(Quotations from articles and information at www.answering-islam.org was used for much of the content of this sermon.)
What is Islam?-- Submission. What do Muslims ("one who submits to God") believe? How is our Christian faith different?
Christianity and Islam share much common ground. Both trace their roots to Abraham. Both believe in prophecy, God’s messengers (apostles), revelation, scripture, the resurrection of dead. One difference is how scripture is read (Leviticus as an example)— literally or spiritually?
I. Two biggest stumbling blocks to Muslims:
1. Trinity- "3 Gods" are totally inconceivable
Jn.14:11, "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me;"
Jn 16:7, "But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."
Christians see the Sonship of Jesus not as a blasphemy but as a testimony to the divine love. God humbled himself to the point of becoming a part of his creation through the Incarnation of his Son Jesus Christ! By becoming part of the created order, by taking on a full and a complete human nature, God sanctified humanity "from within," so to speak.
Both Islam and Christianity say that God is totally other and beyond human comprehension, completely beyond the ability of humans to grasp, yet Christians add something completely different: that God sanctified the world by humbling himself to become part of it, by loving us so much that he was willing "to come down from his throne" to became part of this mess which we call the world. In this bold -- and wonderful -- assertion, Christianity stands apart from both Judaism and Islam, which stress the total otherness and transcendence of God to the point where it is incomprehensible to them that He could become part of the created order. We Christians must never loose sight of the fact that even though we are Trinitarian, we affirm that there is only "one God".
The Orthodox Christians in the Middle East always say in Arabic: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ONE GOD!"
2. Jesus, the Son of God- Muslims consider this statement to be blasphemous!
Jn.14:8-11, "Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ’Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me;"
II. Other differences are:
1. Messiah- Islam sees Jesus as a prophet.
A Middle Eastern Christian convert from Islam: "I woke up one morning and was suddenly struck by the meaning of a verse written by the prophet Isaiah in his ninth chapter. I had read this verse several weeks prior to that morning, but I had never understood its meaning-- Isa.7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." Isaiah continues in 9:2-7, "but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan– The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; . . . For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever." I could not believe it! The fact that the Messiah was not going to be just a prophet, but Mighty God himself, was therefore a truth that had been prophesied seven hundred years before Christ in the Old Testament, and not something that had been made up by Christians many years or centuries after Christ! It was God’s own promise that he will come in flesh (Immanuel = God with us) and will establish a kingdom that will last forever."
2. The Bible- Islam accepts parts of the Bible as true revelations, but teaches all Muslims to reject the Bible as a complete work of revelation because it was corrupted by men. It is taught that Mohammed was sent to restore the true message of God.
3. Message of Christ- Islam teaches that it was for Jews, and Paul distorted the message in order to give it to Gentiles.
4. Need for a Savior- Persons don’t need a Savior. They just need to ask for forgiveness. The idea that God accepts payment for sin (the cross) is viewed as ridiculous. Revelation is not for salvation, it’s for guidance.
Rm. 3:23-25, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished"
Jn.10:14-17, "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me– just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again."
Mt.10:34- "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Mt. 26:52- "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword"
Conclusion:
There’s a lot of misunderstanding, and hatred born from misunderstanding, and killing and destruction born from hatred. Satan loves it! It’s his kingdom. In contrast to Mohammed, the message of Jesus NEVER included exhortation to violence. THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST IS LOVE. Because in some nations Muslims are forbidden to read the Bible, it is more difficult for them to be drawn to Christ via the scriptures. More effectively, they’re drawn by the love of Christ expressed through followers of Christ.
Jn.4:13-24 God reigns! God came to us as Jesus and has shown us the way. People were arguing and fighting about God when Jesus came, they argued and fought about God while Jesus lived, they’ve argued and fought about God since he returned to heaven, sadly they will continue to argue and fight about God until Christ returns. However, all of the misunderstanding, arguing, fighting, discrimination, and killing doesn’t change the fact that God reigns! And, we know God through Jesus Christ!
Phil. 2:9-11, "(because of Christ’s sacrifice) God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
