INTRODUCTION: Gary Habermas was a young
doctoral student at Michigan State in the 1970s struggling with his faith. Like
so many young people who grow up in a Christian family and eventually leave
home and their faith as well, he was definitely rethinking what he really
believed. It came to the point of announcing to his mother that he was leaning
toward Buddhism. To settle the issue rationally, Gary decided to do his
doctoral dissertation on the resurrection of Jesus. He felt that anchoring his
faith in the truth of the resurrection would give him the peace and confidence
he sought. The chairman of his doctoral committee said the topic was fine, but
added, “Don’t come back and tell us the resurrection happened because the Bible
tells us so.” Gary’s challenge was to
demonstrate the reality of this event without exclusively using Scripture.
He
called his approach the “Minimal Facts
Method.” He presented twelve historical facts that validated the core
events and people surrounding the most crucial event in the Christian faith:
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The results of his research on the resurrection not only literally saved
his Christian faith, but Gary Habermas is now considered one of the world’s
leading experts on the topic and is
Distinguished Professor of Apologetics and Philosophy and chairman of the
department of philosophy and theology at Liberty University. Out of these accepted historical facts he put
forth in his research, let me mention just five. Again, these are things that
the majority of skeptical scholars believe to be true.
1) Jesus actually lived and was Jewish. This claim is only challenged by skeptics who have determined to
disbelieve any facts that would point to the validity of the Christian faith.
It’s important to remember, simply Googling something is not equivalent to
actual historical research. In contrast, any serious student of history will
concede that Jesus indeed really lived.
2) Jesus was executed by crucifixion by Pontius
Pilate, the Roman procurator. Josephus,
the first-century historian, as well as Tacitus, a Roman historian of the early
second century, are both key witnesses of this fact beyond the testimony of
Scripture.
These historical references are why even skeptics
believe He was crucified. We can establish this as a fact of history, not just
a statement of faith in Scripture. Remember,
though we as Christians accept the testimony of Scripture as God’s inspired
Word, we are showing here that the basic facts of the Gospel are accessible to
those who don’t share this belief. If they are open to honestly looking at
history, they can clearly see that these critical events really happened.
3) Jesus’s tomb was found empty by a group of His female
followers three days after His crucifixion. The sudden expansion of the
Christian faith just days after His death on the cross could not have happened
if the body of Jesus were still in the tomb. His enemies would have simply
produced the corpse, and the growing movement would have been over. Instead,
Christianity started in Jerusalem, the very place where it would have been
easiest to disprove.
4) His disciples believed Jesus appeared to them
after His death. The followers of Jesus
indeed believed Jesus had appeared to them after His crucifixion. Skeptics
suggest these were merely hallucinations or visions instead of real bodily
appearances. As some have suggested, visions of people who have died are
usually interpreted as seeing the spirit or the “ghost” of that person—evidence
that they indeed died, not that they’re still living. It’s also never reported
that a hallucination or ghost would cook breakfast for a group of friends as
Jesus did. Remember that the idea of a
resurrection was just as shocking then as it would be now. Just like today,
people at the time of Jesus believed that dead people tend to stay dead. Using
accepted historical methods that look for the best explanation to determine
what actually happened in the past, we’re able to make decisions about what’s
historical fact and what’s historical fiction. The conclusion that Jesus was
raised from the dead best explains the data.
Since the resurrection is the foundation of
Christianity, our faith is not the product of blind acceptance but historical
reality. However, one of the key minimal
facts I’ve yet to mention here involves a biblical figure who is the primary
focus of the recent A.D. episode: Saul of Tarsus.
5) Saul of Tarsus was transformed after claiming to see the risen
Jesus.
Historians of all types acknowledge that Saul (also known later as the apostle
Paul) was indeed a real person—a highly educated and religiously influential
leader.
Critics concede that Saul did undergo a dramatic
transformation and became a follower of Christ. He would eventually write the
major letters to young Christian churches, such as Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians,
and Galatians, which are included in the New Testament. With this firmly in mind, we want to focus our
attention on this man Saul—someone who history tells us was very real and
deeply important to the advancement of the Gospel.
As A.D. has dramatically shown, Saul was an enemy
of the Christian community. In today’s context, he would’ve been seen as a
radical terrorist who would stop at nothing to destroy this new religion.
Because of his prominence in the New Testament, as well as in this TV series,
we should examine the impact of Saul’s pivotal encounter with the risen Christ.
Saul stands out as history’s most famous convert to
the Christian faith. His encounter with Christ and its subsequent impact on his
life deserves a much closer look as we search for parallels that apply to us
today.
Scripture:
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous
threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him
for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who
belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to
Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven
flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who
are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I
am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the
city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The
men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did
not see anyone. Saul got
up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they
led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat
or drink anything. Acts 9:1-16
1.
Saul’s encounter with Christ gave him a NEW LIFE
MISSION
This event may be one of the most dramatic
encounters with God in all of Scripture. It could be considered the New
Testament parallel to Moses encountering God at the burning bush in the Old
Testament. Moses encountered God as a consuming fire. Paul experienced Him as a
blinding light. Saul’s encounter is also the source of the expression “seeing
the light” and thus changing one’s ways.
The end result of both of these moments was these
men being commissioned by God to accomplish His purposes. For Moses, the call
was to lead people out of physical bondage and slavery. Paul’s mission was to
proclaim Christ’s message of deliverance from spiritual bondage and oppression.
A common theme runs through the stories of those
who encounter Christ in any way: They find themselves divinely “redirected.”
Paul’s belief that Christ had been raised from the dead led him to spark a mass
movement that caused multitudes to accept the Gospel, putting their trust in
Christ.
For to
me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Philippians 1: 21
Here
is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. 1 Timothy 1:13-15
This
church – North Raleigh Church of the
Nazarene - is filled with people who found their God-given purpose and
destiny when they came to Christ!
2. Saul’s encounter with
Christ changed his CHARACTER.
Meeting
Christ on the road to Damascus not only changed the course of Saul’s life, but
it changed his character. Before
Damascus, Saul was indeed religiously zealous, yet his heart was filled with
anger, resentment, and even murder.
In our
world today, we can see this trait in people who think they are doing God’s
work by harassing and harming others in the name of God. However, after Saul’s encounter with Christ, he became the exact
opposite -
And the Lord’s servant must not be
quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not
resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will
grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 2:24-25
Instead
of resorting to torture and persecution to get others to change their beliefs,
Paul would instead pray, preach, and persuade them by the force of his
arguments—even to the point of being tortured and persecuted himself.
There
is no greater way to state this change of character than the statement Paul
later wrote to the Corinthians:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new
creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
3. Saul’s encounter with Christ made him willing to SUFFER
for the sake of his faith.
From
the very start of his new Christian life, Saul was told the price he would have
to pay to follow Jesus. We will look into this more next week: The man sent to
help him, Ananias, could have said something like “Saul, I’ve got good news and
bad news for you. The good news is that Jesus told me to tell you that you are
a chosen instrument of His; the bad news is that you are going to suffer a
lot.” This message doesn’t sound like much of the popular preaching of our day
that promises the blessings of following Jesus without mentioning the cost of
being His disciple. In his book The Cost
of Discipleship, considered to be one of the most authoritative sources on
discipleship, the German evangelist Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come
and die.”
These
words certainly mirror those of Jesus as He consistently told His disciples
that they would have to pick up their own cross and follow Him
And whoever does not carry their cross and
follow me cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:27
It has
been said many times, “Christianity is a cross, not a crutch.”
4.
Saul’s encounter with Christ caused him to ground his faith in the TRUTH of
SCRIPTURE , not just personal EXPERIENCE .
I passed on to you right from the first
what had been told to me, that Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures
said he would, and that he was buried, and that
three days afterwards he arose from the grave just as the prophets
foretold. He was seen by Peter and later by the rest of “the
Twelve.” After that he was seen by more than five
hundred Christian brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though
some have died by now. Then James saw
him, and later all the apostles. Last of all I saw
him too, long after the others, as though I had been born almost too late for
this. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
There
is no other encounter like Saul’s recorded in the New Testament. The impact of
his preaching and his works sparked the explosive growth of the Christian
church. Ultimately, because they
witnessed and believed these certain undeniable events, the believers were
willing to lay down their lives.
History tells us that a majority of the
original disciples were actually put to death rather than denying Jesus had
been raised from the dead. Its one thing to give your life for something you
believe to be true; it’s another to die for something you know is a lie. The
original disciples would have known firsthand whether or not Jesus was really
alive. To them, it was undeniable.
We
don’t need the same dramatic experience with Christ that Saul had to make a
dramatic impact for Christ. As you embrace these key truths and allow God to
ground your faith as He established Saul’s, you put yourself in the place to
make a difference with your life.
INVITATION
/ CLOSING: The
question is this: “If
skeptics know these things are historically true, why don’t they believe?” Obviously, this inquiry
reveals one of the most mysterious and misunderstood aspects of our
existence—doubt.
In a
court of law, the burden of proof is “beyond a reasonable doubt,” not “possible
doubt.” Skeptics say things like “Isn’t it possible that His disciples stole
His body and then went out to preach He had been resurrected?” Yes, that’s
possible, but it’s not reasonable. To make a rational, reasonable decision, we
don’t really need 100 percent certainty about anything. In the same way, God
has given us enough evidence to believe.
Because
Gary Habermas struggled so much with doubt, he has deep compassion on those
with similar struggles with doubt. He describes three kinds of doubt: factual
doubt, emotional doubt, and volitional doubt.
If
your issue is factual doubt
(doubting that these truths are facts of history), then this message should go
a long way to helping you believe. Yet, many can know the correct facts but
still not believe. The issue could be due to emotional doubt, which points to an experience that has left a
person in a place where they can’t overcome the emotional hurdles of a bad
religious experience, a failed relationship with someone who claimed to be a
Christian, or simply a fear of not being able to follow Christ and keep His
commandments. Finally, it could come down to volitional doubt, which in essence is an act of your will. Every
person has a choice; God gave the human race the privilege He gave no other
creature—the power to make real choices
Moses
spoke to the people of Israel and declared God’s challenge: “This day I call the heavens and the
earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death,
blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”
(Deuteronomy 30:19).
As
Saul, who would later be known as the apostle Paul, said, “If you declare with
your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
This
very day, you have the awesome opportunity to take a step of faith—not a blind
step, but rather one with spiritual sight, given the evidence that the tomb of
Jesus is empty and that He indeed has been raised from the dead. Because Christ
has been raised, you and I can be raised up into a new life and, just like
Saul, possess a faith that is undeniable.
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