Islam's Biggest Problems: Jesus
Memory Verse:
'I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. '- John 15:5
Sermon Sentence: The Bible teaches from cover to cover that there is only one God and He exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
'I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. '- John 15:5
Sermon Sentence: The Bible teaches from cover to cover that there is only one God and He exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Day 1
Read John 17:1-19
It is in the very substance and the smallest of details that Jesus' most controversial statements have to be wrestled with. To say that He was a great teacher and a great prophet alone, just will not work. The reason it all falls apart on that is because you have to ask: “What kind of a great teacher or prophet would make that kind of a claim and it not be true?” I have listened to people make strange and bizarre claims that make me question their character or integrity or even the validity of the other things that they say, but none of those people that I begin to question are making claims this strange. When I worked at the Rescue Mission in downtown Nashville years ago, I met a man that said that he was Jesus. Not like had the name Jesus, but he said he was actually the Jesus and claimed to be the Messiah. I didn’t buy it. Now, when I say I didn’t buy it, you have to get that it was such an outlandish claim, considering all of the circumstances, that I didn’t wait to have proof to not buy the claim. I just denied it instantly. I didn’t counter his claim with a request for a miracle to prove it as if I was only one miracle away from believing him. I just did not even come close to believing him.
I get that you would not believe that either. I don’t for a second think that you could have been fooled by this drunk homeless man claiming to be Jesus in downtown Nashville. In John 17, Jesus is praying out loud. He is not talking to the disciples and hoping they pick up on a few things He wants to get across to them only. He is speaking His heart and we are invited in. It was no mystery at all what Jesus believed about Himself. He was claiming to be God’s son. He was claiming to have access to eternal life and willing to give it to everyone who would take it, by others knowing what He knew about Himself. This alone is no small weird speak that can just be glossed over for the more truthful thing. It is either true in the complete sense, or Jesus is easily to be written off based on that statement alone. You have to face this at some point. After Jesus said that, you are either in or you are out.
What do you see as the work that Jesus was to accomplish on earth according to his prayer here?
How did Jesus do this and why was that important?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
It is in the very substance and the smallest of details that Jesus' most controversial statements have to be wrestled with. To say that He was a great teacher and a great prophet alone, just will not work. The reason it all falls apart on that is because you have to ask: “What kind of a great teacher or prophet would make that kind of a claim and it not be true?” I have listened to people make strange and bizarre claims that make me question their character or integrity or even the validity of the other things that they say, but none of those people that I begin to question are making claims this strange. When I worked at the Rescue Mission in downtown Nashville years ago, I met a man that said that he was Jesus. Not like had the name Jesus, but he said he was actually the Jesus and claimed to be the Messiah. I didn’t buy it. Now, when I say I didn’t buy it, you have to get that it was such an outlandish claim, considering all of the circumstances, that I didn’t wait to have proof to not buy the claim. I just denied it instantly. I didn’t counter his claim with a request for a miracle to prove it as if I was only one miracle away from believing him. I just did not even come close to believing him.
I get that you would not believe that either. I don’t for a second think that you could have been fooled by this drunk homeless man claiming to be Jesus in downtown Nashville. In John 17, Jesus is praying out loud. He is not talking to the disciples and hoping they pick up on a few things He wants to get across to them only. He is speaking His heart and we are invited in. It was no mystery at all what Jesus believed about Himself. He was claiming to be God’s son. He was claiming to have access to eternal life and willing to give it to everyone who would take it, by others knowing what He knew about Himself. This alone is no small weird speak that can just be glossed over for the more truthful thing. It is either true in the complete sense, or Jesus is easily to be written off based on that statement alone. You have to face this at some point. After Jesus said that, you are either in or you are out.
What do you see as the work that Jesus was to accomplish on earth according to his prayer here?
How did Jesus do this and why was that important?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
Read Isaiah 63
This is not the best or most detailed set up for this chapter, but basically what we can see here is a chapter that takes some time to wrestle with the character of God. By that I mean we get a glimpse into what God is like and how He interacts with the people of the story. I know there is way more going on here, but our main task this week is to try and learn what the Bible teaches about the Trinity.
One of the arguments against the Trinity that we mentioned on Sunday was the teaching of Modalism. This is a tough teaching to nail down due to its many holes and logical missteps, but basically it is the idea that God has been in three different forms, in different times, and with different roles. In the book of Genesis and most of the Old Testament we see Him as God in Heaven. Then when Jesus comes, God is in the form of a man and nothing else. Then after Jesus rises and returns to the Heavens, we get God in the form of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 63 is one of the chapters that does a good job showing the real problems with this teaching that would make God not really omnipresent, or in all places at all times. Isaiah is talking about God, here in the Old Testament, in ways where he connects the Holy Spirit to the Old Testament and also seems to be showing Jesus in the story of the Exodus, which would be the Old Testament. This is not a far fetched idea, because it shows up in another place in the bible in the book of Jude.
Where do you see each of the persons of the Trinity in this chapter?
Father
Son
Holy Spirit
Why do you think it is important to have an idea of the Trinity to understand the character of God? What other things fall apart in the teaching of modalism according to God’s character?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
This is not the best or most detailed set up for this chapter, but basically what we can see here is a chapter that takes some time to wrestle with the character of God. By that I mean we get a glimpse into what God is like and how He interacts with the people of the story. I know there is way more going on here, but our main task this week is to try and learn what the Bible teaches about the Trinity.
One of the arguments against the Trinity that we mentioned on Sunday was the teaching of Modalism. This is a tough teaching to nail down due to its many holes and logical missteps, but basically it is the idea that God has been in three different forms, in different times, and with different roles. In the book of Genesis and most of the Old Testament we see Him as God in Heaven. Then when Jesus comes, God is in the form of a man and nothing else. Then after Jesus rises and returns to the Heavens, we get God in the form of the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 63 is one of the chapters that does a good job showing the real problems with this teaching that would make God not really omnipresent, or in all places at all times. Isaiah is talking about God, here in the Old Testament, in ways where he connects the Holy Spirit to the Old Testament and also seems to be showing Jesus in the story of the Exodus, which would be the Old Testament. This is not a far fetched idea, because it shows up in another place in the bible in the book of Jude.
Where do you see each of the persons of the Trinity in this chapter?
Father
Son
Holy Spirit
Why do you think it is important to have an idea of the Trinity to understand the character of God? What other things fall apart in the teaching of modalism according to God’s character?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read Isaiah 53
Yesterday we read Isaiah 63 and worked through some key images in that passage. One of the things that is mentioned there is the “arm of the Lord” which seems to be addressed as a person. We get further confirmation of that idea in Isaiah 53 and it appears enough in the Bible that it seems to be something worth paying attention to. The chapter starts out asking two questions: “Who had believed what he has heard from us?” and “To whom has the arm of the Lord been extended?” From here, the person that is talked about is constantly referred to as a person and given the pronoun “he.” After collecting all of the evidence and working it through what we know about the story of the crucifixion and the life of Jesus, it becomes pretty obvious that Jesus is who is being talked about here. Therefore, Jesus, a person, is referred to as the arm of the Lord. That is the same thing that we unfolded in Isaiah 63 yesterday.
You may not think that matters much, but it holds a lot of weight. The reason we can not stand for a teaching that claims that Jesus was only a man that showed up in the flesh when he was born, is because that is not the teaching the Bible gives us of Jesus. It is a way that our minds have tried to process what we can understand, but when we are confronted with more scripture and understanding, we have to decide what we will do with what we now know, not just what we can understand. Jesus shows up multiple times in the Old Testament, from the moment of Creation and He is at the end of the book for the moments of eternity. He is without beginning and without end. He is the first and the last. Therefore He is fully God. Not a version of God that was different, but fully God. To know Jesus (John 17) is to know God.
If you read John 3:16 in the KJV, how do you explain the idea of Jesus being eternal when the verse says that He was begotten?
In this Old Testament teaching of who Jesus was, what are the comforting things that you learn about Him?
How does this become your prayer today?
Yesterday we read Isaiah 63 and worked through some key images in that passage. One of the things that is mentioned there is the “arm of the Lord” which seems to be addressed as a person. We get further confirmation of that idea in Isaiah 53 and it appears enough in the Bible that it seems to be something worth paying attention to. The chapter starts out asking two questions: “Who had believed what he has heard from us?” and “To whom has the arm of the Lord been extended?” From here, the person that is talked about is constantly referred to as a person and given the pronoun “he.” After collecting all of the evidence and working it through what we know about the story of the crucifixion and the life of Jesus, it becomes pretty obvious that Jesus is who is being talked about here. Therefore, Jesus, a person, is referred to as the arm of the Lord. That is the same thing that we unfolded in Isaiah 63 yesterday.
You may not think that matters much, but it holds a lot of weight. The reason we can not stand for a teaching that claims that Jesus was only a man that showed up in the flesh when he was born, is because that is not the teaching the Bible gives us of Jesus. It is a way that our minds have tried to process what we can understand, but when we are confronted with more scripture and understanding, we have to decide what we will do with what we now know, not just what we can understand. Jesus shows up multiple times in the Old Testament, from the moment of Creation and He is at the end of the book for the moments of eternity. He is without beginning and without end. He is the first and the last. Therefore He is fully God. Not a version of God that was different, but fully God. To know Jesus (John 17) is to know God.
If you read John 3:16 in the KJV, how do you explain the idea of Jesus being eternal when the verse says that He was begotten?
In this Old Testament teaching of who Jesus was, what are the comforting things that you learn about Him?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Matthew 3
There are a lot of different declarations of “the way.” In the popular show “The Mandalorian” you can hear the key phrase of the Mandalorians being “This is the way.” It is a small declaration that appeals to a higher idea in this fictional world. There is a higher idea that all other ideas are filtered through, and everything else yields to this “way.” Jesus is not declaring “the way” like that. In John 14:6, He is declaring that He IS the way. Not that He knows the way. Not that He is on the way. He is saying that He is the way. That is a much bigger declaration than it is given credit and it would need a lot more credentials than just an everyday good teaching on morality and good living. In fact, for Jesus to declare He is the way would be for Him to shove morality to a second level to Himself.
The confirmation that is seen in that declaration starts with a scene that contains Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, who preached a gospel of repentance and turning back toward God, outside the city, or in the wilderness. His message was sealed with people being baptized as a way of symbolizing their decision to follow God in this way. That was not bizarre in that people didn’t know what baptism was, but it was bizarre in that he was describing following God as repenting and turning toward God. If all of the religious leaders were teaching a different version of this, how do we know that John’s is the one to go with? That is when Jesus comes along, John declares that He is the Messiah, and then Jesus asks to be baptized by John. There seems to be no better confirmation than to actually follow in the practice. The irony is that Jesus did not have sin to be cleansed of, so what was He doing following in the symbolic ritualistic idea of washing clean from sins and turning back to God? He was stamping it with the most amount of approval and call to obedience that He could. There is not wiggling out of this one…Jesus was baptized and therefore fully approved of what we understand baptism to be. The question now becomes what will we do with His example? Follow it, or continue to declare that we are following Him while refusing, ignoring, or glossing over what He actually did?
If you have been baptized, what do you remember of that experience?
What does baptism mean, can you explain it?
If baptism is required, what do we do with the thief on the cross that clearly was not baptized but Jesus said he would be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:43)?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
There are a lot of different declarations of “the way.” In the popular show “The Mandalorian” you can hear the key phrase of the Mandalorians being “This is the way.” It is a small declaration that appeals to a higher idea in this fictional world. There is a higher idea that all other ideas are filtered through, and everything else yields to this “way.” Jesus is not declaring “the way” like that. In John 14:6, He is declaring that He IS the way. Not that He knows the way. Not that He is on the way. He is saying that He is the way. That is a much bigger declaration than it is given credit and it would need a lot more credentials than just an everyday good teaching on morality and good living. In fact, for Jesus to declare He is the way would be for Him to shove morality to a second level to Himself.
The confirmation that is seen in that declaration starts with a scene that contains Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, who preached a gospel of repentance and turning back toward God, outside the city, or in the wilderness. His message was sealed with people being baptized as a way of symbolizing their decision to follow God in this way. That was not bizarre in that people didn’t know what baptism was, but it was bizarre in that he was describing following God as repenting and turning toward God. If all of the religious leaders were teaching a different version of this, how do we know that John’s is the one to go with? That is when Jesus comes along, John declares that He is the Messiah, and then Jesus asks to be baptized by John. There seems to be no better confirmation than to actually follow in the practice. The irony is that Jesus did not have sin to be cleansed of, so what was He doing following in the symbolic ritualistic idea of washing clean from sins and turning back to God? He was stamping it with the most amount of approval and call to obedience that He could. There is not wiggling out of this one…Jesus was baptized and therefore fully approved of what we understand baptism to be. The question now becomes what will we do with His example? Follow it, or continue to declare that we are following Him while refusing, ignoring, or glossing over what He actually did?
If you have been baptized, what do you remember of that experience?
What does baptism mean, can you explain it?
If baptism is required, what do we do with the thief on the cross that clearly was not baptized but Jesus said he would be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:43)?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Romans 6
To continue on the thoughts around baptism and as we plan to have a baptism at the church soon, let's look at this passage and try to understand the point Paul is making. To be fair, the point that he is trying to make is not a defense of baptism, but rather that baptism is used to make the defense of something else he is trying to explain. I like this passage because of its ability to paint the picture of what baptism is symbolizing as it is the visual lesson of the heart declaration that we have already made. That means that we are teaching that baptism is not salvation, but rather it is the symbolic representation of salvation. This leads so many people down the road of argument in points to arrive at the place of whether or not you need, or have to get baptized. It is true that the Bible does not land in the place of making the argument that a person can not get into Heaven without being baptized, but that truth does not help the reality of the point that the Bible takes this idea pretty seriously and puts a lot of weight on it. The weight is mainly from a few places: first of all, the example of Jesus. It is really tough to declare that you are following Jesus but then refuse baptism. Second, is the teaching contained in this text as Paul explains what it is all about and why it all matters. I challenge you to wrestle with this idea and try to understand his point.
What does Paul seem to believe about baptism?
Why the actual mode of baptism and how would you defend immersion (completely going under the water, not just sprinkling) from this text?
Have you followed Jesus in baptism? If not, why not make that decision to do that now?
How does this become your prayer today?
To continue on the thoughts around baptism and as we plan to have a baptism at the church soon, let's look at this passage and try to understand the point Paul is making. To be fair, the point that he is trying to make is not a defense of baptism, but rather that baptism is used to make the defense of something else he is trying to explain. I like this passage because of its ability to paint the picture of what baptism is symbolizing as it is the visual lesson of the heart declaration that we have already made. That means that we are teaching that baptism is not salvation, but rather it is the symbolic representation of salvation. This leads so many people down the road of argument in points to arrive at the place of whether or not you need, or have to get baptized. It is true that the Bible does not land in the place of making the argument that a person can not get into Heaven without being baptized, but that truth does not help the reality of the point that the Bible takes this idea pretty seriously and puts a lot of weight on it. The weight is mainly from a few places: first of all, the example of Jesus. It is really tough to declare that you are following Jesus but then refuse baptism. Second, is the teaching contained in this text as Paul explains what it is all about and why it all matters. I challenge you to wrestle with this idea and try to understand his point.
What does Paul seem to believe about baptism?
Why the actual mode of baptism and how would you defend immersion (completely going under the water, not just sprinkling) from this text?
Have you followed Jesus in baptism? If not, why not make that decision to do that now?
How does this become your prayer today?
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