Someone read one of my sermons and asked the following question:

Does a person have to "understand" the Trinity to be saved? What if they believe in God the Father and Jesus as his son, but can't really grasp the whole "One God in three persons" thing?

I think the answer goes like this. You don't have to understand the Trinity in order to be saved. If that were required, then very few would be saved. If a person, having studied the issue, came to the conclusion that the Trinity could not possibly be true, they would be in the position of a Muslim who says, "God can't have a son." Such a person might admire Jesus but would never look to him for salvation.

When we were in Nazareth on our recent Holy Land tour, we drove past the Catholic Church in the heart of the city. Our guide pointed out a banner placed in front of the church by some Muslims. The banner quoted a verse from the Qur 'an to the effect that God does not have a son and could not have a son. That illustrates my point. If Jesus is not God's Son, if he's only a prophet or a holy man but not the Son of God, then he's not able to save anyone. 

It is enough for a lost person to say, "I believe Jesus is the Son of God who died for me and rose again." That's the basis of true, saving faith. 

For more on this topic, read The Mysterious Doctrine of the Trinity. 

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.

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It was only ten days ago, though it seems much longer, that we awoke on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. By "we" I mean the 15 people who joined our tour group on a pilgrimage to the land of the Bible. On this particular day we started by taking a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee and then saw the "Jesus boat" that may have been used by our Lord and his disciples. Later we would head north through the "finger" of Galilee to Dan and ultimately on to Caesarea Philippi, site of Peter's Great Confession (Matthew 16:13-16),  and then along the Golan Heights to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, to the spot called Kursi or Gergasa where Christ cast out the "legion" of demons from the man who wandered among the tombs. He sent the demons into a herd of swine who then rushed down a steep bank and drowned in the Sea of Galilee (Mark 5:1-20).

All in all, a very busy day.

After we left the "Jesus boat" and headed north, Malcolm Cartier (our tour guide) told us he had a site he wanted us to see. As we drove through the hills just north of the Sea of Galilee, we rounded a curve and there before were the remains of what once had been a vibrant, vital first-century city called Korazin.

Located north of Capernaum and just north of the Mount of the Beatitudes, it was an excellent location for a town. Close to the water, but not too close. Built in the hills so the weather was moderate.

You may have seen Korazin spelled Khorazin or Chorazin, but they all refer to the same place. We know the location because Eusebius describes it for us.

The "Orthodox Triangle"

When we got off the bus, Malcolm took us on a brief tour, showing us the homes built around an ancient, well-preserved synagogue dating from the 4^th century. The homes were built of the dark basalt rock native to the area. Like many biblical sites in Galilee, Korazin is off by itself, away from urban sprawl so when you see the remains that have been excavated, you are stepping back in history twenty centuries.

Korazin was part of the "Orthodox triangle" in Jesus' day. The other two parts of the triangle were the nearby towns of Bethsaida (home to Peter, Andrew and Philip) and Capernaum. Those three towns were filled with devout Jews who took the Law seriously. Malcolm spent quite a bit of time showing us the well-preserved remains of the 4th-century synagogue whose ascending steps were built after the design of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem. You could easily tell that for the residents of Korazin, religion stood at the center of community life. In fact, the layout of the town placed the synagogue in a prime location. The synagogue contains a "Moses seat" for the men who read from the Torah.

Archaeologists have uncovered many homes in Korazin, several public buildings, and an olive oil press. Malcolm took time to show us the home of what must have a wealthy family. We stood inside the stone walls and wondered who had lived there in Jesus' day.

The thought struck me that Korazin must have been a pleasant place to live in the first century. Certainly the ruins suggested that quite a few wealthy people lived there. In the lower section of the town (not all of it has been excavated), you could see more modest homes. No doubt the weather here was agreeable, you could get fish from the nearby Sea of Galilee, and you could travel west to Nazareth or around the lake to Tiberius, and for the appointed feasts, you could easily make your way along good roads to Jerusalem.

All in all, Korazin was a fine place to live. Not too large, not too small. Prosperous enough, good location, close to everything that mattered. And the people tended to be observant Jews who wanted to obey the Law of God.

 You can read the rest of the message online.

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.

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Recently I picked my copy of Spurgeon's Lectures to My Students and happened to open it to a chapter called Earnestness: Its Marring and Maintenance. The whole essay will repay careful study but I simply call your attention to the first few sentences:

Spurgeon goes on at some length about the importance of earnestness, why it matters, and how to obtain it. What he doesn't do in any precise manner is to define it, and I am glad he didn't try for earnestness must no doubt manifest itself very differently in different preachers. In the above quotation, he calls it being "thoroughly alive to God," and I suppose that is about as good a definition as you can find. After reading Spurgeon's comments and meditating on the matter, I think he is quite right that earnestness is a quality that sets a man apart from his peers. I almost want to say, "You know it when you see it or hear it." It is an awesome thing to be in the presence of an earnest man of God.

Very clearly Spurgeon does not mean-nor do I-that the preacher should be somber or heavy or ponderous. Still less does it imply shouting or waving the arms or any of the other familiar stereotypes. And since we know Spurgeon himself had a good sense of humor that sometimes came out in the pulpit, an earnest sermon need not be one free of lighter moments. And certainly being earnest has nothing to do with preaching with a scowl on your face, as if you woke up on the wrong side of the bed and intend to take it out on the congregation.

As far as I can tell, the quality of earnestness means that you truly mean it when you preach, that the sermon is indeed "truth through personality set on fire by the Holy Spirit." Not every sermon we preach will be a masterpiece. Over the course of a lifetime most of us will only preach a few masterpieces. But even a workaday sermon can be earnest if the preacher really means it. 

Like all the other spiritual graces, earnestness comes down from the Father of lights above, and yet it is a gift we should ask for each week.  Some things can be faked in the pulpit, but earnestness is not one of them. So what should we do? Read Spurgeon and see what he says. Pray for earnestness. And then give yourself completely to the sermon you must preach to your people. Preach so that they know you have held nothing back, that you gave all you had, that in the name of God you really did mean it.  

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.

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Who is Jesus Christ?

Before you answer that question, let me set the scene. It's a few minutes past noon in downtown New York City. You've walking with a few friends to a favorite lunch spot when a camera crew stops you for a spontaneous interview. To your surprise, their questions have nothing to do with the White House, politics, the economy, or where you stand on health care reform. The interviewer wants to know what you think about Jesus Christ. Who is he?

While you fumble for an answer, the video camera records your discomfort. You weren't prepared for this, much less dressed for it, and now you're being quizzed on theology while your friends watch from five feet away. The seconds pass as various answers flash across your mental screen: "A good man. . . The Son of God . . . A Prophet . . . A Galilean rabbi . . . A teacher of God's Law . . . The Embodiment of God's Love . . . A Reincarnated Spirit Master . . . The Ultimate Revolutionary . . . The Messiah of Israel . . . Savior . . . A first-century wise man . . . A man just like any other man . . . King of Kings . . . A misunderstood teacher . . . Lord of the Universe . . . A fool who thought he was God's Son . . . Son of Man . . . A fabrication of the early church."

Which answer will you give?  Before you answer, let me say that you can find people today who will give every one of those answers. Does that surprise you? It's shouldn't. After two thousand years, we still wonder about the man called Jesus.

But it's nothing new. When Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say I am?," they replied with four different answers (see Matthew 16:13-16). Even when he walked on this earth, people were confused as to his true identity. Some thought he was a prophet, others a great political leader, still others thought he was John the Baptist come back to life.

One question with many answers. One man with many faces.

Who is Jesus Christ? And why do we believe in him? As we begin our search for the answers, let's start by surveying some of the modern versions of Jesus.

The Good Man

We start with this view because it is no doubt the most popular "face" of Jesus. Ask any ten non-religious people on the street who Jesus is and eight of them will say something like, "He was a good man who lived a long time ago." People who say such things do not pretend to be Bible scholars in any sense of the word nor do they mean to be offensive. They simply are reflecting the common wisdom most of us learned as children: When in doubt, say something nice.

Of all the modern versions of Christ, this one is both the closest to the truth and the deadliest error. Jesus was a good man. Acts 10:38 even says, "He went around doing good," referring to his miracles. But to stop there is to miss the central truth of his divine personality. He was a good man-yes! But only because he was also the Son of God from heaven who came to be the Savior of the world.

The Misunderstood Rabbi

People who hold this view see Jesus as a talented Jewish teacher who never meant to start a new religion. They see him as a first-century Martin Luther who wanted to reform Judaism, but ended up being crucified for his efforts. Moreover, they don't believe he rose from the dead, but that his disciples believed he was present with them after his death so the legend of the resurrection arose in order to keep the dream alive.

The Revolutionary Jesus

This view was very popular in the '60s when left-wing radicals appropriated Jesus as the Messiah who came to overthrow the unjust power structures of his day and to bring in the kingdom through protest and non-violent action. Some theologians even used the image of the Revolutionary Jesus to support the establishment of Marxist governments around the world.

As many people have pointed out, Jesus was indeed a revolutionary, but not in the sense intended by those who used the term. Jesus came to start a revolution of love on planet earth. He wasn't concerned about overthrowing governments but about overthrowing sin in the human heart.

The Ecumenical Christ

This is the option for people who like Jesus but don't want to worship him exclusively. They lump him together with other notable religious leaders, such as Moses, Confucius, Gandhi, Buddha and Mohammed. Such people have a Mt. Rushmore religion. When they look up, they see four or five faces peering down from heaven. Jesus is one of the faces they see. Pick the one you like and worship him. Many people believe in the Ecumenical Christ because it's a convenient way to call yourself a Christian and still be open-minded about other options.

After surveying the various answers of modern man, we are still left with the great question of history, "Who is Jesus Christ?" If those answers are wrong, what is the right answer and how can we be sure?

In order to answer that question, we have to go back to the New Testament because it is the only reliable source of information about Jesus Christ. It's true that we do have some information about Jesus in extra-biblical sources from the first century, but it is limited and scattered. The only way to get an accurate picture of Jesus is to study the record of his life found in the four gospels. When we do, five important facts emerge that form the answer to history's greatest question.

You can rest the rest of the message online.

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.

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