Without truth, we are rudderless

Listen here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/31f69987/without-truth-...

'Don't you know you are just preaching to the choir?' she said across the miles. 'Most of us already believe what you are writing...I don't mean to be hurtful, but don't you think you're wasting your time?'

I knew she meant well. Most of the people who regularly read (or listen to) Morning Briefings already believe in Jesus Christ and most believe in Scripture too.

Yes, I would agree with that. However ...

-while we were believing it and quietly going about our lives, there was a huge culture shift, such that truth is now thought to be relative, ever shifting and compromising

-while we continued to believe, our kids went off to college and came home not believing any longer

-while we believe right now today, we cannot adequately answer our Michigan graduate when he challenges us with 'Oh Aunt Ruth, you know the Bible contains a lot of errors, don't you? You don't seriously believe in that ancient book, do you?'

And so I began a series on truth, a worldview based on truth, how we can answer the question, "Why are you a Christian?" Because it is the best explanation of the world, and because if Jesus rose from the grave, then Christianity is true, providing evidence that indeed Jesus Christ walked out of a borrowed tomb. More on that today, along with resources you can grab ahold of for yourself.

Let's go back to that miraculous day for a minute, recorded in Mark chapter 16.

The Sabbath day was over, and the women were first to the tomb early on Sunday morning.  [note: this fact about the women speaks to the veracity of the Bible.  Women meant little in the first century, and what they said meant even less—their testimony could not even be introduced in a court of law. Yet the gospel writers record women last at the cross and first to the tomb.]  They found Jesus’ grave clothes, the linen cloths Joseph² had wrapped around the Lord… they encountered an angel who gave them the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.  

Jesus did what he told them he would do--nothing short of amazing.

Why?  What if Jesus had just been a great teacher, prophet, and miracle worker—wouldn’t that have been enough?  Certainly not.  First, he would have been a liar; he would not have done what he said he would do.  Nothing else he said or did would matter.  If Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead, neither would we.  

In all candor, it is difficult to overstate the importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  There would be no Christian faith today; actually, the gospel would not have gone forward if Jesus had been killed, and never heard from again. The disciples would have remained hopeless, died in shame, and that would have been the end of Christianity. Alas, it was not, and we are evidence of that. The Jewish-Christian church started in Jerusalem, and soon spread to Mediterranean lands and beyond--which assures us that these young believers, enduring great persecution, saw and believed in the risen Lord. 

The apostle Paul wrote succinctly on the greatest event in history, “I delivered to you that... Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, (Peter) then to the twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep (died); then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also.3 These verses formed a creed that was recited in early Christian churches, dated to within two to eight years of Jesus' resurrection.  

The most valuable evidence in any matter or event being analyzed in a court of law is eyewitness testimony. Five hundred and fifteen eyewitnesses, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote the aforementioned (creed) most certainly would have refuted what has been recorded about Jesus' post-resurrection appearances, but they did not.

The world is crying out for hope.  The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest hope today and the evidence for it is incontrovertible. Jesus' resurrection means that we serve a living God and is one more testament that He keeps his promises.

Interestingly, devotees can visit the tomb of Muhammed in Saudi Arabia and the tomb of Abraham in Hebron; Buddhists can go to places in India and China where the Buddha's ashes were enshrined . . . I can go to the gravesides of my parents in Oakland, California.  But no grave, no tomb, no ossuary or mausoleum contains any part of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He went into a borrowed tomb dead and walked out fully alive.  (Why not use a borrowed tomb when you aren't going to be there very long?)

"The Resurrection is the epicenter of belief.  It is not a belief that grew up within the church; it is the belief around which the church itself grew up, and the 'given' upon which its faith was based."⁴ 

I grew up hearing and reading about, fully believing the biblical accounts of Jesus. I did not doubt that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, who died for me. But the first time I heard the evidence for the truth of Christianity, specifically the death and resurrection of Jesus, was in 1979 at the University of Minnesota, when a young Josh McDowell, took the stage and laid out the evidence that demands a verdict.  I was riveted.  

For greater explanation on the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, more in-depth than this briefing can provide, take a look at these: 

1) Sean McDowell, Josh’s son (6 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH69A4Z0iqQ&t=13s

2) Gary Habermas, (11.45): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmp5iqrSCc8  

3) Lee Strobel, (56 minutes—this one is great!!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDgu3jXeCTM&t=2033s  

4) N. T. Wright, (7.03): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz201Od_Xe4

5) William Lane Craig, (8.53) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od8U-Z_NVFA.  

These clips total less than 90 minutes, giving evidence for the resurrection, Alice, Hector, Kim, Joe, and Hakim...  And then you must render a verdict yourself.  The resurrection cannot be of minor importance—no, it is of the greatest significance and once you look closer, you cannot remain neutral!  Your verdict on the truth of the resurrection is for all the marbles—life eternal with the risen Lord or separation from him forever.

For those courageous enough to see and believe, Hope does indeed spring eternal!  We serve a risen Lord who reigns victorious now and forever.  Amen.

Why am I a Christian?

(1) Christianity is the best explanation for reality.

(2) The Resurrection is Proof that Christianity is true.

there is incontrovertible proof for this truth claim

In response: You are Our God! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK6Lh6n2i6g

Christine

PastorWoman.net

1 - Mark 16.1-8

2 – Joseph of Arimathea

3 - 1 Corinthians 15.4-8

4 - C.H. Dodd