Good morning. It's good to be here in hot, crispy, humid Alabama. This is my fourth foray into the College View Lectures. It's been a while, though haven't been here in some years. When I first came in the year 2000, I was the young guy on the program, and now I'm the old guy on the program. It's amazing what changes in 24 years. If last night's song service was any indication, with Brother Todd, we're in for some great song leadership this week. And even though I I've just met Brother Greg this morning, I have some bonds of connection with both Andy and Greg. I've got one daughter in Athens and the other daughter in Minnesota. And my daughter, Megan, the older daughter, who's in Minnesota, has evangelism in her blood, and she started a neighborhood Bible study some years ago, and it's a weekly study, and Andy teaches that has done for many years, and they're well on their way to converting the entire neighborhood, I think. And in Athens, Alabama, Todd has taught a Bible class at Athens bible school for my little grandson, Landon. And so I appreciate both of these men. Look forward to what they have to say this week, and I'm glad to be a part of it myself.
Want to talk this morning about the case for Jesus. Who is Jesus? I preach in the Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, which is right next to San Jose. It's about 45 miles south of San Francisco. There have been many times over the last 17 years when I've gone back there, which is home to me, it's my hometown, that I've wanted to come back to this part of the country, but it's hard for me to do that, because people are not lining up to go out there, and yet as messed up as the culture and public policy are there, we have 1000s upon 1000s upon 1000s, maybe in the millions, of young people who need to be introduced to Jesus. And we have Bible studies all the time, and I'm in the trenches all the time. And so what I'm going to address this morning, I address. from firsthand experience. Anecdotally, about 1/3 of the people that we study with out there are simply looking for a New Testament Church. And I didn't know until recently that we still had those kinds of people out there, but we do. But about two thirds of the people that we study with, most from different ethnic backgrounds, different cultures, are simply curious, burning with curiosity about Jesus, about the Bible, about this Christianity stuff. And they just want to know. Particularly East Asians. And I don't want to stereotype, but we have a lot of Bible studies with East Asians, Chinese, others. And I sometimes just tell them, we're going to introduce you to Jesus. Sometimes I won't even package it as a Bible study that is too intimidating for them. They've never studied the Bible before. So, we introduce Jesus, usually look at what a medical doctor a couple 1000 years ago had to say about him based on firsthand, or for him, second hand testimony, but first hand in terms of putting together eyewitnesses and what they had to say about Jesus.
And so as we dive into this study, after looking at the purpose of life in Ecclesiastes, a little one shot lesson that I presented here years ago, and still, do. We look at the Gospel accounts. Sometimes we're a little bit sloppy with our own language. We speak of the Gospel of Matthew, or Mark's gospel, or Luke's gospel and so on. I don't even like that language particularly anymore, even though sometimes I use it. There's only one gospel, and it's good news for Jesus, of Jesus Christ, and the Gospel according to Matthew, the gospel according to Mark, Luke and so on. But one gospel, different accounts, representative of different target audiences, as well as eyewitness testimony that sometimes differ slightly in the four different perspectives. And, but one gospel, four perspectives, and I introduce people to this in a very simple way. Different audiences, multiple eyewitness testimony, richness of perspective, including undesigned coincidences that you see when you compare accounts. I don't know how many of you are readers. I've got bookshelves of books on the Gospels, but if you are a reader, I highly recommend a couple of shorter, user friendly books, easy to read, fairly short testimonies to the truth, by Lydia McGrew and can we trust the Gospels by Peter Williams. It would give you a lot of ammunition for dealing with some of the stuff, some of the the principles I'm going to deal with today. But as we dive into the Gospels with unbelievers who are, who would believe if they simply had the case presented to them, I start with foundational assumptions. I think that's very important to do on the front end. And I establish that we must go wherever the truth leads us, that we must be open to supernatural possibilities. That's really big for some folks out there. Thirdly, we must have the courage to stand and not just follow the crowd, particularly in our ideologies. If you throw evidence out of court before the verdict is reached, your verdict is going to be skewed. And so you have to be open enough to look at the evidence, all of the evidence, and do so honest mindedly.
The whole supernatural thing is tricky with people. I was establishing the credibility of Luke last Thursday night, and very intelligent Chinese young lady was saying to me, okay, this is based on eyewitness testimony. And yet, in Luke chapter one, you have what seems to be kind of fairy tale type of material. You've got an angel there. I said, you have to eliminate any human additives that might be legendary or mythological, and just look at the bigger picture of things. And one thing you absolutely need to do, and I draw this chart on on a piece of paper. I've done it many, many times over the years. That we are limited by our five senses, and so there's a barrier. We can't, we cannot automatically project ourselves into the presence of God. Only if God pulls the curtain back can we see by revelation what's there in the supernatural realm, because we're limited by virtue of our five senses and limitations that God has placed on us here on planet Earth. But God is not so limited on his end, and he's able to cross that barrier. It's no barrier for him, and able to reveal himself on our level, to stoop down, as it were, to our level, and ultimately, in the person of Jesus Christ, to come to our level, human to human, God in the flesh, to be one of us. No one has seen God, the only God who is at the father's side. He has made him known. John 1:18. And what I tell people as we embark on this journey is you need to notice five things. We may be reading through paragraphs of Luke or the gospel according to John, but I want you to notice five things, and I'll have them read paragraphs on their own. Well, I'll select certain key paragraphs that we'll look at as we come together, but I inevitably come back to these five areas, easy, easily remembered.
Pay special attention to what Jesus says. Pay special attention to what he does. His advance notice in Old Testament, prophecy, we're going to look at some things said hundreds of years in advance that are fulfilled in stunning detail. The eyewitnesses, they're crawling around everywhere, and they're often identified by name. Pay special attention when characters in episodes in the gospels are identified by name. That's often a cue of an eyewitness who was still living as these stories began to be preached in the early church. Pay special attention to Jesus claims. And so if you pay special attention to his sayings, his deeds, his predicted prophecies, his eyewitnesses and his claims, you have a composite case. It's not an instant fix, it's a composite case. It's a cumulative thing. And as you embark on understanding those things, you have to keep an open mind and not distort the lens.
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I'll just tell you what it what it says, essentially superimposing human agendas as the filter through which evidence passes is not going to cut it. We have to be open minded. We have to be open to mind blowing facts. We have to think outside the box. Think, rise above conventional wisdom or the biases and prejudices of our own culture. And especially so, at least with a lot of the folks that I study with out there, when we deal with angels, demons, miracles and rise above human embellishments and be open to supernatural possibilities, and when we are open to supernatural possibilities, there's a whole world of ideas that that will open up to us.
So, witness identification. There are, the more details that are given in these episodes, the greater the chance that eyewitnesses could be scrutinized. In a few instances, at least the omission of names and details is a form of witness protection. I believe there's a reason that the whole Lazarus episode is not found in the synoptic Gospel accounts, is found later in the Gospel of John. Lazarus had become a target. You have other cryptic references. You have the missing name of Peter and the missing name of Malchus in that particular incident, where, where Peter cuts off an ear. You have other cryptic references, such as Mark 14, where Jesus sends a couple of disciples to go find a man who's carrying a jar that will lead them to the master, who shows them a house, and then the upper room in the home, where, where Jesus will eventually eat the last supper with His disciples. But I think some of that is reflective of eyewitness protection, and when witnesses are specifically named in the accounts, they were still often in a position to verify the reports in the early church, as these things began to be taught and preached. Now the Gospels, as we have them, probably were not produced in final form till AD60, and beyond early 60s, I think in at least in the case of Matthew, Mark and Luke. But why were they produced? What was the purpose of these gospels? And I often, I often deal in the Gospel according to Luke. And it opens up on this note, "in as much as many have overtaken or undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us. It seemed good to me also, having followed things, all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught." I want to unpack that into four simple points, and I'll make these points. Words when I open up Luke with people for the very first time.
Number one, these are things that are accomplished or fulfilled among us. So significant was the life of Jesus Christ, with so much advanced notice that we even divide our calendars BC and AD. That something fundamental, fundamentally changed when Jesus appeared on the scene of human history. Secondly, eyewitnesses delivered them to us. Luke was not an eye eyewitness, but he consults eyewitnesses. He does his homework. And thirdly, many have undertaken to compile a narrative prior to the writing of Luke. And I'll come back to that point. Finally, the aim, so that you might know the exact truth concerning the things that you have been taught. "That you have been taught," comes from a Greek word, the vocabulary form of that word is catechizo. Catholics hijack that term. Catechism comes from that term, and it carries the idea of oral teaching. Translations don't always carry forward the idea of the orality of the teaching, but it's important to realize that Luke is not presenting to Theophilus or to many other Christians in the first century brand new material to them. He is simply giving a systematic organization, structure, certainty and a background check, if you will, of material that, for the most part, Christians pretty much knew. And they knew that material, I think, because it had been teached, taught and preached on a fairly wide scale. I believe that if you look at Matthew Mark, Luke, as opposed to the Gospel of John, what we often call the Synoptic Gospels, that you have essentially short preaching units. If you look at a harmony of the Gospels, you have parallel columns. Virtually every episode is short, and Sermon on the Mount would be an exception to that. But even that's composed of units that in the parallel and Luke are placed in other places. Luke six, Luke 11, Luke 16, so on, so forth. Generally speaking, you have shorter episode units, largely parallel, sometimes word for word, often word for word, compact, easily memorized, orally taught long before the final publication of Matthew, Mark and Luke. And according to several early reports, including Papias, Clement of Alexandria, Justin Martyr and so on, you have Mark writing down Peter's remembrances, and Peter's preaching in the Gospel according to Mark. And I believe Mark has Peter's fingerprints all over it. Won't get into that right now, but again, as you look at at these things, they were ultimately written down, but widely known, widely preached. There are comparisons between what Paul alludes to in the life of Christ in First Corinthians and the Gospel according to Luke, a lot of parallels on divorce and remarriage, the resurrection, the Lord's Supper, so on.
But things to look for as you're weighing the evidence for all this. If you've got something really important, and you've got a narrative that's critically important, do the folks that are pushing that narrative have a sinister agenda, something to hide? Is there hypocritical behavior behind the promotion of that agenda? Are there counterfeit tendencies? We live in a world full of competing narratives, don't we? This is nothing new to those of us who are living in the United States of America, particularly those of us who live out west, because there are a lot of narratives that are that are promoted, that are anything but honorable. As opposed to a sinister agenda, you have honorable representation, transparent honesty, genuine appeals to the truth, actions consistent with words. And when you analyze and assess the case for Jesus, are we looking at a cover up? Somebody trying to control a narrative? Or are we dealing with people who are honest minded at the core of their being, who are simply following the truth wherever it leads? There are telltale signs that differentiate those two broad tendencies. Eventually the truth comes out.
But when you open up Luke, and you see Jesus opposing scribes and Pharisees in Luke chapter 11 and saying in verse 52 of Luke 11, "Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering." And then you open up to the 12th chapter, and Jesus is saying this, they're concentric circles. You've got an inner core of disciples. You've got on the periphery, crowds and crowds of people, many 1000s of people, Luke says, And Jesus says to His disciples, first of all, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Verse two, "nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and whatever you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops." Interesting image. We're having some private conversations here. But one day, you'll go to the rooftop and you'll shout it to the world. Even events that you are part of. And what Jesus is saying here, essentially, when he says, Beware of 11 the Pharisees, is we're not going to do business like they do. We're not going to be the hypocrites that they are. We're going to do things completely differently. We're going to be transparent with total honesty. Private discussions that we have, even among ourselves, are going to be caught part of the public record, and you're going to have to go public with your faith. And you think of the implications of that. These apostles had a front row seat to amazing experiences. There's one right after another after another. They were witnessing a master performance, and they lacked the skills to fully appreciate what they were witnessing. They didn't understand half of what Jesus says. I would call them clods, but I want to be careful about that, because I'd be right there with them. But in retrospect, as they put it all together, it clicked, and they understood. We have witnessed something absolutely, incredibly amazing. We beheld his glory, glory as of the one and only Son of God. At every stage of the process, every stage of the process, you have quality control measures, checks and balances, verification safeguards. I do a series on how we got the Bible, and I make this point about various stages of how the Bible came down to us. The Bible was not revealed in a conflict free zone. Even at the outset of things, there were false teachers, false representations, counter narratives, and somehow or other. At every stage, God's people had to differentiate truth from error. And God had to supply the truth to tools so that at every stage of the process that could be done. As the enterprise was launched, and at every step thereafter, the disciples were battle tested. But because they were battle tested, the case is even stronger for us. And so you have enemies of truth who are trying to promote a counter narrative. And when you do that again, notice these five things, what Jesus says, what he does, his advance notice, his eyewitnesses and his claims.
I'm going to very quickly go through a few episodes. I'm not going to read them all, but two pieces of advice if you're going to do this with folks. And let me say this to you before I get into that. I've been here in Florence less than 24 hours, and I've already noticed several people in interacting with folks in town here, several people who need to be introduced to Jesus, or reintroduced to Jesus. And even at breakfast this morning, Andy was doing due diligence and evangelism with the breakfast guy at the hotel as we sat down. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, when it is dark enough, you can see the stars, and that's a lesson of history. And one thing that I am thankful for in preaching out there is it's really dark sometimes. And the stars shine more brightly when it's dark. But you've got some opportunities right here under your nose, right here in Florence, if you open up your eyes to them. But we think evangelism all the time out there, we have to.
But two things to keep in mind. Number one, let the Holy Spirit do the heavy lifting. I tell people, read the text, ask a couple of leading questions and be there as a person to person, helper. Help someone build his or her faith. And secondly, be enthusiastic. Don't lose your enthusiasm about what's actually happening in these narratives. You're seeing Jesus say and do things that are absolutely stunning, and we are so familiar with them that we tend to read them in a mundane sort of a way. But we need to recapture our sense of amazement for what's actually going on.
And that's what I want to really emphasize here with a couple of these events. Luke says, when he speaks to the issue of the paralytic in Luke five, the Pharisees and teachers of the law had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. I have to tell you. Have you ever noticed that? Here's a crowded house, so much so that people are waiting on the outside, cannot get in. Four people have to take a paralytic to the roof and open up a hole in the roof and let him down in a crowded home, and you've got Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from every village of Galilee, Judea and from Jerusalem, and Luke says they were just sitting there. I think the polite thing would be to get up and let some other people into the house. But they were sitting there, evidently, on a fact finding mission, a threat assessment, if you will, to monitor Jesus damage control potential. This guy's popularity cannot go uncheck. We have to counterbalance it. They were just sitting there in their judgmental thoughts as he pronounces forgiveness of sins on this man who had been lowered from the roof to the amazement everybody in this crowded house, and he heard their private thoughts loud and clear. And he says, "which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven, or rise, take up your bed and walk home? But in order that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I tell you, rise, take up your bed and walk." And that's exactly what the man does. And you can hear the gasps that lead ultimately to a crowd that explodes into exultation, joy and glorification of God, while these Jewish religious leaders are sitting there, stunned. I know this story is true because there are eyewitnesses all in the house, and some of them are hostile eyewitnesses. This story could never have been perpetuated in the early church had it not been true. Or you would have potential for many, many eyewitnesses saying, I was there that's not how it happened. But just like the Sanhedrin Council of Acts four and verse 16, standing in judgment on Peter and John in relationship to the lame man that was now walking saying that a noteworthy miracle has been performed is evident to all the residents of Jerusalem, and we are not able to deny it. But that's the nature of eyewitness testimony. Had there been any tendency to depart from the material facts of the case, the presence of hostile witnesses would have served as a corrective. You have, you have witnesses, both friendly and unfriendly.
Jesus feeding the 5000. The crowd went ballistic. They wanted to make him king. John, six and verse 15, the latent carnality rises to the surface, and he preaches a sermon the next day in Capernaum to many of the same people, and they walk away. You have people walking away in droves. And you could just see the air going out of the balloon of Peter and the other apostles, as Jesus asked the question, Will you also go away? John 6:66, and following. And Peter, bless his heart, and I love him, for this, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God." The apostles, their spirits must have been deflated as these people walk away, as Jesus spells out the cost of discipleship and tells these crowds, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood, and they don't want to hear that. They like the loaves and the fishes, but they don't want the commitment part of discipleship. There are many ups and downs that these apostles had to undergo. Their faith sometimes needed a boost, but they had an insider VIP peek at things. But what if Jesus is about to die? What if the call to follow Him is hard? What if the task on Earth is difficult? So he takes three of them, Peter and James and John, up to a tall, high mountain, and he's transfigured before them. They see a preview of his glory, along with Moses and Elijah. And Moses and Elijah, who both have unusual departures from this earth, are speaking to Jesus about his departure, his Exodus, literally. Luke 9:31. It's interesting that that in Second Peter one, Peter alludes to this. James dies early. He's not able to later on in church history, I think John indirectly alludes to it in John 1:14 when he says, "We beheld his glory. Glory as of the one and only Son of God." But you have statements like that made in Mark. And again, I believe Mark has Peter's fingerprints all over this. Where it says in verses nine and 10 of Mark nine, "as they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean." They had no idea. They had no reference point, really. I think that would have been really difficult for Peter to keep bottled up on the inside until Jesus rose from the dead. He had to, he had to wrestle with himself not to blurt out what he had just seen. But just simply amazing.
Can you imagine what it would have been like to witness Jesus walking on water and pulling up Peter with his fragile faith, and then saying you a little faith? Why did you doubt? Or rousing Jesus out of sleep as a life threatening storm is causing all kinds of problems in that boat, and after he is aroused out of sleep, he rebukes the wind and the sea. Peace be still and everything is calm, and after rebuking the storm, he rebukes his disciples. Why are you so afraid? Have you no faith? And all they can say is, "who then, is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" These are momentous, earth shattering experiences, and we make them tame and inconsequential to our own shame. Again, don't lose your sense of amazement at what is happening here. He heals the sick time after time, so much so that, Peter reports, and I think it's reflected in Mark chapter one, Mark's account, that after the healing of Peter's mother in law, that the entire town of Capernaum lines up at the door of the house. People wanting to be healed of various diseases. They had the front row seat to the extraordinary supernatural power, life changing power.
So again, I emphasize to folks that I study with what Jesus says, what he does, what he claims, what is said about him, prophetically, who witnesses it. And if I could find two or three of these elements in one paragraph, I jump for joy myself. But if I can find all five in one paragraph, it's like hitting a home run, and you have that in Luke chapter 7, 18 through 23. "The disciples of John reported all these things to him, and John calling to His disciples, sent to them to the Lord, saying, Are you the one that is to come, or shall we look for another? And when the men had come to him, they said, John, the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? In that hour, he healed many people diseases and plagues and evil spirits and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, go and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind received their sight. The lame walk. Lepers are cleansed. Deaf, hear. The dead are raised up. The poor have the good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended in me." And ultimately, of course, he dies for our sins on a cross.
He says in John, 12:31, "I, when I am lifted up, shall draw all people to myself." That the cross would be a magnet. Buddha never did that. Muhammad did not die for your sins. Confucius never made atonement for you. But Jesus is compelling, and not only did he die on a cross, but in spite of maximum security precautions, the grave could not keep his body inside. When we evaluate the evidence for all of this,again, I tell people, don't cherry pick. Eliminate preconceived biases as much as possible. Follow all the leads, all of them. And the bottom line is the case is absolutely ludicrous, unless it happens to be true. It's absolutely crazy, unless it's not. And when Paul is told that he's out of his mind, he says, these are true and rational words, and this has not been done in a corner. Acts 26:25 and 26. The layers of evidence begin to pile up, and there's no middle ground. It is absolutely ludicrous, or it's absolutely true, but it's undeniable that something extraordinary is going on. And a fair minded consideration of the case takes all the evidence into consideration until we arrive at an obvious, logical conclusion that makes sense of all the relevant facts. And I cannot tell you how many times in studying with people out there, I have seen doubts turn into faith. And it's exciting for me every time it happens. When I see people begin to to wrestle with all these things, and it becomes obvious, and the light bulb goes on. Jesus, Lord and God, no one ever thought like he thought. No one ever claimed what he claimed. No one ever taught like he taught. No one ever lived like he lived. No one ever did what he did. No one ever had the impact that he had and continues to have. No one ever demanded what he demands. From the highest motives. And it's superior to anything else. Superior to any other system of thought, no other belief system even comes close. They all come up short. Only Jesus, in His new covenant, fulfills our deepest longings. And it's just a joy to me to be able to study with people who have no clue about any of this. Who months later become one of us because of God's grace and mercy and the power of the gospel.
The key question, what does it mean to me? "Jesus did many other signs which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name." Or I'll close with Jesus' auestion to Martha. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
