Best Evidence that God Sent Jesus

The following is the script for this video:

Suppose a podcaster, during an interview with you, asks: “What is the most persuasive evidence that God sent Jesus?” You think fast. What will you say?

You might say the best evidence is fulfilled prophecy. Some calculate that more  than 300  Old Testament passages foretold Jesus’s coming. For example, Micah 5:2—written seven centuries earlier—says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel.” And--sure enough—he was born in Bethlehem.

Or you might point to Jesus’s resurrection as the best evidence that God really did send him. After all, the dead body of Jesus, lying helplessly in that rock cave, could not have come to life unless God raised him. In six separate places the New Testament says, “God raised him from the dead.” The empty tomb confirms God’s endorsement of Jesus and his mission on earth.

Or you might tell the podcaster about Jesus’s own claims that God sent him on his mission into the world. “Just as the Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” Much later, Jesus tells his disciples, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” At least 30 times in the Gospel of John Jesus speaks of his having been sent by the Father. He says the same in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

All these evidences definitely support the fact that God sent Jesus, his Son, into the world. If you’re already a Christian, fulfilled prophecy, Jesus’s resurrection, and his own claims about himself will be highly persuasive.

But the non-Christian world is not so convinced by such evidence. Why? Because they suspect testimony that comes through a Bible written thousands of years ago. The world cannot see—and so does not accept—these arguments as good evidence.

Where, then, does that leave the world? When it comes to believing that God sent Jesus, is there any visible, tangible evidence in the here-and-now that they will find persuasive? Happily, yes. In fact, Jesus tells us exactly what that evidence is. To help us understand what evidence Jesus says the world will find credible, let’s begin by asking:  “What does the world desperately want—but finds impossible to reach?”

• Consider how the words “United” and “Union” keep appearing in the names of nations and nation groups. The United Nations. The United States. The United Arab Emirates. The European Union. The United Kingdom with its Union Jack. And—years ago—the  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As these names tell us, the world longs for unitedness and union. But division keeps invading these supposedly united political bodies.   

• Or think of brides and grooms. We hear, “What God has united . . . .” But the happy wedding picture too often disintegrates in the marriage that follows. Between 40 and 50 percent of first marriages in the U.S. end in divorce.

• Family ties should unite brother and sisters, right? But among adult siblings in America, one out of four are alienated from or will not speak with each other.

• Employee groups, known as “unions,” are not always united. Crossing picket lines can trigger internal violence between union members.

• Although the word “community” ends in unity, living in one can erupt into serious conflict. Those in homeowner associations often clash over property rules, how dues get spent, board members acting from self-interest, and more.

• Elected—among other reasons—to keep the peace, legislators often wage war with each other verbally and sometimes even physically.

So, whether it happens with nations, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, unions, homeowners’ associations, or legislatures, what begins like a unified egg on a countertop  can easily end like this splattered mess on the floor. The world aches for unity but cannot produce it or maintain it.

Jesus understands all this. He knows when sin rules, it drives wedges between people, ruining relationships.

But Jesus frees people from the rule of sin. When he is on the throne, he creates a people able to harmonize with and sacrifice themselves for one another. This lived-out demonstration provides the world with evidence that God did indeed send Jesus. 

Jesus says so himself. In prayer to his Father, he asks “that all of them [all those he rules as King] may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” He continues: “that they [those he rules as King] may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me.

What is Jesus asking? That heaven’s unity be made visible on earth. Unity has no source except in the three-in-one God. And when those Jesus rules live out heaven’s unity here on earth, it provides the world with credible evidence, evidence that permits them to believe and to know God did indeed send Jesus.

All this underscores what’s at stake in our carrying out Jesus’s new command. “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

In this command, Jesus names  three vital elements in our agenda as Christians: first, the evidence of our apprenticeship to him is one-anothering love. Second, the standard for our one-anothering is Jesus’s own self-emptying love for us on the cross. Unity is not merely the absence of conflict, it is presence of spending ourselves for each other. And third, the outcome is the world’s recognition we are following the one God sent from heaven. 

So, what is the best evidence that God really sent Jesus? It’s desirable—something the world aches for but cannot produce. It’s visible—taking place here on earth. It’s verifiable—the world can see and evaluate it. Heaven’s unity, lived out on earth right among the world’s people, becomes persuasive evidence. Seeing this unity will cause the world to ask: What’s the secret behind it? Such unity, says Jesus, provides what the world needs to know and believe God sent him into the world. 

But there’s even more. This lived-out unity on earth moves God to act as well. As David puts it: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! . . . .For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”

We see this poured-out blessing from the Lord at the end of Acts 2. There, Jesus’s followers have been demonstrating heaven’s unity by spending themselves for each other. An outpost of heaven here on earth. Then came the outpoured blessing:  “The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

What picture is today’s church projecting to the people of this world? Have we even caught the world’s attention?