Eyewitness Account

Mother’s Day Introduction

Good morning mothers!

We’re so grateful for everything you all do in service to God

When Proverbs 31 speaks of a virtuous woman, it says:

Proverbs 31:31 ESV

31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

We would like to do just that, and honor the mothers in our church this morning

If you’re a mother, would you please stand - let’s thanks these wonderful mothers (APPLAUSE)

First, let me pray for you and then please, stay standing - we have a little gift for you

Once you get it go ahead and take a seat

PRAYER

Truly, we are thankful for you this morning...

I know without my own mother:

I wouldn’t have faith

My dad wouldn’t

My brother and sister wouldn’t

I feel the same about my wife and our kids

So, mom’s, today we remember you

We’re thankful for your Godly service and love

I hope today you feel honored and loved by your church and your children

The importance of your role cannot be downplayed

Why do you think Mother’s Day is one of the best attended Sunday’s for churches across America?

Because when a child honored his/her mom, they do things that revolve around faith

Speaking of the role of a mother...

J. Warner Wallace: "Parents are the most important apologists our kids will ever know.”

I believe this is true

5-6 years ago Apologist Frank Turek got an email from the parents of a college-aged girl

Their daughter was the top Christian student in her school

She had several scholarships offered from Christian organizations

She was a leader in her high school youth group

She decided to go to UNC - Chapel Hill

It’s a very liberal school, she wanted to win people to Christ

4 weeks into school, her parents gets a phone call from her

She said, “I don’t believe in God anymore.”

They drove 4 hours to Chapel Hill that weekend, sat down, and got nowhere...

She explained her New Testament teacher was an atheist

Just like Ronnie’s is at ICC

Professor said we don’t know who wrote the gospels, the Bible is full of errors, I’m an atheist now

Question, did this young lady sit and look at all the evidence for/against for a rational conclusion?

In 4 weeks in the midst of taking classes, meeting friends, writing papers...

No, there’s no way - it couldn’t be done!

The truth is, she went to school with a weakly informed set of beliefs

In WWII, Japan’s most successful attack took out 20 ships, 300 airplanes and 2,000 people

No other attack was so successful for them

Of course, I’m talking about Pearl Harbor

What’s the easiest way to get taken out in a war? To not know you’re in one...

This young woman didn’t know she was in one either

She was unprepared; unarmed

She was a victim of ignorance...

What could have been done?!

Ephesians 6:1–3 ESV

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Today, we’re going to learn what parents - and mother’s specifically - should be teaching “in the Lord”

What, exactly, does the faith of a Godly mother look like...

…and why should we carry that faith into our own lives as adults?

YouVersion: Eyewitness Account

We’re in 2 Peter 1:16-21

Today, Peter is going to make some very important statements

He spent years with Jesus, preparing for his mission

And we will begin this morning with a very powerful statement:

2 Peter 1:16 (ESV)

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Many people say things about Jesus that are basically just not true

Some say Jesus never existed at all - He was made up!

Momma don’t play that

At least not a Godly one...

Why? It’s wildly unlikely!

Bart Ehrman: “l believe atheists have done themselves a disservice by jumping on the bandwagon of mythicism because, frankly, it makes you look foolish to the outside world… This is not even an issue for scholars of antiquity. There is no scholar in any college or university in the western world who teaches classics, ancient history, New Testament, early Christianity; any related field who doubts that Jesus existed. The reason for thinking Jesus existed is because he is abundantly attested in early sources.”

Know what’s interesting about Bart Ehrman? He doesn’t believe in God...

He’s actually an NT professor at Chapel Hill

You know, where the girl stopped believing in God?

He calls himself an agnostic with atheistic leanings

Records from Cornelius Tacitus, Flavius Josephus, Lucian of Samosata, Pliny (plee-knee) the Younger...

Along with another 20 or so other authors from the time!

People have no problem believing that Pluto, Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great all existed

Yet, Jesus has 4x more external evidence than all three combined!

And that’s leaving out our most important source of information - the bible!

To rule out the Bible as historical is pretty foolish - even if you don’t believe in God

For centuries, scholars believed the Bible talked about made up people or events...

They denied King David, the Hittites and Belshazzar ever existed

Over the last 200 years, we’ve found abundant archeological evidence for all of them

What about the New Testament?

In late 1800’s, Sir William Ramsay wanted to disprove the Book of Acts

That is early church history recorded by Luke...

Acts mentions 32 countries, 54 cities, 9 islands and 95 people

Ramsay couldn’t disprove a single one...

He spent 30 years trying to find an historical error, he couldn’t do it...

Sir William Ramsay: “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy … this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians.”

Not a single error to be found in 1900 years...

Then look at the Encyclopedia Britannica

When it was published, there were so many mistakes about the US it had to be recalled

Okay, fine. So maybe Jesus was real...

But He was just a good teacher, not the Son of God...

That’s not even possible!

Many of you have heard the “liar, lunatic or Lord” argument

Jesus claimed to be the Son of God who dies to save us all from our sins

If that’s not true, there are only two other possibilities

1 - He made it up; He was lying

In that case, how could He be a good teacher?

He’s deceived millions of people over thousands of years!

How could He then be good?

2 - He’s crazy

Again, not a good teacher!

The conclusion here is simple:

Either Jesus was a good teacher AND the Son of God

Or He wasn’t the Son of God and was a bad teacher

Ok fine, so maybe He was a bad teacher and not the Son of God then

Maybe the disciples lied about everything after Jesus died!

Makes sense, history is often a bunch of lies...

There’s a few problems with that though...

For starters, the apostles included embarrassing details!

Over and over in the gospels the disciples look stupid!

How many times does Jesus teach and the disciples sit there blank-faced and drooling?

Did Mark say, “Hey Peter, I’ve got an idea! Let’s have fake Jesus call you Satan and we’ll tell the world about it!”

Peter says, “Ha! Yeah, yeah! Do it! And let’s make you run away from Jesus naked!”

Who would do that?

Not only that, but letter after letter after letter in the NT is about addressing problems!

Let’s pretend to write to that church about a guy hooking up with his step-mom!

If you’re going to tell a lie, you make yourself better!

George Washington couldn’t lie when he chopped down the cherry tree

Anastasia survived the execution of the Romanov family and is rightful heir

You have Hercules, Robin Hood, King Arthur, William Tell, Aunt Jemima!

All lies!

And yet, in this first-century “legend,” the way these guys tell the story is this:

Jesus dies, we all ran away and the women were the brave ones that went down to the tomb!

If you’re going to lie, you try to cut out the embarrassing parts

Unless, you’re trying to make is believable because you’ll get something better out of it!

I mean, surely the disciples got something out of this...

Judas!

He killed himself - that’s all right, no one liked him anyway...

Paul!

After admitting to murdering Christians...

He’s shipwrecked, thrown in prison, beaten, and ultimately killed!

Thomas!

After being called out for doubting...

Ends up being killed with spears

Matthew!

After being labelled as a tax-collector...

He was stabbed to death in Ethiopia

James!

Stoned and then clubbed to death

Simon the Zealot!

Killed for refusing to worship the sun god in Persia

Matthias!

Burned to death

Andrew!

Crucified

Philip!

Put to death for converting the wife of a Roman proconsul

Bartholomew!

Flayed alive and then beheaded

John!

Don’t worry, he might not have been killed...

He was just imprisoned on the island of Patmos

Although some say he was boiled in oil after he was released

And who can forget Peter...

He sinks for lack of faith, denies Jesus 3 times, loses a footrace to John, gets put down by Paul

I already mentioned that Jesus calls him Satan…!

His gain?

Thrown in prison, persecuted, beaten, and crucified upside down

From an earthly standpoint, being a disciple WAS NOT WORTH IT!

If this is all a lie, it was a terrible idea!

It doesn’t make sense!

But you know what does make sense? What Peter says here:

…We did not follow cleverly devised myths... we were eyewitnesses…!

Peter didn’t believe some fairy tale… he believed what he saw

That’s the same for Paul, Andrew, John, Mary Magdalene, and thousands of others!

They SAW it...

That begs a question: why do you believe? If you actually do...

Lot’s of kids think their mom’s don’t know anything...

For some Christian moms, maybe they do just believe a fairy tale

Blindly or because they were tricked or they grew up that way...

Just like some atheists believe for the same reasons

There may be many Christians who believe just because and happen to get it right

But how often do we find out that our mom’s knew what they were talking about?

What if your Godly mom has faith, and she knows what she’s talking about?

This morning, as we fill in our blanks, we’re looking at the reasons Peter believed in Jesus

And from that, we’re exploring why we also should believe in Jesus

And the reasons between Peter and us aren’t very different...

Here’s the first one’s we see in this passage:

We believe in Jesus because of:

...experience and reason

Again, mom’s have many reasons and methods to teach faith to their kids...

We’re talking about several different ones...

But experience and reason are two very good reasons to believe

Amongst all the others

Godly moms can’t deny the change Jesus has made in their life - they’ve seen it

They can’t deny the amazing way they’ve seen Him move

Not only that, they can’t deny the crazy evidence

The idea that this universe exists the way it does can’t be ignored

I might be able to not believe in God… if we weren’t here

But life and nature couldn’t possibly exist without a powerful, pre-existent, intelligent being

Reasonably, logically, sensibly, God is real, and that concept works itself out all the way down to Jesus

Of all the theories about how everything is here, the Christian God makes the most sense

I have personally experienced Him, and I believe in Him with good reason...

Largely, here is another reason why:

2 Peter 1:17–18 ESV

17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

This is a moment from Jesus’ transfiguration

We’ll talk about that more in a minute...

What is Peter saying?

Dude, I went with Jesus and I heard the voice of God myself!

Maybe Marty McFly went back with a PA system and faked the voice

Maybe Peter was under the influence of a foreign substance

Maybe he was a complete lunatic - along with all the other NT writers...

But I don’t think so

I think Peter heard the voice of God

I think he heard and saw and did everything he talks about

I believe he walked on water

I believe he pulled in nets full of fish to the breaking point...

…Right from where he just pulled nothing...

I believe angels miraculously broke him out of prison

But not just Peter

I believe John saw the end times

I believe Paul saw the third heaven

I believe Thomas placed his fingers into Jesus’ nail wounds

Here’s what I’m saying about this:

We believe in Jesus because of:

…what others have seen

Mom’s, this is why you share what God has done for you with your children

It first helps us to believe

AND it helps us to continue growing in our faith

Here’s an example:

In 1 Thessalonians, Paul’s co-worker Timothy returns from Thessalonica

He brings back a bunch of stories of what God is doing

Then Paul writes this:

1 Thessalonians 3:6–8 ESV

6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.

Paul was encouraging the church in Thessalonica

And their faith returned and encouraged him!

That’s why it’s important for Godly moms to share about God’s work in your life!

If you learned a hard lesson, share it with your kids!

If God put you on a mountaintop, share it with your kids!

If God made a change in you, live it out in front of your kids!

Don’t think you are separated from God’s work

He wants to use you to help others

Likewise, don’t refuse opportunities to hear what God is doing in others as well!

God may be sending a person to encourage you, so pay attention!

As Peter communicates with us here, he wants to share where his faith comes from

As I said, he’s referencing Jesus’ transfiguration

Let’s see what happened there:

Matthew 17:1–9 ESV

1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. 9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”

Here’s one of those foot-in-mouth moments for Peter

Hey look! Moses and Elijah!

Uh, um, I’ll make you some tents!

Mark tells us they were terrified, so he probably didn’t know what to say...

More evidence this really happened...

Then this huge, bright white cloud comes over them

And the voice of God thunders from the cloud

“This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased!”

Then the voice says, “Shut up Peter! Quick talking and LISTEN to My Son!”

God seems to say it a little nicer...

In pure terror, they fall on their faces!

At this point, the disciples are already listening to Jesus quite a bit

But I would bet that they are even that more attentive to Him now

Why? Because the voice of God said so!

Jesus has authority...

We believe in Jesus because of:

…powerful authority

God uses two main things to prove his authority

Prophecy and miracles (you might also argue prophecy is a miracle)

Do you realize that’s the real point of a miracle?

Yes, miracles are done for our benefit and God is very kind to do so

But the most essential function of a miracle is to prove God’s power

And to back up His authority

Quickly, I want to mention that Christians tend to overuse the word miracle...

There is a difference between divine providence/intervention and a miracle

miracle: “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.”

A miracle has to literally and clearly break the laws of nature

Otherwise known as being impossible

divine providence: “the protective care of God as a spiritual power.”

Divine providence is when God interferes in creation, but doesn’t break a natural law

No less incredible, no less awe-inspiring, but by definition is not a miracle

Example 1: Walking on water - that’s a miracle

The human body is denser than water, you throw gravity into the mix and we tend to sink

If you can break those natural laws, that is a miracle!

Example 2: While sleeping, bird flies in your window, knocks over lamp and breaks alarm clock

You wake up 30 minutes late and miss your flight

You turn on the news and the plane crashed - everyone died

That’s not a miracle, that’s divine providence - why?

Nothing in that story is impossible

Birds fly, clocks break, people sleep, planes crash

While it’s extremely unlikely and awfully suspicious that God intervened...

It’s not a miracle because it’s not impossible

Now, if a bird flies in the window and rewires your alarm clock, that might be a miracle...

Why? Birds can’t rewire alarm clocks! That’s impossible...

But otherwise, it’s divine intervention

God intervenes in an amazing way, but doesn’t break the laws of nature

True miracles don’t show up very often

And when they do today, and I believe they do, they’re usually small or infrequent

In Scripture, there are about 250 miracles during three major seasons:

The foundation of Israel as a nation: Moses

The battle against Ba’al in Israel: Elijah and Elisha

The salvation of the world: Jesus

There’s also a whole bunch at the end times too

Significant miracles in Scripture are parting the Red Sea, controlling the weather, raising the dead...

These large miracle in Scripture show up to prove God’s power, and to validate His new message

If Jesus showed up and never did a miracle, no one would believe Him

But because they saw what he could do, they had to believe

When people saw what God did, they couldn’t deny His authority

Today, God isn’t sending us a new message

We know the next step is the end times

We’re not looking for another Messiah, a new Law or another book in the Bible...

Scripture has given that to us...

But there are two significant miracles we still see today:

In addition to smaller miracles...

First, is creation

It makes no sense that anything would exist without God

Nothing exists for just no reason

So the fact we’re here is a testament to God’s existence

Romans 1:20 ESV

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

That’s why scientists today cannot explain the existence of life and the universe

And without God as the source, they never will

The other great miracle is the multifaceted phenomenon Peter talks about here:

2 Peter 1:19 ESV

19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,

He talks about the Word of God

Fulfilled prophecy, divine inspiration, and Jesus Himself (AKA the Word who became flesh)

The bible has thousands of years worth of predictions

And they land on target perfectly every time

We have Daniel’s 70 week prophecy

And Isaiah’s messianic prophecy

And Micah’s Bethlehem prophecy

Really, the complexity of the bible is so intense there’s no way it can be faked

What’s more, is what the prophecies say...

Numbers 24, Isaiah 9, Matthew 5, Revelation 22...

All talk about the light of God coming into a dark world

…Just like Peter mentions here

No matter how you twist it, we’ve made the world a dark place

Naturally, we all have a darkness inside of us

We have brought rape, murder, theft, torture, war...

All ugly things and we just can’t help ourselves

And suddenly, Jesus comes into the world

And then, His people start carrying that light as well

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Not many of you had the joy of knowing my sister-in-law Judi before 2018

She had incredible struggles that are better if she shares with you

Every time someone knocked or the phone rang, Tash was terrified

“Is this the call telling me that Judi is dead?”

I always said, “If I ever saw Judi get clean, I’ll know for sure there is a God.”

You know what God did? He made her clean...

To me, that change is undeniable

When you see what God has done, bringing light to darkness, you have to believe...

We believe in Jesus because of:

…change

If you don’t think you can change, you’ve never given God the chance

He can make the most incredible change in people

He does things that look nothing like this world!

The world says revenge - God says mercy

The world says take - God says give

The world says punish - God says grace

When you see people who don’t look like the world, you know there is a good God behind them

So Peter goes on with this idea of prophecy, look at what he says:

2 Peter 1:20–21 ESV

20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

In some way, everything we’ve talked about comes down to one thing:

We believe in Jesus because of:

...the works of the Holy Spirit

The incredible wirings of the Bible, did not come from men!

Men wrote them, yes...

But it’s clear that it was the Holy Spirit doing the work!

But the Holy Spirit doesn’t stop there...

Once you accept Christ, the Holy Spirit goes to work

Actually, the Holy Spirit is the one who works to get you to accept Christ...

1 John 5:6b (ESV)

6 ...the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

Without the Holy Spirit, we couldn’t know God

Without the Holy Spirit, we couldn’t follow Christ

Without the Holy Spirit, we couldn’t change

It’s the Holy Spirit at work in His Church that impacts the world

That should actually give us some direction on how to live

Francis Chan: “I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn't be doing this by my own power.”

That is the mission of parents, that is the mission of mothers

If you’re a Godly mom, you know this

Godly mothers can be so without the Holy Spirit empowering you everyday

Conclusion

I’ll tell you this church, like Peter, Godly moms don’t believe in a myth

Our faith is supported by their experience, by reason, by the experiences of others...

Godly moms have seen people change - including themselves

God’s authority is evident and they know what the Holy Spirit can do

When you surrender to the truth, there is no better place to be

Do what your Godly momma told you...

Surrender to the truth? Can you do that?

The alternative is ugly and terrifying...

So I hope you can accept the truth that God has made abundantly clear

That our faith is not a myth, and it’s the only truth there is

Prayer