It is offensive to claim that Jesus in the ONLY WAY to SALVATION�in order to answer this question we need to have a close look at��

Who is Jesus of Nazareth?

• Have you ever met a man with such a person with such attraction that he is always the center of attention?
• Possibly his personality or intelligence---but something about him is enigmatic.
• Well, that’s the way it was two thousand years ago with Jesus Christ.

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But it wasn’t merely Jesus’ personality that captivated his followers. �Those who witnessed his words and life tell us that even though he was human, he was remarkably different from all other men�

Lets review some basic facts that we may have always taken for granted �

• Eyewitnesses tell us that Jesus was a man who grew physically, ate, slept, felt pain, and eventually died.
• Their written accounts also describe Jesus as walking on water, calming storms, healing the blind and lame, and even raising the dead.
• Furthermore, they tell us that Jesus appeared alive to them after they watched him die on the cross.

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• Jesus’ greatness was obvious to all those who saw and heard him.
• But, whereas most great people simply fade into history books, Jesus of Nazareth is still the focus of numerous books and media controversy.
• And much of that controversy revolves around the radical claims Jesus made about himself.

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• As a carpenter from a Judean village in what is modern day Israel, Jesus made claims that, if true, have great implications on our lives.
• Jesus said that those who have seen him, have seen God, and that the way to God is through him---alone.

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• These and other claims like them greatly astonished everyone who heard them

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• It was mainly Jesus’ claims that caused him to be viewed as a threat by both the Roman authorities and the Jews.
• Although he was a “carpenter” with no prestigious position or political powerbase, within three years, Jesus changed the world for the next 20 centuries +. 

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Did Jesus really exist?

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• Although some have wondered if Jesus really existed, even most non-Christian scholars acknowledge him as a real person.
• The great non-Christian historian, H. G. Wells, ranked Jesus as the most influential person ever (see http://www.y-jesus.com/bornid_1.php).

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Other great leaders have left an impact---but nothing like that unknown carpenter from Nazareth�

• What was it about Jesus Christ that made the difference?
• Was he merely a great man, or something more?
• Some believe he was just a great moral teacher;
• others believe he was simply the leader of the world’s greatest religion

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But many – including former skeptics – believe something far more �

• Former Cambridge professor and skeptic C. S. Lewis came to a shocking conclusion (shocking to him) that Jesus’ claims wouldn’t allow us to call him simply a great moral teacher.

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• So who is the real Jesus?
• Let’s take a closer look at this man who changed our world.
• As we take a deeper look at the world’s most controversial person, we begin by asking:

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Could Jesus have been just a great moral teacher?!!!

• Even those from other religions acknowledge that Jesus was a great moral teacher.
• Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi, spoke highly of Jesus’ righteous life and profound words.
• Likewise, Jewish scholar Joseph Klausner wrote,
• “It is universally admitted … that Christ taught the purest and sublimest ethics … which throws the moral precepts and maxims of the wisest men of antiquity far into the shade.”²

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• Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount has been called the most superlative teaching of human ethics ever uttered by an individual.
• In fact, much of what we know today as “equal rights” actually is the result of Jesus’ teaching.
• Historian Will Durant, a non-Christian, said of Jesus that:
• “he lived and struggled unremittingly for ‘equal rights’; in modern times he would have been sent to Siberia. ‘He that is greatest among you, let him be your servant’—this is the inversion of all political wisdom, of all sanity.”

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• Many, like Gandhi, have tried to separate Jesus’ teaching on ethics from his claims about himself, believing that he was simply a great man who taught lofty moral principles.
• For example President Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s Founding Fathers, cut and pasted a copy of the New Testament, removing sections he thought referred to Jesus’ deity (being God), while leaving in other passages regarding Jesus’ ethical and moral teaching.
• Jefferson carried around his “cut and pasted New Testament” with him, respecting Jesus as perhaps the greatest moral teacher of all time.

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• In fact, Jefferson’s memorable words in the Declaration of Independence were rooted in Jesus’ teaching that each person is of immense and equal importance to God, regardless of sex, race, or social status.
• The famous document sets forth,
• “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …”

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• But one thing Jefferson didn’t answer:
• If Jesus falsely claimed to be God he couldn’t have been a good moral teacher.

• Before we look at what Jesus claimed, we need to examine the possibility that he was simply a great religious leader?

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Was Jesus simply a Great Religious Leader?!!

• Surprisingly, Jesus never claimed to be a religious leader.
• He never got into religious politics or pushed an ambitious agenda,
• His ministry was almost entirely outside the established religious framework.

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• When one compares Jesus with the other great religious leaders, a remarkable distinction emerges.
• Ravi Zacharias, who grew up in a Hindu culture, studied world religions and observed a fundamental distinction between Jesus Christ and the founders of other major religions.

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Ravi Zacharias said

• "In all of these, there emerges an instruction, a way of living …
• It is not Buddha who delivers you; it is his Noble Truths that instruct you.
• It is not Mohammad who transforms you; it is the beauty of the Koran that attracts you.
• By contrast, Jesus did not only teach or expound His message. He was identical with His message."

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• The truth of Zacharias’ point is underlined by the number of times in the Gospels that Jesus’ teaching message was simply
• “Come to me”
• “Follow me”
• “Obey me.”
• Over and Above … Jesus made it clear that his primary mission was to forgive sins … something only God could do.

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• In The World’s Great Religions, Huston Smith observed,
• “Only two people ever astounded (surprised) their contemporaries so much that the question they evoked was not ‘Who is he?’ but ‘What is he?’ They were Jesus and Buddha.
• The answers these two gave were exactly the opposite.
• Buddha said that he was a mere man, not a god—almost as if he foresaw later attempts to worship him.
• Jesus, on the other hand, claimed … to be Divine.” (to be God)

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• And that leads us to the following questions:
• How could we explain the fact that Jesus insisted on His being God?
• Where would this argument lead us?

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Possible answers to this question are:�Jesus was Lying, �Jesus was Self-deceived�or �He was saying the Truth!!!

Could Jesus Have been lying?!!!

• Even Jesus’ harshest critics rarely have called him a liar.
• That label certainly doesn’t fit with Jesus’ high moral and ethical teaching.
• Jesus’ statements about himself contradict the notion that he was simply a great man or a prophet.
• Jesus said that HE WAS GOD

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Why would He lie?!!!

• One of the best-known and most influential political works of all time was written by Niccolò Machiavelli in 1532.
• In his classic, The Prince, Machiavelli exalts power, success, image, and efficiency above loyalty, faith, and honesty.
• According to Machiavelli, lying is okay if it accomplishes a political end.

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Consistency

• Could Jesus Christ have built his entire ministry upon a lie just to gain power, fame, or success?
• In fact, the Jewish enemies of Jesus were always trying to expose him as a fraud and liar.
• They would barrage him with questions in attempt to make him contradict himself.
• Yet Jesus replied with remarkable consistency.

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Had He been lying, what is His motive

• We may think of one of TWO possibilities:
• BENEFIT
• LEGACY

BENEFIT

• Many people lie for personal gain.
• In fact, the motivation of most lies is some benefit to oneself.
• What could Jesus have hoped to gain from lying about his identity?
• Power would be the most obvious answer.
• If people believed he was God, he would have tremendous power.

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• But the fact is Jesus refused all attempts to move him in the direction of power, instead he always blamed those who abused such power and lived their lives pursuing it.
• He also chose to reach out to the outcasts (prostitutes and lepers), those without power, creating a network of people whose influence was less than zero.
• In a way that could only be described as bizarre, all that Jesus did and said moved in the OPPOSITE direction from power.

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• It would seem that if power was Jesus’ motivation, He would have avoided the Cross at all costs.
• Yet, on several occasions, He told his disciples that the cross was his destiny and mission.
• How would dying on a Roman Cross bring power?

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• Death, of course, brings all things into proper focus.
• And while many martyrs have died for a cause they believed in, few have been willing to die for a known lie.
• Certainly all hopes for Jesus’ own personal gain would have ended on the cross.
• Yet, to his last breath, he would not GIVE UP His claim of being the unique Son of God.

Do historians believe Jesus lied?!!

• Scholars have scrutinized Jesus’ words and life to see if there is any evidence of a defect in his moral character.
• In fact, even the most ardent skeptics are stunned by Jesus’ moral and ethical purity.

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• According to historian Philip Schaff, there is no evidence, either in church history or in secular history that Jesus lied about anything.
• Schaff argued,
• “How, in the name of logic, common sense, and experience, could a deceitful, selfish, depraved man have invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to end, the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality?”

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LEGACY!!!

• So if Jesus was above lying for personal benefit, perhaps his claims were falsified in order to leave a legacy.
• But the prospect of being beaten to a pulp and nailed to a cross would quickly DISCOURAGE the enthusiasm of ANYONE WHO WISHED TO BE A superstar.

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• The fact is If Jesus were to have simply dropped the claim of being God’s Son, he never would have been condemned.
• It was his claim to be God and his unwillingness to reconsider it that got him crucified.

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• If increasing his credibility and historical reputation was what motivated Jesus to lie, one must explain how a carpenter’s son from a poor Judean village could ever anticipate the events that would make of his name a worldwide prominence.
• How would he know his message would survive?
• Jesus’ disciples had fled and Peter had denied him.
• This doesn’t seem to be the formula for launching a religious legacy.

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Was Jesus Self-deceived?!!!

• Albert Schweitzer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1952 for his humanitarian efforts, had his own views about Jesus.
• Schweitzer concluded that insanity was behind Jesus’ claim to be God.
• In other words, Jesus was wrong about his claims but didn’t intentionally lie.
• According to this theory, Jesus was deluded into actually believing he was the Messiah.

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• C.S. Lewis considered this option carefully.
• He deduced that if Jesus’ claims weren’t true, then he must have been insane.
• Lewis reasons that someone who claimed to be God would not be a great moral teacher.
• “He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.”

• Most who have studied Jesus’ life and words acknowledge him as extremely rational.
• The famous French philosopher - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) - whose own life was filled with immorality and personal skepticism, acknowledged Jesus’ superior character and presence of mind, stating,
• “When Plato describes his imaginary righteous man…he describes exactly the character of Christ. …If the life and death of Socrates are those of a philosopher, the life and death of Jesus Christ are those of a God.”

• Another philosopher argued:
• “So what you’re left with is either Christ was who He said He was---or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson….I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside down by a nutcase, for me that’s far-fetched….”

• In Mere Christianity, Lewis explores the options regarding the identity of Jesus, concluding that he is exactly who he claimed to be.
• His careful examination of the life and words of Jesus led this great literary genius to renounce his former atheism and become a committed Christian.

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• Bono, Lewis, and countless others have concluded that God visited our planet in human form.
• He WAS AND IS WHO HE SAID HE IS …

Jesus said about Himself …

• “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58)
• He told Martha and others around her, “I AM the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he is dead, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25)
• “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

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“I am the way and the truth and the life. �No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) �