Does It Matter What We Believe?

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#333366" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Does It Matter What We Believe?</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=165 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 35 ><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="21"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id611.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jesus and the Value of Women"><U><B><IMG SRC="008151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="35" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="27"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> Previous/Next Sermon</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.stanbaker.org"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Biblical and Theological Studies"><U><B>Biblical and Theological Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church Ministry"><U><B>Church Ministry</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermon Notes"><U>Sermon Notes</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personal"><U><B>Personal</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>"Does it Matter What We Believe?"</B></div> <div> <B>Berean Bible Church, April 23, 2006</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.stanbaker.org/audio/Sermon-2006-04-23-Stan_Baker.mp3" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.stanbaker.org/audio/Sermon-20"><U><B>audio</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div>      The opening scene of Dan Brown's book <I>The Da Vinci </I>Code has a Paris museum curator dying to protect a secret only he and three other people knew – and the other three were already dead.</div> <div>      On the other hand, the early followers of Christ, and many throughout the centuries, were willing to die because they believed and <I>publicly proclaimed</I> a truth! In our day, does the truth matter? Does it matter what we believe? In a day when people are free to disagree and there are so many opinions, is there such a thing as truth to be believed, and truth to die for? </div> <div>      Even though we talk much about behavior, according to Scripture, what we believe is just as important as how we behave. When we think about what it means to be a growing follower of Jesus, it is not just about behavior, it is also about holding right and true beliefs about Jesus, about God, about the Bible, about ourselves, about the world itself.</div> <div>      Here are a few claims suggested to be facts by <I>The Da Vinci Code.</I> (Even though it is a work of fiction, it still contains a point of view that raises questions – are these credible, believable theories?)</div> <div>      1. Jesus was married to Mary Magadelene, they had children who married into the French royal line. And this has been covered up by the church all these years. </div> <div>      2. Far more troubling is the idea that the divinity of Jesus, that Jesus is God, was made up in the 4th century, and that for political reasons; until then, everyone thought of Jesus as a highly-regarded but mortal teacher and prophet, just a normal, basic human being.</div> <div>      3. There were many "gospels," but only four were chosen, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; these were chosen in an effort to keep Jesus hidden behind divinity and diminish his humanity. The other gospels that portrayed Jesus as more "human" were rejected. The four gospels were also chosen to advance the male agenda and diminish feminist tendencies that Jesus actually taught, and that are supposedly a part of true religion. The four gospels were not chosen because they contain the "truth" about Jesus, but because they advance a particular agenda. Instead, the "truth" about Jesus can be found in the other gospels that were rejected by the church.</div> <div>      Author Dan Brown believes these claims to be true, and the book is written suggesting that these things are true. It is a good story, but it raises questions about who Jesus really is. Is he the Son of God, or not. Does our New Testament contain the truth about this Jesus, or is it all some vast cover-up by the church that has been successful for centuries? Do we Christians believe the truth, or have we been duped into believing a lie? </div> <div>      I believe the claims of Christ and Christianity can stand the test of these questions and this kind of scrutiny. We have an opportunity to talk about some reasons why Christianity is true, how we know Jesus is God the Son (God in the flesh), and why we believe we can trust the Bible as the truth, the Word of God.</div> <bR> <div> <B>I. An example: John the Baptizer wondered about the truth of Jesus, because the truth mattered (Luke 3:4ff, Luke 7:18-23).</B></div> <div>      Notice John's predictions about Jesus, in Luke 3:4-6 and 15-18. Then John is put in prison for preaching right from wrong (Luke 3:19-20).</div> <div>      Next look at Luke 7:18-23. While in prison, after having proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah, the one Israel was expecting, John starts to question if that was really true.</div> <div>      Is Jesus the Messiah or not? John was in prison because he believed in God, proclaimed righteous and believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Was he, or should John look for and proclaim another? John was not content to believe and proclaim a lie - he sought to believe and proclaim the truth, and live his life accordingly. </div> <bR> <div> <B>II. Paul asserted the truth about the resurrection of Christ, because the truth matters (1 Corinthians 15:12-20).</B></div> <div>      Some were saying that we have no hope of resurrection from the dead, in bodily form - our spirits might float around, but our bodies will stay in the grave. Paul said, if we have no hope of bodily resurrection from the dead, we are in effect saying that Christ did not bodily rise from the dead </div> <div>      If Christ bodily rose from the dead, we can be assured that those who have faith in him will experience bodily resurrection from the dead </div> <div>      If Christ did not bodily rise from the dead, then Paul and the other apostles have been preaching a lie. Our faith and hope is useless, we have no forgiveness of sins, and we are fools for believing it. It matters whether or not Jesus rose from the dead in history.</div> <div>      Elsewhere Paul said, in 2 Timothy 4:2-4, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”</div> <div>      Peter said in 2 Peter 1:16ff, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.”</div> <bR> <div> <B>III. It matters what we believe about Christ.</B></div> <div>      We claim to find forgiveness and a relationship with God through Christ. We claim to find hope for today and for eternity in Christ. We offer to other forgiveness and hope and a relationship with God through Christ.</div> <div>      If Jesus is just a mortal prophet, a good man and a good teacher, but otherwise just like the rest of us, we have no reason to put our hope and trust in him and we are wasting our time; that is the no-so-subtle challenge of the ideas presented as facts in the DaVinci Code.</div> <div>      The truth about Jesus Christ matters. The truth about the Bible matters. The truth about our eternal destiny matters. So we will look at the evidence to discover:</div> <div> 1) Is Jesus God the Son? Is he more than a mortal, normal human being?</div> <div> 2) Can we trust the Bible, especially the New Testament? Is it different than other ancient writings? Is it truth? Is it authoritative?</div> <div>      People don't typically die for things they know to be a lie (they may die for deeply held beliefs that are false, but they don't die for things they know are false). The earliest Christians willingly put their lives at risk to get the truth about Jesus out to people.</div> <div>      In Acts 7, Stephen proclaimed the message about Jesus, and he faced opposition from the authorities. He had an opportunity to explain the situation, and he preached Christ from the story of the Old Testament. [Read Acts 7:54-8:4.] Saul (Paul) helped in the murder of Stephen, but later he would give his own life for this same Christ. Notice what the Christians did when they faced persecution – they kept proclaiming the message, because  it was true (8:4). Do you believe in the truth about Jesus enough to give your life for it? As Paul said, if Christianity is <I>not</I> true, we are wasting our time. If it is true, it is worth giving our lives for.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> copyright, 2006, Stanley Baker</div> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> </tr></table></body>