Canoe Creek
I Doubt Jesus Is God
We have been in this series now for a few weeks. Our goal is to help provide real truth for people who have real doubts. That may be you. Or you may know someone like that and some of the things we are talking about are assisting you in how you respond to critical people. We want to give real truth to people who have real doubts so we can help them move from being critical to confident in their faith.
Locations & Times
Canoe Creek Christian Church (Main Campus)
4080 Pine Tree Dr, St Cloud, FL 34772, USA
Sunday 9:00 AM
Sunday 10:30 AM
Of all the doubts we have explored and will explore this one is more essential. When people Doubt If Jesus is God, they are doubting more than just one thing. They are doubting the entire foundation of an entire thing.
To deny that Jesus is God is essentially denying three major things...
What Jesus Says About Himself.
What God Declares About Jesus.
and
What Jesus Did.
What Jesus Says About Himself.
What God Declares About Jesus.
and
What Jesus Did.
What Jesus Says About Himself
Mark 14: 61, 62, Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
John 8:58 58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
Jesus never made the statement, “I AM GOD.”
But, He claimed to be God’s Son, He claimed to be equal with God, He claimed to have the power of God, He claimed to be the world’s creator with God, He claimed the characteristics of God, and on and on.
Many will say He was a good guy. This statement is contradictory. Good guys don't lie and Jesus claimed He and the Father are one.
He is either a liar, lunatic, or Lord.
Mark 14: 61, 62, Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
John 8:58 58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
Jesus never made the statement, “I AM GOD.”
But, He claimed to be God’s Son, He claimed to be equal with God, He claimed to have the power of God, He claimed to be the world’s creator with God, He claimed the characteristics of God, and on and on.
Many will say He was a good guy. This statement is contradictory. Good guys don't lie and Jesus claimed He and the Father are one.
He is either a liar, lunatic, or Lord.
What God Declares About Jesus
God can and does work through many ways to declare who His Son is. God has moved inspired many outside sources to declare the facts of history.
They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god,
Pliny the Younger A.D. 112
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he . . . wrought surprising feats. . . . He was the Christ. When Pilate . . .condemned him to be crucified, those who had . . . come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared . . . restored to life. . . . And the tribe of Christians . . . has . . . not disappeared.
Josephus A.D. 94
This is just two of many outside sources that give creditability to what Jesus said for Himself, but what did God say in regard to Jesus.
John 10:34-36 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?
Jesus quotes Psalm 82 here.
Jesus takes One little word out of an obscure passage written by an obscure author to make an essential point. Jesus said not one tiny dot would pass away from the word until it was all fulfilled. The point Jesus was making is that every single scripture testifies to who I am.
From beginning to end of the scriptures the entire word of God leads people to recognize Jesus as the God who Saves. This is why Jesus was able to quote the most obscure passage to make a declaration about who He was when questioned. Every scripture is God declaring who Jesus is.
God can and does work through many ways to declare who His Son is. God has moved inspired many outside sources to declare the facts of history.
They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god,
Pliny the Younger A.D. 112
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he . . . wrought surprising feats. . . . He was the Christ. When Pilate . . .condemned him to be crucified, those who had . . . come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared . . . restored to life. . . . And the tribe of Christians . . . has . . . not disappeared.
Josephus A.D. 94
This is just two of many outside sources that give creditability to what Jesus said for Himself, but what did God say in regard to Jesus.
John 10:34-36 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?
Jesus quotes Psalm 82 here.
Jesus takes One little word out of an obscure passage written by an obscure author to make an essential point. Jesus said not one tiny dot would pass away from the word until it was all fulfilled. The point Jesus was making is that every single scripture testifies to who I am.
From beginning to end of the scriptures the entire word of God leads people to recognize Jesus as the God who Saves. This is why Jesus was able to quote the most obscure passage to make a declaration about who He was when questioned. Every scripture is God declaring who Jesus is.
What Jesus Did
John 10:31-32 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
John 10:37-38 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
Some of the miracles of Jesus could be considered illusions. Walking on water, turning water into wine. When it comes to those many people could say He was nothing more than a David Blane of His time.
But what about when a person who had been crippled from birth was healed?
What about when a little girl who had stopped breathing and her pulse was gone was brought back to life?
Luke 16:31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
A friend of mine told me a story. She was at a birthday party and some of the ladies their were muslim. One of the muslim women was very bold and point blank asked my friend's daughter, when are you going to become muslim? She had a good response. But I said, “Another response that would be good is this. "I'll consider it when Mohammad rises from the grave.”
John 10:31-32 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
John 10:37-38 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
Some of the miracles of Jesus could be considered illusions. Walking on water, turning water into wine. When it comes to those many people could say He was nothing more than a David Blane of His time.
But what about when a person who had been crippled from birth was healed?
What about when a little girl who had stopped breathing and her pulse was gone was brought back to life?
Luke 16:31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
A friend of mine told me a story. She was at a birthday party and some of the ladies their were muslim. One of the muslim women was very bold and point blank asked my friend's daughter, when are you going to become muslim? She had a good response. But I said, “Another response that would be good is this. "I'll consider it when Mohammad rises from the grave.”
So if you doubt Jesus is God, please understand, you are not doubting one thing. You are doubting the foundation of an entire thing. You doubt what Jesus says for himself, what God says for him, and what he has done.
At some point, a touch of logical reasoning, the facts, and a certain amount of faith intersect and give birth to belief.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
When we come to understand who Jesus is, it will radically change who we are.
There was once a man who was on a canoe trip in Maine, and he went over a dam thinking he could make it, but he overturned. This was in the very early spring and the water was very cold. He only had a few minutes in which he could struggle before he would probably die of hypothermia, and he did die of hypothermia because when the water was coming over the dam, there was a backwash. He was trying to swim away from the dam because the backwash was pulling him under.
He tried to swim downstream and he couldn’t, and after about five minutes of that he did die. He passed out and died of hypothermia. The minute he died, the minute he stopped struggling, immediately the backwash pulled him down and popped his body up 10 yards down within five seconds. If all he had done was stop struggling, if all he had done was given in to that which he thought would drown him, he would have been saved. The solution to his problem was counterintuitive.
Many people struggle against the facts about who Jesus is. Or many who believe struggle to give him true control in their life.
Robert Murray McCheyne was a great preacher in Scotland in the 1840's even though he only lived to be 29. When he died, he had just preached three days before at a place called Broughty Ferry. When he died, they found under his pillow a letter that had been sent to him just a day before. It said,
“Dear Mr. McCheyne, I heard you preach at Broughty Ferry last Sabbath evening, and your sermon brought me to Christ. It was not anything you said, but it was what you were … You were talking about the glory of our God resting on [Christ, but as you preached] I saw the Savior’s glory resting on you.”
This person say a sense of joy and contentment in Robert McMcheyne. He didn't see someone who was frantically struggling against a current. He saw someone who was surrendered to God and radically affected by that.
Some will say, "I'm not a preacher." "I am not an elder or bible scholar." or "I just don't know that much." But, when you come to understand who Jesus is, it can radically change who you are.
Tak a look again, this person was not so much affected by what the preacher was saying, as he was affected by his presence. Many may not believe Jesus is God because they struggle to see the change in those who claim to believe in him.
When we come to understand who Jesus really is, it can radically change you we are.
At some point, a touch of logical reasoning, the facts, and a certain amount of faith intersect and give birth to belief.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
When we come to understand who Jesus is, it will radically change who we are.
There was once a man who was on a canoe trip in Maine, and he went over a dam thinking he could make it, but he overturned. This was in the very early spring and the water was very cold. He only had a few minutes in which he could struggle before he would probably die of hypothermia, and he did die of hypothermia because when the water was coming over the dam, there was a backwash. He was trying to swim away from the dam because the backwash was pulling him under.
He tried to swim downstream and he couldn’t, and after about five minutes of that he did die. He passed out and died of hypothermia. The minute he died, the minute he stopped struggling, immediately the backwash pulled him down and popped his body up 10 yards down within five seconds. If all he had done was stop struggling, if all he had done was given in to that which he thought would drown him, he would have been saved. The solution to his problem was counterintuitive.
Many people struggle against the facts about who Jesus is. Or many who believe struggle to give him true control in their life.
Robert Murray McCheyne was a great preacher in Scotland in the 1840's even though he only lived to be 29. When he died, he had just preached three days before at a place called Broughty Ferry. When he died, they found under his pillow a letter that had been sent to him just a day before. It said,
“Dear Mr. McCheyne, I heard you preach at Broughty Ferry last Sabbath evening, and your sermon brought me to Christ. It was not anything you said, but it was what you were … You were talking about the glory of our God resting on [Christ, but as you preached] I saw the Savior’s glory resting on you.”
This person say a sense of joy and contentment in Robert McMcheyne. He didn't see someone who was frantically struggling against a current. He saw someone who was surrendered to God and radically affected by that.
Some will say, "I'm not a preacher." "I am not an elder or bible scholar." or "I just don't know that much." But, when you come to understand who Jesus is, it can radically change who you are.
Tak a look again, this person was not so much affected by what the preacher was saying, as he was affected by his presence. Many may not believe Jesus is God because they struggle to see the change in those who claim to believe in him.
When we come to understand who Jesus really is, it can radically change you we are.