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!

• Acts 17:11

• I Thessalonians 5:19-22

  • All five of the statements in this verse are related. They are not independent thoughts.

  • v19

    • See Acts 7:51. Moses commanded through writings.

    • Do not extinguish the message from the Holy Spirit.

    • The two most important words in Bible study: Keep reading! Verse 20 explains verse 19.

  • v20

    • Prophecy often means foretelling future events. It can also mean simply telling the mind of God. It can mean both foretelling and “forthtelling.”

    • See Jeremiah 36:19-26

  • v21

    • The meaning of “all things” is context dependent. It very rarely means absolutely all things.

    • I John 4:1 – Check to see whether people and messages are from God!

    • When we find something to be from God, we should hold tight to it. Proverbs 23:23

  • v22

    • “Evil” here refers to teaching that we examine and determine is not good. We should stay away from the teaching. It is not saying we have to literally avoid everything that appears to be evil. That is impossible and Jesus did not even do it.

  • Compare I Corinthians 15:33. The context is false teaching on the resurrection. The “bad company” are the false teachers on the resurrection. If you listen to them and believe there is no resurrection and no accountability, you will start acting like it!

What must I do to be saved?

• II Timothy 3:14-15 – What were these scriptures that Timothy knew? It was the Old Testament! This was sufficient to lead Timothy to salvation.
• James 2:21-22 – Works here = obedience. The way we see Abraham’s faith is by his obedience. Your faith is evident not by just what you say but by what you do.
  • Genesis 22:1-14 – God had promised Abraham a son for 25 years, which he finally had at the age of 100. God then asked Abraham to sacrifice that same son, which surely made no sense to Abraham. God got the sacrifice He wanted – He wanted to see that Abraham was willing to make a great sacrifice to serve Him.

Three things that Abraham sacrificed and that we must also sacrifice

His logic

• II Kings 5:10-14 – Naaman was told to do an illogical thing!

His emotions

• Abraham knew that sacrificing his son would not be quick and painless.
• Matthew 10:34-38 – We may have to sacrifice relationships to serve God, even in our own family.

His will

• Matthew 16:24 – We must give up ourselves – let God rule our lives.
• This is what was instilled in Timothy and must be instilled in us.

About fasting (Matthew 6:16-18)

• There is no general command for fasting in the Old Testament or New Testament. Some specific groups were commanded to fast at particular times. Other times it was done voluntarily.

• Keep it clean

  • Fasting is not to be done for show. God will not accept it as spiritual service if it is done for show.

• What about fasting?

  • Self-denial with purpose – Isaiah 58:3-7

    • Isaiah warned about fasting without dedication.

  • Devotion to prayer

    • Command

    • Necessity

    • Authorization

    • Practicality

Worry and service (Matthew 6:19-34)

• What is prioritized? Matthew 6:19-20

• What is exclusive? Matthew 6:24

• Are these related?

• Concern vs. worry:

  • Concern motivates you to address the problem. Worry only makes the problem seem worse without actually doing anything to fix it.

• Exclusivity demonstrated by Moses – Hebrews 11:24-26

• Choose the right priority

  • The rest will fall into place.

  • II Corinthians 9:10 – As we do good, God increases our capacity for doing good.

Obsess over wealth?

• Don’t obsess – God is in control, not us.

  • Add a cubit?

  • Add an hour?

• Necessity of money

  • “Make” a living

  • Share

• Wealth is neither evil nor virtuous

  • Abraham – Romans 4:9-16; Genesis 13:2

  • Daniel