The good news of Christ
Father in heaven, this passing world holds nothing,
Offers nothing for the child of God:
Remind us always of this evident truth,
Let Satan not deceive nor blind our eyes,
As Eve fell prey and lost the blessed Garden.
Make heaven grow within our weakened sight,
Its many glories in all their shining brilliance;
Raise up our faces to our coming Lord,
Our hearing tuned to the shout of clouded angels,
So worldly voices fail to reach our ears.
Father, thank you for rain to refresh the earth,
And for the Spirit to reaffirm our worth;
We thank you for the moist and nurturing soil,
And for a heavenly purpose behind our toil;
Our thanks we give for sun and moon and stars,
For time to make the blessed gospel ours;
To you we owe all praise for life and health,
For freedom from our sin and carnal filth;
Blest be the God who made the ocean waves,
And brought to man the Son who fully saves.
Convincing people that God’s Word is truth must come before they will believe anything you may show them and change their lives because of it. This is part one of a twelve part series found only on sermonlines.com and heard throughout 2018 at plattsburghchurch.com.
Ten Reasons Why the Bible is True
1 The Bible itself says it is inspired of God and authoritative
a. We shouldn’t claim for the Bible what it doesn’t claim for itself (John 17:17, 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
b. Prophecy fulfilled centuries after it was written prove this: compare Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 to the events of the cross or Zechariah 11:12-13 to Matthew 27:3-10.
2 There’s a unity of thought and purpose over 1600 years of writing it (1500 B.C. to 100 A.D.).
a. There are no seeming contradictions that are not easily accounted for.
b. The theme is a loving God’s plan to bring sinful man back into a relationship with Him.
3 There’s a unity of thought and purpose though written by about 40 writers from many different backgrounds: kings, shepherds, fishermen, rich, poor, Jews and non-Jews.
a. The Bible was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.
b. The writers were from different countries and political situations: Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Israel.
4 Careful copying through the centuries has given us the exact Bible as when it was first written.
a. See the methods of the Masoretes and monks who believed their salvation was at stake!
b. Found in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls, written about 100 B.C. to 100 A.D., prove the preservation of all the Old Testament books (except Esther).
5 Outside sources describe Bible events, places, and people.
a. In 93 A.D., the Jewish historian, Josephus, described Jesus rising from the dead, et. al.
b. Stories of the Genesis flood are preserved in cultures around the world.
c. The Chinese language depicts pre-Babel events in their ‘picture language.’
d. Outside sources are mentioned in Scripture (Joshua 10:12-14, Luke 1:1-4).
6 Archaeology continues to prove Bible events, places, and people(s) over and over.
a. Hazor was indeed burned by the Israelites when they came into the land (Joshua 11:12-13).
b. The temple was destroyed, rebuilt, enlarged, and destroyed again as the Bible states.
7 Man is more confident of the Bible’s accuracy than other ancient works.
a. Over 5,300 ancient Greek copies of the New Testament exist that are within two centuries of the originals. It is better preserved and authenticated than Caesar, Plato, or Aristotle’s writings.
b. There were more witnesses to the Bible’s events, places, and people than to Shakespeare writing Shakespeare’s works.
8 The Bible was the newspaper of the day with witnesses who were for, neutral, and against Christianity attesting to the validity of the Bible’s events, places, and people.
a. Not even Christianity’s enemies of the 1st Century could explain away Jesus’ miracles or the empty tomb. If they could have, they would have!
b. Jesus appeared at least ten recorded times over a period of 40 days after He was resurrected. The largest group was 500 (1 Corinthians 15:5-6) to people who were not expecting to see Him alive. Mass hallucinations do not happen in this manner.
9 Nature and science prove the Bible over and over.
a. Things tend toward chaos, not the complexity we see either through a microscope, telescope, or with our eyes (Romans 1:18-20).
b. The Bible speaks of the earth being round (Isaiah 40:22), the paths of the sea (Psalm 8:8), and dinosaurs (Job 40-41).
10 Changed lives prove the Bible is true.
a. Compare the apostles in Luke 22:54-62 to Acts 4:18-20. Most died attesting to the gospel.
b. The changed lives of Christians today from how they were before they obeyed Christ attest to the Bible being true.
Thank you, heavenly Father, for answering our prayers. You are God who delights in hearing your children’s requests. We know that we receive when we ask. This is the confidence that we have before you: that whenever we ask anything according to your will, you hear us.
You continue to prove this truth in our walk with you. So we praise your name for this blessing. We rejoice in possessing your answer, not for our sakes, but for the needs of the hour and for the spread of your kingdom. Be glorified in us, O Lord.
So we will continue to pray. We ask for strength not to faint in perseverance in supplications and requests. Let us always be sure of your goodness and generosity. We tremble in awe of you, O Lord, and your goodness. We ask many things of you, because you give to all generously and without reprimand.
So we are sure, Father, that it is not because of our goodness or special qualities, but because you give to all who ask. This is your glory and our joy, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
God of lights and souls,
lift us up to heaven,
raise us by your Spirit,
liven us for your presence,
give us peace within,
joy that bubbles over,
purpose of life and action.
Lord of man and beast,
look upon your people,
save us in your mercy,
shelter us in your shadow,
bless and make us blameless,
yours are power and glory,
ever and ever, amen.
“Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” Luke 4:20-21. For centuries, God’s chosen people had been expecting a Savior, God Himself. In one of those passages, Isaiah had written over 700 years before that the Messiah would fulfill certain requirements: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” After returning to Galilee after His baptism and temptation in the power of the Spirit, news spread about Him and He taught in the area’s synagogues. It was in His hometown of Nazareth, however, where everyone knew Him as ‘Joseph’s son,’ that He chose to declare Himself, through the fulfillment of Isaiah 61, to be the Christ and God Himself! No wonder those who remembered Jesus lugging tools for His earthly father were furious and wanted to drive Him off a cliff. Who do you understand Jesus to be?
As all were praising Jesus at the beginning of His ministry, He went back to His hometown.
I. Luke 4:14-22. A hometown boy was gaining noteriety, and so the synagogue in Nazareth must have been packed when Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah and read a prophecy of the coming Messiah that they had all heard numerous times before. Then, he did the unthinkable; He assigned those words uttered seven centuries before to Himself and let them sink in to the local crowd.
II. Luke 4:23-30. It was blasphemy if not true, the fulfillment of all that the Jews had been waiting for if it was. But, rather than letting the neighbors from His childhood wrestle with this, Jesus confronted them with the truth–that accepting Him as the prophesied Christ meant that God would open the gospel to all people. This was something the crowd gathered to hear the old stories wasn’t ready for.
III. Luke 8:5-15. How about us? Many of us gather in Jesus’ hometown every Sunday morning out of habit or because we’re hoping to be entertained. We can’t wait to hear what He’s been up to lately and some of the old stories that are comfortable. But, He confronts us there on a personal level, challenging our understanding of who He is. Will we accept that or try to drive Him over a cliff?
Sometimes it is those who have known Him the longest who need re-assess our view of Jesus. If He truly is the Christ, how does that change us?
A 65 year-old grandmother, who cares for two disabled siblings and houses several adult grandchildren on the bank of the Saranac River, just lost everything in recent ice jams and subsequent flooding. Although it has been years since she and some members of her family have come to church, I have been connecting her with various agencies with which I have contact and of course with her church family that wants to know how to help.
We all have a need for intercession and in turn need to intercede for others. I have come across both givers and takers in my twenty years of ministry, and it is certainly the givers who have the hardest time accepting help.
I. Exodus 32:7-14. When God wanted to destroy the Israelites He had just saved out of Egypt because they had fallen into idolatry, Moses interceded for them, even offering to take God’s punishment upon himself. Concerned for God’s Name, Moses even turned down God’s offer to make him into a great nation in place of Israel. Being an intercessor can often take self-denial and sacrifice.
II. Hebrews 7:23-25. No one would know that more than Jesus, who as our High Priest, laid down His own life to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father with His own blood. Like He did for the Israelites, God did not wait for us to repent first, but rather, before we realized our need, while we were still enemies to Him, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).
III. 1 Timothy 2:1-3. Because of the intercession that we have received, we in turn intercede for others, regardless of how they have conducted themselves towards us or the church in the past. This is how God loved us, and so we in turn love others (1 John 3:16-18). This pleases God who wants all men to be saved, and who knows that your intercession might lead them to a knowledge of the truth?
Will helping this giving grandmother lead her back to God? Only God knows. But, already she has acknowledged that the church has always been there for her–even when she was not attending.
No, not those ones!
When a church member was at my house last Saturday, he remarked upon the birds gathered at the feeder in my backyard and asked if we had ever had a cardinal. Male cardinals are a vibrant crimson that stands out against the snow and are very territorial. If there’s anything to the old wives tale that a cardinal is a visitor from beyond the grave, then we were terrorized by a red demon all last winter.
Believing his reflection was another male cardinal, he would repeatedly attack our windows all around our house, banging and flapping against the glass for hours on end, every day, all season long. As I told this story, my brain, as it often does, went to the spiritual application:
We are indeed our own worst enemies!
I. James 1:13-15. No, the devil does not make you do it! Satan certainly exploits each person’s weaknesses, but the evil desires we act on come from within us–and we choose to sin. We wanted the cardinal to stop hitting our windows, and God wants us to stop sinning.
II. Psalm 51:10-12. Sin robs us of purity, steadfastness, God’s presence, and joy. The cardinal could not have been that happy striking the windows over and over, and yet he never stopped. God, who wants us to have life to the full (John 10:10) must think that of us when we fall repeatedly into the same sins.
III. Romans 8:37-39. Nothing outside of ourselves can separate us from God’s love. That is for certain. But, we can choose to turn away from that love (Hebrews 10:26-31). While the male did his daily routine, never learning and never quite knocking himself out, the female cardinal would often watch from the branch of a nearby tree. I couldn’t help but wonder what she must think of him.
They did not return with the snow, and although we do not miss the insistent thumps, I wonder if he has given up his cardinal sins or is just repeating them against someone else’s windows.
How about us?
Lord, make my spoken words be few —
and wholesome! By them change and save
one life — or many — of pagan or Jew,
of worldly or pious, of noble or knave.
Lord, make me bite my tongue when the mind
would spew out garbage thoughtlessly —
and loosen it freely when I find
an act to praise — or on my knee.
Lord, make me a child whose words and actions
agree — who follows what he speaks —
who’s guided by love, not heated passions —
who’s strong in faith, but in wrath is weak.
Lord, make your Name my lips’ best praise —
your glory my charm and disposition —
your mercy and grace my constant phrase —
your love my joyous, eternal mission.
Lord, thank you for accepting the little ones whom men reject. Thank you for giving a chance to those who have had no advantage in this life. Thank you for your patience with me.
Let the voice of this world fade. Let its attractions be seen for what they are, a trap to remove us from your way. Let us resist its pressures to conform.
Help us remember we are servants. Let not the criticisms make us waver. Keep others’ weaknesses from discouraging us.
Bless us that we might be a blessing to others. Make our joy contagious. Let truth be recognized, and the Way be followed.