By T.C. Lo, a sermon preached on January 30, 2011 at The House of Christ's Love, Fishkill, NY, USA
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
If this is true, then this man must have some uniqueness that no one else has. We shall talk about only four aspects today.
John the Baptist stood there with two of Jesus’ disciples beside him. One is Andrew; the other one’s name was not disclosed in the Bible. It came to pass that Jesus walked by them. John the Baptist with one hand pointed to Jesus and with his head turned to the two disciples, he shouted loudly, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples knew all along that something special was in Jesus but they didn’t know what it was. Jesus saw from their face puzzlement and turned to Andrew and said to him, “Do you have a question?” It sounded like Jesus could only give him one chance to ask a question. Andrew said, “Where do you live, Rabbi?” Why he asked such question? Could he ask different ones? Why did he asked questions such as “What do you do? Where do you work? What do your parents do? How old are you? Are you really the Lamb of God? How many brothers and sister you have? No one knew whether there was any philosophical sophistication behind Andrew’s question. Perhaps from the address one can tell the resident’s status. Jesus’ answer was equally perplexing. He did not tell Andrew his address or any identification of where he lived. Jesus simply said, “Come and you will see.” The two disciples without any hesitation followed Jesus and perhaps had dinner with him and spent a night in Jesus’ house. The next day, the disciples returned to their friends like a changed man. They said confidently to their friends, “We have met the Messiah.” Every one was surprised. What on earth did Jesus tell them that they came to recognize him with confidence that he was the Messiah?
I suspect Jesus said, “I am living on earth but my real address is actually in heaven.” I imagine Jesus’ answer shocked Andrew and his friend at the beginning but they were eventually got convinced. What had happened that nigh? I don’t know for sure. But I think Jesus could have convinced them with at least two compelling evidences.
Had it not been true, he would have made a fool of himself. Just see what would happen to you if you told your friends that your mother was a virgin? Your father will be very mad for sure. In the case of Jesus, the matter is more serious: People would not only laugh at Jesus, they would also stone him to death because his statement implied that He was God---guilty of blasphemy.
People like Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, Elizabeth, John, and the disciples risked their lives in accepting the fact of Virgin Birth. The only conclusion is: Jesus, the Nazarene was indeed from Heaven, He and the Father are one. He is God.
Seven hundreds years before the birth of Christ, prophet Isaiah declared:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa.9:6-7)
The prophet used words very carefully. The Son wasn’t born; the child was born. The Son eternally exists. The same prophet said:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isa.7:14)
Andrew and the other disciple then came to grasp both the humanity and the deity of Christ. This is very important. Jesus ought to be a 100% man in order to die as sacrifice for our sins and he ought to be 100% God in order to be our High Priest and our mediator. He is our lawyer before God. He is our Savior.
The most fascinating thing comes from Islam. For centuries, Islam has been working against the Gospel of Christianity. It was in their Koran---Islam’s most holy writ---written six hundreds years after Mohammad’s death that records the virgin birth (Surah 19:19-21). Such recording has no benefit to Islam at all.
The story of Jesus can be traced throughout the Books of the Old Testament whose validity could be tested by responsible historians. Few examples:
1. In Genesis He is the Seed of the woman.
2. In Exodus He is the Passover Lamb.
3. In Leviticus He is the Atoning Sacrifice.
4. In Judges He is the Deliverer.
5. In 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles He is the Promised King.
6. In the prophets He is the coming Prince of Peace.
7. In the Gospels He is God in Christ Jesus, come to redeem.
8. In Revelation He is the Mighty Conqueror.
In order to appreciate the significance of this re-constructability of the biography of Jesus, one must note that the biography of Mohammad (主後第六世紀) was written 100 years after his death. The biography of Gautama Buddha (主前六世紀人物) was written also 100 years after his death (主後第一世紀). The biography of Alexander the Great was written more than 400 years after his death. On the contrary, the Gospels were written in no later than 30 years after the crucifixion. Such a short time span precludes the possibility of development of what had really happened into mythology.
A man’s weakness can easily be exposed to those who know him well and to his enemies. Enemies have the tendency to try hard to find fault at him. One interesting thing is, people who are openly hostile to the church and who hold Christians in contempt are often unsparing in their praise for Jesus. They may criticize Christians, they may criticize Christianity, but I have yet to see any responsible historian or scholar criticize Jesus. The best they could vilify him was their denial of His divinity.
Even George Bernard Shaw---(1856 to 1950); Irish playwright who won Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), when critical of Jesus, could think of no higher standard than Christ Himself. He said of Jesus, “There were times when he did not behave as a Christian.” We cannot miss the irony of Shaw’s criticism.
Jesus’ sinless character could be testified by many:
Everything Jesus taught us, he must first do it as our supreme example. He taught us to love our enemies and he did that first. He taught us to submit humbly to our Heavenly Father and he did that first too. There was one exception: Jesus taught us to repent from our sins but he himself never asked his father for forgiveness because he was utterly pure and it was absolutely no need to repent. The greatest prophet of Islam, Mohammad, had asked Allah for forgiveness of his sins (Surahs 47-48). The need for cyclical reincarnation of Buddha signified his imperfection. To a Buddhist, any birth is a rebirth in order to pay back the debt. Jesus must be sinless in order to be qualified as a perfect sacrifice free from blemishes.
Apostle John recorded in Revelation chapter 5 what he saw in a vision: A glorious one was sitting on the throne. His right hand was holding a scroll sealed with seven seals. An angle shouted loudly, “Who is worthy of breaking the seals?” John saw no one responded and began to weep. One of the elders comforted him and said, “Don’t cry, can you see over there? The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." No sooner than John wiped the tears from his eyes, he turned to other side and saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. This magnificent scene illustrates that both the power and the humility converge in Jesus. He is worthy of opening the Book of life because he is as powerful as a lion and as pure as the spotless lamb.
Jesus’ bodily resurrection is unique and necessary. Had Jesus not been raised from the dead, our belief is in vain. Had Jesus lied in the grave like the ordinary men, our preaching is also in vain. The skeptics and atheists have tried hard to debunk the resurrection, but they prove to themselves over and over again their efforts were futile. People may ask, “How do you know Jesus has resurrected?” You may answer, “I know because He lives in my heart.” While this is a theologically correct answer, one must first know that Jesus lived in history. In fact, historians discussed resurrection more than most Christians think.
Let us start out with the facts which were agreed upon generally by all historians---Christians and skeptic alike.
These historic certainties preclude many hilarious “explanations”.
The only explanation is clear: Jesus was indeed resurrected from the dead. Not only Jesus is a living God, He is also our personal God. Einstein also believed in God, but an impersonal one. The New Age Movement folks believe in “God in all, all in God, and we are gods.” When the resurrected Christ on the first Easter morning saw the women who visited the tomb, Jesus said to one of them, “Mary, Mary…” Jesus knows each of us by name, we are his children. We are his personal friends. What a comfort the reality of resurrection offers to us in times of adversities.
Before Christ’s resurrection, the disciples were despondent, disillusioned, discouraged, and disenchanted, disheartening and despaired. But after their sighting of the resurrected Lord, they became brave, active, animated, and mission-driven. They were willing to risk their lives for the proclamation of the truth of resurrection. They became instrumental in subsequent evangelistic movement and ultimately turned the world upside down. Jesus is alive to conquer despair, to impart hope, to forgive sins, and to take away our loneliness. He is alive to reconcile us to God. Jesus’ blood is necessary to cleanse our sins. His resurrection is necessary to give power to overcome sins.
Jack Eckerd, the CEO of the Eckerd drugstore one day became a Christian, he immediately ordered all his store managers, hundreds of them over the country, to remove all pornographies from the shelves. Chuck Colson phoned him, “Why did you do this? Was it because you are a Christian?” To this question, Jack replied, “Where else should I throw away this 3 million dollar business?” Eckerd was not only saved from his guilt by Jesus’ blood, he was saved from the power of sin through the resurrection of Jesus.
Having conquered all of the civilized Europe, Napoleon understood power. Yet he saw that Jesus came with different motives and methods. He offered this extraordinary observations about Jesus:
Napoleon saw how Jesus conquered---not by force but by winning hearts.
The modern Chinese history bears witnesses to the existence of God. The persecution of Christians started in 1949. Churches were undergone all kinds of attacks. By 1958, all churches were closed. When the wife of Mao Tze Dong (江青) was interviewed by a foreign delegation, she told them, “Christianity in China is a thing of the past; it belongs only to the museum. Christianity is dead and has been buried.” In the 70’s, a visiting group from the United States exclaimed, “There is no Christian in the soil of China, not even one.” Today, China has Christians grown into a force tens of millions strong. This simple fact illustrates the uniqueness of Christ’s kingdom and His incomparable might. After the 70’s, Chinese church was like the buds of roses blooming enormously, showing to the world the beauty and life of Christ.
Considering the uniqueness of Christ, we should have higher confidence to know “Whom I have believed.” Our faith must grow from where we are to a higher plateau.
Jesus didn’t change our behavior, He changes our heart. Today, Jesus calls you to repent and surrender your life to him and let him transform your whole being.
Let me close with a story. The story happened in the south-west corner of England. A pastor had been travelling along the road near the cliffs. When the storm struck, he dashed into a cave for shelter. He had been fortunate to find this hiding-place so quickly, and while waiting for the storm to pass he began to muse on the idea of the Rock of faith being a shelter from the storms of life. The words for a hymn began to form in his mind but he had no paper in his pocket to write down the words. Looking down he saw a playing card, considered a sinful thing by the young cleric. Nevertheless, he picked it up and began to write:
Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.
The Pastor’s name was Augustus Montague Toplady. This name may not be familiar to you until you realize that he was the one who penned the hymn the “Rock of Ages”. (萬古磐石)
By understanding the uniqueness of Jesus, it gives us the confidence to know that he is indeed our Rock of Faith, the Rock that can shelter us from unfavorable circumstances of life. Are you in the midst of a storm? Come to Jesus for protection. He is the hope for the hopeless, pardon for the guilty, forgiveness for the conscious-stricken, peace for those who knew no peace, good news for those who have had nothing but bad news. Hide yourself in the Rock of Ages, and you will be secured in the Providence of God.
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Sermon Outline 證道大綱 Topic: The Uniqueness of Jesus 耶穌的獨特性 Theme verse: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (使徒行傳Acts 4:12)
Epilog: Christ is our Rock of Faith 是我們信心的盤石
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