Participants: Nathan Renner
Series Code: 17SCM
Program Code: 17SCM000002A
00:14 Welcome to 3ABN Spring Camp Meeting 2017:
00:25 We want to welcome you now to hour number 2 00:29 of our very first night of Spring Camp Meeting 2017. 00:35 And you're a pretty good looking group. 00:38 And we praise the Lord. 00:41 We welcome you; this is going to be a wonderful sitting together. 00:44 We are not going to curse the darkness. 00:47 During the next several days we are simply going to let 00:49 the Lord's light shine. 00:51 And the darkness will cease to be as we bathe in the sunshine 00:56 of God's love. I want you to smile. 00:58 Look like you're happy in the Lord 01:01 because you never know when we're going to put that camera 01:04 on you. So if you don't want the camera to see you, 01:07 then don't smile... just look mad, 01:09 look sad, look like you don't want to be here. 01:12 You may be running from the law 01:14 or in the Witness Protection Program 01:17 and you don't want your face on camera. 01:19 Well, then just don't smile. But if you're smiling 01:22 and you've got your Bible open you just may end up 01:25 seeing yourself on camera. 01:27 So we welcome you. It's going to be a good night 01:29 of preaching and teaching. The Spirit of the Lord is here 01:32 and you are here. We welcome our in-house guests 01:36 and we welcome those from around the world 01:38 that are sharing this wonderful Camp Meeting with us. 01:41 Got some news from the weatherman. 01:43 The next several days: sunshiny and fair. 01:47 Amen! So it's going to be sunshiny outside 01:50 and sunshiny inside 01:52 as the love of Christ shines out in our hearts. 01:55 Our music is coming from Tim Parton. 01:57 We call them happy feet. 02:00 You ever see those feet going while he's playing 02:02 and those hands are going? 02:03 He's just happy in the Lord. Amen. 02:05 So Tim... we'll turn it over to you. 02:07 Yes, and I want the congregation to sing with me 02:09 on this beautiful hymn. 02:23 So grateful for the Word of God. 03:14 Now I hope you'll make this your prayer: 03:17 Open our eyes, Lord - yeah, sing it - 03:23 we want to see Jesus. 03:24 We want to see Jesus. To reach out and touch Him. 03:30 To reach out and touch Him - 03:35 and say that we love Him - 03:37 and say that we love Him. 03:43 Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen - 03:49 and help us to listen. 03:55 Open our eyes, Lord, 03:57 Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus - 04:03 we want to see Jesus. 04:09 Oh, sing that again... open our eyes: 04:11 Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus... 04:18 we want to see Jesus. 04:23 To reach out and touch Him - 04:25 to reach out and touch Him - 04:30 and say that we love Him - 04:32 and say that we love Him. 04:37 Open our ears... 04:39 Open our ears, Lord, 04:44 and help us to listen - 04:46 and help us to listen. 04:51 Open our eyes, Lord, 04:54 Open our eyes, Lord, 05:00 we want to see Jesus... 05:09 Lord, open our eyes, 05:14 Lord, 05:17 we want to see 05:21 Jesus. 05:32 Amen. Thank you, Tim, so very much. 05:35 Someone said to me back stage 05:36 "You didn't introduce yourself" 05:38 to which I responded: "I already know who I am. " 05:43 My name is C.A. Murray. I'm the Proclaim! general manager 05:48 here at 3ABN, and whatever else I am asked to do 05:51 I do joyfully in the name of the Lord. 05:55 But in all seriousness now 05:57 we move into the meat of the meetings 06:02 for this particular sitting. 06:05 Our speaker is Pastor Nathan Renner. 06:09 He currently pastors the Discover Life SDA Church 06:14 in Sonora, California. 06:17 He is the husband of one wife: Becky, 06:20 the father of two children: Levi and Laurel. 06:24 He has pastored at Discover Life for eight years. 06:28 He grew up as it were in South Dakota. 06:34 Nathan tells me that he was the first convert 06:39 of David Asscherick. 06:42 And how interesting that David should baptize his clone 06:48 because they do look remarkably similar. 06:53 Nathan has changed just a little bit. 06:56 He and I share the same low-maintenance hair style. 07:04 But he has the energy of a David Asscherick 07:07 and the power of a David Asscherick 07:09 and speaks for his Lord with passion and with grace. 07:15 He was baptized in 1997 07:18 so he's been at this a little while now 07:20 and God has blessed his ministry. 07:24 His topic: Is The Bible Just Fiction? 07:29 He is from the Central California Conference 07:32 but he comes to us tonight to preach the Word of God. 07:38 Hear ye him. Amen! 07:45 Good evening. Good evening! It's a joy to be here with you 07:50 and a joy to share God's Word 07:53 with you here and with our global audience. 07:56 Let's pray together, shall we? 07:59 Our Father in heaven, thank you so much 08:03 for this... this time that You've given us 08:05 to open Your Word and to seek You from Your Word. 08:10 God, as we open the Word we ask that You would speak to us 08:14 and bless us and draw us close to Christ. 08:19 We thank you in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. 08:24 As C.A. just mentioned our topic this evening is 08:29 Is The Bible Just Fiction? 08:33 We live in a world where the truthfulness of scripture 08:36 is almost universally questioned. 08:39 I know this because I was a skeptic. 08:44 I was raised as a young child going to church 08:47 and through a series of kind of tragic events 08:50 in that church my mom and my family... we kind of 08:54 left the church and left Christianity 08:57 and began to embrace a more secular world view. 09:01 By the time I was in my teens and early 20's 09:05 I considered myself an atheist. 09:11 In fact, the language that I used to use about Christians 09:15 I don't even use those words any more. 09:19 I was passionately secular in my thinking. 09:24 I doubted Jesus; I doubted the Bible; 09:27 I doubted religion in general. 09:30 And I imagined that if you were a person 09:35 who had respect for the Bible, 09:38 who had convictions about Jesus, 09:40 that you were likely suffering 09:42 from a deficiency of intelligence. 09:46 The dominant secular world view today, 09:49 the dominant secular philosophy today 09:51 believes that there is no world view with absolute truth. 09:57 They believe that everything is shaped by our perspective 10:02 and so everything is relative. 10:07 And it is true that everything is shaped by our perspective. 10:11 Every human world view is conditioned by humanity. 10:18 That's why in a humanistic world, 10:21 that's why in a scientific world 10:24 there can be - and I want you to listen carefully - 10:27 in a humanistic world view, in a scientific world view 10:30 there can be no absolute truth. 10:37 You know, it's interesting because the scientists 10:40 would like us to think that if you're a Christian 10:43 you can't believe what is true. But the reality is 10:46 in a scientific world there is much less truth 10:51 than in a Christian world view. "What do you mean? 10:54 What do you mean, Pastor? " 10:55 There's a philosopher of science: his name is 10:59 Karl Popper. 11:00 He is the single greatest philosopher of science 11:06 of the 20th century. If you were to go to any university, 11:10 any college, and you were to take a philosophy of science 11:13 class, Karl Popper would be the #1 person 11:18 that you would study and read. I want you to listen 11:21 to what Karl Popper said about science's ability 11:26 to tell us the truth. 11:27 Follow: 11:29 "The old scientific idea 11:32 of episteme, of absolute certain 11:36 demonstratable knowledge has proved to be an idol. 11:43 The demand for scientific objectivity 11:46 makes it inevitable that every scientific statement 11:50 must remain tentative forever. " 11:56 Did you hear that? 11:58 This is the man that teaches scientists how to think. 12:03 And what he says is is that the idea that science 12:06 can tell you absolute truth, absolute knowledge 12:10 he says: "that is an idol. " 12:12 He goes on... he says... he says that: "every scientific 12:17 statement must remain tentative forever. " 12:23 He goes on: "That is why 12:26 absolute truth... Excuse me. He goes on: "It may indeed be 12:31 corroborated, but every corroboration is relative 12:36 to other statements which again are tentative. 12:38 Only in our subjective experience of conviction 12:43 in our subjective faith can we be absolutely certain. " 12:49 So I want to unpack this statement for you. 12:52 Here you have one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th 12:55 century. Here you have a person whose job it is 12:59 to help scientists think about how they do science, 13:02 and what he says to the scientists is this: 13:05 "You can never arrive at absolute truth 13:09 because the way science works everything that you believe 13:13 is always tentative. And yes, it can be corroborated 13:16 with other things, but the other things that 13:19 it's corroborated with are all tentative 13:22 so you through science can never arrive at bedrock. " 13:28 In fact, he says in another place... 13:30 That was from The Logic of Scientific Discovery. 13:33 He says in another place: "Science is not a system of 13:38 certain or well-established statements 13:42 nor is it a system in which knowledge steadily advances 13:47 toward a state of finality. 13:50 Our science is not knowledge episteme. 13:54 It can never claim to have attained truth 13:57 or even a substitute for it such as probability. " 14:02 Now again, notice what he says. He says that... 14:05 that what we understand scientifically is not certain. 14:10 It is not well-established. 14:12 It is not a system that arrives at finality. 14:16 In fact, what we get from science is not "knowledge. " 14:21 It's not even probability. 14:25 And then he says this: 14:27 "We do not know - we can only guess - 14:32 and our guesses are guided by the unscientific, 14:37 the metaphysical faith in laws, 14:41 in regularities which we can uncover and discover. " 14:46 Now what I want you to get from this statement is this: 14:50 the secular world will come to you and they will say 14:54 "We have science, you have religion. 14:56 The science gave you computers and trips to outer space. 15:00 Religion? What did that give you? " 15:02 And they will then say that what we have in science 15:05 is more certain than what we have in scripture. 15:09 But what I want you to understand is that 15:12 what we have in science is tentative ideas that are 15:17 kind of piled on other tentative ideas... 15:20 so much so that science can never arrive 15:23 at absolute truth. 15:27 Now, John chapter 17 verse 17. 15:32 If you have your Bible, you're welcome to come there with me. 15:35 John 17:17 says these words. 15:39 Jesus is speaking and He says: 15:42 "Sanctify them by Your truth: 15:46 Your Word is truth. " 15:50 You see, science is a human project of understanding. 15:55 Science is a human project of understanding 15:57 and so because it is human it is always weak and tentative. 16:02 But Jesus claims that God's Word is truth. 16:08 And I want you to think about this with me for a moment 16:11 from a philosophical perspective. 16:14 God in the Word claims to have spoken 16:18 His thoughts and His ideas and His way of thinking. 16:23 And so, yes, any human idea 16:27 is conditioned by a human perspective. 16:30 But this book does not claim to be a human book. 16:34 This book claims to represent the thoughts and the feelings 16:39 of God. Amen! Therefore this book actually 16:44 has the capacity to do something that science can't. 16:48 Science cannot tell us absolute truth. 16:52 It's not capable of that; it's not designed to do that. 16:56 It's not possible for it to do that 16:58 because it is a human project. 17:01 But this book - God's Word - 17:04 is not a human project. It claims to have come from God. 17:09 And if it does indeed come from God, 17:11 then it is in fact possible for it to tell us 17:15 not just little-t truth. 17:17 It is possible for it to tell us absolute Truth, 17:21 final truth, capital-T Truth. Amen! 17:26 In the book of II Timothy - 17:28 you're welcome to go there as well: II Timothy 17:32 chapter 3 the Bible claims about itself 17:37 something dramatic. It claims it is not merely 17:41 a human book but that it is a book that is inspired 17:46 by God. II Timothy chapter 3. 17:50 Paul is writing to a young minister 17:53 and nothing is more important for a young minister 17:57 or an old minister than the Word of God. 18:00 So Paul says to Timothy in chapter 3 verse 15 18:06 "that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures 18:11 which are able to make you wise for salvation 18:15 through faith which is in Christ Jesus. " 18:19 Paul reminds Timothy that the scriptures 18:23 teach us the way of salvation through faith in Christ. 18:28 And then Paul says these words... verse 16: 18:32 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God. " 18:38 The fundamental idea that we have in scripture 18:41 is not that man wrote but that God inspired 18:47 this Word. Certainly humans wrote the message 18:50 that God intended for them to communicate 18:53 but this message is not a human message 18:56 it is an inspired message. It is a message 19:00 infused and enthused with the power of God. 19:06 And it goes on to say: "All scripture is given by 19:09 inspiration of God and is profitable for 19:12 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 19:16 for instruction in righteousness 19:19 that the man of God may be complete, 19:22 thoroughly equipped for every good work. " 19:26 Now there's a couple of things that we need to note here. 19:29 Paul wrote II Timothy; it's a New Testament book. 19:32 At the time that Paul wrote this there was no New Testament. 19:37 The New Testament was in the process of being written. 19:40 So when Paul here is referring to all scripture 19:44 being inspired by God he's actually referring to 19:48 the Hebrew Bible: Genesis through Malachi. 19:51 He's referring to what Christians often call 19:53 the Old Testament. 19:55 Now what Paul says about the Hebrew Bible - 19:58 the Old Testament - is that it is profitable 20:01 for doctrine. If we as Christians 20:06 want good doctrine, it ought to be built on the whole Bible 20:11 not just a part of the Bible. 20:13 And so Paul says: "All scripture is given 20:16 by inspiration of God. " That this book, 20:19 the whole of it, is not a human product... 20:22 it's a divine product. 20:24 And because it's a divine product 20:26 it actually has the ability to tell us the truth 20:30 in the way that no human intellectual product 20:34 ever could. All throughout the scripture 20:37 the truthfulness and the voracity of scripture 20:41 is proclaimed. In the book of Psalms 20:44 Psalm 18 says it in the following way. 20:50 Psalm 18 verse 30 says: 20:53 "As for God? His way is perfect. " 20:57 It goes on: "The Word of the Lord 21:03 is proven. He is a shield to all who trust in Him. " 21:10 Here Psalm 18 speaks of God's Word as being proven, 21:15 tested. The language there comes from a refiner's fire. 21:19 And so the idea is that if you put this book 21:25 into the refiner's fire nothing will be burned away. 21:30 There's no dross in this book. 21:33 This book is proven Word of God. 21:37 The next Psalm - Psalm 19- describes the Word of God 21:42 in lots of language, a variety of language, 21:46 but it's all driving at the same concept. 21:49 Psalm 19:7. In this context he says: "The law of the Lord 21:54 is perfect. " The word law there refers to 21:57 Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy: 22:00 the Torah. "The law of the Lord is perfect 22:04 converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord 22:07 is sure. " That's what the prophets write. 22:10 That's the rest of the Old Testament. 22:12 That which is not law in the Old Testament 22:14 is the testimonies. So: "The law of the Lord 22:19 is perfect, converting the soul. " 22:20 That's Genesis, Exodus, Leviti- cus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 22:23 The testimony of the Lord: that's the things the prophets 22:26 say. "The testimony of the Lord is sure, 22:29 making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord 22:32 are right, rejoicing the heart. 22:35 The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 22:40 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. 22:44 The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 22:48 all together. More to be desired are they than gold... 22:54 yea, than much fine gold. 22:57 Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. " 23:02 This Word - this book - claims to come from a divine origin. 23:09 This book claims to come from a transcendent perspective: 23:13 the perspective of God. 23:15 A human perspective can never tell you capital-T Truth. 23:18 But God's perspective CAN tell you capital-T Truth. 23:23 But that leads us to a very important question. 23:28 What are the evidences that this book came from God? 23:34 What are the evidences that this is indeed 23:38 a book that has God's Word in it, that is God's Word? 23:44 Now, I thought of several arguments, 23:47 sort of different reasons why I believe that this... 23:52 this book is God's Word. 23:54 And I'm going to kind of... 23:56 I'm going to start in the most basic way and then we're 23:59 going to expand and expand until we get to the 24:02 final argument which I believe is the most compelling argument 24:06 for why I believe this book is God's Word. 24:10 And the first thing I'd like to bring to your attention is - 24:13 and maybe you've heard this or maybe even you've said this - 24:17 that "How can we believe that this is what God said 24:23 when this book is so old? 24:27 How do we know what it actually said when it was written? " 24:30 Number one, and number two: "It's been translated so many 24:33 times how could we even know what it really says? " 24:37 Maybe you've heard that or maybe even said 24:40 "I said both those things a lot when I was a skeptic. " 24:45 Now... share a couple of ideas with you. 24:48 Number one: in 1946 a shepherd boy was looking after 24:54 his animals and one of his animals wandered into a cave. 24:58 And he, being a wee little lad, 25:02 didn't want to go into that dark scary cave 25:05 to get his little animal out. 25:09 And so he picked up a rock and he threw it at... 25:12 at the entrance of the cave. The rock goes into the cave 25:16 and he hears the sound of breaking pottery. 25:23 And he thought to himself: "Well that's an unusual sound. " 25:26 And so he and his fellow tribe 25:32 started kind of investigating. 25:34 And they discovered something that is called 25:38 the Dead Sea Scrolls. 25:41 In the caves around the Dead Sea 25:44 there are perfectly preserved copies 25:47 of the entire Old Testament minus one small book 25:52 that date from the days of Jesus. 25:56 Fascinatingly enough, as they went through those documents 26:03 meticulously - and it took them decades to go through all 26:06 of the documents... And by the way, I've had the 26:08 privilege of seeing many of those documents 26:10 with my very own eyes. It's absolutely incredible 26:13 to gaze on a 2,000-year-old scroll 26:17 and imagine the Essenes - that's who did the copying, 26:22 a group of people called the Essenes. 26:23 They lived in the Qumran community. 26:25 And so it's just incredible to see those 2,000-year-old 26:29 scrolls and imagine these Essene scribes in the Qumran community 26:35 copying meticulously Isaiah, Jeremiah, 26:39 Ezekiel, Daniel. And here's the amazing thing: 26:45 what we now know is that the Old Testament 26:49 that Jesus Himself had access to 26:51 is identical to the Old Testament 26:55 that we have in our Bibles today. Amen! 26:58 There was an absolute science 27:03 to copying scripture in the days of Jesus. 27:05 Now I want you to imagine: you're copying and you make 27:09 a mistake... And when they copy they count every syllable. 27:13 They count every letter; they count every word. 27:16 Everything has to be perfect 27:19 and if there is any mistake at all 27:23 the whole thing went in the "trash bin. " 27:31 So what does that mean? 27:33 What that means is... is that there is not a real question 27:38 as to what the Bible actually says. 27:43 We know that the Bible that we have today 27:47 came down through 2,000 years of history 27:51 to us today, and the words that we have 27:55 are identifcal to the words they had in Jesus' day. 28:01 Now... what about the translation? 28:03 Sometimes people... people say: "Well... but... OK, OK, 28:07 we'll grant that Hebrew and the Greek and the Aramaic 28:11 are all the way they were, but the Bible has been translated 28:14 so many times, you know, how could you ever 28:18 ever trust it? " 28:23 I was talking to a friend of mine. 28:25 She and her husband were under- cover missionaries in Turkey. 28:31 OK? There's less than 5,000 Christians in the entire 28:37 country of Turkey. Millions... there's 200 million people 28:42 in the country of Turkey and there's less than 5,000 28:45 Christians. So they went there to plant a church. 28:49 And they worked very hard and God blessed them 28:51 and they were successful. When she first moved to Turkey 28:54 she got pregnant, she had a baby. 28:56 She didn't speak a "lick" of Turkish. 29:02 So how did she communicate with the doctor? 29:07 A translator. 29:09 Now, if you... if you were having a baby 29:13 or maybe you were in some foreign land and you had 29:15 some kind of injury, would the fact that you had to use 29:19 a translator to communicate with the doctor... 29:21 would that keep you from going to see the doctor? 29:26 If I broke my leg in Mexico 29:30 and I needed a translator to get some help, 29:33 you'd better believe I'm going to be happy 29:35 to have a translator. 29:37 If I get hit by a truck in Paris, I'd be happy to have 29:41 a translator to help me get put back together. 29:44 So, so yes... the Bible has been translated 29:48 and yes, I thank God FOR it! 29:51 'Cause I don't read Hebrew very well and I don't read Greek 29:55 very well and I don't read Aramaic very well. 29:58 And so I thank God that there are translators 30:02 that can help me understand what it was that God said. 30:06 Now it's interesting because I don't speak much Spanish 30:11 but I do know if I say ¿Cuántos años tienes? 30:17 that means how many years do you have? 30:21 Right? But when we translate it we say what? 30:26 How old are you? That's right... that's right. 30:29 So some Bible translations will translate it 30:34 "Well... how many years do you have? " 30:36 OK? Another might say: "Well how old are you? " 30:39 And then another might say: "Yeah, what's up, homie? 30:41 When's your birthday? " 30:48 I try not to go into those translations 30:51 'cause that's a little interpretive, right? 30:54 But if one says: "How many years do you have? " 30:56 I have to scratch: "Well that's kind of weird but I think that 30:58 means how old are you, right? 31:00 And another says: "How old are you? " 31:04 they are different... but are they that different? 31:08 I don't think so. 31:12 So number one: the first idea here about why we believe 31:16 the Bible. Number one: we can believe the Bible 31:18 because the Bible that we have - even if it's translated - 31:21 is essentially the same in every meaningful way 31:25 that it was in the days of Jesus. 31:28 That's the big idea. You follow that? Yes or no? 31:31 Yes. So what I want you to understand is you don't have to 31:34 be afraid when you pick up this book 31:37 that this isn't the message that God sent to you. 31:42 It is the same. There's been no meaningful change 31:46 in thousands of years. 31:50 Now, the second reason to believe, second important 31:54 reason: major things in the scriptures, major and minor 32:00 things in the scriptures have been verified 32:03 archaeologically, OK? 32:06 So for example, we found the Dead Sea Scrolls. 32:08 We would call that an archaeological discovery 32:11 that verifies the reliability of scripture. 32:15 I'll give you another one: for years... for years people were 32:18 saying: "Oh, that Old Testament. It keeps talking about 32:21 King David, King David, King David. " 32:23 "Who is this King David guy? We can't find anything about him 32:28 anywhere else. " Until they found 32:34 the Tel Dan inscription. They found a little statue 32:38 not in Israel actually... in one of their neighboring countries. 32:43 And in there it refers to a military victory 32:47 that corresponds to II Chronicles chapter 22 32:51 where David gained a dramatic military victory 32:54 over their enemies. 32:56 Now what I want you to under- stand is for years the skeptics 32:59 were basically looking at Christians saying: 33:02 "Nanny nanny boo boo, " right? 33:03 They're like saying: "Hey look, you guys keep talking about this 33:07 King David guy. He's a myth... he never existed. 33:10 There's no such guy. Archaeology's never found 33:13 anything about it. " And then all of a sudden 33:16 we find a little inscription 33:21 that one of Israel's neighbors had 33:23 that records the time when they got "whupped" 33:26 by King David. OK? Now, look, look, look 33:32 do you make monuments to when you got "whupped" 33:35 when you really didn't get "whupped? " 33:42 So all of a sudden we went from thinking - the secularists 33:45 went from thinking - King David's a myth 33:49 to King David's the real deal 33:51 and exactly what II Chronicles 22 said 33:56 actually happened. 33:58 Here's another one: there's a man in Jeremiah chapter 39 34:02 verse 2. And he's just a total minor figure. I mean, 34:07 he's just an extra cast member in the book of Jeremiah. 34:12 But they're out there digging in Babylon 34:15 and they find a receipt... How many of you have ever given 34:18 a gift to a non-profit organization 34:21 and they sent you a little receipt in the mail 34:23 telling you: "Thank you so much for your donation to 3ABN? 34:27 We couldn't do what we do if you didn't give us that gift. " 34:30 You've received one of those receipts in the mail 34:32 or from your church or from some other organization? 34:36 We've been doing that kind of gift receipt for thousands 34:40 of years. Five hundred years before Jesus was born 34:44 this man from the book of Jeremiah 34:47 made an offering to the Babylonian temple 34:51 of gold, and there's an offering receipt. 34:53 And somebody's out digging in the desert 34:55 and lo and behold, they find his receipt 34:58 for the offering that he made. 35:00 And it's the same guy in the book of Jeremiah. 35:06 People would have read the book of Jeremiah and said: 35:09 "Come on! Who's this guy? Did he really work for the 35:12 Babylonian court? Was he really alive at this time? " 35:16 And sure enough, we now have archaeological evidence 35:19 of his existence. Here's another one... 35:22 I think you'll like this one. In the Old Testament 35:25 there's this king. His name's King Hezekiah. 35:28 Again, people wondered if he was a real guy. 35:30 King Hezekiah began a great reform, and he began to 35:33 overthrow the false worship in Israel, and he began to 35:38 bring about revival and reformation. 35:40 And things began to go a lot better. 35:43 And there's this funny thing that they decided to do. 35:47 If they found a temple to a false god named Baal 35:51 they would turn it into a latrine. 35:58 Some of ya'll don't know what a latrine is? 36:00 That's all right. 36:04 That's the polite way of referring to the outhouse, 36:08 all right? 36:10 Now I don't know about you but I actually find a little joy 36:13 just in the fact that they would turn a false god's home 36:17 into an outhouse. That just makes me think 36:19 that it's kind of nice some people in the Old Testament 36:22 had a sense of humor. Amen! 36:26 So long story short, again they're out there in the desert 36:29 digging. And they're digging and they find a latrine 36:36 in a temple devoted to Baal 36:40 dating from the days of Hezekiah 36:43 in the very city that Hezekiah turned a temple of Baal 36:48 into a latrine. 36:53 Now, what I'm telling... by sharing these things with you 36:57 and these are just... I mean there are dozens and dozens 37:00 and dozens of these archaeological findings. 37:02 By sharing these archaeological discoveries with you, what I'm, 37:06 what I'm trying to say to you is number 1: the Dead Sea Scrolls 37:10 say that the book that we have is the same as the book 37:14 Jesus had. That's number one. 37:15 Number two: that this book is a historical book 37:19 and it tells a historical story. And many of the events 37:24 in that story have been verified 37:27 through actual on-the-ground data. 37:30 Real live... like they found the toilet 37:36 in the temple of Baal 37:39 that Hezekiah had built. I mean, they found it! 37:45 OK? 37:47 Now... the second kind of major... 37:52 So the first is we would say archaeological evidence: 37:54 whether it's the Dead Sea Scrolls or all these other 37:56 things I've mentioned. The second one is Bible prophecy. 38:01 And I'll have to tell you: Bible prophecy was probably 38:04 the most compelling evidence that I personally experienced 38:09 very early in my Christian life. 38:12 Go with me in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah. 38:15 Isaiah chapter 44... Isaiah 44. 38:19 In Isaiah 44 beginning in verse 6 38:29 the Bible says this: 38:36 "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel 38:40 and his Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts: 38:42 'I am the first and I am the last; 38:46 besides Me there is no God. ' " 38:54 Verse 7: "Who can proclaim as I do? 38:57 Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me 39:01 since I appoint the ancient people and the things that are 39:05 coming and shall come. 39:08 Let them show these to them. " 39:12 Now I don't know if you follow the argument there. 39:15 God is saying: "Look, look! I am God. 39:18 There's nobody like Me... I am the only God. 39:20 I set up things in the ancient past. 39:23 I am the Creator, and I actually tell things that are coming 39:28 in the future. If these other gods - 39:31 these other people who claim to be God, these idols - 39:34 if they're really God I want them to... I want 39:37 them to do what I do. 39:40 I want them to be a Creator God in the past 39:43 and I want them to be a predicting God in the present. " 39:49 You see, what God says is that He has the ability to predict 39:53 the future, and that ability to predict the future 39:58 is actually evidence that He is the one true Creator God. 40:04 Isaiah chapter 46... 40:08 just a couple pages over. 40:11 Isaiah 46 verse 9. 40:19 "Remember the former things of old 40:21 for I am God and there is no other. 40:24 I am God, and there is none like Me, 40:28 declaring the end from the beginning 40:32 and from ancient times things that are not yet done 40:37 saying: 'My counsel shall stand 40:40 and I will do all My pleasure. ' " 40:45 Here in the book of Isaiah God makes it clear 40:48 He is unique among all so-called gods 40:53 because He can declare the end from the beginning. 40:56 He can declare things that have not yet happened 40:59 and then they do happen. 41:01 And we have many examples of this tonight. 41:04 We don't have time to actually go look at them 41:07 but I am certain that 3ABN has many wonderful resources 41:11 on this available online. 41:13 And I'll give you a couple examples. 41:16 In the book of Daniel - in Daniel chapter 2- 41:19 there is a vision. And in that vision 41:23 it predicts the rise of four great empires: 41:26 Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. 41:29 It predicts that that fourth empire would break apart 41:32 and that there would never be a fifth empire to replace 41:37 that Roman Empire in modern Europe. 41:41 In Daniel 7 you have the same thing. 41:44 Four beasts arise up out of the earth... 41:46 out of the sea, actually. 41:48 And those beasts represent Babylon, Medo-Persia, 41:52 Greece, and Rome. And then that Roman beast has 10 horns 41:56 and out of those 10 horns comes a little horn. 42:00 And that little horn represents the rise of the Medieval church. 42:06 I mean, these prophecies: hundreds and yea, even thousands 42:11 of years in advance articulated what was going to happen. 42:16 And it happened just like it said it would. 42:20 In the book of Ezekiel - Ezekiel 26- 42:23 there is a phenomenal... phenomenal prophecy 42:26 about this city of Tyre. It was on the Mediterranean Sea. 42:31 It was a little coastal town, and God predicted 42:35 through Ezekiel that that city would be judged 42:38 by Babylon. And just as God had predicted 42:42 it was judged. But then the prophecy gets interesting. 42:47 It says that that town would be "scraped into the sea. " 42:54 Now I don't know about you, but scraping cities into the sea 42:58 seems like a waste of time. 43:02 Right? So Babylon overthrew Tyre 43:05 and they never took the time to scrape them into the sea. 43:09 And then along comes a guy named Alexander the Great 43:13 and there's a little island off the coast of Tyre. 43:16 And Alexander wants to overthrow that little island 43:20 but Alexander has no way. He has no boats; 43:22 he has no ship. How is he going to overthrow that little island? 43:25 "Let me think... You know what I'll do? 43:28 I'll scrape the city into the sea. " 43:32 And so that's what he did. He had his soldiers 43:35 scrape the city into the sea. And they marched across 43:40 that little... that rubble and overtook the city. 43:44 Now the prophecy took time to be fulfilled 43:48 and for a time it looked like it wouldn't be fulfilled. 43:52 But then it was fulfilled just as Ezekiel had predicted. 43:59 And there are countless others. 44:01 Probably the best ones are concerning our Lord and Savior 44:04 Jesus Christ. In the book of Micah chapter 5 verse 2 44:09 it predicts exactly where Jesus would be born. 44:14 In Hosea 11 it predicts that Messiah would flee to Egypt. 44:20 In the book of Daniel - Daniel chapter 9- 44:23 incredible time prophecy there that predicts the exact 44:27 date of the beginning of the ministry of our Lord and Savior. 44:31 Daniel 9 also predicts the exact time of His crucifixion. 44:36 It also predicts the time when the gospel would begin to 44:40 spread to the Gentile nations. 44:43 Daniel chapter... or excuse me, Leviticus 23 beginning in 44:47 verse 5 predicts the time when Jesus would be crucified 44:51 on the Passover... on the date of the Passover. 44:55 All throughout the Old Testament there are dozens and dozens 44:59 and dozens of prophecies that have met a precise 45:03 fulfillment in history and in the life, death and resurrection 45:08 of Jesus Christ. These prophecies proclaim 45:12 that this book is not a book of human origin. 45:17 This book comes from God. 45:20 This book is inspired by God 45:24 and it is the Truth... capital-T Truth... 45:28 in a way that no human philosophy or human speculation 45:32 ever could be. Amen! Now... 45:36 the greatest, the single greatest evidence 45:42 for the truthfulness of scripture 45:45 is found in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. 45:49 And it's going to take me a while to get there. 45:52 I want to just summarize though. 45:54 Why do I believe this book is true? So far 45:57 we talked about archaeological evidence, 45:59 whether it's the Dead Sea Scrolls or events that are 46:04 verified through history. 46:06 We've talked about prophecy and now we're going to talk 46:10 about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 46:15 In Mark chapter 8- you can go there if you'd like - 46:18 Mark chapter 8 verse 31 46:19 Jesus predicts His death. Mark chapter 8 46:24 beginning in verse 31. 46:27 In fact, Jesus predicts His death three times: 46:31 Mark 8, Mark 9, and Mark 10. 46:36 Mark 8 verse 31, it says: "He began to teach them 46:41 that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected 46:45 by the elders and the chief priests 46:47 and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. 46:52 He spoke this word openly 46:55 and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. " 47:00 Here Jesus begins to teach about His death, burial, 47:03 and resurrection. Mark 9 verse 31 again: 47:07 "Jesus, " it says, "taught His disciples 47:11 and said to them: 'The Son of Man is being betrayed 47:15 into the hands of men and they will kill Him. 47:19 And after He is killed He will rise the third day. ' " 47:24 And they did not understand this saying 47:26 and were afraid to ask Him. " 47:28 The third time is in Mark chapter 10 verse 33. 47:32 Mark 10 verse 33. 47:35 Jesus says: "Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem. 47:39 The Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests 47:43 and to the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death 47:46 and deliver Him to the Gentiles. 47:49 And they will mock Him and scourge Him 47:51 and spit on Him and kill Him. 47:54 And the third day He will rise again. " 47:59 In John chapter 14 verse 29 Jesus tells us 48:04 why He makes these consistent prophecies 48:08 of His death, burial, and resurrection. 48:11 In John 14:29 He says exactly what Isaiah says. 48:17 He says: "And now I have told you 48:21 before it comes to pass 48:24 that when it does come to pass 48:26 you may... " What? "believe. " 48:30 Jesus consistently articulated the truth: 48:34 that He was going to die, be buried, and resurrected 48:37 on the third day. He consistently communicated that 48:40 before His death, burial, and resurrection 48:42 and then we get to the punch line. And the punch line is 48:45 "I am telling you this... I am telling you this 48:49 so that when it happens you might believe. " 48:54 Now... this leads us to the most important question 49:00 that Christians must ask them- selves. And not just Christians. 49:04 This is the most important ques- tion that confronts the world: 49:09 "Did Jesus Christ really die and rise again? " 49:15 Did He really die and rise again? 49:19 And I will tell you there are three reasons 49:21 why I believe that Jesus died and rose again. 49:25 Number one: the historical evidence 49:28 indicates very clearly that Jesus actually died 49:33 on the cross. Now you might remember in the gospel of John 49:36 when Jesus is on the cross. He dies, and then to make sure 49:40 that He's dead, the soldier takes a spear 49:43 and he plunges that spear into the side of Jesus. 49:48 And the spear goes through His lungs 49:51 and into the pericardial cavity there. 49:55 And then through that sac - that pericardial sac. 49:58 It goes through that... punctures the heart. 50:01 And out of that wound 50:05 pours blood and water. 50:09 There is no question that Jesus died on the cross. 50:13 Whether it's extra-Biblical sources like the Roman historian 50:17 Tacitus, the Jewish historian Josephus, 50:21 and the Talmud. All of these non-Bible sources 50:26 confirm the fact that Jesus lived and died. 50:31 You know why it's so important to know that Jesus died? 50:35 'Cause you can't rise from the dead if you're not dead first. 50:39 Amen! Right? 50:43 And there is no question that He was dead! 50:49 Number two: on Sunday morning 50:54 the tomb was empty. 50:56 OK. Now... how do we know the tomb was empty? 50:59 OK? Number one: the women 51:03 showed up at the tomb and He wasn't there... 51:05 which today isn't a big deal but back then 51:08 saying the women showed up and He wasn't there was a big deal. 51:14 You know why it was a big deal? 51:17 'Cause women weren't a big deal. 51:20 Now don't... Look... now don't stone me. 51:23 I'm not saying they're not a big deal today. 51:25 I'm just saying they were not perceived as a big deal 51:28 back then. In fact, in the days of Jesus 51:31 women were not even allowed to testify in court. 51:36 Since the Bible says the first witnesses of the empty tomb 51:40 and the resurrection of Jesus were women 51:42 we have... that's not the sort of crazy talk you'd make up. 51:49 You follow me here this evening? 51:52 Now again, I'm not talking in the 21st century. 51:55 I'm talking about in this time. 52:00 Probably the most compelling reason that I believe Jesus 52:03 rose from the dead is found in I Corinthians 15. 52:05 In I Corinthians 15 the apostle Paul says 52:08 that... he says this, and I'll read it to you. 52:11 I Corinthians chapter 15. 52:13 Oh, it's absolutely incredible! 52:16 Paul says, I Corinthians 15 verse 3: 52:18 "I deliver to you first of all 52:23 that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins 52:27 in accordance with the scriptures. That He was buried, 52:29 that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures, 52:33 and that He was seen by Peter - Cephas - 52:37 then by the twelve. 52:38 After that He was seen by over 500 brethren at once! " 52:45 Now I want you to follow what Paul says. 52:46 He says: "Look, church... I'm telling you... 52:49 I'm telling you what I always told you. Number one: 52:51 Jesus died for your sins just like the Bible said so. 52:55 That He was buried and He rose again 52:58 just like the Bible predicted. And then He was seen 53:02 by Peter and by the twelve 53:06 and then" - whew! mind-blowing! 53:09 "He was seen by more than 500 people at the same time! " 53:17 Now, this is where things get incredible. 53:20 What did those apostles do? 53:22 They began traveling the world preaching and teaching 53:26 and telling the story of the risen Christ. 53:28 And let me tell you... let me tell you: 53:31 I'm here, nice comfortable room, air conditioning, 53:34 lights, cameras, nice people. 53:36 It wasn't like that when Paul went to Rome. 53:39 It wasn't like that when Thomas walked all the way to India. 53:43 He got there, preached a little while, 53:45 and they decided to stick him with a lance. 53:50 Now look, how many of you ever told a lie? 53:53 If you're not raising your hand, you're lying. 53:56 OK... all right. 54:01 Most of the time people tell lies to get out of trouble. 54:06 Right? 54:08 They tell lies to get out of trouble. 54:11 You don't run around telling people that Jesus was "risen" 54:14 from the dead as a lie if it's going to get you 54:17 in more trouble. 54:19 Listen to this: Matthew was stabbed to death in Ethiopia. 54:24 John was thrown into a pot of boiling oil in Rome, 54:29 survived, and was exiled to Patmos. 54:31 Peter was crucified upside down in Rome. 54:34 James superior was decapitated in Jerusalem. 54:38 James the less was stoned and beaten with a mallet 54:41 until he died. Thomas was pierced to death with lances 54:44 in India. Philip was hanged from a pillar in Asia Minor. 54:49 Bartholomew was cut apart alive in India. 54:52 Simon the Zealot was crucified in Persia. 54:55 Andrew was crucified in what is now Russia. 55:00 Matthias was burned in Syria. 55:03 Barnabas was stoned to death in Cyprus. 55:05 Paul was decapitated by Nero in Rome. 55:09 Mark was drawn through the streets in Alexandria in Egypt 55:12 until he died. Luke was hanged from an olive tree 55:16 in Greece. Now I want you to just get this, my friends. 55:19 All these earliest closest friends of Jesus 55:23 gave their lives... not for some silly lie. 55:27 You know, it's not a fairy tale. It's not a tooth fairy, 55:32 Easter bunny kind of lie. 55:33 They saw Jesus ALIVE! Amen! 55:38 They saw Him raised from the dead, and they were willing 55:41 to give their lives... they were willing to give their lives 55:46 because they knew the One who had conquered death 55:50 completely. Amen! 55:52 Man... I get excited about that! 55:54 Amen! Jesus is alive! 55:57 And you know what? His resurrection proves 56:00 that He is God - Amen! in the human flesh. 56:04 Now listen to what He said. 56:05 Jesus while He was alive referred to Adam and Eve 56:09 in Matthew 19. He referred to Abel in Luke 11. 56:13 He referred to Noah in Matthew 24. 56:15 He referred to Abraham in John 6. 56:18 He referred to Sodom in Luke 17 and Lot's wife in Luke 17 56:22 and Isaac and Jacob in Luke 20 Moses' calling in Mark 12 56:27 and the law given by Moses in Matthew 19. 56:31 And the Ten Commandments in the book of Matthew 56:35 and the manna in John 6 and the brazen serpent in John 3 56:39 and David eating the showbread in Matthew 12 56:41 and the Queen of Sheba in Matthew 12 56:44 and the wisdom and glory of Solomon, and Elijah 56:47 and the widow and the role of Elijah in the future. 56:50 And Jonah and the whale 56:52 and the judgments on Tyre and Sidon. 56:54 In other words, Jesus believed this book! Amen! 56:59 Jesus - the risen One - our Lord and Savior 57:03 who hung on the cross and rose from the dead 57:06 He... He believed this book! 57:09 And so, so, so... this book tells us the truth 57:13 in the way that no human ever could. 57:16 Because this is capital-T Truth; it comes from heaven! 57:20 And I want you to know, brothers and sisters, 57:22 I want you to know... I want you to know 57:24 that when it comes to this book 57:26 I am with the Man who rose from the dead! |
Revised 2023-04-09