Vantage Point

Who was Jesus-The promised one, a charlatan, a revolutionary, a miracle worker, a king? Was he an illegitimate child who died a criminal’s death, or the Son of God who gave his life as a sacrifice? Jesus was a mysterious figure even during his life on earth- revered by some, reviled by others. 2000 years later he remains an enigma- worshiped some, slandered by others.

Join us March 2008 at Connections Community Church.
See Jesus from five different vantage points.
Discover one life changing truth.

Week 1: whatsyourvantagepoint?

Does the truth depend on our vantage point? Can we getting a better picture of the truth by taking different vantage points? We have four gospels that tell the story of Jesus. The last one says that the world could not hold all the books that could be written about Jesus (John 21:25). We’ll start our series with an overview of the options- what did people say about Jesus, who did Jesus say he was? What is our vantage point 2000 years later on the one who was called, and claimed to be, the Christ?

Opening:
Discuss the different vantage points of Jesus that we find in the world today? Discuss examples that you’ve seen in TV, in movies, magazines and books.
Digging Deeper:
What’s you vantage point on Jesus- liar, lunatic, Lord?
If you grew up in the church, how has it changed since you were a kid? How should we portray Jesus to our children- “the Lamb of God” or “the Lion of Judah?”
If you’re just considering Jesus now, what draws you to him? What holds you back? What are the competing options?
Does the “liar, lunatic, Lord” argument hold any weight?

Read Matthew 16:13-20
The gospels record Jesus using the title “Son of Man” more than anything else, over 80 times. What could this mean?
The disciples mention some of the competing interpretations of Jesus- some have him confused with John, others say he’s the reincarnation of one of the prophets. Peter says he’s the Christ.
What is the significance of being the Christ? Is it different than the Messiah?
Why does Jesus say that his Father in heaven revealed this to Peter?
What does this tell us about the revelation of God and our ability to know and confess Jesus as the Christ?
Why the warning to keep their mouths shut?

Closing:
As we move closer to Easter, what can we do to move closer to Christ? Share ideas, disciplines and prayer for each other.
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Matthew 16:13-20

Peter's Confession of Christ

13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,^[b] the Son of the living God."

17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,^[c] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^[d] will not overcome it.^[e] 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^[f] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^[g] loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

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Lord, Liar, or Lunatic?

Even those who are not persuaded by Christianity often have great respect for Jesus. Among those who reject the idea that Jesus was God incarnate, there are many who are nevertheless followers of him to some degree. “Jesus was a great moral teacher”, some say, “but he wasn’t God”. According to this view, Jesus is to be followed as a great human being, but not as a divine one.

This idea that Jesus was merely a great human being, i.e. a great human being but nothing more, is, as C.S. Lewis argued in Part 2 of Mere Christianity, indefensible.

Jesus made the most astonishing claims, not only about God, society and ethics, but also about himself. He claimed to have the authority to forgive sins, to be the representative of all humanity come to die in order to reconcile man to God, and to be the only way for people to attain salvation.

Faced with the fact that Jesus made these claims about himself, there are three things that we might say about him: Either Jesus’ claims were false and he knew it, or his claims were false and he didn’t know it, or his claims were true. None of these suggests that Jesus was a great, but merely human, teacher. Anyone who has that view needs to think again.

The first thing that we might say about Jesus is that his claims were false and he knew it, in which case he was a liar. If Jesus did not believe that his claims about himself were true, then when he made those claims he was lying.

Jesus’ claims about himself were so central to his teachings, though, that if they were lies then he can hardly be deemed a great teacher. If Jesus set out to systematically deceive people about who he was and how their sins were to be dealt with, then he was among the worst teachers that have ever walked the earth.

The second thing that we might say about Jesus is that his claims were false and he didn’t know it, in which case he was a lunatic. If Jesus believed that his claims about himself were true, and they weren’t, then he was a delusional egomaniac. If an ordinary person believes himself to be God incarnate, then that person is, put quite simply, insane.

Again, if this were the case, if Jesus taught that this is who he was and was mistaken, then he was as bad a teacher as there has ever been.

The third thing that we might say about Jesus is that his claims were true, in which case he was, and is, Lord. If Jesus believed that his claims about himself were true and they were, then Jesus was not only a great human being, but was also God on Earth.

If we take Jesus seriously, then we must take Jesus’ claims about himself seriously. We cannot say that Jesus was a great teacher whom we admire and look up to, but that the most fundamental element of his teachings was a monumental error. Jesus was not a great, but merely human, teacher; he was either much less than this, or much more.

Those who respond to this argument by writing Jesus off as either a liar or a lunatic are, for all that has been said so far, just as reasonable as those who respond by accepting Jesus as Lord. This argument is an attack only on the view that Jesus was a great teacher but not God; there is nothing in it that counts against the view that Jesus was a terrible teacher. In order to show that it is better to view Jesus as Lord than as either a liar or a lunatic, it would have to be demonstrated that there is some reason to take Jesus’ claims seriously.

Do we have any reason, though, to take Jesus’ claims seriously? Many have argued that we do, that we have the strongest possible evidence that Jesus knew what he was talking about when it came to the supernatural. There is, it is argued, substantial historical evidence that Jesus was raised from the dead, endorsing his claims to religious authority.

The Resurrection, it is said, was a divine endorsement of Jesus’ teachings, God’s confirmation that Jesus’ teachings were true. If this is correct, then there can be no doubt as to which of the three positions concerning Jesus outlined above is the correct one. If there is significant evidence for the resurrection, then we have to take Jesus seriously.