There are no wasted words in the introduction to the book of Acts. This week Bob with draw our attention to five points which Luke makes about Jesus in the first five verses. In the middle of these verses we find Luke pointing to the historical proofs that what Jesus had said would happen after His crucifixion really did happen. For 40 days he appeared numerous times to as many as 500 people, and these people lived for a number of years after Christ’s ascension. And no one cracked—the story held. Were that many people really deceived? Not a chance.
As a college student I was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, and I had a dream of speaking to other students like some of the guys I admired. Leading the apologetics (or arguments for the gospel) movement on the college campuses at that time was Josh McDowell, and by that time he had already published his book, Evidence That Demands A Verdict. In it he had one outline after another for talks or messages with all of the research for students like me to do their own background work. This was gold to me. And one of my favorites was the outline for Jesus either being Lord, liar, or lunatic. With the claims that Jesus made during his ministry here on earth there is no other option. There is no half way. He either is who He said He is or He isn’t, and if He isn’t then there really had to be something wrong him—a man who would go to that extreme for something that wasn’t true. And to take it to another level He would have had to pull in all of those 500 witnesses into the delusion, a scam which would have required none of them cracking or realizing their error prior to their deaths. This does not even take into account how much of what Jesus did was foretold hundreds of years before He was even born.
A number of notable individuals have come to these claims as skeptics, and have tried to prove that Jesus Christ was not who he claimed to be. And one after another they each came to know Jesus for who He claimed to be—with no middle ground or compromise. These men include such sharp minds as C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel. Apologetics is lost on many of us today, maybe because we don’t know the Bible well enough to make an intelligent argument or maybe because we don’t want to confront anyone even if it is done reasonably.
One of my favorite guys on the radio is Ravi Zacharias, probably because he has taken the time to take the arguments of Scripture and confront the lives of people even at the highest levels of our educational institutions, and I love listening to how his mind works as God uses him to open peoples’ eyes.
The proofs of Christ resurrection are the hinge pin of the proof of our faith. If Jesus did not rise from the dead then He is not who He said He is and we have no hope of eternal life. But Luke tells us that there were “many convincing proofs,” and the verdict is in. Jesus Christ is Lord. But we all need to realize that even knowing all of the facts will not change a hard heart or open closed eyes apart from the Holy Spirit going before us. It is for that reason the Jesus told even the first hand witnesses to wait until they receive the power of the Holy Spirit which was soon to come.
Joe Burgess
Here are the questions Bob has prepared for this week:
VI. ReDi Group Questions:
- Can you think back on a time when a Christian you knew did something that caused you to think differently of Christians? What was it? Have you ever done anything that now, you wished you had never done as a Christian because it put Jesus or Christianity in a bad light. If so, have you done anything to rectify your error?
- Before coming to Christ, did you know of any Christians who talked the talk, but did not walk the walk? Did their actions delay your coming to Christ.
- If you were called upon to suffer execution for your faith, what is it about your relationship with God that would make you willing to die for your faith, even though you may not necessarily want to die?
- Have you ever been excited about an event or scared of an event that was coming up, and you were told that you had to wait an indeterminate period of time before that event arrived? How did you respond?
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