Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000081S
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00:01 - Unless you're one of those overly confident people
00:03 who tends to leap before you look, 00:05 I'm guessing you've struggled with doubt from time to time. 00:08 Today we're gonna look at some unhealthy doubt 00:11 that can cost you a lot in the long run. 00:14 [gentle upbeat country music] 00:35 Today we're gonna go back to the temptations of Christ, 00:37 the way you find them recorded 00:39 in the Gospel according to Matthew, 00:41 so if you didn't catch part one, 00:43 you might wanna go back and watch that. 00:47 I mean, today's study will stand on its own, 00:50 but I will be referring back to some of the concepts 00:52 we've already covered, and I guess the reason 00:55 we're spending so much time on this story is because, 00:58 well, I personally find it so compelling. 01:01 I mean in a few short verses, 01:02 it gives us a detailed study of human nature 01:06 and it shows us the way that people tend to think, 01:09 and it highlights how our present state of mind 01:12 is really bound to rub up against the way 01:14 that God looks at our universe. 01:17 What we find in this account 01:18 is a surprisingly detailed analysis 01:20 of some of our biggest blind spots, 01:23 especially when you read this story 01:25 in the context of the rest of the Bible 01:27 and that's a really important concept. 01:29 Very little of what you read in the Bible 01:31 actually stands alone. 01:33 If you're gonna grasp what this ancient book is saying, 01:36 you've got no choice, really, 01:37 except to read the whole thing. 01:40 People love to critique the scriptures 01:42 and point out what they assume are contradictions 01:45 or even moral flaws, but I can assure you 01:48 that most of those apparent problems 01:50 begin to evaporate when you just read the whole book. 01:54 The real problem is that most people never take the time 01:57 to do that, and a lot of them venture into the Bible 02:00 looking for problems anyway. 02:01 They have that mindset when they start. 02:05 But now let's get back to the temptations of Christ. 02:07 In the last episode, we covered the first temptation 02:11 where we find Jesus fasting for 40 days 02:13 and the devil tempts him to use his divine power 02:16 to change stones into bread. 02:19 It was a really pivotal moment because what needs to happen 02:22 is that Christ has to overcome temptation as a human being. 02:29 The Apostle Paul describes him as the Last Adam, 02:31 and one of the key reasons Jesus became human 02:34 was to become the new head of the human race. 02:37 It's a critical part of his plan to save us. 02:41 What has to happen in that first temptation 02:44 is that Jesus needs to overcome a temptation 02:47 driven by appetite because that's where our first parents 02:51 failed when faced with the serpent in Eden. 02:54 What we really have in the stories of the temptations 02:57 is God finally winding up up the moral yarn 03:00 we foolishly unraveled way back when. 03:03 In Mark's incredibly brief account of the temptations, 03:06 the Bible says that immediately after his baptism, 03:10 the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. 03:13 And last time we saw in Matthew's account, 03:16 it tells us that Jesus went to the wilderness on purpose, 03:20 specifically for this encounter. 03:24 This is the story of a very human Jesus, 03:27 something that Christians easily forget 03:29 when they're talking about Christ. 03:31 I mean, we like to emphasize his deity, 03:34 the fact that he really was God in human flesh, 03:38 and that's a good thing to do, 03:40 but most of us don't spend nearly as much time 03:42 contemplating his full humanity. 03:45 These were real temptations, 03:47 as in Jesus actually had the potential to cave in. 03:51 This is God living as an authentic human being 03:55 and he's living in the same world that we inhabit. 03:58 He gets tired, he gets sad, he gets hungry. 04:01 He experiences rejection. 04:03 This is a bonafide human life. 04:07 But of course, that realization can lead 04:09 to some very bad thinking if we're not careful 04:12 because it's easy for our imaginations to leap 04:15 to conclusions that might not be warranted. 04:18 For example, there's the temptation to think that Jesus 04:21 must have been exactly like us in every last detail, 04:25 which would mean that we can be exactly like him 04:28 in every last detail, and I guess that's a dangerous thought 04:31 because, well, it's mostly true. 04:34 Jesus is the model human being. 04:37 A key part of his mission was to demonstrate 04:39 what humanity was supposed to be and there's no doubt 04:43 that Christians are supposed to emulate him, 04:46 but at the same time, he was also God and we are not. 04:50 The other day I was reading some correspondence 04:52 between Christians in the late 19th century 04:54 and I found a statement from one lady that really summarized 04:58 what I'm driving at, and it also demonstrates 05:00 that Christians have always struggled to understand 05:03 the precise nature of Christ. 05:05 "Brother Baker," she writes, 05:07 "Avoid every question in relation to the humanity of Christ, 05:10 which is liable to be misunderstood. 05:13 Truth lies close to the track of presumption. 05:16 In treating upon the humanity of Christ, 05:18 you need to guard strenuously every assertion, 05:21 lest your words be taken to mean more than they imply, 05:24 and thus you lose or dim the clear perceptions 05:27 of his humanity as combined with divinity." 05:31 Then she goes on to give her friend the example 05:33 of the birth of Christ. 05:35 Jesus was a real flesh and blood baby, a real human being, 05:39 but at the same time, it'd be hard to say that his birth 05:42 was exactly like ours unless you can somehow also prove 05:46 that yours was also a virgin birth. 05:49 A little later she says this. 05:51 "It is a mystery that is left unexplained to mortals 05:54 that Christ could be tempted in all points like as we are, 05:57 and yet be without sin. 05:59 The incarnation of Christ has ever been 06:02 and will ever remain a mystery. 06:04 That which is revealed is for us and for our children, 06:07 but let every human being be warned from the ground 06:09 of making Christ altogether human, 06:11 such as in one as ourselves, for it cannot be. 06:15 The exact time when humanity blended with divinity, 06:18 it is not necessary for us to know. 06:20 We are to keep our feet on the Rock, Christ Jesus, 06:23 as God revealed in humanity." 06:26 I think that's really good advice, 06:28 so thank you to the 19th century. 06:30 And with that proviso in place, 06:32 let's get back to the temptations of Christ 06:35 and I wanna move on to the second one 06:37 as presented in the Gospel according to Matthew. 06:41 Now that would be the third temptation in Luke's account 06:43 because Luke appears to be ordering the story 06:46 to parallel the temptations in Eden, 06:49 but Matthew puts this second. 06:51 He writes, "Then the devil took him up into the holy city, 06:55 set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, 06:58 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. 07:01 For it is written, 'He shall give his angels charge over you 07:05 and in their hands they shall bear you up, 07:07 lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" 07:10 So here's a passage with an awful lot of information 07:13 that we really need to unpack carefully 07:16 if we're gonna figure out how in the world 07:17 this might apply to us. 07:19 First of all, notice the devil's repeated efforts 07:22 to cause Jesus to doubt. 07:25 If you are the son of God. 07:27 It's a deliberate attempt to make him doubt 07:29 the public announcement at his baptism 07:31 where a voice from heaven said, 07:33 "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." 07:38 God the Father had just told him that he was God the Son 07:41 and so what the devil's question is designed to do 07:44 is not so much make Jesus want to doubt himself, 07:47 although that's obviously part of it. 07:49 The question is designed to make him doubt the Word of God, 07:52 to doubt the things that God has clearly said. 07:55 It's a replay of the Garden of Eden 07:57 where the serpent doesn't outright contradict God, 08:00 but raises a question. 08:01 Did God really say that? 08:04 You'll notice it's an approach that continues all the way 08:07 through Jesus' ministry right up to the moment he's hanging 08:09 on a cross and the crowd that gathered there mocks him 08:13 and uses the very same language. 08:15 I mean, just listen to the language of the chief priests, 08:17 the scribes and the elders. 08:19 They said, "He saved others, himself he cannot save. 08:23 If he's the King of Israel, let him come now down 08:26 from that cross and we will believe him." 08:29 I'll be right back after this. 08:35 - [Announcer] Here at the "Voice of Prophecy," 08:36 we're committed to creating top-quality programming 08:39 for the whole family, 08:40 like our audio adventure series, "Discovery Mountain." 08:43 "Discovery Mountain" is a Bible-based program 08:46 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 08:48 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 08:51 from this small mountain summer camp and town. 08:54 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 08:56 and fresh content every week, 08:58 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 09:04 - One of the really important things we find 09:06 in the temptations is the subject of doubt. 09:10 Of course, it's natural for human beings 09:12 to doubt themselves, and if I'm perfectly honest, 09:15 I'd have to tell you that my life 09:16 is constantly plagued by doubt. 09:19 How do I know if this is the right thing to do? 09:21 I know what God requires from me, 09:23 but what if it doesn't work in my case? 09:25 It's a universal problem, and while doubt is sometimes 09:28 a useful tool that can keep you humble, 09:31 it can also really throw a monkey wrench 09:33 into your spiritual life. 09:35 Perhaps the number one question that I hear from people 09:38 all the time runs a little bit like this. 09:41 "I know what the Bible says about the love of God 09:44 and I see that the offer of Christ 09:45 is available to everybody, at least in print, 09:50 but Pastor, what if I'm the exception? 09:52 What if God means all these promises 09:54 for everybody except me? 09:56 I mean, if you only knew how terrible my sins were." 10:01 The problem of doubt is not insignificant 10:03 and if you analyze most of your spiritual doubts, 10:06 you're gonna find that the underlying problem 10:08 concerns the reliability of God. 10:11 Listen carefully and you'll hear the whisper of a serpent 10:13 who loves to ask, "Did God really say that?" 10:18 This is why the Bible describes our relationship with God 10:21 as a matter of faith. 10:22 I'm sure you've heard that famous passage 10:25 from the Book of Ephesians, 10:26 which understandably became one of the key assertions 10:29 of the Protestant Reformation. 10:31 Paul wrote, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, 10:35 and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, 10:38 not of works, lest anyone should boast." 10:41 A big part of what went wrong at the fall of humanity 10:44 was the demolition of our trust. 10:46 According to the Bible, we used to take God's Word 10:49 at face value because we trusted him, 10:52 but after listening to the lies of a serpent, 10:54 our faith began to waiver and we found ourselves questioning 10:57 the very one who made us. 11:00 So what God does in the process of restoring us 11:02 is to retrain our sense of trust. 11:05 I mean, suppose that God could send an angel 11:07 to your house tonight to tell you, 11:09 "Listen, you've got nothing to worry about 11:11 because I have a document here with your name on it 11:14 that you can put in your safe 11:16 and this document specifically says that God loves you, 11:20 it mentions you by name, and it lists the precise location 11:24 of your residence in the coming Kingdom of God." 11:28 That's the kind of precise documentation 11:30 we want in this world. 11:32 We want it signed and notarized. 11:34 The very reason we have courtrooms and lawyers 11:37 is because we can't trust each other, 11:40 and so you'd think that God would want to give us 11:42 a signed contract with our name at the top 11:45 to put our minds at ease, but he doesn't. 11:48 What he wants from us is the opposite 11:50 of what we did in Eden. 11:52 He wants us to trust him, to take his Word for it, 11:55 even on the days when the evidence of our senses 11:58 might suggest otherwise. 12:01 That's really the meaning of faith-based justification. 12:04 We choose to accept that we are forgiven 12:06 and accepted by God. Why? 12:08 Because he says so. 12:10 And of course, it's an exercise often plagued by doubt 12:13 and our fallen hearts want to keep asking, "But what if?" 12:18 And you'll notice that's a key part of this story 12:20 where Jesus, as a man, is tempted. 12:23 "What if that announcement from Heaven was wrong?" 12:26 the devil asks. 12:27 "What if you're not really the Son of God? 12:28 Maybe you should prove it just to be sure." 12:32 And that's where the story takes an unusual twist. 12:35 It seems that the enemy of God's purpose 12:37 has the ability to actually quote the scriptures. 12:41 Now, in some ways, I don't find that entirely surprising 12:43 because just about every time I take a few hours 12:46 to watch religious TV here in America, 12:49 I find all kinds of people making a shipwreck 12:51 of the content of the Bible, 12:53 so I know full well that a lot of the wrong people 12:56 know how to quote scripture, 12:59 but let's unpack what's actually happening here 13:02 and pay careful attention to detail. 13:05 After asking Jesus to question a statement from his Father, 13:08 the devil is using the Bible 13:10 to make that doubt seem plausible. 13:12 I mean, maybe you are the Son of God, 13:14 and if that's the case, 13:15 you could actually prove it by putting God to the test. 13:18 Just look at what the Bible says. 13:20 "The angels are there to save you, and if they did save you, 13:23 you would know for sure that God was telling the truth." 13:28 Now, to be fair, there are situations where God 13:31 encourages us to test or prove his promises. 13:34 For example, there's a passage in the Old Testament 13:37 Book of Malachi where God encourages people to test him 13:41 in the matter of financial stewardship. 13:44 The priesthood was supported by tithes and offerings, 13:46 and human nature being what it is, 13:48 most people are a little tight-fisted 13:50 when it comes to giving money away. 13:52 It's another case where some people are doubting 13:55 the Word of God, so this is what God says. 13:59 "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse," 14:01 it says in Malachi 3, "That there may be food in my house, 14:05 'And try me now in this,' says the Lord of hosts, 14:08 'If I will not open for you the windows of Heaven 14:10 and pour out for you such a blessing 14:13 that there will not be room enough to receive it.'" 14:16 So we really do have these cases where God encourages us 14:20 to prove his promises, and on a little bit of a sidebar, 14:23 I'll tell you that I've tried this particular challenge 14:26 myself and it proved to be true. 14:29 But what's the difference between this 14:32 and what Jesus was being asked to do? 14:34 Well, let's take a look at his response 14:36 to the challenge in verse seven. 14:38 "Jesus said to him, 'It is written again, 14:41 you shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" 14:44 What Jesus does when the devil quotes scripture 14:46 is exactly what we mentioned a few moments ago. 14:50 Jesus reads the entire book. 14:53 What the devil was suggesting was true. 14:55 There are passages that state that sometimes angels 14:58 serve in a protective role. 15:00 He wasn't exactly misquoting scripture, 15:03 except that he kind of was because he was only presenting 15:06 part of the picture. 15:08 And that's where the biggest difference 15:10 between the stewardship challenge of Malachi 15:12 and the challenge for Jesus to leap from the temple is. 15:16 In one case, God specifically invites us to challenge him, 15:21 but in the other, he doesn't. 15:23 At that moment when the heavens parted 15:25 and God declared Jesus to be his Son, 15:27 there wasn't a follow-up statement saying, 15:29 "So why don't you go out and test that?" 15:32 Sometimes God dares us to believe by telling us 15:35 that he's opening the door for an experiment, 15:38 but other times he doesn't. 15:39 He just dares us to accept what he's saying. 15:44 What we have in this temptation is something that we find 15:46 in some of the interactions the religious leaders 15:48 had with Jesus back in the first century. 15:52 On one occasion, the Sadducees presented Jesus 15:54 with a hypothetical question. 15:56 "Listen," they said. 15:57 "We know this woman whose husband died 15:59 and the laws of levirate marriage say 16:02 that his brother needs to marry her, so he did, 16:05 but then he died and so the next brother married her 16:08 and wouldn't you know it, 16:09 she managed to burn through seven brothers." 16:12 And honestly, that seems highly unlikely. 16:15 "So here's what we wanna know, Jesus. 16:17 In the resurrection, who's she gonna be married to?" 16:20 Now, that was a trick question, 16:22 and what they were doing was trying to demonstrate 16:23 that a clear requirement mentioned in the Bible 16:26 contradicted this notion of a resurrection. 16:30 The Sadducees were a sect that didn't believe 16:32 in the afterlife, and of course, Jesus did. 16:35 The question was designed to prove that Jesus 16:37 wasn't being faithful to scripture, 16:40 and as soon as I take a quick break, 16:42 I'll show you how Jesus responded. 16:48 - [Announcer] Life can throw a lot at us. 16:50 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 16:54 but that's where the Bible comes in. 16:56 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 16:59 Here at the "Voice of Prophecy," 17:01 we've created the "Discover Bible Guides" 17:03 to be your guide to the Bible. 17:04 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 17:07 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 17:10 and they're absolutely free, 17:12 so jump online now or give us a call 17:14 and start your journey of discovery. 17:18 - Right before the break, I left you hanging with the story 17:20 of the Sadducees and Jesus, 17:22 the incident where they tried to befuddle him 17:24 with a quandary about the resurrection of the dead. 17:27 Now, here's how Jesus responded in Matthew 22. 17:31 It says, "Jesus answered and said to them, 17:35 'You are mistaken, 17:36 not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God, 17:39 for in the resurrection they neither marry 17:42 nor are given in marriage, 17:43 but are like the angels of God in Heaven.'" 17:47 In other words, he's saying, 17:48 "You guys have no idea what you're talking about." 17:50 And he underlined all the scriptural data they had failed 17:53 to mention when they formulated their question. 17:57 It's the same thing the devil does 17:58 in the second temptation of Christ. 18:00 He used the Bible, but he used it incompletely, 18:04 leaving out a bunch of critical information. 18:07 And so Jesus responds to the devil in the very same way 18:11 by pointing to the rest of the scriptures. 18:14 And I suppose that's really one of the reasons 18:16 I spend so much time on this show encouraging people 18:19 to just read the whole book. 18:22 It's easy to make the Bible say whatever you want 18:24 because, well, it's a big book with a lot of information, 18:28 and if you rip parts out and remove them from their context, 18:31 you end up with, well, you end up with a lot of the garbage 18:35 you hear on religious TV, 18:37 and you end up with the kind of poorly-informed nonsense 18:40 that so many skeptics present in the books they write 18:43 when they're trying to discredit the Bible. 18:46 And I suppose there's a sense here 18:47 in which Christian believers can apply this story 18:50 to their everyday lives. 18:52 I can't tell you how many times I've had skeptics tell me, 18:55 "Prove it," and sometimes I'm willing to accept 18:58 that challenge because they appear to be honest people 19:01 who were honestly hoping to understand. 19:04 But unfortunately, it's all too common to find people 19:07 who are just playing some kind of game of gotcha, 19:09 hoping to back you into a logical corner. 19:13 Those discussions, I've discovered, 19:15 are usually a waste of everybody's time. 19:19 This is exactly what the devil is doing in this story. 19:21 He's saying, "Prove it," and he's actually using scripture 19:25 to construct a snare. 19:27 If the power of God is real and you're really his Son, 19:30 if you're really the long-awaited Messiah, then prove it. 19:34 Later on in his ministry, 19:36 there were other critics who approached Jesus and said, 19:38 "Show us a sign." 19:40 And listen to what Jesus said to them. 19:43 "But he answered and said to them, 19:44 'An evil and adulterers generation seeks after a sign 19:48 and no sign will be given to it 19:50 except the sign of the prophet Jonah.'" 19:53 Look, there's just no question that the proof for Jesus 19:56 is there, but again, you're going to have to read 19:59 the whole book. 20:00 These guys weren't the least bit interested 20:03 in discovering truth. 20:04 They were simply trying to hang Jesus 20:06 with some of his own teachings, 20:08 and what he told them was this. 20:10 "At the end of my ministry, when I rise from the dead, 20:14 you'll have all the proof you need." 20:16 Now, I'll be the first to admit that it's really tempting 20:19 when somebody demands immediate proof 20:21 to try and oblige them, but I've got to tell you, 20:24 after 30 years of doing that, 20:25 I have never found it effective. 20:28 You know what is effective? 20:30 The Bible. 20:31 This book has a way of persuading people 20:33 when my own modest and flawed sense of logic 20:36 can't do the trick. 20:39 You know, as I've thought back over the last 2,000 years 20:41 of Christian apologetics, 20:42 I've noticed something really fascinating. 20:45 There have been two key approaches 20:47 to the art and science of apologetics: 20:49 the empirical approach and the logical approach. 20:53 On the one hand, you've got a guy like Augustine 20:56 who more or less used a rational approach to prove 20:59 the existence of God. 21:00 He went to great lengths to prove that absolute truth 21:04 is a real thing and that God must be the highest expression 21:08 of that absolute truth. 21:10 His arguments were really the flip side 21:12 of a guy like Spinoza who used rational arguments 21:15 to bring his readers in an opposite direction. 21:19 Then you've got a guy like Thomas Aquinas 21:20 who borrowed very heavily from Aristotle, 21:23 and he attempted to make an empirical argument 21:26 for the existence of God, 21:27 an argument that was based on the evidence of your senses. 21:31 He appeals to the phenomenon of motion 21:34 and the laws of physics, 21:35 which imply that somebody had to start all that motion 21:39 out there in the universe going in the first place. 21:42 It's an empirical argument, which again, 21:44 is an appeal to the evidence of your senses. 21:49 Now, to be honest, I find these guys very compelling. 21:51 I love to read their work because they're incredibly lucid. 21:55 These guys were smarter than me 21:58 and it gives me a lot to think about. 22:00 But over the centuries, 22:02 I would argue that the results have been mediocre at best. 22:06 I mean, how many people have really become converts 22:09 to Christianity because of empirical or rational arguments? 22:13 To be sure, there are some, 22:16 but not as many as you would hope. 22:19 There's a third approach to Christian apologetics 22:21 that has been far more effective, 22:22 and it's one that experienced a profound revival 22:25 in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, 22:27 and that's the scriptural method. 22:30 Guys like Luther and Calvin used this method a lot, 22:33 and what they did was simply appeal 22:35 to the internal evidence of the Bible. 22:37 They pointed people to the words of scripture 22:42 and it works because if this book is telling the truth, 22:45 and this book really was inspired by God himself, 22:48 well, you'd have to expect it to work. 22:51 I'll be right back after this to explain what I mean. 22:57 - [Announcer] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues. 23:01 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 23:06 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 23:08 and come away scratching your head, you're not alone. 23:11 Our free "Focus on Prophecy" guides are designed to help you 23:15 unlock the mysteries of the Bible 23:16 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 23:19 for you and our world. 23:20 Study online or request them by mail 23:23 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 23:26 - Really, there are three main approaches 23:29 that Christian apologists have used over the centuries. 23:32 The empirical approach, 23:33 which appeals to the evidence of our senses, 23:36 the rational approach, 23:38 which attempts to reason its way to believing in God, 23:42 and the scriptural approach, 23:43 which simply highlights what God has said 23:46 in the pages of his book. 23:48 And I guess there's actually a fourth method 23:51 if I think about it, that came around in the 20th century, 23:53 but it's been such an abysmal failure, 23:56 I'm not gonna waste any time looking at it. 23:57 It's the irrational approach. 24:00 What you'll notice in the New Testament 24:02 is just how often the authors appeal to the Old Testament 24:06 as proof that Jesus is Messiah. 24:09 The Bible claims to be the voice of God, 24:12 a written communication from the supreme being who made us, 24:16 and in a remarkable way, it claims that this book 24:19 has been infused with the very presence of God. 24:23 It might be the work of human authors, 24:25 and you can see their distinctive personalities 24:27 in the ways that they wrote, 24:29 but they were inspired by the Spirit of God. 24:33 What we have is a work that is both human and divine 24:37 at the very same moment, not unlike the way that Jesus 24:41 is fully human and fully God all at the same time. 24:46 In the Book of Jeremiah, God says, 24:48 "Is not my word like a fire 24:50 and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" 24:53 A few chapters earlier in Jeremiah 20, the prophet says, 24:57 "But his Word was in my heart like a burning fire 25:00 shut up in my bones." 25:03 There's something substantially different about this book. 25:07 There's a really good reason the human race 25:09 has never been able to let go of it. 25:11 Paul writes to Timothy that all scripture 25:14 is given by inspiration of God, 25:16 and the Greek expression he uses is theos pneuma, 25:20 which literally means God-breathed. 25:24 There's a really good reason that this book 25:25 has towered above all the rest for so many centuries. 25:29 Again, that's why I always encourage you 25:32 to just read the whole book. 25:35 If you approach this honestly, 25:37 it doesn't take long to realize 25:39 there's something really, really different in here. 25:42 I mean, yeah, there are parts that will make you squirm 25:44 because they step on a nerve. 25:47 There are parts that you're gonna find difficult 25:49 to wrap your mind around. 25:51 And there are even parts that'll make you angry. 25:53 Trust me, I know, I've been through all of that, 25:57 but there's also this nagging sense that behind it all, 26:01 somehow this book is telling the truth. 26:05 Of course, that idea that this book is telling the truth 26:08 comes with implications because it might also mean 26:12 that we need to face the lies we've been telling ourselves, 26:15 and it might mean that we are faced with, well, with change, 26:21 but still there's this quiet peace, 26:23 this reassuring voice that appeals to the deepest, 26:27 most authentic parts of ourselves. 26:30 "Why don't you prove this is real?" the devil asked Jesus. 26:33 And of course, Jesus did go out and prove it, 26:36 but not the way that everybody demanded. 26:39 He proved it by living an authentic human life, 26:43 by perfectly mirroring the image of God 26:45 as a real life human being in a way that makes his name 26:50 tower above all the rest of humanity 26:53 for the next 20 centuries. 26:55 And I guess what I want to encourage you to do 26:59 is look at the whole answer to the devil's question. 27:02 Read the whole book because it's impossible 27:05 to be confronted with Jesus and not respond somehow. 27:11 Look, at the end of the day, 27:12 you might still not believe this, 27:14 but I think you owe it to yourself to know for sure 27:18 what you're choosing to accept or not accept. 27:22 And if you head on over to BibleStudies.com, 27:24 you'll find all kinds of free resources 27:27 to help you get started. 27:28 That's BibleStudies.com. 27:32 Well, that's it for this week, 27:33 so thanks for joining me again. 27:35 We'll see you next week. 27:36 I'm Shawn Boonstra, and this has been "Authentic." 27:40 [gentle upbeat country music] 28:00 [gentle upbeat country music continues] 28:15 [gentle upbeat country music continues] |
Revised 2023-09-20