Welcome to Christia.NZ! Our first episode talks – appropriately enough – about Jesus, and how a Christian ministry is dedicated to mission in his service.
Hosts: James & Mark
Panel: Kate, Josh, Robyn
Link to episode: [INSERT]
NOTE: This pilot does not include a “Check it out Aotearoa” segment – to be added
About Jesus: Jesus
Jesus is the most significant historical figure ever. He was a teacher and healer born about two thousand and twenty-two years ago… yes, the world’s very calendar is based on the approximate year of Jesus’s birth, he’s that significant to history.
J.P Meier writes that…
…in view of Jesus’ impact on all of Western civilization, no person of any religious persuasion [including atheism!] can be considered truly educated today if he or she has not investigated to some degree what historical research can tell us about this enigmatic figure who unleashed one of the major religious and cultural forces of the world.
Meier, J. P. (1991). A marginal Jew, rethinking the historical Jesus: Volume one, The Roots of the Problem and the Person (p. 4). Yale University Press
Most of the evidence we have about Jesus comes from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These were written by or on behalf of those who were with Jesus during his years of teaching.
Jesus was, as Meier titled his series, A Marginal Jew. He had a group of loyal followers, no more. He was born poor and lived insignificantly in northern Israel until he began his ministry. Even then, he was controversial, misunderstood and had many critics. He appealed mainly to the poor and disenfranchised. The religious despised him.
In his early 30s, after about three years of itinerant teaching, he was brutally and publicly executed by the Roman authorities of the day as a rebel, at the instigation of the religious authorities.
The story might have ended there, had it not been for a truly remarkable event. Despite public death by crucifixion, he was later seen to be very much alive, by hundreds. And, more than alive – completely unharmed. It was as if he had never been crucified. Death did nothing to him.
So, his life teaching took on a new significance with his first followers. They suddenly became courageous messengers about him, even though they had nothing to gain from it.
It’s difficult to have a sense Jesus’s identity without the Hebrew Scriptures. Various prophecies and passages tell of a descendant of King David who would be the beginning of God’s reign on earth. Isaiah Chapter 53 gives us one of the clearest descriptions, well before Jesus’s birth.
Jesus made exclusive claims about who he was – the Son of God, even God himself. For Jesus followers, Jesus isn’t a ‘was’. He is an ‘is’!
Key Scriptures:
NT Wright, The challenge of Jesus was mentioned in the panel conversation: Amazon | Logos.
Renew Communities
You can learn more about Scottie and the team at Renew Communities.
The Ralph Winter paper mentioned is “The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission“, published 1974.
Ngā Here
We talked briefly about a new podcast, Ngā Here “The Many Connections”. This is available from Apple podcasts and your regular podcast source. We recommend it!
Got some feedback for us? A question? Did we get something wrong? Let us know! Contribute@christia.nz
The segments were prepared by our panel, so do feel free to share and discuss them with others. We’re a fully volunteer group made up of Jesus followers just like you.