John 14 – Dr. Frank Harber
For 21 years of my life, I was an atheist. I did not believe in Jesus. I did not believe that Christianity was the truth. Until, I was challenged by a Baptist preacher to prove that Christianity was not the truth. I took him up on that challenge.
For nine months, I studied all nine major world religions. When I came to Christianity, as determined as I was to disprove it, I got stuck. I discovered that there is powerful evidence from science, history, archeology, prophecy, and many different areas that demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christianity is the truth.
I discovered that contrary to popular belief, you do not have to check your brains at the door to become a Christian. Becoming a Christian is one of the most reasonable, intelligent decisions that you can ever make.
Becoming a Christian is not a leap into darkness. It’s a step into the light.
As I studied all the different world religions, I was amazed that so many of them just don’t have any evidence. However, Jesus Christ made a one-of-a-kind, unique claim above all claims and then he backed it up with signs and miracles that no one had ever seen before.
Before I became a Christian, I read the Bible cover to cover, researched the historicity of Christianity and found many reasons we should all believe. The miracles of Jesus commanded this world’s attention. People followed him crowds. He healed blindness from birth. He raised the dead. He made the lame walk. Jesus did miracles that blew people’s minds. Beyond the miracles, the resurrection of Jesus was the greatest miracle of all time.
His miracles were not just a theory. The miracles of Jesus were proven facts.
There are three things we should look out for that might diminish your passion and your love for God.
- Activity
Jesus was at the home of Lazarus and while Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, Martha was scurrying about the kitchen. Martha started griping, Gee, why don’t you tell Mary to get up and help me? Then Jesus says to Martha, “Martha, you are distracted with much serving.” Martha was distracted from sitting at the feet of Jesus like Mary was.
- Adversity
Adversity can keep you from a passion for God, because many times you might tempt to be tempted to blame God. Sometimes when you go through personal adversity, you have to make a decision to trust in Go.
- Adultery
Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God and all through the old covenant? They were tempted to flirt with those other gods and their hearts were taken away. And so they found themselves abandoning or dismissing or leaving the love that they had at first. How far have you fallen when it comes to dismissing abandoning and leaving that love that you had at first? How far have you come? Only you can measure that.
Remember when you couldn’t wait to show up early and find your place because you didn’t want to miss a thing and your heart was open and ready for change? Oh, those days you were never afraid to sing, never afraid to lift your hands didn’t care what people would think. You were on fire and church was more than a place and people were more than faces and Jesus was just more than a name.
You’ve got to repent. This is a change of mind. Turn away from that which is stealing your affections. This could mean getting off social media for a while. It may be certain websites or activity, adversity or any number of things.
Repentance may not feel good, but it’s right. The more you repent, the more God changes your heart. You turn away from this, you start pursuing the things of the Lord and a weird thing happens. You start being drawn more and more into the things of the Lord as you rebuke and repent from those things.
The two most attacked miracles in the history of Christianity are 1) the Virgin Birth and 2) the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus came into this world by means of an incarnational miracle. Jesus Christ did not have an earthly father. This makes Jesus different from anyone else ever born because He did not inherit a sinful nature. Jesus didn’t just claim to be your savior. He claimed to be your sinless savior.
When you trust Christ, your sins are forgiven, and you are moved positionally in union with Christ as someone without sin. You can be forgiven, and you can go to heaven because of Jesus’s righteousness and sinless-ness.
The greatest miracle that God ever did comes with more evidence than any miracle that God ever did and is also the most attacked.
The greatest attacked miracle is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There was a group of skeptics in the Bible. They followed Jesus around all the time. They were always trying to get him in a “gotcha” moment. But they couldn’t do it.
So, they came up to Jesus and they said if you’re really God give us a supreme sign. So He gave them the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights and came out alive, Jesus pointed to his death and resurrection after three days.
If you read the Bible cover to cover, you will see numerous mentions of Jesus and the prophets prophesying that Jesus would die and be resurrected. The resurrection comes with many infallible proofs including the empty tomb and many others.
I think the most impressive thing about the resurrection is the eyewitness accounts. Out of the original 12 apostles, ten died a martyrs’ deaths because they would not change their story, that Jesus Christ was alive.
These apostles were in actual position to know whether Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Yet, their conviction was so strong that they were willing to give their lives for their testimony.
If Jesus Christ actually showed up at a church service or at your home, and met with you and talked with you but you didn’t get it on camera, how could you prove it to those who weren’t there.
One of the things that would be credible is if we were all saying the same thing.
Imagine if some of us got kidnapped and they decided to torture us until we said that Jesus didn’t raise from the dead. That’s exactly what happens in the Bible. These eyewitness accounts are so impressive because they saw Jesus Christ with their own eyes and they all attested that He came back from the dead.
Do you believe in Jesus? I challenge you to read the Bible from cover to cover and prove it to yourself. You will see the many reasons we have as Christians to believe.