Centering Faith on the Resurrection of Jesus

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Christianity can stand on its own two New Covenant, nail -scarred, resurrection, first -century feet. The Christian faith does not need to be propped up by the Jewish scriptures. In a post -Christian context like ours, our faith actually does better without Old Covenant support.

Let's step back onto the firm foundation we discover in the early church. The foundation that birthed a version of our faith that was stronger than Roman steel and tougher than Roman nails, a version the ancient world found to be irresistible.

Most people who've walked away from faith walked away for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. They walked away from a version of Christianity that could be compared to a, well, to a house of cards. And here's what I mean by that. If someone convinces them the earth wasn't created in six literal days, they may begin to wonder if there's any reason they should believe Jesus rose after three. If any part of the 66 books of the Bible is proven to be untrue, then the Bible isn't true. And if the Bible isn't true, then their version of Christianity comes tumbling down. [00:02:21]

In my conversations with deconverted people, I have never heard a deconversion story involving disbelief in something essential to following Jesus. Now, I've talked to plenty of people who found it impossible to keep believing things they were taught, things that they were taught were essential to faith, and they're often shocked and, honestly, sometimes relieved when I assure them that I don't believe what they don't believe either or that a person can actually follow Jesus without believing whatever it is they've decided they no longer believe. [00:03:40]

While many modern folks may hesitate to recognize Jesus as divine, They are not in the least bit hesitant to praise him as someone whose life is worth imitating. In other words, people don't generally leave the church or the faith because of Jesus. He's not the stumbling block. We have put other things in their way, things that have made us unnecessarily resistible. [00:05:45]

Peter, Andrew, James, and John did not decide to follow Jesus because of something they read. They followed him because of something they saw. Now, maybe this will help. What would happen to you if you lost your birth certificate? The answer is nothing. Your birth certificate documents you. It did not create you and it doesn't sustain you. [00:06:42]

In other words, we don't believe because of a book. We believe because of an event that inspired the book. To put it another way, the Bible did not create Christianity. Christianity created the Bible. The Christian faith existed for 200 plus years before there was a the Bible, but it did not exist before there was a the resurrection. [00:08:28]

When Jesus uttered his last word and breathed his last breath, everybody who had believed stopped believing. There is no evidence that any of his former followers were planning to keep the dream alive or to somehow keep the movement moving. I mean, after all, if Jesus couldn't keep himself alive, what hope did they have of keeping his movement alive? Besides, why bother? The fact that Nick and Joe were taking a lifeless body down from a Roman cross was all the evidence anyone needed to know. Jesus was not who he claimed to be. [00:09:14]

Peter and the boys didn't choose to stay with Jesus because of what he taught. They chose to stay with Jesus in spite of what he taught. They hung around because of who he claimed to be. Here's Peter's actual response in John chapter six. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. So there it is. The reason they stuck with Jesus is because of who they believed he was, the Holy One of God. [00:10:43]

Everybody, as in even his most devout followers, expected Jesus to do what all dead people do, stay dead. Nick and Joe prepared Jesus' body for burial because they expected him to stay buried. On Easter morning, no one was standing outside Jesus' tomb counting down backwards from 10, anticipating a miracle. On the contrary, a group of women left home just before dawn to re -prepare Jesus' body for burial. [00:11:33]

No church, there were no christians just broken -hearted disillusioned x jesus followers that is until a handful of those followers encountered their risen savior and decided to re -follow and when they did something new was unleashed in the world something standalone something birthed in a nation for all nations something forecasted foreshadowed foreseen a new movement fueled by a new covenant and guided by a new governing ethic the resurrection signal the inauguration of the ecclesia the assembly the congregation of jesus we call it the church. [00:12:49]

The Christian faith began with the resurrection of Jesus in other words a birth not a birth certificate our faith began when a handful of jesus followers saw him alive from the dead and just as the resurrection of jesus served as the reason they would later give for the hope that was alive in them so his resurrection must serve as the reason for our hope as well to state it more directly we don't believe because the bible says we believe because jesus rose. [00:13:56]

Why do we believe that jesus rose because the bible tells us so no it is way better than that we believe jesus rose from the dead because matthew tells us so mark tells us so luke tells us so john tells us so peter tells us so james the brother of jesus believed it to be so and last but not least the apostle paul came to believe it was so eventually church leaders collected these individual declarations of faith including the four accounts of jesus life and teaching the gospels and bound them together entitled it the new testament. [00:14:28]

Once someone accepts the historicity of the resurrection you don't generally have to convince them to lean into what jesus said and did and when somebody becomes fascinated with jesus they usually become fascinated with the backstory as well the jewish scriptures the moral of this story should be quite encouraging to most of us your unbelieving friends don't have to accept the old testament as reliable or even the new testament as inspired as a precursor to embracing jesus as savior. [00:15:09]

The resurrection is the horse the bible is the cart unfortunately most of us grew up with that particular cart sitting in front of that particular horse we were taught to believe that everything in the bible was true because it was in the bible we inherited a text -based faith so we grew up believing jesus rose from the dead because well because the bible says he rose from the dead. But once upon a time, our faith was event -based. Perhaps, just perhaps, we should start showing off the baby from Nazareth instead of trying to convince everybody that his birth certificate is accurate. [00:15:52]

If the church is going to regain the first century status of irresistible, we have to change the way we talk about the Bible and we have to shift the spotlight off the infallibility of the Bible and onto the resurrection of Jesus. Why? Because most educated people have an educated opinion about what the Bible is and what it isn't. They do not walk into our churches and our Bible studies with a blank slate. They walk in with full slates. [00:17:00]

Our faith doesn't teeter on the brink of extinction based on the archeology or the history of the Old Testament. Anyone who lost faith in Jesus because they lost faith in the historical and archeological credibility of the Old Testament, well, they just lost faith unnecessarily. The faith of Jesus' earliest followers did not rest on a historically, archeologically, or scientifically accurate book. And yours shouldn't either. [00:17:56]

When skeptics point out the violence and the supposed misogyny and the scientific and historically unverifiable claims of the Hebrew Bible, instead of trying to defend those things, we can just shrug and give them our best confused look and say, I'm not even sure why you're bringing this up. My Christian faith isn't based on any of that. And by the way, it isn't, or it shouldn't be. Peter's wasn't, Paul's wasn't, Catherine's isn't. [00:18:23]

The approach to preaching, teaching, writing, and evangelism that most of us saw modeled and consequently inherited is perfectly designed for a culture that no longer exists. The Bible says does not carry the weight that it once did. But fortunately, first century church leaders showed us the way forward. They put all of their eggs in one basket, the Easter basket. They leveraged the event of the resurrection. And the time has come for us to do the same. [00:20:29]

If we genuinely care about unchurched people, if we genuinely care about post -church people, if we genuinely care about the faith of our kids and our grandkids, we will. The Apostle Paul, who was more than willing to adjust his approach, summed it up perfectly when he wrote these words. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. And I do this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings. I love that, all possible means. So let's just do that. Let's adjust our sails. Let's shift our approach for the sake of the gospel. Your faith doesn't depend on it. My faith doesn't either. But the faith of the next generation just might. The faith of this generation just might as well. [00:21:06]

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