9/22/13   DESIGN FOR LIFE - Jesus IS The Answer

QUESTIONS

    People ask questions.  Some are silly.  There are also great questions in life.  Great questions help us to learn.  We also need to ask questions of people who can give us good answers.
    What are some of the great questions of life? Let’s look.
Young Atheists Respect Christian Conviction
    The Christian scholar Larry Taunton interviewed students who belong to atheistic campus groups. He and his team heard a consistent theme from these young unbelievers: they often expected but didn’t find more spiritual depth from their Christian neighbors. Larry writes:
    Some [of these young atheists] had gone to church hoping to find answers to [tough questions about faith]. Others hoped to find answers to questions of personal significance, purpose, and ethics. Serious-minded, they often concluded that church services were largely shallow, harmless, and ultimately irrelevant. As Ben, an engineering major at the University of Texas, so bluntly put it: “I really started to get bored with church.”
    In contrast, these young atheists expressed their respect for those ministers who took the Bible seriously. Larry writes,
    Without fail, our former church-attending students expressed [positive] feelings for those Christians who unashamedly embraced biblical teaching. Michael, a political science major at Dartmouth, told us, “I really can’t consider a Christian a good, moral person if he isn’t trying to convert me …. Christianity is something that if you really believed it, it would change your life and you would want to change [the lives] of others. I haven’t seen too much  of that.”
Larry Alex Taunton, “Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity,” The Atlantic (6-6-13)
    That is a very challenging statement.
    Another story:
Actors Distance Themselves from Christian Upbringing
    Both Brad Pitt and Hugh Jackman grew up in Christian homes and both have since distanced themselves from their faith. Here’s how Brad Pitt described his spiritual journey:
    I found [my Christian upbringing] very stifling. I always had a lot of questions about the world, even in kindergarten. A big question to me was fairness. If I’d grown up in some other religion, would I get the same shot at heaven as a Christian has? When I got untethered from the comfort of religion, it wasn’t a loss of faith for me; it was a discovery of self. I had faith that I’m capable enough to handle any situation. There’s peace in understanding that I have only one life, here and now, and I’m responsible.
    Hugh Jackman grew up in “a deeply religious family, his parents having been converted . . . by Billy Graham.” In a 2013 interview: “I was involved with so many things in the church. It was my social group. It was where I met girls. It was sort of my life out of school. Then around 16 or 17, I started questioning. ‘How come all these nonbelievers are going to hell?’”
    “Today, [Jackman] is not particularly religious and says he never prays, though he believes in some form of God and afterlife and meditates twice daily for 30 minutes.” Jackman said, “It is about quieting that part of the brain and just seeing and being.”
Matt Woodley, managing editor, PreachingToday.com; sources: Fox 411 Entertainment Blog, “Brad Pitt says Christian upbringing was ‘stifling,’” (5-17-11); Stephen Galloway, “Hugh Jackman on His Surprising Hollywood BFF’'s and His Mother’s Abandonment,” The Hollywood Reporter (2-13-13)
    There are many great questions.  Sadly, when people don’t get good answers, they often go the complete opposite of believing God and His Word.  The same questions are asked by many different people.  They get proud and think they can solve all of life’s issues by themselves.
    Remember one of the things we talked about last week: people need the Lord.  That is still true.  We see an illustration of that in this passage.
    One night, many years ago, a very learned man went to a teacher to ask what he felt was life’s most important question.
John 3:1-3 NKJV
1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
    Having observed Jesus’ life and teachings, Nicodemus went to Jesus to ask for help in life.  I believe that he basically came to Jesus and said: Jesus, what is it that I need most in life?  What am I missing?  What will make my life complete?
    In His response, Jesus covered one of the foundational teachings and principles of the Christian faith: regeneration. Without being born again a person cannot become part of God’s family. People need spiritual renewal to be saved and have God’s gift of eternal life that Jesus bought and paid for on the cross.
    Let’s look at this term: Regeneration.
--Regeneration: new birth.  This is God’s work in the heart of a person who believes in Jesus, making Him their Lord and Savior.
The work of the Holy Spirit in the soul of a person, formerly dead in trespasses and sin, is created new in Jesus unto righteousness.
--A new creation
--Made alive to a life of holiness
    Picture the new life that comes in the spring time when all, that seemed dead, is brought back to new life.  This is the work of God to make us new.  We were made in the image of God, His highest creation, and sin destroyed that life and we walked in sin and death.
Titus 3:3-7 NKJV
3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
    Jesus told Nicodemus that to have eternal life in God’s kingdom, he must be born again.  The Bible clearly teaches that people must undergo a spiritual re-creation, new birth, to have a personal relationship with God or have eternal life.
    This thought of being born again is echoed in I Peter.  It tells us we have purified our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.  Then we learn:
1 Peter 1:23 NKJV
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
    Our new life came through God’s gift. And, that is what we must be living and experiencing -- new life.
    What are we now?
Ephesians 2:1 NKJV
1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
    We were dead.  Now we really know what life is.  Obviously Paul did not mean physical death but instead  referred to our spiritual condition. Sin has left the human race spiritually dead, incapable of responding to God. Nevertheless, regeneration resurrects our spiritual capacity so that we can enter in to a relationship with God.
    The spiritual birth Jesus shared with Nicodemus is essential because all, apart from Jesus, are sinful by nature.  They are separated from and opposing God.  With our own efforts, we are not able to have a personal relationship with God.  We require the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit.  We have no human power to obey and please God.  Some verses:
Psalm 51:1-5 NKJV
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight-- That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Romans 8:7-8 NKJV
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
    Salvation, being born again, involves a complete change from our old lifestyle of sin in rebellion against God to a new life of obedience.
II Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Ephesians 4:23-24 NKJV
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Colossians 3:10 NKJV
10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
Documentary Asks, What Is Truth?
    The Nature of Existence is a documentary that asks and attempts to answer some of life’s biggest questions. One  segment is on truth. One scene begins with the word truth on the screen and a drawing of a man with his fingers crossed behind his back as if he is concealing something. The narrator asks questions:
    Narrator: Can you define the word truth?
    Unnamed man: No, I think it’s like pornography. You know it when you see it.
    Hindu cleric:  By worshiping God you can find the truth.
Tao cleric: Anything that runs counter to Tao will not be truth.
    Narrator: What is truth?
    Bobby Gaylor, musician: What people don’t want to hear.
    Alan F. Segal, professor of religion, Columbia University: When somebody claims to know the truth, and claims to be able to tell it to you, the first thing you should do is check to see if you still have your watch, because that’s the prelude to getting taken.
    Jim Murphy, champion drag racer: I’ve had a pretty messed up childhood, and God gave me the faith of a small child. I totally believe. It’s all in my heart. I know my knower knows there’s a God, and he’s in charge of everything. I just know that. To me that’s faith.
    Julia Sweeney, author, Letting Go of God: In science, you don’t use words like truth. You say, “Closer to truth.”
    Irvin Kershner, director, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: Only art comes close to trying to answer truth.
The Nature of Existence, DVD, directed by Roger Nygard, 2010, chapter 23: “Truth,” 33:44 - 36:11
    When Nicodemus brought his questions to Jesus, he got the right answers.
Discussion -- LIFE APPLICATION: The Next Step
DESIGN FOR LIFE
What questions are people asking about life?
What are the key points of this message?
How can we apply this message?