 Okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the class. Sorry I missed last week. I was not keeping too well, so I couldn't make it to class. But good to be back and we will take things forward today. Let's take a moment to pray and welcome to all our online students as well. Is everything okay online, video, audio, everything's good? Everything's good? Fine. Okay. So let's take a moment to pray and then we will get started. Can somebody please pray with the class and we'll start? Our dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before You, Lord, Father, God, Jesus. We thank You for this, dear Lord, Father. We thank You, Lord, Father, for bringing us all together. Lord, Father, to listen to You, Lord, Father, to receive from Your Spirit, Lord, Father, God, Jesus, as we are going forward, Lord, Father, into our classes, Lord, Father, Jesus. We just submit our minds, our hearts, Lord, Father, our entire being into Your hands, Lord, Father, God, Jesus. You take control over us, Lord, Father. Help us not to be distracted, Lord, Father, but help us, Lord, Father, to receive everything that You are showing into our lives, Lord, Father, Jesus. We pray that whatever You are showing into our lives, Lord, Father, it will multiply and it will grow, Lord, Father. Jesus, come and have Your ways in our lives, Jesus. We just give this time, Lord, Father, into Your hands, in Jesus' mighty precious name, we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. So today, we are going to move forward. Let me share, if you look at the table of contents, we will look at things that we need to go forward with. So we have completed to lesson number nine, the Bible is Authenticity and Eucharistic, and we are now moving into lesson number 10. So we're going to spend some time talking about the person of Jesus Christ. So lesson 10, 11, 12, about the Lord Jesus Himself and why Jesus, answering some important questions, about Jesus. Why Jesus is unique, right? Why do we say there is salvation only in Jesus? Why do we say that? And we need to be clear in our minds that Jesus is unique. Why we are saying that? Then we also want to answer a related question about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How can we be sure that Jesus rose from the dead 2,000 years ago? We were not there. Now, we are not eyewitnesses. We are not anywhere close to when it happened. Here we are 2,000 years later, and we are saying Jesus rose from the dead. That makes our faith very unique, because there is no other faith that claims that there, whoever, the founder or important person, in that faith rose from the dead. Somebody else claims that they can all say, look, this is where the person is buried. You can put flowers here. But we are the ones who are saying, Jesus rose from the dead. How can you say that when we were not eyewitnesses? So on what basis do we have conviction? Looking with the information that we have, right? Then a little bit about Salvation in Jesus, how we present that message. And then we want to, in Lesson 13 and 14, we want to talk about, so how do we communicate Jesus with somebody from a Hindu faith and somebody from a Muslim faith? Just share some thoughts. Now, you may have covered some of this in first year course on lifestyle evangelism, right? So you may have covered some of it, but it's good just to refresh ourselves in that. Then, so that's one section that we are focusing on Jesus and our faith in Jesus and how we communicate that faith to two of the world's biggest religions. How do we, people from that? Then we move to other things. Like we will talk about suffering. We'll talk about different social issues. The questions are many different issues. We'll address that very quickly. And then we'll just have some time for open questions if there are any, right? So let's go to Lesson number 10, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. So first of all, we must recognize that the historicity of Christ is indisputable, right? The very fact that all of human history is centered around this person, you know, before Christ and after his death, right? Now, of course, people have in, you know, maybe the last 20 years, they've tried to change that and say, you know, before the common era and after the common era, they try to change it a bit. And so some of the modern work literary works and so using AD and BC, they will use BC and before the common era, so BCE and I'm not sure what else he used the common era, CE, common era. So they kind of just changed that a bit. But up until, you know, maybe 20 years ago, the way history was divided was around the person of Jesus Christ himself, right? His life and his death. And historians living in that time record the historicity of Christ. But there was this man who lived and who did all these things, right? And these are non-biblical, right? Outside of the Bible, right? So nobody can say, hey, Jesus, just a story, not just a story, he's a historic, he was there in history, right? Historically, it's been recorded. I mentioned a few in our notes here, there are of course, there are many more, at least 19 ancient sources, historical sources that refer to Jesus Christ as a real person. So the historicity of Jesus is proven, it is indisputable, cannot be questioned. There was this person who lived Jesus Christ. Now, the question we have to answer is, why is Jesus absolutely unique? Oh, yeah, there have been other religious leaders. And even today, there are many, you know, religious leaders who come up, start some new religion or some new movement, all kinds of things are happening all the time, you know, new ideas, new things. And of course, today, people may be very influential and have big following if they are example, good coaches. You know, there are some very famous coaches, life coaches that tell you how to live life, motivational thing kind of, and they'll have huge follow all of it. Or people could be influential if they are, you know, very famous actors and so on and so forth. So they form their own thing, or sometimes they're TV personalities. You know, they have a TV show, which is a global, all over the world, people are listening to them and then they begin to influence people in so many ways. So we have so many different kinds of people these days. Going back in time, 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ. Why is he so different? Why is he so unique? What makes Jesus unique? So we want to, I've listed this out in nine points. And I wanted to keep this in mind so that depending on who you're speaking to, you can present a few of these. I'm not saying for every person, listen to me, I'll give you nine points, it's not like that. Depending on who you're speaking to, right? One or more of these points of differentiation will be important, okay? But just keep that in mind, right? So number one is Christ's claim for himself. See, there are many leaders or religious leaders who will not dare to make these kinds of claims for themselves. They'll say, I will teach you how to be good, you be good, you do good, you live life like that, I will just tell you. But they won't have the courage to claim for themselves something unique, right? See, it takes a lot of courage. Either you're lunatic to say, I am the greatest. Suppose somebody says, I am the greatest. Say, hey, something's wrong, he's gone. For somebody to stand up and say, I am the greatest. Or he's genuine, because people in between will not say that, right? Those were normal like day-to-day people, ordinary people. None of us will say, I'm the greatest, no. Or I'm so different, I'm so unique. For somebody to stand up and make certain claims, either they're totally gone, or there's something we have to take them very seriously, right? So think about some of the claims Jesus made for himself. He said, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world. Before Abraham was, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection of the life, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and the truth. I mean, these are not simple statements. For somebody to say, I am the way, I am the door, you cannot go in except you come through me. That's a big, big claim. Say, I'm the only, I'm the door. If you want to go to God, you have to come through me. Today you have many religious leaders, then nobody will say, I am the door. You can only go through me. They want other courage to say that. They may say a lot of good things, how to live good life, et cetera, et cetera. But to say, I am the door, I am the way, I am the good shepherd, that's a very big claim. So either his claim was true, or he was a madman, gone. You can't put him in the middle, where all of us are the day to day ordinary people, right? Or if you think about some of the big claims, after his resurrection, he's saying, I am alive. I am the one who died, and I have risen up again. I am Alpha and Omega. I am the root and offspring of David, you know? So the resurrected Jesus is speaking to people. So John, to Paul, to Ananias, so all these people, all these people, I am, this is who I am. When he comes to Thomas Thomas, that's me, see my hands. I am the one who was died on the cross. I am alive, that same Jesus. And I'm not one carbon copy, I'm not somebody else. I am the same Jesus. So very big claim. So better think about that. Somebody who made these kinds of claims, either we take him seriously, if we take him seriously, we take everything he said seriously. Or we have to reject him completely. No, no, he was a mad man. People simply followed him. God finished, reject everything. We can't say, ah, he's a good teacher. So good teacher, but the same teacher said all these things. I am the door, I am the way, I am the truth. So if you want his teachings or you take, if you take all of his teachings, just don't take a few things. He said some nice things. No, if you really believe, you have to believe everything of what he said. And these are the claims, right? So we have to think about that, you know? So for some people, this may be a valid point, very simple, very logical. This is what he claims. You like his, you like his teaching, very good. You like the things he taught, very good. But the same person also said these things. So you either accept everything he said, or you have to reject. You can't be in between. So the same Jesus, like we said, he claimed his pre-existence. He said, you know, ah, we are with it. Before Abraham was, I am in John chapter eight. This is on page 61. Before Abraham was, I am. He said, I and my father are one, you know? So these are very big claims. And he also spoke about his pre-existence. He says, father glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world war. So he's saying, I was with you there even before anything was created. So pre-existence. So these are all he claims, right? Second is, so to our knowledge, no other man, no other spiritual leader, no other religious leader has made such claims. Nobody else can dare say this. Nobody else said, hey, before the world war, I came. I was there. Nobody, nobody is there to claim that. If anybody is claimed, they put them in mental asylum, finished locked. Finished this, this person is really good. But something different with Jesus. Secondly, what the Bible itself says about Jesus. So first, what he claimed. Second, the rest of the Bible, the Bible is, what does the Bible claim about the deity of Christ? The Bible itself is telling us that he is God. John one in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. The word was God. He was with God and through him, everything was made. Philippians two, in the beginning, he was in the form of God. That means he was in the likeness of God. He had all the attributes of deity. So he's not a created being, but he was a being who had everything of God. All the attributes of God. So the Bible presents Jesus as deity. And I've been able to see other references here on the top of page 62, where you can see very clearly that Jesus is referred to as God. So there is example, Jehovah's Witnesses and some other, you know, what we would refer to as cults who do not believe in the deity of Christ. They will call themselves Christians. They'll say, who are you Christian? I'm Christian. But if you look further, they don't believe in the deity of Christ. So to be careful. Ah, some people don't. Yeah. So to be careful, because on the surface, if you ask, are you Christian? Yeah, I'm Christian. You believe in Jesus? Yeah, I believe in Jesus. But what do you believe about Jesus? Jehovah's Witnesses, they believe Jesus was a created being like Lucifer, like Lucifer's counterpart. So that is very wrong. So you ask, are you Christian? Yes. You believe in Jesus? Yes. What do you believe about Jesus? God. Right? So we have to be careful, right? So for when we are talking to example, if you're an integer was witnesses, you have to remember these scriptures because that is the main point of difference. They say Jesus is not God. He's a created being. But look at all these scriptures. These scriptures are referring to him as the mighty God. Isaiah 9.6. He is the mighty God. Microphied to before, from everlasting to everlasting, from everlasting to God. So hey, this is Jesus. The Bible is talking about Jesus. It's referring to him as mighty God, referring to him as the one who created everything, right? So the Bible, when the Bible presents Jesus, the Bible is presenting him as God. This is important because most of the world, they hear the term Son of God, Son of Mary. Christmas everybody knows what happened. Jesus was born. Who is the Son of Mary? Sure. That is true. Not wrong, right? He was born through Mary. But they're only looking at his humanity. Son of Mary was born. But learning was born, Merry Christmas. But the same Bible is telling us this is the mighty God. He was with God. He created everything. He became man. But that part, people don't hear or they don't know. They ignore. So why is Jesus unique? Because when the Bible is presenting Jesus, it's presenting God who became man. Nobody else. So we have a lot of religious leaders. Example, I'm just comparing. If you compare Muhammad, prophet Muhammad, he didn't say, I am God. The Quran is not saying, is not saying this is God who became man. No, he's a prophet or any other. But this Jesus is God who became man or any other religious leader, the leader of any movement. We have so many people today. They have great followers, many followers. But they don't say, I'm God. Or the writings will not say, this person is God who became man. In fact, for most people, they're trying to say, this is man who's trying to become God. Man who's trying to become God. He's trying, he gained some enlightenment. He gained, he's become higher than us became. But this is other way. God who became, let's think about it. This is what Jesus was. Can we find someone else like this? There. So, when the Bible is presenting Jesus to us, the Bible not only presents him as God, but the Bible is also saying, there is nobody else, nobody else. The Bible is not saying, this is God who became man and God came also many other times. Bible is very clear. Example, Acts 412, there is no salvation in any other for there is no other name, no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. Very clear. No salvation in anyone else, it's only in this person. So today you will have lots of writings by religious leaders, they'll say, okay, there are many ways to God. You try anyone. Bible is not saying that. Bible is saying, there's only one way. There is no salvation in any other. So either we have to adopt our choices, either we accept this or we reject it. Either you follow Jesus or you don't. Same thing Timothy Paul writes, he says, there is one God and one mediator between God and man. The man Christ, he says, one mediator. Not many, just one. So the Bible is presenting Jesus as unique. So this is the answer. So Bible is not saying he's one of the answers. You'll get some answers before and you'll get some answers later. No, this is the answer, the only answer. So either we accept or we have to say, okay, I don't believe, fine. No middle ground. So that's another thing we can present. Now, you know, this is very important because we have to learn to say this and we have to learn to say it in love. There were in recent times, and I said the recent times in the last maybe, last decade, last two decades, you know, public media would like to interview, you know, religious, Christian leaders. And so they would ask, you know, what do you believe Jesus is the only way? They'll ask publicly on global television, everybody's listening. And in some cases, it's been sad that these are Christian leaders, top Christian leaders. But they are asked, do you say that Jesus is the only way they will avoid the question, say something else. And so saying, yes, the Bible says. I'll just quote one or two verses. This is what the Bible says. But they just say, why? Why? Because if you say Jesus is the only way, then some people will love you and many people will hate you. You're on public television, right? So they want to be, you know what, politically correct, they want to just not, but then that is not saying the truth, right? The truth is the Bible says, Jesus is the only way. Our message is Jesus is the only way. So as leaders we have to say that, right? I have to say it in love, say politely, of course, we're not trying to be arrogant, we're not trying to say we are better than you. No, you ask me the truth, I'll tell you the truth, finish. I'll say it gently, say it lovingly. So a lot of controversies broke out because, hey, you're a Christian leader, you had a chance to, you know, say this and you're being asked on television and you didn't say it and saw all those issues, but anything. So we need to be absolutely convinced and speak the truth in love. Number four, the incarnation and words in birth of Christ. So this is very important again, is what makes Jesus unique. So like we said, the Bible is presenting Jesus as God and the Bible is presenting Jesus as God who became man and he was born through a virgin birth. I want you to think about this, that this thought, just the thought of a virgin giving birth is not normal. It's not normal. So even it's not just not normal for our thing because saying today, okay, we know so much science, we know biology, medicine, all that we know. But even 2,000 years ago, it was not normal. Nobody will think, oh, or let's say go back to Isaiah's time, 2,700 years ago when Isaiah was prophesied. Even in Isaiah's time, it is not an normal thing. It's not like everywhere else, you're seeing some virgin giving birth. No, no. So no, it is not thought of. And Isaiah prophesied, a virgin will give birth and his name will be called Emmanuel. So it's very unique, very unique. Even that time and even now, very unique. So no other religious leader can claim that. On my birth certificate, I have only mother's name. I'm just joking, but I have only mother, no father. I'm just joking. But nobody else can claim that. That I was born by the supernatural power of God. Nobody. But on the spiritual side, this is also very important, very important because, and we can summarize it like this, that, you know, if you understand it like this, Adam put us in subjection to sin, Satan, death. So every human being born from Adam was born under sin, under Satan, in subjection to death. Every human being, man and woman, born under that. So to redeem us, somebody must be born who's not subject to sin, Satan and death. But he has to be human being because one human being put us under, only a human being can put us out. But that human being must not be subject to sin, Satan, death. How is that possible? Only way for God to become man. So when God becomes man, this man will not be subject to sin, Satan, death. And this man can pull us out. So that is Jesus. So the virgin birth is very important because this man was sinless, born by the power of God, not through the natural human race. He's a human being, but different. God became man and was conceived by the power of God. So that's why Jesus is unique. That's why the virgin birth is very important. So sometimes even today, even Christians, are you a Christian? Yes, I'm a Christian. You believe in the virgin birth? That was just a story, just a Christmas story. No, no, no, it's not a Christmas story. It is very important, very important. Because without that, Jesus would not be qualified to redeem us. He would be like everybody else, born under sin, Satan, and death. So the virgin birth is very important. It is because God, by his power, caused that conception and then the human body to be formed. It was God, by his power, doing it, not just so very important. So not just a Christmas story on Angel K or no, no, no. Very important, the virgin birth. So what makes Jesus unique? It's what makes him qualified to be our redeemer, our Savior. So we can extend this thought a little bit. And again, we have to be careful how we share this. Okay, so you have to share it very lovingly. And this is especially relevant when you're speaking to people from Hinduism, Hindu background, why? Because they also have the concepts or the idea of God becoming man. Right? So they call avatar. Avatar is God came in human form. So they also have the concepts, okay? Almost same. We are saying incarnation, they are saying avatar. Saying God became man, yeah, for us also, God's, one of the gods became human avatar. Then we have to very gently, even to think through, okay, fine. Let us think about this. The differences in Hindu philosophy, God came 11 times. 11, avatar, avatar. So they have, I think, correctly, forever. At least 11 avatars. We are saying only one incarnation. Okay, let us think about this, right? Of course, we have to think about it. I mean, we share this lovingly, but. So the point is this, why 11 times? Does that mean the previous 10 times were failure? If the previous 10 times were failure, that means previous 10 times was not God. Because God cannot fail. He shouldn't fail, others are not God. And what guarantees 11th time he succeeded? We don't know. See? But what we are saying is, in the incarnation, there was a one, complete, perfect, absolute work that was done. Why? Because this was God who became man. He cannot fail. God cannot fail. He came, he finished the work, offered the free gift of self. He rose up from the dead. One, one time, only one time. And did it for every human being. It's not like for Chinese, we have to want Chinese God for each continent. It's not like God, if God created all the people. And one, one time is enough. So, again, we're not trying to be rude. We're just saying, let us think about this. So that's why the incarnation and the words in birth of Jesus is very unique, also very important. It's not just some other man. This is God who became man. And one, one incarnation, he finished the work. Work is finished. He rose up and back. So that is the difference between the incarnation and the avatars in Hinduism. Yeah. Number five, his life, work, teaching and impact on history. So why is Jesus so unique? And he said, well, okay, let us think about this. Jesus lived 2,000 years ago, long time, 2,000 years ago. There were other philosophers who lived. In fact, even before Jesus, say Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, they're all 300 years before Jesus, they lived. Around the same place if they lived. So there were many philosophers, many thinkers, many... Jesus, his life was so simple and so short. He never did anything big, meaning he never wrote a book. He never formed an organization. He was not part of some big religious system. Like these philosophers, they were part of, you know, what we call as the university of their day. They were recognized philosophers. Jesus was nothing, just a simple carpenter. And he actually did his work only for three years. The others for the whole lifetime, all lifetime they did what they did. Jesus only did three years, just three years. Very simple. So you think, okay, if there was anybody who should have become unknown very fast, it would have been Jesus. If there was any person who had to become unknown, compared to all these philosophers, leaders, others. Any person, Jesus must have been the first one to be, oh, we don't know anything about him. Only three years, he never wrote a book, never did anything big, not part of any big system. Nothing, he was just walking here and there, like a carpenter. That's how very simple. So if there was anyone who should have just been forgotten by history, it should have been Jesus. Because he really never did anything big, in the sense of, that could have made his name last, never. He never even built one house, house of Jesus, nothing. Nothing, but all so many famous people before him, after him, lived. Today, those names are almost not known. Those names are almost not known. Nobody goes, you know, church of Socrates. Church of Plato, nobody formed nothing, not even one. But they are, you know, they were part of big things in those times, even before Jesus, nobody remembers. But today, if you look at Jesus, look at the Christian faith, it is like nothing else. Even in our day, people become famous, but they are forgotten very quickly, you know. Even given with all the technology we have, with all the means we have, people become famous. The example, musicians, or movie stars, whatever, so many politicians, they have all the means. You can write books, you can produce movies, you can do, they have all the means. But they're very quickly forgotten. Nobody knows, but Jesus, it just increases. So we say something is very different. Can we point to any other person in history who's had such a big influence and continues to have such a big influence on human life? And he never wrote a book, never sang a song, never had a thing. Just three simple years. That means, and the thing is, many people have tried to erase his name. They've tried to destroy the Bible, destroy churches, destroy believers, trying, but no one succeeds, only increasing. Even in communist countries, you know, in parts of the world where they have eradicated or they've tried to remove religion completely, in those places, you have strong believers in Jesus. So that means there's something very different, something very unique that is the spirit of God at work in the name of Jesus. Even some of his biggest critics, you'll find, they eventually come to faith in Christ. So let's just do a few more. Number six, or let's say, yeah, his sacrificial death, it's again very unique because no one else said that their greatest work would be done in their death. Whereas for Jesus, his greatest work was done through his death. Yes, he did many things before that. He healed the sick, he cast out devils, he worked miracles. He did all those things. But his greatest work is in his death, on the cross. Nobody else said that, or even did that. That in my death is my greatest work, salvation. And through my death, I'm giving salvation. There is something very different, very unique. And his death was, I mentioned these things here, bottom of page 65, his death was substantially atoning, complete, triumphant, transforming. It's very, you can elaborate on all of these thoughts. Number seven is the resurrection of Christ. Again, here, this is so unique, that Christianity is alive because Christ is alive. And Paul writes, he says, if Christ was dead, our faith is useless. If Christ died and didn't rise from the dead, then our faith is useless, no point. But because he's risen from the dead, our faith has meaning, our faith is real. So the resurrection of Christ, we point out. We'll talk more about that in the next lesson. But this is very unique. This is what makes Jesus very different, that we are saying, hey, he died, but he also rose up after three days, he rose up. That is very important for our faith. And if he did not rise up, our faith is useless. We are acknowledging that. So we are not following a dead religion. I'm not following a dead person. We're following a living Christ. Number eight, that salvation is given to simple faith in Christ. That means the Bible is saying, you believe in Jesus because he made the full provision, you believe in him, you'll have salvation. Very different. As we will see later on, whether in Hinduism, when contrast, it is based on works. You do good works, then you'll have salvation. In contrast, Jesus says, I finished the work, you just believe. And follow me. It'll be clear, salvation. Islam, we don't know. Meaning, if Allah says okay, if Allah is happy with me, I will have salvation. So till the end, I don't know. I will do what I can. I'll follow Islam. And maybe I may even try to give my life as a martyr. In Jihad or whatever, sacrifice. I try even that. But ultimately, I don't know. Allah will decide. So there it is a question mark. In Hinduism, you have to work. But Jesus is saying, I did the work for you. I'm giving you salvation. You can know that you have passed from death to life. You can know. Very different. The last point is that today Jesus changes our lives. He works in our lives. He says, I will come to you. I will come in you by my spirit. And we are being changed by his spirit. So he's working in us. Which again is very different because in so many other philosophies, this is how you can change yourself. We will tell you, do these things. But Jesus says, I will work in you. I will make you a new creation. I will transform you. We have these nine thoughts that we can present. And so in the end either Jesus was a liar just simply said all this. Or like we said, maybe he was lunatic, mad person that he could claim all this or he was a legend, extraordinary person or he was Lord. Let's choose. Right? And if he is Lord and what we are saying is because he is truly God all these things have happened. Okay. So let's go for a break and after break think about these things. We'll take up questions. I know we don't have time for questions right now. But right after the break we'll take any questions on these these nine points and then we'll go forward. Okay. See you in 10 minutes. Thank you.