CREDENTIALS OF JESUS: THE SOLDIER'S TESTIMONY
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Credentials Of Jesus
a) When someone expects our trust, we look for credentials. What entitles that person to our trust? What testimony is there that this person should be believed? This applies to our faith in Jesus. He has credentials. He is not without testimony that he is truly whom he claims to be.
2. The Soldier’s Testimony
a) If a sane man is ready to die for his cause, and is faithful to it in the face of death, then the genuineness of that man, and his total conviction about his cause, can hardly be questioned. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see such a man a man who adds to his credentials that he was prepared to die for the truth he came to tell. (Matthew 26:38-39, 53-54, Philippians 2:8).
b) Of course, it is possible to be genuinely mistaken. But when Jesus died, the sun was darkened, and the earth quaked, and the temple veil was torn in two, and many bodies of the saints arose from the dead. (Matthew 27:45,50-54). There was a Roman centurion who witnessed these things, whose credibility we have no right to doubt. He, and those with him, could come to no other conclusion than to say, "Truly this was the Son of God!" (Matthew 27:54).
c) So in the events at the cross and following his death, it became clear that Jesus had not been mistaken. On the contrary, he presented his finest credential of all when he conquered death and was seen alive "by many infallible proofs" (Acts 1:3 1 Corinthians 15:3-8). After that, he ascended victorious over death to God's eternal throne. (Acts 1:9-11; 2:34-36).
The End ...
1. Credentials Of Jesus a) When someone expects our trust, we look for credentials. What entitles that person to our trust? What testimony is there that this person should be believed? This applies to our faith in Jesus. He has credentials. He is not without testimony that he is truly whom he claims to be.
2. The Soldier’s Testimony
a) If a sane man is ready to die for his cause, and is faithful to it in the face of death, then the genuineness of that man, and his total conviction about his cause, can hardly be questioned. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see such a man a man who adds to his credentials that he was prepared to die for the truth he came to tell. (Matthew 26:38-39, 53-54, Philippians 2:8).
b) Of course, it is possible to be genuinely mistaken. But when Jesus died, the sun was darkened, and the earth quaked, and the temple veil was torn in two, and many bodies of the saints arose from the dead. (Matthew 27:45,50-54). There was a Roman centurion who witnessed these things, whose credibility we have no right to doubt. He, and those with him, could come to no other conclusion than to say, "Truly this was the Son of God!" (Matthew 27:54).
c) So in the events at the cross and following his death, it became clear that Jesus had not been mistaken. On the contrary, he presented his finest credential of all when he conquered death and was seen alive "by many infallible proofs" (Acts 1:3 1 Corinthians 15:3-8). After that, he ascended victorious over death to God's eternal throne. (Acts 1:9-11; 2:34-36).
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