Everyone worships
Humans breath air, humans eat food, humans worship.
It is built into us.
Ecc. 3:11 “God has put eternity in our hearts.”
Christy and I visited some of our oversees workers from River last month.
It stood out to me, once again, that humans are religious at their core.
We are made to breath air, we are made to eat food, and we are made to worship.
We saw Mosque after Mosque, Cathedral after Cathedral, and statues and shrines one after another.
The Mosques were built to worship the god of Mohammed.
The Cathedrals built to worship God, and in some cases they have become places that are borderline, if not overtly, the worship of human “saints”
Then there are the shrines that are purely about the worship of humanity…statues, museums, castles, monuments… elaborate structures that worship human intellect, freedom, and sexuality.
A huge ancient mosque in Turkey was built originally by Christians, then converted to a mosque by Muslims, then made into a museum, now it is a mosque again.
The famous cathedral of Notre Dame is an ancient church that was desecrated during the French revolution…a humanistic and murderous movement that worshipped autonomous human liberty…thousands of priests were killed or exiled and all church properties were nationalized…cathedrals built before 1905 are still state owned.
Now the most famous church in the world, is at the same time an example of the worship of God, for some people…the worship of human saints, and the worship of human ability.
In Paris there is a huge, 8 story, elaborate Mall, that looks a lot like a cathedral, with an imposing stained-glass dome in its center…it is largely the worship of money, stuff, prestige.
In Istanbul, a city of over 3,000 Mosques, there is one of the world’s greatest airports…itself a confusing shrine to human ability and pride, the worship of Allah, and the worship of stuff…it filled with expensive stores and elaborate lounges and the celebration of Ramadan.
We heard the call to Muslim prayer chanted throughout a city of 16 million people and the chiming of church bells in a small German city.
Humans worship…you worship.
Not everyone worships what is true.
Everyone worships and what we worship is shaping us into something.
We will all become like what we worship.
But what are we to do with the vast throngs of humans who worship in so many different ways.
Not just different styles…but different gods.
Many are sincere in what they believe…can so many be so wrong?
Isn’t it easier, isn’t kinder, just to say, “They are okay, sincerity is what matters the most.”
It may be easier…it is certainly not kinder…not if the gospel is true.
Not if Jesus is to be believed when he said, “I am the way, truth and life…no one comes to the Father except by me.”
He literally said…”All roads do not lead to God, only one does.”
Marci Painter was having a gospel conversation with a Turkish student on a train.
He began to discuss science and faith, and Marci invited me into the conversation.
He generously (because he was Muslim and I am Christian) told me what I have heard many times…all religions are essentially the same, all roads eventually led to God.
He was being kind…I was kind in return…but I gently disagreed.
I replied, “In Science (which was what we were originally discussing) there are many things we don’t understand…but ultimately reality…is what it is…and everyone’s beliefs about the physical world are not all true.”
I said, “it is the same when it comes to the truth about who God is.”
“He is one thing and not the others.”
“Some are right and some are wrong about him.”
He did not disagree…he has my email address and one of my books…I hope we will continue the conversation.
You know our overseas workers are not on extended vacations…their lives are difficult.
More difficult than they would have to be if they were not in different countries…working hard to learn other languages and to understand those cultures…sacrificing their own freedoms in order to build bridges for the gospel.
If all roads lead to one…they are wasting their lives, and we are wasting our money sending them there.
Or worse…we and they, are wrong in seeking to impose our beliefs on other people.
Who are we to tell all these sincere people…”You are wrong, we are right!”
If Christ has not risen they are wasting their lives…and you and I are wasting our time this morning.
But since Christ has risen…our friends who labor oversees to make Christ known are not wasting their lives…and we who remain here…we must not waste ours.
1 Cor. 15
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also.
You see what Paul is doing?
He is making the case that this is not about sincerity it is about reality.
The reality of Scripture…God’s word.
The reality of history…”go talk to them, ask them…they have seen him, they are still alive…these are the facts.”
Then he gives the sobering truth….
…17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
If the resurrection is not historical fact…we are wasting our lives.
**But…he writes…Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.
When I was younger I had gospel conversation in the WSU dorms with a man who said, “I have traveled to other countries, talked with people of other cultures…I had read the Bible…the gospel is not true.”
He was trying to use his experiences, his travel, the diversity of human religions…to say he …knew better than this simplistic gospel stuff.
And by implication…I was naive.
I asked him what the story of the Bible was? Since he said he had read it.
“What is it’s one central theme?”
He didn’t know…I said, “Jesus”
At that time, I had not traveled much…I had some…but I’ve traveled a good bit since then.
I’ve had conversations with many people in many places in the world since then.
The world IS big and full of overwhelming variety…but humans are the same everywhere, and the gospel is true everywhere for everyone all the time.
If it is not true everywhere…it is not true anywhere.
Christianity did not originate in America…it is not a western religion…it spread very quickly throughout the middle east, central Asia, the European continent.
It is spreading even now, all across the globe.
I am sad and overwhelmed by the vast numbers of people who are far from God…
But I have decided…I am not still deciding if the gospel is true.
My sincerity or lack of it…isn’t the most important thing…reality is…truth is.
Yes…I have to continually…make sure that I am still, all in…I must check my own sincerity about gospel reality.
I never doubt that the gospel is true…but if I am not careful and attentive…I can begin to live as if it were not.
I can begin to live as it is not true mostly by failing to pursue God with all my heart and failing to pursue others to make the gospel known to them.
If you have believed the gospel, if you are a Christian…and perhaps you have drifted…not into open sin, but off to sleep…let’s joyfully, enthusiastically…rouse ourselves this morning.
To live in full gospel joy.
If you are Christian…and you have drifted or run…into sin…you know how miserable you are…you are not having a good life.
Will you joyfully…return to your Father this morning…he stands looking down the road, watching for the prodigal to return.
Perhaps you are not a Christian…maybe you are “a good person” or maybe you don’t think you are…that part doesn’t matter.
Good people and bad people…are lost without repentance and faith in Christ.
Will you joyfully, believe the gospel and turn to Christ today?
The common theme today is joy.
The gospel is good news…in fact the angels on the first Christmas called it good news of great joy for all people.
The angels on the first Easter I’m confident did not say, (read in dull voice) “Why do you look for the living among the dead, he is not here, he is risen!”
They said…”Why do you look for the living among the dead, he is not here, he is risen!”
They were excited about this…the angels, Scripture said…had been eager to see what God was up to…what was he going to do?
So, whether you are fired up about the gospel…or have become drowsy…or have walked into sin…or have never become a Christian…let’s look together at the facts.
Let’s get a feel for the joy of the gospel.
In the end, we each have to decide what we will do as God invites us into his joy…but let’s make sure we see that this is about good news of great joy for all people.
Matthew 28
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” 8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” 11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. 16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
There you have it…good news of great joy…for all people.
A message that mobilizes…it is the truth of God and the purpose of our lives.
In a world of competing truth claims, of religious people with great sincerity and great diversity…something is real and true, and what is not that…is not true.
Either God is there or he is not…atheists say he is not.
-Yet the atheist cannot live consistently with their own beliefs.
-Their own hearts…betray them.
If God is there, he is a certain kind of being, he cannot be everything everyone thinks he is…he is who he is.
How do we muddle through the mass of ideas and religions and beliefs?
Let’s start here.
In all of human history, out of the approximately 117 billion people who live or who have every lived every single one falls into one of four categories.
- People who are not exceptionally wise or good who do not claim to be God.
- People who are exceptionally wise and good who do not claim to be God.
- People who are not exceptionally wise or good who claim to be God.
- People who are exceptionally wise and good who claim to be God.
There is 1 person out of 117 billion in category 4…Jesus.
He was, to quote CS Lewis…either a Liar, a Lunatic, or the Lord.
I want to give five data points for the gospel…to encourage you, to wake you up, to turn you around…or point you to the gospel.
If you don’t like the verbiage, “five data points”
How about…Five exciting facts of the faith…you can choose.
First, the fact of the cross
- Cross
Christ died on that cross.
Why state the obvious?
Well, some say that he didn’t die, he just seemed to be dead and later revived and tricked people.
First, the soldiers were trained in executing people by crucifixion…they were good at it.
With spikes holding his hands in place, he would have to push up on the spike through his feet in order to draw a gasping breath…because of the pressure on his lungs.
In order to make sure he was dead before the Sabbath the soldiers went to break his legs so he could not push off and breath…essentially ensuring he would suffocate.
They discovered that he was already dead; but to be sure…they thrust a spear into his side.
*By the way, this was predicted centuries before it happened.
John, writes about the death of Jesus on the cross and he says, “I was there, I saw it all.”
Jesus died on that cross.
Jesus rose from the dead.
- Resurrection
Jesus died on a cross.
If you were there you could run your hands across the wood.
You could see his body hanging there.
You could smell the sweat and blood.
I say that so you will not turn this story into a myth or a fable…it is not a “religious story”…it is history that a man named Jesus, died on a cross.
It is also history that …Jesus rose from the dead.
If you were there, you could have…like Thomas…touched his hands where the spikes had been.
Scripture goes to great length to describe the many people who saw Jesus alive after his death.
When the gospels were written many of these eyewitnesses were still alive and could have been interviewed…they could easily have said “That didn’t happen.”
But God gave so many eyewitnesses.
In fact, Doctor Luke…he wrote his gospel based on extensive firsthand research.
Christ has risen from the dead, and he had a resurrection body…it was like what we will have someday.
Others in history had been resuscitated…like Lazarus but not resurrected.
What is the difference? Lazarus was returned to life, but later he died again.
Jesus came to life never to die again…that is why Paul says he is the “first fruits” of those who will rise from the dead.
He was first of many that will follow…all who trust will rise again.
Then there is the fact of the open tomb.
- Open Tomb
Right away the religious leaders tried to cover up the resurrection with a story that the disciples took the body of Jesus.
They paid off the soldiers tasked with guarding the tomb in order to perpetrate the lie…they were to say that they fell asleep and the disciples snuck up…moved the stone and dragged Jesus body away.
They would have had to be some very sleepy soldiers.
The leaders also promised to advocate for the soldiers to their commander because to fall asleep at your post was a capital offense.
Little good the money would have done them if they were dead.
The tomb was empty because Jesus was alive…and the most compelling reason, historically for this fact is the changed lives of the disciples.
How do you explain them lying, hiding and betraying Jesus one day…then not too long afterwards being willing to die for him?
They went from cowards to being bold as lions…what is the most reasonable explanation for this?
The tomb was open because Jesus was alive.
No way they are going to die for a lie that they themselves invented…and most of the first followers of Jesus were killed for their faith.
Who would suffer and die…for a known lie?
No, the tomb was open and empty because Jesus was alive…they saw him in person.
- Sources
We don’t need anything other than the testimony of Scripture.
Scripture is in itself historically, experientially, powerfully…the Word of God.
We don’t need anything other than the testimony of God’s word…but we have more.
There are ancient documents, like that of Josephus, a first century non-Christian historian who mentions Jesus rising from the dead.
He was born just 4 years after the death of Jesus, so he wasn’t writing about ancient history…he talked to people who had seen Jesus resurrected.
“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, [if indeed one ought to call him a man]. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. [He was the Messiah.] When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. [For he appeared to them alive again on the third day, the divine prophets having foretold these and countless other marvelous things about him.] And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.”
He wrote that just 60 years after the resurrection.
If you are interested there is a book that came out last year entitled:
“Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ”
Bottom line, if you don’t want to read the book: “the quote from Josephus is historically authentic.”
God gave us more than what we needed…he gave verification from outside of Scripture for the resurrection.
Okay, ready for something other than data points?
Let’s get personal.
The impact of the resurrection of Jesus on the lives of people as revealed in Scripture has continued to this day.
The impact of the reality of the resurrection still goes on.
- Still goes on
This room is full of stories of people whose lives, whose families have been changed by the gospel.
I hear them almost every week.
I heard two of them…just last week.
I can think of so many stories I have heard from people in this room…people who would not be alive (no exaggeration), whose lives would be a wreck, whose families and marriages would be a mess…if not for the impact of the resurrection that still goes on today.
This is not just because they merely believed one religious idea over another…it is because they have become something different thant they were before.
Paul wrote:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
We don’t just believe new religious ideas…we have become new creations in Christ.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor. 5:16-21
The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are facts of history, but not just that.
In space and time…Christ came, God became man, to die for men.
In space and time…real human history…Christ rose from the dead.
Now, in Wichita, KS in the year 2026…God is at work reconciling men and women to himself in Christ…
Now in hospitals, prisons, small country churches in Germany, and house churches hiding in secret from murderous oppression.
God is drawing people to himself…and he is using his people as his ambassadors.
Something is true and real…whatever is not that…is not true or real.
When you look at creation, the cosmos as it is…clearly it is designed and not a cosmic accident.
*If you saw a simple children’s drawing on the table, you could not be convinced it just happened by cosmic accident over time.
*How can anyone believe that the child who made that drawing is the result of time plus random chance?
We can look at the cosmos and know that it was created by a wise creator.
When you look at history, human space and time…a man from an obscure place, in the first century shook the world…and he shakes it still.
He said, when you see me…you see the creator.
117 billion and counting…there only one like him.
When Jesus, was preparing his friends for his coming death he said:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.
Thomas, known to us as “doubting Thomas” said…
“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
*All roads do not lead to God…only one does.
*I read an article last week by a passionate, atheist therapist…in it she argued strongly that we misguided evangelicals should abandon our naive belief in Jesus and adopt her rational belief in no God.
So, she believes absolutely that we are wrong to believe in an absolute.
She is evangelistic believing her own ultimate and is trying to win us over to her position that we should not hold to our positions on ultimate truth.
Human are made to worship…we become like what we worship…and we are built to convince others to join us.
No all who worship, worship in truth…Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.
Very soon, after the resurrection, in John 20, we find this:
Now Thomas one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Jesus was talking to Thomas about us…we have not seen Jesus with our eyes, but we have believed and we have been changed..
You can believe…and you will be changed.
Not because of mere psychological factors…not changing religious ideas…but because the resurrection happened in human history, and because the resurrected Christ continues to change lives.
This is good news of great joy for all people.