An anchor For the Why

Why do you Believe?

Hey everyone welcome to Pastors Class Pastor Josh is out sick today i know he really wanted to be here To continue the Marriage on the rock series

which has been super impactful for me I love that were actually recording it Because Marisa and i get to go back and watch it every week And it really has blessed us We started having honest conversations every night not once a week which has been great i have a brand new honey to do list which i think i missed that part But in all seriousness This marriage on the Rock series has been really good so far and im looking forward to next week But for tonight we are going to pivot a little bit

Pastor Josh gave us a word for the year in youth we have really been focusingon that word anyone want to tell me what that word is Grow and in youth we have been talking about growing on a foundation because growth happens good and bad things grow cancer grows bacteria grows and so in youth we have been building a foundation to establish growth on a few weeks ago Pastor Josh talked about the wise builder and the foolish builder Does anyone want to give a brief summery Of the wise and foolish builder? Yeah the wise builder built his house on what Jesus taught and because of that he had a firm foundation His house Which represented his life withstood the storms The foolish builder Heard the same words of Jesus but he didn’t build his house Which represents His life on what Jesus taught so when the storms came His house or his life collapsed the point Jesus is making is that building our lives on what Jesus teaches is like building a house on solid foundation the difference between the wise and the fool is not the message they heard they both heard Jesus

today they would have both went to church and heard the same preaching they both heard the same message The difference wasn’t what they heard its what they applied what they did with the information they recieved

Thats building a foundation Having head knowledge does not get a house build its the application of that knowledge

Its doing what i know that gets things done another quick point is that the wise and the fool were both hit with the same storm The wise wasn’t immune to the storm He was prepared for the storm life is going to have storms weather your a believer or not life is still going to be life obstacles are still going to come trials will always be something we face the difference between the wise and the foolish is what they are built on

is what they have eestablished through obedience obedience is what gives our faith stability when life happens when trials happen

so today i want to talk to you from a couple different angles and try to strengthen that foundation that you can build on i am going to ask a couple hard questions that people genuinly ask when it comes to the foundation of what we believe but we are also going to dive into the answers to those questions

are there multiple religions that lead to God?

How can we trust the Bible if it was written so long ago?

Where does the Bible come from?

Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

Is religion made up for people to have something to hope in?

These are all real questions and the answer to these questions help us establish a foundation of not just what i believe but why i believe

understanding the why to what we believe is like having the right mixture in a foundation

because You can repeat what you believe and still be shaken But when you understand why you believe what you believe you become an anchor when everything else around you is shaky

and heres the reality for all of us at some point your faith is going to be challenged maybe not in here in church service actually hopefully it does maybe not when things are going good maybe not when everyone is healthy or bills are paid but in real life

In a hospital room in a hard moment of marriage in a moment of a loss in a moment where prayers feel unanswered in a convorsation with someone who doesn’t believe what you believe and asks “How do you know any of this is true.” And your face to face with having to explain the why

and in those moments

when your faith is challenged or questioned simply saying “because i grew up in church” wont cut it “because heard a message” wont cut it because my pastor told me to believe wont cut it You have to know for yourself in those moments when emotions are questionable when doubts speak loud when uncertainty is clear

Those are the moments you need to know why you believe what you belive Not just what do you believe but why you believe it

because storms don’t test what you heard They test what your standing on

and to be honest many believers know what Chritianity teaches we know what the Bible says But the link to why it matter why its relevant why it is the anchor is the link that either secures the foundation and established lasting growth

or collapses when pressure hits 1 Peter 3:15 “you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.”

so i am going to give some great information tonight that i believe will anchor your why and i dont expect you to be able to remember verbatim what we talk about but i do want you as christians to be able to express why you believe

first i want to start with the bible How can we trust the Bible is accurate If it was written so long ago and on top of that we don’t even have any original documents we have copies of copies of copies So how can we reliably say we have the correct words

and to muddy the water even more the Bible wasn’t even written in our own language it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic so how can we trust the translations into english to be accurate?

so how can we trust the Bible to be accurate and where did it come from?

first we have to understand God didnt just drop a book out of heaven He worked through real people in real situations using their own experinces and personality but the message comes from God

God used humans to write His message The Bible was written by about 40 different authors over about 1,500 years

across three different continents

yet the Bible unfolds one unified story Creation - the fall of man - redemption- and the promise of one day full restoration and all throught the Bible its pointing to Jesus the whole bible 1,500 years without one contradiction

now track with me for a second because i don’t want to use the Bible to validate the Bible i want to establish why we can trust the Bible but in order to do that we need to talk about some secular History for a moment

what are some historical facts? these are fact about history that we believe and we believe those as facts right? history teraches us alot about the past we learn History in school and where does History come from or where do we learn about History?

Books

We learn about socrates and plato the olympic games we learn about greek democracy we learn about Alexander the Great’s conquests we trust the origan of the United States

But none of us were there to witness it History is passed on throught writings through documentaiton Julius Ceasar and the Roman Empire comes from Ceasars own writiings and Romans Historians like Tactitus and Seutonius yet we don’t quesotion if Rome existed or if Ceasar was real person we simply study History and we pass it on When it comes to the Egyptian Civilization we know about Pharoas and Heiroglyphics and we rely on inscriptions to tell us information and we accept these as factual history But now watch this when it comes to the Bible the historical writings that have been found the documents we have collected of ancient texts When talking about the New Testament alone we have over 24,000 copies and parital copies of writings and the earliest writing date back to within 30-100 years of the events

now keep that thought for a second because i want to put this into perspective for you

We learn about Julius Ceaser matter of fact they teach about Him in schools But we only have about ten ancient copies of his writings

we learn about homers illiad and this is considered one of the most reliable ancient texts because of the amount of copies yet it has about 1,800 copies

The New Testament alone has 24,000 ancient copies and partial copies

but now watch this Homers illiad which is considered one of the most reliable ancient texts the earliest copies we have are hundreds of years after the original

plato and socrates the earlies copies of have of those writings come over a thousand years after they lived But when it comes to the Bible and the manuscripts the written documents we have in hand over 24,000 copies of the new testament they date as earlier as 30 - 100 years of the actual events see we don’t questions if Rome existed We dont doubt the reality of Plato we accept History as History and we pass it down

But when it comes to the Bible Which has more manuscript evidence written evidence closer to the actual events that happened suddenly we question history

There is no other ancient text nothing we learn about in History that even comes close to the amount of evidence that we have to affirm the reliabilty of the Bible

and watch this the more copies you have of something the easier it is to cross check accuracy and identify copying mistakes lets get deeper and this will blow your mind this alone should prove it all talking about the reliability of scripture if nothing else persuades you Listen to this 99% of the manuscripts we have are exact copies the only differences found are spelling word order or grammer no other historical event is as reliable as the written Bible itself and thats not using the Bible to defend that argument thats using secular history That affirms the The Bible

Now lets talk about Jesus for a second Was Jesus a real person Was He really crucified Did He really rise from the dead

because these are real questions people have Is Christianity made up to give people something to hope in even other religions claim Jesus was just a prophet did don’t agree with the resurrection

so Watch this Secular History Roman Historians Jewish hostorians governement records

They all affirm Jesus was a real person Jesus is not just a figure in the Bible He is recognized in secular history as a real person who lived in this world But How can we believe that he actually rose from the dead? well first of all because the Bible says it which we already established is reliable and it records eye witnesses that claim to have seen Him alive after the resurrection but lets no use the Bible for a minute

Lets use history tells us and this isn’t chritstian history this is common history these are just fact and documented acounts of history IT says Jesus existed as a historical person Jesus died by crucifixion and early followers claimed to believe He rose from the dead it doesn’t affirm His resurrection simply that people claimed it happen History accounts for the empty tomb and history accounts for people claiming to have see appearances of Jesus

So history itself apart from the Bible affirms Jesus as a real person affirms the crucifixion of this person named Jesus affirms the empty tomb affirms the claims of people’s saying they seen Jesus after the crucifixion thats just history lets talk a minute about the fate of the disciples after the crucifixion The Bible tells us some information and historical accounts also give us more information The Bible tells us when jesus was crucified the disciples were confuesed some went back to fishing others went into hiding Because everything they believed that was going to happen came to a halt with the death of Jesus They thought Jesus was going to establish an earthly kindgom overthrow Rome take over the world but when Jesus was crucified its crushed them

but the moment Jesus reappears to the disciples they regain their strength they regain their hope and they realize their mission and they go forward

The bible tells us the apostles were constantly imprisoned beaten threatened and they continued to preach the gospel Which shows, they were willing to risk their lives for their testimony to the resurrection of Jesus

that means the believed so strongly that Jesus rose from the dead they were willing to suffer for it

Thats in the Bible

Now history apart from the Bible tells us James the brother of Jesus was killed by stones holding onto his testimony of the resurrection of Jesus

James the sone of Zebedee was exacuted by Herod Agrippa with a sword in Jerusalem Peter was crucified upside down Paul was beheaded by nero Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross Matthew was killed while preaching

Philip Bartholomew Simon the Zealot Jude matthias and many many more were recorded to have been crucified beheaded stoned to death

all because they would not deny Jesus and deny He rose from the dead

They were willing to be murdered in cold blood because they would not deny what they claimed to have seen

thats pretty strong

now Theres a guy by the name Lee Strobel He was not a preacher He was not raised in church He was actually an atheist and he was an award winning investigative journalist His job was literally to ask hard questions and expose things that were not true and He won awards for being good at it Lee’s wife became a christian at first he was upset Because Lee’s view of Christianity was that Christianity was just an emotional crutch for weak people

So Lee made a decision He decided to prove Christianity was false just to get His wife out of it

So he did what journalists do he started investigating

He studied the Bible he studied History he studied science he interviewed some of the top scholars in the world

and He went in with one goal Not to prove christianity was true but to prove christianity was false

He asked questions like can we trust the Bible

or was it changed over time did Jesus really claim to be God Or did people add that later did the resurrection actually happen or was the body stolen Were the appearances of Jesus hallucinations did people just have visions of Jesus

These are questions he set out to answer and as a professional He was good at finding answers after 2 years of investigating he came to a conclusion He was not ready for

this is what Lee say he said the evidence was overwhelming that the Bible was historically reliable that Jesus really did claim to be God and that that resurrection was the best possible explanation for the empty tomb and the changed lives of the disicples

Lee Strobel said no noe dies for lie People may die for something they believe is true but people will not willing die for something that they know is false

Plenty of people throughout history have died for false religions lies they believed were true but the disciples were in a totally different category because they weren’t just believing a story they hear they were claiming to be eye witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus

There message wasn’t “someone told us Jesus rose from the dead” their message was “We saw Him alive.” So if the resurrection was fake if they stole the body if they made it up They would have known it was a lie and when they faced death they would have came clean The fact that so many eye witness gave their life holding onto their testimony of witnessing Jesus alive agian proves that their claims are reliable and that the resurrection did happen Lee Strobel concluded that the Bible was historically reliable that Jeuss really did claim to be God And that the resurrection did in fact happen And the man who started out to destroy Christianity ended up becoming a follower of Jesus and later wrote the book called “the case for Christ”

Not because He wanted to win an argument but because He wanted people to know faith is not blind faith is built on truth and trust in the truth

So what does this mean how does this affect me? what does this do in my life?

Let me tell you why this matter Because if the Bible is historically reliable If Jesus was a real person and if the resurrection actually happened Then christianity is not a preferance its not a tradition passed down from parents its not a comforting ides This matters because the Word of God is true and if its true

if the Word of God is true then it demands a response Jesus was not just a good teacher He is God And if He is God Then He has to have authority over you life And if He has authority over your life His Words are not just suggestions they are truth to build your life on it means following Him is not a hobby you add to your schedule His Words become the foundation you build EVERTYTHING on And this is where the why becomes personal Because once you understand why you believe obedience stops feeling like an obligation and starts to become something you deeply desire

You don’t obey Jesus because your trying to look religious You obey Jesus because you truly believe He is they way the truth and the life, there is not other route to God other than through jesus

You obey because you want the life he has for you and you truly believe following Him will get you there No other religion has a man who claimes to be God and rose from the dead to prove it

You don’t trust him because a pastor told you so your half way in you trust him because the evidence, the history, the truth, it all points to Him

you stop reading the bible out of duty and begin to read it because you believe it is the very Word of God You don’t pray because that what Christians do You pray because you know He hears you You believe Your talking to the living God who created everything and has a plan for you All of a sudden when you understand they why building your foundation on what Jesus teaches just makes sence

because when your in the hospital room when marriage gets hard when the payers feel unanswered when someone challenges your faith your not standing on emotion your not standing on tradition your standing on a foundation that through the hardest challenges life can through at you your solid your firm your unmoveable Your unshaken because your foundation is built on truth

Now that brings us full circle and i want to ask you a straight forward quesiton this isn’t to shame you this is to encourage you

because this is what i know Grace allows repentance at the very second we choose repentance is simply turning around and going the opposite direction So i want to ask you this quesiton have you been the wise builder building on what Jesus teaches or the foolish builder This is the thing they both heard Jesus they both heard the same message

they both faced storms but they had two different outcomes

The wise builder heard and obeyed and withstood the storm the foolish builder heard and didn’t apply what He heard and He collapsed in the storm maybe you’ve been having storms and you keep colapsing today you can choose a different foundation today you can repent you can turn around and build your foundation build you life on the Word of God

because this is what i know the wise builder and the foolish builder both heard the message the difference was what they did with what they heard So if Jesus is who he says he is if the Bible is really what it claims

Then the only reasonable responce is to build your life on it not casually not occasionally but completely because that the call God is giving each of us is to build our life on Him now i want to turn this around and i want you guys to talk to me

first i want to ask does anyone have questions you want to ask it can be anything

if someone asked you why do you trust in the Bible or why do you believe give me your best 30 second answer follow up quesiton A little deeper but i want you to be honest what is your faith built on? is it more conviction of truth or more of a comfort that helps you cope? Why do you think that is?

Do you think these could be different foundations? Why?

These questions matter becauyse when faith is built on comfort the first time life gets uncomfortable we begin to drift but if its built on conviction storms dont erase what we believe they reveal it

So lets go even a little deeper what does it look like for you to trust God

let me ask you this

do trials in you life cause you to press deeper or turn away from God? because convictions cause us to press deeeper instead or turning away. and how does that change the way you view things?