Is Your Christianity Real To You?

Speaker: Dennis Gruening
Date: December 2nd, 2001, Sunday Evening Worship Service
Main Scripture Reference: Various

I’m so very thankful and very appreciative for this opportunity to be here this evening to bring another lesson from God’s Word to you. I have to say that I’m also very privileged, I think, to be able to stand in this pulpit to preach to the members of this congregation who I deeply respect and appreciate for their stand for the Truth, and for the fact that all of you serve, I think, as a wonderful example of the very best things that there in New Testament Christianity.

We’re talking about true Christianity. And that true Christianity is a Bible-based religion. There are many advantages to this—many blessings—not the least of which is that we can know exactly what it is that we must do to become children of God. We can also know, through reliance on God’s Word, what we must do to remain faithful Christians.

There is one potential problem, though, with Bible-based Christianity. Through our reliance on the teachings that are found in the Bible, it is possible for us to become Christians only on an intellectual level, but not on a real level. The question that we must ask ourselves is this: Is our faith based on reality, or is it based only on the level of an intellectual exercise? Is our Christianity REAL to us? And I would ask this question to you: Is YOUR Christianity real to YOU?

The first thing which must be accomplished by anyone who desires to be a child of God is to have a real belief that God exists. Is God real to you, or do you simply accept His existence on an intellectual level? Now, there are many who profess a belief in God Almighty, but who believe that that there is no real way to prove that God exists. In other words, they feel that they must just accept the existence of God by faith, that there is no concrete way of proving that He is. Now, that’s an intellectual belief in God, but it’s a belief that lacks depth.

Now, those who accept the existence of God simply because they want to accept His existence have no real foundation for their religion, and they may be subject to intellectual confusion when that shallow faith is challenged by the so-called “scientists,” who offer “intellectual proof” that the theory of evolution is a better intellectual explanation of the origins of the universe, and of man.

If you want to be a faithful Christian, you must answer the question, “Is God real to you?” We could spend a great deal of time investigating the scientific proofs for the existence of God, and we could indeed prove His existence by these things, but there is another way which is effective in proving that God is real. This proof for God’s existence will not only make God real to us, but will also bring both the Bible and Jesus Christ Himself into that realm of reality.

This proof involves the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth was a real person. He lived in this world some two thousand years ago. There are, however, many “scholars”—and I use the term loosely—who, over the years, have cast doubt upon the reality of Jesus by saying, “Well, He lived too long ago for us to have any way of knowing for certain that He did live on this earth.” The intellectual dishonesty of those kinds of statements should be readily apparent to everyone. These same “scholars” have no problem at all in believing in the existence of many other historical figures who lived far longer ago than Jesus. These who cast doubt on the reality of the life of Jesus of Nazareth have no problem at all in believing in the existence of someone like Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great or Plato or Archimedes or any number of other historical figures, all of whom lived before Jesus was born. In fact, in many cases, there is far less historical evidence for the existence of these other historical figures than there is for the existence of Jesus Christ.

There were many men who wrote prior to, and during the time frame of, the book of Acts, men such as Josephus and Tacitus, whose writings offer contemporary—for that time—proof of the existence of Christ. Unfortunately, we don’t have the time to cover these things which they wrote, and for the purpose of our study this evening, we’ll simply assume that which is the Truth: Jesus of Nazareth was a real person; He was born; He lived and He died—actual facts; solid reality.

Since Jesus did truly live on this earth, how does this enter into a discussion of the reality of the existence of God? By one simple, unalterable fact: Jesus Christ, after having been crucified outside the city of Jerusalem, rose from the dead after three days. In any study of the facts of the story of the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus, several things become very apparent.

Now, we all know this story. We were raised on it. Jesus was crucified; He was taken down from the cross and laid in the newly created tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. The tomb was sealed by rolling a massive stone in place in front of the tomb, and a Roman guard was set at the tomb. This guard, which was changed with fresh guards every six hours, was provided because of the concerns of the Jews who had delivered Jesus to be crucified. Their concern was that since Jesus had openly claimed that He would rise from the grave on the third day, His followers might come to the tomb and steal the body, claiming later that Jesus had risen as He had predicted. The Jews wanted to make sure that this did not happen. The setting of this guard by Pilate would ensure that no one would be able to get anywhere near the tomb of Jesus. By setting this guard, the Jews felt that the followers of Jesus would soon fade away from the scene once they saw that there was no resurrection of Jesus.

Now, that was a pretty smart plan on the part of the Jews if for no other reason than that they had knowledge of the dedication and the effectiveness of the Roman guards. During that time, it was virtually unheard of for any Roman guard to fail in their duties. This was especially true in regard to their remaining awake and alert at their posts. It was a capital offense under Roman military law for any guard to fall asleep at his post. So the Jews were certain that it was impossible for anyone to sneak up to the tomb, roll away that massive and noisy stone, and then steal away a body which had been wrapped and prepared for burial.