Defending Your Faith #1

Kim and I have been part of a lot of different churches over the years. Different sizes, different denominations, high church, low church, churches that met in cathedrals, chapels, metal buildings, cafeterias, houses, apartments and gyms. All of them were made up of people who for some reason or other wanted to come together with other Christians in a church setting. There was always some kind of preaching or teaching from the Bible, some singing, prayer and other worship activities.

Some of the congregations were made up of people who really knew their Bibles. They could have meaningful conversations about theology, the implications their faith has for how to view culture, politics, entertainment, relationships, and anything else. Other congregations were mostly made up of people who only had the most basic knowledge (or interest) in those kinds of things. They would say they were Christian but what they knew about the Bible didn’t get much beyond John 3:16 and Psalm 23. Sometimes this was because they were new to the faith, but most of the time it was because they weren’t really that interested.

Ever since I was a teenager, I wanted to go into ministry so I could spend as much of my life as possible helping people see their need for Jesus. I wasn’t brought up in the church, or in the faith. I wanted to tell people like me and my family that they need to be saved from a false view of God and a false view of themselves. Without faith in Jesus, life is meaningless and cruel. Hopeless. To not only show people that there’s no hope of eternal life outside of Jesus, but there’s no intellectual hope of making sense out of the human existence. 

I’ve met very few Christians who really understand that. 

Most of the church people I’ve known over the years have their faith so compartmentalized from the rest of their life, that they barely see how it’s supposed to make any difference in the world. Not surprisingly, they DON’T make much of a difference in the world.

Add to that the fact that many of the Christians who do know their Bible and theology either keep it to themselves—because they don’t want to argue with people—or they like arguing too much. They push people away from the truth with anger and cruelty. 

Last month Kim and I spent a couple days in Galveston, there was a guy who thought it was a good idea to stand at a busy intersection with a sign that said, “Homosexual sex is sin.” Why did he think that was a good idea? What good could possibly come of it? Does he think some homosexual who doesn’t know anything about the love and grace of Jesus is going to see his sign and think, “Oh, Christians think what I’m doing with my life is sin, I should probably just stop being gay. I’m so thankful to that kind and brave man who gave up his afternoon to set me straight.” Ridiculous. Not helpful at all. It only pushes people further from God.

Now, I haven’t known too many people with literal, “stand on the street corner” obnoxious signs. But I’ve known way too many Christians who are quick to throw Bible verses at people like hand grenades. Ready to throw down at the first indication that someone might have an opinion that doesn’t line up with Scripture. I’ll admit, I’ve been that guy too often, myself.

The majority of Christians Kim and I have known over the years are either too aggressive or too passive. They either know their Bibles and want to shove them down people’s throats, or they don’t know that much about doctrine and theology so they keep their faith to themselves.

Which one do you tend to be?

The key verse for this series is 1 Peter 3:15.

“In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”

So, in your “hearts,” meaning your thoughts, your feelings, the very center of who you are—honor Christ the Lord as holy. Keep His name holy. In your thoughts and your words and your actions—in everything you do and say—keep the name of Jesus holy. Like when you pray, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name—holy be Thy name.” Live a life that is so different from the world of unbelievers, that at school and work and at home and everywhere you go, you stand out as a person who begs these questions:

Why do you have hope when everything looks so hopeless? What makes you able to face all the madness of the world with that attitude? Everyone else is biting everyone’s head off. Everyone else is tearing everyone down. Everyone else is freaking out about which lives matter, whether global warming is caused by something we’re doing wrong, to mask or not to mask, Trump or Biden, do my kids have a future, is this all there is to life? But There's something different about you. You’ve got something else going on. What is it? 

What is the hope you’ve got that everyone else seems to be missing out on?

And then, when they ask, you’re prepared to give an answer, a defence, a reason for the hope you have—the faith you have—but you do it how?

With arrogance and condescension? With sarcasm and impatience? With anger and petty character attacks? With a side of snark?

No. God says to do it “With gentleness and respect.”

When you’re asked to defend your faith, you have to be ready. And you have to be prepared to do it gently and respectfully.

Why is it important? You need to realize it’s the only thing that’s important.

When I started NewChurch, I did it for one reason. I wanted to build a local church that wasn’t just playing church. I wanted it to be someplace real. Someplace where people who believed in Jesus but were tired of all the religious games people were playing at other churches could come and be part of something different. Someplace real. I wanted it to be a place where people who were hurt by other religious people could come for healing and have a chance to start over with people who understand grace and mercy. I wanted it to be a place where people learned how to follow Jesus—people who are serious about learning what it means to be a disciple, a disciplined student of the Christian faith. 

Most importantly, I wanted NewChurch to be a place where a local church gathered and were trained to have conversations with people outside the church about what hope in Jesus looks like. 

So I thought, where do these kind of conversations happen? Life changing, raw, honest, “get down to the meaning of life” conversations happen?

They don’t usually happen at church. 

They usually happen over a meal with a friend. Or sharing a cup or a pint. Usually late at night when our defenses are down.

So I thought, why not have a church that meets at a restaurant or bar? Someplace that could be open all week long, then gather for worship in the same space on Sundays. That’s what we’ve been trying to do since day one at NewChurch. We want to grow, save up a little money, and get our own place so we can have a restaurant/pub with space for us to meet on Sunday. The rest of the week we want to be a place where people eat and drink together—a place to have those real, honest conversations about life and faith.

Meanwhile, I have to wonder—are we ready? Are we prepared to give an answer for the hope that’s within us? Are we ready to sit down with confused and misguided people—prepared to give a defense for our faith? Without getting defensive? Without getting angry?

When they bring up the typical criticisms that people outside the church have against Christianity, will you know what to say? Not to win the argument, but to overcome their objections and invite them in.

We need to be. This is what God has called NewChurch to be. A church on the frontlines, making disciples, defending our faith—not the kind of church that shows up now and then to play some religious game. A church that knows the Bible and theology and doctrine, but isn’t content to horde those treasures for ourselves. Instead, we need to be a church that loves people, a church that loves the truth and is armed with the truth.

Much of America has lost its faith. People used to talk of the US as being a Christian nation, then some people talked of it being a post-Christian nation. When we look at the upcoming generation, a generation mostly brought up outside the church by parents who only have the most basic understanding of theology and doctrine, if they have any understanding at all—we can almost think of this next generation as pre-Christian. It’s almost like we’re starting over again in first century Rome. Except, unlike Rome who had never heard of Jesus, we have a civilization full of people who think He’s a joke. Or worse. A lot of people think having faith in Jesus is a bad thing, a weakness, something dangerous even.

In the early years of the church, just after Jesus had risen from the dead and told His followers to go into all the world making disciples, the days when the New Testament was being written, we have a lot of examples where they had to defend their faith.

On the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, Peter stands up and defends his faith in Jesus to a hostile crowd of Jews in Jerusalem. He explained how the Messiah had to be crucified, he even said they were the ones that did it,

“you nailed him to a cross and killed him” but then he said “But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip!” “

“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” Acts 2:36

In Acts 9, the newly converted Saul, a guy who had dedicated his life to crushing Christianity and killing followers of Jesus—he started preaching about Jesus and defending his newfound faith. Verse 22 says,

“Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.” 

The book of Acts is pretty much a record of people defending their faith, debating with people, and changing the world. Saul was an educated Jew who knew his Bible but he was also a Roman citizen who was educated in all the philosophies of the Greeks and Romans. The first part of his ministry was to Jews, and he defended his faith using the Old Testament and the history of Israel. But the second half of the book of Acts focuses on his ministry to non-Jews. To the Romans and Greeks—and there’s a big change in how he approaches ministry to people who didn’t know theology and Scripture. First, he started using his Roman name instead of his Jewish name. He had dual citizenship, that’s why he stopped going by Saul and started going by Paul. That was his legal Roman name. He also started making his appeal by pointing out cracks in the Greek and Roman worldview before he pointed them to God the Creator and Jesus the Lord and Savior.

In Acts 17, Paul is in Athens and it says,

“he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there. He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers ”telling them about Jesus and his resurrection.” [Acts 17:16–18]

They had trouble tracking with him, they thought it sounded like crazy talk, until he built a bridge to their worldview by talking about The Unknown God. They had so many gods, and idols and altars and statues—Paul said,

“I see that you are very religious, you even have a statue for the god you don’t know about.”

He said that’s the God he’s trying to tell them about. Jesus is the God you didn’t know about.

“He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.” Acts 17:24–25

See, that’s how it’s done. That’s Christ Kwon Do. That’s how you defend your faith.

You have to find the crack in the person’s belief system, their worldview, and you use that crack to point them to faith in Jesus. And if their belief system isn’t based on the God of the Bible who was ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ, then I assure you, there’s going to be a gapping crack in their worldview. There is no truth outside of truth that has God as the foundation. Anything that’s true is based on God’s truth. Unbelievers have to borrow from the Christian worldview or they won’t be able to make sense out of the human experience at all.

They don’t know that, of course, that’s why Jesus sent us into the world to tell them.

All truth is Christ’s truth. Everything from logic, science, and justice to morality, love, compassion and human dignity—it all has its foundation in God’s truth. I’ve known very few Christians who really get this—the only worldview that provides the philosophical framework that’s needed for reasoning and knowledge in any field is the worldview that Jesus gave us in His life and teaching. All truth is Christ’s truth. All truth is subject to Him, and anything we think might be true must be tested against what He has told us. Like it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

If the universe is just a random, constantly changing collection of atoms and chaos, if the human mind is just a bunch of chemicals and electrical charges, if there is no God behind it, no Creator, no purposeful design—then there is no meaning. No hope. Love is just an illusion, sparks and chemicals. Compassion and empathy is nothing but a distraction from survival in this violent, chaotic smashing of random material and flesh and bone. Even survival itself is futile. What’s the point? No one can live like that. No one can live and laugh and love and hope in that empty void of darkness. 

To make sense out of life, they have to build their worldview on borrowed concepts. They have to believe in human dignity, love, purpose, logic—a consistent universe. Those things only exist in a world that was created by a God who made people in His image and has a plan and purpose for their lives. Reality only makes sense when it’s understood through the lens of Christian faith. 

I’m going to need your help if we’re going to be the church God has called us to be. I can’t do it by myself. The world needs Jesus. People desperately need to put their faith in Him before they burn everything down in acts of misguided stupidity. Most Christians aren’t able to help us, they don’t know enough about what they believe or how to defend their faith. 

Of course, to defend faith, we have to have faith to defend.

Maybe these words have pierced your heart. Maybe you’re wondering what you should do. This is how Peter finished his message to the believers in the 2nd chapter of Acts: he said,

“Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!” Acts 2:38–40 

Homework Over the next few weeks, we’re going to spend our time together learning how to defend our faith, why it’s important, what we need to do to be ready, and some practical ways to actually do it. Here’s an exercise that I’d like us all to do over the next week: notice all the times that people who don’t confess to be Christians have to borrow from a worldview that believes in love, human dignity, compassion, justice and all the things that only make sense if there is a loving God who created us. Notice them when you’re watching TV, movies, reading, even political promises—and then email them to me at frank@frankhart.com.

I want you to open your eyes and see the cracks in the very weak foundations of the people who don’t believe in Jesus.

I’ll end with this paraphrase of Phillipians 1:7, 16:

You share with me the special favor of God because of Jesus, both in ... defending and confirming the truth of the Gospel … I have been appointed to defend the faith. So have you. AMEN