May 21, 2006

“Our God Is Our Savior”

The Jesus Question

The Da Vinci Code: The Truth Behind the Book

Prayer and Scripture: Judy

 

·       Today we're in part five of our series on The Da Vinci Code.  We've been looking at questions that the book raises about the Christian faith.  Let’s just briefly review where we've been:

·       Part 1 was The Credibility Question.  We looked at various quotes from Dan Brown's book that cast significant doubt on many of truths of the Christian faith.  And then we looked at the fact that the Bible itself claims to be the very words of God.

·       Part 2: Secrets of the Old Testament.  We answered a number of questions regarding the genuineness of the Bible and how we can be sure that the Scriptures we have today are accurate and haven't gone through additions and revisions.  We looked at the evidence from fulfilled prophecy, archaeology, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.  We also looked at how the men of God wrote the words of Scripture.

·       Part 3:  New Testament Revelations.  We saw that the New Testament Scriptures we have today are accurate and genuine.  We looked a number of different evidences that prove this.

·       Part 4: The Messiah Unearthed.  Last week we looked at the six promises that God made about the coming Messiah in the Old Testament and we saw how Jesus of Nazareth is the only one who could have fulfilled those promises.  This morning we’re going to look at what the Da Vinci Code says about the nature of Jesus.  Let’s look at a few quotes:

·       On pages 233 & 234, the book states that at the Council of Nicea… “…many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon—the date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of sacraments, and, of course the divinity of Jesus…until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless.  A mortal…. Because Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status almost four centuries after Jesus’ death; thousands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man.”  The Da Vinci Code: Dan Brown, 233 &244.

·       On then again, on page 234 it says:  “Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike.  The earlier gospels (which he believes were the Gnostic Gospels, I’ll get to that next week) were outlawed, gathered up, and burned….some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive.  The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950’s hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert.  And, of course, the Coptic Scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi.  In addition to telling the true Grail story, these documents speak of Christ’s ministry in very human terms.  Of course, the Vatican, in keeping with their tradition of misinformation, tried very hard to suppress the release of these scrolls.  And why wouldn’t they?  The scrolls highlight glaring historical discrepancies and fabrications, clearly confirming that the modern Bible was compiled and edited by men who possessed a political agenda—to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ and use His influence to solidify their own power base.”  The Da Vinci Code: Dan Brown, 234.

·       And then finally, on page 235 it says: “…almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.”  The Da Vinci Code: Dan Brown, 235.

·       These quotes raise three questions that we’re going to deal with today: QUESTIONS FROM THE CODE:

1.   Did the disciples and the writers of the New Testament see Jesus as merely a man, or did they acknowledge Him as God?

2.   Who did the early church leaders understand Jesus to be?  And if they did believe Him to be God, when did the controversy over His divinity begin?

 

3.   Did Constantine upgrade Jesus' status to deity? 

Dan Brown isn’t the first person to cast doubt on the divine nature of Jesus Christ.  In 1804, Thomas Jefferson sat down in the White House with a copy of the New Testament in one hand and a razor blade in the other.  He then proceeded to cut and paste a Jesus of his liking.  Being a Rationalist, Jefferson cut away the parts of the Gospels that spoke of Jesus' divine nature and miracles and left the parts that he decided were ethical teachings.  Jefferson entitled his personal edition of the New Testament: The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth. 

·       Later, in 1819, Jefferson cut and pasted another version of Jesus' teachings titling this edition: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.  Dickinson W. Adams in his book: Jefferson's Extracts from the Gospels, says: "What is most clear about Jefferson's faith is what he was not, and what he was not was a traditional Christian.  Jefferson unequivocally rejected the Nicean Creed, which has defined orthodoxy for the overwhelming majority of Christians since 381, as well as the Council of Chalcedon (451) formula of Jesus as 'truly God and truly man.'  He sneered at Calvinist verities such as predestination, which throughout his political career dominated American religious thought, and was particularly contemptuous of the doctrine of the Trinity ('mere Abracadabra' and 'hocus-pocus phantasm,' he said, distinguishable from paganism 'only by being more unintelligible').  The sleight of hand clerics had used to split the one true God into three had also been employed, in Jefferson's view, to substitute the real Christianity of Jesus for the false 'Platonic Christianity' of the so-called Christian churches."  As quoted in American Jesus, by Stephen Prothero, 26.

·       What’s interesting is that the Jesus of Jefferson’s liking was merely a man, an ethical teacher and moral guide.  Of course, this is how many people today see Jesus.  They don't deny He existed, but they don’t believe that He was God.  So as we can see, this controversy surrounding the true nature of Jesus is nothing new.  Some of you might be thinking:  "Why is the issue over the nature of Jesus such a big deal?"  We’ll answer that at the end of this message, but we have a couple of things we need to talk about first.

·       So, let's tackle these questions from the Da Vinci Code:

I.  QUESTIONS FROM THE CODE:

QUESTION #1:  Did the disciples and the writers of the New Testament see Jesus as merely a man, or did they acknowledge Him as God?  It's clear from the Biblical record that the disciples, Jesus Himself, the writers of the NT and the early Church fathers all believed Jesus to be the Messiah; God in human flesh.

The disciples:

"When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?'  They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'  ’'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?'  Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'”  Matthew 16:13-16

·       Now, there are three phrases here that are important in helping us understand Jesus’ divine nature.

1. The phrase, "Son of Man" is used 84 times in the four Gospels.  It was first used in a vision given to Daniel the prophet.  “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."  Daniel 7:13-14

·       This "son of man" came with "the clouds of heaven" indicating His heavenly origin and that He was given the authority, glory and sovereign power to rule over the world.  This "son of man" was to be worshipped (and only God can be worshiped) and would live forever.

·       Jesus used this phrase to refer to His divine nature.  Even his enemies knew that.  When Jesus was standing before the High Priest in Matthew 26, the High Priest said to Him: “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.  'Yes, it is as you say,' Jesus replied. 'But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.'  Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, 'He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?'  'He is worthy of death, they answered."  Matthew 26:64-66

·       In verse 64, when Jesus talked about "the clouds of heaven" He was pointing back to Daniel's prophecy equating Himself with the "son of Man".  The High Priest knew that the phrase "son of Man" was a reference to the Messiah.  So he believed that Jesus had spoken blasphemy.

·       So, back to Matthew 16:13, Jesus asks the question, already giving them the answer by referring to Himself as the "Son of Man", but He allows them to go on and tell Him what they think.  It's Peter who hits the nail on the head using two more Messianic phrases proving conclusively that they believed Jesus to be divine in nature: "…You are the Christ."  The Greek word for "Christ" comes from the Hebrew word for "Messiah".  Peter is saying to Jesus: "You are the Messiah, the Anointed One; the One that the prophets told us would come."  But not only that, Jesus you are "…the Son of the living God."

·       John MacArthur notes in his commentary on Matthew: "On behalf of all the apostles, Peter not only confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, but as the Son of the living God. The Son of Man (v. 13) was also the Son of God, the Creator of the universe and all that is in it. He was the true and real God, not a mythological figment such as Pan or a mortal “deity” such as Caesar—both of whom had shrines in Caesarea Philippi. The disciples’ Lord was Son of the living God."

·       He goes on to say: "As evidenced by numerous things the Twelve later said and did, they did not at this time have a full comprehension of the Trinity or even of the full nature and work of Christ. But they knew Jesus was truly the Christ and that He was truly divine, the Son of the living God. Son reflects the idea of oneness in essence, because a son is one in nature with his father. So Jesus Christ was one in nature with God the Father (cf. John 5:17-18; 10:30-33)."  John MacArthur: MacArthur’s New Testament Commentary: Matthew 16-23

·       It's clear from this passage alone that the disciples believed in Jesus' divine nature.  Jesus' enemies didn't believe because of the hardness of their heart, but they did believe that Jesus was claiming to be God in human flesh.  Again in John 10:24-33 we see Jesus equating Himself with God: "The Jews gathered around him, saying, 'How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.'  Jesus answered, 'I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.'  Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?'  'We are not stoning you for any of these,' replied the Jews, 'but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.'”  John 10:24-33

·       So we know that Jesus knew He was God, His enemies knew that He claimed to be God and the disciples believed Him to be God.  But what about the rest of the writers of the New Testament?

 

THE WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

The apostle Paul wrote a good portion of the New Testament, including Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.

 

·       We don’t time to go through all the references of Jesus as God in each of these books.  So we'll just focus on a couple.

·       The Apostle Paul affirmed Jesus' deity: "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him…." Colossians 1:19 

·       "He is the image of the invisible God…" Colossians 1:15

·       "For in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form…. " Colossians 2:9

·       "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." 2 Corinthians 4:4 

·       "Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped…" Philippians 2:6

The writer of Hebrews affirmed Jesus' deity:

·       "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."  Hebrews 1:3

The apostle John affirmed Jesus' deity:

·       John wrote the Gospel of John, 1,2,3 John and the Book of Revelation.  John, who was the closest to Jesus, affirms Jesus deity:

·       "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning…." John 1:1-2

·       "We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may known him who is true.  And we are in him who is true-even in his Son Jesus Christ.  He is the true God and eternal life."  1 John 5:20

·       There are many more.  But suffice it to say that all the writers of the New Testament believed Jesus to be God in human flesh.  There is no truth whatsoever in the claims made in the Da Vinci Code that Jesus' followers believed him to be only a mortal prophet…it's a ridiculous statement.

QUESTION #2:  Who did the early church leaders understand Jesus to be?  And if they did believe Him to be God, when did the controversy over His divinity begin?

·       Before Jesus left the earth, He commissioned His disciples to go and make disciples; Christians know this as the Great Commission.  "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."  Matthew 28:19-20

·       Because these men knew Jesus personally, they were seen as the leaders of the newly emerging Church that began at Pentecost in Acts 2.  However, by the beginning of the second century, most of these men had died leaving the leadership of the Church to their successors.  Their successors were largely those who were appointed as leaders by men like Paul.  We know that Paul planted many churches throughout Asia Minor and appointed leaders for each church.   The leaders can be broken down into two primary categories:

CATEGORY ONE LEADERSHIP: 

·       Those who cared for the spiritual leadership and direction of their people.  These leaders had various titles but each title basically represented a different facet of the same position.  People in these spiritual leadership positions were called: Overseer sometimes translated "Bishop".  Rulers (Rom. 12:8; 1 Thess. 5:12). Leaders (Heb. 13:17). Pastors (Eph. 4:11; cf. Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2).  Elders or Presbyters (from the Greek word for "elder").  Elder is the most common title.  Paul gives the qualifications and responsibilities of Elder/overseer in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9.  Not the least of these was teaching sound doctrine. 

·       Paul tells Titus that an Elder "must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it."  Titus 1:9.  And Paul also instructed Titus to do the same:  "You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine."  Titus 2:1

·       Teaching sound doctrine and refuting false doctrine was a primary role of the Elder.

CATEGORY TWO LEADERSHIP:

Those who care for the administrative details and daily operations of the church.  "Deacon" literally means, "Humble servant".  Paul gives the qualifications and responsibilities of deacons in 1 Timothy 3:8-12.  The model for this type of leadership structure was first started in Acts 15:1-7.  It's in your insert so you can read about it on your own. 

·       Now some of you may be thinking, "Thanks for the lesson on Church polity but why is this important?"  Because once the Apostles died, the leadership of the Church was carried on by these men who came to be known as the early Church fathers.  Chris Armstrong, a writer for Christian History Magazine, writes: "The first thing you notice when you read the early 'church fathers' is that they are completely convinced Jesus is God himself.  I'm talking about those bishops and teachers from the 100s and 200s as well—long before the Nicean Council."  Chris Armstrong: "Thanks, Da Vinci Code".  Christian History Newsletter: November 14, 2003.

·       These early Church fathers believe Jesus to be 100% God and 100% divine, but that belief was often challenged.  Which is why the Church called the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.  Before we get into the main details of this Church council, let me first define what a Council is.

·       Definition:  Church Councils are events where various church leaders would gather and discuss various challenges that would come up in regards to the faith.  For example, the first actual church council is recorded in Acts 15 over the issue of whether or not Gentiles had to be circumcised to be saved.  "Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: 'Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.' This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question."  Acts 15:1-2

·       Since then, there have been a number of Church councils where Church leaders gathered to discuss certain problems.  After Acts 15, the next Council was the Council of Nicea and the issue was over the false teaching about the nature of Jesus Christ by a pastor named Arius.  Arius was pastor of the Baucalis Church in Alexandria and he taught that Jesus had a different nature than God the Father.  He saw Jesus as a lesser being, not eternal, omnipotent or divine in any way. Historian Bruce Shelly notes: “Arius' views were all the more popular because he combined an eloquent preaching style with a flair for public relations.  In the opening stages of the conflict, he put ideas into jingles, which set to simple tunes like a radio commercial, were soon being sung by the dock-workers, the street hawkers, and the school children of the city."  Bruce Shelly: Church History In Plain Language, 100-101.

·       Arius' views became so prevalent that the Bishop of Alexandria condemned his teachings and had him excommunicated.  So Arius turned to his friend Eusebius.  Eusebius was a famous church historian and Bishop of Nicomedia and friend of Emperor Constantine.  Constantine didn't want a church split so he called the Council of Nicea.  Now, to be fair, Dan Brown in the Da Vinci Code is right in the sense that Emperor Constantine had at least in part a political agenda in mind, namely to prevent a church split that would disrupt the now unified Roman empire.  However, the deity of Christ was not invented at this council to solve this problem.  The deity of Christ had already been established long ago as we’ve already seen, but additional proof can be seen in what happened during the proceedings of this Council.

·       Both Dr. Shelly, in his book Church History in Plain Language and the Eerdman's Handbook To The History of Christianity note that Arian's heresy was dispelled quickly.  Shelly notes:  "The struggle with Arianism itself was settled quickly" 101.  Eerdmans: "Arius was quickly condemned by his own words."  158

·       This is important because it reaffirms the fact that the early Church believed Jesus to be divine…there wasn't a huge debate of the issue of Jesus nature at Nicea - that didn't take long to figure out.  What took some time was trying to figure out whether or not Arius' excommunication status would stand.  It did, but the issues of Jesus nature were the topic of discussion for the next 126 years.  

·       The Council of Nicea in 325 affirmed Jesus divinity.  The Council of Constantinople, 381 affirmed the humanity of Jesus, the Council of Ephesus in 431 affirmed that Jesus was a unified person, not one with a duality of divine and human natures, and then at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 it was affirmed that Jesus Christ is human and divine in one person: 100% God and 100% human.  All of these councils were largely called to refute various heretical teachings of the true nature of Christ.

·       At the Council of Chalcedon, the church leaders drafted a statement clarifying their understanding of Jesus' nature.  It was a summary statement of all that had been discussed over the last 126 years. The statement reads: "We all with one voice confess our Lord Jesus Christ one and the same Son, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards to his Godhead, of one substance with us as regards to his manhood, like us in all things, apart from sin; begotten of the Father before the ages as regards to his Godhead, the same in the last days, for us and for our salvation, born from the Virgin Mary, the God-bearer, as regards to his man-hood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, or without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way abolished because of the union, but rather the characteristic property of each nature being preserve ed, and coming together to form one person and one entity, not as if Christ were parted or divided into two persons…"  As quoted in Eerdmans' Handbook To The History of Christianity, Tim Dowley, Organizing Editor: 175.

QUESTION #3: Did Constantine upgrade Jesus' status to deity?   Answer: No, Jesus established His deity Himself when He said: "I and the Father are one.” John 10:30

·       He didn't need any help from Constantine.  Constantine had nothing to do with Jesus' divine status and the Council of Nicea did not invent it; the leaders at this Council merely acknowledged it officially as church doctrine to refute the heresy of Arius.

Let's recap what we've learned tonight.  

·       We've learned that Jesus claimed to be God in human flesh; we learned that the Disciples believed Him and that the early church leaders believed that as well.  Now, some of you might be thinking, "It's one thing to say you're God…anyone can say that.  My question is, "How does one prove he is God?  What do you say about that?" And, while I'm at it: "If the disciples truly did believe that Jesus was God, Why?  What proof did they have?"  "What was it that convinced them?"

·       Those are very good questions…and we’ll look at those next week.  We'll look at how Jesus proved He was God and well look at why the disciples believed it.

·       Let's pray.