Category Archives: Jesus Christ

Six arguments for the resurrection of Jesus

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Michael Green (BST) points out that even though Matthew does not offer exhaustive evidence for the resurrection, nevertheless he does ‘give us a handle on six arguments for the truth of the resurrection which were widely deployed in the early church and down the centuries:-

1. The first witnesses. The testimony of women counted for little in both Jewish and Greco-Roman society. They could not bear witness in a court of law. But God chose them to be the first witnesses to the resurrection of his Son!…

Jesus and the law

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The Old Testament has laws about all kinds of things – stealing, retaliations, charging interest, homosexual acts, and so on. How can we tell which of these Jesus intended to apply to his followers?

Various answers are given:-

  1. he intended all OT laws to apply (Christian Judaism)
  2. he intended only the moral and civil laws to apply (theonomy)
  3. he intended only the moral laws to apply (moral nomianism)
  4. he intended only laws he taught to apply (new covenant theology)
  5. he did not intend Christians to live by laws at all (antinomianism)

How can we begin to resolve this?…

The authority of Christ

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Are we sufficiently mindful of the authority of Jesus Christ?

Consider:-

1. Its origin. Cf. Jn 3:35, “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.” Mt 11:27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father.” Eph 1:22 ‘God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.’ See also Ps 2:6-12; Ps 110:1. If all of Christ’s power and authority is derived from the Father, how much more is this the case with us.…

Jesus interrupted

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Hendriksen (NTC on Luke, p 456) comments on the number of times that Jesus is interrupted and the way in which he responds to such interruptions:-

1. When speaking to a crowd, Lk 5:17-19
2. When asleep, Lk 8:22-24
3. When on his way to perform a healing, Lk 8:43-44
4. When conversing with his disciples, Lk 12:12ff
5. When praying, Mk 1:35ff
6. When travelling, Mk 10:46ff

Never is he ‘thrown’. He uses each occasion as a golden opportunity for some priceless teaching or wonderful miracle.…

Just like Jesus?

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It should be the daily goal of Christians to become more like Christ.  It is a remarkable reflection of God’s common grace that even those without faith in Jesus Christ can demonstrate remarkably Christlike qualities.

But the popular mind in general, and the media in particular, have a regrettable tendency to single out a few remarkable lives and virtually deify them.  Cases in point would be Ghandi, Mother Theresa, and Nelson Mandela.  The tendency to place Mandela in the pantheon of virtue along with Jesus Christ was reflected in a question put by BBC presenter Justin Webb to Jimmy Carter.  …

The ‘high Christology’ of the Synoptics

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Scholars such as Bart Ehrman (in his recent book How Jesus Became God) stress the differences between the ‘higher Christology’ of John’s Gospel (in which Jesus is represented as God incarnate) and the ‘lower Christology’ of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in which he is represented as exalted, but not pre-existent).  For Ehrman, even the Synoptic view of Jesus did not arise until after his followers came to believe that he had been resurrected; and the Johanine view developed later still.…

Mt 2:13-23 – Out of Egypt – sermon notes

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V13 – ‘When they had gone’ – that same night?

Whatever happened to the gold, frankincense and myrrh?

Three places – three prophecies. Not always 1:1 prediction/fulfilment (cf. Mt 2:5/Mic 5:2); they are more like ‘patterns’.

1. Egypt – a place of rescue

Border about 75 miles away. Many Jews living there.

V15 – ‘And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”’ (Hos 11:1)

Hos 11:1 not a prediction, but a glance back to the Exodus.…

How the Old Testament deepens our love for Jesus

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When we read the Old Testament,

  1. we are reading Jesus’ Bible – the Old Testament Scriptures were Jesus’ Bible
  2. we are learning Jesus’ language – his teaching was saturated with Old Testament words and concepts; more than that, he saw the Old Testament scriptures as fulfilled in himself
  3. we are singing Jesus’ songs – the book of Psalms was Jesus’ hymnbook
  4. we are feeling Jesus’ feelings – passages such as Psalm 22 and 69 display Christ’s sufferings in an especially powerful way
  5. we are hearing Jesus’ voice – as the one mediator between God and us, it is his voice that we hear speaking to and pleading with sinners
  6. we are seeing Jesus in action – as the ‘Angel of the Lord’ he visited the earth many times
  7. we are admiring Jesus’ trophies – considering how much less they knew, the Old Testament saints are in some way even more remarkable the those of the New Testament

Summarising this article by David Murray…

Desiring Christ

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The Puritan John Flavel invites us to ask the following questions about our desires for Christ:-

‘Are they ARDENT? Has Christ the supreme place in our hearts? Do we esteem all things but dung that we may win Christ and be found in him?

Are they UNIVERSAL? Is everything about Christ desirable in our eyes? The hypocrite is for a divided Christ. The believer loves his government and his grace, his sovereignty and his mercy, his Lordship and his priesthood.…

The gospel is the story of Jesus

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Many Christians feel a tension between the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels and that of Paul in his Epistles.  The central theme of Jesus, it would appear, was ‘the kingdom of God’, and the main focus of Paul was ‘justification by faith’.  These themes are so different that any attempt to reconcile them seems futile.  We then allow Jesus and Paul to be set up in opposition to one another, and end taking sides in favour of one or the other.…