Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with the Moment of Truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I would like to challenge you to think through the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. New Geneva is planning a Bible study, a Wednesday night Bible study, in which we will explore the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. One of my favorite topics, I love preaching through the Gospels and have done so in my ministry over the years, preached through each one of the four of the Gospels.

And I love doing so because when we do that, we touch the life of Jesus. And what I would like to do, and he touches us then too, by the way, I would hope to tell you because the Scriptures are indeed a means of grace and the power of the Holy Spirit uses those Scriptures to bring to life the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. And I've discovered over the years that everybody is interested and loves Jesus. Rare it is to find the man or woman who no longer wants to hear anything about this man.

And we at New Geneva would like to offer you an opportunity, you friends, neighbors, relatives, workmates, an opportunity to see Jesus and see him through the eyes of the Gospels. There are other sources we have for confirmation of the existence of Jesus and perhaps some insights into him, but there is no place where the inspired Word of God intersects with the life of Jesus as it does in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And we will take a collective bird's eye view of the Gospels as we look at the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.

I love looking at the life of Jesus because I love Jesus, and I love looking at his life and trying to model my life according to his. Now, one of the resources that I will use in doing this is, well, I'll use several outside sources too, because there are some very good lives of Jesus that have taken the components and some of the background of the life of Jesus and brought them to life in a very vivid fashion. And one of my favorite resources along those lines is an older work back from the 1950s, early 1950s, early 1950s and 40s by a French scholar named Henri Daniel Ropes.

That's H-E-N-R-I, separate word, Daniel-Ropes, R-O-P-S, Henri Daniel Ropes. And he's written several most excellent books books on the life of Jesus. And I can tell that Daniel Ropes loves Jesus because of the way he writes. He's very eloquent, and he's very factual too. And he gets into some of the great background material of Jesus' life, the culture in which he lived, the religious setting, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Zealots, all of these different parties.

He paints just a careful picture as well as common life and then the lives of the rulers of the time like Herod or Pontius Pilate or even the Emperor Augustus. And he has written a book called Jesus and His Times. It's a two-volume set. It's over 600 pages. So I don't expect those of you who come to our class to be reading through the book, Jesus and His Times.

But just know that I am reading it. And if you would like to pick up a copy and read along with me, that'd be great to, or just to have it on your shelves, just to read and pick up and read when you get the opportunity. It's just filled with great background material and insight into Jesus and His Times. Once again, the resource that I will be using is Jesus and His Times by Henri Daniel Ropes. And I would just like to sample them from this book and maybe make a few comments as I go along, just to give you a taste of what we're in for.

And once again, New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church is planning for its fall ministry. We're going to begin on Wednesday, October 18th at 7 p.m. We are going to be exploring the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. This will be a life of Jesus where we take a look through the lens of the four Gospels and kind of take them in a collective fashion to gain insight into this man, into this man who was also divine, who was also God in flesh. And we'll begin our study on Wednesday, October 18th at 7 p.m. in the homes of our people. And if you'd like, if you're interested in this, this sounds good to you.

Why? You can call us at area code 208-523-0196 and make a reservation to be with us and to begin that study. Maybe you've got some other questions and further questions you'd like answered, and I'll be glad to answer those for you by calling 208-523-0196. Once again, we are beginning our study on the life of Jesus called The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. That includes the times.

That is, we'll be alerting this study with insight from the background in which Jesus ministered. That is, the political situation, the religious situation, the cultural situation in which Jesus grew up, and hopefully it will help throw light upon Jesus. And you'll see some things perhaps that you've never seen about him. And he will be able to minister to you as well through his Holy Spirit as we look at the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. But right now, I would like to sample for you then from the book, one of the resources I'll be using, Jesus and His Times by Henri Daniel Rops.

And I'll quote a little bit and then make a few comments as I go along. He begins his book this way. There once was a man who lived during a precisely defined period in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius Caesar. His existence is an incontestable fact. He was known as a manual worker, a carpenter using the hammer and the plane with shavings curling around his ears.

He could be seen walking along a road, which is still pointed out to us. In the evening, he would be stretched out upon a bed of rushes or a string hammock, tired out and sleeping like any other man, just like one of us, unquote. Oh, doesn't this say some very eloquent things about the humanity of Jesus? He lived during a precisely defined period in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius Caesar. So many of the other myths of pagan religions are ahistorical.

That is, they exist outside of time, and they cannot be precisely defined. This is one of the beauties of biblical Christianity, is that it stakes its truth claims on the claims of history. Jesus walked in real time and space. Jesus lived amongst us, did he not? Another human, just like one of us, as Henri Daniel Rops puts it, puts it.

And therefore, the enemies of Christianity always try to attack the historical nature of it and have failed. Of course, they have worn out their hammers against the gospel on the anvil of the historical truth of the existence of Jesus. And he, Jesus, then the humanity, so poignantly pointed out to us by Henri Daniel Rops, talking about his manual labor as a carpenter, with the shavings curling around his ears, even as you can see on a carpenter, especially with longer hair. And he walked, of course, the hills and seashore of Galilee, the streets of Jerusalem, and lived as a man amongst other men, just like one of us.

But he was also much more. Let me go on and read, then, from Jesus and his times. I go on and I quote, Yet he, that is Jesus, said the most surprising things that have ever been heard. He said that he was the Messiah, the heaven-sent witness through whom the chosen people were to fulfill their glorious destiny. More astounding still, he said he was the Son of God, and he was believed.

He found men to accompany him along the roads of Palestine as he traveled across the country. He performed miracles with disconcerting ease. There were many who believed that he would bring about the political independence of Israel, unquote. So, Mr. Daniel Rops, in addition to giving us the poignant humanity of Jesus, also begins to anticipate the claims of Jesus as divine, as the very Son of God, as God in the flesh. And gee, indeed, Jesus would demonstrate this.

As John puts it all, in the beginning was the word, right? From the very beginning to the very end, when Jesus would say, it is finished. So, Jesus demonstrates as well his divinity. That is, he is fully God and fully man in the one person, Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth. And we'll be taking these things up, of course, in our study on the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.

Let me remind you of that. I am so excited about beginning this then in our fall lineup of education. That is, we will be having a Wednesday night Bible study called The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. It will be beginning on Wednesday, October 18th at 7 p.m., and it will be conducted in several homes of our people. And if you'd like to find the nearest home, graciously opened up by our hospitable members, there'll be refreshments and informal discussions.

You can feel entirely comfortable in talking about the Jesus that you have come to know, whether you know much and have walked with him all your life or whether you have just been introduced to him. You will have your opportunity in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere to explore even further your relationship with Jesus and participate with us in our discussions and in our study of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. Once again, as we have seen from Daniel Rupps, he reflects on Jesus' divinity too. He was both the Son of God as well as the Messiah of Israel.

So we see these things then beautifully brought out by Daniel Rupps in the opening of his book, Jesus and His Times, a resource I'll be consulting. But then Daniel Rupps goes on to say, and I quote, but then any mystic can collect devoted fanatics. The culmination of this scandal was that the man was suddenly wiped out without putting up the slightest resistance. So far from being discouraged by this failure, several of his disciples went out into the world to bear witness to his divinity, even with their blood. And ever since, mankind, seeing in this defeat the sign of victory, has prostrated itself before a common gibbet that is a cross.

Just as if tomorrow a church should raise the scaffold for the veneration of the crowd. Unquote. Oh, once again, commenting on the unlikely story that a divine man, that is Jesus of Nazareth, could be so humiliatingly crucified and yet find followers. And there are reasons for that. Why a crucified Savior indeed is loved and beloved and proclaimed by his followers.

And we will see this goes to the very heart and the very essence of the forgiveness of sin and the rejoicing of men. And when they realize that they are sinners saved by grace, then indeed they prostrate themselves, as Daniel Rupps says before this Christ and the labors that he has accomplished on the cross, because they know their sins are forgiven. Well, Daniel Rupps goes on. The mystery of Jesus is nothing more and nothing less than the mystery of the incarnation.

What is the value of the small enigmas, excuse me, about which volumes of commentary have been written that one should not know with precision the date of his birth or of his death, that one should be mistaken about the village of his origin. All that and the rest are but of secondary importance and narrow perspective. The essential mystery is the enigma posed by this man, like one of ourselves, whose words and gestures bring into constant evidence unfathomable forces. And by this countenance deformed by agony through which we glimpse the very face of God. Indeed, unquote, from the book Jesus and His Times by Daniel Rupps.

Indeed, he brings out highlights here. The relative triviality of all the questions that are of great debate among scholars, especially skeptics, that is the precision of the date of his birth or his death or the village of his origin. No, the essential thing is the mystery of this man, the mystery of humanity and divinity being united in one person. The one whose countenance is deformed by agony, as Daniel Rupps puts it, through which we glimpse the very face of God.

Indeed, we see in the crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the very face of God, as he both punishes sin and redeems sinners as he washes away their sin. Yes, the mystery of Jesus. Nothing more, nothing less than the mystery of the incarnation. Well, Daniel Rupps goes on, and I quote, Jesus is at once of history and beyond it. I love that.

That's a great quote, isn't it? Because it describes the sweep of redemptive history. Jesus is at once of history and beyond it. Considering the number and the agreement of the witnesses concerning him and the abundance of the written testimony through which his gospel has been transmitted, one is inclined to say that there is no individual of his time about whom we are still so well informed.

Yet, as he himself foretold, he has become the center of a thousand years of dispute, which each generation renews in contemporary terms, that this man of poor and uncultivated stock should remake the basis of philosophy and open out to the world of the future an unknown territory of thought, that this simple son of a declining people born in an obscure district in a small Roman province, this nameless Jew, like all those others despised by the procurators of Caesar, should speak with a voice that was to sound above those of the emperors themselves. These are the most surprising facts of history. Unquote.

A very eloquent statement here made by Daniel Rops in his book, Jesus and His Times. Yes, Jesus confounded the wisest of the wise, did he not? As Paul says, and Jesus in his humiliating weakness outpowered the most powerful too, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2. And Daniel Rops says that here in so many words as well, as this obscure carpenter's son in an obscure backwater, if you will, of the Roman Empire should rise above the powerful, should rise above the wise and speak with a voice, as Daniel Rops puts it, that was to sound above those of the emperors themselves. These are surprising facts of history, are they not?

And they end up constituting redemptive history for us. Dear listener, Jesus is at once of history and beyond it. Well, Daniel Rops goes on to say, but his whole life, as it is recounted to us, is a tissue of miracles. I love that too. The life of Jesus is a tissue of miracles, isn't it?

Shining with a light of supernatural provenance. Yes. The surprising facts cannot be detached from the stuff of his existence, Daniel Rops goes on to say, except by rending the whole fabric, denying this existence, casting doubt on all those who have testified to him. Yes. With the life of Jesus being a tissue of miracles, and we'll study these facts as well, it ends up Jesus' life shines as a whole with a light of supernatural provenance.

So you can't detach miracles either, as modern scholars have tried to do, tried to explain away the miraculous of Jesus' life, and try to just make him merely human and not divine, and try and divest, demythologize was the term in the fifties used by the efforts of skeptical liberal scholars to divest Jesus of his divinity. But that can't be done without tearing apart the gospel as a whole. And he goes on to say, Daniel Rops does, the most astonishing fact of all is that this life, which culminated in agony, did not end. It reappeared in a stupefying new perspective. This dead man came to life.

He spoke in mood. He showed himself to those who had known him alive. And in defiance of logic, his disciples were to say that this was for them the supreme and incontestable testimony. As Paul says, and if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is groundless, and your faith too is groundless, unquote. History must either reject Christianity or accept the resurrection, unquote, from Daniel Rops' book, Jesus and His Times.

No accounting of the life of Jesus is complete unless it does include the resurrection. For without the resurrection, as Paul says, there indeed is no hope. Our faith is groundless too, and our preaching is worthless. So, as Daniel Rops so eloquently points out, it is the resurrection that is at the heart and center of the gospel, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we must all either reject Christianity or accept the resurrection.

You cannot have both. You cannot have Christianity without the resurrection. And we will be exploring this truth, among others, that indeed, without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. We will be exploring these things in our Bible study, The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Let me underline that with you once more, that we are opening up a Bible study to the community, and we'll be having it in the homes of our people.

And it will begin Wednesday, October 18th at 7 p.m. And if you'd like to explore this with us, join us. No matter where you are in your pilgrimage with Jesus, whether you've just begun or whether you have known Him all your life, we want to encourage you to join us in our study of The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, beginning on October 18th and then continuing right through the year, 7 p.m., in the homes of our people. And if you'd like to book a place at a home near you, please call us at 208-523-0196. We'd like to get an idea of how many people we have coming and how many homes we need to reserve and set aside for the study.

And that would be area code 208-523-0196 to reserve a spot. We'll have probably a couple of nights of the week. If Wednesday night doesn't work for you, we hope to have maybe one or two other nights as an alternative. But we want to begin this study on The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, and looking at the life of Christ through the lens of the four Gospels, and we'll take kind of a bird's-eye view of and kind of cobble together and put together a life train in the life of Jesus, of His different events and witnesses and so forth.

Well, let me go on and finish the paragraph that I'd like to complete from a resource that I'll be using, and that is the book, Jesus and His Times, by Henri Daniel Ropes. He was a French scholar in the 40s and 50s, published this book, and you can just see the tender love and the complete integrity and honesty that Daniel Ropes has for the Gospels and for the life of Christ, all through his work, over 600 pages. So I'll be reading this. You don't have to, but if you want, you can read along with me. Well, let me cite then from this work another very strong paragraph.

He says, Yet these particular difficulties do not account for the violence and bitterness of the discussions concerning Jesus. It is hardly possible to speak of Him without calling up passions, in which the interests of knowledge play little or no part. In another sense, also, He is a sign which men will refuse to acknowledge, even as Jesus said of Himself, didn't He? He sees into the most secret places, that is, Jesus. Jesus sees into the most secret places of our hearts.

He judges us. We must either be with Him or against Him. And to Him, every man worthy of the name says once more, Who art thou? There's been a total change of morality since. On the hillside above Lake Tiberias, He pronounced the Beatitudes.

Henceforward, He is the measure of everything that happens. The life of Christ is contained in history and contains it. It is not merely the vindication of some nameless tragic humility. It is the supreme explanation and the final standard by which everything is measured, from which history itself takes meaning and justification." Unquote.

What an eloquent way to close His opening. Indeed, telling us of the historical sweep and impact of the life of Jesus. He has indeed been a controversy as well, has He not? A sign which men will refuse to acknowledge, even as Jesus said of Himself, and also of His words and His spirit at work in us, why culture has changed, history has changed. Would the West be what it is today with all of its advances and the envy of the rest of the world in terms of its culture, its morality, its fairness, all of these things and more, Jesus has had a profound impact, Jesus and His gospel.

And we know that from the stars in which we've sent satellites all the way to your inner heart, it is Jesus who has had a profound impact. As Daniel Ross puts it, He sees into the most secret places of our hearts, does He not? And He does that. And such was the ministry and the amazement and the profundity that He evoked in the hearts and minds of those around Him, that every man, even today, every man worthy of the name man, as Daniel Ross puts it, must ask of Jesus, who art thou? I know that was on my heart and mind when I first began to hear about Jesus and first began to see Him in the scriptures.

I said, who is this man? Who art thou? And the answer is there, though, in the scriptures, is it not? The answer is there. We do not know completely.

We will be spending eternity plumbing the depths of the mystery of Jesus and the profundity of Jesus, but we have enough to know who He is that we might be saved. Do we not? And we have this in the Gospels. We have this in the scriptures. And what we would like to do at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church is offer you an opportunity to study with us the life of Jesus.

We're starting a course on October 18th at 7 p.m. in the homes of our people, our study, the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. And we would just like you to call us so that we can reserve a spot for you, have an idea of how many people we're going to have there so we can have materials and refreshments for you when you come. And we hope to just encourage a friendly atmosphere, safe atmosphere, in which to discuss Jesus. You know, there's no right or wrong opinion. The scriptures are always the ultimate touchstone and the measure of truth, so we will be using those.

But do not be afraid of holding a mistaken opinion or maybe having an error of fact here or there because we are looking for input, for contribution, for what Jesus means to you, and also what the scriptures say objectively about this Christ. Join us, we ask you, beginning on October 18th at 7 p.m. in the homes of our people, our study of the life of Jesus called The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. And you can call us to reserve a spot for yourself and also to find out any more information that you might want to apprise yourself at 208-523-0196. Once again, call us for more information to reserve a spot at 208-523-0196.

New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. We encourage you to visit us and come and see us. We would welcome you for worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196.