Reliable Truth

When Jesus speaks, everything He says that’s recorded in the Gospels is significant. Some of the things he says are parables, or stories with symbolic meaning. I am intrigued by these parables. Today I will dig into one of these parables, taken from Matthew 13:44-46. This message is from a weekly Bible study that I teach at The Center for Executive Leadership in Birmingham, Alabama. Some of my Bible studies right now are hosted via Zoom. If you are interested in attending one, please email me at richard@thecenterbham.org. Be sure to tell me that you heard about it here on my podcast. Best regards, Richard

Today I'd like to share a message by Dr. Tim Keller, which he gave at The Center's Mens Breakfast in November 2019 here in Birmingham, Alabama.Tim's message draws some lessons from the early Church for us today and what we’re facing in our own culture, as the Christian church is declining. Increasingly, you have people out there who not only don’t believe in God or don’t believe in Christianity, but actually think Christianity is bad for people. And say that religion is bad for people. And religious people are a threat to our democracy and a threat to our social order. We’ve never faced anything like that, but the early Christians certainly did.So, then the real question is why did so many people become Christians then in the first three centuries when Christianity was so persecuted? Why would anybody want to become a Christian? Keller ends the talk with a special time of Q and A. I hope you enjoy it! - RichardTim Keller is the Chairman and co-Founder of Redeemer City to City, which trains pastors for ministry in global cities. He is also the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and the author of New York Times bestselling books The Reason for God, The Prodigal God, and Prayer.

Why is our world so broken? I believe the world is broken because of the spiritual condition of man. The Bible describes our natural condition as being in spiritual darkness. Tim Keller says spiritual darkness comes when we turn away from God as our true light and make something else as the center of our lives.In John 8:12 Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the light of life." In Luke 11:34-35  “The eye is the lamp of your body and when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light, but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness." He’s warning us to watch out and make sure that the light that you think you have is not actually darkness. This was written 2000 years ago and unbelievably pertinent to our lives today.So how do we find our way out of the darkness? Well, your eye, or perspective, is the lens through which you see life. It’s your perception of reality. Stephen Covey calls it a paradigm. We see life through various paradigms. The academic world and the political world use a word that I like. It is the word “worldview”. What Jesus is saying is, your perspective, your worldview, your perception of reality can be rooted in the truth or it can be rooted in falsehood. And He’s saying if it is rooted in the truth, your life will be full of light, and you’ll be healthy, and have vitality to your life. He says if it is rooted in falsehood, your life will be full of darkness.

Throughout history, one of the intellectual debates that seems to come and go is this question, “Is mankind intrinsically good or is he intrinsically evil or depraved?” In fact, I think it would be interesting to hear the diversity of opinions then we might get from all those listening to this podcast.As we are experiencing many changes in our world today, I think it’s important to understand why our world is so broken. So, I want us to consider this: What is the true condition of man, and is there any hope, particularly for our kids’ generations as we look out into the future?

Was Jesus more than a man in history? Was he just a great moral teacher? Great moral teachers don't make the kind of claims that Jesus made. Was he the Son of God? He claimed to be, so if he isn't actually the Son of God, then he was lying. Whether we believe Christ was the Son of God or whether we don't, or whether we're not sure, I personally believe that every one of us should ask the question, "What is the evidence that would lead me to believe that Christ is the Son of the living God?" Consider that question - is it reasonable? Is it rational for an educated man or woman living in the 21st century to believe a claim such as this? In this talk I will point to four different parts of evidence for you to consider. This is a follow up to last week's podcast episode "The Bible: Truth or Fiction?"

Back around 1984, I came to the conclusion that I had committed my life to a religious faith that had as it's source, a book. The Bible. A book that claimed in fact to be God's divinely inspired revelation to mankind. And though I had discovered personally that it was experientially true. I had to admit that the primary reason I believe that the Bible was God's Word is that, that I'd been told that all my life.Maybe you've experienced that as well. But for me personally, I needed to go deeper. I needed more of an intellectual foundation on why Christians throughout the centuries have staked so much there - even their very lives on the words from a book that claimed to be God's Word. And that's the basis of this message this morning. It is a work in progress because I'm continually refining it.For more on this topic, check out my apologetics book Reliable Truth.

Have you given much thought to the big questions of life: Why am I here? Why do I exist? Author Peter Kreeft observed that, "We are the first civilization that does not know why we exist." Author and pastor Tim Keller says this about our Western culture, "We're the first culture in history where men define themselves solely by performing and achieving in the workplace. And because of this," he says, "in men's lives, there's never been more psychological, social, and emotional pressure out in the workplace as there is today." In the traditional social order, work was seen merely as a functional means of providing for the family and improving the quality of life within the community. In other words, work would not and could not define your life worth and value in a more absolute sense, as it does today.“How relevant is God in my life, and do I get a sense of meaning and purpose from Him in my relationship with Him? Does he impact who I am as a person? Do I really matter to anyone? 

Today I want to discuss the evidence I have found for the existence of God. Christian author Tim Keller said, “Though you may not realize it, how we relate to God, either whether we believe in Him or whether we don’t believe in Him - it is the foundation of your thinking. Because it determines the way you view the world, whether you believe God exists or not, this belief is the foundation in which all of your reasoning proceeds.”I believe that the greatest influence on your world view - the way you see the world - is based on how you see God. Your worldview really informs you about everything; it informs you on on life's biggest questions: Why am I here? How am I supposed to live? How do you find meaning in life? And, what is my ultimate destiny once this life is over?More about this talk can be found in my newest book Reflections on the Existence of God. Read Chapter 1 for FREE - Click Here! 

Today I am going to address a very important question: Is Christianity the only valid religion, or are there other paths to God? As we live in this world full of religions and full of diversity, this question is going to continually come up. Is it true, as some religions teach, that there is one God, but many paths to that God, or is Jesus the ONLY way to God? 

Today I’m going to tackle a very difficult topic - to tackle this in 45-minutes is difficult because of the nature of the content. If you read the book of John, there is a very important word that’s mentioned 27 times. And, yet, when you look at the other gospel books of Matthew and Luke, this word is rarely mentioned. This word is almost exclusively used by Jesus. The word I am referring to is the word TRUTH. In John 8:31-32 Jesus says, “If you continue in My word, then you will truly be My disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Then in John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through Me.”In the Christian life, truth is paramount. When Jesus was speaking the truth with Pilate, Pilate asks Him, “What is truth?” and then walks away as if he doesn't actually want to know how Jesus would respond. In its simplest definition, TRUTH is that which is real and actual. It’s that which conforms to reality. C.S. Lewis said, “Once you embrace Christianity, it's not because it makes you feel good, but because it’s true. Christianity is not a patent medicine. Christianity claims to give an account of facts to tell you what the real universe is like.”