant starting the whole book over again

•Number of letters and words counted and matched.

500AD

1000AD

~ 900years

Dead Sea Scrolls Oldest remaining Isaiah before discovery of Dead Sea Scrolls

500BC

0 AD/BC

Isaiah hidden in cave at Qumran

Common Source

No important difference was discovered when the two books were compared.

500AD

1000AD

~ 900years

10 copies 1. The NUMBER of Good

Copies

2. The TIME between the event and the nearest surviving copy/document

Scholars are interested in 2 aspects of a document

500BC

0 AD/BC

Julius Caesar~ 1st Century BC

500AD

1000AD

~ 900years

10 copies

~ 1200years

7 copies Scholars belief

this is adequate evidence for belief in these 2 historical people ….and

~ 1st Century BC

0 AD/BC

Julius Caesar Plato

~300BC

people ….and what they say.

500AD

1000AD

~ 900years

10 copies

~ 1200years

7 copies

4 copies~200 years

> 13000 copies

500BC

0 AD/BC

Julius Caesar Plato

~300BC

Jesus Christ~ 30AD First accounts written within a generation

~ 1 part copy 60 Years

~ 1st Century BC

Sir Frederic Kenyon:Director of The British Museum

Speaking about the Bible.

“ No other ancient bookhas anything like such early and plentiful testimony to its text.And no unbiased scholar And no unbiased scholar would deny that the text which has come down to us is substantially sound…”

2. Is there any useful evidence from other sources?

There are many records of Jesus and the early Christian church dating from antiquity many from those who were definitely hostile or at best , ‘not on the same side’.

1. Josephus: A first century Jewish Historian who worked for the Romans. He wrote a history of the Jewish people. In it we find reference to Jesus. [Yeshu]to Jesus. [Yeshu]

• Miracle worker• Mentions Jesus’ brother James• Mentions John the Baptist and his death at Herod’s hand• Jesus a founder of the Christian• His death at the hand of the Romans

2. Talmud:A collection of Jewish sayings and beliefs which were commenced shortly after Jesus’ death.

In it Jesus [Yeshu]is described as;

• Having disciples• being a sorcerer• being put to death on the eve of the Passover

3. Pliny writes to Rome in about 112 AD describing the fact that Christians describing the fact that Christians refused to worship the emperor.

4. Claudius expelled Jews from Rome after disturbances thought to be started by Christians.

5. Nero blames the Christians for the great fire in Rome.

6. Eyewitnesses.Paul wrote.. .‘Jesus appeared to more than 500 followers at once, many of whom were still alive…’Go ask them was the thrust of Paul’sargument.

So.. We have some valuable evidence about So.. We have some valuable evidence about Jesus and the effect he had on the world around him, by people and sources who lived at or near to the same time,

… and many who were definitely not his supporters.

3. What of Archaeology?

The Pool of Siloam:

A recent discovery [2004] and matches the biblical record of the place where Jesus sent a man born blind to be healed

John 96 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. 7 He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!

Christian wall inscriptions in Pompeii

Before AD 79 when it was all buried following the eruption of

Mt Vesuvius.Mt Vesuvius.

The twenty-five letters can be re-arranged as APATERNOSTERO (repeated twice). This contains both the word Paternoster (an amalgram of the first two words of the Lord's Prayer) and the A and O, alpha and omega, referring to Christ as the beginning and the end.

This acrostic is one of only six in the world.

4. Is a belief in God rational in a modern world?

YESThe Universe had a beginning; according to the Scriptures and the best Science available to day.Scriptures and the best Science available to day.

It is far more rational to start from the premise that this beginning had a cause outside itself [God], than to belief that it started of its own by chance and without intrinsic purpose.… ‘It just did…’

FINE TUNED

By way of interest…

If you want to see how a simple but fair question can completely flummox some like Richard Dawkins.

Go to YouTube

And put in,

‘Creationist stumps Dawkins.’

5. So who created God?

There is a answer and it is not difficult to grasp.

First: God was not created.God has always been… the great “I AM”

Second: The explanation

6. What of all the other religions?

Are all religions the same?

Do they all lead to God?

Is it arrogant to claim one has the truth?John Dixon says…Although there are significant similarities between the faiths, there is also massive and insurmountable differences. For instance, Christianity teaches massive and insurmountable differences. For instance, Christianity teaches that God took on human form in Jesus Christ, an idea blasphemous in ISLAM. Buddhism teaches that there is in fact no God, while Hinduism teaches that there are many gods. Differences such as these make the claim that:

“all religions ultimately teach the same, thing” a very arrogant claim.

In fact it is a claim NONE of the major religions are happy with.

SO WE NEED TO INVESTIGATE TO FIND THE TRUTH

Summary of concepts/ideas 1. Can we rely on the scriptures?

2. Is there any useful evidence from other

sources?

3. What of Archaeology?

4. Is a belief in God rational in a modern

world?

5. So who created God?

So that is

“The Jesus Files: Behind the Scenes…”

5. So who created God?

6. What of all the other religions?

Next week: The Jesus Files continue

Christos… Title not Surname

St Michael’s Overhead CCCLI

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