The Reason to Believe
Apologetics • Sermon • Submitted
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“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
— Ralf Waldo Emerson
I want to talk today about belief. Specifically, my beliefs. Why I believe what I believe about Jesus, and why, in my opinion, the beliefs these beliefs are the most rational and logical and plausible explanation for all that I have seen and learned in my life.
For the past four weeks, Anthony has been leading us as a church through a set of apologetics arguments for the existence of God, the truth of the resurrection, and the inerrancy of God’s word. Today, I want to expound upon those topics and share with you how those three pillars have integrated in my life to form my core beliefs.
I’ve shared pieces of my faith journey with you in the past, but I will recap briefly here.
I grew up in a Christian home and was exposed to church and to the Bible from an early age. I grew up with flannel graph Sunday school classes and vacation bible school and youth group in my church basement. I learned all the familiar stories of the Old Testament, including Noah and the Ark, Jonah and the whale, Daniel in the lion’s den, etc. I learned about the Jesus who welcomed the little children and encouraged them to come unto me. I learned about Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree and Simon and Andrew the fishermen and loaves and fishes and walking on water. I learned about being part of a church community and having other adults and families who cared about me and my family and who supported one another and worked together for God.
I had a very simple, uncomplicated, unchallenged faith then. But what I did not have was an intellectually rigorous, battle hardened, tested faith. For me, I believed because it was what I was taught and what those who were around me believed. As a child, that was enough.
However, as I grew older – junior high, high school, eventually college. I began to realize those things that had begun my faith were not enough to sustain my faith. As I learned about science, I learned about history, I learned about others with other faith backgrounds, with no faith backgrounds, I began to have questions and doubts.
I began to wonder:
“what is the basis for these things that I’ve been taught to believe?”
“are these beliefs rational? Are they true? Or are they just tradition?”
“And, what if I had been born into another tradition?”
I quickly realized that I needed more than tradition and an accident of birth to base my beliefs upon. I needed to examine the faith claims of the tradition I grew up with and see if they were more than Sunday school stories. I needed to see if they were true.
That process began for me a bit in my later years of high school, but it really wasn’t until I got to college that I actively began examining my faith and searching out the truth. For me, it was a process, and there were a number of people and books and experiences that went into it. In some ways, the process culminated with a personal decision for Christ towards the end of my freshman year. Yet in other ways, that moment was really just the beginning of my journey of examining, testing, and ultimately cementing my faith. While we don’t have time to go through all the twists and turns and details of that journey, I do want to share some of the key conclusions that I’ve arrived at through that process and from my walk with the Lord over the past 25 years.
We’re going to look at a number of different scriptures and logical and theological arguments today, but I want to anchor our time together today around one passage of scripture:
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
What I like about this passage is that in three short verses, the scripture beautifully communicates to us that all of history pivots around just one singular person: Jesus Christ.
Jesus was there at the beginning. Hebrews tells us he made the universe.
Jesus will be there at the end. (Revelation tells us that).
In the middle is this God-man, Jesus of Nazareth, who broke into time and changed everything. That’s who I want to talk about today.
I find it interesting and entirely appropriate that all of the world – regardless of religious background or faith tradition – counts time according to Jesus’ birth. Even though secularists have renamed BC / AD as BCE / CE in an attempt to remove the connection to Christ, they can’t hide or change the fact that we’re marking time according to the life of one man, Jesus Christ.
You see, for thousands of years, the world was humming along and progressing pretty naturally. You had the Romans. They had their own government and gods and empire. You had the greeks, and they too had their own gods, their government, their language and philosophy. You had the Jews, and their special relationship with Yahweh, and their customs and traditions and history. And you had countless other nations and people groups and cultures and religions. All were proceeding in linear and explainable and continuous direction.
Until…..Until something completely radical and unique and unprecedented happened, which blew up everything and changed everything. Forever.
In mathematics, there is a term for something like this. It’s called a singularity.
Look at this graph. This is a graph of the equation y= 1/x.
Graph of y = 1/x
Look at how this graph behaves:
For all of the negative numbers shown here, -100, -80, -60, etc….the line is moving along well behaved and normally…..and then all of a sudden, as x approaches 0, the line goes haywire. It plummets to negative infinity.
Similarly, if you approach it the graph from the other side, 100, 80, 60, etc, you see the same behavior. The line is well behaved until you get close to zero, and then all of a sudden, bam! The line explodes to positive infinity.
This is called a singularity b/c an equation that was otherwise well behaved and “normal” at every other point, reaches one unique point – in this case, zero – where everything goes haywire. Not only that does it go haywire, but it is disconnected to the points around it. That point – zero here – is singular. It is strange. It is unique. It is very different from everything before it and everything after it.
This is a picture of what happened when Jesus stepped into this this earth.
This is why Jesus’ birth is our zero point for counting time.
Jesus was a singularity. He is unique in all of history. No one before him was anything like him. No one since him has been anything like him.
There are currently ~8 billion people alive on earth. Demographers estimate that over the entire history of mankind, ~117 billion people have been born. Out of the 117 billion, Jesus is the singularity. Out of 117 billion people, his solitary life is the one we count time by. His teachings are the ones that more humans follow and believe than any other person or religion. His life is the one that has shaped the world more than any other.
Jesus, is literally the focal point of human history.
So, as we talk about our faith – as I, as a college student began to examine my faith – the Sunday school stories I had been taught but now was questioning – Jesus quickly and obviously becomes THE question that matters – more than any other possible question or thought or concern.
So, let’s dig into the historical Jesus
Jesus definitely was a real person.
Professor Casey Elledge of Gustavus Adophus College holds this view of early non-Christian sources, including Tacitus, Josephus, and Seutonius:
“The testimonies of ancient historians offer strong evidence against a purely mythical reading of Jesus. In contrast to those who have denied the historical evidence of Jesus altogether, judging him merely to have been a mythological construct of early Christian thought, the testimonies of the ancient historians reveal how even those outside the early church regarded Jesus to have been a historical person.
It remains difficult, therefore, if not impossible, to deny the historical existence of Jesus when the earliest Christians, Jewish and pagan evidence mention him.”
Professor Casey Elledge
“The reality is that every single author who mentions Jesus — pagan, Christian, or Jewish — was fully convinced that He at least lived. Even the enemies of the Jesus movement thought so; among their many slurs against the religion, His nonexistence is never one of them…. Jesus certainty existed.“ Professor Bart Ehrman, UNC Chapel Hill
2. Jesus definitely was crucified and died on the cross
Early canonical and non-canonical Christian sources testify to Jesus’s crucifixion, and we can also confirm that early non-Christian sources confirm our case. In the first century, Roman historian Tacitus and Jewish historian Josephus confirm more than just Christ’s crucifixion: they note Pilate’s association with the execution. Tacitus, referring to the crucifixion as the “extreme penalty”, writes in The Annals:
Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus (15.44).
Other early, non-sympathetic writers who refer to Christ’s execution include Lucian of Samosata and Mara Bar Serapion. The Greek writer Lucian writes, “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account” (The Passing of Peregrinus). He adds that Jesus was crucified in Palestine, a further corroboration of the Gospels.
3. Jesus definitely claimed to be God.
In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
4. Jesus rose from the dead.
· Note I didn’t say “definitely”
· This point of the resurrection – this is the one everything hinges upon.
· If someone is going to make an intellectual argument against Jesus, it’s going to be about the resurrection.
· It won’t be that Jesus never existed – no serious scholar believes that
· It won’t be that Jesus was not crucified – the evidence is overwhelming that he was
· It won’t be that he didn’t really die – Anthony went into extensive detail a few weeks back about there is no possible way that the Romans botched the execution. They were experts at killing people.
· The only point one can really raise for credible debate is on the point of the resurrection.
· But in order to deny the resurrection, you have to explain a series of events that defy explanation.
· Anthony covered many of these in detail previously, but let me quickly recap:
The resurrection is the only possible explanation for what happened
1. The Romans and the Jews were highly motivated to refute the claim of the resurrection
a. Jesus was a threat to the Jewish leaders – that’s why they pushed for his crucifixion. He claimed to be equal to God. He challenged their authority. The LAST thing they would want would be a resurrection myth circulating to give credence to his claims of deity. If Jesus body was in the tomb or anywhere else to be found, they DEFINITELY would have produced it.
b. Jesus was also a threat to the Romans. Unlike the Jews, Jesus’ followers were not in partnership with the Roman rulers. Jesus talked about ushering in a new kingdom. And while we know Jesus was referring to a spiritual kingdom, that would not have been obvious to the Romans. In fact, the Christians’ refusal to deny their faith and acknowledge Ceasar as Lord is what prompted the mass persecution by Nero. The Romans DEFINITELY didn’t want a resurrection myth circulating around fueling the fire. If Jesus body existed, they DEFINITELY would have produced it.
2. However, let’s for the sake of argument for a moment imagine that somehow Jesus’ body was stolen and hidden in order to create a resurrection myth. Who would have done that?
a. His disciples would be the obvious suspects. They would be the ones who would benefit from making Jesus famous. After all, they were the ones who had been closest to him and who would become famous if they could make Jesus seem like more than a mere man.
b. However, there are so many reasons that seems highly unlikely
i. When Jesus was crucified, they were like lost sheep – scared, confused, disillusioned. Peter denied he even knew Jesus. After his crucifixion, the rest of his disciples were hiding in a locked room. None of them gave any indication that they were planning to launch a great conspiracy.
ii. Embarrassing details. The first ones to find the empty tomb and meet the risen Christ were women. As Anthony pointed out, in that time that would have been about the least credible way to launch your conspiracy. You would never have launched the conspiracy that way.
iii. The disciples gained nothing from the “conspiracy.” Nothing but hardship, persecution, and pain.
iv. They didn’t form an army and start conquering territories. They didn’t create a power structure and become personally wealthy. They didn’t collect wives or concubines. They gained nothing of earthly, material value.
v. And in the end, nearly all of them paid with their lives for refusing to renounce their claim that Christ rose from the dead.
vi. Who would ever do that? And what would be their motives?
Josh McDowell
The perspective I often hear is, “Well, those men died for a lie. Many people have done that. So what does it prove?”
Yes, many people have died for a lie, but they did so believing it was the truth. If the Resurrection had not happened, obviously the disciples would have known it. Therefore, they would not only have died for a lie—here’s the catch—but they would have known it was a lie. It would be hard to find a group of men anywhere in history who would die for a lie if they knew it was a lie.
The only plausible explanation for the behavior of the disciples is that they truly believed Jesus had been raised from the dead.
And if they believed that, that means they didn’t fake the resurrection. And if they didn’t fake it, who else possibly would have?
As implausible, as unprecedented, as singular as the resurrection is, there is no other explanation that makes sense.
· Those who deny it, do so for one reason (well maybe two, but we’ll come back to the second.) The reason they deny it is that they have pre-supposed it to be impossible. And if you pre-suppose that resurrection is impossible, no amount of evidence could ever convince you otherwise. Even if there were eyewitness + video tape evidence, resurrection would not be believed b/c it has been pre-determined to be impossible. All evidence that pointed to resurrection would have to be explained away, b/c it was pointing to something which could not happen and could never be even considered.
· However, if you accept that resurrections are possible – exceedingly rare – like so rare they never ever happen except this one time – if you accept they are possible – then the evidence is clear and the history is obvious: Jesus rose from the dead.
If Jesus rose from the dead – not just rose from the dead, raised himself from the dead – then we must listen to him. We must hang on every word he said and recognize that he is the singularity and that he is like no other point on the line. All the combined wisdom of the other 117 billion people who ever lived is like a wisp compared to his life and teachings.
For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.
We must be stopped in our tracks by him. When we realize who he really is, it changes everything. Nothing else is important as him.
If you are intellectually honest, the only way to examine the facts and not be a Christian is to deny the resurrection. And the only way to deny the resurrection in the face of the evidence is to pre-suppose that the resurrection couldn’t have happened.
But making such a pre-supposition is not an act of logic or reason. It’s an act of faith.
You see,
It takes faith to deny the resurrection
It’s a faith that supernatural events – that is, events that transcend the laws of Physics – cannot possibly happen. There is no way to prove such a belief. It is not a position of science or rationality. It is a position that can only be assumed. It may be an assumption based on experience: (“I’ve never seen proof of a single event that violates the laws of physics.) That may be true, but that is not proof of anything, other than that provable miracles are rare. And remember, we’re not just saying that Jesus was rare – we’re saying he was singular. One of a kind. Unique in all of history. No one like him before or since. How could science or nature ever prove or disprove a singularity? It can’t! By definition, science is the study of that which is repeatable, regular, predictable. Jesus is not repeatable!
Science develops rules about how the physical world operates based on observation, inference, and mathematical equations. All natural, non-supernatural processes obey the laws of physics and can be studied and evaluated through the lens of science.
But supernatural events are just that – super-natural. That is, they are outside or above or apart from nature. Science has nothing to say about such events.
Those who point to science as their justification for denying God or the possibility of the resurrection are mislabeling their objection.
What they really should be saying is that my starting assumption is that there is nothing beyond the natural world. Supernatural events are impossible, have never, could never, will never have happened. I am categorically rejecting them as a possibility and refusing to consider anything that transcends the natural world. I’m taking this position as a first principle – a matter of faith – and I’m unwilling to challenge that faith, regardless of circumstances or historical evidence to the contrary.
That would be an intellectually honest opinion.
Or would it?
[Transition to the heart argument.]
I’ve come to believe that behind most (maybe even the vast majority) intellectual objections to a belief in the resurrected Jesus is actually not an intellectual objection but rather a heart objection.
Tim Keller often asks skeptics a brilliant question.
He asks: “wouldn’t you want the resurrection to be true?”
Wouldn’t you want the resurrection to be true?
That is such a good question! It exposes the heart. From that question, you can find out what actually is behind a person’s unbelief. If the answer is “yes,” then now you have something to work with.
If the answer is “no,” then you can have a conversation about what really is behind their unbelief. In those cases, it is always a heart issue – hurts in their lives, an unwillingness to surrender control, misconceptions about Jesus or the Christian faith, beliefs or practices they are unwilling to surrender to Jesus, etc.
At first blush, wouldn’t everyone want the resurrection to be true? Wouldn’t everyone want it to be true that there was one who conquered death? And he didn’t just conquer death for himself, he conquered death for the entire human race!
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus conquered death! He created a pathway to eternal life. Who wouldn’t want that to be true?
Except…..it turns out that a lot of people don’t want that to be true. Or at least they don’t want it to be true in the way it is true.
Path to eternal life…..conquering death….heaven when we die – awesome! Sign me up!
Of course, I want it on my terms:
· I don’t want to have to change my beliefs – especially about culturally unpopular topics
· I don’t want to have to make sacrifices in this world
· I don’t want to alter my plans or my priorities
· I’m also not sure I want everyone else there – there are plenty of people I have pretty strong feelings shouldn’t be there
· Although I should be there b/c on the whole I’m a good person
· Also, this concept of surrender and salvation by faith through grace – I don’t like that. That doesn’t really fit with my ideas of right and wrong.
· Also, I have a lot of problems with Christians.
· I also have a lot of problems with the bible and a lot of the things written in it.
· Also, I’m cool with other religions, so if you tell me Jesus says he’s the only way, I have a big problem with that too
You see, the list of potential objections becomes real long, real fast.
And we haven’t even talked about some of the deepest issues yet.
So many people carry deep wounds, profound hurts that they’ve never dealt with. Maybe it’s a loss of a loved one. Maybe it’s abuse that they’ve experienced. Maybe it’s lost opportunities, unfair circumstances, grievous injustices. How could a loving God allow those things to happen?
Believing in Jesus would mean forgiving God for allowing those things to happen. It would mean believing that God is good even though my experience says he’s not. That’s something I just can’t do. I can’t let God off the hook like that. I could never surrender to a God like that.
In some ways, I am uncomfortable talking about people who are experiencing the type of emotions that I’m describing above. I’m uncomfortable because I am keenly aware of the fact that God has – for reasons only known to him – shielded me from so much of the pain and hardship that so many other people in this world experience. I am so aware of the fact that I have not walked a mile in others’ shoes and I don’t know the emotional hardship they’ve endured.
However, I do know God. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is good and he does good. Even when we don’t understand it. Like when he takes our founding pastor’s life prematurely. Like when he permits our church to go through a painful staff transition. Like when he allows cancer to come into the life of two other members of our church while we’re still grieving those losses. I don’t know why God does those things. But I know he’s in control, and I know he’s doing what’s best.
I also know that to disbelieve that God is good based on my own judgment is to put myself in the place of God. It is to say that my view is wiser than God’s. That my sense of justice is clearer than God’s.
Yet the Prophet Isaiah tells us:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
We may have terrible emotional pain in our lives. We may have things that have happened to us or those we love that seem completely incompatible with a just and loving God. But we need to recognize that we are finite beings, and that we see the world “through a mirror, dimly.” We don’t have the full picture. We don’t know the full story. We are not God, and we don’t know his ways. His ways are often not our ways, and we need to be willing to accept that.
I know that’s hard.
But the alternative is worse.
Would we want a God who was less good, less wise, less just than us? No! That can’t be true. That’s no God at all.
What’s the alternative then?
I could believe that since I see injustice in my life and in the lives of others that are unfair and incompatible with my view of what God should permit and allow to happen, that since I see those things, God must not exist. Because I know that a loving God would not permit things like that to happen. I could take that position.
But if I did, a loving friend should challenge me: “Are you sure?”
“Are you sure that you know the mind of God so well, that you know the complexities and intricacies of the universe so well and how all the pieces should fit together in a cosmic plan that you are certain that there is not a good creator behind it all that has a greater purpose and plan that is in fact very, very good, even if it’s not obvious to you right now?”
Hopefully, such a question would cause me to pause.
And if it did, and if I were to open my heart to the possibility that in spite of my lack of understanding of God, in spite of my inability to reconcile the goodness of God with the badness of injustice that I’ve experienced, in spite of my ability to put all the pieces together in a way that makes sense to my human mind, what if in spite of those things, I opened myself up to yielding to that God? What if I took a step of faith and considered a loving God whose ways were higher than my ways, and whose thoughts were higher than my thoughts – how might that change my life?
For those of us who have done just that – we already know the answer. It changes everything.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I grew up in a Christian home, and church was a regular part of my life. To some extent I’ve been a person of faith and prayer as long as I can remember.
And yet, prior to college, there was something missing in my faith life. Although I had a measure of faith, I was lacking certainty. I was lacking commitment. I was lacking an appreciation that this faith of my youth was more than hopeful thinking – it was actually something real that I could build my life upon.
I’ll never forget the moment a friend asked me if I had a personal relationship with God. And although at the time I outwardly mumbled something like “I’m not sure…” in my heart what I was really saying was “I’m don’t think I do, but I know that I want to.”
And that night I opened the bible to one of the gospels and began reading. And for the first time in my life, the words came alive. I realized that if these words were true – if Jesus was who he says he was – then that changed everything. And they were the most important words ever written, and I needed to soak them up.
That was the beginning for me of a real, personal relationship with God.
And I can tell you that not only do the facts and logic point to Jesus being God, my personal experience confirms it. A relationship with Jesus has immeasurably changed my life for the better. It has grounded me. It has shaped me. It has guided my life for the past 25 years, and I would not want to attempt to live this life on my own.
But wait, there’s more.
Not only is faith in Jesus the most rational conclusion. Not only does putting your faith in him make your life work better. When we put our trust in Christ, he fills us with his Holy Spirit.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
You see, Jesus is not just testified to by the historical evidence. His words are not just proven to be true by their practical effectiveness and wisdom. Jesus is demonstrated to be alive today through his Holy Spirit who dwells in each and every person who has put their faith in him and has yielded to his leading.
Jesus is alive. He moves in this world and he moves in our hearts. He speaks to us. He comforts us. He empowers us. He leads us. We know he is who he says he was, because know him.
Finally, I’ll end with this.
At one one point in Jesus ministry, after he had shared some particularly difficult teaching, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
To those that remained, Jesus said:
John 6:67–69 (NIV)
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
For me, this is the closing argument.
The historical evidence supports that Jesus was God. The intrinsic truthfulness of his words supports that Jesus was God. My personal experience with him supports that Jesus was God.
On top of all of that, you have to ask yourself: “if not Jesus, to whom shall we go?”
To me, there is no other answer. There is no one else in history who is anything like him. He is the singularity. He is the one. I believe he’s the son of God and I’m betting my life on that. And you should to.
If you are here – in the room, at home, watching this as a replay online – and you have not yet committed your life to Christ, I invite you to do so now – at this very moment. He is who he said he was. As incredible, as improbably, as shocking as it is – God broke into this world in the form of a man and made a way back to himself. And to experience peace with God and a relationship with him, all it takes is a step of faith. We just need to humble ourselves before him, recognizing that we need a savior, and that savior is not ourselves – it is him. And in our hearts we yield – in the same way I did 25 years ago – we say “I don’t know if I have a relationship with God, but I know I want one” and then we commit to begin following him. We commit to begin reading the bible and opening ourselves up to a relationship with him. And if we do that, he will meet us where we are and begin changing our lives. And when that happens, you will know and experience personally, the Jesus is who he says he was.
Let’s pray.