The Real Jesus
To Tell The Truth is a classic game show where a celebrity panel is presented with three people, all who claim to be the same person with the same unique talent, job or achievement.
Only one of them is sworn to tell the truth while the two others are not. The object of the game is to try to fool the celebrities into voting for one of the two impostors. Some of the contestants were the fastest jumper in America, another was a descendant of Alexander Hamilton and even a professional cuddlist has been on the show. Regardless, the two imposters and the person telling the truth, are to convince the panel that they are in fact the real person who possesses the special ability or talent.
Within a few years after Jesus ascended into heaven, a similar sort of game began to be played in the early church. People started to question who the real Jesus was. Was the real Jesus a human being? Was He just a spirit? Was He an illusion? Just after the middle of the 1st century AD, just before John began to write his gospel, forged and fabricated letters began to circulate throughout the churches that promoted false doctrines about Jesus' humanity.
They emphasized Jesus was not an actual human, going against the scriptures and the orthodox teachings of the apostles. Letters such as the Acts of John, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Peter, and several others told about Jesus' not being a real human but rather a spiritual illusion.
Throughout the New Testament we see the defense against this false teaching, especially in the writings of John. Unfortunately, this doctrine of Jesus being a spiritual manifestation became more fully developed as time went on. It became something known as Gnosticism or Docetism. Both are part of a religious dualistic system of belief which holds that matter is evil and only the spiritual good.
Was the real Jesus a spirit body walking the earth? Was Christ born without real human flesh? Were all the acts and sufferings of his life, including the crucifixion, mere appearances? This is what this false doctrine asserts.
This passage, John 19:31-37, deals specifically with this error. John, writing his gospel in the late first century, gives us a peek into the beginnings of this false teaching, but more importantly for us, shows us as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun.
Gnosticism and Docetism were unequivocally rejected at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. However, remnants of this false teaching still permeate Christianity today.
In this sermon we’ll take a look at John’s defense for the real Jesus, meaning, His real humanity and physicality. We'll also see what John can teach us about how we can be on guard against Gnostic ideas both inside and outside of the church. Ideas which prevent us from engaging our physical world with the gospel according to Christ’s commands.
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