Introduction

• Judges 2:6-10 – “know” means to regard or esteem God. They knew of God, but did not esteem Him.
• Apostasy doesn’t happen overnight. It often happens after years of unaddressed spiritual problems.
• Apostasy often has outside help. Possibly even parents and elders.

Things that can produce “another” generation

Young people not encouraged to ask “why”

• Acts 17:11 – This advice is good for others and for us.

• John 20:24-25

  • There are two kinds of doubt:

    • “I doubt it!” – refusal to budge from a position

    • “I doubt it?” – honest doubt seeking answers

  • Thomas had the right kind of doubt. He was willing to believe, but wanted reason to.

• Paul Little, paraphrased – Children who ask questions to adults with a high shock index are quickly taken aback by their reaction and switch to towing the party line. They quietly wait until the pressure to conform is reduced and then leave a faith that was never really their own.

Pressure to become a Christian

• Galatians 4:19
• We can’t force people to be Christians. We should be leading people to Christ.
• Even after people are baptized, don’t leave them. Help them grow.
• I Peter 3:15
• We need more real disciples of Christ!
• Luke 17:20-21 – The kingdom of God is within you! Kingdom here means the rule of God in your heart.

Self-righteous people

• Luke 18:9
• II Corinthians 10:12

Hypocrites

• Romans 2:17-24 – The name of the Lord was blasphemed because of their hypocrisy!
• Little eyes and ears pick up on hypocrisy and it can stay with them for years.
• Galatians 5:13-15 – Don’t bite and devour each other!

• Romans 1

Introduction

• I Peter 3:15-16 – “to give an answer” – apologia – “verbal defense, a speech in defense”

• Jesus was an actual historical being.

• Jesus is the reason …

  • I believe in God.

  • I believe the Old Testament is a revelation from God.

• Three things make the Old Testament unique.

  • Claims of inspiration

  • Claims of prophecy

  • Claims of miraculous historical events

• What is the best evidence that these claims are valid?

Jesus and Old Testament inspiration

• II Peter 1:20-21

• Luke 24:44-45 – “Scriptures” here refers to the Old Testament

• The Old Testament was viewed as three parts:

  • The Law of Moses – Genesis through Deuteronomy

  • The Prophets – Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 12 minor prophets

  • The Psalms – Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentation, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles

Claims of inspiration in the law

• Exodus 24:4; Leviticus 1:1; Numbers 1:1; Deuteronomy 4:2

Claims of inspiration in the prophets

• “Thus says the Lord” – 3,308 times!
• Zechariah 7:12; Nehemiah 9:30

Claims of inspiration in the psalms

• Acts 1:!6 – the Holy Spirit spoke by David
• Psalms 95:7, referenced in Hebrews 3:7
• Psalms 45:6, referenced in Hebrews 1:8
• Psalms 102:23, 27, referenced in Hebrews 1:10-12
• Spoken to you by God – Matthew 27:31-32 refers to Exodus 3:6
• The scripture says
  • John 6:42 is the same as “God says,” Micah 5:2; 1:1
• David in the Spirit
  • Jesus quotes David, Psalms 110:1, and says he was “in the spirit,” Matthew 22:43
• Jesus quoted from each of the three sections.

Jesus and Old Testament prophecy

• Matthew 24:15 – Daniel the prophet

Prophet

Fulfillment

Date B.C.

David – Psalms 41:9

John 13:18

1,000

Isaiah – Isaiah 61:1; 6:9-10

Luke 4:16-21; Matthew 13:14-15

750

Daniel – Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11

Matthew 24:15

605-530

Zechariah – Zechariah 13:7

Matthew 26:31

520

Malachi – Malachi 3:1

Matthew 11:10

445-432

Prophecies in the book of Daniel

605 B.C

549 B.C.

547 B.C.

506 B.C.

Daniel 2:36

Daniel 7:4

Babylon, 626-539 B.C.

Daniel 2:39

Daniel 7:5

Daniel 8:3, 4, 20

Daniel 11:1-2

Media-Persia, 5390330 B.C.

Daniel 2:39

Daniel 7:6

Daniel 8:5, 21-22

Daniel 11:3-4

Greece, 330-63 B.C.

Alexander the Great

Daniel 11:5

Egypt, 323 B.C.

Daniel 11:6

Syria, 204 B.C.

Daniel 8:23-25

Daniel 11:21-35

Antiochus Epiphanes, 175 B.C.

Daniel 11:32-35

Maccabees, 168 B.C.

Daniel 2:40

Daniel 7:7-8, 24-25

Daniel 11:36-45

Rome, 63 B.C.

Daniel 2:44

God’s kingdom, 33 A.D.

Media-Persia

• Daniel’s first prophecy of Media-Persia – 605 B.C.
• Media-Persia ascended to prominence – 539 B.C.
• 605-539: 66 years prior to fulfillment

Greece

• Daniel’s first prophecy of Greece – 605 B.C.
• Greece ascended to prominence – 330 B.C.
• 605-330: 275 years prior to fulfillment

Alexander the Great

• Daniel’s first prophecy of Alexander the Great – 547 B.C.
• Alexander the Great ascended to prominence – 330 B.C.
• 547-330: 217 years prior to fulfillment

Rome

• Daniel’s first prophecy of Rome – 605 B.C.
• Rome ascended to prominence – 27 B.C.
• 605-27: 578 years prior to fulfillment

Jesus and Old Testament historical events

• The preaching of Jonah – Luke 11:32

Old Testament events

Jesus’ reference

Creation – Genesis 1-2

Mark 13:19

Ark and flood – Genesis 6-8

Matthew 24:37-39

Sodom/Gomorrah – Genesis 19

Luke 17:29

Lot’s wife – Genesis 19

Luke 17:32

Manna – Exodus 16

John 6:31-32

Brazen serpent – Numbers 21

John 3:14

Jonah and fish – Jonah 1-2

Matthew 12:39-41

Conclusion

• Was Jesus wrong about

  • Old Testament claims of inspiration?

  • Old Testament claims of prophetic messages?

  • Old Testament claims of miraculous historical events?

• Did He know better and was lying?

• Did He think they were true and was a fool?

• Was He sane and telling the truth?

• To believe in the sanity and veracity of Jesus is to believe God is the Divine author of the Old Testament.

Introduction

• I Peter 3:15-16 – “to give an answer” – apologia – “verbal defense, a speech in defense”

• Why do you believe in …

  • In God?

  • In the Old Testament?

  • In the New Testament?

  • Jesus is the reason!

Jesus really lived

• Secular documents – Josephus
• New Testament documents

Does God exist? The best evidence.

Subjective evidence

• “You ask me how I know he lives, He lives within my heart.” – This is not a good reason to believe in Jesus!
• The atheist simply responds that he knows Jesus does not live because Jesus does not live in his heart.

Objective evidence

• Cosmological evidence – cause and effect
  • Hebrews 3:4
• Teleological – design and designer
  • Romans 1:19-20
• Empirical – an appeal to the five senses

The importance of empirical evidence – John

• John 1:1-3, 14 – God became flesh. We have empirical evidence!
• I John 1:1-3

The importance of empirical evidence – Jesus

• John 12:44-45 – When one looks at Jesus, he sees empirical evidence of God the Father.
• John 14:8-10 – Seeing Jesus = seeing the Father

Jesus is the reason I believe in God

Jesus’ claims

• I John 1:3

• “I AM” – John 6:35, 48, 51; 7:29; 8:12, 23-24, 28, 58; 9:5; 10:7, 11, 36; 11:25; 14:6, 10-11, 20; 15:1

  • The light of the world – John 8:12

  • From above, not of this world – Hebrews 9:23-24, 28

  • I AM, John 8:58 (“I AM” is the root of the word Jehovah)

• Equality with God – John 5:17-18; 14:9

• Sinlessness – John 8:46

• Eternal – John 8:58; 17:5

• Miracles – Matthew 11:26; John 5:36; 10:25

• Forgive sins – Mark 2:5

• Accepted worship – Matthew 8:2

• Come to Father by Him – John 14:6

• Eternal life through Him – John 3:15

• Resurrection

  • Would be the sign that would validate all His claims and deeds. Matthew 12:38-40; John 2:18-22

  • Repeatedly said He would arise from the grave. Matthew 12:38-40; 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19; 26:32; Mark 8:31; 9:9, 31; 10:34; 14:28; Luke 9:22; 18:33; John 2:18-22; 10:18

  • He claimed that He had arisen. Luke 24:46; Revelation 1:18; 2:8

Jesus’ miracles

• I John 1:3
• “The only way we can know whether an event can occur is to see whether in fact it has occurred. The problem of ‘miracles’ then, must be solved in the realm of historical investigation, not in the realm of philosophical speculation.” – John Warwick Montgomery, History and Christianity
• Water to wine – John 2:1-11
• Healing lame man – John 5:1-9
• Healing nobleman’s sons – John 4:46-54
• Feeding five thousand – John 6:1-14
• Walking on water – John 6:16-21
• Healing blind man – John 9:1-12
• Raising Lazarus – John 11:39-44

If claims and miracles were false

• Did Jesus know they were false? Then He was a liar.
• Did Jesus sincerely believe them to be true? Then He was mentally disturbed.

If claims and miracles were true

• John 20:27-28 – Empirical evidence! Thomas believed. “My Lord and my God!”

If Lord and God

• Luke 6:46

Conclusion

• Major premise: If God has been seen, God is.
• Minor premise: God has been seen in the person of the historical Jesus.
• Conclusion: Therefore, God is.

• Hebrews 11:32-34

Jeremiah’s work

• Jeremiah began prophesying when Josiah was king and prophesied for about 50 years.
• Jeremiah 1:10 – The majority of Jeremiah’s work was relaying negative messages from God. This certainly must have been tiring for Jeremiah to constantly warn and prophesy doom with only a few positive messages sprinkled in.

Jeremiah’s struggles

• Jeremiah 15:16-17 – Jeremiah would have to work alone.
• Jeremiah 18:18, 22; 11:19 – Enemies devised schemes against Jeremiah, some of which he was ignorant of.
• Jeremiah 20:7; 12:6 – Jeremiah was mocked and laughed at – even by his own family!
• Jeremiah 38:6; 37:15-16; 20:2 – Jeremiah was put into the bottom of a dry well. He was imprisoned, beaten, and put in stocks.
• Jeremiah 4:10; 15:8; 20:14-18 – How did Jeremiah respond? He wished he had not been born to see such awful things.
• Jeremiah 6:10; 9:2 – Jeremiah expressed skepticism. He wanted to quit!
• Jeremiah 12:1 – When Jeremiah struggled with moments of weakness, he talked to God.
• Jeremiah 20:7-9 – Jeremiah wanted to quit but could not.

How Jeremiah rose above his struggles

• Jeremiah 10:6-7; 16:19; 20:11 – In the end, Jeremiah praised God!
• Psalms 73:1-5, 13-17 – David despaired of the evil done to the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked. But then he saw the end that was coming for the wicked.

Application for us

Take your concerns to God and don’t give up!