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John Dickson (PhD, Macquarie University) serves as the Jean Kvamme Distinguished Professor of Biblical Evangelism and Distinguished Scholar in Public Christianity at Wheaton College. A speaker, historian, and media presenter, John is the author of more than 20 books, two of which became television documentaries. He also cohosted the documentary For the Love of God: How the Church is Better and Worse Than you Ever Imagined. He is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Sydney, a Visiting Academic in the Faculty of Classics at Oxford University (2016-2021), and Distinguished Fellow in Public Christianity at Ridley College Melbourne. John presents Australia’s no.1 religion podcast, Undeceptions, exploring aspects of life, faith, history, culture, or ethics that are either much misunderstood or mostly forgotten.

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What really happened back in the first century, in Jerusalem and around the Sea of Galilee, that changed the shape of world history? Who is this figure that emerges from history to have a profound impact on culture, ethics, politics, and philosophy? Join historian John Dickson on this journey through the life of Jesus. This book, which features a self-contained discussion guide for use with Life of Jesus DVD, will help you and your friends dig deeper into what is known about Jesus' life and why it matters. 'John Dickson has done a marvelous job of presenting the story of Jesus, and the full meaning of that story, in a way that is both deeply faithful to the biblical sources and refreshingly relevant to tomorrow's world and church. I strongly recommend this study to anyone who wants to re-examine the deep historical roots of Christian faith and to find them as life-giving as they ever were.'---Tom Wright

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Life of Jesus

ZONDERVAN

Contents

The Way We Believe (or What I Learnt from Aristotle)........................................................111. The God-Question.........................................................................................172. The Obvious Next Question................................................................................243. Evidence for Jesus.......................................................................................324. Gospel Truth.............................................................................................405. More Than a Surname......................................................................................516. Between Galilee and Tibet................................................................................587. The First Temptation of Christ...........................................................................648. A Teacher among Teachers.................................................................................739. Signs and Wonders........................................................................................8110. Why Doesn't God Do Something about the Mess in the World?...............................................9211. Hell-fire and Brimstone.................................................................................10112. Friend of Sinners.......................................................................................10713. Jesus on Sin, God and Religion..........................................................................11214. A Brief History of Crucifixion..........................................................................12915. The Reasons for Jesus' Death............................................................................13416. Jesus' View of His Death................................................................................14117. A Serious Question......................................................................................15518. What Jesus Expected.....................................................................................16419. Moving Forward..........................................................................................170Introduction................................................................................................175SESSION 1 God's Signpost....................................................................................178SESSION 2 Christos..........................................................................................180SESSION 3 Kingdom Come......................................................................................183SESSION 4 Judge and Friend..................................................................................186SESSION 5 Cross Examination.................................................................................190SESSION 6 The Resurrection..................................................................................193Life of Jesus Feedback Page.................................................................................195Leader's Helps..............................................................................................197Notes.......................................................................................................198

Chapter One

THE WORLD IS A VERY RELIGIOUS PLACE, AND THE MUCH-HERALDED renaissance of scepticism dubbed the "new atheism" is unlikely to change things. An important minority of Westerners identify as atheists, but it is much smaller than the publicity suggests. The last World Values Survey (2005 - 06), the most reliable data set available, found that 10.4 percent of Britons, 9.9 percent of Australians, 7 percent of New Zealanders and 3.6 percent of Americans accept the tag "atheist." And even these numbers may be inflated. In 2008 Olivera Petrovich, an expert in the psychology of religion at the University of Oxford in the UK, caused a stir by presenting empirical evidence that infants naturally incline toward belief in some kind of Creator; atheism, in other words, is not the default position. More relevantly, in a recent interview for the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) she outlined research revealing that respondents describing themselves as "atheist" in surveys do not necessarily deny the existence of God. A significant proportion of them admit in post-survey analysis that the tag "atheist" functions more as a protest against formal religion than a description of their disbelief in any kind of god. Openness to the divine is more dogged and widespread than we sometimes realize.

Even in my own country, which has often been described as the first post-Christian society in the world, surveys continue to reveal very high levels of spiritual, and specifically Christian, belief. Sixty-eight percent of Australians believe in a God or a Universal Spirit, and 63 percent believe in the possibility of miracles today. Slightly more than that (75.9 percent) believe that Jesus himself performed miracles (while only 6 percent think he never existed). Most surprising for those of us who live in this supposedly godless country, when asked to rate out of 10 "How important is God in your life?" (1 being "not important at all" and 10 being "very important"), 57.4 percent of Australians selected 6 and above; 28 percent selected 10.

Despite the fact that atheist writers such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are on the bestseller lists worldwide, the larger point remains: the world is a very religious place. For most people throughout most of human history the stunningly rational universe we see out there and the uncannily rational mind we experience within suggest the existence of some kind of divinity or Deus responsible for this reality. (I'll discuss in a moment whether this Deus is an impersonal Mind or a personal God involved in the affairs of the world.)

PERCEIVING GOD

I am not trying to prove the existence of the Deus or God. This is not that sort of book, nor do I think it is really possible. Frankly, I am trying to get the God-question out of the way, so I can focus on the history and relevance of Jesus. I offer these comments simply to point to the near-universal human belief in some kind of divinity. Put simply, most of us perceive in the physical world and in ourselves a larger intention. The whole thing seems arranged, not accidental; created, not a product of chance. And so we imagine there must be a Creator. The ancient Hebrew poet describes the sentiment well:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

The same point was made by St Paul in his hugely influential Epistle to the Romans: "Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made." Belief in God, in other words, is not a deduction people make only after analyzing evidence and weighing arguments. It is far more basic, more instinctive. It is something most of us perceive...