• The lead up to the leap of faith.
  • A persuasive message that speaks to something inside us. Romans 10:17
• The message of salvation in Christ runs through the Bible. It produces faith in those who see it.
• John 5:39
• Luke 24:26-27,44-45
• Threads that tie together in Christ
  • The sacrifices of atonement
  • A law giver like Moses
  • …
• Colossians 2:17
  • Physical family → spiritual family
  • Earthly family → heavenly nation
  • Physical deliverance → spiritual deliverance
  • …
• Redemption is realized in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:7
• The end of the story of redemption
  • Revelation 20-22
  • A story with a beginning, middle, and end.
    • Revelation 20:10 – Satan deceived Eve; Christ defeated Satan; Satan will be judged.
    • Revelation 20:11 – The world was cursed; Christ came into the world to save man; the world is destroyed.
    • Revelation 20:12-12 – Adam brought death; Christ overcame death; all will be raised.
    • Revelation 21:1-2 – Physical Jerusalem; spiritual Jerusalem; heavenly Jerusalem
    • Revelation 21:3 – Tabernacle, God dwells with Israel; the church, the temple of God; God’s people dwell with Him fully in Heaven
    • Revelation 21:4 – A curse inflicted; a curse borne; a curse removed.
    • Revelation 21:4-5,9-14 – 12 tribes; 12 apostles; the glorified people of God.
    • Revelation 21:15-16,21-22,24 – Nations divided; nations invited; nations redeemed.
    • Revelation 22:1 – Rivers of Eden; …
    • Revelation 22:2 – Tree of life; the tree that gives back life; the tree of life.
    • Revelation 22:3 – Sacrificial lamb; the lamb of God; the lamb who reigns.
    • Revelation 22:4,14 – Cleansing of the priests; washing of regenerating; washed in the blood of the Lamb.
    • Revelation 22:16,20-21
• Conclusion
  • The story of redemption began in Eden and will end in Heaven.
  • In Jesus, God provided deliverance from the curse of sin and death.
  • When we see the story woven and tied together it produces faith in us.
  • How will the story end for you?

[Sorry, no notes available for this lesson.]

• The leap of faith
• Romans 1:19-20
• Exhibit A: The universe
  • Cosmic microwave radiation background of the universe
  • The universe contains over 170 billion galaxies
  • Galaxies contain 10 million to 100 trillion stars
  • Estimated total of 70 sextillion (7*1022) stars
  • The law of cause and effect
    • For every event there must be a cause sufficient to account for it.
  • God, the universe creator
    • Only a being of infinite power could bring such a universe into existence. Genesis 1:1; Psalms 19:1; Isaiah 40:25-26
    • Only a force which is itself eternal could be a sufficient first cause.
      • Something must start everything. Revelation 1:8; 22:13
    • Only a force of nature could bring it about.
• Exhibit B: The laws of physics
  • The 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics
    • Nothing new is being made.
    • Everything is moving toward a disordered state.
  • No natural cause can account for the existence of the universe.
  • All energy progresses to a more disorderly state, thus the universe cannot always have existed.
  • Psalms 102:25-27
• Exhibit C: The fine tuning of the forces of nature
  • Genesis 1:1-3
  • Isaiah 45:19 – God created the universe to be orderly.
  • Physical values finely tuned to incredible precision
    • Electron to proton ratio
    • Electromagnetism to gravity ratio
    • Must be correct to 1 in 1*1018

• We must build up our faith!
• Irrational: not endowed with reason or understanding.
• The charge that faith is irrational:
  • It is not based on observable evidence.
  • It is not based on reason.
  • It is not verifiable by experimentation.
  • It is a blind leap of faith accepted on the basis of revelation.
  • It amounts to superstition.
  • People believe because they want to.
• The response of the Bible:
  • The charge that faith is irrational is a dishonest effort to stigmatize believers and cut off debate.
    • This is an ad hominem attack and is not reasonable at all.
    • Acts 26:24-26
    • Name calling does not prove anything.
    • One man’s reasonable is another’s crazy.
  • Religious faith is in fact based on observable evidence.
    • Romans 1:19-20 – The invisible attributes of God can be seen through what He has made.
    • Acts 14:16-17
    • Believers cite lots of evidence.
    • We see the same things as unbelievers.
    • We reason to a different conclusion.
      • Two interpretations of the same evidence.
  • Religious faith is based in part on reasoning from the available evidence to a logical conclusion.
    • Acts 17:2-4
    • I Peter 3:15
    • We reason from the evidence.
    • We conclude faith is more reasonable.
  • Does unverified mean irrational?
    • Faith may not be verifiable at the present but many things in science are accepted as possible or even likely without current verification:
      • Dark matter
      • Gravity waves
      • Black holes
      • Certain sub-atomic particles
      • Life on other planets
  • Basic assumptions of science:
    • There exists a single unchanging set of laws which govern all events in the universe.
    • Human beings are able to understand the workings of the physical universe.
    • The laws which describe the universe are describable by mathematics.
  • The response of the Bible
    • Much religious faith is based on revelation, but revelation itself is a type of evidence.
    • John 20:30-31
    • Acts 1:3
    • II Peter 1:16
    • It’s called testimony
      • It’s the basis on which we “know” just about everything we know.
    • Equating our faith with superstition is disingenuous.
      • John 7:45-46
      • Luke 24:32
    • Faith does not involve choice that goes beyond observable facts
      • Hebrews 11:1
      • John 20:29
      • The evidence only takes us so far.
      • There is a moral or spiritual choice that takes us the rest of the way.
      • Faith is reasonable but not provable.
      • God has intentionally made it this way. I Peter 1:8-9; Hebrews 11:6

• Matthew 4:1-4
• As humans, we have to bear the lot of humanity. We cannot just make it go away.
• Lessons
  • We all face temptation. It is an unavoidable part of the human experience.
  • God is with us in our hour of weakness and helps us to defeat temptation.
  • Behind our temptation is the devil who seeks our destruction, but he can be defeated.
  • Where Israel failed, Christ was able to succeed and show us the way. Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:1-3.
• Matthew 4:4
  • “Man” - The devil wants to convince us that we are just animals, that if we have a desire, we should just fulfill it.
  • “shall not live” - There is a part of us that needs more than just physical nourishment to live. There is a spiritual side of man. There is a part of us that suffers without spiritual nourishment. Why do celebrities and pro athletes live such messed up lives? Because they try to live by bread alone!
  • “on bread alone” - Society tries to teach us that bread alone is enough.
  • “on every word” - Even the universe exists because of the word of God.
  • “that proceeds out of the mouth of God” - Our soul and spirit thrives on the word of God.
• Conclusion
  • By His temptation Jesus took on our burden and carried it.
  • He shows us that there is much more to life than our physical existence.
  • He shows us that to truly live we must come to fully trust in God.
  • That life comes through every word of God.