FAITH
ISN’T IRRATIONAL – SIN IS IRRATIONAL
Text: Acts 24 I. OUR RESPONSE TO THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
MUST BE TO CONFESS JESUS AS LORD, BE BAPTIZED AND TO WORSHIP HIM AS A MEMBER
OF HIS CHURCH
A. One of the responses to the resurrection of Jesus in the Gospels is faith. 1. “they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him” (Matthew 28:9; cf. Revelation 5). 2. “they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful” (Matthew 28:17; cf. Luke 24:50-52). 3. Obedience to the Great Commission is to be our response to the resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20). 4. When Thomas saw the risen Lord he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28-31). B. To believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus means that we worship Jesus, are baptized into His Name, make disciples of all the nations and live our lives calling Jesus “My Lord and my God.” II. THERE ARE MANY PROFESSING CHRISTIANS TODAY
WHO SAY THAT THEY BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS BUT THEY DON’T MEAN BY
THIS THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS.
A. “As a physical fact, the bodily resuscitation of Jesus is both absurd and even a horror, but as a metaphor is both universal and deeply significant. Of course Jesus's disciples did not find him in the tomb. …The empty tomb was their hearts, which had been made empty by the enormity of their loss.” (Jim Eller [Unitarian Universalist]) B. “Emmaus never happened. It always happens.” (John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography p.197) C. Those who believe in a historical event wherein Jesus rose again bodily from the dead is called names like: “fundamentalist” or “hyper-literalist” or “naïve literalist.” D. If the bodily resurrection of Jesus is only a metaphor, then weren’t the disciples guilty of idolatry? Who or what were they worshipping? III. WHY
DON’T PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS?
A. Many people talk about the gap between history and the bodily resurrection of Jesus. But there is no gap.
B. The gap is not between faith and reason, but sinful man and a holy God:
C. “A man rejects God neither because
of intellectual demands nor because of the scarcity of evidence. A man rejects God because of a moral
resistance that refuses to admit his need for God” (Ravi Zacharias) (Isaiah 59:2; Ephesians
2:1-10). D. Sin is the reason people will not believe. There is no other reason for unbelief. ü Try reasoning with a spouse who wants to or is committing adultery. ü Try reasoning with people why it is mathematically stupid to think that you can make it rich by gambling. ü Try reasoning with people who go to the casino and spend their paycheck gambling in the hopes of great riches. ü Try reasoning with people about the health risks associated with immorality. ü Try reasoning with people about why they shouldn’t use drugs. ü Try rationalizing with an alcoholic. What sin is so precious to you that it is keeping you from following
Jesus? Will you still love your sin 50
years from now? E. The most irrational choice you can ever make in life is to choose your sin over the freedom and new life that Jesus Christ offers to you. (John 8:34-36) Back in 1900 a reporter by the name of A.E. Winship
tracked down the descendants of one of America’s greatest preachers, Jonathan
Edwards and he compared the descendants of Jonathan Edwards with the
descendants of an atheist by the name of Max Jukes. He found that Max Jukes married a godless woman and from the union there
were 310 who died as paupers, 150 were criminals, 7 were murderers, 100 were
drunkards, and more than half of the women were prostitutes.… Jonathan Edwards and his godly wife Sarah had almost 1,400
descendants in 1900. Winship found
that of these descendants 13 were college presidents, 65 professors, two
graduate school deans, 100 lawyers, 66 physicians, 80 holders of public
office, including three senators and three governors of states. Members of
this clan had written 135 published books, and the women were repeatedly
described as “great readers” or “highly intelligent.” Their numbers included
a roster of bankers and industrialists and many missionaries.[1] QUESTIONS FOR
SABBATH DISCUSSION & MEDITATION Pray that God would enable you and give you the desire to be
conformed to His Word as read and preached today. Pray that God would give you opportunity in
the weeks ahead to challenge others to count the cost of their sin versus
counting the cost of following the resurrected Jesus. How are we to respond to the fact of the resurrection? What do people mean when they say the resurrection of Jesus was a
metaphor? What do they mean when they
say that the empty tomb was in the hearts of the disciples? What do they mean when they say, “Emmaus
never happened, it's always happening.”
Are we “hyper-literalist” or “naïve literalist” for believing in the
historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus?
Why or why not? Why don’t people believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus? Why don’t people want to rationally think about their sin? We looked at the difference that Christianity made in Jonathan
Edwards’ and Max Jukes’ life over several generations. What is the difference that Christianity
has made in your life? |
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