He claims he made the universe, and this very earth we live on.  He claims that without his mighty power that the air we enjoy right now would not exist.  He claims that he can change a person’s life and that he is coming back again.

What proof does Jesus have????  What evidence does he have???  So what of his claims??? Do they matter???  My friend tonight we are in the court room of life and I am here to prove to you the jury, without a shadow of doubt that Jesus is God, he came as a human, he died, he rose from the dead and today he is mighty to save us form our sins. There are three points to my defence.

1. Jesus’ physical witness.

2. Jesus’ prophetic witness.

3. Jesus’ personal witness

Once I have finished delivering my defence, you will have a choice. Matthew 22:42 Jesus asks, “Who do you think I am?” Jesus wants you to answer this question tonight.  Your answer will be an informed answer. A sure answer. Was Jesus just a good person? Was Jesus mad?  A loony? Or was He God?

1. Jesus’ Physical Witness.

As in any court of law, the most important witness is a physical witness, someone who was there.  Well Jesus was a well known teacher of his time.   He was known as a carpenter in Galilee.  It is quite possible He made boats as well as other things pertaining to this.  How do we know? Well in the scriptures Jesus called some fishermen to follow him and they did.  There seemed to be a strong hint of familiarity. 
When people referred to Jesus in the Bible they would say call out teacher or rabbi.  Jesus was known as a healer.  Often strangers would ask Jesus to heal their family and friends.  When Jesus was crucified, they called him the King of the Jews.  He was known by all in the Kingdom of Israel.  Then something interesting happened.  He was dead for two days, but on the third day he rose again. Not only did Mary and the 12 disciples see him alive, 500 people also saw him and took note of it.  In the court of law you only have to have 1 witness to prove someone’s guilt or innocence. But Jesus has hundreds.  Now you might say to me.  Well that is only the Bible- that could have been tampered with, the writers could just be saying that just to make you believe.

Well good news, we have other evidence from outside sources that saw or recorded this Jesus Christ.

Cornelius Tacitus (55-120 AD), "the greatest historian" of ancient Rome:

"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed."

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillas, chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD):

"Because the Jews of Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, [Claudius] expelled them from the city."

"After the great fire at Rome [during Nero's reign] ... Punishments were also inflicted on the Christians, a sect professing a new and mischievous religious belief."

Flavius Josephus (37-97 AD), court historian for Emperor Vespasian:

"At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders." (Arabic translation)

I don’t want to bog you down with facts, but facts are facts and they don’t lie. There is more but time is everyone’s enemy and it is mine today.

Back to the Bible.  We can trust it as truth and correct.  Check out these figures. ¹

The Works of Plato

Date of Manuscript’s Origin: 300 BC

Date of Earliest Existing Copy: 900AD

Gap Between Original and Earliest Existing Copy: 1,200 years

Number of Existing Copies: 7

Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar

Date of Manuscript’s Origin: 100 BC

Date of Earliest Existing Copy: 900AD

Gap Between Original and Earliest Existing Copy: 1,000 years

Number of Existing Copies: 10

Annals by Tacitus

Date of Manuscript’s Origin: 100 AD

Date of Earliest Existing Copy: 1100 AD

Gap Between Original and Earliest Existing Copy: 1,000 years

Number of Existing Copies: 3

These books authenticity have never been question.  It is taken as fact that these books are translated without error. Now let’s look at the New Testament.

New Testament

Date of Manuscript’s Origin: 50-95 AD

Date of Earliest Existing Copy: 125AD

Gap Between Original and Earliest Existing Copy: 30-75 years

Number of Existing Copies: 5,700

Despite the number of copies available and the original and existing copies being only 50 years apart, the Bible and the New Testament is under fire.  Crazy.  Let the facts be fact and let’s settle on this, that the New Testament is the most historic accurate document available.

This brings me to my second witness.

2. Jesus' prophetic witness

In a normal court of law the supernatural element is rarely used. However we are dealing with supernatural issues with supernatural origins so we must look into this.  If the Bible is true and we have proven it is more reliable than any other ancient document then we must call the next witness.  Messianic  Prophesy. There are over 100 Old Testament prophecies Jesus fulfilled. Let’s look at some of them.

The Virgin Birth ²

Isaiah 7:14 - 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.

The Fulfilment

Matthew 1:22-23 -  All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"[b]—which means, "God with us."

Jesus' Birth Place

Micah 5:2 - "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans [a] of Judah,  out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins [b] are from of old from ancient times. [c] "

The Fulfilment

Matthew 2:1 - 1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem

Jesus' forerunner- The one before him

Malachi 3:1 - "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty.

The Fulfilment

That happened in Luke 3:2-6

Jesus' Betrayal

Psalm 41:9 - Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

The Fulfilment

John 13:26 - Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.

Zechariah 11:12 - I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.

The Fulfilment

Matthew 26:14-15 - Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver coins.

Jesus' Death

Zechariah 12:10 - "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit [a] of grace and supplication. They will look on [b] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

The Fulfilment

John 19:34 - Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

Psalm 22:18 - They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

The Fulfilment

Matthew 27:35 - When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Psalm 34:20 - he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken

The Fulfilment

John 19:32-33 - The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

Jesus' Resurrection

Psalm 16:10 - because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One [b] see decay.

The Fulfilment

Acts 2:31-32- Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,[a] that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.

Do we have a lawyer in the house? Is this enough?  Well there is more.  The mathematical odds of Jesus fulfilling just 8 of these prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17^th power.  That’s 17 zeros after your one, 100,000,000,000,000,000.  Not only was Jesus well prophesied, he was a prophet himself.

Jesus predicted that Judas would betray him and he did. Jesus predicted that his closest friend would flee after he was arrested and they did. Jesus said that Peter, his closest friend would deny him three times and Peter did.  Jesus predicted he would be crucified and he would rise on the third day and he did.  The list goes on and on and on.  At this point only someone very hard hearted could not believe that there is something supernatural going on here.

3. Jesus’ Personal Witness

My final point before I give you a chance to respond to this defence of Jesus is his personal witness.  What do I mean by personal witness?  You see Jesus wasn’t just an outstanding person.  Larry King one of the most famous TV hosts in America said this about Jesus.  “I am not a believer, but I have the utmost respect for Jesus Christ.  I believe He was the most influential person who ever lived.”

If you ever encountered Jesus you were never left the same.  He healed people of serious diseases, he changed peoples lives, he gave people true meaning for life.  People gave up everything to follow him.  This included successful fisherman, doctors, tax men, and people of high political backgrounds, from the highest of places of society to the lowest of people.  In fact, 11 of his 12 followers followed Jesus with so much fervour that they lost their lives doing it. Here’s some of their stories:

Peter - crucified (upside down) in Rome.

Matthew - arrested in Ethiopia and there nailed to the ground with short spears and beheaded.

John - John faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. The Apostle John was later freed and returned to what is now modern-day Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.

James, the brother of Jesus - thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat him to death with a club. This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the temptation.

Bartholomew, also know as Nathanael - a missionary to Asia, he witnessed in present-day Turkey and was martyred for his preaching in Armenia, when he was flayed to death by a whip.

Andrew - was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece.

Thomas - stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church there.

Matthias (the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot) - stoned and then beheaded.

Paul - tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67.

It is not so important how the apostles died. What is important is the fact that they were all willing to die for their faith. If Jesus had not been resurrected, if Jesus wasn’t the real deal, the disciples would have known that. No one will die for something he knows is a lie. The fact that the apostles were willing to die horrible deaths, refusing to renounce their faith in Christ - is tremendous evidence that they had truly witnessed the miracles, the love, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The truth of the matter is that once you have encountered Jesus you will never be the same.

So what should your response be? Well if you are a believer your faith should be full.  In other words you should have no doubt that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and everything he said is true.  You should be able to follow him and what he has told us to do in the Bible with your whole being.  You should hold nothing back and be greatly encouraged in your faith.

So what if you’re a seeker, a non believer, like Larry King who respects Jesus but is not a follower?  The proof is in the pudding.  The only reason you would reject this information is because you do not want to know and that is your choice.  But the Bible says this Hebrews 9:27 says, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” There is coming a day when every person, whether they believe in him or not, it doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, yellow, short, tall, rich or poor, will have to settle their accounts with God.  Please if you die without Christ you will face the wrath of God, a separation from God for all time.  This separation is in Hell, a place of torment.  I am not trying to scare you; , I am just giving you the facts.

If you want to hear the full message please visit www.getthegospel.org. Please consider this. Jesus claimed to be God and died for that claim. If he isn’t God then either he is the most despicable liar on the planet giving people false hope, or he is on the same level as the person who believes they are a poached egg i.e. he’s a lunatic. The only other option you have is to accept that Jesus is God. You must decide who you believe Jesus is. Your response to this will determine where you spend eternity.  There is only one way to Heaven.  Jesus said he is the only way to God.  Not all roads lead to God.  Just Jesus!  The others lead to Hell and there are millions of roads that lead to hell, but not one road out.

Dennis McCaskill

¹ Tim Lahaye, Jesus - Why the world is still fascinated by him (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2009) 30-31

² ibid