The Outlandish Jesus
When people say bizarre outlandish things they are quickly dismissed and sometimes end up in an insane asylum. But consider the fact that Jesus said some outlandish things about Himself. One outlandish statement is recorded in John 8:23. “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” If you met someone today who seriously insisted that He was from another world you’d reach for your cell phone and dial 9-1-1. “Please come quickly this man is crazy.”
For Jesus to make statements like this makes it impossible to ignore Him. Here’s a man who walks across the pages of history claiming that He is from another world; that He came from heaven to earth. In the very next verse in John eight His outlandish claims continue when He says, “If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (vs. 24). Clearly Jesus considered Himself to be the Promised Messiah whom God sent into the world to save us from our sins. The famous quote of C. S. Lewis from his book Mere Christianity states well why the man Jesus cannot be ignored.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said 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. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
To ignore the claims of Christ is the height of ignobility. For if He is not who He claimed to be then the world needs to be warned of the harm He brings through His false claims and insane ideas. And if He is who He claimed to be then we need to do everything we can to present Him to as many as we can as the hope of the world and the source of true life. Either way, Jesus cannot be ignored.
I for one have considered His claims and examined the evidence and have come to the conclusion that He is who He claimed to be. He is the Son of God. He is the Lord of glory. He is the Savior of the world. The greatest evidence that Jesus’ claims were all valid is His resurrection from the dead; something He actually predicted. The empty tomb forever stands as the ultimate validation of all that He said and all that He claimed. Romans 1:4 says He is, “declared to be the Son of God with power...by the resurrection from the dead.”
So you see, you simply cannot ignore Him. The claims of Christ demand a response from each and every one of us. As you open your heart and consider Him hear Him say,
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28)
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me” (John 14:6)
Place your faith and trust In Him. It is a decision you will never regret.
Pastor Dan