Christian Life: How God Reaches People

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Acts 17:10-12

The Bereans

They received the word with great eagerness . . . and believed

This is showing a connection between finding out the truth, and believing. Looking at the evidence and believing. This is the way many people become Christians.

Why are people not Christians? (let them interract)

It is not because the evidence is stacked up against Christianity, and there’s just no good reason to believe. When people say they don’t have enough reason to believe, that’s great! They can have good reasons to believe, God provides it. When someone looks into the evidence for Christianity, it is very compelling.

Let’s talk about why you’re here.

Open up to input, call on people . . .

I also know that many of you are here because you’re supposed to be. Let’s just think of a few questions that non-Christians ask:

Have you ever heard that Jesus Christ was God? How do you know?

Have you heard of an idea called the “Trinity”? How do you know?

Have you heard that a person cannot be saved by his good deeds? How do you know?

I think it’s clear that for most of us here, our faith depends on our mommies and daddies, or something your pastor told you. And in this respect many of you are at a real disadvantage because you came from Christian homes. I’ll tell you something that’s going to happen. You will see non-Christians come to Christ and they will know more about their faith than you do. They will know more about why they believe, why it’s right, what their reasons are than you.

And that’s very concerning. Let me warn you about something, when you’re at school, your mommy and daddy won’t be there. When you go to college and they are saying the Bible is a mythical book, your pastor won’t be there. It is a very common scenario to have Christian kids raised in Christian homes walk away from Christ when they get the chance because they never really knew why they believed.

The nature of the evidence

Let’s talk about the nature of the evidence for Christianity. And let’s think first about what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about issues like whether there is a God or not. We’re talking about issues like where this universe came from. We’re talking about what is going to happen to you when you die. We’re talking about whether Christianity is true versus other religions.

The nature of the evidence in these matters is not like some other things.

Example: How do we know, for example, that Joe Botti cleans every toilet seat he sits on with alcohol? We can watch him. We can talk to him about his fears of germs on his butt . . .

But with deeper issues, like eternity, are not like that. The evidence we have is not airtight.

Example: Let’s think of an illustration here. I want someone to come up and make a choice. I have two pieces of paper, and they represent two things that are going to happen to you. (If they choose one, a pile on by some huge guys. The other represents a kiss from a girl. But I won’t tell him outright. I’ll only beat around the bush.)

There are two points I want to make about God and choosing Christianity. Number one, there is evidence. And I want to talk about the evidence in a bit. But the evidence points towards something. We can’t bring God in here and examine him. We can’t watch the movie of the beginning of the universe and find out where it came from. We can visit the afterlife and find out what it’s like.

But the second thing is you have to choose! Nobody in this life can not choose. If you don’t choose, then that is a choice! This is something we have to be real clear with when we’re talking with people. Because people think that they can just play the middle ground. There is no middle ground . . .

What evidence is there?

Now let’s finish by talking about what evidence there is.

Philosophical evidence

When you’re talking to someone who is not sure God is there, for example, what is their evidence? They haven’t seen him. They haven’t heard him . . . But have they seen China? Have they seen ?

The argument for something not being there is not a great one. To make it effectively you would have to be able to say, “I’ve looked everywhere. I know everything. I’ve experienced everything. And I know that God does not exist.” Since it’s impossible to do that, what most people say is, “I’m not going to believe in God unless I see evidence.” That’s where we say, “I’m going to give you some evidence . . .

The existence of the universe is one. It actually makes more sense to say that it came from somewhere than to say it came from nowhere. Everything around us has a cause. Can you think of anything that doesn’t have a cause? It makes very much sense to say that the universe itself has a cause. That’s why most scientist believe in God . . .

Biblical evidence

There is biblical evidence. By this I mean prophecy, the historical resurrection of Christ . . .

This evidence is good for showing someone that Christianity’s answers are better than other answers. You should know some prophecy . . .

Experiential evidence

This is one reason we share our testimony . . .

This is why we have meetings . . .

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