(All sermon notes are provided entirely from the outline provided by Rice Broocks for the God's Not Dead preaching series. If churches or ministries are interested in using these materials as a resource, visit godsnotdead.org to download content. God's Not Dead books and evangelistic materials are also made available on godsnotdead.org.)
INTRODUCTION:
1 Peter 3:15 - “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 - “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
NOTICE THAT THE SCRIPTURE SAYS “DEMOLISH”....THAT MEANS THE TRUTH WILL HAVE THAT KIND OF IMPACT ON THE DECEPTION AND MISINFORMATION OF THIS SKEPTICAL AGE.
As we embark on this important series “God’s Not Dead”, let’s look back briefly on the some of the Historical drama that has contributed to the current challenge:
1) CHARLES DARWIN: The scientific world was overturned in 1859 by his radical theory of evolution through natural selection. He proposed that all of life arose from a common ancestor, completely by natural processes. There is no question that the world was changed by the presentation of this theory. It provided another explanation, other than a Supernatural agent, for how life emerged.
It’s important to remember that evolution only tries to explain what happens after you get life—it can’t tell you how life began. (We will deal with this fully in a message called “Life is no Accident.”)
2) FREDRICK NIETZSCHE: The phrase “God is Dead” was introduced by this German Philosopher at the end of the 1800’s. He wasn’t saying that God had actually died, but that the idea of God was now dead and with it all the moral restrictions that went with that faith. He was well aware of the connection between belief in God and morality.
3) SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES: Gave false impression that God wasn’t necessary to explain the Universe.
A. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity —redefined the way we understand the BIG PICTURE of TIME AND SPACE. B. Quantum Theory —revolutionized our picture of the subatomic world. At the smallest level, particles don’t seem to follow the same cause and effect rules of the larger world of planets. C. Big Bang Theory —of the beginning of the Universe…contrary to the prevailing view of the time that the Universe simply had always existed, this discovery told us that there was an absolute beginning of space and time.
All of this added to the feeling that Science was now giving us the explanations that we used to look to religion to give us.
4) TIME MAGAZINE: By the 1960’s this skeptical worldview had become entrenched into academic circles and the philosophy of naturalism with it, which prompted to ask on it’s cover edition on Easter of 1966, “Is God Dead?”
Atheism, though never officially more than around 5% of the American people, has affected the view of reality of many Americans as well as the laws of the land. Prayer was banished from public schools and a radical secularization of society continued to grow.
5) SEPTEMBER 11: After the tragedy of 9/11 there was a surge in the writing of books that condemned religion as the reason for the attacks.
Men like Richard Dawkins, a biologist from England wrote “The God Delusion.” The late Christopher Hitchens work was called “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” Sam Harris called for “The End of Faith” and Bill Maher said “religion must die.”
All of these types of writings demonstrated that extremism is just as prevalent among skeptics as it is among religious extremists.
For the most part the average Church-goer goes along un-phased by books like these. Where the impact is really felt is among young people. Through these kinds of books and the proliferation of atheist blogs and YouTube channels, young people get assaulted by their peers with questions and accusations against belief in God and the Bible that they are not prepared for.
THE NEGATIVE IMPACT IS UNDENIABLE:
In 2007, Millenials (age 18-29) were asked, “Do you ever doubt the existence of God?” 83% said NO. In 2012, they were asked the same question and 68% said NO. It was a change of 15 points in just 5 years!
Young people (and everyone for that matter) are going to need more than an EXPERIENCE if they are going to withstand the SKEPTICAL ONSLAUGHT that awaits them once they leave high school.
What is tragic is that the evidence for God and the truth of the Christian faith is overwhelming while much of the skeptical challenges are baseless and even absurd. Many times they are the equivalent of a ‘drive-by shooting’ intellectually, or better yet, a sensational super-market tabloid headline…fabricated yet attention getting.
Just as the English reformer William Wilberforce (who almost single-handedly ended slavery in Great Britain) said, ”Christianity has been successfully attacked and marginalized because those who professed belief were unable to defend the faith from attack, even though its attackers’ arguments were deeply flawed.” (Quote from Introduction of GND).
As we embark on this series we want to give you the evidence for God in a way that you can grasp it and share it with others. As Rice Broocks told his own teenagers, “This stuff may be over your head, but it’s not out of your reach.”
Also, we want to give you answers to the challenges that skeptics are raising in this generation. This message is addressing an overall claim that faith in God is blind, meaning it is without evidence as well as unreasonable. This is closely connected to the charge that you must choose between faith and reason as well as God or science. Of course this entire series is addressing this and giving the evidence for God.
Let us look at 7 important FOUNDATIONAL POINTS:
1. GOD COMMANDS US TO USE REASON!
Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
KEY PHRASE: “WE COME TO GOD THROUGH REASON, NOT AGAINST IT!”
Isaiah 1:18 “Come let us settle the matter...” Most translations say “come let us reason together...”
We are called to reason, think, consider, and then act on what is reasonably true.
SCIENCE ROSE OUT OF A CHRISTIAN WORLD VIEW because the first scientists believed the Universe was rationally understandable.
“Men became scientific because they expected law in nature and they expected law in nature because of a belief in a Lawgiver”- CS Lewis
“The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that the universe is comprehensible” - Albert Einstein
2. EVERYONE STARTS WITH A WORLD VIEW… a lens of a framework through which you interpret the facts and phenomenon around you. Yet, if you’re committed to a philosophy of naturalism, then no amount of evidence for God is enough. Naturalism is a world view that everything arose on its own by strictly natural processes—there is no reason behind the universe or life and no purpose looking forward. But if you are really willing to follow the evidence where ever it leads as Socrates suggested, then you are willing to follow it if it leads to an intelligent uncreated mind behind the Universe.
None of the discoveries in the past 150 years, in any way, disproved the existence of God. It all comes down to the philosophical grid (or “worldview”) that you are looking through. This is why, if you are committed to the philosophy of naturalism, no amount of evidence will convince you.
3. UNDERSTANDING HOW SOMETHING WORKS DOESN’T MEAN THAT A DESIGNER OR CREATOR ISN’T NEEDED. We certainly applaud the advances in Science but none of the discoveries means God isn’t necessary.
Scientists recently heralded the discovery of the “God Particle”…the name doesn’t mean what it suggests. It was the missing piece in sub-atomic physics for 50 years.
Science knew a particle existed for over 50 years because of it’s impact on the surrounding particles, even though it was undetectable and still is virtually undetectable.
Remember, just because we know how a car engine works doesn’t mean Henry Ford did not exist.
We must know what we are looking for when we are looking for evidence for God.
If we are looking for Steve Jobs we won’t find him by breaking down an iPhone or an Apple computer!
When skeptics assert “there is no evidence for God”, our response should be, “What experiment did you run that proved God doesn’t exist?” or “What was the evidence you were looking for that you claim you didn’t find?”
It’s like the Russian cosmonaut that went into space in 1968 and reportedly claimed he didn’t see any God. We aren’t looking for something physical we are looking for a uncaused, non-material, uncaused, intelligent mind that designed and created everything.
It’s like looking for the evidence of the existence of an actor by tearing apart the TV set or the evidence of an artist by tearing the painting apart. We see the marks of their brilliance, creativity, and intentionality in the things they made.
4. GOD HAS GIVEN US ENOUGH REASONS TO BELIEVE! Our problem is not a lack of information or evidence, but a lack of willingness to acknowledge what is obvious.
Rice told his atheist brother in law school (Chapter 1 of GND), “It’s not what you don’t know about God that’s keeping you from Him...it’s what you DO know.”
Romans 1 says that men “suppress the truth” in unrighteousness…like someone trying to hold a beach ball under the water. Or better yet, a lawyer who tries to suppress evidence that hurts the case he or she is trying to prove.
Sigmund Freud said that belief in God was really a wish-fulfillment. He claimed that people with faith simply wanted a “father-figure” in the sky that could straighten everything out. In reality, atheism is the ultimate wish-fulfillment. Most atheists don’t want God to be there. If the God who created the ear can hear and the eye can see then there will be an ultimate accountability.
5. INSULTS AREN’T ARGUMENTS. Contrary to perception of atheism being a deeply scientific and intellectual position, much of it boils down to a series of emotional rants against religion.
Pastor Rollan Fisher shared the story of Rice Broocks going to a Global Atheist Convention in Australia where the opening night speakers were four comedians! (pg. 19) Richard Dawkins, perhaps the world’s most famous atheist, told a crowd of atheists at the US atheist gathering a few weeks before: “Mock them, ridicule them in public...” (pg. 25)
It’s important to remember that Jesus was the biggest critic of empty religion. You can’t take all the mistakes done in the name of religion and build a “straw man” that isn’t real.
THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SUICIDE BOMBER AND A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER!
SKEPTICS FAVORITE INSULTS:
1) Believing in God is believing in a fairy tale. It’s like believing in the tooth fairy or Richard Dawkins personal favorite, ”The Flying Spaghetti monster.”
RESPONSE: There are no good reasons to believe in the tooth fairy or the Flying Spaghetti monster...there are good reasons to believe in God!
THINK ABOUT IT: 106 out of the first 108 Universities in America were founded to promote the Christian faith. No one has raised a university to a fairy tale.
2) The Bible is full of contradictions. As you can read in Chapter 8 in GND...the Bible stands head and shoulders over every other ancient writing.
RESPONSE: Nothing comes close to the Bible in terms of it’s Historical accuracy. We also have more manuscripts of the Bible than any other ancient document. (We will deal more on this as the series goes forward).
3) The miracles in the Bible couldn’t have happened. (i.e: Parting the Red Sea, Jonah swallowed by a whale, the Virgin Birth, Walking on water etc...)
RESPONSE: Miracles aren’t a violation of the laws of nature. Because God is the creator, He is free to inject a unique event into the system. Here is where the philosophy of naturalism is seen…“Miracles don’t happen because they can’t happen.”
THINK ABOUT IT: It’s because we understand the laws of nature that we know when something different has happened. It’s because people knew in Jesus’ day that dead people usually stay dead, that they knew a miracle had happened at the resurrection. It also explains why so many of His disciples had a hard time believing the news. Even seeing Him alive, the Bible says “When they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted” (Matt 28:17).
6. FAITH IS THE PRODUCT OF THINKING—UNBELIEF IS A PRODUCT OF NOT THINKING (pg. 31, Chapter 2)
Unbelief is, many times, the result of a lack of EFFORT not lack of EVIDENCE!
Either a person hasn’t heard the truth or they simply don’t want to hear something that might challenge their beliefs and especially their lifestyle.
Unbelief is not just a lack of information. You can answer people’s questions and they will still not believe.
Prior to this Easter, six pastors had a panel discussion with 6 atheists before the American Atheist convention in Austin, Texas. One of the pastors asked the atheists’ panel, “What would it take to make you believe?” They said that witnessing an undeniable miracle would make them believers.
We know there are millions of people that have claimed to have had an undeniable miracle...the problem is that if you are skeptical, no amount of evidence is enough.
Luke 16:30-31- Pastor Rollan Fisher gave an overview of the story of the rich man in hell who asked that Lazarus (not the one Jesus raised from the dead), a poor man who had died as well, be sent to the rich man’s family to tell them to repent.
If they don’t believe the Word, they won’t believe even if someone rises from the dead. (Luke 16:31)
7. FAITH INVOLVES 3 KEY INGREDIENTS: (pg. 28-30 for more)
i) KNOWLEDGE: The Knowledge of God is not just in Scripture, it’s in Creation all around us. Like entering into an agreement with someone, knowledge of the terms of the agreement is essential in business, marriage, or life. God wants us to have knowledge of Him and His covenant.
ii) ASSENT: We must want to obey and follow what we know to be true. Our will must be exercised, and choices must be made. God isn’t coercing you into a relationship with Him.
iii) TRUST: Commitment of the heart. This is what most people think faith is...trust. But our trust has been earned through Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection. He has earned our trust!
What is the gospel? The gospel is the good news that God became man in Jesus Christ. He lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died...in our place. Three days later, He rose from the dead, proving that He is the Son of God and offering the gift of salvation to all who repent and believe the gospel.
Second City Church- God's Not Dead Sermon Series 2015
