Dr. Rodney Plunket

John 4:10-14; 5-24; 10:10

Through the song we have just sung we interact with the doubts of one of Jesus’ followers, the apostle Thomas.  He struggles with the way Jesus is, because that Jesus is so different from what he expected.

Thomas struggles with who Jesus is after and because of the crucifixion.  But Matthew 16:13-15 makes clear that many struggled with the identity of Jesus even before His death.  If you have your Bible, please turn to that passage and follow along as I read.

When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-15).

What I want to deal with this morning is the fact that there are many today who are engaged in the same struggle that we see in Thomas and others during the New Testament period.  Many people today are asking the same question that Jesus asks here in the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.  They are asking, “Who is Jesus?”  For example, the March 27, 2000 issue of News­week devoted an eleven page cover story (pages 50-60) to how Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists view Jesus.

Another example is the April 24, 2000 issue of U.S.News & World Report.  It had on its cover a portion of a 16^th century painting entitled “Christ Carrying the Cross.”  That picture was accompanied by this headline, “Why Jesus was Killed:  Scholars find new clues about the Crucifixion.”  The associ­ated article began on page (p) fifty, and on p 53 we have a telling line.  With regard to answering the question of “Why Jesus was killed” it says, “Scholars begin their search for answers with historical reconstruction of Jesus himself.  Who was he, whom did he claim to be, and how was he regarded by others of his time” (p 53).  Notice the word “historical,” because fundamental to this current interest is the use of historical research as the means of determining who Jesus was.

You see, going on within current scholarship is the desire to reconstruct the “historical Jesus.”  Some of the scholars involved in this area of research possess an orthodox Christian faith.  The conclusions they draw do not negate a genuine faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.  Others have an unorthodox faith; they believe that the way the New Testament portrays Jesus is inaccurate, and they claim to possess a faith in Jesus as He really was before early Christianity distorted that reality.  Others have no faith in Jesus at all, but they still want to discover the historical Jesus by analyzing, through historical research, the rele­vant materials.

The scholars who have received the most publicity in their search for the historical Jesus are the members of “The Jesus Seminar.”  “The Jesus Seminar” is comprised of scholars who vote on the words in the Gospels ascribed to Jesus.  They vote on which of these sayings they think were really made by Jesus and which sayings were not.  They make their evaluations on the basis of their own historical reconstructions of the historical Jesus.  In this very democ­ratic way they have decided that “82% of the words attributed to Jesus were not spoken by him” (James R. Edwards, “Who Do Scholars Say That I Am?” Christianity Today [March 4, 1996], 15.

But although “The Jesus Seminar” gets the most press, the members of that group are not the only scholars involved in this enterprise.  In fact, my reading indicates that they receive the most critical reviews of any involved in this area of research.

But when I study the broader quest for the historical Jesus, I discover an interesting fact.  In spite of the fact that all of these researchers have at their disposal the same materials and are employing scientific methods, the conclu­sions reached are very different from one another.  For example, some of these scholars are confident that the historical Jesus had no interest in end time events.  However, at least one scholar thinks that Jesus may have believed that God would triumph at the end of time.  But this scholar also believes that Jesus did not think he would play any role in that triumph (see the description of Marcus Borg’s view in M. Eugene Boring’s “The ‘Third Quest’ and the Apos­tolic Faith,” Interpretation 50 [October 1996]: 342).  Contrast these views with the view of another very significant player in this field.  The research of E. P. Sanders causes him to picture Jesus as a prophet who “expected the inter­vention of God in the near future to bring the present age to an end and to regather the twelve tribes of Israel around Jerusalem” (from Boring’s descrip­tion of Sanders’ view in Ibid.).  I focus on this issue of Jesus’ view of end time events simply to illustrate that scholars, using the same historical documents and the same tools of historical research, end up with many different versions of the historical Jesus.  And it will surprise few people to learn that the feminist scholar most interested in this area of research has discovered a Jesus who “challenged the patriarchal power structures and founded a radically egalitarian society in which women were the primary leaders” (Ibid.).

What do you make of all this?  Can any reasonable person have faith in a Jesus who is viewed in such a variety of ways by historians?  A fundamentalist Christian might counter these questions with the following argument:  “Since these scholars cannot agree among themselves, the better question is, ‘Should we take any notice of an enterprise that generates such widely divergent pic­tures?’”  There is force to that critique.

However, all of these scholars are required by the demands of their disci­pline to make use of the New Testament writings as documents central to their research.  They also bring to their research a high degree of academic training.  As a result, I have found that even the views which I think the most unlikely still shed surprising light on Jesus.  They add to my picture of Jesus, or they reveal the importance of an element that I had tended to minimize.  I also think that so much scholarly interest in Jesus highlights His significance and can gen­erate a search by persons who would otherwise remain disinterested in matters of faith.

In addition, it should be pointed out that Christians are in the truth busi­ness.  We confess that Jesus was and is and ever will be the truth.  Therefore, we must not ignore an enterprise that is focused on that Jesus.  If Christians do ignore that enterprise, then it appears to the world that we are afraid of the truth concerning who Jesus really was.

But we must be aware of the fact that no historical research is unbiased.  The myth of scientific objectivity is just that––a myth.  An expert in any field is still shaped by upbringing, genetics, education, and life experiences just like the rest of us.  No amount of training can remove the prejudices which are integral to who we are.  And in no scholarly pursuit are those prejudices any more apparent than in the pursuit of the historical Jesus.  Since Hermann Samuel Reimarus––the 18^th century philosopher credited with being the first to attempt a reconstruction of the historical Jesus––from him until the present day, it is clear that this type of research is profoundly affected by the research­er’s presuppositions.  And this awareness cuts both ways.  We must admit that presuppositions and prejudices also affect a historical Jesus researcher who has an orthodox faith.  The fact that he or she comes to conclusions that are com­patible with faith should be viewed with the same skepticism that we view the conclusions of those who come with no faith and leave their with no faith.

You see, although I think historical evidence supports faith in Jesus as Savior, Lord, and Son of God, I know that I also am prejudiced.  I do not want to find evidence that would destroy faith.  I do not want to find a historical Jesus who looks radically different from the Jesus of Scripture.  I want to find a Jesus who creates and feeds and matures faith.

My point?  I don’t think it is very appropriate to build faith in Jesus on historical research.  I do not get the impression that people in the first century came to faith in Jesus because of tours to Jerusalem to see the empty tomb.  I will not ignore the results of the current quest for the historical Jesus, but I will not ground my faith in those results either.

So how do I ground my faith?  Open your worship bulletin and turn to p 8.  Please follow along as I read the passages of Scripture printed there.

John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.  Where do you get that living water?  12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”  13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

John 5:24 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 10:10 I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Jesus makes claims in these verses.  He makes radical claims.  He claims that He gives real life, eternal life, abundant life.  I think that good research into the historical Jesus will feed and mature my faith, but I will ground my faith in the fulfillment of promises like the ones found here.  A foundation stone in the ground of my faith is my experience of the joy of the eternal life that Jesus gives.

We as a church want to pause now and praise God for giving us abun­dant life through Christ Jesus.  We invite everyone here to join with us as we sing.  Adam, come lead us.

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  A bitter oppo­nent of Jesus experienced the fulfillment of that promise.  On his way to perse­cute Christians in Damascus, he was blinded by the brightness of the glory of Jesus.  He turned away from his opposition and became the apostle Paul.  He wrote the following words in Ephesian 2:4-7:

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Paul came to know “the immeasurable riches” of the eternal life that Jesus gives, and he embraced those riches with great joy.  Paul experienced the truth­fulness of the promises of Jesus.  Jesus indeed keeps his promise to give abun­dant life.  Feel that “Abundant Life Power.”

The power of that promise was experienced by Christians who lived in the Roman Empire during the days after Paul.  Because they believed they had received a life that conquered death, they did not act like other people.  Listen to these words from the March 29, 1999 issue of Newsweek magazine.

Once death lost its power over life, life itself took on new mean­ing for believers.  Sociologist Rodney Stark of the University of Washington sees dramatic evidence of this in the high Christian survival rates during the plagues that repeatedly hit the citizens of the ancient Roman Empire.  “The Romans threw people out into the street at the first symptoms of disease, because they knew it was contagious and they were afraid of dying,” says Stark.  “But the Christians stayed and nursed the sick.  You could only do that if you thought, ‘So what if I die?  I have life eternal’” (p 55).

Feel the power of abundant life.  Feel the power and the affirmation of Jesus’ promise to give believers that abundant life.

Wayne Norton of Coffeyville, KS tells another powerful story that affirms that Jesus does indeed deliver on His promise to give abundant life:

Several years ago, Dr. John Claypool was the senior pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.  He was very much in demand as a speaker.  Dr. Claypool came to a train terminal to catch a waiting train for a speaking engagement.  Ahead of Dr. Claypool was a hurried businessman who was navigating through the crowd like a foot­ball player.  The man was just ahead of Dr. Claypool when he rounded a corner.  A disabled little boy had a table with candy, gum, and other snacks.  The businessman knocked the little boy and his table to the ter­minal floor.  The table spilled merchandise everywhere.  The busi­ness­man looked at the crying little merchant and cursed him for being in the way.  Dr. Claypool stopped, picked up the chair, sat the little boy in it, handed him a handkerchief, and began to retrieve all the scattered mer­chandise and money.  After the boy was “back in business,” Dr. Claypool handed him a twenty dollar bill.  The little boy stopped crying and said, “Mister, are you Jesus Christ?”  Dr. Claypool smiled and replied, “No son, I’m not.  I am just trying to do the things that He would do if He were here” (Pulpit Helps, vol. 25, no. 7, July 2000, p 6).

Abundant life flowed through this event and borught a beautiful blessing.  Feel the power of abundant life.

Another abundant life story comes out of the beleaguered nation of Cambodia.  It involves a woman named Joke van Opstal.  Joke is a worker for World Relief, and she has led many Cambodian children to Christ through pup­pet shows.  These shows teach the need for better hygiene, but they also tell children about a God who loves them.

Van Opstal tells the story of one little girl in a church there who became a Christian and was later abducted, along with two friends, to be sold into prostitution.  “A foreigner gave them a gas or something to make them drowsy and then took them to a room and told them to take everything off,” she says.  “This little girl got scared and said, ‘I want to pray to Jesus.  Do you want to pray with me?’  The other girls were not Christians, but they told her that if she was going to pray, she better do it quickly.

“They were praying,” she says, “and the girl told me it was like a wind blowing.  Then, as soon as she said ‘Amen,’ somebody came into the room and realized he was in the wrong room.  He said, ‘What are you doing here?’  The girls started crying, and he brought them back to their school and to safety” (Christianity Today, vol. 44, no. 9, August 7, 2000, p 48).

Feel Jesus’ “Abundant Life Power.”  See Jesus keeping His promise to give it to all who believe.

A 1997 article by Campus Crusade for Christ titled “Who is Jesus?” tells this story.

In Korea, Joon Gon Kim, a well-known Christian leader, wit­nessed his wife and father slaughtered before his eyes by Communist sympathizers from his own village.  He himself was beaten senseless and left for dead.  He survived the beating and asked God to give him love for the souls of his enemies.  He eventually led 30 Communists to believe in Christ, including the person responsible for the death of his family members (<http://www.ccci.org/whoisjesus/interactive-jour­ney/impactd.htm>)

Feel Jesus’ “Abundant life Power.”  Feel the power of our Savior to give to us what He has promised.

Paul F. Feiler in his article “Images of the Relevant Jesus” recounts this story.

Several years ago, on a mission trip to Merida, Mexico, a friend and I visited the great Catholic cathedral on the square.  In the chancel behind the altar hangs a tall crucifix.  Seated beside me was an old woman kneeling and praying.  Her face was radiant.  Her hands were lifted up in praise.  I heard her whispering, ‘Alleluia, Alleluia.’  What was shocking about this scene, however, was that the woman was desti­tute.  She had no teeth and very little hair.  She had a deep scar on the side of her face.  Her hands were twisted and gnarled and beside her were a pair of crutches.  ‘My God,’ I prayed, ‘what this woman must have been through in her life.  God, what questions must she have for you?  What complaints must she be able to raise against you?  But now, here, what lights up her face?’  In Spanish, my friend asked her, ‘What is it that makes you say, ‘Alleluia?’  Pointing to the crucifix she said simply, ‘He is with me’” (Paul F. Feiler, “Images of the Relevant Jesus,” Insights:  The Faculty Journal of Austin Seminary 112 [spring 1997]: 39).

Feel the power of abundant life flowing through even the tough places in life.  Christ shines even there.  Where we see nothing but darkness, the abundant life of Jesus still shines.

We are about to sing a special song.  While we are singing that song you are invited to come to the front.  Two of the elders and I will be up here to meet you and to talk with you.  We want you to receive God’s abundant life.  We will take you to Scripture to answer any questions that you might have.  We will provide you with counsel as needed.  We want you to receive what Jesus has promised to give.

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