Pastor’s Sermon Outline

THE DA VINCI CODE DECEPTION

TEST THE SPIRITS … TRUST IN GOD

I. OPENING—

A. Background on “The DaVinci Code” by Dan Brown and the main

claim that Jesus was married and had at least one child.

B. Scripture tells us to test the spirits to see if they are from God
and if they are true. Testing the spirits allows us to discern good
teaching from false teaching, light from darkness, and truth from
deception. God knew there would be many claims about Jesus
and challenges to His Word and so advised us in 1 John 4:1-4
to test the spirits to see if they acknowledge Jesus as deity and
Lord. Testing the spirits guides us in ultimately deciding where
to build our lives and faith.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to
see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have
gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of
God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge
Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you
have heard is already in the world. You dear children, are from God
and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater
then the on who is in the world” (1 John 4:1-4).

C. Four KEY questions are raised by the book (DVC):

1. Was Jesus married and did He have a child?

2. Is the DVC a reliable source of world and church
history?
3. Can we trust the Bible and God’s Word as truth?
4. Did no one believe Jesus was divine until 300 years
after His death?

II. HISTORY & ECCLESIOLOGY (study of the church)

A. The DVC is a NOVEL —a work of ____FICTION____ .

B. Brown used no footnotes, no accurate historical accounts, and

had no accountability to history or church in writing the DVC.
 C. Most conspiracy theories are ___RIPE WITH INACCURACIES

AND MANY ARE SIMPLY LUDICROUS .

(A church cover-up for more than 2000 years? Hardly likely.)

D. We can TRUST THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH_WHICH IS

ROOTED IN RECORDABLE FACT AND HISTORY .

E. Nothing historically or in church history points to Jesus being

married or having children.

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it”
(Matthew 16:18).

“For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of
the church, his Body, of which he is the Savior” (Eph 5:23).

III. RELIABILITY OF BIBLICAL TRUTH

A. The Bible is ____GOD INSPIRED__ and ___MAN

“PERSPIRED”____. (God inspired and created all truth and

mankind wrote it down.)

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,

rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”
(2 Timothy 3:16).

B. New Testament books were written within ____30 – 60

YEARS OF JESUS’ DEATH____ —not hundreds of years later.

C. NT books were written _____BY DIRECT APOSTLE

WITNESSES OR THEIR STUDENTS___ —people who saw

with their eyes and heard with their ears.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,

which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at
and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the
 Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it,
and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the
Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you that we
have seen and heard…” (1 John 1:1-3).

D. NT books were part of the “Canon” (meaning rule or standard).

The Gnostic Gospels were __SECRETIVE AND MYSTICAL

AND WILDLY DIFFERENT THAN THE NT BOOKS .

“But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it
may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done
through God” (1 John 3:21).

E. Nothing scripturally that points to Jesus being married or

having children.

F. The Bible warns against __FALSE TEACHINGS .

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as
there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly
introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord
who brought them” (2 Peter 2:1).

“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;

correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful
instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2).

IV. CHRIST’S DIVINITY

A. Jesus was fully ___HUMAN FOR HE CRIED, SLEPT, ATE,

WEPT, AND FELT PAIN .

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We
have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from
the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

B. Jesus was fully ___DIVINE BEING ONE WITH GOD AND

HAVING ALL POWER AND AUTHORITY .

“Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God” (Matthew 16:15).
 “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…”
(Colossians 2:9).

C. Jesus died for _MEN_ and men died for _JESUS . Why would
Jesus have died for us, or men for Jesus, if He were not God?

“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could

be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians
2:21).

D. Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ time __DID NOT MARRY OR

HAVE CHILDREN_ —why would Jesus deviate from this norm?

E. We’re Christ’s ___CHILDREN .

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we
should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
(1 John 3:1).

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-

heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:17).

V. CLOSING

A. Ultimately deciding on what and whom to build our faith through

testing the spirits as God demands we do—recognizing Jesus
as fully God and knowing He alone is Lord.

“This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He

did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the
Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth” (1 John 5:6).

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live
in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you
were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no
one takes you captive through hollow And deceptive philosophy,
which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of the
world rather than in Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity
lives in bodily form…” (Colossians 2:6-9).

The REALITY is found in ___CHRIST___ !

“…The reality, however, is found in Christ” (2 Colossians 2:17).