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Andy Stanley - Investigating Jesus, Part 1 Somebody Had To Tell It · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Speaker 1: So here is what might be an uncomfortable question for
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Speaker 1: some of us and an interesting and maybe even helpful
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Speaker 1: and surprisingly honest question for others of us. When it
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Speaker 1: comes to knowing if there is a God and if
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Speaker 1: there is a God, what God is like, and when
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Speaker 1: it comes to trying to figure out who God likes,
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Speaker 1: does it really come down to the Bible.
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Speaker 2: Tells us so?
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Speaker 1: Or Any other religious literature tells us so. I mean,
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Speaker 1: we're modern people, rational people. Are we really expected to
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Speaker 1: believe what we believe or believe anything based on a
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Speaker 1: collection of ancient manuscripts written by potentially dozens of men
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Speaker 1: only who didn't even know each other over the course
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Speaker 1: of hundreds and hundreds of of years in a world
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Speaker 1: without science in the way that we think of modern
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Speaker 1: science and in a world where everybody believed in the
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Speaker 1: gods or some kind of God. I mean, let's just
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Speaker 1: be honest, all right?
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Speaker 2: Weren't they just making stuff up? I mean, weren't they
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Speaker 2: just guessing?
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Speaker 1: Weren't they just looking at the weather patterns and trying
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Speaker 1: to make sense of something that just didn't make any
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Speaker 1: sense in that time? And along with that, and maybe
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Speaker 1: this is kind of intersects with your life, should we
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Speaker 1: really be surprised that modern people, it seems more and
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Speaker 1: more are kind of dismissing faith in general or deconstructing
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Speaker 1: their faith, the terminology that we use now, we begin
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Speaker 1: to ask really hard questions or what seemed to be
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Speaker 1: hard questions about faith and realize we don't really have answers.
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Speaker 1: And it's not that we're sure that we're right, that
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Speaker 1: religion is wrong, but because we're not sure that religion
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Speaker 1: is right, we just kind of step back and it's like,
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Speaker 1: I'm just not sure. I'm not sure about that anymore.
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Speaker 1: I mean, should we be surprised more and more people
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Speaker 1: are doing that or to make it personal, should we
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Speaker 1: be surprised that perhaps that's where you are or are
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Speaker 1: you surprised that that's where you are? That maybe you're
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Speaker 1: in the process of walking away or you just have
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Speaker 1: so many questions you're starting to lean away or maybe
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Speaker 1: you're listening or watching today and honestly, nobody in your
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Speaker 1: family knows this yet.
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Speaker 2: But you have your hand on the doorknob.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you're about to step away and outside of faith,
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Speaker 1: and you're not sure how your family's gonna respond, your
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Speaker 1: friends are gonna respond, maybe even your employer is gonna respond,
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Speaker 1: but you're just kind of leaning that way. If, you know,
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Speaker 1: all there is to this is the Bible tells us so,
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Speaker 1: then we shouldn't be surprised.
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Speaker 2: And you should be honest with yourself.
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Speaker 1: I mean, if in fact the Christian faith balances precariously
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Speaker 1: on the edge of ancient declarations of superstitious men, well then,
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Speaker 1: why not? But as it turns out, and the reason
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Speaker 1: we're talking about this, and maybe this is new, or
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Speaker 1: maybe this is a reminder, or maybe it's just something
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Speaker 1: you've heard before, but you need to hear it again.
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Speaker 1: Or maybe it's the thing you've always believed, but you
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Speaker 1: need some more terminology.
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Speaker 2: The truth is Christians are not.
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Speaker 1: Expected to believe what we believe based on a collection
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Speaker 1: of ancient manuscripts written by men who never met each
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Speaker 1: other over the course of hundreds of years in a
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Speaker 1: time when everybody was superstitious and everybody believed in the
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Speaker 1: gods and there was no modern science. that the foundation
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Speaker 1: of our faith, and we talk about this a lot here,
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Speaker 1: the foundation of our faith is far more substantial than that.
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Speaker 1: It's far more sustainable than that. It's even, as we're
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Speaker 1: going to discover, it's even investigable, which is actually a word.
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Speaker 2: I don't like it.
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Speaker 1: I like the word investigatable, but as it turns out,
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Speaker 1: that is not actually a word. And The people who
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Speaker 1: keep me between the lines grammatically said, you can't use
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Speaker 1: your word.
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Speaker 2: You have to use the actual word. So this is it.
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Speaker 1: So the good news is the Christian faith is investigable,
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Speaker 1: which means we are invited to kick the tires and
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Speaker 1: you're invited to ask those hard questions. And as those
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Speaker 1: of us who are Christians, we don't have to look
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Speaker 1: the other way and shrug and go, I don't know,
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Speaker 1: it's a mystery. And as soon as we start talking
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Speaker 1: about faith, we just have to take it by faith,
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Speaker 1: which when you say that, even when you think that
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Speaker 1: there's something on the inside of you that says, you
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Speaker 1: know what, that kind of works for me, but it's
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Speaker 1: not working for my son-in-law and it's not working for
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Speaker 1: my daughter and it's not working for the people at
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Speaker 1: work and it's not working for the people who asked
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Speaker 1: me those hard questions, but it's just what you got.
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Speaker 2: It's what we were raised with. It's basically what we
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Speaker 2: were told. But the Christian.
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Speaker 1: Faith does not rise and fall based on the accuracy
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Speaker 1: or the inerrancy of 66 ancient documents that we call
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Speaker 1: books of the Bible.
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Speaker 2: It rises and falls.
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Speaker 1: On the identity of a single individual, Jesus of Nazareth.
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Speaker 1: if you're curious about faith and you're moving in the
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Speaker 1: direction of faith, or you're curious about faith and you're
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Speaker 1: returning to faith, or you find that you're kind of
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Speaker 1: losing faith, or you're losing your interest in faith, here's
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Speaker 1: the question that you should wrestle with. And the question
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Speaker 1: to wrestle with is not, is there a God or
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Speaker 1: is the Bible true? In fact, is there a God
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Speaker 1: and is the Bible true? Those are generally off ramps
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Speaker 1: to faith, not on ramps to faith.
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Speaker 2: But here's the question.
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Speaker 1: And it's not a question that perhaps you've ever been
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Speaker 1: invited to ask before.
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Speaker 2: And if you are a person, again, who grew up.
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Speaker 1: In church like I did and you sort of are
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Speaker 1: losing or you've lost it or you're not even interested anymore.
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Speaker 1: In fact, the only reason you're watching today is because
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Speaker 1: you're staying with friends and they're making you watch this
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Speaker 1: or they sent this to you to say, hey, you
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Speaker 1: should really watch this.
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Speaker 2: You know, this is going to help get you back.
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Speaker 1: Here's the question that you've never been invited to ask.
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Speaker 1: And it's not your fault at all. It's the church's fault.
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Speaker 1: The question to ask when it comes to, is Christianity
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Speaker 1: something even worth taking seriously or even worth considering?
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Speaker 2: The question is this, is Matthew.
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Speaker 1: Mark, Luke, or not and, or John a reliable account
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Speaker 1: of actual events?
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Speaker 2: This is the issue. This is the question when it
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Speaker 2: comes to Christianity.
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Speaker 1: Is Matthew, the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John,
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Speaker 1: any one of the four, a reliable account of actual events?
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Speaker 1: Because if any one of these four is an actual account,
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Speaker 1: a reliable account of actual events, then what they say
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Speaker 1: about Jesus of Nazareth is true. And if what they
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Speaker 1: say about Jesus of Nazareth is true, game on, faith on.
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Speaker 2: You should press on. You should lean in.
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Speaker 1: For those of you who are Jesus followers, your faith
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Speaker 1: is not on. Now, the reason that this is so
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Speaker 1: confusing for so many of us is the way that
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Speaker 1: the Bible was first introduced to us. And so to
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Speaker 1: help you understand that, I need a timeline, but.
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Speaker 2: I can't draw.
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Speaker 1: So anyway, so I asked my friend, Joel Thomas, if
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Speaker 1: he would come and draw one for me. For those
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Speaker 1: of you who don't know Joel, he's the lead pastor
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Speaker 1: at Buckhead Church. He's really good at this, and I
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Speaker 1: try not to hate him for it. But anyway, and
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Speaker 1: just to make sure that I didn't take credit for
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Speaker 1: his work, look, he actually initialed the chalkboard. So everybody, actually,
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Speaker 1: I asked him to do this. Okay, so this is
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Speaker 1: super important, okay? Here is, and if you don't hear
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Speaker 1: anything else today, okay, remember, if you need something on a.
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Speaker 2: Chalkboard, Joel Thompson, no.
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Speaker 1: If you don't hear anything else today, this is the
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Speaker 1: story of the Christian faith in a nutshell, okay? There
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Speaker 1: was an event, we talk about this, the resurrection of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: and immediately following the resurrection of Jesus, there was a
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Speaker 1: new movement. It was called a Nazarene sect.
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Speaker 2: It was called the way.
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Speaker 1: It was the ecclesia or the gathering of Jesus that
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Speaker 1: eventually was called the church. And immediately upon these events happening,
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Speaker 1: people who were involved in the story actually documented the
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Speaker 1: events for us. This is where we get the gospels
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Speaker 1: of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the book of And
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Speaker 1: all of this happened in the first century. In fact,
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Speaker 1: all of this, it could be argued, I would argue persuasively,
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Speaker 1: that all of this happened before 70 AD, before the
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Speaker 1: temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. So within 35 years, or
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Speaker 1: 40 if you stretch it, from the time of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: something happened, it started a movement, and the movement was documented,
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Speaker 1: as in written down, documented, by the people who were
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Speaker 1: part of the movement. And then 300 plus years later,
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Speaker 1: the first Bible was assembled. Now, the reason, and we'll
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Speaker 1: talk more about this in just a minute. The reason
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Speaker 1: this is important is this. The story of Jesus is
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Speaker 1: not a Bible story. The story of Jesus or the
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Speaker 1: narrative or the life of Jesus is why there is
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Speaker 1: A Bible. Jesus is the reason for the Bible. So
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Speaker 1: when we were growing up, somebody gave us the Bible
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Speaker 1: and there's all kinds of story about David and Goliath.
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Speaker 2: Oh, that's so cool.
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Speaker 1: And then a story about a Red Sea. That's so cool.
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Speaker 1: And then you get to the parts about Jesus. And
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Speaker 1: I'm not even not sure I understand that, but the miracles,
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Speaker 1: you know, that's so cool.
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Speaker 2: And before we know it, the story of Jesus is
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Speaker 2: a Bible story. It's a story in the Bible.
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Speaker 1: You need to understand if there had been no resurrection,
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Speaker 1: there would have been no church. And if there was
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Speaker 1: no church, there was nobody to document the story of
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Speaker 1: the resurrection because the resurrection never happened. Apart from the
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Speaker 1: resurrection of Jesus, there is no Bible. And as we're
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Speaker 1: gonna see, the Bible only became a collection of these
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Speaker 1: extraordinary ancient documents because of what happened in the church
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Speaker 1: in the 300 years following the first century.
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Speaker 2: So, If even.
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Speaker 1: One of the gospels or the accounts of Jesus' life
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Speaker 1: is true, then you need to lean in.
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Speaker 2: Okay, enough of that. He's making me jealous. All right,
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Speaker 2: here we go. So here's the point. Here's what we're
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Speaker 2: gonna do.
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Speaker 1: For the next few weeks, we're gonna explore one of
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Speaker 1: those accounts of the life of Jesus. We're gonna explore
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Speaker 1: the gospel of Luke. It was named for its author, Luke.
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Speaker 1: Luke was not one of Jesus' disciples, but as we're
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Speaker 1: gonna discuss, he knew Jesus' disciples and had conversations with
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Speaker 1: Jesus' disciples and James, the brother, And the reason I
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Speaker 1: introduced the whole series and the message the way I
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Speaker 1: did is because when we open the gospel of Luke,
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Speaker 1: this is kind of how Luke introduces his audience to
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Speaker 1: the life and this account of Jesus. Now, we don't
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Speaker 1: know how many times Luke wrote and rewrote the introduction
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Speaker 1: to his account of the life of Jesus, but some
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Speaker 1: of you are writers and I'm a writer. And when
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Speaker 1: you're writing something important, that first line is so important,
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Speaker 1: isn't it? And sometimes the first word, you want people
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Speaker 1: to read that first line and be hooked to that
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Speaker 1: first line. and just be hooked. And I think in
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Speaker 1: Luke's case, like many of us who write, he wrote
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Speaker 1: and rewrote and wrote and rewrote the first line of
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Speaker 1: his account of the life of Jesus over and over
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Speaker 1: and over. In fact, it's so good that the very
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Speaker 1: first word has historical relevance and it's so easily passed
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Speaker 1: over because it's in a common word and it's at
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Speaker 1: the very beginning of a sentence and you tend to
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Speaker 1: just go right by it. So as we begin the
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Speaker 1: exploration of this incredible first century document, the gospel of Luke,
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Speaker 1: it's written by somebody who interviewed eyewitnesses.
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Speaker 2: As we're gonna discover.
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Speaker 1: Here is how Luke, he's a doctor apparently. Here's how Dr. Luke,
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Speaker 1: who is meticulous in terms of detail, here's how he began.
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Speaker 1: So here is the first chapter, the first verse, and
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Speaker 1: the first word of the gospel of Luke.
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Speaker 2: He writes, many... Many. Now, how many is many?
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Speaker 1: Four, is four many? Four doesn't seem like many. 40, well,
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Speaker 1: it depends on what we're talking about, right? Listen to
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Speaker 1: how he begins his gospel. This isn't once upon a time.
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Speaker 1: This isn't a fairy tale. This isn't something he made up.
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Speaker 1: This is certainly not how you begin a lie. He says,
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Speaker 1: many have undertaken to draw up an account of the
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Speaker 1: things that had been fulfilled already. He says, now what
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Speaker 1: I'm about to tell you, I'm not the first person
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Speaker 1: to try to get this outright. Many people have endeavored
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Speaker 1: to draw up an account of the things that have
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Speaker 1: literally happened or been fulfilled right.
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Speaker 2: Here among us.
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Speaker 1: Quick question, don't answer this out loud. Do you know
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Speaker 1: how many will undertake to draw up an account of
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Speaker 1: your life?
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Speaker 2: Not, not many. That's how many, okay?
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Speaker 1: The only people that are gonna even know you existed
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Speaker 1: or know I existed after our grandkids are not many,
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Speaker 1: unless you do something extraordinarily great or extraordinarily horrible, okay?
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Speaker 2: But not many people are gonna write up an account
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Speaker 2: of our life.
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Speaker 1: And Luke tells us, he's like, hey, I'm starting this
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Speaker 1: thing out, but you need to know, I'm not the
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Speaker 1: only one doing this. Many people have endeavored to get
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Speaker 1: this down in such a way that people can understand
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Speaker 1: and experience through what's written what has happened right now.
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Speaker 2: Now listen, check it out. There are not many, not
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Speaker 2: many people even.
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Speaker 1: Undertook to draw up the accounts of the lives of
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Speaker 1: famous people from ancient times or especially the first century.
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Speaker 1: I mean, Tiberius Caesar, who was Caesar during the life
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Speaker 1: of Jesus. There's not a storyline. You have to piece
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Speaker 1: it together. See a pilot, there's virtually nothing. Even Herod
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Speaker 1: the Great who, Josephus gives us a storyline and almost
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Speaker 1: a moment by moment account of the life of Herod
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Speaker 1: the Great. But other than Josephus, that's it. And Herod
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Speaker 1: the Great did extraordinary things, but there's just one.
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Speaker 2: But here's a question.
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Speaker 1: Do you know how many detailed narrative accounts we have
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Speaker 1: of the lives of ancient peasants, crucified criminals, even famous
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Speaker 1: first century rabbis? None.
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Speaker 2: None.
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Speaker 1: None.
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Speaker 2: We have quotes.
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Speaker 1: We have legendary stories, but I'm just telling you, this
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Speaker 1: is why you gotta sit up and pay attention. There
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Speaker 1: is nothing even close to close to close to what
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Speaker 1: we find in Luke's presentation of the life of Jesus.
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Speaker 2: But that should cause us to ask a question. Why
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Speaker 2: in the world? Would Luke bother?
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Speaker 1: I mean, he's a busy guy, lots going on, okay?
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Speaker 2: I mean, food is scarce. This is the first century.
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Speaker 1: Why in the world would he bother to bring us
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Speaker 1: a detailed account of a Galilean day laborer turned rabbi
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Speaker 1: that was executed by Rome, who was, again, rejected by
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Speaker 1: his own people and rejected by the empire? Why even
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Speaker 1: tell us the story? Why is that even a story
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Speaker 1: worth telling? And why would others try to tell us
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Speaker 1: that story as well? Going back to the first word
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Speaker 1: of his gospel, why so many? Why would one even
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Speaker 1: tell us this story? Why would there be four? Why
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Speaker 1: would there be many? And the answer is simple. Because
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Speaker 1: something extraordinary happened. Something that had implications for future generations.
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Speaker 2: But it wasn't just extraordinary. Something good happened. had happened.
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Speaker 1: Something good had happened on behalf of not just the
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Speaker 1: people in Judea and Galilee, something had happened that was
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Speaker 1: good on behalf of people for.
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Speaker 2: The whole world. And somebody.
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Speaker 1: He writes, many have undertaken to draw up an account
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Speaker 1: of the things that have been fulfilled among us, not
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Speaker 1: among them. This happened, this is why you gotta pay attention.
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Speaker 1: This happened in his lifetime. Ancient history was often written
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Speaker 1: by people who lived long after the events and they
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Speaker 1: would cobble together the different writings and quotes and try
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Speaker 1: to put together an account of what happened. But very,
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Speaker 1: very rarely do we have anyone who actually lived during
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Speaker 1: the time of the person they write about. Part of
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Speaker 1: it was you couldn't say anything negative about these people
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Speaker 1: because the people that we know anything about were famous
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Speaker 1: people and rich people and they wanted to make sure
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Speaker 1: their reputation was preserved for generations and they looked good.
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Speaker 1: But not the case with Jesus of Nazareth. Luke, as
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Speaker 1: we're gonna discover, and if you read the book of Acts,
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Speaker 1: he actually knew the men and women who played key
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Speaker 1: roles in the story of Jesus.
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Speaker 2: Of Jesus, he goes on.
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Speaker 1: Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the
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Speaker 1: things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they
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Speaker 1: were handed down to us by those, ready for this,
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Speaker 1: who from the first, in other words, when this thing
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Speaker 1: first began, were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. In
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Speaker 1: other words, Luke says, what I'm about to tell you,
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Speaker 1: I got from the eyewitnesses. I talked to the people
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Speaker 1: who were there and sure enough, read the book of Acts.
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Speaker 1: He knew Peter, he knew John, he knew James, the
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Speaker 1: brother of Jesus. He said, I have interviewed everybody I
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Speaker 1: can because I wanted to make sure there's at least
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Speaker 1: one account that covers all the bases. Then he says this,
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Speaker 1: with this in mind, With this in mind, since I
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Speaker 1: myself have carefully investigated, one Greek word, carefully investigated.
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Speaker 2: In other words, it means having.
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Speaker 1: Carefully followed along or having closely paid attention to the events.
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Speaker 2: I myself have done all the research I can, talked
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Speaker 2: to everybody I can. I too have investigated everything from
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Speaker 2: the beginning.
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Speaker 1: This is why Luke brings us the story of the
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Speaker 1: birth of Jesus from the beginning. This is why Luke
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Speaker 1: brings us the story of the birth of John the
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Speaker 1: Baptist from the beginning and the birth of Jesus and
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Speaker 1: the announcement of John the Baptist about Jesus. He said,
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Speaker 1: I've gone as far back as I can and I
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Speaker 1: wanna give you the whole story. This is not once
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Speaker 1: upon a time. This is not a Bible story. This
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Speaker 1: is Luke telling us what happened in his lifetime and
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Speaker 1: it had to be told because it was extraordinary and
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Speaker 1: it was good and it was for the world and
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Speaker 1: it was for every generation.
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Speaker 2: It is amazing, we don't even think about it.
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Speaker 1: 2000 years later, we're still talking about Jesus.
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Speaker 2: Are you kidding?
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Speaker 1: Why?
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Speaker 2: Because something extraordinary happened.
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Speaker 1: He says, with this in mind, with this in mind,
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Speaker 1: I myself have carefully investigated everything.
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Speaker 2: From the beginning. I too, along with many.
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Speaker 1: Others, I too decided to write an orderly account for you.
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Speaker 2: Again, here's my point.
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Speaker 1: This is a point for the day, but it's such
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Speaker 1: a big, big, big, big deal, especially if you're struggling
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Speaker 1: with faith or moving in the direction of faith or
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Speaker 1: you're about.
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Speaker 2: To turn your back, okay?
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Speaker 1: Luke is not writing the Bible. Luke didn't have any
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Speaker 1: idea there would ever be a the Bible. Luke didn't
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Speaker 1: know if his document would survive the first century. Luke
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Speaker 1: had no idea if anyone would read it other than
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Speaker 1: the person he's writing it for. He's not writing the Bible.
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Speaker 1: The gospel of Luke isn't part of the Bible. The
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Speaker 1: gospel of Luke is something that is we're gonna discover
18:38
Speaker 1: in a few minutes was included in the collection of
18:40
Speaker 1: documents that was eventually titled the Bible of because of
18:43
Speaker 1: what this story contained, when it was written, who wrote it,
18:46
Speaker 1: and what it said about Jesus. Luke was documenting the
18:51
Speaker 1: life and teaching of Jesus, which means, this is important,
18:56
Speaker 1: we shouldn't take Luke seriously because it's in the Bible.
19:00
Speaker 1: We shouldn't take the gospel of Luke seriously because it's
19:03
Speaker 1: in the Bible. Luke's account, Luke's account of the life
19:07
Speaker 1: of Jesus was written 300 years before the Bible was assembled,
19:10
Speaker 1: as we said a minute ago. So Luke's account, this
19:13
Speaker 1: is important, his account of the life of Jesus didn't
19:15
Speaker 1: become reliable when it was placed in the collection of
19:19
Speaker 1: documents we call the Bible. Luke's account, Luke's account of
19:23
Speaker 1: the life of Jesus was included in the Bible because
19:27
Speaker 1: Luke's account was considered reliable.
19:29
Speaker 2: This is so important.
19:30
Speaker 1: When it was written, let me illustrate it this way.
19:35
Speaker 1: When you go, when you travel and you stay in
19:37
Speaker 1: a hotel, you decide to go out to eat and
19:38
Speaker 1: you've got some jewelry, you got your iPad, you got
19:40
Speaker 1: your watch, you know, you got some stuff that's important
19:43
Speaker 1: and you find there's a safe in the closet in
19:44
Speaker 1: the hotel room. This is not a trick question. Don't
19:47
Speaker 1: answer out loud because it's going to sound like a
19:49
Speaker 1: trick question. Do you put things in that safe to
19:52
Speaker 1: make them valuable? Or do you put things in that
19:55
Speaker 1: safe because they're valuable? You put them in there because
20:02
Speaker 1: they're valuable. The safe doesn't make them valuable. The fact
20:05
Speaker 1: that you put them in a safe is evidence of
20:07
Speaker 1: the fact that you consider them valuable.
20:10
Speaker 2: So here's the point.
20:11
Speaker 1: Luke's account, this first century account of the life of
20:14
Speaker 1: Jesus was considered valuable the moment it was written. And
20:21
Speaker 1: it was eventually placed in the collection of books we
20:24
Speaker 1: call the Bible, not to make it valuable and not
20:27
Speaker 1: to make it true, but because it had been considered
20:30
Speaker 1: valuable and true from the moment it was written because
20:33
Speaker 1: of when it was written and who wrote it. as
20:39
Speaker 1: you struggle or if you're struggling with faith or if
20:41
Speaker 1: you ever struggle with faith and you're like, how could
20:43
Speaker 1: God and evil in the world and all those big
20:45
Speaker 1: questions that we should all be bothered by, we should
20:48
Speaker 1: all ask. Again, we don't ever have to look the
20:50
Speaker 1: other way and just pretend and God's just gonna work
20:52
Speaker 1: it all out. But I dare not look over there
20:54
Speaker 1: and see what's.
20:54
Speaker 2: Going on with them.
20:55
Speaker 1: When you find yourself in all of that, or if
20:58
Speaker 1: you're considering Christianity, maybe for the first time or the
21:01
Speaker 1: first time in a long time, it really comes down
21:03
Speaker 1: to this.
21:05
Speaker 2: Is Luke lying to us? Is he lying? Okay, he
21:11
Speaker 2: can't be mistaken. This is when people say, oh, he's mistaken.
21:13
Speaker 1: No, no, no. That's what you say if you've never
21:15
Speaker 1: read the Gospel of Luke or the Book of Acts.
21:16
Speaker 1: You read the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts,
21:19
Speaker 1: you may come away with all kinds of theories, but
21:21
Speaker 1: he was mistaken. You can be mistaken about an event.
21:25
Speaker 1: You know, you can be mistaken about a conversation. You
21:28
Speaker 1: can't be mistaken about the story arc of an entire
21:31
Speaker 1: life and what happened for the next 20 years after
21:34
Speaker 1: that story ended.
21:36
Speaker 2: He wasn't mistaken, right? It comes down to this.
21:40
Speaker 1: He either carefully investigated everything from the beginning.
21:46
Speaker 2: Or he didn't. And if he did, and there's no
21:50
Speaker 2: reason to think that he didn't.
21:52
Speaker 1: If he did, then my friends, you should lean in.
21:58
Speaker 1: I should lean in. We should lean in because something
22:02
Speaker 1: extraordinary happened. And if it happened, it's good. And it's
22:05
Speaker 1: good for you. And it's good for your family. And
22:08
Speaker 1: it's good for the world. And when you read the
22:12
Speaker 1: gospel of Luke, and if you read the book of Acts,
22:14
Speaker 1: you know what's clear?
22:16
Speaker 2: Luke believes what he's written.
22:19
Speaker 1: Luke is absolutely confident that what he documents actually took
22:25
Speaker 1: place because it's based on his conversations with the people
22:29
Speaker 1: who were there.
22:32
Speaker 2: Back to Luke.
22:32
Speaker 1: He says, with this in mind, I myself have carefully
22:36
Speaker 1: investigated everything from the beginning and I too decided to
22:39
Speaker 1: write an orderly account for you most excellent Theophilus. Theophilus
22:43
Speaker 1: was probably a wealthy believer who was like, okay, I
22:47
Speaker 1: believe Jesus is Messiah and I keep hearing all these stories.
22:50
Speaker 1: Would somebody kind of put it all together for me?
22:53
Speaker 1: And Luke apparently wrote the gospel of Luke, not for
22:57
Speaker 1: us and not for the world, but apparently so this
22:59
Speaker 1: one gentleman he knew could read the whole thing.
23:01
Speaker 2: And say, okay, now I think I've got it.
23:04
Speaker 1: I too, he says, I too decided to write an
23:06
Speaker 1: orderly account for you most excellent Theophilus. And this is
23:09
Speaker 1: so powerful. And if you're wrestling with faith, you know,
23:12
Speaker 1: I get it. I don't claim that I'd be able
23:14
Speaker 1: to answer your questions, but this next statement is so powerful.
23:17
Speaker 1: He said, the reason I took the time to get
23:20
Speaker 1: this down, the reason I wrote this is so that
23:23
Speaker 1: you may know the certainty In other words, he says,
23:28
Speaker 1: I want you to know the certainty. I want you
23:31
Speaker 1: to be secure in your knowledge of the things that
23:34
Speaker 1: you have been taught. Because Theophilus was a believer and
23:39
Speaker 1: he had been taught. And Luke is like, I wanna
23:41
Speaker 1: come in behind the things you've been taught and I
23:43
Speaker 1: wanna give it context because I want you.
23:46
Speaker 2: To have certainty.
23:48
Speaker 1: So that he wouldn't be left with the impression and
23:50
Speaker 1: so that you wouldn't be left with the impression and
23:52
Speaker 1: so that you wouldn't be left with the impression that Christianity.
23:55
Speaker 2: Is all about faith and faith.
23:56
Speaker 1: We just gotta have faith, said not Jesus, okay? We
24:00
Speaker 1: just gotta believe stuff, said nobody who followed Jesus after
24:03
Speaker 1: the resurrection.
24:05
Speaker 2: That Christianity isn't faith in faith.
24:07
Speaker 1: And Luke takes the time to document the life of
24:09
Speaker 1: Jesus so that people in the first century during the
24:12
Speaker 1: time when these events happened would know with certainty what
24:14
Speaker 1: had happened because their faith would be anchored to an
24:18
Speaker 1: event and ultimately to a person. That Luke wanted to
24:23
Speaker 1: ensure that our faith was anchored to that event, the
24:29
Speaker 1: resurrection of Jesus. That as we saw earlier, would launch
24:33
Speaker 1: the movement, the church. And then this was so fascinating.
24:37
Speaker 1: This is such fascinating history. When it was safe and
24:40
Speaker 1: when it was legal, the bishops came out of hiding
24:45
Speaker 1: and they put together the very first Bible. And this
24:48
Speaker 1: is amazing to me. And I, again, there's just, I
24:51
Speaker 1: don't even know how to put words around this.
24:53
Speaker 2: Think about Luke.
24:54
Speaker 1: He's living in the first century. Okay, things aren't going
24:56
Speaker 1: well for a lot of the little ecclesias of Jesus.
24:58
Speaker 1: He travels all around the Mediterranean Rim with the Apostle
25:00
Speaker 1: Paul on several of Apostle Paul's journeys. He's seen the
25:03
Speaker 1: Apostle Paul beat up. I mean, he's seen the whole thing. Meanwhile,
25:07
Speaker 1: he's got this document that he's given to Theophilus.
25:10
Speaker 2: I'm sure he had a copy for himself.
25:12
Speaker 1: And he knows that several people have sat down and
25:14
Speaker 1: tried to create a document that pieces together chronologically the
25:17
Speaker 1: life of Jesus. He had no idea that of all
25:21
Speaker 1: the many that were written and all the many that
25:24
Speaker 1: were attempted to be written, that his would be one
25:26
Speaker 1: of four that would survive. And not only would it survive,
25:30
Speaker 1: here's what happened to it. It was meticulously copied. And
25:34
Speaker 1: then it was distributed to Christians in little ecclesias. And
25:39
Speaker 1: some people memorized this entire document.
25:43
Speaker 2: And then as the years passed, it was demonized.
25:47
Speaker 1: It was collected with other Christian literature and it was burned.
25:51
Speaker 1: Toward the end of the third century, the very beginning
25:53
Speaker 1: of the fourth century, Emperor Diocletian, he was the last
25:56
Speaker 1: emperor to launch. In fact, he was really the first
25:58
Speaker 1: emperor to launch a really an empire wide persecution of
26:03
Speaker 1: Christians at the deepest level. And here's what Diocletian realized.
26:06
Speaker 1: He realized the reason we can't get rid of these
26:08
Speaker 1: crazy Christians and the reason we can't get the pagan,
26:11
Speaker 1: I mean, get our gods to be happy with us
26:13
Speaker 1: is because the Christians aren't making sacrifices and now the
26:16
Speaker 1: gods are angry, but we'll never get rid of the
26:18
Speaker 1: Christians until we get rid of their literature. Because understand
26:23
Speaker 1: in the ancient times, pagan religions, they.
26:25
Speaker 2: Didn't have literature. They didn't have a Bible. They didn't
26:27
Speaker 2: have anything.
26:27
Speaker 1: They just, you just made sacrifices to the gods. You
26:30
Speaker 1: trusted the priest and you just hope things worked out.
26:33
Speaker 1: But these crazy Christians, they had stuff written down.
26:37
Speaker 2: This was new.
26:38
Speaker 1: I mean, the Jewish people had the Torah, but you
26:40
Speaker 1: had to go to synagogue and that was, you know,
26:41
Speaker 1: a whole different thing. These crazy Gentile Christians had this
26:44
Speaker 1: literature that just fueled this epidemic of Christianity. So he
26:49
Speaker 1: decided not only are we going to arrest the bishops,
26:52
Speaker 1: not only are we going to shut down these little
26:54
Speaker 1: house gatherings, we're going to collect anything that looks like
26:58
Speaker 1: religious literature and we're going to burn it. And part
27:02
Speaker 1: of what was collected and burned were copies of the
27:05
Speaker 1: gospel of Luke. But these brave, brave, brave Jesus followers
27:11
Speaker 1: in the late third century, early fourth century, they would
27:15
Speaker 1: risk and in some cases lose their lives, not simply
27:19
Speaker 1: over what they believed, but to protect this sacred, sacred
27:25
Speaker 1: literature that would eventually become.
27:27
Speaker 2: Part of your Bible, our New Testament.
27:30
Speaker 1: And the document of Luther, the account of Jesus' life
27:33
Speaker 1: written by Luke was one of those documents along with
27:36
Speaker 1: the book But by the end of the third century,
27:42
Speaker 1: by the beginning of the fourth century, this literature had
27:45
Speaker 1: been so broadly distributed that even Diocletian with the power
27:49
Speaker 1: of Rome could do away with all that Christian literature.
27:52
Speaker 2: And then something remarkable happened. Constantine.
27:55
Speaker 1: Became the emperor. It's a fascinating story how he becomes emperor.
27:58
Speaker 1: His mother apparently was a Christian. Eventually he has this
28:02
Speaker 1: vision that perhaps you've heard stories of. There's so many
28:04
Speaker 1: different stories, but essentially he lifts the ban. He lifts
28:07
Speaker 1: the ban on Christian worship. And he allows the Christians
28:11
Speaker 1: to come out of the shadows and worship publicly. And
28:14
Speaker 1: when they come out of the shadows to worship publicly
28:16
Speaker 1: and their bishops and their scholars come out of the shadows,
28:19
Speaker 1: they are able to bring for the first time in
28:22
Speaker 1: human history.
28:23
Speaker 2: This literature that has fueled this.
28:26
Speaker 1: Movement that accomplished so much in the first 300 years
28:29
Speaker 1: of Christianity. And they're able to bring out copies of
28:32
Speaker 1: the gospels and copies of the letters of Paul and
28:35
Speaker 1: copies of the letter of James. And in some cases,
28:37
Speaker 1: they'd already been bundled together and they bring these out.
28:40
Speaker 1: And the empire that crucified Jesus finances, finances the assembly
28:46
Speaker 1: of the very first Bible and the very first Bibles.
28:50
Speaker 1: And Constantine orders, according to one story, that 50 copies
28:53
Speaker 1: be made because he wants all the Christian bishops to
28:56
Speaker 1: be singing off the same sheet of music. Not really,
28:59
Speaker 1: but they want them to all work off.
29:01
Speaker 2: The same text.
29:02
Speaker 1: And so now you've got the wealth of the empire.
29:05
Speaker 1: You've got the best scholars bringing not hundreds, thousands and thousands.
29:11
Speaker 2: Of these manuscripts together.
29:13
Speaker 1: And they compare and they compare and they compare and
29:16
Speaker 1: they compare and they authorize and they decided which of
29:19
Speaker 1: these documents are more authentic and where are the differences?
29:23
Speaker 2: And they put together the very first Bible. You see,
29:30
Speaker 2: the stories in the Bible about Jesus, they're not Bible stories.
29:33
Speaker 2: The story of Jesus, it's the story. It's the whole thing.
29:38
Speaker 1: If any one of the gospels reflects the reality of
29:42
Speaker 1: Jesus' life and Jesus' teaching, that's enough for us to
29:46
Speaker 1: sit up straight and pay attention because at the end
29:48
Speaker 1: of all four gospels, Jesus is crucified by Rome and
29:54
Speaker 1: buried and seen.
29:57
Speaker 2: And he rises from the dead.
29:58
Speaker 1: And suddenly, This day laborer from Galilee, this day laborer
30:03
Speaker 1: turned rabbi, this man who said such extraordinary things, but
30:07
Speaker 1: it's never gonna catch on. We're not gonna love our enemies.
30:10
Speaker 1: Are you kidding? We're not gonna do for those who
30:13
Speaker 1: won't do for us. We're not gonna be generous to
30:15
Speaker 1: people who won't be generous in return.
30:17
Speaker 2: Are you? No, we're not.
30:18
Speaker 1: No, we're not gonna do any of that. He rose
30:19
Speaker 1: from the dead and something happened in the world.
30:23
Speaker 2: And it's why we're here.
30:24
Speaker 1: And it's why we need to pay attention. And it's
30:27
Speaker 1: why if you're starting to deconstruct your faith, I'm telling
30:29
Speaker 1: you all the things that have fascinated you that you've
30:32
Speaker 1: now lost your fascination with, when it comes to faith,
30:35
Speaker 1: it really comes down to the gospels.
30:36
Speaker 2: It comes down to one gospel. And for the next
30:38
Speaker 2: few weeks, it's gonna come down to the gospel of Luke.
30:43
Speaker 1: So as we wrap up this first in the series,
30:46
Speaker 1: I wanna leave you with this. If you choose, and
30:52
Speaker 1: it's your choice, If you choose not to follow Jesus
30:56
Speaker 1: because it's inconvenient, I get that because it is. Following
31:02
Speaker 1: Jesus will require something of you and following Jesus will
31:06
Speaker 1: require something from you. It's gonna require you to forgive
31:09
Speaker 1: people who don't deserve to be forgiven. It's gonna require
31:11
Speaker 1: you to forgive people and you're gonna feel like you're
31:13
Speaker 1: giving them a gift after they've already taken something from you.
31:17
Speaker 1: Following Jesus is gonna require you to be less selfish,
31:20
Speaker 1: less full of yourself. There are times when it's gonna
31:24
Speaker 1: be so extraordinarily inconvenient. So it's gonna cost you some money.
31:29
Speaker 1: Jesus said more about money than just about anything, way
31:32
Speaker 1: more than he said anything about heaven because Jesus knew
31:34
Speaker 1: that where your treasure is, that's where.
31:35
Speaker 2: Your heart is. And Jesus says after your heart, if
31:37
Speaker 2: you follow.
31:38
Speaker 1: Jesus, hang on to your purse and hang on to
31:40
Speaker 1: your checkbook. It's gonna cost you when you decide to
31:42
Speaker 1: follow Jesus. And if you decide to follow Jesus, it's
31:45
Speaker 1: gonna cost you some time because Jesus says.
31:47
Speaker 2: That we are his body.
31:49
Speaker 1: And as part of his body, there are things we
31:51
Speaker 1: have to do and get to do for each other and.
31:52
Speaker 2: For the world.
31:53
Speaker 1: So yeah, if you decide I'm not following Jesus, that
31:56
Speaker 1: takes too much time, it's too costly, it's too inconvenient.
31:59
Speaker 1: That is a somewhat valid reason not to follow Jesus. However,
32:03
Speaker 1: if you choose to follow Jesus, it will eventually make
32:05
Speaker 1: your life better and it will make you.
32:07
Speaker 2: Better at life. That's a guarantee. But if it's too inconvenient,
32:11
Speaker 2: I get that.
32:12
Speaker 1: That is somewhat of a valid reason not to follow Jesus.
32:17
Speaker 1: But please, please, please don't choose not to follow Jesus
32:24
Speaker 1: because you don't think there's anything to.
32:26
Speaker 2: The story of Jesus.
32:29
Speaker 1: Because in spite of what you heard in college and
32:32
Speaker 1: in spite of what you've heard in culture, there is.
32:37
Speaker 1: So if you don't wanna follow Jesus because it's inconvenient,
32:39
Speaker 1: you're right, it's inconvenient. But don't give up on following
32:43
Speaker 1: Jesus because you don't think there's anything to the story
32:45
Speaker 1: of Jesus until you personally as an adult investigate the
32:50
Speaker 1: story for yourself. Because the only good reason really not
32:56
Speaker 1: to follow Jesus isn't that the Bible isn't true. It's
33:01
Speaker 1: that you decide that Luke isn't trustworthy enough. that many
33:05
Speaker 1: people did not endeavor to tell and record the story
33:09
Speaker 1: of Jesus, that he did not carefully investigate everything, that
33:13
Speaker 1: he did not talk to the eyewitnesses, that he didn't
33:16
Speaker 1: actually know Peter and he didn't actually know James, the
33:18
Speaker 1: brother of Jesus, that he didn't carefully investigate everything from
33:23
Speaker 1: the beginning.
33:25
Speaker 2: But if you read it and you read the book
33:27
Speaker 2: of Acts, you may be convinced.
33:31
Speaker 1: You may be convinced of this, that 2000 years ago,
33:36
Speaker 1: something extraordinary happened. Something extraordinary for you and for your
33:44
Speaker 1: family and for us and for our culture and for
33:47
Speaker 1: our country and for every single generation. The story of
33:53
Speaker 1: Jesus had to be told and Luke chose to tell it.
34:00
Speaker 1: And we will pick up his story of the life
34:03
Speaker 1: of Jesus next time in part two of investigating Jesus,
34:07
Speaker 1: how we know and why we know.