The March to The Resurrection Sermon Series - Week 1, Humble Seeking

Right now our society is in a state of panic. The NBA is canceled, the NHL is canceled, March Madness is diminished, schools all over the country are closing. Social gatherings like churches are asked not to meet, and in some places outlawed altogether. Toilet paper, water, and other necessities are flying off the shelves in a swirl of madness. And it seems everywhere you read, or watch, doom is upon us.

I have to say, even in viral situations like the Swing Flu and SARS, society didn’t seem this chaotic. And in these times when society is frantically trying to hold onto whatever they can, we as disciples of Christ can turn to God’s Word for comfort and direction. 

Psalm 46d reads like this, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. 6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 7 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. 8 Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. 10 He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’ 11 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

God allows us to be in these times of distress as a witness to our trust in him. You and I are called to bear witness to the anchor that is Jesus in our lives. That we can be secured in him and not allow the panic around us to stop us from trusting in him.

Jesus says in Matthew 6, starting in verse 25, “25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

In five weeks we will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. The historical event we walked through a few weeks back as one of the arguments for the existence of God. What is that event really? Isn’t it the proof of the assurance we have in God to take care of us? 

And so we’re beginning our march towards Resurrection Sunday, and what better time to really focus on the resurrection and the peace that we can experience with God through it, than in this time of social chaos? And as we’re marching towards the resurrection, we’re going to approach these next five weeks by looking at some key teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Understanding them in light of the Resurrection. So if you have your Bibles, for the next four weeks we’re going to be camping out in chapters 18 and 19 of the the Gospel of Luke. 

And as we open up to Luke chapter 18 verse 15, let’s orientate ourselves to where we are in this book. Now the Gospel of Luke is most likely the third Gospel account of Jesus’ life. Church history tells us that it was written by a physician named Luke, who was also a companion of the Apostle Paul on his journeys. Each of the Gospels are written in ancient biographical style, meaning that it was written to convey the important events of a person’s life in a way that explained the motive of that person.

The Gospel of Mark, is written with the overarching purpose to help us answer the question, who is Jesus? The Gospel of Matthew was written to help the Jewish people connect the dots of the Messiah in their Scriptures, with Jesus. And Luke’s Gospel has the intent to help Greeks understand who this Christos was.

Luke has been called one of the most accurate historical documents of the ancient world, because his use of historical sites is second to none. And we’re entering into Luke’s Gospel on the eve of the the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem or what we now call, Palm Sunday.

We pick up Luke’s account as Jesus is walking towards the city of Jericho. And as Jesus is walking, he’s teaching and encountering people along the way. Today we’re going to look at the first two situations he encounters. In these two situations there are four groups of people that we’re going to compare. Let’s look at these two situations as we march towards the resurrection.

Now, let’s dive into Jesus’ interactions in Luke chapter 18, starting in verse 15.

15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

In this first encounter, Jesus is being inundated with people coming to him. But not just people seeking healing from sicknesses, nor to hear Jesus’ teachings, but rather mothers and fathers who were bringing their children to Jesus. And this Greek word for infant, brephos (bref’-os), could even be speaking about yet to be born children in their mother’s wombs. This was a common practice for Rabbis to bless children on behalf of God, but in this case, there must have been so many people, that the disciples were trying to weed out those that were worthy to meet with Jesus and those whom they deemed were not worthy.

It’s here that we see three of the four people that we’re going to focus on today. First, we have the parents of those bringing the children to Jesus. These people are desiring a touch, a blessing, a word from this well-known Rabbi, who’s command cures the sick and casts out demons. Think of the reasons why these parents would be seeking Jesus’ blessing. Child mortality rate was very high, economic struggles were a constant, the threat of civil unrest was all around. Parents desire a better life for their children, and these parents are no different. If Jesus was walking among us today, how many of us would try to get our children or grandchildren blessed by Jesus? How many of us would seek him in the middle of our social unrest? These are parents looking for what is best for their children and at that moment the best was Jesus.

The second group are the children themselves. Though they do not speak, nor actually do anything in the passage, there simply being there tells us a lot. The children are following their parents. The parents desire a blessing from Jesus, and the children follow. It’s a reinforcement of Jesus’ teaching that the greatest in the kingdom is one who is like a child following their parent, which happens previously in Luke chapter 9.

This brings us to the third group which are the disciples themselves. Though Jesus says nothing to the parents, he chastises the disciples for not allowing the parents to bring their children to him. And what’s interesting is Jesus had already taught the disciples this lesson of allowing children to come to him, back in chapter 9 of Luke, where he says this, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest (v.48).”

But the disciples didn’t listen to Jesus’ words about how welcoming children to Jesus is also welcoming Jesus himself. To welcome those who are seen as the least, is welcoming the work and person of Jesus into our lives. But this teaching has flown over the heads of the disciples, and in the moment they have shown that they really don’t understand Jesus at all.

The parents desire their children to be blessed by Jesus, and they are not sent away by him. But Jesus makes it a point that by rejecting the children, the disciples are also rejecting him.

Let’s now turn our attention to the second interaction we see, which starts in verse 18. 

18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.

We can see, that the disciples were trying to keep certain people away from Jesus, while allowing others whom they deemed worthy to come to him. In this case, we’re shown that to the disciples let in a more worthy person in their eyes. This person was a young wealthy ruler. This man is usually referred to as the rich young ruler, which actually gives us an insight into who this man was. First, he was rich, which we find out in verse 23, but we’re not told how he got his wealth; it could have been from family, it could have been from his own business exploits, we just don’t know. The two other things we learn about him, is that he was both young and a ruler. We find out that he is young from the Gospel of Matthews’ account of this situation in chapter 19 verse 20, so there’s that. As far as him being a ruler, the Greek word that is used here is archón (ar’-khone), which, when referring to a Jew, usually spoke of them being a part of the elders of a city. These would be the men who would be looked to as judges in maters of law and order, and dealing with the running of the city or town.

This young man somehow gained wealth, and was esteemed enough to also be added to the elders’ board of his city, even though he was young.

In this interaction, we see Jesus having a back and forth conversation with the young man about God’s commands, and then Jesus tells the man to sell everything and follow him. We’re then told that the young man, “became very sad, because he was very wealthy.”

This tells us that his wealth was more important to him than the question of eternal life that he presented to Jesus.

The rich young ruler is our the fourth group.

These are the two interactions that we’re going to take a moment to ponder. Because as we make our way to the resurrection, these two interactions point us to who Jesus saves us to be through the Resurrection.

In the first interaction we see parents seeking a blessing for their children. The disciples judge these people as not being important enough to waste Jesus’ time. But Jesus doesn’t turn them away. If fact, Jesus doesn’t just bless the children, he holds them above the disciples in their closeness to God. The pure humble faith of a child, is greater than the disciples adult understanding. The parents are welcomed, the children are welcomed, and instead, it is the disciples who are rebuked.

If I was the disciples, I think I could justify not having the children come, because they don’t listen, they just want to go play, they can’t understand the deep teachings of Jesus anyways. And by keeping them away, Jesus could have more time on the people that mattered. But, that’s not how Jesus sees it. Instead Jesus calls the disciples to become like children in their humble trust of him.

In the second interaction, a man seeking Jesus to answer the question of gaining eternal life is left with a problem. The one thing that is holding him back, is the one thing he us unwilling to give up. His wealth represents what we think we need in this life. Stability, protection, status. But as we saw in the first interaction, what we need is child like faith.

If I was the rich young ruler, I think it would be easy to justify to Jesus that if I kept my wealth and my status where I’m at, then I could financially sustain his ministry. Wouldn’t that be better? I mean, if I sold everything, giving it to the poor, and then followed Jesus, then I wouldn’t be able to help the ministry grow. But if I kept my wealth, stayed where I was, then I could support Jesus’ work.

But Jesus, calls the man to trust him. Jesus is asking the rich young ruler to sell everything, giving it to the poor, and releasing his control to God. 

We can see some contrasts between the parents and the disciples. The parents sought a blessing not for themselves, but for someone who was the least in the society. Whereas the disciples only wanted those of higher social worth to come close to Jesus.

We can draw another contrast between the children and the rich young ruler. A child doesn’t tend to seek status, or wealth. But the rich young ruler only sought these things, and couldn’t bare to part with them, even if it meant that he would lose eternity.

And this is the first step towards the Resurrection, we must ask ourselves, who are we? Are we the parents, who are trying to get their children to Jesus so they may be blessed by him? Or are we the disciples, deciding who is worthy or not to come to Jesus? Are we the children themselves, who need nothing else but Jesus? Or are we the rich young ruler, trying to hold on to status and wealth that keeps us from Jesus?

Here is a quick test to see where we fall?

Let’s ask ourselves, “Do I seek to get other people blessings from God?” That means I pray for them, asking God to bless them even if I don’t like them? Or “Am I making judgement calls on how people dress or act like, before sharing the gospel or asking them to come with me to church?” If we answer, yes try to seeking other’s blessings, then we are like the parents, but if we answer, I tend to judge people on their status in my mind, we’re a disciple keeping people away from Jesus.

Let’s also ask ourselves, “Am I willing to do whatever Jesus asks of me?” Like a little child obeying their parent. Or “Is the wealth and status I enjoy more important than following Jesus?” If we answer,  I am willing to do whatever Jesus wants, then we have that child like faith, but if we answer, I would have a real struggle with giving up my wealth, we’re just like that rich young ruler.

If we struggle in any area, Jesus gives us a simple path to follow. In verse 14, of Luke 11. He says this, “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

We are called to humble lives. That was the disciples’ problem, they weren’t humble, so they couldn’t recognize that it wasn’t up to them who sought Jesus. It was also the rich young ruler’s problem, he wasn’t humble enough to give up his wealth and status to trust Jesus. But that’s exactly who the parents were, humble enough to seek the blessing, not for themselves, but their children. And its humbleness that Jesus points to in the faith of those children.

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to humbleness. To lift up others before ourselves. To not hinder those seeking Jesus, by adding road blocks on their path towards him. To not hold onto those things that we desire, therefore missing out on what Jesus has for us. 

We are to seek the blessing of others, and to trust Jesus wherever he calls us to.

This week, as we march our way to the Resurrection, let us seek to be humble people. 

I want to challenge you to honestly seek God in both these areas this week. Asking him, “Am I acting like the parents seeking a blessing for others, or am I acting like the disciples seeking to keep others away? Am I acting like a child in my faith that I am humble before God, or am I like the rich young ruler wanting to hold onto status and wealth?”

If it is revealed to you that you are in fact acting like a disciple who is keeping others from God, or the rich younger ruler holding on to wealth and status, do not be discouraged, but rather seek to be humbled by God. I’ve always found that seeking humbleness on my own initiative, is better than God making me humble on his.

If you are being humble, seeking the blessing of others, then I would challenge you to begin praying for one person to invite to Resurrection Sunday in four weeks. Pray for them, that they would be open to coming and being a part of what God is doing. Whether you’re staying in Quartzsite, or leaving to town and attending another church, pray for that person that God would move in their life this Resurrection Sunday.

And take this time of social upheaval to be steadfast in your trust of Jesus, pointing to him as others frantically grasping to hold onto something.

Let us be the people that God has called to be. Humble in our faith, blessing those around us. Amen.

Arguments for the Existence of God - Argument 4, Argument at Death

When I was in college, I was a part of a class where you had to conduct a staged situation that you might encounter in your ministry. The professor of the class said we could do anything we thought would happen in a ministry setting, so I tried to go as strange as I could, because I love to have fun with those types of projects. So for this particular project, I was going to present how the church board needed to give me the necessary funds for the most needed item in the whole church, a toilet plunger.

I had the whole presentation thought through in my mind in a matter of minutes. The following class I turned in my proposal to the professor and his face, changed to one of exasperation. This wasn’t the first time I had done something like this in one of his classes. But because I had defended the idea in the proposal he didn’t deny me. The next class, where others were presenting a different type of project, the professor approached me and said, “You know Jeremiah, I think you should conduct a funeral instead of your plunger, I have a feeling you might encounter more of those.”

Well, a long story short, I did as the professor asked, always wondering what might have been with my plunger presentation. But I received an “A” on the project, and that’s all that I was after. But that request from the professor turned out to be a prophecy of my ministry. In the last three years, I have done more memorials and funerals, then most pastors perform in their whole ministry. Recently I went to Wickenburg to be a part of a funeral there. The pastor asked if I had officiated one before, to which I told him, this year I am averaging one every three weeks. He told me that in his ten years at that church, he had only been a part of two and the second one was the one we were both a apart of that day.

In these last three years one of the hardest parts of being a pastor is the call you get for someone that is dying or has just passed away. I have found that I truly grieve with those who have to watch their loved ones pass, or have a sudden passing. I mourn those losses, and I empathize with those going through the pain of the separation that death causes. 

Yet in death, I have found joy as well. Those who are believers in Jesus, those who have put their trust in him, are hard, yet have an assurance about them, that non-believers do not. This past fall, a faithful member of our church named Ed Wiggins passed away. Some of you might remember Ed, him and his wife Linda are a valued part of our church family here, they used to sit together every Sunday on the left side of our church from my perspective. Ed and Linda were faithful in a season when our church was going through some hard times. And after the shake up, Ed began helping with feeding our children on Sundays.

When I received the call that Ed was in the hospital, I went to see him. Now I didn’t have a lot of interaction with Ed, just several conversations over the years, but when I entered into that hospital room, I could sense the Spirit of God. Ed’s confidence in the Lord and graciousness towards me was as thick as a valley fog. We prayed for God’s healing, and God healed him completely when Ed passed into eternity. The final moments of Ed, and believers like him, give me confidence of the life to come.

This leads us into our final argument for this series, the Argument at Death. Now we have been talking about the arguments for the existence of God for the last three weeks, but focusing on arguments that are ones that are out there all over the place. The first one we talked about was the Fine Tuning Argument, where the universe seems perfectly created for life. The second argument was the Moral Argument, in which we asked the question what is the foundation of morality, and when you take away God, what happens? These first two arguments, are merely arguments for the existence of a god in the general sense, but we also showed with these arguments, the God of the Bible claims to be the God that created this habitable universe, and he claims to be the God from which morality comes from. Then last week we talked about not only an argument for the existence of God, but of Jesus being God through his resurrection. 

These three arguments, I then challenged you to pursue on your own to understand them more and then to worship God because of what he has done.

This week, I’m going to present to you an argument, that has been presented in the past by people, but isn’t as widely used or as “effective” in the sense of debates. Rather, this is a pleading argument from me personally, because I have seen the last days of many people. This is the Argument at Death.

The Bible is very straightforward when it comes to the end of our lives. In religions such as Hinduism, time is a circle. Life, death, and rebirth are in an endless rotation for all of eternity. But the Bible puts forth that there is a straight line from eternity past, to the created space that happens in Genesis 1 and there will be an end to this created space, with eternity ahead. And death is one way in which eternity comes for the majority of humanity. And with death, a judgment awaits us all. 

We encounter this biblical teaching in places like the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25. In this chapter, Jesus is giving a teaching where we talks about the righteous and the unrighteous as sheep and goats, and how they will be sorted. He ends with this in verse 46, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

In the Gospel fo John, the writer records Jesus saying this in the 5th chapter, “24 ‘Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

28 ‘Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.’”

The writer of the book of Hebrews then gives us this short line of Scripture in the 27th verse of the 9th chapter “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…”

For the believer, this moment of passing from this life into eternity tends to be a serene one. I shared Ed’s story, but my wife Marika’s great grandmother past in the same way. And countless stories can be shared of believers encountering their Savior at that moment where the veil between the finite and eternal drawn back. 

But to those who have fought against God, who have sought to become gods unto themselves, the situation is vastly different.

Jesus describes their eternal reality when he says this in Luke 13:28, “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.”

Like I have through this entire sermon series, I want to give you some quotes that are attributed to some well-known atheists on their death beds. These are not conversion stories, but rather their recorded last words as the veil of eternity is lifted in front of them.

Voltaire was a famous atheist philosopher, semi anti-christian, who wrote in the 1700s during the Enlightenment. Though he defended the right of religion, he had a disdained for it. On his death bed he was quoted as saying to his attending physician, “I am abandoned by God and man; I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months’ life.” When the physician said that there was nothing he could do for Voltaire, the philosopher said, “Then I shall die and go to hell!” Voltaire’s attending nurse said of his passing, “For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness.”

Sir Francis Newport, living a century before Voltaire, was the head of an English Atheist club. Those gathered at his bedside during his death later told others that he said this, “You need not tell me there is no God for I know there is one, and that I am in His presence! You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already slipping. Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know I am lost forever! Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! Oh, that I could lie for a thousand years upon the fire that is never quenched, to purchase the favor of God and be united to Him again. But it is a fruitless wish. Millions and millions of years will bring me no nearer the end of my torments than one poor hour. Oh, eternity, eternity forever and forever! Oh, the insufferable pangs of Hell!”

David Hume, the atheist  philosopher writing at the same time as Voltaire, is said to have spoke his last words as he screamed from his bed, “I am in flames!” Those that gathered around Hume, were quoted as saying, “Desperation was a horrible scene”.

Thomas Paine, who himself was an atheist, yet inspired the thirteen Colonies to revolt against the British is said to have uttered these words, “Stay with me, for God’s sake; I cannot bear to be left alone , Oh Lord, help me! Oh God, what have I done to suffer so much? What will become of me hereafter? I would give worlds if I had them, that The Age of Reason had never been published. Oh Lord, help me! Christ, help me! …No, don’t leave; stay with me! Send even a child to stay with me; for I am on the edge of Hell here alone. If ever the Devil had an agent, I have been that one.”

Finally, Sir Thomas Scott, Chancellor of England who lived far earlier than all those that we have discussed so far, is quoted as saying this on his death bed, “Until this moment I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”

And if you think that these types of experiences come only from philosophers of high academia, I want to share with you this: This was relayed to me by one of the members of our church body. Her mother-in-law had a seizer, and this member told her, “I will pray for you.” In response the mother-in-law said, “I hate your God.” A little while later, while the mother-in-law lay in bed close to death, she began clawing at the air and screaming, “I’am scared, I’m scared.” These were the mother-in-law’s last words, before she passed into eternity.

I share these stories and quotes with you not to discourage you, or to scare anyone, but rather to bring us face-to-face with the reality of eternity without Jesus as our Savior. The first three arguments that we discussed in this series were directed at the mind. Evidence was presented, and the question, what’s the best explanation was addressed.

In this argument, we’re moving beyond simply engaging the intellect, and getting to the point of the mystery of what awaits us after death. 

Another atheist philosopher named Thomas Hobbs is quoted on his deathbed as saying, “I say again, if I had the whole world at my disposal, I would give it to live one day. I am about to take a leap into the dark.”

For the believer the moment of death is nothing to be afraid of, it is unknown in the sense of a new adventure that awaits. But for the one who does not have their hope in Christ, it truly is a leap into the dark. It is not an adventure to look forward to, but rather a destination to fear.

Several weeks ago, I taught on the Gospel of John chapter 11. In that passage, Jesus’ friend Lazarus has died and Jesus is there with Lazarus’ sisters who are mourning. Jesus says this to them in verse 25 of chapter 11, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

This is the question that he presents to us, do we believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Do we put our trust in him, that though we may die in this life, we will live in the next? That our sins have been paid by his work on the cross, and that when we enter eternity, a new adventure awaits us? If we say yes, then death has no hold on us. The fear of death has no sway. We can be like Stephen the first martyr, who in Acts 7:59, as he was dying, called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” We can be like Ed Wiggins, giving grace to those around him in his final hours. And we can become a part of a long line of believers that shares the Gospel with those left behind, by simple showing that we trust our spirits to our Jesus who has saved us.

But today, if you don’t have this assurance, I did not share these quotes and stories to scare you to believe in Jesus. No, rather I share these to challenge you in your ways. All the intellectual arguments in the world won’t convince you, until you struggle with who Jesus is. I shared this quote last week, and I would like to share it again.

Scott, a pastor, had a conversation with a man that seemed to be hostile to the Jesus and Christianity. When the pastor confronted him, this is what the man said, “Okay, Scott, I’ll tell you the truth. I’ll tell you the real reason why I dislike Christianity. It’s not because the evidence is unconvincing to me. In fact, the opposite is true. But I still don’t ever want to become a Christian because if I do, Jesus will ask me to forgive my father for the ways that he hurt me (https://scottsauls.com/blog/2019/04/21/intelligentatheistschristians/).”

Evidence alone won’t save us, we must we open to encountering Jesus himself now why we still can. We must struggle, not with a pastor, not with a church, not even with the Bible, but with Jesus himself. We will meet him in the end, whether that be in joyous reunion, or desperate fear. If we seek to encounter Jesus while we still can, then death loses it’s power. If we meet him after the time has elapsed, death will terrify us to no end.

This week, whether you are a believer or not, I want to challenge you to this, seek Jesus to known him. Believer, this seeking is to strengthen your faith in him. Take the verses of John 11:25 and 26 and commit them to memory. Non-believer, I want to challenge you to the arguments that have been presented these last three weeks, and then to seek to know if this Jesus is real, because he tells us that all who seek him with their heart, shall find him.

Let us be the overcomers of death that Jesus has made us to be through his death and resurrection. Amen.

Arguments for the Existence of God - Argument 3, Argument of the Resurrection

The presidential election is about nine months away, and I we’re not going to be talking about any politics, but I do want to ask you this one question, how do you pick your candidate? I know some people vote on one issue. If a candidate agrees on that one issue with the voter, then they vote for them. Personally, I have to have multiple reasons to vote for a any candidate. Those that I vote for have to agree with me on a lot of areas to earn my support. And I’m like that on a lot of issues, I think that’s why it takes me so long to do anything.

I have to have multiple reasons to agree or disagree with an idea or argument before I commit to it. And that’s why I tell people, if you can build a case to convince me of something, I will be convinced. But so often when I enter into a discussion, I watch as people argue a point, and when I bring up counter point, they don’t deal with it; rather, they move onto something else. When I see this happen, it tells me that they don’t have responses for those counter points, which means, they haven’t convinced me, because I need a well thought out position in order to change my point of view. 

This brings us to where we’re at in our series on the Arguments for the Existence of God. Where we’re going to begin today in 1st Corinthians 15. Because that’s what we’re trying to do with this series. It’s not one argument for the existence of God, that points us to him, but rather several. And just like it takes multiple angles for me to accept or reject an idea, we are providing multiple arguments that point to God’s existence, not just one. So as we open up to 1st Corinthians 15, let’s talk about where we’re at in this series. 

In the first two weeks we looked at two arguments for the existence of God, that, left on their own, merely give reasons why a god, in the general sense of the word, could existence. The first of these arguments was the Fine Tuning Argument. Which basically is understood as, the universe is so perfect for life to happen, that it appears to be created. We shared several quotes by atheists that affirmed this perceived fine tuning, that if just one aspect of this universe was changed, life as we know it could not happen. 

The second argument was the Moral Argument. In this argument we talked about, not if something was right or wrong, but rather, where does our foundation for morals come from. We showed, again through atheists, that without a god to give us an objective moral standard, the standard falls to us. But in that scenario, any common morals that we might share, have at their core a shifting self-centeredness that has no true objective foundation on which to rest. 

As I said earlier, each of these arguments, left on their own, merely point us to a god in the general sense. But what we also showed each week, that the God of the Bible claims to be the Creator of the fined tuned universe. That the God of the Bible claims to be the source from which morality has it’s foundation. 

It is here that we’re going to shift our focus from the general arguments of the existence of God, to the more specific, argument for the Christian God. And we’re going to do this through the resurrection of Jesus. Because it’s in the resurrection of Jesus that the whole of the Christian message rests.

It is here where we pick up Paul’s words in 1st Corinthians 15, starting in verse 3.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Paul binds the credibility and the future of Christianity to the moment in time where Jesus rises from the dead.

So for the Argument of the Resurrection, let’s look at five points that go into building this argument for the existence of God:

First, Jesus is a real historical person. This is the foundation of the argument because there are people that don’t believe Jesus even existed. But in his article, An Atheist Historian Examines the Evidence for Jesus, Tim O’Neill argues that, “Scholars who specialize in the origins of Christianity agree on very little, but they do generally agree that it is most likely that a historical preacher, on whom the Christian figure ‘Jesus Christ’ is based, did exist. The numbers of professional scholars, out of the many thousands in this and related fields, who don't accept this consensus, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Many may be more cautious about using the term ‘historical fact’ about this idea, since as with many things in ancient history it is not quite as certain as that. But it is generally regarded as the best and most parsimonious explanation of the evidence and therefore the most likely conclusion that can be drawn (https://strangenotions.com/an-atheist-historian-examines-the-evidence-for-jesus-part-1-of-2/).”

In other words, Tim O’Neill is saying that the vast majority of scholars, from all backgrounds, including atheists, agnostics, and Jewish, conclude that there was a Jesus in the first century on which the Christian religion is based. 

This is important, because there are a lot of internet blogs, and writings out there that say that Jesus wasn’t even a historical figure. But the evidence is not on their side, because the vast majority of all scholars that specialize in early Christianity, agree that Jesus was a real historical figure.

Second, Jesus was crucified. We can take for granted the knowledge that Jesus crucified, but there are people that do not believe this. But in his book, The Resurrection of Christ, atheist scholar Gerd Ludemann, wrote, “Jesus death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.”

Another New Testament scholar named John Dominic Crossan was part of the group called the Jesus Seminar. That group’s sole mission was to separate the miraculous Jesus from the historical one. Crossan wrote, “Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be. For if no follower of Jesus had written anything for one hundred years after his crucifixion we would still know about him from two authors not among his supporters. Their names are Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus.”

Jesus’ death on the cross is agreed upon as one of the most attested to and historically accurate events in all of human history. Even great moments such as Julias Caesar crossing the Rubicon River, or the life of the military leader Hannibal, do not have the historical clout of Jesus’ crucification.

Third, the tomb was historically empty. Skeptic D. H. Van Daalen states, in one of his last articles entitled, Resurrection of Jesus - the great mystery, leading people to believe in the Easter message today, writes “…it is extremely difficult to object to the empty tomb on historical grounds; those who deny it do so on the basis of theological or philosophical assumptions…From the differing and in part unharmonizable, even contradictory, data about the discovery of the empty tomb it can at most be inferred that the tomb on Easter morning was probably empty, but nothing more.”

Daalen is saying that at the very least we know that the tomb was empty. But that’s where he stops. In other words, even skeptics of who Christians say Jesus is, agree that the tomb in which he was put in after his crucifixion was empty. So as far as historians are concerned, the tomb was empty when the disciples looked upon it that first Easter morning.

Fourth, there were eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. Again Gerd Ludemann the atheist German scholar, wrote, “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’ death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ (What Really Happened to Jesus?).” But it wasn’t just to his disciples the Jesus appeared. James, Jesus’ half-brother who was a skeptic, and Paul the persecutor of Jesus’ disciples, who were both adverse to Jesus, but both confirmed that they saw Jesus’ resurrected body.

C.S. Lewis wrote this, “The first fact in the history of Christendom is a number of people who say they have seen the Resurrection (Joyful Christian).”

These eyewitness accounts are what Paul in 1st Corinthians 15:5-9 references. And it is verses 3 and 4 that we get the earliest creedal mention of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Atheist scholars Gerd Ludemaan (The Resurrection of Jesus, trans. by Bowden (Fortress, 1994), 171-72.) and Michael Goulder (“The Baseless Fabric of a Vision,” in Gavin D’Costa, editor, Resurrection Reconsidered [Oneworld, 1996], 48.), and Non-Christian scholars Robert Funk (Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus, 466.) and A.J.M. Wedderburn (Beyond Resurrection (Hendrickson, 1999), 113-114.), all agree that what Paul is referencing here is a creed that was developed within the first two years of the Christian faith. The early Christians believed they saw Jesus resurrected and they shared it everywhere.

Finally, the response of the disciples. The resurrection event radically changed the lives of the disciples. New Testament scholar and former priest Luke Johnson, wrote in his book, The Real Jesus, “Some sort of powerful, transformative experience is required to generate the sort of movement earliest Christianity was." This is why other New Testament scholars like N.T. Wright, though not an atheist nor a skeptic, end up concluding, “That is why, as a historian, I cannot explain the rise of early Christianity unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb behind him ("The New Unimproved Jesus," Christianity Today).”

Eleven of the Apostles died through martyrdom. The only apostle not to die was John, who got off with being boiled in oil. Not only these original disciples, but also both the skeptic James, and the persecutor turned disciple Paul, died as martyrs believing that they saw Jesus resurrected.

Walking through the evidence given in this argument, former L.A. cold case detective and atheist J. Warner Wallace said this, “In the end, I came to the conclusion that the gospels were reliable eyewitness accounts that delivered accurate information about Jesus, including His crucifixion and Resurrection. But that created a problem for me. If Jesus really was who He said He was, then Jesus was God Himself. If Jesus truly did what the gospel eyewitnesses recorded, then Jesus is still God Himself.”

With words from such men as Napoleon Bonaparte who said, “I know men, and I tell you Jesus Christ was not a man…Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon sheer force. Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men will die for Him (Quoted from Ritzema, E. [Ed.]. [2012]. 300 Quotations for Preachers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.).” can help us understand just the who is Jesus, because this is what all of these arguments boil down to: is Jesus who he says he is? Is Jesus the one who claims to be the Creator? Is he the one who claims to be the source of Morality? If Jesus was truly resurrected, as seems to be the best explanation of the historical case, then the question we must ask ourselves is, am I not accepting Jesus as Savior because of the evidence, or because of what I would have to now change because of who Jesus is?

The other day I read an article from a pastor who was speaking to a man about this very issue. Listen to what the pastor wrote, “Recently, I spoke with a man who had heard the story of Jesus and the resurrection several times in his life. Yet, this man seemed deeply defensive, even hostile, to the idea of becoming a Christian himself. I pointed out to my friend that he seemed not merely to disagree with the Gospel message, but also prone to attack it. I asked him why this was so. After a quiet pause, he answered, “Okay, Scott, I’ll tell you the truth. I’ll tell you the real reason why I dislike Christianity. It’s not because the evidence is unconvincing to me. In fact, the opposite is true. But I still don’t ever want to become a Christian because if I do, Jesus will ask me to forgive my father for the ways that he hurt me (https://scottsauls.com/blog/2019/04/21/intelligentatheistschristians/).”

And this is the real crux of the situation. No argument will ever make someone who is opposed to Christ accept him. The Fine Tuning of this universe, the foundation on which Morality rests, nor the historical reality of the Resurrection. The situation is, we are opposed to Jesus, because of what he calls us to. A rejection of what we want, and an embrace of what he wills.

This leads us into our last argument for next week. 

But for now, I want to challenge you, on two fronts. First, if you do not believe in Jesus, what is holding you back? Is it that the arguments are not convincing, or is it that what Jesus desires from you just seems to be to high a price? We must wrestle with both, because if Jesus is who he says he is, then the decision we make to either follow him or not is an eternal decision. 

Second, if you do believe in Jesus, then I want to challenge you to research the historicity of the resurrection. Looking into the points we’ve made today. And then, at Jesus’ resurrected feet, fall down and worship him. Because if Jesus is truly raised from the dead, then he is, as Napoleon stated, “no mere man.” Jesus is indeed the Good Creator God that left his throne to die on a cross for the sins that we commit. He has taken our place for the punishment of those sins, and now invites us into a relationship with him, where all is forgiven, and new life awaits, both now and into eternity. Amen.