Proof
Act 17:22-31
Intro: There was an old man who had witnessed a burglary and appeared in court to identify the guilty party.
. The prosecutor questioned him and he identified the defendant as the man who had committed the crime.
. Now it was the defense attorney’s turn. He asked the man, "Did you see my client commit this burglary?"
. "Yes," the man said. "I saw him plainly commit the crime."
The lawyer added, "This happened at night. Are you sure you saw my client commit this crime?"
"Yes, I saw him do it," the man said.
The lawyer then said, "You are 80 years old and your eyesight probably is not as good as it used to be. Just how far can you see at night?"
The man said, "I can see the moon. How far is that?"
. We all want proof don’t we?
. We won’t believe something unless someone proves it to us.
. That’s the science background that we get in school. You must have verifiable proof of something in order to believe it.
. That’s what Easter is all about. A verifiable fact.
. Proof that Jesus was and is who He claimed to be.
. We get caught up in egg hunts and call it outreach.
. It’s an opportunity to buy new clothes, I am sporting a new shirt myself this morning. You realize that not all men can pull off pink don’t you.
. We get and give Easter baskets but that is not what Easter is all about.
. Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ proving that he is from God and that He is one part of the triune God.
. This video will drive home just what Easter is all about.
. Play resurrection scene form the gospel of Matthew video series.
. Folks that is what Easter is all about.
. In our scripture this morning, Paul writes that this resurrection proves who Jesus was and is.
. The Apostle Paul was traveling throughout Asia and what we call the Middle East and he found himself in Athens.
. Paul was waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him and while he was waiting, he toured the city.
. At that time, Athens was one of the cultural giants in the known world. They were on the cutting edge of mathematics and science and the philosophical giants.
. As Paul walked around he saw all these statues that depicted the great gods of the Greeks.
. Scripture tells us that Paul was greatly distressed by what he saw.
. It seemed everybody believed in some kind of god but no one seemed to believe in the one true God of the Bible.
. On the highest point of the city sat the Acropolis, a massive structure that served as a citadel and temple to the goddess Athena.
. To the west sat Mars Hill and on that summit sat what was called the Aeropagus. A place where all the great philosophers would meet and debate the meaning of life.
. This is where our scripture picks up the narrative.
. 22So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way,
23for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24“He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples,
25and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.
26From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27“His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.
28For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
30“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.
31For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
. As I read and studied this passage, the correlation between the Athenians and our society today is amazing.
. Look back at verse 22 and part of 23.
. 22So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way,
23for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines.
. Paul sees that they believe in a god of some kind by all the things he sees and hears in the city.
. He says that you even have a shrine to this God. You call him the unknown God.
. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
. He goes on to tell them about the God of the bible. The creator God.
. He tells them about the nature that man has to search for God.
. He goes on to tell them that mankind has had long enough and that God has now sent a person to make who He is known to man.
. That man is Jesus.
. The one Paul was telling them about.
. The correlation between the Athenians and our world today is that most of them believed in a god.
. That much was evident as Paul walked around the city.
. There were statues of gods everywhere.
. They all believed in a god of some kind.
. In 2008, a Pew Research Poll showed that 92% of all the people living in the United States believe in some type of god or higher power. http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/what-percentage-americans-believe-God
.We are like the Athenians here in America.
. We believe that there is a god, it’s just that we are confused about which God we believe in.
. Do you believe in the God of the Bible or do you believe in a god of your own making.
. Do you really believe that God became flesh in the form of Jesus Christ and sacrificed himself for your sins and died and was resurrected?
. Do you really believe that?
.Or do you pick and choose what part of the Bible you want to believe.
. Paul was using the resurrection of Jesus to convince the Athenians that there was and is only one true God.
. He said that the resurrection was proof that Jesus was and is who He said He was.
. Look at verse 31 again.
. 31For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
. God proved to everyone that Jesus is the man that will judge everything by raising him from the dead.
. I want to go back to what we didn’t see in our video this morning. I will use this to prove that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead so that when you leave here this morning that you will have absolutely no doubt in your mind that the God we should believe in and worship is the God of the Bible.
. The Bible tells us that when Jesus left the ladies that we saw, one of the first things He did was go and find his disciples.
. Guess where He found them.
. The Apostle John tells us in John 20:19.
. 19That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.
. These 11 men who had been with Jesus for at least three years were cowering behind locked doors. Afraid of the Jews.
. It was over, the man they had grown to love was dead. He was gone and they were afraid for their lives. They weren’t crazy, they loved Jesus but now He was dead. They were not going to die for him. They had to get back to their lives without being caught.
.Something happened though.
. They met the risen Savior. They saw Jesus and talked with Jesus and ate with Jesus.
. That’s easy to say Anthony but what proof do you have. You said that you were going to prove that Jesus was resurrected.
. I want to spend a few minutes looking at the lives of a few of these men.
. Their lives after this encounter prove that Jesus was and is alive.
. Peter was there with them in the room hiding. He had just denied knowing who Jesus was three days before. He was scared to death.
. Peter went from hiding and denying that he didn’t know Jesus to proclaiming him throughout Jerusalem and all the Middle East.
. Peter was imprisoned and beaten many times for his faith.
. According to the Historian Eusebius, Peter was crucified upside down. When the executioners were about to crucify him, Peter asked to be crucified upside down because he was unworthy to die in the same manner as Jesus.
. How did Peter go from a sniveling coward to a martyr?
. He saw the resurrected Jesus.
. Peter was not a crazy man. He proved that through his acts of self preservation.
. Peter had experienced the risen Lord.
. The Apostle James, one of those hiding in the room was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa.
. This is recorded in acts 12:1,2.
. 1About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church.2He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword.
. What made James, one of the “sons of thunder” as scripture called him, come out of hiding and boldly proclaim Jesus and become the first pastor of the church in Jerusalem. Willing to give up his life.
. James had seen and talked to the risen Lord.
. How many of you have heard the term “doubting Thomas”?
. That expression came from the apostle Thomas.
. Ten of the eleven disciples were in the room when the resurrected Jesus appeared to them. After Jesus had left them, Thomas came into the room.
. They told Thomas that they had seen Jesus and he acted like many do today when they are told about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Thomas scoffed and said that he needed proof.
. The apostle John records this proof in 20: 24-29
. 24One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came.
25They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
26Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said.
27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
28“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
29Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
. Thomas said I Want Proof. I don’t believe what you are telling me. I don’t believe you.
. Historians tell us that Thomas was burned alive for his faith in Jesus.
. What happened to change a man that said I need proof from an unbeliever to a martyr?
. Thomas had seen and touched the risen Jesus.
. Thomas knew without a doubt that Jesus was alive therefore proving who He was. The son of God.
. If you go back and study history after the resurrection, you will find that all the disciples with the exception of John were killed for their faith.
. These men were not fanatics or as some suggest just members of a cult.
. They proved that they were concerned with their self preservation by hiding from the Jewish religious leaders.
. They were people, just like you and I. They were neither crazy nor fanatical.
. Then they encountered the risen Lord and everything changed.
. They knew and believed with all their heart that Jesus was the Messiah.
. The one promised by the God of the Bible to die for their sins and to be resurrected, insuring eternal life for all who believe in Him.
.There was others who were not part of the original 11 who gave their lives after seeing the risen Lord.
. Stephen, one of the original deacons, was stoned to death for his faith.
. How could someone not renounce what they believe when they knew they were about to be killed.
. He knew that what he believed was true. Jesus was alive.
. The apostle Paul was standing by as Stephen was being stoned, approving of this murder by holding the cloaks of those who were killing Stephen.
. Paul was the chief persecutor of the Christians. He would go into their houses and drag them out and beat them and throw them into jail.
. As he was traveling to Damascus to persecute as many Christians as he could find, he had a life changing experience.
. Paul went on to write much of the New Testament. He was second only to Luke in what he wrote being included in the New Testament.
. What happened to change this man?
. He had an encounter with the risen Jesus on his way to Damascus.
. Historians tell us that Paul was Be-headed by the Emperor Nero in Rome in 67 AD.
.What happened to all of these men?
They personally encountered the Risen Lord.
. They knew, without a doubt that Jesus was alive.
. They were shouting it from the street corners, from the Temple steps, from foreign assemblies to all who would listen.
. Jesus Is Alive.
. Which God do you believe in this morning?
. One of your own making or the God of the Bible?
. The one who came in the form of man to die for our sins and rise defeating death for us.
. When talking to Thomas, Jesus said blessed are those who believe and do not see.
. Do you believe this morning?
. My prayer is that you will leave here this morning convinced that Jesus Christ Is Alive and died for you.
. Have you accepted this sacrifice this morning?
. Invitation.
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Here’s The Proof, Paul Decker, sermon central
