Many Infallible Proofs

Sermon preached at Good News Mission – Sunday November 24, 2024

Acts 1:1-3: The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Let me begin by asking a question. If you were looking to buy something like a car, would you just take someone’s word for it without ever looking at that car before you bought it?

NO, you would want to look at it first. You would want to test drive it, open up the hood, look underneath it, kick the tires. You might even get the VIN number and check the Carfax on it to see the vehicle history, to see if it was in a car wreck or went through a flood. You might even want to see the service records to see if it was properly maintained. You might even go so far as to research the vehicle to see what a mechanic will say about that make and model of car.

Basically, you’re not going to accept someone’s word that the car was good. You want to know, based on the evidence, if the car is good or bad.

What’s funny to me, is that most Christians today do not take that same approach when it comes to matters of faith. They cannot tell you why they believe in God or Jesus or the afterlife. For some it’s just a feeling, an emotional experience, not one that is rooted in evidence or proof.

When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment he said in Mark 12:28-30

“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

When you come to Christ you don’t just give him your heart and soul, you also give him your mind, your intellect, your reason.

If you have trouble believing the claims of the Bible, then you will not be effective in your walk with Christ and you might find yourself turning away from God. If you doubt the Word of God or if you doubt the stories in the Bible, then you will have a very difficult time trying to live the way God has called you to live.

Christian apologist Clark Pinnock said; “The heart cannot delight in what the mind rejects as false.” If I cannot, intellectually, wrap my head around His Word, then I will never truly experience joy in my heart.

If I go back to the car buying analogy; if you purchase a car sight unseen, the first time you hear a funny sound or a rattling in the motor, you’re going to think you made a big mistake. You’re going to think you made a stupid move.

Why did you buy something without looking into it first? Why did you trust that guy? Maybe he got your emotions worked up and you bought into the idea of the car but not the car itself.

Well…if you’re not careful, it can be the same with coming to Christ. If you came to Jesus blindly, running only on emotions and feelings, not asking critical questions, not checking it out to see if it’s true…the first time something goes wrong, you will begin to doubt your decision. If you came to the Lord out of an emotional response, then all it takes is an emotional response to get you to walk away.

So, did God expect us to accept what he said blindly? To walk around in doubt and fear? To live a life always doubting what His Word says. I don’t think so.

Let’s take a look at one example of a guy that doubted Jesus and see how he answered him.

I think everyone knows, or at least has heard of John the Baptist. This man, who was called the greatest of all prophets, had doubts about Jesus. And this is how Jesus answered those doubts in Matthew 11:1-6;

And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

Notice how Jesus answered. He didn’t say, “Yeah, I’m the guy, just believe.”

What did he say? He said, “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up,…”

He also began by saying, “those things which ye do hear and see,” In other words, Jesus is basically saying, “I’m not saying I did these things, YOU saw and heard what I did with your own eyes and ears.”

To put it simply, Jesus pointed to the evidence. The miracles he did, the wonders that he performed in front of them, for everyone to see; miracles that no one else had ever done before…those were the things that testified of who he was. The miracles validated what he said. And that’s what he wanted John to recall.

This was a common thing that Jesus repeated often. That being that the works he did, testified, proved, or bore witness that his message was true.

In John 10:25 and also verse 37-38 Jesus had this to say; v25 “I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.” v37-38 “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.”

In other words, Jesus is saying, don’t just believe what I’m saying, look at the evidence because that is what validates my words.

The works he did was the evidence of who he was, that his words were true, and that he was sent by the Father.

Jesus made these statements often; “if you don’t believe what I’m telling you, then believe because of the evidence (the signs, miracles, wonders, the works)

In John 14:11 he said; “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”

Obviously the works that Christ performed were miracles, signs, and wonders; also referred to as proofs (or evidence) like what I read in the opening Scripture, Acts 1:3 when it says he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs. Infallible meaning, without doubt, without skepticism.

Another Scripture that comes to mind is Mark 16:20 which speaks of the apostles when it says; “And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.”
The word Confirming in the Greek means to establish or make firm. The word for Signs is also translated as miracles, wonders, and tokens.In other words, not only did Jesus provide the evidence, the proof that his message was true, but so did his apostles. And those signs, wonders and miracles were so firm that they confirmed his words. Meaning, there was no doubt in the minds of those that witnessed it, or at least there shouldn’t have been.

Therefore, I think it’s safe to say that Jesus, as well as the apostles, didn’t want anyone to doubt what they had to say. They didn’t want anyone to walk in blindness when it came to trusting in the Lord.

Again, in the book of Hebrews 2:3-4, it declares that the word was confirmed by eyewitness testimony as well as signs, wonders, and various miracles. It says this: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

Now, some of you might say, “That’s all great for them, but I don’t see miracles today. I don’t see the dead raised, the blind given sight or the lame walk.

Well…we have a problem in this country when it comes to not seeing miracles. There’s a really good reason for that and the answer is in Matthew 13:57-58.

It says, with respect to Jesus, “And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

Unfortunately, we don’t see many miracles like they did because we have so much unbelief and cynicism in our country.

If we saw a miracle today, many would chalk it up to euphoria, to the body just healing itself, mind of matter or something like that. If a person was raised from the dead they might say the person was just in a deep coma or some kind of paralysis.

We live in what some call a “post-truth” world. One in which we don’t believe anything we see and believe everything to be a lie.

Now thankfully, God did not leave us without a witness, without proof. What we do see are things like, fulfilled prophecies (like that of the rebirth of Israel as a nation in 1948), we see archaeological discoveries, textual discoveries, as well as discoveries in science that demonstrate that we are created and not evolved.

For example, the Bible contains over 8,362 predictive verses, with 1,817 predictions, on 737 separate matters. Over 300 prophecies were fulfilled by Christ’s first coming. 30 alone were fulfilled on the cross.

You can use math to determine the likelihood of one person fulfilling these prophecies. When using compound probability, mathematicians determined that the probability for just 48 of the 300 prophecies to be fulfilled by one man would be 1 in 1×10157. That’s a 1 with 157 zeros after it.

To put that number in perspective, there’s only an estimated 1066 atoms in the whole universe. In other words, the possibility for Jesus to have fulfilled all the prophecies would have been impossible, unless he truly was the Son of God. And that’s according to math.

You see…God will always meet us where we are at. Even if we have trouble believing. Even if we see a person raised from the dead but yet we still doubt, God will still provide the evidence we need so that we won’t doubt. Whether we look at it or not, that’s up to us to choose.

For example, one of Jesus’ disciples, Thomas, didn’t believe everyone that said they saw a risen Jesus. Thomas lived with these guys for three years. He saw all of the miracles that Jesus did. He himself did miracles when Jesus sent them out two by two.

But yet Thomas doubted, even though there was a cloud of witnesses around him that saw the risen Christ. Therefore, rather than let Thomas wallow in doubt, Jesus provided the proof he needed to believe.

John 20:24-29 says; “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.”

Be NOT faithless, but believing, he said.

In that moment, Jesus provided what Thomas needed to believe. If you have doubts, and seeing miracles won’t convince you then God is willing to provide what you need in order to believe, if you truly want to know the truth.

I know this to be true because that’s where I was many years ago. I heard of miracles happening in churches over in places like Romania, and Russia and China, but I never saw it here. And even if I did, I know that I was too skeptical to accept it. I needed evidence that would hold up to scrutiny. I needed something that was testable and repeatable, like you would find in a scientific study.

My background was math, science and engineering and my mind was unwilling to accept someone’s testimony of a miracle. I needed it to be falsifiable. I needed to see if it could be shown to be true or false. It needed to be objective and not subjective like a person’s testimony.

I was like Thomas when I said that I needed to see it for myself. I needed to put my hands on it. I needed to test it. I needed to look under the hood, kick the tires, and take it for a test drive.

Thankfully the Lord met me where I was at and provided the proof I needed so I could believe and not be faithless. So that I didn’t walk in doubt. Because if I did walk in doubt, I know for a fact that I would have left the Lord a long time ago.

You see when we come to Christ, we will at some point in our life, count the cost. What’s it going to take to really follow Jesus?

In Luke 14:25-33 Jesus makes it clear what it means to follow him, to count the cost. It says this; “And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

Jesus is making it abundantly clear what it means to follow him. He is asking you and I, “Are you willing to give it all up for me?” The question that came to my mind long ago was; Is Jesus worth giving it all up for Him?

After he laid out all the evidence for this skeptical doubtful mind to see, the only answer I could come to was yes, He is worthy. I counted the cost, I saw the proof, and I decided to follow Jesus.

But you see, the evidence, the proof of who He is, none of that can save us. It only CONFIRMs His Word is true. Once you know His words are true, then you can believe those words. You can count on them to speak the truth to you.

And it’s in His Word that we find out how we can be saved. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

There is no good work we can do to be saved. Works do not save, they only demonstrate a true faith in God. James 2:18 says; “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

For one, in order to be saved, you must be willing to admit that you are a sinner, like it says in Romans 3:23. You must realize that the wages of sin is death, like it says in Romans 6:23. But thanks be to God that salvation through Jesus Christ is a free gift. And Whoever Calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That’s a guarantee mentioned in Romans 10.

I believe his Word because I know His Word is true, not because I believe it blindly, but because he has shown me the proof that it is true. And he can show you that too, if you’re willing to see it.

Let’s Pray!