Sunday Morning Sermon Summary
Pastor Paul Lundberg
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Series:
“Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All?”
Part Three:
Why Believe the Bible? (Mark 8:34-37)
January 21,
2007
(Note: this message is drawn
largely from the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All
by James W. Shire (Madison, WI: Intervarsity. 1994)
OUR MISSION:
Go! Make Disciples! I’ll Show Up!
WHY ASK THE QUESTION?
(BECAUSE WE BASE OUR LIVES ON
BELIEVING, WE NEED TO KNOW THE ANSWER FOR OURSELVES, OUR MISSION IS
TO MAKE DISCIPLES (Believers)
WHY BELIEVE ANYTHING?
(Social,
personal, Religious reasons
Philosophical reasons
(It’s true! It’s reasonable, logical, There’s real evidence for it,
I have experience, provides the best explanation)
FOUR BASIC
REASON FOR BELIEF AND PRACTICE
1)
Jesus Himself (Hebrew
people, the events of history, the shape and form of the universe,
thru visions and personal encounters with God)
SUPREMELY MADE
HIMSELF KNOWN IN AND THRU JC
(anyone who knows Jesus knows that
Christianity is true!)
2) The
historical reliability of the Gospels
If we can’t
trust the picture the Gospels draw, we cannot know who Jesus was,
and thus Jesus cannot be a reason for belief.
Reasons to doubt:
A)
no original documents (errors
were made in copying)
Answer:
5000 manuscripts. Decades of intense
study. Scholars say the text of the NT is probably the most accurate
ancient document we have. In NT only one word per 1,000 is in any
way doubtful, and no point of doctrine is lost…
B)
Translations are unreliable
(Dead Sea Scrolls/1st century)
Answer:
actually a reason for confidence. So many translations with almost
if not exactly identical meanings. No reason to reject the
reliability of the NT on the basis of the fact that we don’t read
Greek
C)
Miracles don’t/can’t happen
Answer:
No way to know …we could not
be certain that there wasn’t a cosmic force behind the universe that
could intervene…Even if no miracle had ever occurred at any time or
place so far in the universe and we actually knew this to be true
(which we don’t and can’t) it would still be possible that miracles
could occur.
THE REAL QUESTION IS HAVE
THERE BEEN ANY?
D)
Contradictions
Answer:
Common reason but not a true reason
Ask instead:
which contradictions do you have in mind?
Some are not
contradictions, just issues the Bible doesn’t address (where did
Cain get his wife?)
Some are
inconsequential (paralytic: dig through the roof or take off the
tiles) (Luke 9, 10 and Matt. 10: Sandals or no sandals) (narratives
around the resurrection).
E and F)
Memories and motives –time
lapse. Can’t trust the writers’ memories. The church invented Jesus
to justify their lifestyle and belief, one who gave them authority
to continue in power.
Answer:
All of the gospels were written within the
lifetimes of eye witnesses. The Gospels would never have achieved
their status as authoritative documents in the church if they had
been challenged by those eye witnesses.
Problem: Jesus did none of this!
3)
the internal
consistency of the Christian worldview and its power to provide the
best explanation of the tough issues of life
(Consistent
teaching; prophecies and fulfillment; Right and wrong)
Student: until an unfair
grade
4)
the testimony of
individual Christians and of countless Christian communities that
exhibit transforming power
Early church – believers for
2000 years. Martyrs, skeptics
“THE PROBLEM FOR THE EARLY
CHURCH AND US IS NOT THAT THE
GOSPELS GIVE US AN UNTRUSTWORTHY PICTURE OF JESUS,
THE REAL PROBLEM IS:
THEY GIVE US A PICTURE THAT EITHER
BRINGS US TO OUR KNEES OR SENDS US SADLY AWAY,
*KNOWING THAT WE
SHOULD BELIEVE AND FOLLOW JESUS WHILE BEING UNWILLING TO DO SO!”
Mark 8:34 - Then he called the crowd to
him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after
me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for
a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can
a man give in exchange for his soul?
“Not
so much a matter of rejecting what one knows to be false as
rejecting what one strongly suspects is true but costs too much to
accept. ‘If Jesus is right, I want no part of it!’”
Why believe anything?
(True? Logical? Experience? Best explanation?) WHAT IF IT’S TRUE?
Specifically, did Jesus really die
and rise from the dead? 1 Corinthians
15:3-7
STORY:
Mark 16:9-14: NOW AFTER HE HAD RISEN EARLY ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE
WEEK, HE FIRST APPEARED TO MARY MAGDALENE…SHE WENT AND REPORTED TO
THOSE WHO HAD BEEN WITH HIM, WHILE THEY WERE MOURNING AND WEEPING.
AND WHEN THEY HEARD THAT HE WAS ALIVE, AND HAD BEEN SEEN BY HER,
THEY REFUSED TO BELIEVE IT. AND AFTER THAT, HE APPEARED IN A
DIFFERENT FORM TO TWO OF THEM (on the road to Emmaus) …AND THEY WENT
AWAY AND REPORTED IT TO OTHERS BUT THEY DID NOT BELIEVE IT EITHER.
AND AFTERWARD HE APPEARED TO THE ELEVEN THEMSELVES AS THEY WERE
RECLINING AT TABLE; AND HE REPROACHED THEM FOR THEIR UNBELIEF AND
HARDNESS OF HEART, BECAUSE THEY HAD NOT BELIEVED THOSE WHO HAD SEEN
HIM AFTER HE WAS RISEN.
Note: no
collusion or conspiracy, no plan to hide or destroy the Body.
EMPHASIS ON THE WRONG KINGDOM. Death of Jesus was a major problem
for the disciples. Resurrection was not the message they had
heard. They wanted the kingdom, not an empty tomb.
Soldiers
(Matthew 27:62-66)
See also Matthew
28:11ff
Pharisees, large sum of money to lie
Protection from Roman Governor
WHY? Just locate the body!
NEVER RECANTED
(IMAGINE THE SUMS OF MONEY THEY COULD HAVE RECEIVED)
'Swoon
theory’: - Jesus
never really died (John 19:38ff)
Joseph (a member of the Council) and Nicodemus (teacher from John 3)
75
pounds of spices (too smart to wrap the body in
expensive spices
if he was not dead)
Wrapped and in the tomb without medical care for 3 days
Five
major wounds
Pilate wasn't sure either (Mark 15:44-46)
“AND
Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoned the
centurion, he questioned him as to whether Jesus was dead. And
ascertaining this from the c. he granted the body to Joseph (for
burial).
Disciples
(including Paul)
500
people saw him alive – some would have recanted
Key
to the apostles preaching (THAT WHICH GOT THEM IN TROUBLE!)
Acts 13:29ff –
“and when they had (crucified Him) they
took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. BUT GOD
HAS RAISED HIM
FROM THE DEAD…and for many days He appeared to many…the very ones
who are now witnesses…and we preach to you the good news of the
promise made to our fathers, that God has fulfilled THIS PROMISE TO
OUR CHILDREN IN THAT HE RAISED UP JESUS…”
Key to
Paul’s defense at trial
(SURE TO ONLY MAKE MATTERS WORSE!) Acts 24 – Agrippa, Festus, Felix
Green: Mission and Vision
Blue: Illustrations and quotes
Red: Scripture
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details)
