Monday, November 26, 2007

Reading the New Testament in Light of the Old (Sermon Acts 4:5-12)

Who were the believers who wrote the Gospels? They were Jews—Jews who celebrated Passover, sacrificed in the temple, and lived by the Levitical laws. They had their own language and culture. Like all human beings, they did not live or write in a vacuum, but in a certain time and place in history. When we forget this reality, we are in danger of completely missing what they were saying in the New Testament.


In Acts 4, Luke tells us of Peter’s designation of Jesus as the stone. If read apart from other scripture, it might appear that Peter was saying that Jesus was strong and immovable, but when read in the light of the Old Testament that both Peter and the Sadducees were so familiar with, it becomes apparent that Peter was pointing to Jesus as God in the flesh, the Messiah. The stone was an image used to refer to God in the Old Testament (Psalm 18:2) and in Daniel (2:35) it was used to prophesy of the coming Messiah. Peter draws upon these images to forcefully proclaim to the Sadducees that the Jesus whom they had crucified was the Messiah.


Acts 4 is just one example of a phenomenon that saturates the New Testament. Most of the theology and many of the images of the New Testament are grounded in the Old Testament. Just one more reason New Testament Christians today should read the Old Testament.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Our Resurrection: Hope or Hoax?

Many people today believe that the idea that we can be resurrected is a hoax. If it is then all that we believe is in vain. Paul said: "12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." 1 Cor 15:12-19 (ESV)


Paul's statement about the resurrection is as clear as any other biblical teaching; all of Christianity hinges on the reality of the resurrection of Christ. Yet, some today would have us believe that belief in the resurrection of Christ is a leap of faith. I submit that it takes very little faith at all to believe in the resurrection of Christ if you simply look at the evidence. No one in history has ever given a satisfactory explanation of the evidence in favor of Christ's resurrection. The only way to believe the resurrection is a hoax is to ignore the evidence or distort it.

Once we accept the resurrection of Christ as a reality, it is a very small step to believe that we too can be resurrected. This is our hope.


If you would like to examine some of the evidence in support of the resurrection, let me recommend some resources.

Josh McDowell's book, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, is an excellent resource. Chapter 9, "The Support of Deity: The Resurrection-Hoax or History?," is dedicated to examining the evidence in favor of the resurrection. It also combats some inadequate views of the resurrection.

An free online resource is provided by Dr. Danny Akin. Dr. Akin is the President of the Southeasthern Baptist Theological Seminary--an outstanding theologian and scholar. He has both a manuscript and an audio version of a lecture he presented on the subject of the resurrection. Download the manuscript (PDF). Download the Mp3. Visit Dr. Akin's website.






Monday, November 5, 2007

Even Religious People Can Be Saved

In Acts 3, Peter preaches in the temple to a crowd of Jews. Their presence in the temple at the time of prayer indicates that these were religious people who observed the Jewish laws and rituals, but even religious people need a relationship with Jesus Christ. No one can get to heaven by obeying rules or attending services. We must repent of our sins and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior to be saved.

One of my friends Dexter Tucker recently wrote down his testimony. It is a powerful story that illustrates our ability to pretend to be believers, but not to commit ourselves to the Lord and be saved. As you read this life story about a preacher’s son turned deacon, remember that even religious people can be saved.

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I grew up in a country boy with no TV or any toys. I had a big imagination and my dreams were made from that. I was very rebellious toward my daddy and I didn’t mind him very well. I got a lot of whippings because of that. All those whippings just made me more rebellious and hard headed. My mother had a softer touch and her words to me hurt me more than those whippings from daddy.

When I was 15 years old, I walked the aisle at church one Sunday morning after two of my school mates had done so. I was baptized in the local lake and now everybody looked at me with that look of “What a nice young man—a preacher’s son.” Yes, my daddy was a preacher, logger, farmer and he worked in the county government.

So I joined the Navy at the age of 18 to see the world and all that was out there. When I walked that aisle in church I had a mind change but not a heart change. So I really didn’t let God come into my life. I did my own thing in the Navy for four years. I got discharged at Norfolk, VA and I was on my way to Charleston, S.C. when I had the strangest feeling come over me as I was hitchhiking that day. Somehow I felt like I was going into a new world and I was not going to have any control of it. When I got to Charleston I went to see my old buddy who was stationed there with his wife, and I reenlisted back in the Navy for six years.

The next day, I was walking the street in Charleston at noon and just then this girl came out of a building and turned and passed right by me. I fluttered and I have never felt so shook up in all my life. After a few minutes, I calmed down. I went to my buddy’s house and we were sitting on the porch playing music and he said “There’s a girl next door that you gotta meet.”

Well, this girl came out of her door with the cousin she was staying with and I almost lost my breath. It was the same girl I had seen at noon on the street downtown. So I said to her about what and when I saw her and she said it could have been because she was going to lunch at that time. She didn’t know me from Adam. So, I asked her to go to the movies with me and she did.

After three dates and three months later, I asked her to marry me and she said yes. We went to my hometown to introduce her to my parents and my mother said to the “Honey I’ve been praying for him every day since he left home. Now you can pray for him.”

My wife got saved the first year of our marriage and then came our first child, a boy. I was deployed during his birth. She read the Bible to him every night and prayed for him and me every night.

Well, this rocked on for years. I would come home and go to church and Sunday School with them and played the part of a Christian. Yes, I was a good actor.
I had been in the Navy for 10 years and was on shore duty in Panama City, FL. My wife was pregnant with our 2nd child. She had a good pregnancy for almost 9 months and then we suddenly lost our beautiful baby girl. I almost lost my wife too. I cried and my 3 year old son cried too.

I was still playing the good old boy Christian routine and after a few years, 5 to be exact, my wife was pregnant again and this time God gave us another son.
Well, we ended up my last three years of the Navy in Orlando. I played the part at being a Christian so good that I was ordained as a deacon.

After I retired and moved my family to Douglasville, I was sitting in the choir loft listening to the preacher, who was Bro. Jack Evans, and he said something when I hear God call out to me. My response was yes, Lord, come into my heart, I surrender my life to you and He did and I came out of that choir loft shouting “hallelujah Bro. Jack, I just go saved!!”

Now to summarize my life story to you, it goes like this:

My wife knew all the time that I wasn’t saved. I knew deep down I wasn’t saved because of my actions away from home.

When I got saved and I gave myself to God, He changed my desire and my wants and I love Him and worship Him every minute of every day.

I look back and see how I worked for the devil all those years and I also see how God gave me my precious wife through my mother’s prayer, and how god saved me through my wife’s prayers. I’m still working on my Masters Degree and I’ll graduate when I get to heaven. Praise God for the Holy Spirit and for letting Jesus, His son, die for my sins.

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Maybe you are like Dexter once was—playing the part of a Christian. If you are like he once was, you can also become like he now is—a child of God. If you have any doubts about your salvation, please contact me and let me share with you how you can know for certain that you are saved and that heaven will some day be your home.

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