Uniqueness of Christianity2

Now the Apostle Paul, as he writes to the Romans, the very first thing he tells us is this, that the gospel, the good news from God, was promised before by the prophets in the Holy Scriptures. There are many people who say, well, the Bible is just another holy book. There are many like them, you know, and you choose to believe whatever you like.

The fact is that most of these books, well, they have nice sentimental religious thoughts, but they're all pretty much the same. Now people who say that haven't done their homework, because the book from which I read this evening has given to us evidence to believe. Sadly, a lot of people think that Christianity, like all the other religions of the world, simply requires one to commit intellectual suicide, and as long as you're not willing to think, you can believe just about anything, including Christianity.

But, says God, I'm the one who made your brain. You don't think I intend you not to use it. Come now, says God, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.

You can think about this, it's all right. It's not a trade-off, you don't have to exchange your heart for your brain. You can love God with all your heart, and all your mind at the same time.

What God did for us, so that we could authenticate the message of Jesus as he came into the world, was before ever he came, hundreds of years before he came, to paint a portrait in words that would exactly describe him when he did come. He has given to us a series of pen portraits, word descriptions of the Messiah, by different authors of different ages, written in different countries, that seem on the surface to contradict each other. So, for example, initially we read about this Messiah, he'll bless little children, he'll heal the sick, he'll give the blind their sight, he'll raise the dead, he will do good works.

Another prophet says, but he will be despised and rejected of men. Wouldn't you like someone who healed the sick and raised the dead and gave the blind their sight? Why then would another prophet write concerning him, he will be despised and rejected of men. It didn't just happen 2,000 years ago, you know.

When people become increasingly frustrated, when they become angry, they never use the name of Confucius, you know, or Buddha. They always use the name of Jesus Christ. He's still despised and rejected of men.

When people want to vent their anger, they use some foul gutter word or the name of Jesus Christ interchangeably. It doesn't make any difference to them. The one who who came to love and die for sinners is despised and rejected of men.

One prophet said that he was going to be betrayed and you would assume that his betrayal would be done by his enemies. No, said another prophet, it would be his friend, his confidant. But it was thou, said David, a man mine equal.

Then you would presume that if he was betrayed by the Jews, that he would be executed by stoning. That was the traditional form of execution by the Jews. You remember they did it with Stephen.

They tried to do it with Paul. No, says another prophet, they will pierce his hands and his feet. In fact, the description of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, written about a thousand years before it happened, describes his crucifixion more than 700 years before crucifixion was invented.

You would assume that if a man was to be sold for a price, according to Jewish law, a man would be sold for 50 pieces of silver. No, said the scripture, he will be sold for 30 pieces of silver. Now, isn't that an astounding fact? The very people who were trying to disprove his messiahship knew that scripture and all they had to do to disqualify him from being the messiah was pay 31 pieces of silver and he wouldn't have been the messiah.

And they paid 30 pieces of silver and sealed the amount of money in the public record. You would presume that if Jesus is going to be treated like a criminal, they wouldn't waste his clothes. They'd strip him of his clothes.

They'd take it, the soldiers would take it for themselves. Well, says the Bible, they would do that. And you could assume they do one of two things.

They would either tear the cloth in pieces and everybody take home a piece of cloth or they would gamble and winner would take all. No, said the scripture, they'll take his inner garment and tear it in pieces. They'll take his outer garments and gamble for it.

Listen, this isn't Gene Dixon. This isn't Nostradamus. These aren't some wild guesses that you read in the New Year tabloids.

God has painted himself into a corner. God has put himself into such a situation that only one person could ever fulfill every requirement of the messiah. And in fact, one person did.

Now, Matthew points this out in his gospel, Matthew chapter two, he shows the apparent discrepancy between the prophecies. Where would the messiah be born? Where would he come from? Matthew quotes, first of all, that messiah would be born in Bethlehem, Judah. So said Micah chapter five, verse two.

Again, perhaps 750, 800 years before the Lord Jesus came, messiah would be born in Bethlehem, Judah. Some silly people have said, we know what happened. Mary was expecting.

She and Joseph thought to themselves, let's go to Bethlehem. Because after all, messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem. And if this little baby is born there, maybe we can sort of contrive to make him look like the messiah.

The Bible tells us why they went to Bethlehem. Had nothing to do with their choice. It had to do with the Caesar in Rome who decided to raise taxes.

The ancestral home of Jesus' parents was in fact Bethlehem. And so a pregnant woman, almost nine months pregnant, had to make the journey sixty hard miles over rough roads from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And it was there that Jesus was born.

But Matthew goes on and says, wait a minute, one prophet is painted in this little bit here that says that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, Judah. But another says that he'll be called a Nazarene. Actually, you'll search in vain in the Old Testament to find that prophecy.

The prophets declared he shall be called a Nazarene. The word for the branch is the word Nazare. He shall be called the branch.

And there are three prophets that prophesy that. But Matthew, understanding what that means, declares he would be called a Nazarene. So now here we have Jesus born in Bethlehem, Judah in the south.

Jesus called a Nazarene in the north. The compound matters. Matthew quotes another prophet, declaring out of Egypt have I called my son.

So here is one prophecy saying he'll be born in Bethlehem. Another saying he'll come out of Egypt and others saying he'll be called a Nazarene. So which is it? Well, yes, yes, and yes, he was born in Bethlehem, Judah.

He did come out of Egypt. And by the way, the reason for that was another Gentile monarch, Herod, who was so paranoid about a king of the Jews that might take his post that he sent his army south from Jerusalem, slaughtering the baby boys up to two years old as he moved south. And the only direction Joseph and Mary could go was either into the Arabian desert or down to Egypt.

So again, it was not something that they contrived. It was something forced upon them and fulfilled the scripture concerning the Messiah. Some have suggested, again, really stretching credulity that what happened was Jesus, seeing that he kind of looked like the Messiah, began to customize his life, making faints moves this way and that so that he would look like the Messiah.

Well, Romans chapter one tells us concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh. You try to arrange the family you're born to. I suggest it would be a bit tough to do.

You arrange the town you're born in. But you see, that's not the extent of it, because as I pointed out, it was those who did not want him to look like the Messiah who paid the thirty pieces of silver and who authenticated his Messiah ship by that. Some have said, well, then maybe what happened was this.

The Jews who had memorized the Old Testament scripture so often were in kind of a collective state. Well, even if that were so, and I can hardly imagine it, one of these boorish Roman soldiers who didn't have the foggiest idea about the Old Testament scriptures, they crucified him. And then, well, you couldn't have these bodies hanging around on the holiday.

Get these things off the cross, they said. And so they said, well, we'll have to hurry up their death. We'll break their legs and put them into shock and they'll die quickly.

They'll suffocate. They can't hold themselves up anymore. And so they came to one malefactor on one side of Jesus, broke his legs.

The other man, they broke his legs and then they came to Jesus and they were surprised because he was dead already. He didn't die early because he was a weakling. He died by a conscious act of the will when all his work was done.

He cried with a loud voice. It's finished. What was finished? The work necessary to save you from your sins.

And then he laid his head on his own breast and commended his spirit to God. So they come to Jesus. He's dead already.

What do we do now? So the fellows, what would you have done? Oh, break his legs anyway, you know, just make sure. No, they said, there's no sense breaking his legs and fulfilled a scripture, which said not a bone of him would be broken. But one of them's with a spear said, well, we better just check and see that he's really dead.

And they drove the spear up into his pericardial sack. Blood and water came out the evidence that he was really dead and fulfilled another scripture, which said they shall look on him whom they pierced. I've given you perhaps eight or 10 fulfill prophecies.

There are over 300 of them. Now, my friend, you've got to do something with that. You can, you can ignore it.

Many do. But if you examine the word of God, you will discover that unlike any other religion in the world, God has taken your brain seriously. And he has given you hard evidence to believe that Jesus has proven himself to be the Messiah, the son of God.

Christianity is the only belief system in the world that gives you evidence in history to authenticate its truthfulness.