Miracle on 34th St is all about faith. Kris Kringle claims to be Santa Claus and that claim lands him in a courthouse, on trial to see whether he really is who he says he is. The question is, do you believe? In this sermon we're going to put Jesus on trial... what did he claim about himself? And, can we believe it? And if he is who he says he is, what does that mean for us?

3. The Great Tri-lemma:

4. The Great Tri-lemma:
1) Liar

5. The Great Tri-lemma:
1) Liar
2) Lunatic

6. The Great Tri-lemma:
1) Liar
2) Lunatic
3) Lord

7. I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really
foolish thing that people often say about Him:
“I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral
teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.”
That is the one thing we must not say. A man who

8. was merely a man and said the sort of thing Jesus
said would not be a great moral teacher. He
would either be a lunatic— on a level with the
man who says he is a poached egg— or else he
would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your

9. choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of
God: or else a madman or something worse. You
can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him
and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet
and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come

10. with any patronizing nonsense about His being a
great human teacher. He has not left that open to
us. He did not intend to.”
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

11. And if Christ has not been raised, then our
preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
- 1 Corinthians 15:14

12. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is
futile and you are still in your sins. Then those
also who have fallen asleep in Christ have
perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life
only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
- 1 Corinthians 15:17-19

13. Jesus claimed to be:

14. Jesus claimed to be:
1) The “I am”

15. Jesus claimed to be:
1) The “I am”
“I am who I am”

16. Jesus claimed to be:
2) Equal to the Father

17. Jesus claimed to be:
2) Equal to the Father
“I and the Father are one.” – John 10:30

18. “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do
not believe me; but if I do them, even though you
do not believe me, believe the works, that you
may know and understand that the Father is in
me and I am in the Father.”

19. Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped
from their hands.
- John 10:37-39

20. “If you had known me, you would have known
my Father also. From now on you do know him
and have seen him.”
- John 14:7

21. Jesus claimed to be:
3) The Messiah

22. Jesus claimed to be:
3) The Messiah
“The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is
coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes,
he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who

23. Jesus claimed to be:
3) The Messiah
“…speak to you am he.”
- John 4:25-26

24. Jesus claimed to be:
4) Morally and Spiritually Superior

25. Jesus claimed to be:
4) Morally and Spiritually Superior
“I am the light of the world.”
- John 8:12

26. Jesus claimed to be:
4) Morally and Spiritually Superior
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth,
and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.” - John 14:6

27. Jesus claimed to be:
1) The “I am”
2) Equal to the Father
3) The Messiah
4) Morally and Spiritually Superior

28. “Nothing greater can any man say of himself. It is
true, or it is blasphemy. Christ was God or
godless.”
- John Piper

29. “...love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Matthew 22:39

30. “Soon the world will no longer see me, but you
will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I
am raised to life again, you will know that I am in
my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Those who accept my commandments and obey

31. “…them are the ones who love me. And because
they love me, my Father will love them. And I will
love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
- John 14:19-21(NLT)

32. “For he himself is our peace, who has made us
both one and has broken down in his flesh the
dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of
commandments expressed in ordinances, that he
might create in himself one new man in place of

33. the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us
both to God in one body through the cross,
thereby killing the hostility.
- Ephesians 2:14–16