Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
There are many difficult and challenging questions about Christianity, the Bible, science,
and other world religions. But our faith is rooted first
and foremost in one miraculous and historically verifiable event. Either
Jesus rose from the dead or he didn't. Here's the question,
Is it true? And why do you believe it? Stay
(00:33):
with me?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
That's today Welcome to this edition of Living on the
Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of this daily program
is to intentionally disciple Christians through the insightful Bible teaching
of Chip Ingram. Today, we're continuing our series dealing with
Doubts and if you're wrestling with your faith or know
someone who's become an outspoken skeptic about Christianity, these messages.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Are for you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Through Chip and our guest teacher John Dickerson, well uncovered
the answers to questions like what happens after we die?
Is Jesus real? Can we trust God's word? And is
Christianity good?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I hope you're really connecting with what Chip and John
have shared so far, and if so, take a minute
after today's message and shared with someone.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Now you can easily do.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That through the Chip and gram map or by downloading
the free MP threes at living onbeedge dot org. Well,
with all that, let's get going and joint Chip for
his talk why I Believe in the Resurrection.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I received a note a few years ago from a
name that I recognized. I passioned a church in a
very small community in Texas, and this was a young
man who was involved in young life, a zealous Christian
and you know, I was the pastor. Are you ready
for this back in my twenties early thirties, And I
got this note and it had a gift toward the
ministry and said thanks a lot, and so I thought, wow,
(01:54):
you know, I haven't heard from this guy in ages.
So I gave him a call and I said, hey,
I just called to tell you, you know, thanks so much
for the gift. We really appreciate it and your note.
And it's just so encouraging the pastor and me to
you know, all these years later that you still walking
with the Lord. And the guy said something that kind
of shocked me. He goes, well, actually I don't walk
with God at all anymore. I said, what he goes, Yeah,
(02:16):
I'm a doctor. I work as an er doctor. And
shortly after high school. My dad, who was a just
a atheist, I mean radical atheist. He just asked me
a bunch of questions and he just took my faith
and threw it in the trash can and said, I'll
never amount to anything. And it literally destroyed my faith.
He said, But I drive back and forth to the
(02:36):
hospital and I catch your radio program, and I don't
know if I should take this as a compliment or not.
He goes, I don't think even have to believe in God.
I think when you talk, it just encourages people, you know.
So I said, well, wow, And that had a moment,
you know, one of those moments on the phone. I thought, one,
I was really disappointed, and second then I said, you
(02:57):
know something? Can I share something with you? He said, well,
I said, you know, I had a moment like that
as well. His name was doctor p and he was
a very smart and intelligent person, and he asked me
a bunch of questions that caused me to doubt my
whole faith. And I went on a journey. And I
went on this journey to try and really, how do
(03:17):
you solve these doubts? And can I intellectually believe? You know?
The Bible is true, and Jesus is the only way,
and these things that I mean. He ridiculed me, and
I asked him, I used his name, and I said,
would you be willing, even after all these years, to
go on maybe a little journey with me? I mean,
I'm not going to preach at you. I'm not going
to tell you ought to do this or ought to
(03:38):
do that. But I went on this journey. Could we
explore your doubts together and just see are you ready?
Is it intellectually feasible to believe that Jesus is God,
that he is the only way to heaven, that the
Bible is true, and that all the things that we
shared when you were young are a reality. And then
there was this pause. Yeah, I'd be willing to do that.
(04:03):
I said, okay, well, i'll send you some stuff to read,
and I'll read it and we'll get on the phone.
We'll talk back and forth. And we went on that
journey and I will wait to tell you a little
bit about the outcome. It's pretty exciting. And so I
didn't say you ought to believe this, you need to
do that. I said, let's begin asking some questions, and
(04:25):
let's ask them. I mean at the most basic, basic level,
And I said, you'd be surprised. But atheists and Christians
have one thing that they violently agree on together. He said,
what's that? I said, they both believe that the resurrection
of Jesus Christ is central. The issue rises or falls
(04:45):
either Jesus rose from the dead or he didn't. In fact,
let me quote probably the best known atheist of the
last century, Anthony Flew. He says, the physical, literal, bodily
resurrection is the best, if not the only, reason for
except that Jesus is the God of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob,
we both agree. He's talking about a debate that he's
(05:07):
having with the Christian leader. We both agree that the
identification in defining and distinguishing the characteristics of the true
Christian that it is scarcely possible to make it without
also accepting the resurrection did literally happen. This is what
the apostle, Paul says one Corinthians fifteen, verses sixteen to nineteen.
(05:30):
Paul agrees with the atheist, for if the dead are
not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if
Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You're
still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep, literally,
those who have died in Christ, they've perished. If we
have hope in Christ in this life only, we are,
(05:50):
of all men most to be pitied. And so I'd
like to just share with you the seven reasons that
led me to believe that the Resurrection actually happened. So
let's dig in together. Question number one is did Jesus
really exist? I mean, is it a fairy tale? As
(06:12):
I shared with one guy on a plane, he came
from a Hindu background, and he just said, you know,
we have all kinds of things where there's myths. Is
Jesus a real person? Can you even prove that Biblical manuscripts,
the quantity and the quality of them, the way that
we know anything happened in antiquity, whether it's Homer and
the Iliad, whether it's Shakespeare, whether it's any old writing, Plato, Aristotle,
(06:38):
we have manuscripts, and they're reliable and they've been tested.
What you find is the New Testament has the greatest
number and the greatest quality. I mean, we have a
handful of manuscripts hundreds of years after Plato or Aristotle.
We have twenty five thousand, either partial or full manuscripts
(07:00):
the New Testament. Now, being a skeptic myself and with
my friend, I said, now, you know, if all we
have is the Bible, it's kind of circular reason to say, well,
the Bible says Jesus was here, so I guess that's true.
But what we have is external verification. Josephus was a
Jewish historian shortly after the time of Christ. Plenty and
(07:21):
Tacitus were Roman historians. And what we have is actual documentation.
In other words, you can go to times and places
and archaeology and writers that are not a part of
the movement that say this is what happened. They quote,
this is what Jesus said, this is what his followers believed.
And so first and foremost secular scholars, believers and unbelievers,
(07:43):
have manuscripts these non Christian sources. And then the confirmation
of archaeology, whether it's an inscription with ponscious pilot or
whether it's tablets that we find about a census that
happened during the time they dug up. They didn't even
know about it. They dug up and found Bethlehem and
all these different places. It is absolutely a given that
(08:07):
this person named Jesus. No, I'm not saying he's the
son of God. Yet I'm not saying he's a savior
of the world. But there's an absolute historical consensus that
he lived, that he's a real person. He's not the
tooth fairy. He's not someone that got a dream from somewhere.
He's not some philosophical something. A real man named Jesus
(08:28):
lived upon the earth. Now, the second question is what
was Jesus really like? I mean, what kind of person
was he? I wasn't there, You weren't there. And what
we know is that friend and foe agree that he
was a great man and a moral teacher. And yet
here's what he said. He claimed that he was actually sinless.
(08:50):
John chapter eight, verse forty six. Jesus says, which one
of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth,
why do you not believe me? So on the one hand,
he's a great, more old teacher, but he makes this
outrageous claim, and he says, I have never sinned. And
the truth of the matter is is that what we
know is his life has had more impact more books
(09:11):
on ethics, history, culture than any life that's ever lived.
So history is airtight real person. Second, his character is
beyond dispute. Third, the works of Jesus went unchallenged because see,
I think you got to ask, Okay, he's a real person.
He came in history, but did he really do all
that stuff? I mean, all those miracles in the New Testament.
(09:33):
I mean he raises a little girl from the dead.
He's walking through a village and a lady her son
has died and she's a widow, and he stops her
and he raises him from the dead. We have the
stories of you know, feeding five thousand people, and in
that day they usually only counted them in, so there's
probably fifteen to twenty thousand people on you know, a
few loaves and a couple fish. Did those things really happen?
(09:55):
And if so, how would you verify it? Well, let's
look at the evidence. The works of Jesus actually went unchallenged.
All those miracles that I just said, there were eyewitnesses
that validated it. See what's really interesting. I love this
about the New Testament. This wasn't miracles that you hear about,
say in far off India, or these happened in the Amazon,
(10:16):
and so and so told so and so who told
so and so, And we're supposed to believe it. These
happened over a three year period, and over a three
year period, what we have is eyewitnesses. And so you know,
this little girl is raised from the dead. Well, she
has an aunt and she tells her friends. There's like
fifteen or twenty thousand people, and all those loaves are
(10:36):
stacked up afterwards, and they tell their friends and tell
their friends. In fact, it's so validated. But what we
know is he couldn't go to a major metropolitan area.
I mean, this guy is a rock star above all
rock stars. I mean, it was absolutely crazy. He was thronged.
People just wanted to touch him, friend and foe, even
his enemies. They never questioned whether he actually did the miracles.
(11:00):
Are you ready? What did they question? The source of
the miracle? They said, you do these miracles by the
power of Beelzebub or Satan is what they were saying.
And so we have a historical figure who has impeccable character,
who did miraculous works that go unquestioned. And so it
raises the next question is who did Jesus actually claim
(11:22):
to be?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You're listening to living on the edge with Chip Ingram
And before we get back to today's message, is there someone
close to you really wrestling with their faith right now?
Do you wish you could do something to help them
break through the distrust or skepticism weighing them down. We'll
stick around after the teaching to learn about a pair
of insightful resources designed to answer and resolve doubts. Don't
(11:45):
miss it for now here again is Chip.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Now Here's where we get where people really start to disagree,
and especially secular scholars, they'll say, you know this whole
Christianity movement. Yes, there was a real Jesus, but he
never claimed to be God. He never claimed to be
the savior of the world. And so we have to
ask ourselves, did he in fact claim to be God?
(12:09):
Did he claim to be the son of God or
the savior of the world. Well, we know from the
New Testament documents Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth,
and the Life. No man comes to the Father except
by me. We know from Mark chapter nine that his
followers said, you're the Christ, the son of the Living God.
If you do accept the text of the New Testament,
(12:31):
we know that God will speak and say what this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well, please listen
to him. But what is interesting is even his enemies
declare that he claimed to be God in John chapter ten.
They are ready to kill him. And the Jews answered
and said to him, for a good work, we do
(12:53):
not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man,
make yourself out to be God. Now again, I'm pretty
aware that that could be sort of circular reasoning. Everything
you quoted so far about these claims are in the
New Testament. There was a historian named Plenty the Younger
in one to eleven AD, and he was doing research.
(13:16):
He was stayed on top of what was happening in Rome,
and so he writes a letter to the Emperor. At
this point in time, there's massive persecution of Christians, and
many Christians are called on the carpet, will you recant?
And so Plenty does the research, and we have an
actual document from him writing a letter to the Emperor
explaining about this sect, these Christians, so they were called,
(13:39):
And so he writes to the Emperor and the letter
goes something like this. He goes, I really don't understand
this sect. We give them an opportunity to recant, and
yet they refuse to worship idols. They refuse to worship Caesar.
They meet early in the morning and claim that a
dead man came back to life. They claim that this
dead man is God. They love one another radically, and
(14:02):
they do strange things, greeting one another with a holy kiss.
He says why they won't recant, They would rather die
because they claim that this savior is in fact God.
And so what we know is from historical documents that
this claim that Jesus was God happened in the first century. Pause.
(14:23):
I'm talking to a friend. You're talking to a friend.
There's not a finger pointing, there's not a preaching. It's
we're on the same side with our arm around a
person who has an honest heart that wants to explore truth.
And so we ask very honest questions. Did Jesus exist? Yes?
Was he a good man, absolutely the best man who's
(14:45):
ever lived? Well? Did he actually do miracles? Verified as
much as any miracle with thousands of eye witnesses. Well,
who did he really claim to be? Friend? Foe? External
evidence says he actually claimed to be God. Well, we're
moving our way, and as I was talking to my
doctor friend. This happened over a period of months, and
(15:06):
we went back and forth and you know, what about
this and what about that? And then we get to
sort of the crux of the matter where it gets
real specific because you have to ask the question did
he really die? I mean, did Jesus really die? Maybe
he took you. I've heard people say maybe he took
some special herbs and he got his heart rate to
go way, way, way slow, and it only appeared as
(15:27):
though he died. See, if Jesus didn't die, then he
wasn't resurrected. And if he's not resurrected, Atheist and the
Apostle Paul would agree, nothing works. Everything rises and falls
on the resurrection.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
This is living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and
you've been listening to part one of Chip's message why
I Believe in the Resurrection from our series Dealing with Doubts.
Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application
for us.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
To think about. How confided are you and answering questions
about God and the Bible. Do you feel a little unprepared?
Wishing you would have paid a little bit more attention
in Sunday School through this insightful series. Chip and guest
teacher John Dickerson will help you better understand the bedrock
concepts of the Christian faith and confidently communicate those truths
(16:17):
in an engaging way. And we want to equip you
for when those meaningful conversations pop up. So check out
our resources page at Livingontheedge dot org for all the
details about books, podcasts, and articles referenced throughout this series.
Our goal is to connect you with trustworthy Bible experts
as you talk to those with genuine doubts or questions. Again,
(16:39):
visit Living on the Edge dot org or the Chip
and gramp to browse our resources.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Before I come back and talk about today's program and
give you some specific application, I just want to take
a moment and share a letter from a listener that
really struck me that I think you'll love. Dear Chip,
just finished reading the book Why I Believe and had
to tell you what an awesome read. It is so
much research and study given to produce such an informative work.
(17:09):
I ordered five more copies to give us gifts to
my family members that have asked questions, some of which
I had no answers for. Thank you for creating such
an easy read and so complete with answers to some
very important questions. I've been in a relationship with the
Lord for thirty years now, and I'm seeing God transform
our family by his love in so many ways. Many
(17:31):
miracles have taken place, revealing the transforming power of His love.
Forever grateful for people such as you responding to the
needs of others so that the life changing power of
Christ can be easily understood by anyone. May God continue
to use your ministry to reach the masses. Blessings Jean
and South Carolina. Well, first, thanks, Gane. And I think
(17:53):
the reason I'm so passionate about this why I believe series,
is because I found these answers and literally they change
my life. I did not grow up as a follower
of Christ, and shortly after, you know, kind of a
real strong growing spurt, I just got slammed by intellectual
people about chip. I mean, you don't really believe the Bible,
(18:14):
do you, and Jesus being the only way, and you
know what about evolution, and I'll just be honest with you.
I literally had to dig in and study and be
honest to say, you know what, if there's not good answers.
I'm not gonna throw my brains in the trash to
be a follower of Christ. But what I want you
to know is that the product of that study, I
(18:36):
didn't throw my brains in the trash, and you and
your friends, and your kids and your grandkids, they don't
have to throw their brains in the trash either, But
they need to understand why they believe, not just what
they believe. And the research is just obvious most Christians
in America, let alone their children or grandchildren, can't articulate
(18:59):
what they believe. And so what we've done is we've
put together a book, and we've done it in a
way that, in a simple, without being simplistic way, we
can answer those questions. What we want you to know
is that we're asking you to really join us and
create a movement, if you will, where Christians in America
would know what they believe, why they believe it, and
(19:22):
then share it in a winsome and loving, non judgmental
way with the people around him. Don't you think that
make a difference.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
It absolutely would chip and that's why during this series
we've bundled two of our most popular resources on this
topic to help you jumpstart this movement. Visit livingonbeedge dot
org to get your copy of Chip's book Why I
Believe and our friend John Dickerson's book Jesus Skeptic. We
hope that through these resources you'll encounter Jesus the god
(19:50):
Man and understand why we can fully trust and follow
the teachings of the Bible. For complete details about this
two book bundle called Triple eight three three three six
zero zero three, or go to Living on the Edge
dot org app listeners tap special offers. Well Chip to
wrap up, you know, I got to tell you when
I think about answering questions about Jesus's resurrection, I feel
(20:13):
it a bit of a loss and maybe even a
little intimidated too. Now what would you say to those
wrestling with that same fear?
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, Dave, I think somehow over the years, we've sort
of got the idea that we need to be this
intellectual giant and be able to answer everyone's questions. And
the very first thing that happens, even if it's one
of your grandchildren or one of your friends, they ask
you a question and you start to feel this defense
rise up inside. And what I've learned over the years
(20:42):
is maybe the very best thing to do is just
to pause and ask some questions, some good logical questions.
And the fact of the matter is is that everyone
believes something and they're just asking you, as a friend,
and probably with just honest concerns, why do you really
believe that? And so even in our time today, you know,
(21:02):
rather than say, here's the five reasons why the resurrection
must be true, and this is what I believe and
you must believe it, I really just paused and began
to ask some pretty basic questions that I've discovered most
people want the answers to, like did Jesus really exist?
I mean, how do we know he was even a
real person, or you know, was he, you know, just
(21:24):
a mythical character. I remember sitting on a plane with
a Google executive recently and he had no concept of history.
And we talked for about an hour and a half
about our family and our kids and different things and
found out what I believed and why. And then he
just paused and sort of like opened this big door
and looked at me and said, you know, I don't
like really get like even when Jesus lived, or like
(21:47):
Muhammad or Christianity or Confucianism. He goes, you know, I've
just kind of been in you know, high tech all
my life. And then he asked me a question. I said, well,
do you believe Jesus ever existed? And he says, I
don't know. Well I just explained to him, well, like
I shared with you. Or the second question, what was
he really like? I mean, the fact of the matter
(22:08):
is we have not just from the Bible but extra
biblical resources that whatever you believe, Jesus is the most
marvelous person who's ever walked the earth. He was the kindest,
the most loving. I mean, all of history is ADBC
built around this most amazing human being. You know, so
pretty soon now you don't feel defensive of What we
(22:28):
feel like is we're having a real conversation around some
questions that I think are very logical. The third question
we talked about is did Jesus really do miracles? Now
that feels a bit like a stretch, because wow, you know,
how can you prove that? Well, we have all kind
of historical documents, and what we know is the logic
is really clear that in the season and the period
(22:51):
in which he lived, the ageous miracles that are claimed
there and everything written within twenty or twenty five years
after it happened. I mean, everyone was alive to either
authenticate it or refute it. And again we begin to
tilt our head and say, wow, if those three things
are true, maybe I should really explore who did he
(23:13):
really claim to be. And of course we see from
not only the Bible, but extra biblical resources and historians
that not just the early Church hundreds of years later,
but Jesus himself and the early Church believe this outrageous,
outrageous claim that he was in fact God and he
was the savior of the world. And so what I
want you to know is that as you learn to
(23:35):
ask questions and then yes, we need to do our research,
we can talk with those we love in a way
that's not defensive, but with our arm around them and
invite them to explore the answers together. I want you
to know that God has provided all the answers we need,
and what he needs is a mouthpiece that's kind and
(23:55):
loving and warm and winsome and not defensive. We hope
this series is really going to help.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
You do that. That's absolutely right, Chip. Thanks for that reminder.
As we wrap up, this program, Living on the Edge,
depends on listeners like you to help us continue encouraging
Christians to live like Christians. So would you consider becoming
a monthly partner to help others benefit from this ministry.
You can set up a recurring donation at Livingontheedge dot
(24:22):
org or by calling us at Triple eight three three
three six zero zero three. Again that's Triple eight three
three three six zero zero three. Or visit Living on.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Theeedge dot org at listeners tap donate and thanks for
doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. We'll be
sure to join us next time as Chip continues our
series dealing with Doubts. Until then, I'm Dave Druie saying
thanks for listening to this edition of Living on the Edge.
There are many difficult and challenging questions about Christianity, the Bible, science,
and other world religions. But our faith is rooted first
and foremost in one miraculous and historically verifiable event. Either
Jesus rose from the dead or he didn't. Here's the question,
Is it true? And why do you believe it? Stay
(00:33):
with me?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
That's today Welcome to this edition of Living on the
Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of this daily program
is to intentionally disciple Christians through the insightful Bible teaching
of Chip Ingram. Today, we're continuing our series dealing with
Doubts and if you're wrestling with your faith or know
someone who's become an outspoken skeptic about Christianity, these messages.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Are for you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Through Chip and our guest teacher John Dickerson, well uncovered
the answers to questions like what happens after we die?
Is Jesus real? Can we trust God's word? And is
Christianity good?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I hope you're really connecting with what Chip and John
have shared so far, and if so, take a minute
after today's message and shared with someone.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Now you can easily do.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
That through the Chip and gram map or by downloading
the free MP threes at living onbeedge dot org. Well,
with all that, let's get going and joint Chip for
his talk why I Believe in the Resurrection.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I received a note a few years ago from a
name that I recognized. I passioned a church in a
very small community in Texas, and this was a young
man who was involved in young life, a zealous Christian
and you know, I was the pastor. Are you ready
for this back in my twenties early thirties, And I
got this note and it had a gift toward the
ministry and said thanks a lot, and so I thought, wow,
(01:54):
you know, I haven't heard from this guy in ages.
So I gave him a call and I said, hey,
I just called to tell you, you know, thanks so much
for the gift. We really appreciate it and your note.
And it's just so encouraging the pastor and me to
you know, all these years later that you still walking
with the Lord. And the guy said something that kind
of shocked me. He goes, well, actually I don't walk
with God at all anymore. I said, what he goes, Yeah,
(02:16):
I'm a doctor. I work as an er doctor. And
shortly after high school. My dad, who was a just
a atheist, I mean radical atheist. He just asked me
a bunch of questions and he just took my faith
and threw it in the trash can and said, I'll
never amount to anything. And it literally destroyed my faith.
He said, But I drive back and forth to the
(02:36):
hospital and I catch your radio program, and I don't
know if I should take this as a compliment or not.
He goes, I don't think even have to believe in God.
I think when you talk, it just encourages people, you know.
So I said, well, wow, And that had a moment,
you know, one of those moments on the phone. I thought, one,
I was really disappointed, and second then I said, you
(02:57):
know something? Can I share something with you? He said, well,
I said, you know, I had a moment like that
as well. His name was doctor p and he was
a very smart and intelligent person, and he asked me
a bunch of questions that caused me to doubt my
whole faith. And I went on a journey. And I
went on this journey to try and really, how do
(03:17):
you solve these doubts? And can I intellectually believe? You know?
The Bible is true, and Jesus is the only way,
and these things that I mean. He ridiculed me, and
I asked him, I used his name, and I said,
would you be willing, even after all these years, to
go on maybe a little journey with me? I mean,
I'm not going to preach at you. I'm not going
to tell you ought to do this or ought to
(03:38):
do that. But I went on this journey. Could we
explore your doubts together and just see are you ready?
Is it intellectually feasible to believe that Jesus is God,
that he is the only way to heaven, that the
Bible is true, and that all the things that we
shared when you were young are a reality. And then
there was this pause. Yeah, I'd be willing to do that.
(04:03):
I said, okay, well, i'll send you some stuff to read,
and I'll read it and we'll get on the phone.
We'll talk back and forth. And we went on that
journey and I will wait to tell you a little
bit about the outcome. It's pretty exciting. And so I
didn't say you ought to believe this, you need to
do that. I said, let's begin asking some questions, and
(04:25):
let's ask them. I mean at the most basic, basic level,
And I said, you'd be surprised. But atheists and Christians
have one thing that they violently agree on together. He said,
what's that? I said, they both believe that the resurrection
of Jesus Christ is central. The issue rises or falls
(04:45):
either Jesus rose from the dead or he didn't. In fact,
let me quote probably the best known atheist of the
last century, Anthony Flew. He says, the physical, literal, bodily
resurrection is the best, if not the only, reason for
except that Jesus is the God of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob,
we both agree. He's talking about a debate that he's
(05:07):
having with the Christian leader. We both agree that the
identification in defining and distinguishing the characteristics of the true
Christian that it is scarcely possible to make it without
also accepting the resurrection did literally happen. This is what
the apostle, Paul says one Corinthians fifteen, verses sixteen to nineteen.
(05:30):
Paul agrees with the atheist, for if the dead are
not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if
Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You're
still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep, literally,
those who have died in Christ, they've perished. If we
have hope in Christ in this life only, we are,
(05:50):
of all men most to be pitied. And so I'd
like to just share with you the seven reasons that
led me to believe that the Resurrection actually happened. So
let's dig in together. Question number one is did Jesus
really exist? I mean, is it a fairy tale? As
(06:12):
I shared with one guy on a plane, he came
from a Hindu background, and he just said, you know,
we have all kinds of things where there's myths. Is
Jesus a real person? Can you even prove that Biblical manuscripts,
the quantity and the quality of them, the way that
we know anything happened in antiquity, whether it's Homer and
the Iliad, whether it's Shakespeare, whether it's any old writing, Plato, Aristotle,
(06:38):
we have manuscripts, and they're reliable and they've been tested.
What you find is the New Testament has the greatest
number and the greatest quality. I mean, we have a
handful of manuscripts hundreds of years after Plato or Aristotle.
We have twenty five thousand, either partial or full manuscripts
(07:00):
the New Testament. Now, being a skeptic myself and with
my friend, I said, now, you know, if all we
have is the Bible, it's kind of circular reason to say, well,
the Bible says Jesus was here, so I guess that's true.
But what we have is external verification. Josephus was a
Jewish historian shortly after the time of Christ. Plenty and
(07:21):
Tacitus were Roman historians. And what we have is actual documentation.
In other words, you can go to times and places
and archaeology and writers that are not a part of
the movement that say this is what happened. They quote,
this is what Jesus said, this is what his followers believed.
And so first and foremost secular scholars, believers and unbelievers,
(07:43):
have manuscripts these non Christian sources. And then the confirmation
of archaeology, whether it's an inscription with ponscious pilot or
whether it's tablets that we find about a census that
happened during the time they dug up. They didn't even
know about it. They dug up and found Bethlehem and
all these different places. It is absolutely a given that
(08:07):
this person named Jesus. No, I'm not saying he's the
son of God. Yet I'm not saying he's a savior
of the world. But there's an absolute historical consensus that
he lived, that he's a real person. He's not the
tooth fairy. He's not someone that got a dream from somewhere.
He's not some philosophical something. A real man named Jesus
(08:28):
lived upon the earth. Now, the second question is what
was Jesus really like? I mean, what kind of person
was he? I wasn't there, You weren't there. And what
we know is that friend and foe agree that he
was a great man and a moral teacher. And yet
here's what he said. He claimed that he was actually sinless.
(08:50):
John chapter eight, verse forty six. Jesus says, which one
of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth,
why do you not believe me? So on the one hand,
he's a great, more old teacher, but he makes this
outrageous claim, and he says, I have never sinned. And
the truth of the matter is is that what we
know is his life has had more impact more books
(09:11):
on ethics, history, culture than any life that's ever lived.
So history is airtight real person. Second, his character is
beyond dispute. Third, the works of Jesus went unchallenged because see,
I think you got to ask, Okay, he's a real person.
He came in history, but did he really do all
that stuff? I mean, all those miracles in the New Testament.
(09:33):
I mean he raises a little girl from the dead.
He's walking through a village and a lady her son
has died and she's a widow, and he stops her
and he raises him from the dead. We have the
stories of you know, feeding five thousand people, and in
that day they usually only counted them in, so there's
probably fifteen to twenty thousand people on you know, a
few loaves and a couple fish. Did those things really happen?
(09:55):
And if so, how would you verify it? Well, let's
look at the evidence. The works of Jesus actually went unchallenged.
All those miracles that I just said, there were eyewitnesses
that validated it. See what's really interesting. I love this
about the New Testament. This wasn't miracles that you hear about,
say in far off India, or these happened in the Amazon,
(10:16):
and so and so told so and so who told
so and so, And we're supposed to believe it. These
happened over a three year period, and over a three
year period, what we have is eyewitnesses. And so you know,
this little girl is raised from the dead. Well, she
has an aunt and she tells her friends. There's like
fifteen or twenty thousand people, and all those loaves are
(10:36):
stacked up afterwards, and they tell their friends and tell
their friends. In fact, it's so validated. But what we
know is he couldn't go to a major metropolitan area.
I mean, this guy is a rock star above all
rock stars. I mean, it was absolutely crazy. He was thronged.
People just wanted to touch him, friend and foe, even
his enemies. They never questioned whether he actually did the miracles.
(11:00):
Are you ready? What did they question? The source of
the miracle? They said, you do these miracles by the
power of Beelzebub or Satan is what they were saying.
And so we have a historical figure who has impeccable character,
who did miraculous works that go unquestioned. And so it
raises the next question is who did Jesus actually claim
(11:22):
to be?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You're listening to living on the edge with Chip Ingram
And before we get back to today's message, is there someone
close to you really wrestling with their faith right now?
Do you wish you could do something to help them
break through the distrust or skepticism weighing them down. We'll
stick around after the teaching to learn about a pair
of insightful resources designed to answer and resolve doubts. Don't
(11:45):
miss it for now here again is Chip.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Now Here's where we get where people really start to disagree,
and especially secular scholars, they'll say, you know this whole
Christianity movement. Yes, there was a real Jesus, but he
never claimed to be God. He never claimed to be
the savior of the world. And so we have to
ask ourselves, did he in fact claim to be God?
(12:09):
Did he claim to be the son of God or
the savior of the world. Well, we know from the
New Testament documents Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth,
and the Life. No man comes to the Father except
by me. We know from Mark chapter nine that his
followers said, you're the Christ, the son of the Living God.
If you do accept the text of the New Testament,
(12:31):
we know that God will speak and say what this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well, please listen
to him. But what is interesting is even his enemies
declare that he claimed to be God in John chapter ten.
They are ready to kill him. And the Jews answered
and said to him, for a good work, we do
(12:53):
not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man,
make yourself out to be God. Now again, I'm pretty
aware that that could be sort of circular reasoning. Everything
you quoted so far about these claims are in the
New Testament. There was a historian named Plenty the Younger
in one to eleven AD, and he was doing research.
(13:16):
He was stayed on top of what was happening in Rome,
and so he writes a letter to the Emperor. At
this point in time, there's massive persecution of Christians, and
many Christians are called on the carpet, will you recant?
And so Plenty does the research, and we have an
actual document from him writing a letter to the Emperor
explaining about this sect, these Christians, so they were called,
(13:39):
And so he writes to the Emperor and the letter
goes something like this. He goes, I really don't understand
this sect. We give them an opportunity to recant, and
yet they refuse to worship idols. They refuse to worship Caesar.
They meet early in the morning and claim that a
dead man came back to life. They claim that this
dead man is God. They love one another radically, and
(14:02):
they do strange things, greeting one another with a holy kiss.
He says why they won't recant, They would rather die
because they claim that this savior is in fact God.
And so what we know is from historical documents that
this claim that Jesus was God happened in the first century. Pause.
(14:23):
I'm talking to a friend. You're talking to a friend.
There's not a finger pointing, there's not a preaching. It's
we're on the same side with our arm around a
person who has an honest heart that wants to explore truth.
And so we ask very honest questions. Did Jesus exist? Yes?
Was he a good man, absolutely the best man who's
(14:45):
ever lived? Well? Did he actually do miracles? Verified as
much as any miracle with thousands of eye witnesses. Well,
who did he really claim to be? Friend? Foe? External
evidence says he actually claimed to be God. Well, we're
moving our way, and as I was talking to my
doctor friend. This happened over a period of months, and
(15:06):
we went back and forth and you know, what about
this and what about that? And then we get to
sort of the crux of the matter where it gets
real specific because you have to ask the question did
he really die? I mean, did Jesus really die? Maybe
he took you. I've heard people say maybe he took
some special herbs and he got his heart rate to
go way, way, way slow, and it only appeared as
(15:27):
though he died. See, if Jesus didn't die, then he
wasn't resurrected. And if he's not resurrected, Atheist and the
Apostle Paul would agree, nothing works. Everything rises and falls
on the resurrection.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
This is living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and
you've been listening to part one of Chip's message why
I Believe in the Resurrection from our series Dealing with Doubts.
Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application
for us.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
To think about. How confided are you and answering questions
about God and the Bible. Do you feel a little unprepared?
Wishing you would have paid a little bit more attention
in Sunday School through this insightful series. Chip and guest
teacher John Dickerson will help you better understand the bedrock
concepts of the Christian faith and confidently communicate those truths
(16:17):
in an engaging way. And we want to equip you
for when those meaningful conversations pop up. So check out
our resources page at Livingontheedge dot org for all the
details about books, podcasts, and articles referenced throughout this series.
Our goal is to connect you with trustworthy Bible experts
as you talk to those with genuine doubts or questions. Again,
(16:39):
visit Living on the Edge dot org or the Chip
and gramp to browse our resources.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Before I come back and talk about today's program and
give you some specific application, I just want to take
a moment and share a letter from a listener that
really struck me that I think you'll love. Dear Chip,
just finished reading the book Why I Believe and had
to tell you what an awesome read. It is so
much research and study given to produce such an informative work.
(17:09):
I ordered five more copies to give us gifts to
my family members that have asked questions, some of which
I had no answers for. Thank you for creating such
an easy read and so complete with answers to some
very important questions. I've been in a relationship with the
Lord for thirty years now, and I'm seeing God transform
our family by his love in so many ways. Many
(17:31):
miracles have taken place, revealing the transforming power of His love.
Forever grateful for people such as you responding to the
needs of others so that the life changing power of
Christ can be easily understood by anyone. May God continue
to use your ministry to reach the masses. Blessings Jean
and South Carolina. Well, first, thanks, Gane. And I think
(17:53):
the reason I'm so passionate about this why I believe series,
is because I found these answers and literally they change
my life. I did not grow up as a follower
of Christ, and shortly after, you know, kind of a
real strong growing spurt, I just got slammed by intellectual
people about chip. I mean, you don't really believe the Bible,
(18:14):
do you, and Jesus being the only way, and you
know what about evolution, and I'll just be honest with you.
I literally had to dig in and study and be
honest to say, you know what, if there's not good answers.
I'm not gonna throw my brains in the trash to
be a follower of Christ. But what I want you
to know is that the product of that study, I
(18:36):
didn't throw my brains in the trash, and you and
your friends, and your kids and your grandkids, they don't
have to throw their brains in the trash either, But
they need to understand why they believe, not just what
they believe. And the research is just obvious most Christians
in America, let alone their children or grandchildren, can't articulate
(18:59):
what they believe. And so what we've done is we've
put together a book, and we've done it in a
way that, in a simple, without being simplistic way, we
can answer those questions. What we want you to know
is that we're asking you to really join us and
create a movement, if you will, where Christians in America
would know what they believe, why they believe it, and
(19:22):
then share it in a winsome and loving, non judgmental
way with the people around him. Don't you think that
make a difference.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
It absolutely would chip and that's why during this series
we've bundled two of our most popular resources on this
topic to help you jumpstart this movement. Visit livingonbeedge dot
org to get your copy of Chip's book Why I
Believe and our friend John Dickerson's book Jesus Skeptic. We
hope that through these resources you'll encounter Jesus the god
(19:50):
Man and understand why we can fully trust and follow
the teachings of the Bible. For complete details about this
two book bundle called Triple eight three three three six
zero zero three, or go to Living on the Edge
dot org app listeners tap special offers. Well Chip to
wrap up, you know, I got to tell you when
I think about answering questions about Jesus's resurrection, I feel
(20:13):
it a bit of a loss and maybe even a
little intimidated too. Now what would you say to those
wrestling with that same fear?
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, Dave, I think somehow over the years, we've sort
of got the idea that we need to be this
intellectual giant and be able to answer everyone's questions. And
the very first thing that happens, even if it's one
of your grandchildren or one of your friends, they ask
you a question and you start to feel this defense
rise up inside. And what I've learned over the years
(20:42):
is maybe the very best thing to do is just
to pause and ask some questions, some good logical questions.
And the fact of the matter is is that everyone
believes something and they're just asking you, as a friend,
and probably with just honest concerns, why do you really
believe that? And so even in our time today, you know,
(21:02):
rather than say, here's the five reasons why the resurrection
must be true, and this is what I believe and
you must believe it, I really just paused and began
to ask some pretty basic questions that I've discovered most
people want the answers to, like did Jesus really exist?
I mean, how do we know he was even a
real person, or you know, was he, you know, just
(21:24):
a mythical character. I remember sitting on a plane with
a Google executive recently and he had no concept of history.
And we talked for about an hour and a half
about our family and our kids and different things and
found out what I believed and why. And then he
just paused and sort of like opened this big door
and looked at me and said, you know, I don't
like really get like even when Jesus lived, or like
(21:47):
Muhammad or Christianity or Confucianism. He goes, you know, I've
just kind of been in you know, high tech all
my life. And then he asked me a question. I said, well,
do you believe Jesus ever existed? And he says, I
don't know. Well I just explained to him, well, like
I shared with you. Or the second question, what was
he really like? I mean, the fact of the matter
(22:08):
is we have not just from the Bible but extra
biblical resources that whatever you believe, Jesus is the most
marvelous person who's ever walked the earth. He was the kindest,
the most loving. I mean, all of history is ADBC
built around this most amazing human being. You know, so
pretty soon now you don't feel defensive of What we
(22:28):
feel like is we're having a real conversation around some
questions that I think are very logical. The third question
we talked about is did Jesus really do miracles? Now
that feels a bit like a stretch, because wow, you know,
how can you prove that? Well, we have all kind
of historical documents, and what we know is the logic
is really clear that in the season and the period
(22:51):
in which he lived, the ageous miracles that are claimed
there and everything written within twenty or twenty five years
after it happened. I mean, everyone was alive to either
authenticate it or refute it. And again we begin to
tilt our head and say, wow, if those three things
are true, maybe I should really explore who did he
(23:13):
really claim to be. And of course we see from
not only the Bible, but extra biblical resources and historians
that not just the early Church hundreds of years later,
but Jesus himself and the early Church believe this outrageous,
outrageous claim that he was in fact God and he
was the savior of the world. And so what I
want you to know is that as you learn to
(23:35):
ask questions and then yes, we need to do our research,
we can talk with those we love in a way
that's not defensive, but with our arm around them and
invite them to explore the answers together. I want you
to know that God has provided all the answers we need,
and what he needs is a mouthpiece that's kind and
(23:55):
loving and warm and winsome and not defensive. We hope
this series is really going to help.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
You do that. That's absolutely right, Chip. Thanks for that reminder.
As we wrap up, this program, Living on the Edge,
depends on listeners like you to help us continue encouraging
Christians to live like Christians. So would you consider becoming
a monthly partner to help others benefit from this ministry.
You can set up a recurring donation at Livingontheedge dot
(24:22):
org or by calling us at Triple eight three three
three six zero zero three. Again that's Triple eight three
three three six zero zero three. Or visit Living on.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Theeedge dot org at listeners tap donate and thanks for
doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. We'll be
sure to join us next time as Chip continues our
series dealing with Doubts. Until then, I'm Dave Druie saying
thanks for listening to this edition of Living on the Edge.
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