This Sunday's Sermon - October 15, 2006

When Not to Compromise
Revelation 2:12-17

            Let’s think of the pros and cons of compromise.  Well, if you were raised like I was raised, there are no pros.  All compromise is wrong.  It’s a sign of weakness, not sticking to your guns; giving into things you have no business giving into.  In the world my parents and my parent’s parents grew up in, the world was very black and white.  “If it is wrong, it is wrong.  If it is right, it is right.  There is no middle ground.”  I have lived long enough now to know there are some gray areas in life.  I’m married and that is proof enough I know how to compromise.  “I’ve raised 2 children and that shows I know something about how to compromise.  Many of you would agree. That is why Webster gives this explanation: “Compromise is a settlement of differences by consent, reached by mutual concessions.

            For some years after Laurie and I were first married, we had an electric blanket we used in the winter.  It did not take us long to realize that we needed a blanket with duel controls.  Why?  Because her preferred temperature is a lot hotter than I can stand.  That’s a compromise.  By having duel controls she can have hers all the way up until it smokes, and I can leave mine off.  You compromise when you give in at appropriate times and for the right reasons.  The right kind of compromise reveals wisdom.  I will say: “If you want a friendship that lasts, you must learn to compromise in order to cultivate the friendship.

            Your friend gives into some of the things you prefer and you give into some of the things they prefer. If you have disagreements and you want agreements, you must compromise. George Herbert once put it this way:  “A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit.”  An old Italian proverb says: “It is better to lose the saddle than the horse.” 

            On the other hand there is the “con” side to compromise.  Maybe that is why Webster left room in his definition for a second line. “To make a shameful or disreputable concession.”   The synonym for that is accommodation.  When I see people shaping their theology to fit their lifestyle, I observe the wrong kind of compromise.  If a person becomes unfaithful in their marriage and then seeks to justify that behavior with scripture, they are accommodating their theology to fit their lifestyle.  In matters of character and principle, there’s no wobble room.  Every time you compromise in your character or in your principles, YOU LOSE.  It’s wrong.  In matters of ethics, and morals, and biblical fidelity, there is not to be compromise.  If you compromise in those areas you are wrong.  Let’s look at I Thess. 4.  Paul ends the chapter by talking about our Savior coming for us; and taking us up into the air. Vss. 1-8.  Did you hear Paul?  He basically states: “I don’t care what the culture says or what the running commentary or most popular talk show hosts suggest, there is to be no compromise.  NONE! ZERO!  If you compromise here, you lose.  Vs. 6: the Lord will punish the one who enters into such sins.”   Look at I John 2:15.  Here is another truth that is NOT to be compromised.  “Do not love the world.”  That means do not give in to the world’s allurements or system of undermining God’s presence and truth.  In other words, if you love the world and give yourself to the values this world teaches, and buy its philosophy, You have NO love for the Father.  Vs. 16.  If you practice these things, you are in effect walking away from fellowship with the Father.  And there are consequences.  Think of it this way: If on a rainy day you put on some white gloves and go out and play in the mud, the mud never gets glovy. The gloves get muddy.  I have never seen glovy mud.  I have never seen mud turn white from a white gloved hand playing with it.  But I have often seen white gloves get muddy. 

            Churches can also compromise.  I should mention that compromise is a lot like erosion.  3 similarities: erosion is slow, silent, subtle.  Erosion is never fast.  It is a slow process.  That is why compromise is so effective.  When the enemy wants to get us on his side, he starts with something little and he leads to something greater.  If you are determined to stay on a diet and you eat ½ of a chocolate chip cookie, you are sunk.  Before the day is done, you have finished the whole package.  I don’t know how that works but I have seen it a number of times.  It is a slow process.  Happens over 12-15 hours.  One by one you find reasons why the cookies must be eaten.

 It is never loud or boisterous.  It is always quiet. Furthermore, it is not so obvious; it is always subtle like the frog in the pot.  You start the water at room temperature and turn on the heat.  After a time, as the water gets hotter and hotter the frog just sits there until it boils to death. 

It happened to a church.  There is the true story, according to Chuck Swindle, of a church in the deep south.  One of Swindle's friends was new to a city and went through the yellow pages looking for restaurants.  While doing so, he came across this place: Church of God Grill.  Curious, he called the number listed, asked how the restaurant got its name and this is what he was told:  “We had a little mission down here in town.  Attendance starting dropping off, so we started selling chicken dinners after church on Sundays to help pay the bills.  Well, folks liked our chicken more than they liked our church, and we ended up doing such a good business, we stopped being a church and became just a restaurant.”  This is a classic example of compromise.

Something similar happened to the church at Pergamum.  Now Pergamum was in what is now western Turkey. There is hardly anything left of the city today.  It was in its day a resort city where people came to worship one of 4 cult gods.  It was a place of emperor worship. It was here that the worship of 4 major Roman gods was practiced.  These gods were:  Zeus, Athena, Dionysus, and Asclepius. Now Asclepius was a snake god.  All over the temple, snakes were allowed to craw unmolested.  It was believed that if one came for healing and lay down in the temple and a snake crawled over them, they would eventually be healed.  Not an easy place to minister.  Some believe the medical symbol of a twisted snake came from this city and its snake temple.  This was a tough place to serve.

When the Lord begins his letter to this church, He describes Himself as the one who has the sharp two-edged sword.  This would have reminded the people of the large two-edged swords many Roman soldiers carried.  It was a massive weapon used to cut through an enemy’s defense.  So here, the Lord is saying He is going to cut through all the things that characterize the church at Pergamum.  He is going to reveal everything that is strong and good and He is going to reveal everything that is weak and in need of correction.  Look closely.  After describing Himself, he begins to name their strengths.  He says He knows where they dwell.  He knows this city is their permanent residence.  Their first strength is that they did not try to escape the pressures of their location.  Always remember, that Christianity is a conquest life, not an escaping life.  Skeptics think we only think about the life to come.  But Pergamum was a hard place: where Satan’s throne was.  Unbelievers worshipping snakes and emperors and goddesses of love.  It was a hard place.  But the church stayed.  And, our Lord says, “You hold fast my name; you did not renounce your faith.”  They were true to their faith, even in the days when people like Antipas, were being killed for their faith.  There were some of the finest people of faith in this church.  They were witnesses and strong in their faith.

B-U-T…there was compromise.  Those who held to the teaching of Balaam.  Read later.  It is too long a story for me to give you here. (Numbers 22-25)  This is a sad record of a prophet who played along with a plot without coming right out and cursing the God of Israel.  He placed foreign women in the path of Israel’s soldiers.  They lured them into relationships that led to marriage and ultimately led to these Jews losing their distinctive.  In fact, they ended up worshipping the gods of their foreign wives.  I think for Pergamum, this meant there were those who tolerated Confessing Christians who also worshipped at the temples of the false gods of Pergamum.  They compromised.  They said, “hey, this is a free country.  Live and let live.” 

Verse 15: “they held to the teaching of the Nicolai tans.”  Again, we think this was a cult that taught that the clergy were so separate from the laity that they were not to be questioned or criticized.  In the Roman church this led to only clergy having copies of Scripture in a language only they were taught to understand while the people remained woefully ignorant of God’s Word.

For the most part, this happened in a church where most of the people stayed true to the faith and ministered in a tough place.  But they chose to look another way at those who had a different way of worshipping or who liked rubbing elbows with those of the cults.  Maybe they did so socially.  Maybe they ate of the food sacrificed to idols.  And they were blinded into thinking that they were staying true to Christ. 

What if someone approaches the church today  who believes marriage is for any two people of any sex, it doesn’t matter, to begin holding their meetings here.  They say, “oh come on.  You don’t have to believe like we believe.  Just let us use your facility for our meetings.  We need a place to meet and this would be a good Christian thing to do.   Let us share with your people what we believe once in a while.”  You see how this works.  It is slow.  It is subtle. 

Look at verse 16:  “Repent!  Or else.  You come to terms with Truth and stand fast on it or else.  Or else, what?  Jesus says, or else I will come and fight against them with the two-edged sword of my mouth.”  I am going to cut my way into this congregation and reveal the error of this teaching.  I am going to cause consequences to fall on this church for that kind of compromise.”

Friends, we live in a time of relativity.  Truth is said to be relative or whatever a person wants to adopt.  Make sure what you believe is filtered by God’s truth.  Test your opinions against the Scripture.   Don’t be afraid to think alone and to be the only one in the group that doesn’t buy error.  The Lord admires this. 

It doesn’t mean we become narrow-minded or legalistic or grim-faced.  It just means you have convictions when it comes to the truth.  It means you stand up for the Truth whenever Truth is questioned.  There is a point when you say, “That is enough.”

The Lord says, “Repent or War is coming.”   Never underestimate the power of God’s judgment.  Live in the fear of God’s holiness.  It will do wonders for your walk with Christ.  A hatred for sin works beautifully with an adoration for the Savior.  For those who repent, Jesus promises hidden manna.  Food . A white stone.  In ancient days a decision of a person’s guilt was often handled with a black stone and a white stone.  A black stone meant they believed you guilty. A white stone meant acquittal.  I will forgive you and release you from this bondage.  Condemnation is gone.  And, I will give you a new name no one else knows.

The Enemy’s favorite weapon is compromise.

1.  compromise never occurs quickly.  It is a slow journey.

2.  compromise always lowers the original standard. 

3.  Compromise is seldom offensive.  When you compromise you rarely offend anybody.

4.  compromise is often the first step towards total disobedience.

“The early church did not embrace the culture, they scandalized it.”—Colson   Only Jesus is to be our Master.  Narrow.  Not Christ plus or Christ and.  He is The Way.  Heaven is NOT for the sincere.  Sincerity is Not enough.  Faithfulness to Him who is true is what God requires.         

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  This Sunday's Sermon - September 24, 2006

“The Church That Had Everything Except the Greatest Thing”
Revelation 2:1-7

As we continue our series on this powerful book of Revelation, I wanted you to know one of the keys to interpreting the mysterious and eerie passages in this Book. Don’t take the symbolism too literally.  For example: take the word “like.”  chapter 1 “heard a sound “like”…  When John uses this word, note: he did not have the words to describe Jesus and these visions. His face was NOT the sun but “like” the sun.  Whenever you encounter this word remember it is not thus and so but like it.  Important because some folks make too much out of the symbols and take them literally rather than as a comparison as close as John could come.

George Barna, the great American Poll taker is pretty grim when it comes to the future of the Christian Church in America.  For 25 years he has studied American people, the American Church scene, and our contemporary culture.  He predicts one of two outcomes: either, massive spiritual revival or total moral anarchy.  He’s praying for the former, but fearing the latter (Barna, The Second Coming of the Church, 1998).  He says, “Americans today are more open to spiritual enlightenment than ever.  Yet at this moment of optimum opportunity, Christianity is having less impact on people’s perspectives and behaviors than ever before.”  “Why is that?” he asks.  Then he gives this answer: “Because most people regard Christianity as weak, outdated, irrelevant.”  Barna went on to note: “Ironically, the biggest obstacle the Church faces is NOT its theology, but its failure to practice what it believes in compelling ways.”  Do you hear what he is saying?  The failure of the Church in America hasn’t been the content of its message, but its failure to practice those truths.  In other words, Christians have been their own worst enemies when it comes to showing the world what authentic, biblical Christianity looks like.  These are the observations of a fallible human being who could be wrong or misguided or misinformed.  OR, he could be more right than wrong.

            What if Jesus chose this minute to come and conduct a performance review of His Church here at Patton (Memorial)?  What would that be like?  What if the all-knowing, resurrected Christ, examined us?  It would be all encompassing.  No detail would be overlooked.

In Revelation Chapters 2-3, we find such a performance review conducted by the Lord Jesus Himself.  What He found in those 7 churches of Asia Minor, He finds today in His Church.  These seven performance reviews contain relevant, timely, piercing words for this church today.  As we begin looking at these today, I want you to notice some things that are common to each letter to each church.

Each one of the evaluations is made to the angel: that means “messenger.”  Here, the word “angel” could refer to the pastor who serves this particular congregation.  In each of the evaluations, Jesus immediately identifies Himself, but He does so in several different ways.  To Ephesus, He identifies Himself as the One who holds 7 stars in His right hand and walks among the 7 lamp stands.  In each letter to the churches, He makes it known that He knows each church well.  Vs. 2: “I know your deeds…” In each evaluation, Christ points out their strengths and their weaknesses.  Then He corrects them.  He concludes with wise counsel to help them become effective churches again.

            Ephesus was not an easy place for the Church.  One of the 7 wonders of the world was located there: The Temple of Diana or Artemus.  She was the goddess of Asia.  Devoted followers were everywhere in Ephesus.  Vs. 2 – Our Lord knows everything about this and every church.  He knows every success, ever failure, every sin, every act of genuine service.  Every motive, every act is known.

            Notice, they are actively engaged.  They were known for their hard work. There were those who visited the sick, cooked meals for the needy, cared for shut-ins.  Activities and committees were at work.  He says, “I know all about this.”  (Commendation).  Then the Lord mentions their patient endurance or perseverance.  Vs. 3: “You have done this and not grown weary.”  You need to know if you ministered openly in Ephesus, you would be snubbed, ignored, and ridiculed because the majority of its citizens were followers of Diana.  There are churches today that operate in similar places where Christianity is so persecuted, they have to meet in secret or suffer the consequences.

They had the right beliefs.  This is important.  They could spot a liar or a charlatan in a minute.  They hated the Nicolaitans.  These were probably a group that espoused that clergy had total authority.  They were NOT to be questioned or criticized or corrected.  The Ephesian Christians hated that and so did Jesus.  They hated error.  They were strong, robust, and courageous.  What could possibly be wrong with a church like that?  PLENTY.

In the midst of all the list of their strengths, there’s that little word b-u-t.  See it in verse 4.  “But I have this against you…”  “You have left your first love.”  You can’t read that and pass over it lightly.  It is too important.  The word for “left” is a word that is better understood as erosion—a slow process.  No one in that church woke up one morning and said, “I’m tired of Jesus.”  It happens over years.  Because of hardship or questions you can’t get answered; trials that don’t seem to have reason; loss of health, loss of a job, loss of hope.  Little by little something happens.  Their love had cooled off.  Jesus looks at them and says, “You don’t have the same devotion for Me you once had.  Remember when you couldn’t wait to read My word and talk with Me? You still do a lot of stuff, even in My Name, but,  without love.  You get busy.  You get a new demanding job.  If someone says, “We need you to help with this new activity, you do it.  BUT, your heart isn’t in it. 

            This isn’t the first time we encounter the Church at Ephesus in Scripture.  Paul wrote a letter to this church.  That letter was probably written around 60 A.D.  35 years later, John writes these words of Jesus to this same church.  In those 35 years a lot has happened.  Look at chap. 1: 15-16 – “For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers.”  In chapter 5 verses 22 and following, Paul speaks to them of “incorruptible love” like the love Jesus has for His church.  Like the love we read about in I Corinthians 13 where Paul says, “these 3 remain, faith hope and love and the greatest of these is love.”  Do you see what our Lord is saying to the Church of Ephesus and to us:  this church had everything but the greatest thing. 

            Let me ask you ladies here present, if your husband came home from work or the golf course and sat you down and said something like: “I just don’t love you like I once did.  I’m not walking out.  I’ll still be a good dad.  I’ll provide for us. We’ll work together and raise the family together.  We’ll even go out once or twice a month.  But I just want you to know I don’t love you like I used to.  Is that okay?  Would you say, “Sure, honey, that’s fine?”  NO!  Nothing would be right without love.  Nothing.  Without love, it’s just a series of activities to deaden the pain of an empty life if he doesn’t love you anymore.

            Can you see how this broke our Lord’s heart?  “We don’t talk like we once did.  I know you are busy and life may be hard, but I miss you; the you I met at the cross.”

One of the many beautiful things about God and His Word is that God doesn’t leave us in the enormity of our guilt.  This is NOT just a word for the Church at Ephesus.  I just described you, or you, or me.  O yes, there have been times in my life when my love for the Lord has grown thin.  It was dreadful. 

            Look at verse 5.  The Lord wants you to do something about it.  Let’s fix it.  HOW?  He says, “Repent.  Do the deeds you did at first.”  Our Lord says, “Remember from where you have fallen.”  Memory can often be the first step on your way back to where you used to be.  The Prodigal Son in the pigsty suddenly remembered home and how even the servants were better off than he was.  Joseph’s brothers, when they remembered what they had done, feared and turned from their evil.  Remember where you started.  Keep on remembering.   REPENT!  Turn away from your sin.  Change your mind.  Turn the course.  Do it now.  Take responsibility for your sin.  Acknowledge your part in turning cold.  God hasn’t moved.   You and I have.   Do the deeds.  Go back to the beginning and repeat what worked.

            “…OR ELSE—I’M COMING AND I’LL REMOVE YOUR LAMPSTAND.”  You’ll not have an impact.  Church will become nothing more than going through the motions.

            There are many churches today without light, without impact.  But remember: It is never too late as long as you have breath, to start truly following the Lord.  Listen: take it personally.  He who repents will be in a deep intimate relationship with the Father.  That is what eating the tree of life means.

            Jesus knows you and me completely.  Yet, he loves us unconditionally.  So there is every reason to return.  And he rewards us abundantly.  He calls us tenderly.  Right now He is tenderly calling for you and for me.  DO You Hear Him?  Listen more carefully.  Can you hear Him now?  Let us pray.

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  This Sunday's Sermon - September 17, 2006

Revelation—Unveiling the End”

Revelation 1:1-20

As we begin our brief foray into the depths of the truths in the Book of Revelation, I want to make clear that the theme of the Book of Revelation is not the seven churches, not the seven bowls, the seven trumpets, the Beast, the Anti-Christ or the symbolism. The theme is Jesus Christ victorious!!!!
Let’s begin…
            The title is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ”. It is not the revelation of John… or Revelations… It’s one revelation and it’s about Jesus…
              Revelation- “apokalupsis” is the Greek word meaning, “an uncovering”, “an unveiling” or “a disclosure”. This is the same word translated in …Romans 16:25 “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began,”
Galatians 1:12 “ For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 1:17 “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him”
** What the rest of the Bible alludes to Revelation makes clear or visible. Even though the author identifies himself as John, (1:1,4,9; 22:8) there has been much discussion about which John.
Early church tradition unanimously has credited this writing to the Apostle John; the same writer of the forth gospel and the three epistles.
We believe this to be the son of Zebedee, the brother of James. He is often referred to as the “One Jesus loved”.
The apostle John probably received and wrote Revelation in the last decade of the 1st century (A.D. 94-96)
To set the stage for our message this morning I want you to imagine with me for a moment how you would feel if you had just received an unjust sentence—You will be transported to the Alcatraz of Asia Minor—a desolate island about six miles wide and ten miles long. You will not be permitted to leave that island. There you will be thrown in with hardened criminals and even though you are old and physically weak you will be required to labor in the mines and quarries. Imagine the thoughts that would run through your mind as you stand in the ship with murderers and thieves approaching this island just 15 miles west Ephesus. How long will you hold up to the harsh treatment there? Will this rocky island called Patmos be the place where you die? Why has God allowed this at this time in your life?
In about 95AD that’s what happened to the Apostle John. He was sent to one of the worst imaginable places—a place where back-breaking work in the mines and deprivation were about all that was offered. You and I know what awaits John there. We know by good hindsight the wonderful thing God is about to do. But John doesn’t know. Before we talk about the glorious revelation that God is about to give John, it will benefit us to first get a feel for the context in which it came.
The CONTEXT of the revelation
            The context in which God works is not always what we might expect or desire. There is this aged man who loved God with all his heart. And he writes these words in Revelation 1:9 “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” That was the context. The revelation came to this “companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance”—listen to these words closely—“that is ours in Jesus.” I really don’t know how to put those words in our context because as a rule we do not think of those kind of things as being “ours in Jesus”.
            We think of worldly success and earthly comfort as being “ours in Jesus.” I don’t think I have ever turned on Christian TV and heard an evangelist say, “Send in your $ 100 gift and receive suffering and kingdom and patient endurance—it’s ours in Jesus.” That does not set well with the average American mindset. But John identifies himself as a brother and companion in those three things—“suffering and kingdom and patient endurance.”  Do you know very many Christians who could honestly say what John is saying in Revelation 1:9? In the Greek one article is attached to “thlipsei” (suffering), “basileia” (kingdom) and “hupomonee” (patient endurance) tying the three together. Do you want to walk in kingdom authority?  It’s doubtful that we can do that without some patient endurance as well. And many times that includes unpleasant circumstances and suffering. Sometimes we are not spared unjust treatment.
            Why do we pause to address the context of John’s revelation? Because revelation from God and special visitations from God tend to come in that kind of environment. Most of Paul’s epistles were written from a dingy prison cell—not from a plush, well-equipped office or from a fancy hotel room. Stephen’s glorious vision of Jesus came while he was being stoned to death. In 1Kings 17 Elijah was sent to a starving widow in Zaraphath rather than a king’s palace. There in a desperate situation the miracles occurred. We tend to want it both ways. We want the power of God and the awesome acts of God. We want the Red Sea to part. But we do not want Pharaoh’s army pursuing us. We do not want to be down to our last meal. None of us would have wanted to be in the place John found himself there on that criminal’s island.
            But that’s were it happened—not in a temple somewhere, not even in a church—but on a sin-plagued island full of hardened criminals. There (can you believe it?) the Holy Spirit showed up. There Jesus sent an angel to John with the greatest prophetic revelation any man has ever received. I believe the revelation came to a man who was broken, humble and in pursuit of only one thing—God. There on that seemingly God-forsaken island God showed up in a very special way.
            Why had God allowed such hardship to come into John’s life? Was it because John had not claimed the blessing with the right words of authority? Was it perhaps that John just didn’t have the faith to get the miracle he needed? No, that’s not the reason. But can we apply what we see here in John’s life to our own? Can I get a mindset that is cooperative with God when my life gets uncomfortable? Do I have any other prayer than God get me out of here!
            It looked like the devil was having his way, shutting John off from his ministry and friends. It looked like evil had won the day. But in reality God never lost control of the situation. In fact, God was working all things together after the council of His will. God had a man totally to Himself, totally dependent upon Him, totally free from all worldly distraction and attraction. John was even isolated from good things like his pastoral ministry—shut up with God in a secret place that John would have never chosen. God had John ready to receive what He wanted to give Him.
            “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus”. How did John wind up here? “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” That’s what the devil wants stopped—the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. That’s where the battle is engaged. That’s why this church and any other church that preaches the word and preaches Jesus is in some way going to get opposed. But I wonder—if John would have been on this island if he had backed down on those issues. I wonder what John would have received had he just decided to be a little more cooperative with the “powers that be” and tried to not rock the boat too much there in the Roman Empire. Perhaps the enemy would have backed off as well. Perhaps John would have been able to live more comfortable and avoid all that hardship. Perhaps John would have never received this revelation!
            I am sometimes alarmed at what I may be missing because of limited dedication to the Lord. The interesting thing about missing out is that you usually don’t even know it happened. In the coming year who will God use to reach lost souls? Will I be a part of that? Who will receive fresh anointing and authority in the Spirit? Will I? Who will be in the right place at the right time to make a real difference? I think that will depend on who will give themselves to God—who will give Him the maximum instead of the minimum—who will pray—who will say with complete sincerity, “Here am I, send me.”
            I don’t want the legacy of my life to be “what might have been”. I want to make the right choices that result in me being exactly where God wants me to be. Don’t you?
The CONNECTION for the revelation
            Rev 1:10 “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet...” I think it came as a surprise to John—I don’t think he knew it was coming. But John was in a position to hear that voice—“I was in the Spirit.” That’s a good place to be isn’t it? In the Spirit, in a place like Patmos? It’s not the condition of the environment around us that determines that. It’s the condition of our hearts, isn’t it? How do you think John got in the spirit on that particular day? I don’t think it happened as a result of him dwelling on how bad the circumstances were. I don’t think it happened by him pleading with God to get him out of there—though that would have certainly been understandable. I think it happened much like Paul and Silas’ experience in the jail at Philippi. I think John may have been dwelling on the goodness of God and the promises of God. I think he may have been rejoicing that his name is written in heaven. I think John found a way to be content and at peace in God right there in the most miserable place on earth.
            And God started to talk. It was loud. It was awesome. It sounded forth like a trumpet blast. I suspect no one else heard it because their hearts were in no condition to hear it. When God is speaking can I hear His voice? I can if my ear is turned toward heaven. But if the world has my attention, if my heart is set on other things even a heavenly trumpet blast I will not hear. “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
            I want to focus just a moment on the first two words in Revelation 1:12. For this also was an important response. “I turned.” Have you turned at the voice of God in your life? Has He spoken and your response was to turn—turn from all distractions and ambitions toward Him—turn from the direction you were intending to go to the direction where He is? Had John never turned, he would have never seen. I personally think it’s interesting that the voice and vision were behind John and not in front of him. Certainly God knew which direction John was facing. Why not make it easy on John? Why not just get right in his face and speak? Has God’s voice ever come from behind you? Are you insisting that it be on your terms or will you turn and do it on His terms?
            I’m glad John turned because when he did he saw something marvelous.
The CONTENT of the revelation
            He saw seven golden lamp stands. We are told in verse 20 that those seven lamp stands represent the seven churches. A lamp is not the light but the light shines through it. The oil on fire is the light. But the oil on fire is in the LAMPSTAND. God has chosen to shine His light through the church. It is a terrible judgment on a church when that light is withdrawn. For a LAMPSTAND has only one purpose and that is to carry the light. May the Holy Spirit fire of God burn in our hearts and may we let that light shine to the world around us. Seven is the biblical number of completeness. Although the seven churches named in verse 11 were real local churches they were also in this revelation representative of all churches throughout the church age.
            And in the midst of those seven lamp stands—in the midst of His church stands Jesus. John sees Him as one “like a son of man” retaining His humanity but in a glorified state. It is no small matter that the eternal God—the Creator of heaven and earth—the divine Son of God—would so identify with you and me that He would not only temporarily take upon Himself the form of man so that He might redeem us but that He would choose to retain that identity forever and ever. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
            John sees Him dressed in priestly, royal robes. For He is not only King of Kings but He is also our great High Priest. Now follow this description with me in verse 14 “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow...” Two things are communicated there about Jesus—His holiness and His dignity. He is the Ancient of Days who was and is and is to come.                                                                    We have seen Jesus in the gospel during His time of humiliation. We saw Him beaten and mocked and crucified. We saw Him meekly yield His life at Calvary for our salvation. He loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood John says in verse 5. But now we see Him in His power and authority. “And His eyes were like a blazing fire.” Verse 15 “His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace...” He is not walking amongst His church as the meek and lowly Jesus. He is walking in the midst of His church as the Judge of all the earth. And judgment begins in the house of God. Later in this revelation horrific judgments fall upon the ungodly world—judgments like this world has never seen before. 1 Thess 5:3 “For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them...” (NKJV) A Christ-rejecting world is not going to slowly get better and better. It will think so. It may think its technology and diplomacy has done the trick. But “when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” NKJV
            But before all that Jesus walks among His own as the righteous judge. “And His eyes were like blazing fire...” penetrating and discerning all. “His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace...” Bronze is associated with judgment in the Bible. It was on the bronze altar where the sacrifices were laid in the Old Testament. At the bronze laver the priests cleansed themselves. The book of Revelation is based upon Old Testament imagery and can only be understood with that foundation. A key to interpreting the signs and symbols in Revelation is to understand them from a Jewish background. John, a Jewish believer, is seeing Jesus as the judge of His people.
            Do you see Jesus as your judge? Most of us don’t want to think of Him that way. But all judgment of all humanity rests in Him. We shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. That has to be a part of our understanding of who Jesus is and our relationship to Him.  BUT LISTEN: The book of Revelation was primarily given as a source of comfort and encouragement to the Christian. But there is also this element of warning. Each and everyone of us will give an account of himself to God. Every decision we make should be made with that understanding. How is this going to hold up on the day of my final review before the Lord? Will it prove to be wood, hay and stubble? Or will it pass the refiners fire as precious gold?
            ”...and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” John is describing the authority of His words. Ps 29:3-4 is a great commentary on this verse “The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
            4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic.” Some of you have stood at Niagara Falls and experienced the awe of that powerful waterfall. That is what John is communicating.
            John follows up with three more key descriptions. Verse 16 “In his right had he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.” That two-edged sword is symbolic of the power of His words. In Revelation 19 when we see Jesus confronting His enemies out of His mouth comes this sharp sword with which He will strike down the nations. He does not have to wrestle with His adversaries. The glory of His countenance consumes them. Zech 14:12 “...Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.” (NKJV) I hope you are catching the awe of John’s experience. This is no helpless babe lying in a manger. This is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. The Almighty! That’s why we need this book—so that we can see Him as He is right now.                               How does this holy, chosen apostle John respond to all this? Look at his response in Revelation 1:17 “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” That is the typical response when people truly encounter the Lord of Lords and King of Kings There is an awe about God that is beyond description. It’s no so much a fear that He’s “gonna get ya” so to speak. In fact, there is the assurance of His love and favor. But to come into His presence in any way close to what John experienced is to fall at His feet speechless. On judgment day nobody will stand before God and contest the verdict. Every mouth will be stopped and every knee will bow.
            I close with the words of Jesus to His beloved disciple as John lay at His feet, Verse 17 “...Then he placed his right hand on me (do you see His tenderness in that?) and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” In other words, your future is safely in His eternal hands. This Revelation is a Word of Hope for the Christian; a word of warning to the unbeliever.
Invitation
           

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  This Sunday's Sermon - May 07, 2006

The Da Vinci Code: Fact Or Fiction 
(Part Two: Did Jesus Claim To Be God?) 
Mark 2:5-7

            To sum it up, one character in the book says, “Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.”

The Da Vinci Code Claim: “The deity of Jesus was invented at the Council of Nicea (325 A.D.).”
A character in Brown’s book states, “Until that moment [the Council of Nicea] in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet. . . a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.”
The Council of Nicea was an important meeting in 325 A.D. of the leaders (“bishops”) of churches throughout the both the Western and Eastern world. It served to solidify the core of the faith against the corruptions and heresy (particularly Arianism) of that day. This served to explicitly lay out the core of what the faithful church already believed - not, as Brown suggests, make up new doctrines and ideas. (Note: the Nicene Creed (not the original, but a direct descendent of it) is in our hymnals (#717).)
Arianism was putting forth the doctrine that Jesus was not of the same substance as the Father. In other words, Jesus was not really fully God in the way that many other Christians claimed.
The Big Question For Us: “Did Jesus claim to be God?”
The point of contention here regards whether the fourth-century followers of Jesus were creating claims for Jesus that He never made for Himself. If Jesus was content to simply be another teacher and not make any grandiose “God” claims, then Brown is right that these disciples high jacked Jesus’ name and turned Him into something different than He originally claimed to be.
We established in our last sermon that the Bible has an incredible record of reliability, so let’s turn to the words in the Bible and see what Jesus said about Himself.
1. Jesus claimed the authority to forgive sin.
- Look up: Mark 2:5-7.
2. Jesus’ enemies believed He was claiming to be God.
- Look up: John 5:17-18.
3. Jesus claimed that knowing the Son was the same as knowing the Father.
- Look up: John 5:19-23.
4. Jesus claimed for Himself one of God’s biggest names.
- Look up: John 8:58-59.
5. Jesus didn’t stop people who worshiped Him.
- Look up: John 9:35-39.
- cf. John 4:20-24 (only God deserves worship).
6. Jesus claimed He was alive before the world began.
- Look up: John 17:5, 24.
7. Jesus didn’t rebuke Thomas when he called Jesus “God.”
- Look up: John 20:28.
- also, see John 20:30-31.
What Does That Mean For Us?
Examining the many statements of Jesus, it becomes obvious that Jesus was very clear in His claims to be God. Jesus believed Himself to be God Incarnate. Josh McDowell has pointed out that these claims leave us with three options of what to believe about Jesus.

1. He was a liar.
One option is that Jesus made all these statements about “being equal with God” knowing that all of it was pure hogwash. The whole thing was just invented out of his imagination.
The problem here is that if that is true - that Jesus was a habitual liar - then that casts a dark cloud over everything that He taught. We can hardly take the moral teachings of a habitual liar seriously. We cannot take Him simultaneously to have been a great moral teacher and to have deliberately lied in statement after statement after statement.
2. He was a lunatic.
A second option is that Jesus genuinely thought that He was God. . . and He was genuinely wrong. He was really just a mortal man, but He had “delusions of grandeur.”
The problem here is that we certainly don’t want to take a stark raving lunatic for our life’s primary moral teacher. People who go around claiming to be God are generally put in an institution, not on a pedestal to be adored by millions. If Jesus was genuinely deluded, that nixes the authority of His teaching.
3. He is Lord.
The third option is that He was exactly who He said He was. He wasn’t lying about being God - He really was. He wasn’t a lunatic for claiming to be God - because He really was. It could be that He was in fact God Incarnate, just as He said He was.
There are many who want to accept Jesus as a good teacher without giving Him the control of our lives that comes with admitting that He is Lord of the world and Lord of our lives. We want to have Jesus’ influence without having Him be in charge.
The classic statement on this issue is from C.S. Lewis, who wrote: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit on Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Lewis is exactly right: Jesus did not leave the option open for us to take what we like of His teachings and leave the rest on the table. If He’s not Lord and God, then we should flee from church and have nothing to do with the Bible. If He’s not Lord and God, then we should get as far away as we can from this Man.
Dan Brown is wrong in his book The Da Vinci Code. The idea of Jesus being God did not come from the imaginations of the church leaders at Nicea. The idea of Jesus being God came from Jesus’ own lips. Time and again and again He made it clear: “I am God.”  NOT one of many gods but The Almighty God.

But here’s the thing: Jesus wasn’t deified by that council in 325 AD. Jesus unambiguously declared it himself. Secondly, not one delegate went into the Council of Nicea believing Jesus was merely human; they all knew He was God but they wanted to affirm exactly what that meant.  This is not hearsay, it is historical fact.
They did ask questions at this Council. For instance, was Jesus a created God? The delegates immediately and overwhelmingly rejected Arius’ position. After all, Colossians 1:16 declared about Jesus in the first century: “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” As Dr. Erwin Lutzer has pointed out, how could Jesus have been created if He created all things?

So how close was the vote? It wasn’t quite the squeaker that Brown makes it out to be. Actually, it was more than 300 to 2! Thus, today we have the Nicean Creed, in which Jesus Christ is affirmed to be “Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made….” Fortunately, we have a historical record of all 20 rulings at the Council of Nicea – and not one of them deifies Jesus or picks which books would go into Bible.
There were never 80 other gospels vying for the Bible in the fourth century, as Dan Brown asserts, nor did Constantine try to wipe out the belief that Jesus was human. After all, Christianity asserts that Jesus is fully man and fully God. We see His human side clearly in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where he is described as going through the stages of childhood; where he is seen working as a carpenter; and where he is shown as becoming hungry, tired, sad, disappointed, angry, and fatigued. He even bled and died!
Friends, Dan Brown has written a mesmerizing, page-turning adventure. No question about it. But it is fiction. Investigative journalist Richard Abanes documented dozens of historical errors in The Da Vinci Code, including claims about church architecture, art history, religious symbolism, the Roman Empire, ancient Israel, and different spiritual systems.
Then he asks this: “If Brown cannot be relied upon to accurately recount even the most basic of historical facts, then how can he be trusted to correctly explain more complex subjects?”
But that leads to a logical question: if The Da Vinci Code is so clearly fantasy, then why are so many people buying its conspiracy claims? That’s a legitimate issue, and I want to end by offering three explanations.
This extraordinary truth cuts right to the heart of the matter this morning concerning our hearts. What do we take Jesus as? A nice guy? A good teacher? Or Lord of our lives?
I’m not going to try to downplay this to make it easier to make a decision for Jesus. The truth is that if you take Jesus as Lord, that changes everything. Jesus’ claim is on your whole life.        

Do you believe this morning that Jesus was telling the truth when He claimed to be God? He’s either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord? Who do you think He is?

I understand the trailer for The Da Vinci Code movie ends by saying, “Seek the truth” – and I’d say, “Seek the real truth.” Test everything, hold onto that which is good.
Finally – please hear me on this. The unvarnished truth is that some people are looking for a spiritual “out.” The Bible warns us in Second Timothy 4:3-4 that there would come a time when “people will no longer listen to right teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever they want to hear. They will reject the truth and follow strange myths.”
You see, it’s easier to ignore a troubled conscience or a nagging sense of spiritual confusion if you can convince yourself that the whole Christian story is phony anyway.           
So some people look for reasons not to believe or they accept far-fetched conspiracy theories if they will ease their mind and help them feel like they’re off the hook with the God whose Spirit is convicting them of their sin and drawing them toward Himself.
Many have been there and done that. Many are looking for spiritual outs. When they walk into a church, they want to find a scandal, they want to find hypocrisy, they want to believe Christianity was a fraud because it would put the spotlight on those issues and take the heat off of them.
Maybe you can relate to that. Maybe you’ve been spending your time looking for things that you don’t like about Christians or the church, or ministers like me. Maybe you’re like the story about W. C. Fields, who was supposedly on his deathbed thumbing through the Bible. Someone asked what he was doing and he said, “Looking for loopholes, m’boy – looking for loopholes!”
Could it be that you’ve been looking for loopholes instead of searching your own heart and asking, “Could it be true that I need forgiveness from Jesus for all of my wrongdoing that has alienated me from God?”
The Bible tells us to test everything, but please don’t let that turn into a cynical spirit that blinds you to the very real truth about God – and the very real truth about yourself. Maybe it’s time to do what I did and say, “I’m not going to do that anymore. I’m not going to keep searching for an ‘out’ in order to keep me from a God who loves me, who is reaching out to me, who wants to offer me His free gift of forgiveness, and who wants me to know him personally, now and for eternity.”
Jesus said His mission in this world was to reach out to people like you with compassion and love and forgiveness and grace. And for some of you, the time has come to meet not the Jesus of Hollywood or of a novelist’s fertile imagination, but the very real Jesus of history who bought you with His life – and offers you a new life and a new eternity right now.   

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  This Sunday's Sermon - April 30, 2006

The Gospel Codes (Part One: Can The Bible Be Trusted?) 
Hebrews 4:12-13
A Tour de Distortion

            G. K. Chesterton famously said something to this effect: When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything. A good example of this is Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum, in which a group of friends program a computer to "write" a book about secret hidden knowledge. Titled The Plan, the book is the result of random links between things like Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, the Knights Templar, and other crackpot ideas. While The Plan was intended as a prank, other people take it seriously, with tragic results.                                                                                              

Well, Foucault's Pendulum shows us how gullible unbelieving people are. And this is particularly so in our postmodern age when truth doesn't matter. This phenomenon partly explains the remarkable success of The Da Vinci Code. Like Eco's novel, it's about a heretofore hidden knowledge that promises to let us in on the "true" history of Christianity.                                                                                                                 The Da Vinci Code has sold over 10 million copies, it’s been translated into over 40 languages. This Friday’s edition of the USA Today had a two page spread about how every church, museum and chateau mentioned in the book have now become major tourist attractions throughout Europe.
Author Dan Brown gives us a Jesus who neither died on the cross nor rose from the dead. Instead, He married Mary Magdalene and had children by her. This "sacred blood line" is the treasure safeguarded by groups like the Knights Templar and the Masons. And the Catholic Church, in a desperate attempt to cover up this secret, murders those who threaten to expose it. 
Devotees of The Da Vinci Code -- like the fictional fans in Foucault's Pendulum -- have trouble distinguishing fact from fiction. They visit places mentioned in the novel, and "Da Vinci Tours" are a booming business. With the upcoming film, interest in The Da Vinci Code will explode. Christians need to seize this teaching opportunity, preparing ourselves to answer questions readers are asking. Dan Brown’s book makes some serious claims about Jesus that strike at the heart of what we believe.  Because of the enormous popularity of this book and the likely blockbuster status of the movie, it’s essential that we address whether those claims are true.
(While the characters are obviously fictitious, Brown claims the information to be true. At the beginning of his book, it reads: “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”)
As this movie comes out, it provides an open door to talk about spiritual things. People who normally wouldn’t want to talk about Jesus will have the questions of the movie on their mind. People who aren’t normally interested in discussing the Bible will likely want to talk about what the movie claimed. 1 Peter 3:15 says that we should always be ready with an answer as to why we believe in Jesus. I hope to prepare you to give those answers as they relate to The Da Vinci Code.  Let’s begin with a question:
“Can the Bible be trusted?”
- Why is this the question to start with in this series?
- The answer is that the Bible makes claims about who Jesus is and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code basically asserts that those claims are fiction. Brown asserts that there are these secret orders that have the real truth and therefore that the Bible is not an accurate portrayal of who Jesus really was.
- This is obviously of huge importance. If the Bible is God’s Word, then it is something we need to pay close attention to. If the Bible is merely a collection of partially-made-up stories, then we need to file it under “Fiction” and quit giving it the attention that we as Christians usually do.
- Do we need to take everything we read in the Bible with a grain of salt or can we fully trust that it is in fact the inspired Word of God?
Four Accusations:
- In order to answer those questions, I want to answer four key accusations against the Bible.
- Even before The Da Vinci Code, many people have made comments about “Aren’t there mistakes in the Bible?”, “What about the factual errors in the Bible?”, or “The contradictions in the Bible keep me from believing it.” Do people who make such comments have a point or are they simply repeating statements that have little to back them up?
- With each of these four accusations, I hope to make it clearer that the preponderance of the evidence is on the side of the Bible’s accuracy.
1. “The Bible has some nice stories, but it’s not like all those events really happened.”
- This line of thinking raises doubts about the Bible by questioning its historical accuracy. “Sure, some of the stories have a nice moral point - just like most works of fiction. But that doesn’t mean those events actually occurred.”
- This is an important question: are the details in the Bible actually facts? When the Bible says that this person did this thing at this place, is that literally true or was it written as a product of someone’s imagination?
- The best way to answer this concern is simple: dig in.
- As archeologists dig into the ground around the places where the Bible says things happened, do they find that what the Bible says is true or do they find evidence that disproves the Bible? The answer, in fact, is that the more they dig, the more they prove the Bible’s accuracy.
- The Bible’s events are not flights of fancy, but are actual events that involved real people. In literally hundreds and hundreds of situations, archeologists have discovered evidence that points to the accuracy of the stories in the Bible.
- Let me give you a couple of examples to prove my point:
a. In Judges 6, we read one of the more “unbelievable” stories in the Bible. It claims that Israel marched around Jericho and then with a shout God knocked the walls down. Many would say, “C’mon, you expect me to believe that? How stupid do I look?” And, granted, that is an unusual story. Yet: “During the excavations of Jericho (1930-1936) Garstang found something so startling that a statement of what was found was prepared and signed by himself and two other members of the team. In reference to these findings Garstang says: ‘As to the main fact, then, there remains no doubt: the walls fell outwards so completely that the attackers would be able to clamber up and over their ruins into the city.’ Why so unusual? Because the walls of cities do not fall outwards, they fall inwards. And yet in Joshua 6:20 we read ‘. . . The wall fell flat, so that the people went up into the city every man straight ahead, and they took the city.’ The walls were made to fall outward.” (Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands A Verdict (Vol. 1), p. 69)
b. In Genesis 7, we read the incredible claim that there was a massive flood that covered the earth. Many would say, “C’mon, you expect me to believe that? How stupid do I look?” Yet: Gregg Easterbrook writes, “‘The flood legends of Mesopotamia and the Bible’ is how the [New York] Times recently described beliefs about a huge, ancient inundation [that] once covered much of the Earth. Oddly this choice of words occurred in a new report about a study, just published in the American Journal of Archeology, giving evidence that a huge, ancient inundation once covered much of the Earth. Researchers studying the Black Sea off Sinop, a city in Turkey, found indications that a catastrophic flood struck the area approximately 7,000 years ago, flooding inhabited land and turning the Black Sea from fresh to saline. Sinop is approximately 500 miles from the ancient Holy Land. Oceanographers from the University of Pennsylvania and the Institute for Exploration, a science organization in Connecticut, reported evidence suggesting the deluge hit rapidly, was extremely wide in scope, and killed many. The work was sponsored by the nonpartisan National Geographical Society. A fast-hitting, catastrophic deluge is, of course, what Genesis describes.”  The point is: the more they dig, the more they research, the more they prove that the facts of the Bible are facts. The events of the Bible really happened and the Bible is accurate in recording the real events that involved real people in real places.
2. “The Bible has some good teaching, but there’s no way to prove that God was involved in writing it.”
- Some would argue, “Perhaps the Bible puts forward some good moral ideas, but lots of books do that. There’s no way to prove that the Bible is God’s teaching.” The point is, again, an important one. Is there any way to prove that the Bible is not merely “a good book,” but “the God book”?
- The best way to answer this concern is simple: look ahead.
- There is one way in particular that would give us indication that there is something unusual going on here. If there were things written in the Bible that looked ahead into time and could be shown to have accurately predicted the future, that would give us indication of God’s involvement. No human has the ability to accurately predict the future 100% of the time, so if the Bible could be shown to accurately predict the future, that would push us toward knowing that there is something unusual about the Bible.
- In fact, the Bible makes many predictions of the future. They’re called “prophecies.”
- Let’s just look at one small part of the predictions the Bible makes: the predictions about the Messiah. Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah and there are at least 61 separate predictions about what the Messiah would be like. (For list, McDowell, pp. 144-166.) It’s important to note that while some of these predictions (like what He would say) were within His control, the fulfillment of many of these predictions depended on people and circumstances over which Jesus did not have direct control.
- Let’s just look at three predictions:
a. In Micah 5:2, it is prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. That is fulfilled in Matthew 2:1 when Jesus, although his parents have Narareth for their hometown, are in Bethlehem for the census when Jesus is born.
b. In Zechariah 11:12, it speaks of him being sold for 30 shekels of silver. In Matthew 26:15, Judas betrays Jesus and the price he’s offered is 30 shekels of silver.
c. In Psalm 22:16, it speaks of him having his hands and feet pierced. Of course, Jesus is crucified (Luke 23:33). The particularly amazing thing about this prophecy is that crucifixion had not been invented at the time of the writing of Psalm 22.
- Couldn’t these have happened by accident? Peter Stoner estimated the likelihood of only eight of these prophecies being fulfilled in one person merely by chance. His conclusion was that the odds were 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (a 1 with 17 zeroes after it). Stoner says that would be the same as covering the state of TX with silver dollars two deep feet and then asking someone to travel as far as they wanted in any direction and pull the right silver dollar out, simply by chance.
- Stoner goes on to evaluate the chance of 48 of the prophecies being fulfilled by chance and the odds there had a 1 with 157 zeroes after it.
- All in all, it’s clear that the Bible has an amazing record in predicting the future. And we have only considered the prophecies surrounding the Messiah. There are many others on other issues that could be noted.
- The Bible has an unmatched record in predicting the future and that record indicates to us that something supernatural was going on in the creation of this book.
- The Bible can be trusted.
3. “The Bible that we have today is not the same as what the original authors wrote.”
- Another objection that folks with throw at the Bible is that it has changed down through the years and so therefore we don’t know what the Bible originally said.
- Brown writes in The Da Vinci Code: “Because Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status almost four centuries after Jesus’ death, thousands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man. To rewrite the history books, Constantine knew he would need a bold stroke. . . . Constantine commissioned and financed a new bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike” (p. 234).
- We’ll get to the “other gospels” in a moment, but right now we want to focus on whether the Bible we have is “embellished.” Have there been significant changes to it so that what we read is not the same as what the original authors wrote?
- As you know, in ancient times there were no copier machines to run off endless copies. Instead, each book had to be copied by hand by a scribe. Obviously, unless carefully handled, this would open up the possibility of errors.
- How can we know that what we have now is an accurate reflection of the originals?
- The best way to answer this concern is simple: add it up.
- The evidence comes from the number of copies that we have available to us.
- Let’s use Homer’s Iliad for comparison. Iliad is ranked number 2 in having the most ancient manuscripts (or pieces of manuscripts). There are 643 copies of Iliad. (Also, the time span between original writing and the earliest known copies of the Iliad is 500 years.)
- By comparison, there are 24,000 copies of the New Testament manuscripts (or pieces of manuscript). (Also, the time span between the original writing and the earliest known copies is only 25 years.)
- The point is clear: we have an abundance of material concerning the New Testament. Further, this material testifies to the accuracy of what we read today. The evidence is overwhelming both in numbers of manuscripts and closeness to the original authors.
The Bible can be trusted.
4. “There are other secret writings about Jesus that have been silenced.”
- The quote cited under point 3 from The Da Vinci Code implies that there are other gospels and other holy writings that have been covered up because they’re embarrassing. That simply isn’t an accurate statement of fact.
- The best way to answer this concern is simple: read up.
- Read up on what’s actually written in those books and you’ll find the reasons that they were not included in the Bible.
- The truth is that there are other books that were written about Jesus that aren’t in the New Testament. This isn’t a secret - it’s a well-known fact. That there would be other writings is not surprising. Jesus was a popular and controversial teacher. One would expect that many people (with both honorable and dishonorable motives) would write about Him.
- Those other books were not kept out of the Bible because they were embarrassing. They were not included in the New Testament because they are not factually accurate. Writings like “The Gospel of Thomas” were rejected because the leaders in the church found them to not accurately reflect the life and teaching of Jesus. For instance, in one book, Jesus is shown as a child, molding a bird out of clay, then throwing it into the air and watching it fly away. This kind of a frivolous miracle stands in stark contrast to the Biblical reality that when Jesus used His miraculous powers He used them to heal and not to show off.
- These are not “secret writings” that the church has conspired to keep hidden. They are widely read works that were rejected because they did not have the accuracy that is obviously demanded to be a part of the Bible.  The Bible can be trusted.
A Final Question:
“Why are people so interested in being able to deny the accuracy of the Bible?”
The Answer: “Because the Bible makes claims on you.”
- Most books (including The Da Vinci Code) can be an enjoyable read, but in the end they make no request of you. They don’t ask you to change your life.
- The Bible, on other hand, makes some huge claims. It makes claims on who God really is. It makes claims on the only way someone can find God. It makes claims on how you should live your life. It makes claims on what you should believe. It makes claims on how you should spend your money. It makes claims on what your goals in life should be.
- And not only does it make claims, but many of its claims require a radical reevaluation and readjustment of our lives. Those are not things that everyone wants to do.
- Therefore, it is in the interest of many people to find reasons to disbelieve the Bible. If it’s not accurate, then its claims are invalid.
- Leith Anderson makes a valid and interesting point in saying that almost everyone he’s known who claimed “intellectual objections” to believing in Jesus or the Bible actually had other issues when you dug a little deeper into their heart. They didn’t want to give up that habit. They didn’t want to change that behavior. (For specifics, see pp. 234-236 in Lee Strobel’s The Case For Faith.)
- I’ll say this for them: they’re right that the Bible makes radical claims on your life.
- If the Bible, as we’ve shown clearly today, is accurate, then the question for you this morning is, “Will you believe the Bible and allow its claims into your life?”

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  This Sunday's Sermon - September 18, 2005

“Obstacles to Faith: Is Jesus the Only Way to God?”

John 14:1-6

Jesus often surprised people with teachings that cut across the grain of human nature. Lose your life to save it. The first will be last. The meek will inherit the earth. Rejoice in persecution. Pray for your enemies. It’s better to give than receive. Turn the other cheek.

But, by far, the most outrageous assertion Jesus ever made — His most politically incorrect claim of all — was when He declared in JOHN 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by Me.”

This claim rankles people like no other. It’s been called arrogant and narrow-minded and bigoted and snobbish. Some of you are seekers, and something inside of you chafes at this claim. For you, it may be a stumbling block to faith.

But I believe that Jesus was telling the truth when He said it. And I believe He said it out of great compassion, not arrogance. And I believe that when we look closer at it, this statement makes ultimate sense. In fact, I believe this single sentence is one of the most critically important bits of information on the planet — and to you personally.

So why is this claim so controversial? One reason is that it strikes at the core of three great myths about religion. And so in examining this statement by Jesus, I thought it would be a good idea to address these three common misconceptions. Maybe these are myths you’ve heard — or maybe they’re myths you believe right now.

So let’s deal with the, which is this: When you get right down to it, all religions are basically the same.

You’ve probably heard people say that although there are surface-level distinctions between the various world religions, if you strip them all down to their essentials, all religions fundamentally teach the same thing — so it doesn’t really matter which one you follow. In other words, all spiritual paths lead up the same mountain because all religions basically teach the brotherhood and sisterhood of men and women and the universal fatherhood of God.

Now, there is some common ground between many of the world’s religions, particularly concerning certain basic values and morality. But there are significant differences, too. In fact, with this one outlandish assertion, Jesus boldly puts Christianity in a separate class by itself. If the path to God is through Jesus, then Christianity cannot be reconciled with any other religion. This uniqueness of Christianity is rooted in the uniqueness of Jesus Himself.

Someone once noted that other religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you how to find truth,” but Jesus says, “I am the truth.”

Other religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you the way to salvation,” but Jesus says, “I am the way to eternal life.”

Other religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you how to become enlightened,” but Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.”

Other religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you many doors that lead to God,” but Jesus says, “I am the door.”

Then, Jesus says, “So follow Me.”

Do you see the difference? For a long time people have tried to harmonize the various religions of the world, but there are drastic and irreconcilable differences between Christianity and other belief systems.

Every other religion I’ve ever seen is based on people doing something — through struggling and striving — to somehow earn the favor of God. They say people have to use a Tibetan prayer wheel or go on pilgrimages or give alms to the poor or avoid eating certain foods or pray in a specified way or go through a series of reincarnations or whatever. These are the attempts of people to reach out to God.

But Jesus Christ is God reaching out to us. Jesus taught the opposite of what other religious teach. He said nobody can do anything to merit heaven, so we might as well give up trying.

He said we’re all guilty of wrongdoing — and that’s consistent with our experience, isn’t it? Nobody here would claim to be perfect. And Jesus said that our wrongdoing separates us from our holy and perfect God — and, again, that’s consistent with our experience. Haven’t you ever felt distant or disconnected from God? Of course you have.

Because God is a righteous judge, our wrongdoing has to be paid for. So out of His love, Jesus voluntarily offered Himself as our substitute to pay the penalty that we owed for our sin. And when we receive His sacrifice on our behalf, we become reunited with God for eternity.

Let me put it this way:  other religions are spelled “D-O,” because they teach that people have to do a bunch of religious rituals to try to please God. But Christianity is spelled “D-O-N-E” because Christ has done it all on the cross — and we just need to receive Him.

This distinction is starkly demonstrated by comparing a parable taught by Jesus with a similar story found in Buddhist literature. Both stories involve sons who became rebellious and left home, but who then saw the error of their ways and decided to come back and be reconciled with their families.

In the Buddhist story, the errant son is required to work off the penalty for his past misdeeds by spending years in servitude. But you know how the Christian parable of the Prodigal Son ends — with the repentant son being warmly welcomed home by his loving father and being given undeserved grace and forgiveness.

And there are other fundamental differences between Christianity and other world religions as well. For instance, Christianity says there’s one eternal God who created the universe. Hinduism says everything is God — you’re God, I’m God, this podium is God. Islam denies Jesus was God or that He died for our sins. Buddha may not even have believed in God! Friends, these beliefs cannot all be true at the same time; they contradict each other too thoroughly.

So all religions are NOT the same. And while other religious leaders can offer wise sayings and helpful insights, only Jesus Christ — because He is the perfect Son of God — is qualified to offer Himself as payment for our wrongdoing. No other religious leader even pretended to be able to do that.

And that makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s illogical to think that God would go over to one side of the world and tell people, “Here’s the way to become reconciled with me,” and then go over to another place and say, “No, here’s a completely contradictory way to please me,” and so forth. I mean, God isn’t schizophrenic! C.S.  LEWIS QUOTE

It would make sense that He would provide a path for us to follow in finding Him, and that He would tell us about that path in an extraordinary manner, which He did by sending Jesus Christ to enter human history.

So, friends, it does matter which path you follow in your spiritual journey. Jesus’ own words dispel the myth that all paths lead to God.

The second myth that Jesus dispels is related to the first. This myth says that even though Christianity might be different, it’s still just one philosophy among many, and that it’s only as valid as any other religion. In other words, even if there are differences between religions, they all have equal claims on the truth. You know — you have your truth and I have mine.

This myth has a certain amount of appeal because, on the surface, it seems to reflect our pluralistic attitudes in this country. And we do want to be tolerant of other views, don’t we? The Bible tells us we should be loving and accepting and respectful toward all people, regardless of their faith.

But here’s the thing: under our Constitution, all religious viewpoints are equally protected. People can believe whatever they want. But some people jump to the erroneous conclusion that because different philosophies are equally protected, they must be equally valid. And that’s just not the case.

The concept behind what the Supreme Court has called our “marketplace of ideas” is that truth and falsehood will grapple in unhindered debate so that, in the end, truth will prevail. So even though all religious are equally protected under our Constitution, that has nothing to do with whether they’re based on truth.

The late Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko wrote a tongue-in-cheek column in which he said he was a member of the Church of Asylumism. He said this church believes that there was an advanced civilization in a distant galaxy millions of years ago, but a few hundred of these aliens ate some tainted veggie dip and a virus scrambled their brains.

When treatment failed, they were taken to an uninhabited planet that would serve as an asylum and where they could roam free and act goofy. That planet, he said, was earth, and we’re all descendants of these aliens.

Royko said to doubters: “You want proof? Read history books. Look at the newspaper and TV news. Then tell me this isn’t one big loony bin!”

Now, Royko was kidding about the Church of Asylumism, but in this country people have the right to believe whatever they want. The Church of Asylumism would be protected under the Constitution as much as any other religious institution. But that doesn’t mean that its teachings are true.

And, of course, that means everybody is free to make the claim, as Jesus did, that they are the way, the truth, and the life, and that nobody can come to God except through them. I could say it or you could say it, but that wouldn’t make it true. The question is, how do we know Jesus was telling the truth?

Well, Jesus backs up His claim with unique credentials that make Him uniquely credible. For instance, Jesus authenticated His claim of being God by fulfilling dozens of centuries-old prophecies against every mathematical odd. These prophecies were like a thumbprint that only the Messiah would be able to fit — and, in all of history, it only fits Jesus.

Unlike other religious leaders, Jesus performed great miracles that further authenticated His claim to being God. And in the most spectacular demonstration of His deity, Jesus fulfilled His own prediction by being resurrected from the dead in an historical event that was witnessed by more than 500 people and which sparked a spiritual revolution unparalleled in history.

Friends, Christianity isn’t just a philosophy; it’s a reality. Jesus didn’t just claim He was the one-and-only Son of God, but He validated His claim like nobody else in history.

So we’ve seen that the first myth — that all religions are basically the same — isn’t true because Christ’s teachings set Christianity apart from all other faiths. And the second myth — that Christianity is just one philosophy among many and only as valid as any other religion — isn’t true because the unique credentials of Christ give Him credibility like no other spiritual leader. In other words, when He claims to be the way to God, His credentials back him up.

The third myth is the one that says Christians are narrow-minded or snobbish when they say Jesus is the only way to heaven.

  Now, I’d agree Christians would be acting in a narrow-minded way if there really were lots of paths to God and they were saying that theirs is the best way. But they’re not saying that.

They’re saying that the truth of the matter is that someone has got to pay the penalty for our obvious wrongdoing that keeps us away from God. And Jesus, by virtue of His sinless ness and divinity, is the only one qualified to be our substitute. That’s just the reality of the situation. And it’s not narrow-minded to act upon the evidence and pursue truth.

Let me draw you an analogy. I have known some parents whose babies developed jaundice shortly after birth. Jaundice is a liver disorder that caused her skin and the whites of her eyes to turn yellow. The pediatrician told them that this is a potentially devastating disease but it’s easily treated. All they had to do was put the baby under a special light for a while and this would stimulate her liver properly and she’d be all right.

Now, the parents could have said, “That sounds too easy. How about instead if we scrubbed her with soap and dipped her in bleach? If we worked hard enough, I’m sure we could get her normal coloring back.”

But the doctor would have said, “No, there’s only one way to handle this.”

They could have replied, “Well, how about if we just sort of ignore this and pretend everything’s OK? You know — the jaundice is your truth, Doc, not our truth. And if we sincerely believe that, things will work out for the best.”

The doctor would have said, “You’d jeopardize your baby if you did that. Look, there’s only one way to cure her. You’re hesitant because it sounds too easy, but look at the credentials hanging on my wall. I’ve studied at medical school and I’ve used what I’ve learned to cure countless babies like yours. Trust me!”

Now, would anybody accuse those parents of being narrow-minded if they trusted that doctor and pursued the only course of treatment that was going to cure their little girl? That’s not narrow-minded; that’s acting rationally in accordance with the evidence.

Well, we all have a terminal illness called sin, and the reason we cling to Christ is because He’s the Great Physician who has the only cure. We can try to scrub away our sin with good deeds, but it won’t work. We can ignore it and hope it goes away, but it won’t. We can sincerely think there’s another way of dealing with it, but we’d be sincerely wrong. The truth is that only the Great Physician offers a treatment that will erase our stain of sin. When we turn to Him, we’re not being narrow-minded; we’re acting rationally in accordance with the evidence.

And it’s not snobbish to believe what Jesus taught about being the way to God. Because, frankly, Christianity is anything but snobbish.

Let’s pretend there are two country clubs. The first one only admits people who have earned membership. To get in, you’ve got to obtain superior wisdom or fulfill a list of demands and fulfill certain spiritual requirements. Despite their best efforts, lots of people just won’t make the grade and will be excluded. Friends, that’s what other religions are saying by teaching that people have to work their way to God.

But the second country club says, “Anybody who wants in can come in because Jesus has already paid for your membership. Rich or poor, black or white, regardless of your ethnic heritage or where you live, we would love to include you. Entry isn’t based on your qualifications but only on accepting Christ’s invitation. So we’ll leave the matter to you. You decide. But remember, we will never turn you away if you seek admittance.” That’s what Christianity is like.

Now, which country club is being snobbish? Christians aren’t putting on airs; we aren’t saying we’re better than anyone else. As one Christian said, “We’re just beggars telling other beggars where to find food.”

Friends, Christianity is unique. It can’t be reconciled with any other religion. And it backs up its truth claims with the credentials and credibility of Christ. That’s why when He said He is the way, the truth, and the life, history hasn’t laughed. Instead, history has been revolutionized.

But for you and me, the issue isn’t ignorance. It’s obedience. We’ve heard what Christ has to say — even today— we have access to the evidence, and it’s clear we’re responsible for our decision on how we respond. Some of you need to respond today by becoming serious seekers who are sincere and systematic in your search for truth so you can eventually make a knowledgeable decision to follow Christ.

But if you’re among the 84 percent of Americans who already believe Jesus is God, then maybe it’s time you finally acted on that belief. What does that involve?

If you’re part of the 84 percent of Americans who are convinced Jesus is the Son of God, that’s a good first step. But if you’ve never acted on that belief, then the truth is that you’re still in danger. Let Jesus put His arm around you and rescue you and lead you to safety, once and for all. Before your head hits the pillow tonight, tell Him in a prayer that that’s the desire of your heart.

When you do, and as you grow in your relationship with Him, you’ll find out what I have —

• That Jesus is the way — He’s the path to a lifetime of adventure, fulfillment, challenge, and purpose.

• That He is the truth — and He will provide you with wisdom that works for everyday life and for the turbulent times as well.

• And He is the life. He — and He alone — can give you confidence for your future, for all of eternity.

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  This Sunday's Sermon - September 04, 2005

“Obstacles to Faith: Evolution Explains Life So God Isn’t Needed"

Romans 1:18-21; Colossians 1:15-17

          In the 1950s at the University of Chicago, in his laboratory, Stanley Miller recreated the early atmosphere of the earth and shot electrical discharges through it to simulate lightning. Lo and behold, after a while some amino acids – the building blocks of life – collected at the bottom of the container.

            The implications were instantly obvious to many: if it’s that simple for nonliving chemicals to turn into living matter by themselves, then God was out of a job! And that cemented the doubts of many Christians and non-Christians alike.  Some of these even turned to atheism for the first time.  Lee Strobel, a high school student at the time, was one of these. 

            Now, I know some Christians believe in the compatibility of Christianity and evolution. They suggest that perhaps God used evolutionary processes to create life. But, personally, I don’t buy that. Most Science textbooks define evolution as being “random and undirected” and “without plan or purpose.” Listen to how one textbook puts it: “By coupling undirected, purposeless variation to the blind, uncaring process of natural selection, Darwin made theological or spiritual explanations of life processes superfluous or unnecessary.”

            Think about it:  How could God direct an undirected process? How could there be a divine purpose behind a purposeless and random world? That doesn’t make sense to me. And it doesn’t make sense to a lot of evolutionists. As one leading evolutionist said, Darwin’s “greatest accomplishment” was to show that “living beings can be explained as the result of a natural process, natural selection, without any need to resort to a Creator or other external agent.”

            As Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, who earned his doctorate in origin-of-life studies from Cambridge University, said: “Contemporary Darwinism does not envision a God-directed process of evolutionary change.”

            In fact, a prominent evolutionist named William Province of Cornell University, was blunt in spelling out the implications of Darwinism. If Darwinism is true, he said, then there are five inescapable conclusions:

1. There’s no evidence for God.

2. There’s no life after death.

3. There’s no absolute foundation for right and wrong.

4. There’s no ultimate meaning for life.

5. People don’t really have free will.

             As Time magazine put it: “Charles Darwin didn’t want to murder God, as he once put it. But he did.”

                However, it turns out that most modern findings of contemporary science have established that science and faith are not at war – but that science, when done right, points powerfully toward the existence of a God who happens to match the description of the God of the Bible.

            Isn’t it stunning what the Bible says about God in Colossians 1:16: “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible... everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” [The Message paraphrase]

            Lee Strobel, former Chief investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune,  who became an atheist because of Stanley Miller’s experiment married a Christian woman whose life witness led him to investigate the claims of the Bible versus the claims of science.  What was it that changed his mind? How did a more in-depth study of science help lead him to God? That’s what I want to discuss today. In doing so, my goals are very simple. If you’re a Christian, I want you to walk away even more in awe of your Creator and even more confident that Psalm 102:25 is telling the truth when it says about God, “In the beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.”

            Or if you’re a spiritual seeker, I’d like you to have the same response I do as I read Romans 1:20 that says that “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

            So what were the scientific facts that point to the fact there’s a Creator? Well, there is both negative and positive evidence. First, the negative evidence against Darwinian evolution convinces me that purely naturalistic processes cannot reasonably account for the creation, development, and diversity of life. A lot has been written by scientists critiquing Darwinism in recent years, but I’ll just hit a few highlights.

            For example, that 1953 origin-of-life experiment by Stanley Miller – I mentioned earlier – has now been thoroughly discredited. It turns out that Miller’s concept of what the early atmosphere of the primitive Earth was like has been supplanted by new evidence that it was actually quite different – and if you run the same experiment with a reproduction of the Earth’s actual environment, you don’t get the amino acids that Miller got.

            In fact, all naturalistic theories have utterly failed to explain how non-living chemicals could have somehow assembled themselves into the first living cell. There aren’t just hurdles to explaining how life could have assembled by itself into the first living cell, but there are insurmountable barriers involving the origin of biological information that aren’t going to be resolved by more research and effort.

            What’s more, the grandest claims of Darwinian evolution crumble when you look at all the scientific evidence. There is no convincing evidence of the common origin of all life, as Darwin claimed. Of course, there’s such a phenomenon as “micro-evolution,” which is change within a kind of animal. That’s why we have 200 varieties of dogs. But science has failed over the last 150 years to substantiate Darwin’s claim of “macro-evolution,” which is that all creatures have a common ancestor and that natural selection acting on random variation can explain how fish became amphibians, which became reptiles, which became birds and mammals.

              Instead, the fossil record has shown that the majority, if not all, of the world’s 40 phyla, the highest category in the animal kingdom, virtually sprang forth with unique new body plans, fully formed and without transition fossils preceding them. There’s absolutely no evidence of the gradual evolution that Darwin predicted. In fact, if you were to condense the entire history of the world into 24 hours, all of these life forms would have sprung up in a mere sixty seconds!

            No wonder 100 scientists many of them very prominent in their fields) from a wide range of disciplines – with doctorates from Cambridge, Stanford, Cornell, Yale, Rutgers, Chicago, Princeton, Berkeley, Purdue, Duke, Michigan and Temple, including professors from Yale, MIT, Tulane, Rice, Emory, the University of California and elsewhere – took out a two-page ad and signed their names to what they called “a scientific dissent from Darwinism.” They announced, “We are skeptical of the claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life.”

            This is not faith versus science; this is science versus science. And I am forced to conclude that Darwinism would require a blind leap of faith that I simply unwilling to make.

            Not only does the negative evidence tear down Darwinism, but there is also a whole raft of positive evidence that has developed just over the past few decades from half a dozen branches of science that point powerfully toward the existence of a supernatural Creator. This is what has been so exciting! In Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for a Creator. he spells out a few categories of the evidence.        

            First, there’s cosmology, which is the study of the origin of the universe. For centuries, scientists believed that the universe was eternal – it always existed. But thanks to dramatic new evidence that has been discovered over the last few decades, virtually all scientists are now convinced that the universe had a sudden beginning in a giant explosion full of light.

            This has lead to one of the most powerful arguments for the existence of a Creator. The argument is simply this: First, whatever begins to exist has a cause. Isn’t that right? Can you think of anything that began to exist that doesn’t have a cause? No, whatever begins to exist has a cause.

              Second, the universe began to exist. As Stephen Hawking said, virtually every scientist now concedes that the universe and time itself had a beginning at some point in the past.
            The conclusion flows naturally from that: Therefore, the universe has a cause. What’s more, what we can logically deduce from the scientific data is that this Cause must be an uncaused, timeless, immaterial, personal being endowed with freedom of the will and enormous power – a good starting point for a description of the God of the Bible!  Do you see how the beginning of the universe provides incredibly strong evidence for the existence of a Creator?

            In fact, Arno Penzias, the Nobel-winning physicist who helped discover the evidence for the universe’s beginning, put it: “The best data we have (concerning the origin of the universe) are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, and the Bible as a whole.”

            Think about that. The universe began with an explosion that included a shower of photons – which are light. Just as the Bible says in Genesis 1:3: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”

            So cosmology goes a long way toward establishing the existence of a Creator. And, by the way, before we move on, people often ask, “Okay, but then what created God?” And the answer is nobody did. The argument isn’t, “Whatever exists has a cause.” The argument is, “Whatever begins to exist has a cause.” God, by definition, is eternal. He never began to exist; He has always existed. In fact, before He created the universe, time didn’t exist. There was simply timelessness. But scientists are virtually unanimous in saying the universe did begin to exist – and therefore it needs a cause to explain it. That cause is the Creator.

            The second category of evidence comes from physics. One of the most striking discoveries of modern science has been that the laws and constants of physics – the numbers that govern the operation of the universe – unexpectedly conspire in an extraordinary way to make the universe habitable for life. In other words, the universe is fine-tuned on a razor’s edge in a way that defies mere chance and which is better explained as the work of a Creator.

            Let me give you a few examples. First, there’s the force of gravity, which is finely tuned to an incomprehensible degree so that life can exist. Let me illustrate it for you.

              Imagine a ruler broken down in one-inch increments going all the way across the entire visible universe – billions of light years across. There would be trillions upon trillions of inches on that ruler. This plausibly represents the possible range for gravity; in other words, the setting for gravity could have been anywhere along that ruler. However, it happens to be situated in the exact right place so that life is possible.

            Now, imagine you were to change the force of gravity by moving its setting just one inch compared to the entire width of the universe. Just that tiny change would be absolutely catastrophic – instantly, intelligent life would become impossible in the universe!

            So the setting for the force of gravity just happens to be situated in the exact right fraction of an inch to make our universe capable of sustaining life. And that’s just one parameter that scientists have studied. One expert said there are more than thirty separate parameters that require precise calibration in order to produce a life-sustaining universe.

              Another example is the so-called “cosmological constant,” which is the energy density of space. I know that sounds technical, but what you need to know is that this number has to be balanced on a razor’s edge in order for the universe to exist. If this number were large and positive, galaxies and stars could never have formed. If it were large and negative, the universe would have collapse.

              However, scientists have determined that the cosmological constant is fine-tuned to one part in a hundred million billion billion billion billion.

            That precision would be like going in a space ship way out in space and throwing a dart at the Earth and hitting a bull’s eye that’s one trillionth of a trillionth of an inch in diameter. That’s less than the width of a single atom!

            That’s mind-boggling! If you just add together gravity and the cosmological constant, the fine-tuning would be to a precision of one part in a hundred million trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion. That would be the equivalent of one atom in the entire known universe!

            I could go on and on. For example, the strong nuclear force binds the nuclei of atoms together. Now, if you were to decrease the strong nuclear force by one part in ten thousand billion billion billion billion, all we’d have in the universe would be hydrogen. No life would be possible.

            As Dr. Vera Kistiakowski, professor emeritus of physics at MIT and former president of the Association of Women in Science, put it: “The exquisite order displayed by our scientific understanding of the physical world calls for the divine.”

            The only way atheists have been able to avoid this conclusion has been to suggest that there are actually an infinite number of other universes, and if you randomly spin the dials of physics enough times in enough universes, you’re bound to get one where the conditions would be suitable for life – and we’ve hit the lucky lottery.  The problem with that is that there is absolutely no evidence that an infinite number of other universes exist!

              Friends, the evidence of physics is so powerful that it was pivotal in turning a Harvard-educated, Georgetown professor named Patrick Glynn from atheism to belief in God. He said in his book God: The Evidence: “Today, the concrete data point strongly in the direction of the God hypothesis...Those who wish to oppose it have no testable theory to marshal, only speculations about unseen universes spun from fertile imaginations...Ironically, the picture of the universe given to us by the most advanced 20th century science is closer in spirit to the vision presented in the Book of Genesis than anything offered by science since Copernicus.”

          Especially when we look at the third scientific development I want to discuss, and that’s DNA. Scientists not long ago completed mapping the entire human genome, which are the chemical instructions inside every cell that contain the blueprint for life.

            I like the words of President Clinton when he announced this breakthrough. “Today,” he said, “we are leaning the language in which God created life.”

            And DNA is quite literally that language. Inside every one of our body’s 100 trillion cells is a strand of DNA that would stretch six feet long if you were to uncoil it. And it’s encoded with a four-letter chemical alphabet that spells out the precise assembly instructions for all the thousands of different kinds of proteins from which our bodies are made.

            In fact, DNA is the most efficient information storage system in the world. Get this: if you had one teaspoon of DNA – picture peanut butter – it could store all of the information needed to build all of the proteins for all of the one thousand million species of organisms that have ever lived – and still have room left over for all of the information in every book ever written!

            How does DNA point toward God?  The scientists reason that it’s too improbable that there would be a natural cause behind a string of numbers like that.

            But what is DNA? It’s a message; it’s a language; it’s information with content. Just like English uses a 26-letter alphabet, DNA uses a four-letter chemical alphabet. In fact, inside every cell of the human body is as many words as you could find in 10,000 editions of the Sunday Chicago Tribune! It’s the specific, detailed, written instructions for how to build the human body. Where did it come from?

            Nature, by itself, can produce patterns, but it can’t produce information. If you walk on the beach and see ripples in the sand, you would reasonably conclude that pattern was left by the action of waves. But if you saw “John Loves Mary” and a heart with an arrow through it, you wouldn’t think the waves produced that. Why? Because it’s information — and whenever we see written information, whether it’s a newspaper or a novel or a computer program — we know there’s intelligence behind it. The same is true for DNA.

            As King David wrote in Psalm 139: “For you [God] created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

            And there’s plenty of evidence from 21st century science to know that full well. As one of the world’s leading experts on the molecular world, Dr. James Tour of Rice University, put it: “I stand in awe of God because of what He has done through His creation. Only a rookie who knows nothing about science would say science takes away from faith. If you really study science, it will bring you closer to God.”

            In other words – science, when done right, points toward God. And more and more scientists are coming to that conclusion. In fact, let me close with a story about one of them.

            The more scientists peer through telescopes into the cosmos and through microscopes into the complexities of the cell, the more they are concluding that the unmistakable fingerprints of a Creator are all over the universe

            If you’re a Christian, then I hope you’ll celebrate the fact that the heavens really do declare the glory of the Lord.   But when you get right down to it, God calls us to live in a relationship with Him based on faith.  Science will never be able to answer every question about God.  God does that purposely.  It was God who said “the righteous shall live by faith.”   Nonetheless, you have friends who allow science or evolution to be a barrier to faith in God.  Get informed.  Share with them this evidence that they may begin to see how science does not need to be an obstacle to knowing and loving this God who created us and sent His Son to redeem us.

            If you’re a spiritual seeker, I hope your curiosity has been piqued enough to motivate you to check out the evidence for yourself.  The Book, The Case for a Creator – is one place to start. Because the good news is not only that there’s a Creator, but that He loves you and that He’s inviting you into a personal relationship with Him, both now and forever.

        
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  This Sunday's Sermon - September 11, 2005

“Obstacles to Faith: What about the Innocent Who Suffer and Die?”

          So often you and I as Christians focus on God’s love, grace, mercy, and compassion.  Christianity’s critics focus on other descriptions of God found in Scripture.  They point out the massacres, atrocities and other large scale bloodshed carried out by this same God.  Over the last several days, much  has been said about the enormous pain and suffering attributed to Hurricane Katrina.  Many have raise questions like: “Why did God do this?” or “Why did God allow this storm to take so much from so many. 

          One of the many obstacles to faith that non-Christians site is the suffering and death that occurs through natural disasters or in the Scripture, by God’s direct command.  Do the brutal accounts of the Bible disclose the true nature of God? And if they do, does God deserve to be worshipped?

          Atheist George H. Smith says, “The Old Testament God garnered an impressive list of atrocities. Jehovah himself was fond of directly exterminating large numbers of people, usually through pestilence or famine, and often for rather unusual offenses.”  How should we respond as Christians to those who believe our Lord to be a vindictive, vengeful, cruel God?  Are people raising the question here about “How could God allow this to happen.?

          In Deuteronomy 7:1-2 God orders the Israelites to totally destroy the Canaanites and six other nations and to ‘show them no mercy.’”  In I Sam 15:3 God tells Saul: “Now go attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”  Saul followed his orders pretty well.  In II Kings 2:23-25, Elisha calls down a curse on some youths for jeering at him and calling him ol’ baldhead.”  Pretty stiff punishment for poking fun at a bald prophet.  The charges against God as violent and brutal seem true at first glance.  Maybe as you’ve watched the many pitiful scenes from the Gulf coast, you’ve wondered yourselves about this God in whom you have put your trust.  How do we answers these accusations against the God we call loving and forgiving?  Let me try and I hope you will download this sermon from the web site so that you may study the truths at length and use it as a witnessing tool to those who are confused and even outraged at what this storm has done.

          In looking at this issue I want to first point out that Malachi 3:6 states: “I the Lord do not change.”  In Hebrews 13:8 we read, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  I personally believe that with all my heart.  Do you?  Then how do you explain these seeming contradictions in God’s character?  Norman L. Geisler, Ph.D and President of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, NC and one of Christianity’s great thinkers, has given me some superb insights into this question. 

          In Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Faith, Geisler points out that in a personal study on this subject he found that the word “Mercy” occurs 261 times in the Bible, most of them in the New Testament.  The word love is found 322 times in Scripture about half in each testament. (p. 165).  This unchangeable God is so holy He cannot look upon sin, and yet He is loving, merciful, gracious, and compassionate and desires to pour forgiveness out to all who repent.  So when we look at God’s order to Moses to kill every Canaanite I believe God’s character is so absolutely holy that He had to punish sin and rebellion.  He is a righteous judge; but He is also merciful.  If anyone wishes to escape His wrath, He will let them.  For example, when Saul was told to kill all the Amalekites, the reason was they were so utterly corrupt.  The Bible pictures them as utterly depraved.  Their own mission was to destroy Israel, God’s chosen people.  Think about it.  It was through the Israelites that God would bring salvation to the entire world.  They could NOT be allowed to thwart God’s plan.  God could have dealt with them through flood or famine, but instead He chose to use the Israelites as His instrument of judgment.  God did this not only for the Israelites, but for the whole world.  Even children were destroyed because God knew that even a small remnant of the Amalekites would threaten His plan. 

          Some of you are bothered by that statement.  Let me further say that we need to remember that God is sovereign over all life.  God created life and therefore has the right to take it. If you have the power to create life then you have the right to take it.  “But if you CAN’T create it, you don’t have that right.” (p.169).  God’s sovereign power means He knows what will occur in the future.  He knew the Amalekites would always threaten Israel if they were not utterly destroyed.

          Furthermore, God had given the Canaanites 400 years to repent of their perverse religion and trust in him.  That 400 years was the time the Israelites wandered in the dessert because of their lack of faith.  Any who wanted to get out of God’s path of destruction could have left the Promised land. 

          In Joshua 6 God tells Joshua to destroy all of Jericho.  Here again we are talking about a culture so thoroughly evil that the Bible says it nauseated God.  Our God who is an awesome God is also a God who is undeniably just.  He does not desire that any would perish but that choice is given to us to choose God or reject Him.

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  This Sunday's Sermon - July 31, 2005

Obstacles to Faith: Do You Believe in Miracles?

Luke 5: 1-11                          

I told you last week that we would be doing a series on Obstacles to Faith.  Today is the second in the series. We’ll be looking at some big difficulties skeptics, seekers and sincere believers have with the Christian faith. This is my prayer: that one of two things will happen. First, if you’re a spiritual seeker and one of these issues is a barrier keeping you from embracing a life of faith, I hope you’ll see that the roadblock isn’t all that imposing. Thinking it through in an open-minded way with all the facts on the table should eliminate the difficulty. Second, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ I present these messages to help you explain the Christian faith to those seekers you’re building relationships with who may ask questions. Love those lost people enough not to casually toss out pat answers and clichés. It’s not enough to say, “Well, you just gotta have faith.” The Bible tells us to be prepared:                                                   

          If you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But you must do this in a gentle and respectful way. 1 Peter 3:15, 16 (NLT)                              

          Let’s begin by tackling the subject of miracles and science. Before I was a follower of Jesus Christ I was rather skeptical of the supernatural myself. I’d heard enough about the Bible to understand that it was chocked full of miracle stories, but my mind and experience told me that it probably wasn’t true. How could a modern, rational human being believe that a virgin could spontaneously generate a Y chromosome and produce a male child? Biology simply would not allow such an occurrence. How about a man walking on water? Give me a break. How many physical laws would that violate? And the Resurrection? I’d never seen it happen.                                                                                                                        

          I had witnessed death up close and personal. My father had had a serious heart attack in June 1971.  We prayed that all would be well.  He came home after 7 weeks in the hospital.  Then one afternoon, Aug 17, 1971, daddy suffered another heart attack and died. Where was the one and only miracle I’d ever asked for? Science turned out to right after all.                                                                          

          Maybe that’s the way you feel about miracles right now. You’re skeptical. Maybe you want to believe, but you’ve just never seen one for yourself.                                             

          I think it’d be helpful in this discussion to begin with a working definition of a miracle. After all we used the term in a number of not-so-miraculous ways. Here’s one way to define it:                                                                                                                   

          A miracle is a divine intervention into, or interruption of, the regular course of the world that produces a purposeful but unusual event that would not have occurred otherwise.
Norman Geisler and Ron Brooks, When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidences (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1990), 79
              Scholar, William Lane Craig gives us an even more simple definition:
    A miracle is an event which is not producible by the natural causes that are operative at the time and place that the event occurs. (Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 2000), 62)
          In other words, if you held a glass jar above your head and dropped it onto a concrete sidewalk you’d expect it to fall at 9.8 meters per second squared. Within a second or two, depending upon how tall you are, natural causes should produce a broken jar. That’s what normally happens.
          A miracle would occur if all things stayed the same, but the jar did not fall at its expected velocity or failed to shatter on the ground. If it took the glass jar a minute to fall or 30 seconds or even 15 seconds, you’d suspect something was up. A miracle is an interruption of the natural work by divine intervention. Natural laws cannot explain what happened.
          It’s also important that we define science. What makes an activity scientific?: To consider something scientific it must be observable and repeatable. Science is merely generalized observations about causes and effects. Scientific laws do not dictate events or explain them. Remember that when you get into a discussion about a miracle from Scripture or even your own life.  Science only can be used as a means of proving or disproving something that is observable and repeatable.
          So you can see that science is quite limited. You can’t logically say that anything unscientific is untrue. Take the study of ethics, for example. Science doesn’t make ethical judgments. We do, however. Does this mean that our ethical judgments are contradictory to science? Of course not. The same is true with the supernatural. Miracles do not contradict science.
Miracles are outside the scope of science.
          That’s what supernatural means, “greater than or beyond the natural order of things.” One author put it this way:
          God is not discoverable or demonstrable by purely scientific means, unfortunately for the scientifically minded. But that really proves nothing. It simply means that the wrong instruments are being used for the job. You really don’t need to reconcile miracles and science because the two do not contradict one another. The heart of the issue is really your world view.
 You can only dismiss miracles if you reject the existence of God.
          It is unreasonable, illogical to believe that there is a supernatural being called God who could not break into creation when he decided to. The artist can intervene at any point with her canvass to make changes – any changes no matter how small or dramatic.
            Someone once asked Jay Kesler, former president of Youth for Christ International, if he believed that God could make a fish big enough to swallow a man. As a college president and above average in intelligence, in a world in which we have learned to split the atom and go to the moon and send spaceships to Neptune, did Kesler really think that God can make a fish big enough to swallow a man? I mean really?  Dr. Kesler’s reply is one of simple trust in a great God.
          He answered, "Let me tell you, I not only believe that he can make such a fish, but the God who made the sun and the moon and the stars, if he wanted to, could air-condition and carpet the fish!"
          [Belief in the Word, 1001 More Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking, p. 38]

          This is really at the heart of the issue. Genuine faith in an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all-present God logically leads to at least the possibility of the miraculous. Only disbelief dismisses the possibility of supernatural intervention.
            Actually, I don’t think it’s so much that we’ve stopped believing in a god. We’ve just traded in the true God for a false one.
Science is the god of our modern world.
          Let’s be honest science has made our lives easier, more comfortable and more predictable. We have medicines, vaccines, and medical procedures that heal our sick and broken bodies. No one would say this, but doctors today have attained a status like the ancient high priests. Rather than connect the common man to God, the physician connects his patient to the power of medicine. I’m not saying this is wrong or immoral. We do need to recognize what it does to our belief system, though.
          We could say the same for technology. New gadgets are invented everyday that promise to make our lives better. A simple electronic device like a TV remote control give you the power to control your TV watching destiny. The cable guy or the local mechanic or the computer repair person is practically a god in our age.
          Our quality of life is enhanced by the products of science. It’s only natural that we’d begin to put our faith in it. After all, look what it’s done for us. The miraculous is not within our frame of reference, therefore we tend to dismiss it. But does this make it untrue or contradictory to science? No.
          The only valid argument against miracles is that we just don’t experience them, at least not on a regular basis. In the Bible it seems like they were everyday occurrences. This leads to the question:
 Where Have All The Miracles Gone?
          The first thing I’d say to you is that you need to understand the perspective of the Bible. It doesn’t chronicle all of human history. God inspired the authors to write about unique times and places where he broke into history dramatically. But even in the Bible there were times when the people felt just as we do today. One example is a man named Gideon. He encountered the Angel of the Lord, disguised as a human. Look at his attitude toward the miraculous:
          Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ’Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Judges 6:13
          Gideon wondered about all those miracle stories too. He’d never seen anything as dramatic as the ten plagues on Egypt or the opening of the Red Sea. What he didn’t know at that point was that God was on the verge of using him as the leader for a supernatural defeat of the Midianites. This leads to an explanation of why miracles are so rare.
 Miracles cluster around significant spiritual events.
 Miracles serve as signs of God’s work.
          The author of the book of John, who is believed by most evangelical scholars to be one of Jesus 12 disciples, added this explanation of signs:
          And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. John 6:30-31.  Isn’t that the reason Jesus worked the miracle of the great catch?  He was demonstrating to Peter, James, and John who He was.  He could command nature and He had come to catch people with the Gospel.
            Miracles are designed to lead people to faith when God is up to something. They are evidence of his handiwork. By the way, no one during Jesus time ever denied his miracles. They often questioned his authority, but his worst enemies never refuted the legitimacy of his miracles. You also need to understand that the New Testament we have today was all written before Jesus’ generation died. There was no time for myths or legends to develop. If the miracles were untrue witnesses could have and would have easily disproved the accounts. Historically, everyone seems to agree that Jesus did some remarkable things.  In addition, the greatest miracle, God raising Jesus from the dead was witnessed by so many people, the Apostle Paul in I Cor. 15:3-6 states that he could produce well over 100 witnesses to the physical resurrection to Jesus.  Moreover, the first followers of Jesus were so convinced of this, they were willing to die for that belief.  People will not knowingly die for a lie. 
         
 Miracles reveal the love and compassion of God.
          And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. Matthew 14:14
          The miracles of Jesus revealed that the heart of God seeks our wholeness. God is emotionally affected by our suffering. If we’ll allow him, he’ll bring healing. Maybe not in this life, but certainly in the next. We get a glimpse of total restoration in the Revelation:
          "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4
          Just because miracles are rare in our age doesn’t mean that the biblical accounts are untrue. God intervenes in the natural world according to his purposes, not ours. That’s why we can’t manipulate him and get him to work miracles at our beckon call. Major miracles may be rare, but they are still possible and they do still happen.  I bet some of you could share how God has intervened miraculously in your life or in someone you know. You never know what God may be planning to do in your life. Before leaving this subject, let me encourage you with …
Four Reasons for Faith in a Miracle-Working God
1. God makes sense of our origins.
The Bible says it quite clearly.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
          You and I are not the product of chance. Your life did not result from the complex processes of evolution. We were created purposefully by God.
            Evolution seems plausible if you use it to talk about the development of life on earth, but if you go further back it looks less likely. There’s general agreement among scientists that the universe came into existence about 14 billion years ago in an event called the Big Bang. The theory goes that there was nothing and then, “bang!” the universe exploded into existence.
          Great theory, except that without the involvement of a supernatural God you’ve got a big problem. If no God existed to create it the universe came from nothing by nothing. How did this happen? What was the first cause? The most logical conclusion is that an intelligent being produced it. We’ll talk about that more in an upcoming sermon.
          2. God makes sense of the universe’s complexity.
            Knowledge of the universe should make us marvel in awe at God’s creation. In fact, that’s what it was designed for. Do you know that we are on the razor’s edge of existence. A life-prohibiting universe is more likely than a life-sustaining one. How do we account for this? God’s complex design.
            [Stephen Hawking] “…has calculated that if the rate of the universe’s expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have collapsed into a fireball.”
• British physicist P.C.W. Davies has concluded the odds against the initial conditions being suitable for the formation of stars – a necessity for planets and thus life – is a one followed by a least a thousand billion zeroes.
• Davies also estimated that if the strength of gravity or of the weak force were changed by only one part in a ten followed by a hundred zeroes, life could never have developed.
• There are about fifty constants and quantities – for example, the amount of useable energy in the universe, the difference in mass between protons and neutrons, the ratios of the fundamental forces of nature, and the proportion of matter to antimatter – that must be balanced to a mathematically infinitesimal degree for any life to be possible.
(Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 2000), 77-78)
          The finding of science agree with the assertions of scripture:
O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. Psalm 104:24 (NLT)
3. God makes sense of our internal moral compass.
          Where do our standards of right and wrong come from? Why are human beings distinct from the rest of the animal in having a moral nature? It’s because of God.
          Even when Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, instinctively follow what the law says, they show from their hearts they know right from wrong. They demonstrate that God’s law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right. Romans 2:14-15 (NLT)
4. God can be individually experienced.
          This one is less of a reason and more of a result. When it comes down to it, I can’t convince you of the existence of a miracle-working God. All I can tell you is that I’ve met him. After my brother died I read a book called, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold Kushner. It convinced me that God was really unable to do anything about my dad’s condition. The book painted a picture of God as something less than what he really is.
            Somehow this idea embedded itself in my psyche and I eventually reached a point of wondering if God could do anything about my condition, my sinful condition. The moral compass in my heart produced an unrelenting guilt. I’d try to less bad things, but then I’d slip up and go right back godless living again. I called out for forgiveness, but never felt it. Finally, it happened. I won’t go into details due to time restrains, but I’ll tell you that the Almighty, miracle-working God of the universe met me in a youth Bible Study in Winston Salem, NC.  He met me in my sin and guilt and spoke words of forgiveness. I’ve never gotten over it.
          I found that he’s not powerless as the good rabbi implied. He’s powerful. His love is strong enough to condescend to the most vile person on earth. His grace is stronger than any sin. When we trust in Christ God works the greatest miracle of grace by forgiving us and making us spiritually new. After that point his Spirit begins renovating our lives. He has the muscle to move entrenched thoughts and habits. He sets us free.
          It’s a paradox. This miracle-working God intervenes in our personal histories when we come to the end of ourselves and call out to him by faith. The prophet Isaiah put in much more eloquently:
          For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15 (NRS)
          You may never experience water-walking or the crippled walking or 5,000 people fed with a few loaves and fishes, but make no doubt about it, God wants to work a miracle in your life. You can be forgiven, find wholeness for your soul and obtain eternal life with God. It doesn’t take a dramatic, supernatural event. All you have to do is call out to him by faith and the miracle- working God will work a miracle on you. 

   
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  This Sunday's Sermon - July 24, 2005

Case for Faith Series: “Since Evil and Suffering Exist,
A Loving God Cannot”
Isaiah 40:12-31

            Many people visit Jamaica each year.  Most of them tourists.  Your mission team got to see a different story.  We got off the beaten path and what you see there is abject poverty.  Shanty houses crowded with adults and children.  Most of them lucky to get one good meal per day.  You don’t have to travel to another country to see similar and even worse situations.  In some of our larger cities in the U.S. there are homeless people who struggle to survive.  If there is a God, why would He allow people, especially precious children, to suffer?  Hardships, heartbreak, man’s inhumanity to man are daily seen in the news.  While in Jamaica, the funeral for 2 little girls who had been brutally molested and murdered.  I have been to Haiti where the drinking water and the sewage run together down the street.  Where is God in these festering, disease racked, and horrible places?  It is these and similar questions that seem to form an insurmountable obstacle to some people coming to faith in Christ.  Maybe you yourself have held back from real commitment to God because you cannot reconcile in your mind and heart the suffering of the world with a kind, benevolent, loving Creator.  I mean one thousand million people in the world lack the basic necessities of life.  Doesn’t God care?  If He is loving, then surely all this suffering would not exist, but it does.

            What’s worse, it’s often the innocent who are victimized.  If only the cruel got broken backs or cancers, if only cheaters and crooks got Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s, we might think it justice.  But so often it is the sweetest child who lies dying of a brain tumor or the happy young wife who sees her husband killed before her eyes by a drunken driver and we cry, “Why, Why?” 

            Christian author, Philip Yancey begins his book on suffering entitled, “Where is God When It Hurts?” with a chapter entitled: A Problem That Won’t Go Away.  This is not just an intellectual issue to be debated in some sterile academic arena; it’s an intensely personal matter that can tie our emotions into knots and leave us disoriented, frightened, and angry.  And George Barna, the Public Opinion Pollster, conducted a poll in 1999 where he asked: “If you could ask God only one question and you knew he would give you an answer, what would you ask?”  The top response was: “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?” 

            Charles Templeton, once partner with Billy Graham, turned agnostic because he could answer this question.  In fact he says in his book denouncing Christianity:

            A loving God could not possibly be the author of the horrors of this world.  And

            because they continue, it is obvious that there cannot be a loving God.

            CANNOT?  Does the presence of suffering necessarily mean the absence of God?  Is this obstacle to faith, insurmountable?  To believe wholeheartedly in a loving and omnipotent Father, do I have to gloss over the evil and pain around me?  How do YOU answer these questions?

            Templeton said that with all the suffering, a loving God could not possibly exist.  Even David Hume, one of history’s most famous skeptics, said it is barely possible that God exists.  Can the God who is greater than we, who is infinite when we are finite tolerate evil in order to work out His good?  Think of it this way: Isn’t the difference between us and God is greater than the difference between us and a bear?

            Imagine with me a moment, a bear in a trap and a hunter who, out of sympathy, wants to liberate him.  He tries to win the bear’s confidence, but he can’t do it, so he has to shoot the bear full of drugs.  The bear, however, thinks this is an attack and that the hunter is trying to kill him.  He doesn’t realize that this is being done out of compassion.

            Then in order to get the bear out of the trap, the hunter has to push him further into the trap to release the tension on the spring.  If the bear is even semi-conscious at this point, he would be even more convinced that the hunter was his enemy who was out to cause him suffering and pain.  But the bear would be wrong.  He reaches that incorrect conclusion because he is not a human being.  Peter Kreeft, first rate and highly respected philosopher who is a Christian, gave this illustration and then asked:  “How can anyone be certain that’s not an analogy between us and God? I believe God does the same to us sometimes and we simply cannot comprehend why He does it.”

 He further states: “Only in a world where faith is difficult can faith exist…But Scripture describes God as a hidden God.  You have to make an effort of faith to find him.  There are clues you can follow.  If we had absolute proof instead of clues, then you could no more deny God than you can deny the sun.  If you had no evidence at all, you could never get there.  God gives us just enough evidence so that those who want him can have him.  Those who want to follow the clues will.”

            The Bible says, “Seek and you shall find.”  It doesn’t say everyone will find him; it says those who seek Him will find Him.  That is faith.  Granted, evil is used to argue against the existence of a loving God.  But can’t it also be used as an argument FOR GOD?   As C. S. Lewis once said: “If the universe is so bad, how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a good and wise Creator?”  If everything is a product of evolution as some people believe, then we ought to moving toward perfection and the end of suffering.  But we know that the world is NOT getting better.  Most would agree, it is getting worse.  Having said that, how then, can we argue for the existence of a loving God?  In addition to believing in a loving God, Christians believe God is all powerful, God is all knowing, and God is all good.  How can these be true and evil still exist?  Well, sit up and listen and pray God will reveal His truth to all of us.

1. God is All-Powerful  What does this essentially mean?  It means God can do everything that is meaningful, everything that is possible, and everything that makes any sense at all.  God cannot perform evil and He cannot make Himself stop existing.  Now follow me.  Precisely because God is all powerful, He CAN’T MAKE MISTAKES.

            Now, the classic defense of God against the problem of evil is that it is not logically possible to have free will and NO possibility of moral evil.  In other words, once God chose to create us with free will, then it was up to us as to whether there would be sin or not. That is what free will means.  Built into the situation of God deciding to give us free will, is the chance of sin, evil, and the suffering that results.  So God created the possibility of evil, but we human beings are the source.  Now someone might ask, then why didn’t God create a world without human freedom?  Would it have been a world without hate?  A place without suffering?  YES.  But it would have also been a world without Love, the highest virtue.  Real Love—our love for God and our love for each other—must involve a choice.   But with that choice comes the possibility that people would choose instead to hate.   Most of you would agree that the majority of the suffering in the world is the direct result of our choices to kill, to slander, to be selfish, to stray sexually, to break our promises, to do evil.  Isaiah 40 proclaims the all powerful character of God.  And in verses 30-31, the love of God for us.  No where in these verses do we see a God who would like to help but cannot.  He is All powerful.  Nothing can compare to HIM.

2.  God is All-Knowing  Another word for this is omniscience.  If God is all knowing, he knows not only the present good and evil but also the future good and evil.  If we refer back to the hunter and the bear analogy, we can say it is at least possible that a loving God could deliberately tolerate horrible things like starvation because He foresees that in the long run that more people will be better and happier than if He miraculously intervened.  I can see that that is hard to accept for many of you.  Yet, I can tell you that God has specifically shown us very7 clearly how this can work.  He has demonstrated how the very worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the world ended up resulting in the very best thing that has ever happened in the history of the world.  I am, of course, referring to the death of God Himself on the cross.  At the time, nobody saw how anything good could come out of that tragedy. And yet, God foresaw that the result would be the opening of heaven to human beings.  So the worst tragedy in history brought about the most glorious event in all of history.  And if it happened there—if the ultimate evil can result in the ultimate good—it can happen elsewhere, even in our own individual suffering.  It is here that God lifts the curtain and lets us get a peak from His perspective.  Elsewhere, God simply says, “Trust me.”  In other words, again, we are called upon to exercise faith.  Paul says in Romans   “The righteous or just shall live by faith.”  Even though suffering and evil may be an obstacle to faith, there is a point where faith is the only means of getting over the obstacle.  And when you take that small step of faith, simply trusting God at His Word, He simply WILL NOT DISAPPOINT.

            You see, I believe that the cross is so much more than the means of our salvation—being made right with God.  The cross is also the paradigm of how God can and does bring good out of tragedy, suffering, and evil.  The testimony of the greatest Christians in history seem to say that their sufferings ended up bringing them the closest to God.

3. God is all good.   Good is such a hard word to define because today so many people define it based on what feels good or right to them.  But the difference between us and God is certainly greater than the difference between us and animals.  However, someone might observe if one of us here allowed one of our children to play out on a busy street and they got hit by a car and killed, no one would consider us “good.”  They would consider us ‘evil.’  Some people believe that because God sits by while we suffer when He could prevent it, He could not possibly be good.

            Yet when my children were small and learning to walk I remember watching them intently while they stood and took a few wobbly steps.  Every time they started to fall, I could have reached out and caught them, but I didn’t.  If I would have, they probably would have never learned to walk.  Granted, I tried to keep them from falling against a sharp table corner or whatever, but I did not reach out and break every fall.  The pain was a good thing for them and I was wise enough to see it would be for their best benefit.  God is wise enough to foresee that we need some pain for reasons which we may not understand but which He foresees as being necessary for our total good.  God uses suffering for our moral and spiritual education and well-being.  Courage, for example, would be impossible in a world without pain. 

Romans 5: 3-4 reminds us that: “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope.” 

            Let’s face it, we learn from the mistakes we make and the suffering they bring.  The universe is a soul-making machine, and God uses the process to mature us through challenges, problems, pain and suffering.  The point of our lives is NOT comfort, but training and preparation for eternity.  Even Jesus learned obedience through suffering according to Hebrews 5:8. 

            Any of you here ever seen the Twilight Zone?  I used to watch it all the time growing up.  IN one episode, a gang of bank robbers get shot and one of them wakes up on fluffy clouds at the golden gate of a celestial city.  A kindly white-robed man offers him everything he wants.  But he is soon bored with the gold, since everything is free; with the beautiful girls who only laugh when he hurts them, and with everything else.  So he summons the St. Peter figure, “There must be some mistake.”  “No mistakes are made here.”  So the guy asks, “Can’t you send me back to earth?”  “Of course not, you’re dead.”  “Then please send me to the other place so I can be with my friends.”  “Oh, no, we can’t do that.  Rules, you know.”  So he asks, “What is the place anyway.?  “It is the  place where you get everything you want.”  “But I thought I was supposed to like heaven.”  “Heaven?  Who said anything about heaven?  Heaven is the other place.”  The point—a world without suffering appears more like hell than heaven. 

            You see, God could intervene so often, but every time He might choose force to prevent evil or suffering, He would be taking away our freedom.  Eventually we would be like puppets who lack the ability to freely choose love.  A world like that would seem great at first glance—maybe.  But it would NOT be the kind of world a Father would want.

            All of this is somewhat relative, don’t you think?  We criticize and complain to God about everything and we only know a small piece of the story.  Why is justice delayed for those people we feel DESERVE IT?  Justice delayed is NOT justice denied.  God doesn’t want anyone to perish, so He delays the Final Judgment.  You might say, “But why does God allow so much evil and suffering?”  How much is “so much.?”  Any of us could say, “If I’m having a pain, that is too much suffering in the world.” 

            Listen folks, the greatest pain there is, God has known.  He experienced every pain, every evil on the cross.  We cannot IMAGINE what that was like. But WE CAN BELIEVE IT. God did that for us and in so doing provided a way for us to love Him and trust Him.  He also showed us His great power to turn every ill, every evil, every pain into something for our good.

            Brothers and Sisters, at Calvary and because of Calvary—Jesus’ suffering and death for us—God entered into every single pain every human being will ever endure.  God Himself bore all the agony and pain we experience.  He didn’t have to.  But He did.  The answer to pain and suffering and evil is a person-Jesus the Christ!  His presence can heal a broken-heart, a broken marriage, a broken life.  His arms are strong enough for the worst tragedy we can imagine.  He promises us Heaven where the present sufferings of this world can in NO WAY compare.   If the sufferings and pains of life have caused you to not trust God in any way, I want to invite you to ask Him to forgive your sin and unbelief and fill your heart and soul with His precious love and goodness.  God is Love.  The mess we have made of the world does NOT change that.  In fact, it only serves to open another avenue where God’s power, love, and goodness can be showered upon us.  I invite you to renew your faith in God, or to believe for the first time as we sing: “Love, Mercy, and Grace”

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  This Sunday's Sermon - July 17, 2005

Case for Faith Series: “The Virus of Doubt”
Matthew 14:22-33

Theme: The struggle with doubt can either be a virus that drives us away from God or the motivation to study the evidence more carefully drawing us closer to God.
              Introduction – Today, I am beginning a series of sermons on Faith.  In fact, I am using the title of a book I’ve recently read as the title for this series: “The Case for Faith.”  In this series, I will deal with eight objections to faith. Today, I want to deal with doubt.  Faith is believing in something I have NOT seen.  Doubt is raising questions about what I’ve decided to believe.  It is uncertainty caused by the inability to answer a question to one’s satisfaction.   “We all struggle with doubt. The question is, What will you and I do with our doubts? Will we allow our doubts to drive us into skepticism and cynicism? Or will we allow our doubts to motivate us to study the evidence more clearly.”
 Is it okay to doubt?…  the answer is yes and no!
– Psalm 34:8a  says,  “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good…”   The inference here is that we need to taste, experience God’s goodness in order to know God is good.

            So many people look at doubt as something horrible and the opposite of faith.  When it leads to cynicism or skepticism it is the enemy of faith.  But it doesn’t have to lead us there.  In fact, in the Bible there are many examples where doubt led to a deepening of faith. 
HOW?
Doubts produce faith...faith produces knowledge.
Illus.
Hold a quarter in your hand and ask if people believe there’s a quarter there...if so, they do so by faith.
But those who don’t believe...have doubt.
Those who have doubt...ask questions...is there a coin in there?...is it worth more than a dime but less than fifty cents?....etc...

The questioning can produce a faith that a coin is there.
But once the coin is shown to be in the hand, it’s no longer doubt, it’s no longer faith, but it’s knowledge!  Therefore, in our Christian walk, even though we have faith, we still have doubts which we accept by faith as we move toward a greater knowledge.
Lee Strobel says it this way:  Doubts produce faith...faith produces knowledge.
(Source: Strobel, Lee. The Case For Faith. Zondervan, 2000, pgs. 238-240.)
How?  Let’s look at some Biblical examples.
I – The doubting example of Peter…clarified by experimentation.
“But when (Peter) saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” – Matthew 14: 30
Peter could have drowned in his doubt, instead he clarified his faith by experimenting even in the midst of his doubt.  And thus, he gained the knowledge of the power of Christ.
II – The doubting example of Thomas…clarified by examination.
“The other disciples therefore said to (Thomas), ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” – John 20: 25
Thomas was looking for some "proof" that his doubts didn’t negate his faith. He needed to examine his doubts! When he did faith was manifested. Jesus’ words, "Blessed are you because you have seen..." prove his doubt was moved to faith, if not to knowledge.
III – The doubting example of Abraham…clarified by expectation.
“Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety nine years old, bear a child?’” – Genesis 17:17
Both Abraham and Sarah doubted, but there faith was strong and they used that faith to overcome their doubt. When the child was born, that faith became knowledge.
IV – The doubting example of Christ…clarified by exaltation.
“And (Jesus) was withdrawn from them about a stone’s
throw, and He knelt down and prayed saying, ‘Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” – Luke 22:41-42
Jesus, too had doubt. This shows that doubt is not sinful but a human characteristic. Jesus doubted...take this cup away from me...but the faith was immediate...nevertheless not My will, but Your be done. Jesus exalted the Father in his doubt to faith to knowledge transformation.
Conclusion –
“We all struggle with doubt. The question is, What will you and I do with our doubts? Will we allow our doubts to drive us into skepticism and cynicism? Or will we allow our doubts to motivate us to study the evidence more clearly.”

            That’s really what it boils down to, isn’t it?  Doubts should lead us to seek the answers more fervently.  We can’t pretend, or at least, I can’t pretend that I sometimes have doubts.  But when they come, I should be like these biblical examples who searched and asked and experimented until they received the answers to their doubts or greater faith to overcome those doubts.  I want to say to you today who allow doubts to keep you from faith, God is big enough to answer your doubts if you will ask Him and seek seek Him.   God may not answer all our questions, but He does point us in the right direction if we are serious about finding the answers.  Today I want to urge you to ask God to give you faith to believe and a seeking heart that causes you to seek God’s face; to seek to know Him; to enable you to move from doubt to Trust in our Creator, Redeemer, God.

(Source: Knechtle, Cliffe, “Help Me Believe: Direct Answers to Real Questions” InterVarsity Press, 2000.)



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