922 Ministries - The CORE & St. Peter Lutheran

Objections to Jesus. Welcome to week two of a three part series. Last week, if you weren't here, we talked about the problem of evil. Why is there pain? Why is there suffering in this world?

If God is good and God is love and God is powerful, why. Why do people suffer? Why is there pain? That's a great question, and Pastor Mike had a great answer. If you missed it, you need to go to our YouTube channel or our podcast and, and certainly watch last week's message today, a little bit of a different direction.

We're gonna be talking about the evidence that a lot of people say, well, I need evidence, and your faith does not provide it. Therefore, I can't be a Christian. So we're gonna be talking about that. But maybe it would be helpful to answer the question. First of all, why are we having a series like this at all?

First of all, I think you need to know that faith does not come from rational and logical arguments. You are not going to give a rational, logical argument that finally convinces someone to become a Christian, to start following Jesus. That's not how Jesus followers are made. The way a person becomes a follower of Jesus is to hear the message. The Bible tells us that when we hear the good news about what God did for us in the Lord Jesus, about his death on the cross and his resurrection, and that's for us, for our forgiveness, that good news of Jesus is what creates faith.

So why talk about the objections at all? Why are we doing this? Well, here's the issue. A lot of people, they have these objections to Christianity and envision their objections like this thick, ten foot high cement wall that they believe that their objection means they don't need to listen to what the christian faith is all about because they think their objection is valid. They will not listen to the.

The gospel, to the words of God, his truth and grace. So in this series, we are learning how we can maybe help break down that cement wall, get that cement wall out of the way so that somebody will then open their ears to hear the good news of Jesus. So this week, we're going to look at another very common objection that we hear from people that leads people to often just reject the christian faith outright. And it is this. The objection to Jesus is there is no evidence for the christian faith.

I follow science. Okay, that's nice that you, a christian, are following faith. You're a faith person. But I am a science person. All of the strides that the humans have made, all of the advances in science, those are the things that I can observe.

That's how I can know that they are true, and therefore those are the things that I base my life on. I will not base my life on these things that lack evidence, these things that are faith. Have you ever heard somebody make that argument? You maybe yourself, have sometimes thought that argument. Maybe somebody brought you to church today.

This is your very first time, and this is an argument that you have, you have not seriously considered the christian faith because you think that you're a person of science and you need evidence and you are not a person of faith. If you are not that person, you know somebody who does have that argument. It is extraordinarily common. If you haven't heard it before, sooner or later you will. So I hope that you will listen very carefully today how you can address somebody that says they're about science, they're not about faith.

Now, let me first of all acknowledge this argument does have some validity to it. I happen to be a skeptic myself. If I was walking through on a path in the woods one day and I come to a deep canyon or crevice, and there is a rope bridge across that canyon and there is a person standing there that invites me to go across on the rope, I will ask something first. Is it safe? Where did it come from?

And if they tell me, oh, a first grade class just left, they built it, you can be the first to try it, I would say, no, thank you. The evidence isn't there. I'm not going to risk my life, thank you very much. So if somebody would say that about the christian faith, I understand. You want me to entrust my eternal future to God, and yet you won't show me evidence that makes it reasonable.

No, thank you. It's a reasonable argument, isn't it? So we're going to take a look at this and we're going to unpack this a little bit more. We're going to look at how we can respond to such an argument. Now, first of all, I think we need to be aware of this.

We live in a culture. I know that's a self evident statement. We live within a culture. But here's the thing about culture. The people all around us in a culture, they have certain assumptions, philosophies, beliefs, things that are just assumed to be true, that were passed down from generation to generation.

This is just the way things are. It's really hard for us to evaluate them. It's even hard for us to see them because we live in them. Have you ever heard this comparison? There's two little fish swimming in the water.

And an elderly fish swims up to them and greets them and says, how's the water? He grins and swims off. And the two little fish look at each other and they say, what's water? Because they live in it. They've always lived in it.

They don't notice it. It's just their environment. What is water even I think that can happen with us culturally as well. There are things that are repeated and taught and said and they're in culture. And so we just assume they must be true.

And we don't even notice. We don't even think to evaluate because that's the water we're swimming in. So what I wanna encourage you to do today is to evaluate the water in which we live. We're gonna try to evaluate some of the cultural assumptions in which we operate and try to look at them a little bit more objectively. And we're going to compare them with what God says.

God encourages us to do this. So we're going to spend most of our time today in a few verses from Colossians chapter two. But God encourages us to look at the environment in which we live. And he does this in Colossians two eight. He says this.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. So God gives us this warning. Watch out. Be careful. You could be taken captive.

The idea here is like in a war, you are defeated and then taken away into captivity. Don't let that happen to you. The devil's trying to take you captive. He's trying to lead you away. How does he do it?

Through hollow and deceptive philosophies that depend on human tradition. In other words, what people around us just assume to be true can lead you astray. These are hollow, deceptive, empty philosophies that can lead you astray. They're also depending on elemental spiritual forces. Well, that's kind of a weird phrase.

The forces of this world. What does that even mean in Greek? It's actually a much simpler phrase. The basics of this world, the philosophy of this world is based on the basic things, the most basic assumptions. So when it comes to our spirituality, when it comes to relationship with God, the most basic assumptions what comes around goes around.

Do good things and good things will happen to you. Ever heard that? If you try harder, do good, perform. Certainly the man upstairs will be pleased with you. These are some of the basic assumptions of the world in which we live.

And God is warning us. Check that. Is that really what God says? Does that align with his truth? Or are these assumptions?

Is the culture in which we live? Is it going to subtly lead us astray? God wants us to evaluate, so that's what we're going to do today. So I'm going to break down this bigger objection that we just looked at. I want to subdivide it into four sub objections.

Is that a word that we can evaluate one at a time? And I think as we look at those four together, we're going to get the answer to our bigger question. So, objection number one related to this topic. The christian faith is just blind faith. Okay?

I can't become a Christian because the christian faith is just blind faith. It just floats out there on nothing. You just got to assume it's true. I'm not that kind of person. Have you heard of the flying spaghetti monster?

So back in 2005, there was an atheist who thought he was pretty clever and came up with this parody of faith, trying to show how foolish it is to be a Christian or to believe in intelligent design. And so he said that he, you Christians, you have your God, you have your faith. Well, I have my faith. The atheist says, I have my faith in the flying spaghetti monster, and I believe he is the creator of all things, and I trust in him. And we have many followers.

We are called postafarians. Okay, let's see. A little humorous, I'll give them that. But the assumption is there's as much faith for the flying spaghetti monster as there is for the God of the Bible. They are just blind faith assumptions.

Both are equally foolish is the point they were trying to make. But the truth is, this is just not. This is an abject lie. The christian faith is nothing like faith in the flying spaghetti monster. The truth is this.

The christian faith is grounded in human history, and it is supported by countless eyewitnesses. The christian faith is not this abstract philosophy, this way of living, this series of teachings that if you just uphold them, then you're a Christian. That is not our faith. That might be postopharianism, but it's not Christianity. Our faith is all about a person.

Our faith is all about Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Our faith is about a person, a man who claimed to be God, God in human flesh, who lived on our planet. He actually was here 2000 years ago. Even the most unbelieving historians do not deny this fact that there really was a Jesus that walked this planet and that he lived, and he claimed to be God. And he proved it through miracles.

And he died on a cross. And he said it was to ransom us from our sins, to pay for all of our sins. And then he rose from the dead on the third day. And these are historical realities and there is evidence that they are true and that they are real. This has nothing to do with blind faith that just floats in thin air.

Our faith is grounded in history, on real events that were seen by eyewitnesses and whose accounts you can evaluate and read for yourself. These events are so vital to our christian faith. One event in particular so vital, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, that if that one fact was proven not to be true, Jesus existed. Jesus died on a cross. He didn't rise, though.

If that's true, our faith collapses. We have nothing more to believe in. The apostle Paul even said that. He said, if Christ has not been raised, then our faith is futile. We're still in our sins.

And he says, you are to be pitied more than anybody on the planet if you believe in all that christian stuff. And Jesus didn't rise. Oh, I'm so sorry for you. Is what Paul says right? It is based on real humanity, human history.

In fact. This is so vitally important. I promise you this. If somehow it was proven that Jesus body did not come out of that grave, that it in fact was stolen, or it's still here. It is.

The DNA evidence proves that that's Jesus. If that was somehow proven, I resign from the ministry immediately and I don't even come back to church next Sunday because that historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus is that important. I throw away everything else because Jesus has to rise or I'm still in my sins. I don't go to heaven. There is no afterlife, there is no resurrection.

Everything I believe disappears if Christ has not been risen. Our faith is not blind faith. It does not float in the air. It is based on historical fact. Now, at this point, I can spend the rest of the sermon and it would probably be time well spent showing you all the evidence that Jesus really did rise from the dead.

But Pastor Mike touched on that two weeks ago for our Easter sermon and he gave us a link on screen for the evidence for Easter. So I'm going to ask you to go back two weeks, look at the live stream, look at the YouTube, find that QR code and go check out that evidence for yourself because I don't have time to cover that today. But it's there. We also could now take time for the rest of the sermon to talk about the evidence that the Bible actually is true. It is reliable, and it was transmitted over the centuries with extraordinary reliability.

That's unprecedented in all of history. We could spend the rest of our time on that, and that would be time well spent. But Pastor Mike is going to be touching on a lot of those topics in an upcoming sermon called guess what evidence it's going to be on July 21. He actually has already filmed it. It was done at the Bible Museum in Washington, DC.

So you can see some actual artifacts from the museum. And we're going to be talking about that on July 21 here at the core. So mark your calendar, come back in the middle of the summer for that one, because that's where we'll be touching on all of those points. But for now, remember and understand this truth, that our faith is not a blind faith. It does rest on real history and real evidence by eyewitnesses.

Objection number two. Christians live by faith, but intelligent people live by science. Okay? So you Christians, you can live by faith. I, however, am a man of science, a woman of science.

I follow the evidence. I believe scientific truth, therefore I can't be a person of faith. They present this as if those two are in opposition to each other and cannot be harmonized. You have to make a choice, faith or science, which is yours? That is a false dichotomy.

That is a false choice. Faith and science are not in opposition to each other. The truth, let me just tell you the truth, and then I'm going to prove it to you. The truth is this. All people live by faith, including secularists, including atheists.

All people live by faith. Now, first of all, let me just talk about faith and science. Let me just talk about the science realm for just a second. I'd love to spend the rest of my time on that. Do you have 10 hours today?

I could use it. So just in the science realm, is there in the natural realm, do we understand as much as you probably think we do? No. In the realm of science, there are so many things that we don't know, so many things we can't know, so many things we never will know. So there was a secular jewish scientist.

So he's not christian. His name is David Berlinski. He wrote a book and he wrote some challenging questions to his fellow scientists that don't have answers. Well, they do have answers, just not the one the scientists want you to know. He wrote this.

He says, has anyone provided a proof of God's inexistence? In other words, a proof that God doesn't exist? He says, not even close. Has quantum cosmology explained the emergence of the universe or why it is here? Not even close, he says.

Have the sciences explained why our universe seems to be fine tuned to allow for the existence of life? Not even close. By fine tuning, it means there. There are hundreds, thousands of these perfectly tuned variables. If any one of the thousands is off or different, life can't form even.

There can't be human life, and yet thousands of them, perfectly arranged so that life can exist. Why is that? Science says, I have no idea. We can't know that. Almost like it was designed.

Right? Has in the answer. Has rationalism in moral thought provided us with an understanding of what is good, what is right, and what is moral? Has rationalism in moral thought provided that? No, not even close, he says this.

Has secularism in the terrible 20th century been a force for good? Not even close to being close. That's his quote. Does anything in the sciences, or in their philosophy, justify the claim that religious belief is irrational? This secular scientist says, not even ballpark.

And then one last one. Is scientific atheism a frivolous exercise in intellectual contempt? Dead on, he says, okay, so cut and dried case. Follow the science. No, the science isn't even certain.

Don't base your life just on that. Now, that said, faith and science are the two truly in opposition to each other. No, they are not. Faith and science address completely different issues. Well, not totally completely, but maybe a very slight overlap, but almost completely separate issues.

Let me demonstrate that to you. What does science address? What is science seeking? Science seeks understanding of the natural world. That's the realm in which science operates.

The natural world. Science seeks how and why things happen. How and why things happen. That's the realm of science. Science seeks discovery, explanations, predictions and applications.

That's what science seeks. What about faith? What about belief systems? What are they seeking? What are they trying to answer?

Happiness and satisfaction. How can you have it? Where does that come from? Science doesn't touch that. But belief systems do.

Meaning and purpose in life. Science will never provide it, but a belief system will. Identity. Who are you really? Science cannot tell you.

A belief system will. A way of determining right and wrong, morality. Science won't help, but a belief system will. The ability to face suffering. Science won't help you, but a belief system will.

Love and beauty. Science can't explain it and never will hope for the future. Science cannot give it to you. So science can tell you the way things work, but not whether they should be used for a given purpose? It's not the realm of science.

Science can teach you how to do something more efficiently, but not whether that thing is worth doing in the first place, not the realm of science. So let me suggest this to you. If you look at those two lists above, which one can you live without?

You personally, let me suggest this, you personally could survive just fine without science. And can I suggest that millions or perhaps billions of people have and do, they don't know anything about the natural world around them. They don't know how this thing I'm buying in the grocery store got here or who made it or how it grew, but they can eat it, and they can survive without any knowledge of science. People can survive. But can you survive without a belief system and what it seeks to answer?

Can you survive without happiness and satisfaction? Can you survive without an identity, without meaning, without purpose? Can you survive without an ability to deal with the suffering and pain of this world? That was covered last week, if you want to review that. Can you survive without any hope whatsoever for the future?

What a horrible existence. Right? The belief system is essential. The science is more optional. I happen to love both, by the way.

They are not in opposition to each other in any way, shape or form. So the truth is this, all people live by faith because secularists, even atheists, they need the things that are listed under the belief system column, right? They need those things, too. And so they also live by faith because they have beliefs as well. Everybody needs it.

So at this point, I think an honest secularist would say, all right, yeah, you're right, we do have a belief system. We need a belief system. But they would insist this. Objection three, the secular belief system is rooted in evidence, logic and reason. Our beliefs.

The secularists would say, our belief system is rooted in evidence, logic and reason. And I want to demonstrate this to you. Let me just give you the truth, and then I'll prove it. The secular belief system is insufficient and empty. And I would also argue inconsistent.

It's not even consistent with itself, and it provides you no needed foundation for your daily life. What's interesting to me is that people, secular people, atheists, agnostics, they have a belief system. They either state it outright, which is interesting, or at least they live by it. And it's surprising to me as well that it's remarkably similar amongst them. So secularists, they all tend to believe that there are a certain number of objective moral values and duties.

They wouldn't say as many as the Christian would say, but there are some that are objectively, morally, there is a right and wrong in just a certain number of areas. They would insist on that. They would say. They would say, our life does have meaning and purpose. How you arrive at it is a question we'll get to in a second.

They would also say that human beings have value, worth and dignity. They are very much about human rights. Great. That's awesome. I'm glad they have those beliefs.

But what I would propose to you is that those beliefs do not have a foundation in their belief system. It does not logically flow from what they say they believe about science. It is inconsistent with itself, and it is ultimately leaving people empty.

The secularist, the atheist, the person that believes that it's an all natural world, no God needed, thank you very much. Would say that you are nothing more than stardust. You are an accident of nature. You are just a random thing that happened because of chemistry and physics and a whole lot of time and just an interaction of molecules and, well, there you are. Well, that doesn't inherently provide you with much meaning or purpose or identity, does it?

And they would say, one day the whole universe is going to grow cold. The human race will not be a memory of anyone, because there won't be one and there will be nobody to remember it. There is no future, ultimately, for humanity. So have a great life. It empties us of meeting.

There is a russian philosopher, Vladimir Solov, who summarized the ethical reasoning of secular humanism like this. This is so simple, so beautiful. Man descended from apes, therefore we must love one another.

Does that make logical sense to you? It's not logical. It's not rational. Man, descended from apes, therefore love one another. Well, he's right.

It's not logical, it's not consistent. And ultimately, if you have a secular worldview and that's how you intend to live and want other people to live, it is an empty life that puts you on a very shaky foundation that will probably end in depression and sadness at the end of your life. The secular belief system is insufficient, and it is empty. Which brings me to objection number four. The christian faith doesn't work in the modern, real world.

Come on, you christian people, your faith can't work in a modern world. It was invented by some people a couple thousand years ago. Science. They didn't understand how the world worked. They believed in myths.

They believed in miracles. And you think that that kind of faith can work in a scientific, modern world like we have today, where we've figured so many things out? No way. Your faith is outdated. So I can't be a Christian either.

And let me again demonstrate that this just isn't true. If our christian faith gave us just one thing, if it just gave us hope for eternity, that would already be worth it, wouldn't it? But it does so much more. Our christian faith gives us all the resources we need for a meaningful, purposeful, fulfilling, joy filled daily life right now. In fact, it gives us resources that no other belief system in the world can offer.

The truth is this. And then again, I'll prove it to you. Christ is everything, and in him your life is full, full up. It's complete.

So if you are new to the christian church, if you're new to the faith, if you're checking things out here for the first time, listen carefully. The secular belief system is going to leave you empty. And I want to present to you in our remaining time why the christian belief system is awesome and why it will fill you up. So we looked already at Colossians two eight where we had the warning about look out for the water you're swimming in. It's dirty.

The culture you're in is going to mislead you, misguide you, try to capture you, take you away from God. Okay, so what should be in its place? The verses surrounding it tell us so. Verses six and seven, Colossians chapter two. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness.

And I'm gonna circle back to this later, but our question at this point would be, yeah, but why? Why remain in Christ? Why grow in Christ? Why is this all so important? Look at the next verses.

For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And Christ. And in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. You have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

So who is Jesus? Well, he is God in human flesh. He is God who broke through into our existence to live among us. Jesus is the answer. Jesus is full up God.

And when you are in him, you are filled up too. So check out these verses 13 and 14. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, what does that mean? You were dead in your sins. That means you sin and you can't help it.

You sin and you can't fix it. If you're not so sure about that, my assignment is be holy and perfect for one week and then we can report back to the group here. And your wife or your husband has to be your witness or a significant other that you were in fact perfect. But you're going to find that's not really possible, is it? Because you are dead in your sin and you can't fix that.

You can't change that. You are dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh. What does that mean? It just means that you are not cut off from your sinful nature. It is still a part of you.

So what does God do for us in this condition? Cast us off? Condemn us to hell? That would be right. That would be just.

But it says this, God made you you dead ones. God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. Such powerful, awesome verses that fill your life with meaning and purpose.

You see, we have this enormous debt to God. We have sinned against the creator of the universe not once, not twice, millions of times. Our very nature is opposed to him and doesn't want to yield to him. We have this mountain of debt we could never begin to repay. And what does God do for us?

He takes it and he nails it to the cross and he forgives all of our sin. So your debt is forgiven by Jesus. Your addiction, nailed to the cross. Your selfishness, it was nailed to the cross. Your anger and fits of rage that was taken from you and nailed to the cross.

Your pride, arrogance, taken from you and nailed to the cross. Your shame that you feel because of how somebody abused you, it was taken from you and it was nailed to the cross. It was put on Jesus. It was paid in full. Your debt is gone and you are right with God.

So in Christ. In Christ you are full. In Christ you lack nothing. You have happiness and satisfaction because you have God's favor. Favor and you know he's for you.

You have identity. You are a child of God every minute of every day. That's who you are. A child of the most high. God, redeemed and forgiven and loved by him.

Your life now has meaning and purpose. You get up every morning with a smile on your face, ready to serve, ready to love. I am God's representative in this world and I'm going to show the world what, what an awesome God I have. What kind of forgiveness Jesus gives the love that he had for me. I'm going to show everybody else.

Wow. What a valuable, meaningful reason to get up in the morning, isn't it? You have a clear moral compass because God who is holy has told us what love looks like. It is our moral compass. You are equipped to face suffering.

See last week's message. Because you know that it has a purpose and you know that your God goes with you and there is something better that is yet to come. You have experienced love and so you know it like nobody else on the planet. And you can share it and show it like no one else can. And you have a certain hope for the future.

You're spending eternity with God, praising him in beauty forever and ever and ever. How's that for a belief system? There is none other like it. There is nothing like it in the world. Everyone listen.

Everyone lives by faith. Everyone does. So are you going to be captured by the empty, hollow philosophy of this world? Are you going to just go with what everybody around you is saying? Or are you going to follow Christ and find wholeness, be filled up and have a complete and meaningful life in him?

So then, just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflow with thankfulness. Let's pray. Please stand.

Dear Heavenly father, we are so grateful for what you have revealed that you have given us what we so desperately need. That you have given us answers to life's biggest problems and challenges. And they're not scientific ones. They are the problems of our everyday life and experience. And you have all the answers for us.

You have given us every resource we need to handle whatever happens in our life. And for this, we thank you and we praise you. So, Lord, help us to stay rooted and growing in Jesus and make that a priority every day of our life. To know him better, to follow him closer, to celebrate his love even greater, and to grow together as a body of Christ in strengthening and encouraging one another in this one true christian faith. We pray this all in the name of Jesus and all God's people said.