Sermon Transcript
Reader's Version
Why Christianity?
Sermon By Gene Simco
I heard a story about a man who was about to jump off a bridge. Thankfully, a Christian happened to be walking across the bridge and saw him. Naturally, he called out, “Don’t do it! Stop!” The man on the bridge responded, “Nobody loves me.”The Christian replied, “Well, do you believe in God?”“Yeah... I believe in God,” the man said.“Then you know God loves you,” the Christian encouraged him. “Okay, are you Jewish or Christian?”“I’m a Christian,” the man answered.“Then you know Jesus loves you! That’s wonderful!”The man seemed to soften a bit, saying, “Yeah, I guess so.”“So,” the Christian pressed on, “since you’re a Christian, what denomination are you?”“I’m Protestant.”“Great! Good! But wait... what denomination specifically?”“Well, I’m Baptist.”“Oh, good, then God really loves you. You’re in the right place.” The Christian seemed relieved, but then added, “Oh, wait—are you a Northern Baptist or a Southern Baptist?”“I’m a Northern Baptist.”“Oh, so am I! That’s good; we’re practically family! But wait. Are you a Northern Conservative Baptist or a Northern Liberal Baptist?”“Northern Conservative Baptist,” the man answered, feeling a glimmer of connection.“Fantastic! But let me just ask—Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist, Eastern Region?”“Great Lakes Region!” the man replied, now a little hopeful.“Yes! I was hoping you’d say that!” But the Christian couldn’t resist one last question. “Are you Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912?”The man hesitated, but replied, “Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912.”Suddenly, the very man who had been encouraging him to stay alive shoved him off the bridge! As the man plummeted to his doom, the last thing he heard was, “Die, heretic!”Now, I can’t tell you exactly what happened next, but I’m not sure if the Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912 makes it into heaven!
Why Christianity? What we have to look at first is to reverse-engineer things. When you want to get back to basics, you’ve got to look for water from the source—where it’s the purest. So, we have to go back to the beginning and look at things from there. Are we looking at Christianity the right way?First, I want to talk about what Christianity is not. In a lot of ways, Christianity has become diluted by worldly things. We talked about the Bible, and we said that the New Testament validates and defines the Old. It’s been said that the New Testament is the best commentary on the Old. We don’t want to throw out the Old Testament—that’s where we get our prophecies and so much information. But if you want to know what Christianity is, you have to look at the New Testament. It cannot be defined in the Old Testament; it’s not fully revealed there.Now, if you’ve read the New Testament often, you notice a strong theme running through it. There’s this idea that the world and the Word are opposed to one another. For a lot of people, that’s a strange idea; it makes people wonder. The New Testament even defines this: it says Satan is the lowercase “g” god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). This theme comes up more than once, creating a clear separation. But what’s happened in Christianity is that Christians have adopted things from the world that don’t belong. Some of these things the Bible calls foolishness of the world, yet they’ve made their way into the church and become important.For example, one big thing I noticed when I first came into church was the emphasis on credentials. People throw around a lot of credentials—I went to this school; I have a PhD in that. But you just don’t see that in the New Testament. In the world, sure, you need credentials to get a good job, but that’s not a biblical idea. In the New Testament, you went to the University of the Holy Spirit. And honestly, I’d say that’s a little bit better. Don’t you think God might be a better professor?But people still throw around these titles, just like they throw around programs. Many of these programs shouldn’t even be necessary if we’re behaving like a family and the Holy Spirit is working within us. But we’ve adopted them because the world says, this is how you gain more members. We create worldly programs and marketing tactics, but call it outreach. That’s not how the followers in Acts grew—they grew through extreme generosity and miracles.We’ve also let other institutions, including political ones, into the church. These things don’t belong; they were never there originally. The problem is that it’s all mixed in now, but under the guise of being Christian. If you get the water from the pure source, it’s just not there. (I almost said “sauce” because, you know, pizza is always on my mind!)Denominations have also brought politics, polity, and carnality into the church, creating divisions. If you’ve been here for a while, we’ve gone over this. Paul writes 13 books of the New Testament, and much of his motivation is unity—bringing people together. A good scholar might say that denominations are one of Paul’s worst nightmares. For example, Romans is written to stop divisions from happening. Factions were developing, and Paul wanted to prevent that. Ephesians? It’s all about unity. That’s the reason for writing it.In Romans, Paul says, “Don’t be conformed to this world.” We’re supposed to be different as Christians. But today, Christians divide over denominations, which goes against what the New Testament teaches. When you read it, especially passages like Romans 14, you see that the gospel is primary, and secondary doctrines shouldn’t divide us.In Romans 14, Paul addresses disputes like meat sacrificed to idols, which was a big issue then. He says, “Don’t divide over it.” If one person wants to eat that meat, fine, just don’t let it cause other believers to stumble. Another example is the Sabbath. Some denominations today argue that you need to keep the Sabbath on a particular day. But Paul tells the Romans, “If one person worships on a certain day, that’s great. Just don’t argue about it.”This theme continues throughout Romans. Paul teaches, “Honor everyone. Love everyone. Don’t divide over secondary issues.” First Corinthians 8–10 addresses similar issues around meat sacrificed to idols. The whole section is about not dividing over these secondary, non-gospel issues. Yet denominations today divide over them, even though Scripture tells us not to.As Christians, we all believe in the gospel, in the core truths about Jesus. If you want to take a Sabbath on one day or another, that’s fine. It’s not a gospel issue. Our love for one another should be so strong that we don’t let things like that separate the church. But we’ve strayed far from that. People come up with different theologies, throw their credentials around, and even host Christian debates. That’s an oxymoron. When you read the Word of God, you see it’s wrong; we’re not supposed to be doing that. But people think they know better than God.I’ve even seen people boast about their denominations: “I’m proud to be...” Pride itself is a sin, so when you take pride in division, it’s doubly sinful. Sometimes we get so “smart” that we miss the whole point.
1 Timothy 1:5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would befilled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuinefaith. 6 But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned awayfrom these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. How many meaningless discussions are going around the interweb right now? How many do we see? And that is where the mainstream church is at, sadly. But the Bible says, if it's not gospel, it's not worth arguing about.Here’s the thing: most people calling themselves Christians love to argue and divide over all this stuff. They take pride in how much more they know—or think they know—or in being “right.” And here’s the problem: when we talk about why Christianity, we have to start here because it’s not working. It’s not working. More churches need to get in line with this and respond correctly. It’s not working.If you start looking at statistics, the pastoral dropout rate is almost 40%. Don’t worry; every time I say that, people ask, "You’re not going to leave us, Pastor G?" Almost 40%! Why? Because a pastor goes to seminary or Bible school, they get their training, and they’re ready to go. Even though they’re warned about the challenges, they think, Don’t you guys love Jesus? But then they hear complaints like, We want the auditorium painted a different color. The landscaping isn’t right. They think, I thought we were here to love one another. Then someone says, This person did that, and the backbiting begins. Many pastors get to a point where they think, I am done.And then you have people bringing things from the outside world into the church, even though the Bible tells us, Don’t talk about that stuff. But we want to talk about it. You need to address it, Pastor! Eventually, they’re done. Or, they’re like me, and they just preach the Word of God and say, Whatever, get out.Churches also overextend themselves financially because they’ve become worldly. They want more, to look impressive. If you ask a pastor how many members they have, it’s always an inflated number. Why do they do that? It’s a worldly thing. I saved one soul? Done. Good.The reality is that Christianity is, frankly, a dying religion because people aren’t really grasping this yet. More churches are closing every day in the United States than are opening. That’s a problem across denominations. Then you have these big American churches swallowing up smaller ones like the Borg. That’s what you do in business—not church. It’s a problem, and the outside world sees it.Youth group—look at the dropout rate. Last time I checked, it was around 67%. If your kid goes to youth group, they have about a 30% chance of staying a Christian. And then I’ve had people say, Well, great. I’m in that 30%. That’s great for you, but shouldn’t we care about the 70% who don’t make it? We’ve become consumers, focused on ourselves instead of passing things on and doing discipleship. The outside world sees that Christianity isn’t offering anything different. But we’re supposed to be offering a heavenly alternative—a better one.The Bible is very clear about what the world offers. If you’ve been here a long time, you’ve heard me say this before: worldly institutions and the so-called knowledge we think we have—they’re incompatible with the gospel. It doesn’t work. The waters have become very muddied lately.Now let’s reset and take the next step. We’ve talked about what Christianity isn’t, but what does a Christian look like? Jesus says, They’ll judge you by your fruit, not your intellect—by your love. So, what is a Christian? Moving towards why Christianity…The Bible says, you’ll know a Christian by their fruit. We’ve done this comparison before, but I’m bringing the chart back up because it’s a helpful visualization. It’s really important. If you want to define a Christian, I’ll show you exactly how to do it biblically.So, we’ll go to Galatians 5. Here’s a nice little chart: I set it up so the first part you’re going to read breaks it off into two sections. You can see bad, good, and at the bottom, the follow-up.
So we're in Galatians. Interestingly enough, there’s a faction of teachers here in Galatia telling people they need to follow the law to be righteous. They insist on strict religious practices and laws, and divisions are starting to form. But Paul’s message in Galatians emphasizes unity: Don’t divide over these things. Don’t be swayed by false teachings.In Galatians 5:16, Paul writes, “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”Paul doesn’t let them off the hook here. He’s confronting those who aren’t living right. He goes on to list what following the sinful nature looks like: “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God.” That’s a serious warning.Then we see the good stuff: “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things.” Why does he say that? Because of the division over the law. And he continues in Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.” Those passions are dead—you are dead to sin. Think back to Romans 6 and Romans 8, where Paul explains that our sinful nature has been put to death.Since we’re now living by the Spirit, we need to follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. What does that look like? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. These are the marks of a Christian, the Holy Spirit’s fruit. If someone claims to be a Christian, we should see more of that fruit over time. Yes, we all make mistakes, but we should still be growing in these qualities.In contrast, those who aren’t truly living as Christians will display qualities like sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, and wild parties. And there’s the warning again: “Let me tell you again that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God.”Now, here’s the irony: many Christians love to call out the “big sins,” like sexual immorality, especially in public protests. But while they’re busy condemning others, they may be guilty of other sins on the list. Paul doesn’t give exceptions. He doesn’t say, “Well, hostility and quarreling aren’t as bad.” All of them are bad.Look at some of these other sins: hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger. I see people who call themselves Christians posting angry rants on Facebook. It’s terrifying! Why aren’t we just loving people? Forget the divisions—just love. When people come to Jesus, the rest will fall into place.Then there’s selfish ambition. This could be titles in church or personal goals that go against true humility. Or dissension and division—the root causes of denominationalism. No wonder many non-Christians look at Christians and see hypocrisy. To them, church just looks like another club, not a place of true love and unity. That’s a problem.So here’s the point: Christianity isn’t about these outward signs of religiosity. It’s about what’s truly in our hearts and how that manifests in our actions. When people see Christians behaving like the world, they think we’re just another group with a club mentality. But if we believe in the promises of heaven, shouldn’t that show?The Bible warns us that the world will pass away. Read 2 Peter, Mark 13, and Matthew 24. They tell us the world will be consumed in flames. So, if we’re Christians and believe in the hope of eternity, we should focus on things above, not the temporary things that divide us.What are Christians supposed to look like? Everything is rooted in the fruit of the Spirit. Once we understand that, we can separate ourselves from the influences of the world. Take a look at 1 John 2:15 as a reminder of this.1 John 2:15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when youlove the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the worldoffers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, andpride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father,but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everythingthat people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
The world offers only a craving for physical pleasure and a craving for everything we see. But remember what faith is? We defined faith as everything we don’t see. The world offers pride in achievements and possessions, but these are not from the Father; they are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. Did you notice that? All the things the world typically values—pride, achievements, possessions—are not from the Father.It’s easy to point fingers, isn’t it? Some may look at this and think, Hmm, pride. But pride in any achievement, pride in any possession, or even pride in your denomination, is not from the Father; it’s a worldly idea. There’s a redundancy here, and I’m restraining myself a bit, but let’s look at Philippians. Paul, in Philippians, lists his credentials—credentials he now considers garbage. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, blameless according to the law, circumcised on the eighth day, a Hebrew of Hebrews—all of it worthless compared to the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus as his Lord. What the world once valued, Paul threw out as refuse. That’s the word he uses, “refuse,” and in Greek, it’s a harsh term, σκύβαλα (skývala), almost like a four-letter word. It’s as if he’s saying, “It’s garbage compared to Christ.”Paul had once been caught up in worldly religious identity, but that identity died in Christ. Romans echoes this idea. In his appeal for unity, Paul writes, “Therefore, I plead with you to make your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of the mind.” He’s saying that, by the Holy Spirit’s power, we are to love even our enemies and not repay insult for insult. In chapter 13, he goes on to say, “Honor authorities, pay your taxes.” It’s all there. Then in chapter 14, he tells us not to divide over issues like the Sabbath. The message is simple: Love, love, love. Love is at the heart of true Christianity.Now, let’s consider Christianity versus other religions. People often ask, Why Christianity? Can’t I find what I need somewhere else? It’s a fair question. In today’s information age, anyone can publish anything. Social media allows for the spread of misinformation, and there are many voices out there without a solid foundation. But Christianity is different. It’s based on historical facts, and the Bible itself is a historical document.Other religions often work on a “because I said so” principle. They stem from one person’s experience, and the followers simply accept it. Christianity, however, stands out. Jesus didn’t write down any books himself. The Holy Spirit inspired human authors—witnesses who recorded what they saw. These texts weren’t just random writings; they were preserved, studied, and verified by the early church within 100 to 200 years after they were written. The early church fathers helped codify the canon and identified the authors of these books. This historical consensus affirms the authenticity of Christianity, regardless of what scholars might speculate centuries later.Historical credibility is important because it’s one of the ways we can be confident in the truth of our faith. While others may try to challenge it, Christianity’s foundation remains clear through the historical record preserved by the early church. That’s the strength of Christianity—it doesn’t rely on “just because.” It’s grounded in history, and it speaks to us through the witnesses who were there.So when we look at the history of this, we see Matthew. Matthew's an apostle, so clearly he knows Jesus. He wrote the gospel of Matthew. That's a witness. Mark appears at the end of the gospel of Mark, probably, but also in Acts. He’s a witness to some of this. Luke, Dr. Luke, is with Paul in Acts, so he’s a witness to a lot of these things. John, the disciple Jesus loved, is an apostle. Then you get to Acts, written by Luke, a history of the early church, and again, you find him in there. Then you get Paul's 13 letters. He is a witness to the resurrection of Jesus: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon—probably not Hebrews. Then you get James, Jesus' brother, with an amazing conversion story. He doubted Jesus at first but then became the head of the church in Jerusalem, and he writes James. 1 and 2 Peter—Peter, the lead apostle, is a witness. Then you have 1 through 3 John, written by John, again, the disciple Jesus loved. Jude, another conversion story, probably Jesus' brother Jude, who’s now an authority in the church. Then Revelation, written by John, a witness. That’s amazing. There’s nothing like that.In addition to this, you have people like Tacitus and Josephus, historians from that time, writing about Christianity. It’s not just the Christians. They acknowledge that Jesus existed.Now, in contrast with all other worldviews, it’s really what people accuse the Bible of being—this game of telephone, a bit of a myth. You have to have a lot of faith in one person and what they claim, someone who probably has selfish ambition and that’s why they’re making these claims. With Christianity, it’s the opposite. It’s not like that. Jesus is extremely humble.Now, back to that first person’s experience. A lot of people don’t realize that there are knockoff versions of Christianity, and some of the most popular worldviews are just knockoff versions. They don’t understand. Islam’s the first one that comes to mind. Think about this for a second: you have someone going off, having their own personal experience, making a claim. Muhammad goes off, comes back, and says, “I got this Quran.” There are a couple problems here. One, you have to believe him. No evidence, no miracles, nothing like what Jesus did. There's nothing there. No one’s writing about it. But hold on, you have like 600 years go by after the Bible’s been canonized. The New Testament and Old Testament are done. The church is there, everything is set. We have different versions of the Bible. The Vulgate is written by then. You have the Greek Bible. No English yet, but it’s all set. So why is this a knockoff version? Muhammad comes along and starts telling all these other stories about Abraham and Jesus. He says Jesus is a prophet. He tells us, “Oh, the virgin birth happened, but he’s not God.” Stop. You have history, and that’s how all the early Christians view this stuff about Jesus—history. Then you just decide, “Nah, that’s wrong. We’re going to come up with a totally different version.” If someone tried to do that today, it would sound kind of stupid, like someone coming up with a new version of American history. I’m sure it exists, but we all know what really happened. Then someone comes up with a different version, and everyone’s like, “Yeah, that sounds great.” It’s stupid.It doesn’t make sense. It’s a knockoff version. And within what people think are Christianity, there are also knockoff versions. Mormonism is a prime example. That’s a cult, not Christianity. They do not believe the same thing about Jesus that the Bible teaches. They don’t believe he’s the same kind of God. Joseph Smith goes off, has his own experience, decides he can have lots of wives, and then writes the Book of Mormon. But the Bible itself tells us not to change it or you’re cursed. But no, ignore that—let’s create a knockoff version of Christianity. That’s not Christianity. And again, this is 1,800 years after the Bible’s been canonized. Why would we believe that? It’s nonsense. Again, you’re taking one person’s word for it versus real, witnessed Christianity.Now, speaking of witnesses, if you didn’t know this, the word martyr actually comes from the Greek word μάρτυρας (mártyras, martyron), which means witness. When I first started learning how to read Greek, I came upon martyron and wondered why it was being used for anyone. I guess most of the apostles died, but it was calling everyone a martyr. Then I learned that it just means witness. It doesn’t mean martyr. How did it come to mean that? Well, because Christians, being peaceful, loving people, were often martyred for their beliefs. We have a strong history of that. So if you witnessed for Christ, you would probably die. Eventually, people started using the term to refer to those who died for their faith.But now, it's been perverted. For instance, Islamic martyrs aren’t just known for taking their own lives, but for killing others with them. It’s the opposite of peacefully dying for Jesus. What could be a better witness to the faith than that? "Yeah, I’m going to heaven. Great. And if you read Revelation, I’m going to rise from the dead first, too." That’s a great display of faith. But now, it’s been twisted. People who scream at others and carry picket signs, pointing out other people’s sins, are not martyrs. They’re not true witnesses. A true martyr is self-sacrificial, putting aside their own desires to get people to Jesus. If you can’t even keep your mouth shut, you’re not a martyr. Not at all. It’s a perversion of the term.So, when people talk about Christianity, they’ll sometimes say this about the Bible: it’s like a game of telephone. It was written hundreds of years later, blah, blah, blah. That’s the line of thinking they follow. But when we talk about the New Testament writings, we need to understand how the Old Testament writings come from different parts of the world, and it’s remarkably close for oral tradition considered. But the New Testament is even better.To answer this first question: an atheistic question. They make the claim that the Bible is not reliable. Okay, great. Do you believe in Alexander the Great? Most sane people will say yes. If they say no, just walk away. If they say yes, then ask why. What it boils down to is, well, history. You can’t know Alexander the Great. No DeLorean, no time machine, so forget it. So what do we have? History. We look at the history. Great, great, great. So tell me, what have you read? Now, 9 out of 10 people won’t answer this question, but you can make them feel stupid in a very passive way. For example, The Life of Alexander by Plutarch is probably the closest thing we have to the Gospels as they relate to Jesus. The interesting thing is that The Life of Alexander was written around the same time as the Gospels—around 100 A.D. The Gospels may be a little earlier, but it’s around the same time. Really? Yeah. There’s one problem: Jesus died around 30 A.D., while Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. Yet, the first and most reliable work we have for him was written 300 years after his death. That’s the same accusation leveled against the Bible, yet you still believe Alexander existed. Interesting.The New Testament is written in a witness period. I just outlined that for you. This is really important. What we have for Jesus is like historical gold for that time period. It's amazing. It's a primary document. There’s really not much like it from that time in history for people. So, what you want to do, and I’ve learned this through a lot of trial and error, is follow Gary Habermas' minimal facts argument. I’m giving you the 10-minute version of his hour-and-a-half-long presentation, but the long story short is this: What happens with the New Testament—and it drives me nuts because even Christian scholars do this—is they’ll doubt authorship and move the dates around. But 1 Corinthians is really good, not just at weddings, but because even secular historians won’t argue with that book about its authorship and validity. They’ll say, “Nope, Paul was a real person writing to real people who believed in Jesus. He was the head of a church and believed what he was saying.” Secular atheist scholars, if I didn’t make that clear, will accept 1 Corinthians.So, we skip the whole argument about the Bible and move on. Now, when we get to 1 Corinthians 15, here’s the gospel in short.1 Corinthians 15:1 Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of theGood News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you stillstand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believethe message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that wasnever true in the first place. 3 I passed on to you what was most important andwhat had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as theScriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the thirdday, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by theTwelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at onetime, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he was seenby James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though I had been bornat the wrong time, I also saw him. 9 For I am the least of all the apostles. Infact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecutedGod’s church.
This is remarkable because what we have here is a historical, primary document written by a witness. He’s outlining the gospel: Jesus died for us, He died this death on the cross, He rose from the dead, and a bunch of people witnessed Him—500 people. He’s calling out 500 witnesses, naming real-life people who existed, and saying, "Go check it with them." This is amazing. As I said, most historians place this about 25 years after Jesus' crucifixion. In ancient writings, this is unprecedented. There’s nothing else like this. There’s your gospel. There are your historical facts. That’s how we know.It’s also a wealth of information worth mentioning. So, I talked about the Old Testament. No matter where it comes from, it’s pretty remarkable. It’s as close as it is. The New Testament is at a different level. If you look at ancient writings, you’re looking at things like Plato and Aristotle, and we have seven copies of their works—maybe 47 copies of some writings. The New Testament, however, has 6,000 copies. That’s just Greek. That doesn’t even include other ancient languages. Nothing is even remotely close. And when we compare these, from across different regions, they’re 95% identical. It’s literally a miracle when you look at this historically. It’s unbelievable. And the 5% difference is minimal—just small grammatical changes. It doesn’t change the story in any way. Some sections may be found in one manuscript and not in another, but it doesn’t change the gospel or the history. That’s the 5% difference.Now we come to the resurrection. This is key, which is why I bring it up. When Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, "If the resurrection didn’t happen, my faith is useless. It’s worthless. Your faith is worthless. You’re just believing for nothing." The resurrection is pivotal.I don’t recommend a lot of Christian movies, and there are a couple of reasons for that. It surprises people because I’m a pastor, but I’m not your typical pastor. First, the production values are terrible. Second, the acting is usually bad. And third, if you know the Word of God, they all get it wrong. There are no Christian movies that get it 100% right. It’s unbelievable. If you’re the director, just hold a Bible in front of you—that’s your script. But the worst of them is produced by the Mormons, who make the most popular Christian-like series. It’s horrific. If you know the Word of God, you can’t watch it for more than 30 seconds. It’s so bad. It veers so far from Scripture, even though we’re commanded never to do that. They depict a very different Jesus—one that’s not from the Bible. That’s the agenda, creating a very different Jesus from the Bible.However, there’s one I like called Case for Christ. It’s based on Lee Strobel’s books. Strobel was an investigative journalist—maybe a lawyer—an extremely smart guy. His wife was a Christian, and he set out to disprove Christianity using the real, journalistic and historical methods reporters are supposed to follow. That’s what he did. He talks to guys like Gary Habermas and other top Christian scholars. He asks them, “How do I disprove this?” They tell him, “Prove the resurrection didn’t happen. If you can do that, it’s over.” So, Strobel goes through this painstaking process, analyzing all the historical documents and evidence. By his own process, the evidence is so overwhelmingly in favor of the resurrection that he converts to Christianity. That’s how powerful it is. It’s that amazing.So let’s look at the resurrection and explore some of these facts. I’ll bring this to the point of why you should believe now, knowing all of this. Historically reliable? Check, check, check. Do real Christians act like jerks? No. Check, check, check. You want to be part of this group.Let’s look at the facts. Jesus claimed to be God and He is God. This is clear from the Bible and from the witnesses. He says, “I and the Father are one.” He says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” invoking the name of God from the burning bush in Exodus 3. Even Paul will elaborate on this in Titus 2:13 and Philippians 2, calling Jesus God. The witnesses believed Jesus was God. In fact, He was crucified for making these claims. In Mark 14:62, when asked, “Are you the Son of God, the Blessed One?” He answers, “I am.” And they respond by calling for His crucifixion. They killed Him for it.Everyone around Him believed He was God. His existence, death, and burial are documented not just in the New Testament, but in historical documents and other sources. He rose from the dead after three days, documented by witnesses, and ascended to heaven 40 days later—again, documented by witnesses. These events were predicted in the Old Testament, and the early believers pointed back to them, saying, “Look! Did you see this? Jesus is doing everything it said He would.”What does this mean? First, we must understand the need for Jesus. He’s the only way to heaven. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” as we read in John 14.
There’s a story told about other worldviews. A man falls into a pit, and different religious leaders walk by, each offering a different response. Confucius walks by and says, “Well, if he’d listened to me, he never would have gotten in there.” Buddha comes by and says, “Well, if he’ll just come up here, I’ll help him out.” But Jesus comes by, gets down in the pit, and lifts the man up. That’s the difference. We’ve talked about His humility and what He’s done for us. Humankind chooses sin, and we get ourselves in the pit, but Jesus saves us. That’s the difference.From the very beginning, we’ve been rejecting God. That’s the crux of the Bible: the rejection of God by humankind. If you missed it, go back and watch it. But despite this, people still say, “People are generally good.” Really? Okay, you must not be a parent. Because if you’re a parent, you know that people are not good—not good at all. I thought it would be much easier. The first thing kids do is manipulate by crying. They’re liars, and they learn that if they cry, they get attention. That’s why you let them cry it out when they’re young, right? You don’t make them monsters. If you don’t do that, they’ll keep working you. So, they manipulate you.Have you ever heard the phrase “Getting your hand caught in the cookie jar?” Why does that exist? Because kids are thieves. They will steal from you. If you want to have kids, I’m trying to talk you out of it. Remember, the world’s going to melt anyway, right? They’re liars. We’re liars. Have you ever lied? Don’t say no. Yes, that doesn’t sound like a good person, does it? No, we’re liars. Have you ever stolen anything? Got caught with your hand in the cookie jar? Classic example. I didn’t even think about this until my mentor told me. He trained me to be a pastor. He used an illustration about picking up money on the street. I thought, “Whatever, that’s just a dime.” But he said, “That doesn’t belong to you. You’re a thief.” It blew my mind. That money doesn’t belong to me. What if it was a smartphone? Hello? It’s not yours. Leave it. That’s stealing. And a thief doesn’t sound like a good person, does it?Have you ever cheated on a significant other? Well, Jesus says that if you even look at a woman with lust, you’ve committed adultery in your heart. That doesn’t sound like a person with a good heart, does it? Have you ever hated anyone or been angry with them? Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that if you’re angry with someone, it’s akin to murder. Read it. Anger doesn’t sound like a person with a good heart, does it? But by the Holy Spirit’s help, we can start to get it right. He can clean us out a little bit. We can live blamelessly, as the Bible says.But the thing is, we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That’s the first thing we need to understand. We need Jesus. He’s the only one who can get us out of the pit. No one else can.In the Old Testament, the solution was substitutionary sacrifice. An animal would serve as a substitute because you deserved to die for your sins. You’re a thief, a liar, a murderer, an adulterer. You deserve to die. So what did they do? They’d sacrifice an animal. Sometimes they would stone the person to death, but they would sacrifice an animal, shedding its blood for the forgiveness of sins. But then Jesus came along, and as great as our God is, He decided to become that sacrifice for us. He paid the price for us. He died the death we deserved.Now, to wrap this up, let me paint a picture for you. Some people might look at the old sacrificial system, with all the killing, and think it’s crazy. But here’s the thing—this country still has the death penalty. Very few civilized nations still have that. And a lot of Christians even advocate for it, despite Jesus saying, “Drop the stone,” in John 8. I don’t always like to listen to Jesus, but we still have the death penalty.So, imagine something happening, and maybe you can picture it. You get put on trial for something, and you’re found guilty. But the thing is, the punishment is the death penalty. So, the verdict comes down, and you’re sentenced to die. But then the judge says, “Approach the bench.” You approach, and he says, “I feel sorry for you. Here’s the thing: I’ve got a son, and he’s going to take the punishment you deserve. All you have to do is accept him as your Savior. He’s going to take the punishment for you. We’re going to put you on probation. You’ll have someone to help you get it right. Just check in with him from time to time and don’t do that again.” That’s what Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery: “Go and sin no more.”This is a picture of Christianity through the lens of our world. The judge could be God the Father, right? The Son is Jesus. We have to accept Him as our Lord and Savior, and He paid the price for us. The probation officer? That’s like the Holy Spirit, helping us get it right. And that’s how it works. It’s just like that. And if that sounds crazy to you, it is. But that’s God’s crazy love for us. That’s what He does for us. That’s why Christianity.If you're still doubting it and asking why, I'll leave you with this. Christianity works. It's a life that works. Show me another worldview that works in a real, transformative way. Christianity works. Many people, maybe even you today, are feeling void of meaning and purpose. You've tried all these different things, and it's not working out. But through Jesus, we have purpose. We are ambassadors of the most high King. What better job is there than that? It's fantastic.And if you're tired—tired of abusive relationships or feeling trapped by sin—this is for you. Maybe you're stuck in that cycle, doing the same things again and again, and it's leading to guilt and shame. You ever look back at some of the stupid things you've done? Shame. I hate that feeling. It's like a pit in your stomach. But here's the good news: you can be free of that cycle, free of the guilt, free of the shame. In a real relationship with Jesus, you'll never be let down. He'll never cheat on you. He's faithful.No matter what you've done, you can reset today. Jesus offers a new path to a good life through Him and eternal life in Him. We have hope—something the world clearly lacks right now. But through Jesus, we can have hope in an eternal life. This world is not all there is. It's just a journey, and we can enjoy the ride, but this is not it.You're invited. First, find a Bible believing Church. God doesn’t want you doing life alone, and we don't want you to do life alone either. Church doesn’t mean a building; it means to assemble. We are made to be together, to help and encourage one another. If you're not getting that yet, we are a real church for real people. It doesn't matter what you've done or where you've come from. It's okay. We try to lead with patience, kindness, and gentleness.I want to invite you to pray a simple prayer with me. We don't do this a whole lot, but it's important. You don't have to pray this out loud. You don’t have to memorize the words; what matters is what's in your heart. If you're saying, "Yeah, I want that kind of life," I invite you to pray this silently, or not, and we can talk more about it afterward if you're still unsure.After hearing the gospel today, from an intellectual, historical, and faith-based perspective, if you're ready to embrace Jesus and the life He offers, I invite you to pray:Father, I know that I've broken Your laws and my sins have separated me from You. I'm truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward You. Please forgive me and help me to avoid sinning again. I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ, died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, and is alive. I declare that Jesus is Lord of my life, who rules and reigns in my heart from this day forward. Please fill me with the Holy Spirit to help me obey You and do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus's name, Amen.
I heard a story about a man who was about to jump off a bridge. Thankfully, a Christian happened to be walking across the bridge and saw him. Naturally, he called out, “Don’t do it! Stop!” The man on the bridge responded, “Nobody loves me.”The Christian replied, “Well, do you believe in God?”“Yeah... I believe in God,” the man said.“Then you know God loves you,” the Christian encouraged him. “Okay, are you Jewish or Christian?”“I’m a Christian,” the man answered.“Then you know Jesus loves you! That’s wonderful!”The man seemed to soften a bit, saying, “Yeah, I guess so.”“So,” the Christian pressed on, “since you’re a Christian, what denomination are you?”“I’m Protestant.”“Great! Good! But wait... what denomination specifically?”“Well, I’m Baptist.”“Oh, good, then God really loves you. You’re in the right place.” The Christian seemed relieved, but then added, “Oh, wait—are you a Northern Baptist or a Southern Baptist?”“I’m a Northern Baptist.”“Oh, so am I! That’s good; we’re practically family! But wait. Are you a Northern Conservative Baptist or a Northern Liberal Baptist?”“Northern Conservative Baptist,” the man answered, feeling a glimmer of connection.“Fantastic! But let me just ask—Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist, Eastern Region?”“Great Lakes Region!” the man replied, now a little hopeful.“Yes! I was hoping you’d say that!” But the Christian couldn’t resist one last question. “Are you Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912?”The man hesitated, but replied, “Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912.”Suddenly, the very man who had been encouraging him to stay alive shoved him off the bridge! As the man plummeted to his doom, the last thing he heard was, “Die, heretic!”Now, I can’t tell you exactly what happened next, but I’m not sure if the Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912 makes it into heaven!
Why Christianity? What we have to look at first is to reverse-engineer things. When you want to get back to basics, you’ve got to look for water from the source—where it’s the purest. So, we have to go back to the beginning and look at things from there. Are we looking at Christianity the right way?First, I want to talk about what Christianity is not. In a lot of ways, Christianity has become diluted by worldly things. We talked about the Bible, and we said that the New Testament validates and defines the Old. It’s been said that the New Testament is the best commentary on the Old. We don’t want to throw out the Old Testament—that’s where we get our prophecies and so much information. But if you want to know what Christianity is, you have to look at the New Testament. It cannot be defined in the Old Testament; it’s not fully revealed there.Now, if you’ve read the New Testament often, you notice a strong theme running through it. There’s this idea that the world and the Word are opposed to one another. For a lot of people, that’s a strange idea; it makes people wonder. The New Testament even defines this: it says Satan is the lowercase “g” god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). This theme comes up more than once, creating a clear separation. But what’s happened in Christianity is that Christians have adopted things from the world that don’t belong. Some of these things the Bible calls foolishness of the world, yet they’ve made their way into the church and become important.For example, one big thing I noticed when I first came into church was the emphasis on credentials. People throw around a lot of credentials—I went to this school; I have a PhD in that. But you just don’t see that in the New Testament. In the world, sure, you need credentials to get a good job, but that’s not a biblical idea. In the New Testament, you went to the University of the Holy Spirit. And honestly, I’d say that’s a little bit better. Don’t you think God might be a better professor?But people still throw around these titles, just like they throw around programs. Many of these programs shouldn’t even be necessary if we’re behaving like a family and the Holy Spirit is working within us. But we’ve adopted them because the world says, this is how you gain more members. We create worldly programs and marketing tactics, but call it outreach. That’s not how the followers in Acts grew—they grew through extreme generosity and miracles.We’ve also let other institutions, including political ones, into the church. These things don’t belong; they were never there originally. The problem is that it’s all mixed in now, but under the guise of being Christian. If you get the water from the pure source, it’s just not there. (I almost said “sauce” because, you know, pizza is always on my mind!)Denominations have also brought politics, polity, and carnality into the church, creating divisions. If you’ve been here for a while, we’ve gone over this. Paul writes 13 books of the New Testament, and much of his motivation is unity—bringing people together. A good scholar might say that denominations are one of Paul’s worst nightmares. For example, Romans is written to stop divisions from happening. Factions were developing, and Paul wanted to prevent that. Ephesians? It’s all about unity. That’s the reason for writing it.In Romans, Paul says, “Don’t be conformed to this world.” We’re supposed to be different as Christians. But today, Christians divide over denominations, which goes against what the New Testament teaches. When you read it, especially passages like Romans 14, you see that the gospel is primary, and secondary doctrines shouldn’t divide us.In Romans 14, Paul addresses disputes like meat sacrificed to idols, which was a big issue then. He says, “Don’t divide over it.” If one person wants to eat that meat, fine, just don’t let it cause other believers to stumble. Another example is the Sabbath. Some denominations today argue that you need to keep the Sabbath on a particular day. But Paul tells the Romans, “If one person worships on a certain day, that’s great. Just don’t argue about it.”This theme continues throughout Romans. Paul teaches, “Honor everyone. Love everyone. Don’t divide over secondary issues.” First Corinthians 8–10 addresses similar issues around meat sacrificed to idols. The whole section is about not dividing over these secondary, non-gospel issues. Yet denominations today divide over them, even though Scripture tells us not to.As Christians, we all believe in the gospel, in the core truths about Jesus. If you want to take a Sabbath on one day or another, that’s fine. It’s not a gospel issue. Our love for one another should be so strong that we don’t let things like that separate the church. But we’ve strayed far from that. People come up with different theologies, throw their credentials around, and even host Christian debates. That’s an oxymoron. When you read the Word of God, you see it’s wrong; we’re not supposed to be doing that. But people think they know better than God.I’ve even seen people boast about their denominations: “I’m proud to be...” Pride itself is a sin, so when you take pride in division, it’s doubly sinful. Sometimes we get so “smart” that we miss the whole point.
1 Timothy 1:5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would befilled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuinefaith. 6 But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned awayfrom these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. How many meaningless discussions are going around the interweb right now? How many do we see? And that is where the mainstream church is at, sadly. But the Bible says, if it's not gospel, it's not worth arguing about.Here’s the thing: most people calling themselves Christians love to argue and divide over all this stuff. They take pride in how much more they know—or think they know—or in being “right.” And here’s the problem: when we talk about why Christianity, we have to start here because it’s not working. It’s not working. More churches need to get in line with this and respond correctly. It’s not working.If you start looking at statistics, the pastoral dropout rate is almost 40%. Don’t worry; every time I say that, people ask, "You’re not going to leave us, Pastor G?" Almost 40%! Why? Because a pastor goes to seminary or Bible school, they get their training, and they’re ready to go. Even though they’re warned about the challenges, they think, Don’t you guys love Jesus? But then they hear complaints like, We want the auditorium painted a different color. The landscaping isn’t right. They think, I thought we were here to love one another. Then someone says, This person did that, and the backbiting begins. Many pastors get to a point where they think, I am done.And then you have people bringing things from the outside world into the church, even though the Bible tells us, Don’t talk about that stuff. But we want to talk about it. You need to address it, Pastor! Eventually, they’re done. Or, they’re like me, and they just preach the Word of God and say, Whatever, get out.Churches also overextend themselves financially because they’ve become worldly. They want more, to look impressive. If you ask a pastor how many members they have, it’s always an inflated number. Why do they do that? It’s a worldly thing. I saved one soul? Done. Good.The reality is that Christianity is, frankly, a dying religion because people aren’t really grasping this yet. More churches are closing every day in the United States than are opening. That’s a problem across denominations. Then you have these big American churches swallowing up smaller ones like the Borg. That’s what you do in business—not church. It’s a problem, and the outside world sees it.Youth group—look at the dropout rate. Last time I checked, it was around 67%. If your kid goes to youth group, they have about a 30% chance of staying a Christian. And then I’ve had people say, Well, great. I’m in that 30%. That’s great for you, but shouldn’t we care about the 70% who don’t make it? We’ve become consumers, focused on ourselves instead of passing things on and doing discipleship. The outside world sees that Christianity isn’t offering anything different. But we’re supposed to be offering a heavenly alternative—a better one.The Bible is very clear about what the world offers. If you’ve been here a long time, you’ve heard me say this before: worldly institutions and the so-called knowledge we think we have—they’re incompatible with the gospel. It doesn’t work. The waters have become very muddied lately.Now let’s reset and take the next step. We’ve talked about what Christianity isn’t, but what does a Christian look like? Jesus says, They’ll judge you by your fruit, not your intellect—by your love. So, what is a Christian? Moving towards why Christianity…The Bible says, you’ll know a Christian by their fruit. We’ve done this comparison before, but I’m bringing the chart back up because it’s a helpful visualization. It’s really important. If you want to define a Christian, I’ll show you exactly how to do it biblically.So, we’ll go to Galatians 5. Here’s a nice little chart: I set it up so the first part you’re going to read breaks it off into two sections. You can see bad, good, and at the bottom, the follow-up.
So we're in Galatians. Interestingly enough, there’s a faction of teachers here in Galatia telling people they need to follow the law to be righteous. They insist on strict religious practices and laws, and divisions are starting to form. But Paul’s message in Galatians emphasizes unity: Don’t divide over these things. Don’t be swayed by false teachings.In Galatians 5:16, Paul writes, “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”Paul doesn’t let them off the hook here. He’s confronting those who aren’t living right. He goes on to list what following the sinful nature looks like: “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God.” That’s a serious warning.Then we see the good stuff: “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things.” Why does he say that? Because of the division over the law. And he continues in Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.” Those passions are dead—you are dead to sin. Think back to Romans 6 and Romans 8, where Paul explains that our sinful nature has been put to death.Since we’re now living by the Spirit, we need to follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. What does that look like? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. These are the marks of a Christian, the Holy Spirit’s fruit. If someone claims to be a Christian, we should see more of that fruit over time. Yes, we all make mistakes, but we should still be growing in these qualities.In contrast, those who aren’t truly living as Christians will display qualities like sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, and wild parties. And there’s the warning again: “Let me tell you again that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God.”Now, here’s the irony: many Christians love to call out the “big sins,” like sexual immorality, especially in public protests. But while they’re busy condemning others, they may be guilty of other sins on the list. Paul doesn’t give exceptions. He doesn’t say, “Well, hostility and quarreling aren’t as bad.” All of them are bad.Look at some of these other sins: hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger. I see people who call themselves Christians posting angry rants on Facebook. It’s terrifying! Why aren’t we just loving people? Forget the divisions—just love. When people come to Jesus, the rest will fall into place.Then there’s selfish ambition. This could be titles in church or personal goals that go against true humility. Or dissension and division—the root causes of denominationalism. No wonder many non-Christians look at Christians and see hypocrisy. To them, church just looks like another club, not a place of true love and unity. That’s a problem.So here’s the point: Christianity isn’t about these outward signs of religiosity. It’s about what’s truly in our hearts and how that manifests in our actions. When people see Christians behaving like the world, they think we’re just another group with a club mentality. But if we believe in the promises of heaven, shouldn’t that show?The Bible warns us that the world will pass away. Read 2 Peter, Mark 13, and Matthew 24. They tell us the world will be consumed in flames. So, if we’re Christians and believe in the hope of eternity, we should focus on things above, not the temporary things that divide us.What are Christians supposed to look like? Everything is rooted in the fruit of the Spirit. Once we understand that, we can separate ourselves from the influences of the world. Take a look at 1 John 2:15 as a reminder of this.1 John 2:15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when youlove the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the worldoffers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, andpride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father,but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everythingthat people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
The world offers only a craving for physical pleasure and a craving for everything we see. But remember what faith is? We defined faith as everything we don’t see. The world offers pride in achievements and possessions, but these are not from the Father; they are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. Did you notice that? All the things the world typically values—pride, achievements, possessions—are not from the Father.It’s easy to point fingers, isn’t it? Some may look at this and think, Hmm, pride. But pride in any achievement, pride in any possession, or even pride in your denomination, is not from the Father; it’s a worldly idea. There’s a redundancy here, and I’m restraining myself a bit, but let’s look at Philippians. Paul, in Philippians, lists his credentials—credentials he now considers garbage. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, blameless according to the law, circumcised on the eighth day, a Hebrew of Hebrews—all of it worthless compared to the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus as his Lord. What the world once valued, Paul threw out as refuse. That’s the word he uses, “refuse,” and in Greek, it’s a harsh term, σκύβαλα (skývala), almost like a four-letter word. It’s as if he’s saying, “It’s garbage compared to Christ.”Paul had once been caught up in worldly religious identity, but that identity died in Christ. Romans echoes this idea. In his appeal for unity, Paul writes, “Therefore, I plead with you to make your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of the mind.” He’s saying that, by the Holy Spirit’s power, we are to love even our enemies and not repay insult for insult. In chapter 13, he goes on to say, “Honor authorities, pay your taxes.” It’s all there. Then in chapter 14, he tells us not to divide over issues like the Sabbath. The message is simple: Love, love, love. Love is at the heart of true Christianity.Now, let’s consider Christianity versus other religions. People often ask, Why Christianity? Can’t I find what I need somewhere else? It’s a fair question. In today’s information age, anyone can publish anything. Social media allows for the spread of misinformation, and there are many voices out there without a solid foundation. But Christianity is different. It’s based on historical facts, and the Bible itself is a historical document.Other religions often work on a “because I said so” principle. They stem from one person’s experience, and the followers simply accept it. Christianity, however, stands out. Jesus didn’t write down any books himself. The Holy Spirit inspired human authors—witnesses who recorded what they saw. These texts weren’t just random writings; they were preserved, studied, and verified by the early church within 100 to 200 years after they were written. The early church fathers helped codify the canon and identified the authors of these books. This historical consensus affirms the authenticity of Christianity, regardless of what scholars might speculate centuries later.Historical credibility is important because it’s one of the ways we can be confident in the truth of our faith. While others may try to challenge it, Christianity’s foundation remains clear through the historical record preserved by the early church. That’s the strength of Christianity—it doesn’t rely on “just because.” It’s grounded in history, and it speaks to us through the witnesses who were there.So when we look at the history of this, we see Matthew. Matthew's an apostle, so clearly he knows Jesus. He wrote the gospel of Matthew. That's a witness. Mark appears at the end of the gospel of Mark, probably, but also in Acts. He’s a witness to some of this. Luke, Dr. Luke, is with Paul in Acts, so he’s a witness to a lot of these things. John, the disciple Jesus loved, is an apostle. Then you get to Acts, written by Luke, a history of the early church, and again, you find him in there. Then you get Paul's 13 letters. He is a witness to the resurrection of Jesus: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon—probably not Hebrews. Then you get James, Jesus' brother, with an amazing conversion story. He doubted Jesus at first but then became the head of the church in Jerusalem, and he writes James. 1 and 2 Peter—Peter, the lead apostle, is a witness. Then you have 1 through 3 John, written by John, again, the disciple Jesus loved. Jude, another conversion story, probably Jesus' brother Jude, who’s now an authority in the church. Then Revelation, written by John, a witness. That’s amazing. There’s nothing like that.In addition to this, you have people like Tacitus and Josephus, historians from that time, writing about Christianity. It’s not just the Christians. They acknowledge that Jesus existed.Now, in contrast with all other worldviews, it’s really what people accuse the Bible of being—this game of telephone, a bit of a myth. You have to have a lot of faith in one person and what they claim, someone who probably has selfish ambition and that’s why they’re making these claims. With Christianity, it’s the opposite. It’s not like that. Jesus is extremely humble.Now, back to that first person’s experience. A lot of people don’t realize that there are knockoff versions of Christianity, and some of the most popular worldviews are just knockoff versions. They don’t understand. Islam’s the first one that comes to mind. Think about this for a second: you have someone going off, having their own personal experience, making a claim. Muhammad goes off, comes back, and says, “I got this Quran.” There are a couple problems here. One, you have to believe him. No evidence, no miracles, nothing like what Jesus did. There's nothing there. No one’s writing about it. But hold on, you have like 600 years go by after the Bible’s been canonized. The New Testament and Old Testament are done. The church is there, everything is set. We have different versions of the Bible. The Vulgate is written by then. You have the Greek Bible. No English yet, but it’s all set. So why is this a knockoff version? Muhammad comes along and starts telling all these other stories about Abraham and Jesus. He says Jesus is a prophet. He tells us, “Oh, the virgin birth happened, but he’s not God.” Stop. You have history, and that’s how all the early Christians view this stuff about Jesus—history. Then you just decide, “Nah, that’s wrong. We’re going to come up with a totally different version.” If someone tried to do that today, it would sound kind of stupid, like someone coming up with a new version of American history. I’m sure it exists, but we all know what really happened. Then someone comes up with a different version, and everyone’s like, “Yeah, that sounds great.” It’s stupid.It doesn’t make sense. It’s a knockoff version. And within what people think are Christianity, there are also knockoff versions. Mormonism is a prime example. That’s a cult, not Christianity. They do not believe the same thing about Jesus that the Bible teaches. They don’t believe he’s the same kind of God. Joseph Smith goes off, has his own experience, decides he can have lots of wives, and then writes the Book of Mormon. But the Bible itself tells us not to change it or you’re cursed. But no, ignore that—let’s create a knockoff version of Christianity. That’s not Christianity. And again, this is 1,800 years after the Bible’s been canonized. Why would we believe that? It’s nonsense. Again, you’re taking one person’s word for it versus real, witnessed Christianity.Now, speaking of witnesses, if you didn’t know this, the word martyr actually comes from the Greek word μάρτυρας (mártyras, martyron), which means witness. When I first started learning how to read Greek, I came upon martyron and wondered why it was being used for anyone. I guess most of the apostles died, but it was calling everyone a martyr. Then I learned that it just means witness. It doesn’t mean martyr. How did it come to mean that? Well, because Christians, being peaceful, loving people, were often martyred for their beliefs. We have a strong history of that. So if you witnessed for Christ, you would probably die. Eventually, people started using the term to refer to those who died for their faith.But now, it's been perverted. For instance, Islamic martyrs aren’t just known for taking their own lives, but for killing others with them. It’s the opposite of peacefully dying for Jesus. What could be a better witness to the faith than that? "Yeah, I’m going to heaven. Great. And if you read Revelation, I’m going to rise from the dead first, too." That’s a great display of faith. But now, it’s been twisted. People who scream at others and carry picket signs, pointing out other people’s sins, are not martyrs. They’re not true witnesses. A true martyr is self-sacrificial, putting aside their own desires to get people to Jesus. If you can’t even keep your mouth shut, you’re not a martyr. Not at all. It’s a perversion of the term.So, when people talk about Christianity, they’ll sometimes say this about the Bible: it’s like a game of telephone. It was written hundreds of years later, blah, blah, blah. That’s the line of thinking they follow. But when we talk about the New Testament writings, we need to understand how the Old Testament writings come from different parts of the world, and it’s remarkably close for oral tradition considered. But the New Testament is even better.To answer this first question: an atheistic question. They make the claim that the Bible is not reliable. Okay, great. Do you believe in Alexander the Great? Most sane people will say yes. If they say no, just walk away. If they say yes, then ask why. What it boils down to is, well, history. You can’t know Alexander the Great. No DeLorean, no time machine, so forget it. So what do we have? History. We look at the history. Great, great, great. So tell me, what have you read? Now, 9 out of 10 people won’t answer this question, but you can make them feel stupid in a very passive way. For example, The Life of Alexander by Plutarch is probably the closest thing we have to the Gospels as they relate to Jesus. The interesting thing is that The Life of Alexander was written around the same time as the Gospels—around 100 A.D. The Gospels may be a little earlier, but it’s around the same time. Really? Yeah. There’s one problem: Jesus died around 30 A.D., while Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. Yet, the first and most reliable work we have for him was written 300 years after his death. That’s the same accusation leveled against the Bible, yet you still believe Alexander existed. Interesting.The New Testament is written in a witness period. I just outlined that for you. This is really important. What we have for Jesus is like historical gold for that time period. It's amazing. It's a primary document. There’s really not much like it from that time in history for people. So, what you want to do, and I’ve learned this through a lot of trial and error, is follow Gary Habermas' minimal facts argument. I’m giving you the 10-minute version of his hour-and-a-half-long presentation, but the long story short is this: What happens with the New Testament—and it drives me nuts because even Christian scholars do this—is they’ll doubt authorship and move the dates around. But 1 Corinthians is really good, not just at weddings, but because even secular historians won’t argue with that book about its authorship and validity. They’ll say, “Nope, Paul was a real person writing to real people who believed in Jesus. He was the head of a church and believed what he was saying.” Secular atheist scholars, if I didn’t make that clear, will accept 1 Corinthians.So, we skip the whole argument about the Bible and move on. Now, when we get to 1 Corinthians 15, here’s the gospel in short.1 Corinthians 15:1 Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of theGood News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you stillstand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believethe message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that wasnever true in the first place. 3 I passed on to you what was most important andwhat had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as theScriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the thirdday, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by theTwelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at onetime, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he was seenby James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though I had been bornat the wrong time, I also saw him. 9 For I am the least of all the apostles. Infact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecutedGod’s church.
This is remarkable because what we have here is a historical, primary document written by a witness. He’s outlining the gospel: Jesus died for us, He died this death on the cross, He rose from the dead, and a bunch of people witnessed Him—500 people. He’s calling out 500 witnesses, naming real-life people who existed, and saying, "Go check it with them." This is amazing. As I said, most historians place this about 25 years after Jesus' crucifixion. In ancient writings, this is unprecedented. There’s nothing else like this. There’s your gospel. There are your historical facts. That’s how we know.It’s also a wealth of information worth mentioning. So, I talked about the Old Testament. No matter where it comes from, it’s pretty remarkable. It’s as close as it is. The New Testament is at a different level. If you look at ancient writings, you’re looking at things like Plato and Aristotle, and we have seven copies of their works—maybe 47 copies of some writings. The New Testament, however, has 6,000 copies. That’s just Greek. That doesn’t even include other ancient languages. Nothing is even remotely close. And when we compare these, from across different regions, they’re 95% identical. It’s literally a miracle when you look at this historically. It’s unbelievable. And the 5% difference is minimal—just small grammatical changes. It doesn’t change the story in any way. Some sections may be found in one manuscript and not in another, but it doesn’t change the gospel or the history. That’s the 5% difference.Now we come to the resurrection. This is key, which is why I bring it up. When Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, "If the resurrection didn’t happen, my faith is useless. It’s worthless. Your faith is worthless. You’re just believing for nothing." The resurrection is pivotal.I don’t recommend a lot of Christian movies, and there are a couple of reasons for that. It surprises people because I’m a pastor, but I’m not your typical pastor. First, the production values are terrible. Second, the acting is usually bad. And third, if you know the Word of God, they all get it wrong. There are no Christian movies that get it 100% right. It’s unbelievable. If you’re the director, just hold a Bible in front of you—that’s your script. But the worst of them is produced by the Mormons, who make the most popular Christian-like series. It’s horrific. If you know the Word of God, you can’t watch it for more than 30 seconds. It’s so bad. It veers so far from Scripture, even though we’re commanded never to do that. They depict a very different Jesus—one that’s not from the Bible. That’s the agenda, creating a very different Jesus from the Bible.However, there’s one I like called Case for Christ. It’s based on Lee Strobel’s books. Strobel was an investigative journalist—maybe a lawyer—an extremely smart guy. His wife was a Christian, and he set out to disprove Christianity using the real, journalistic and historical methods reporters are supposed to follow. That’s what he did. He talks to guys like Gary Habermas and other top Christian scholars. He asks them, “How do I disprove this?” They tell him, “Prove the resurrection didn’t happen. If you can do that, it’s over.” So, Strobel goes through this painstaking process, analyzing all the historical documents and evidence. By his own process, the evidence is so overwhelmingly in favor of the resurrection that he converts to Christianity. That’s how powerful it is. It’s that amazing.So let’s look at the resurrection and explore some of these facts. I’ll bring this to the point of why you should believe now, knowing all of this. Historically reliable? Check, check, check. Do real Christians act like jerks? No. Check, check, check. You want to be part of this group.Let’s look at the facts. Jesus claimed to be God and He is God. This is clear from the Bible and from the witnesses. He says, “I and the Father are one.” He says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” invoking the name of God from the burning bush in Exodus 3. Even Paul will elaborate on this in Titus 2:13 and Philippians 2, calling Jesus God. The witnesses believed Jesus was God. In fact, He was crucified for making these claims. In Mark 14:62, when asked, “Are you the Son of God, the Blessed One?” He answers, “I am.” And they respond by calling for His crucifixion. They killed Him for it.Everyone around Him believed He was God. His existence, death, and burial are documented not just in the New Testament, but in historical documents and other sources. He rose from the dead after three days, documented by witnesses, and ascended to heaven 40 days later—again, documented by witnesses. These events were predicted in the Old Testament, and the early believers pointed back to them, saying, “Look! Did you see this? Jesus is doing everything it said He would.”What does this mean? First, we must understand the need for Jesus. He’s the only way to heaven. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” as we read in John 14.
There’s a story told about other worldviews. A man falls into a pit, and different religious leaders walk by, each offering a different response. Confucius walks by and says, “Well, if he’d listened to me, he never would have gotten in there.” Buddha comes by and says, “Well, if he’ll just come up here, I’ll help him out.” But Jesus comes by, gets down in the pit, and lifts the man up. That’s the difference. We’ve talked about His humility and what He’s done for us. Humankind chooses sin, and we get ourselves in the pit, but Jesus saves us. That’s the difference.From the very beginning, we’ve been rejecting God. That’s the crux of the Bible: the rejection of God by humankind. If you missed it, go back and watch it. But despite this, people still say, “People are generally good.” Really? Okay, you must not be a parent. Because if you’re a parent, you know that people are not good—not good at all. I thought it would be much easier. The first thing kids do is manipulate by crying. They’re liars, and they learn that if they cry, they get attention. That’s why you let them cry it out when they’re young, right? You don’t make them monsters. If you don’t do that, they’ll keep working you. So, they manipulate you.Have you ever heard the phrase “Getting your hand caught in the cookie jar?” Why does that exist? Because kids are thieves. They will steal from you. If you want to have kids, I’m trying to talk you out of it. Remember, the world’s going to melt anyway, right? They’re liars. We’re liars. Have you ever lied? Don’t say no. Yes, that doesn’t sound like a good person, does it? No, we’re liars. Have you ever stolen anything? Got caught with your hand in the cookie jar? Classic example. I didn’t even think about this until my mentor told me. He trained me to be a pastor. He used an illustration about picking up money on the street. I thought, “Whatever, that’s just a dime.” But he said, “That doesn’t belong to you. You’re a thief.” It blew my mind. That money doesn’t belong to me. What if it was a smartphone? Hello? It’s not yours. Leave it. That’s stealing. And a thief doesn’t sound like a good person, does it?Have you ever cheated on a significant other? Well, Jesus says that if you even look at a woman with lust, you’ve committed adultery in your heart. That doesn’t sound like a person with a good heart, does it? Have you ever hated anyone or been angry with them? Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that if you’re angry with someone, it’s akin to murder. Read it. Anger doesn’t sound like a person with a good heart, does it? But by the Holy Spirit’s help, we can start to get it right. He can clean us out a little bit. We can live blamelessly, as the Bible says.But the thing is, we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That’s the first thing we need to understand. We need Jesus. He’s the only one who can get us out of the pit. No one else can.In the Old Testament, the solution was substitutionary sacrifice. An animal would serve as a substitute because you deserved to die for your sins. You’re a thief, a liar, a murderer, an adulterer. You deserve to die. So what did they do? They’d sacrifice an animal. Sometimes they would stone the person to death, but they would sacrifice an animal, shedding its blood for the forgiveness of sins. But then Jesus came along, and as great as our God is, He decided to become that sacrifice for us. He paid the price for us. He died the death we deserved.Now, to wrap this up, let me paint a picture for you. Some people might look at the old sacrificial system, with all the killing, and think it’s crazy. But here’s the thing—this country still has the death penalty. Very few civilized nations still have that. And a lot of Christians even advocate for it, despite Jesus saying, “Drop the stone,” in John 8. I don’t always like to listen to Jesus, but we still have the death penalty.So, imagine something happening, and maybe you can picture it. You get put on trial for something, and you’re found guilty. But the thing is, the punishment is the death penalty. So, the verdict comes down, and you’re sentenced to die. But then the judge says, “Approach the bench.” You approach, and he says, “I feel sorry for you. Here’s the thing: I’ve got a son, and he’s going to take the punishment you deserve. All you have to do is accept him as your Savior. He’s going to take the punishment for you. We’re going to put you on probation. You’ll have someone to help you get it right. Just check in with him from time to time and don’t do that again.” That’s what Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery: “Go and sin no more.”This is a picture of Christianity through the lens of our world. The judge could be God the Father, right? The Son is Jesus. We have to accept Him as our Lord and Savior, and He paid the price for us. The probation officer? That’s like the Holy Spirit, helping us get it right. And that’s how it works. It’s just like that. And if that sounds crazy to you, it is. But that’s God’s crazy love for us. That’s what He does for us. That’s why Christianity.If you're still doubting it and asking why, I'll leave you with this. Christianity works. It's a life that works. Show me another worldview that works in a real, transformative way. Christianity works. Many people, maybe even you today, are feeling void of meaning and purpose. You've tried all these different things, and it's not working out. But through Jesus, we have purpose. We are ambassadors of the most high King. What better job is there than that? It's fantastic.And if you're tired—tired of abusive relationships or feeling trapped by sin—this is for you. Maybe you're stuck in that cycle, doing the same things again and again, and it's leading to guilt and shame. You ever look back at some of the stupid things you've done? Shame. I hate that feeling. It's like a pit in your stomach. But here's the good news: you can be free of that cycle, free of the guilt, free of the shame. In a real relationship with Jesus, you'll never be let down. He'll never cheat on you. He's faithful.No matter what you've done, you can reset today. Jesus offers a new path to a good life through Him and eternal life in Him. We have hope—something the world clearly lacks right now. But through Jesus, we can have hope in an eternal life. This world is not all there is. It's just a journey, and we can enjoy the ride, but this is not it.You're invited. First, find a Bible believing Church. God doesn’t want you doing life alone, and we don't want you to do life alone either. Church doesn’t mean a building; it means to assemble. We are made to be together, to help and encourage one another. If you're not getting that yet, we are a real church for real people. It doesn't matter what you've done or where you've come from. It's okay. We try to lead with patience, kindness, and gentleness.I want to invite you to pray a simple prayer with me. We don't do this a whole lot, but it's important. You don't have to pray this out loud. You don’t have to memorize the words; what matters is what's in your heart. If you're saying, "Yeah, I want that kind of life," I invite you to pray this silently, or not, and we can talk more about it afterward if you're still unsure.After hearing the gospel today, from an intellectual, historical, and faith-based perspective, if you're ready to embrace Jesus and the life He offers, I invite you to pray:Father, I know that I've broken Your laws and my sins have separated me from You. I'm truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward You. Please forgive me and help me to avoid sinning again. I believe that Your Son, Jesus Christ, died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, and is alive. I declare that Jesus is Lord of my life, who rules and reigns in my heart from this day forward. Please fill me with the Holy Spirit to help me obey You and do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus's name, Amen.