Friday Extravaganza–Sabotage (1 of 13): The Real Deal
1 John 1:1-4
Video link: http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=24015298
Have you ever had something so extraordinarily cool happen to you that was almost too good to be true? You call the first person that comes to mind, you tell them about what happened… and they don’t exactly share your enthusiasm. In fact, they sound rather skeptical. They want proof of the event.
Proof is important. Court cases are won or lost on evidence. You can’t get a valid driver’s license or a passport without proof of your identity. There are a lot of skeptical people who are looking for proof that God exists or that Jesus is who the Bible claims He is. Proof is indeed important.
John opens this letter by getting right to the point. No “Hey, what’s up?” No super-abbreviated text message. He talks about what he has seen, heard, and touched concerning Jesus. The false teachers that John was dealing with were sabotaging the work, person, and character of Jesus by saying He wasn’t really human (which means that His death didn’t mean a thing). John comes out with both guns a blazin’ and says, “Look, I saw Jesus. I heard Jesus. I listened to Jesus teach. I saw Jesus heal people and even raise them from death. I personally saw Jesus die. I personally saw Him resurrected from the dead… physically. I touched Him. He’s the real deal.”
This is nothing short of proof–eyewitness proof from someone who spent three years with Jesus, who saw Him die, who saw Him after His resurrection. The Bible has been proven by many reputable, knowledgeable scholars to be a historically reliable document–and this includes the gospels of Jesus. That has huge ramifications for us–we really can have confidence in Jesus as He’s revealed to us in the Bible.
If you’re checking this Christianity thing out…
This may be pretty tough for you. You’ve heard a lot of stuff about Jesus–that He was a nice guy with some nice things to say, but He wasn’t really God. He didn’t really raise from the dead. His religion isn’t really that different from Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and every other -ism out there. You may have encountered people who say that following Jesus is the key to health, wealth, and happiness… and you look at the world around you and you know what a crock that is. In spite of what you’ve heard, you can also have confidence in Jesus.
The gospels are historically trustworthy. The science of textual criticism has shown that the Bibles we have today say the same thing that the original authors wrote. This means that you can find relief from things like guilt, regret and shame because of what Jesus did on the cross. You, too, can have a firm hope for this life and for what will happen after this life is over. Is it always peachy? No. Sometimes its downright painful–dealing with emotional and spiritual scars from the past, the process of repenting of sin and seeking forgiveness from others. But that is all countered by knowing and experiencing God, who loves you more than anything you could know.
Christians…
Since we can have confidence in Jesus as He’s revealed to us in the Bible, it means that we can have hope for our eternal future. If everything that happened in the Bible is true–if God carried through with His promises through Jesus–then we can be pretty sure that He’ll carry through with His promise for eternity: Jesus’ return, heaven, etc. If everything that happened in the Bible is true, and if we can have complete confidence in Jesus, then we need to really follow Jesus–our lives need to reflect Him. It needs to change everything–how we spend our money, our views and practices of sex, how we treat our spouse and kids, how we view temporary stuff, how we relate to others, how we interact with those who are down and out, etc.
If He’s the real deal, then we must be the real deal.
