Why believe in God?

Do you believe in God?

Why?

Is it because everyone believes?

Maybe you grew up in a family where your parents believed in God.

They took you along to church, just like I've taken my children along to church this morning.

And so you've just always believed that there was a God.

Maybe there was a boy or girl at youth group.

Maybe it was called youth fellowship in those days.

And you started chasing them.

And then you've just found yourself at church since then.

Does anybody want to admit to that?

No? Okay, maybe later.

Why are you in a Christian church?

You know, with worshipping and singing to the Christian God.

You know, the Bible is an old book.

Look, why do you believe what it says about God?

Now these may seem like strange questions to be asked by your pastor.

You know, you might just be expecting me to say,

Shh, don't think too hard about why you believe in God.

Just trust God.

Don't use your brain.

It's dangerous thinking too much.

Just trust me.

It's fine.

Trust me.

Christianity is not just about believing really hard and ignoring the world around us.

Believing in the God of the Bible is not just about closing our eyes to the facts and having blind faith.

I believe that Christianity is rigorous.

It is a deep faith that can be studied and investigated.

There's a famous saying about it that Christianity is shallow enough for a child to swim in,

but also deep enough for an elephant to swim.

But if you believe in God, do you know why?

And if you don't believe in God, do you know why?

You know, I don't know, but you know, if you're in the office or, you know, over coffee or at school or in the playground,

have you ever been asked, why do you believe in God?

Or why don't you believe in God?

Do you have an answer to that question?

Why do you believe in God?

Is it possible that we haven't actually thought hard about what we believe in God?

Maybe we thought about it years ago and we have just grown and matured with many assumptions.

This season in church, we are looking at the foundational beliefs of Christianity.

We're looking at a statement called the Apostles' Creed.

This morning after we sang, as we stayed standing, we said this thing called the Apostles' Creed.

You may be familiar with it because here at St. Paul's, we regularly declare that we believe this expression of who God is.

Now, this creed dates back to about 300-400 AD.

It wasn't written by the apostles,

but it does reflect the early church's desire to express and summarise the faith given by the apostles.

The Apostles' Creed is short.

I'm not sure if you've thought of it being short,

but there's many other creeds that are much longer.

The Apostles' Creed is fairly short.

It doesn't contain everything that we believe, but it is a great summary.

It instructs and guides and defends what we believe.

Now, Wendy, if you can pull up the creed that we had earlier,

there's this repetition in the creed.

It starts with, I believe in God.

Skip over to the part about Jesus.

I believe in Jesus.

And then to the Holy Spirit.

I believe in the Holy Spirit.

Thank you, Wendy.

It's this repetition throughout the Apostles' Creed that we believe in something.

We believe that there is a God.

We believe that there is a being who is so powerful that he could make the entire universe,

that he is the judge, that he sustains everything.

And today we're going to investigate whether there is any reason we should believe in a God.

So first we're going to question why we should believe at all.

And then we're going to be questioning about, well, why should we believe in the Christian God?

So have your Bibles open.

We're going to start in Romans 1, which Adrian read for us earlier.

Starting in Romans 1, Paul, the Apostle, has sent a letter to the Roman church

and he is talking about how God has revealed himself to all people.

So from Romans 1, verse 18.

Romans 1:18

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people

who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

since what may be known about God is plain to them,

because God has made it plain to them.

For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities,

his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen,

being understood from what has been made,

so that people are without excuse.

So Paul is talking about this phenomenon called general revelation,

where God has revealed himself in a general way to all people on the earth that have ever existed.

God has revealed himself to everyone, not specifically, but generally.

Paul can say that just by looking at the world around us,

you can be convinced that there is a God.

God has made it plain to us.

And he points to the creation of the world which shows God's power.

And so as we consider this world that there is,

we're going to see at least four reasons.

There's four clues for us to believe that there is a God.

Now this morning, this is a little bit of a different sermon.

We're going to look at some science and some philosophy

before we spend a little bit more time in the Bible.

A little bit different.

Go with me.

I know it's early, but you'll cope, I'm sure.

We're going to look at four clues that there is a God.

The first being the Big Bang.

The second is that there are perfect conditions for life on this planet.

The third reason to believe that there is a God is that there is beauty.

And the fourth is that we have morals.

There are many more than these four,

but these are just the ones I'm going to briefly be touching on this morning.

I'd encourage you to read this book that my wife is going to pick up and hold for me

because I forgot to bring it up.

It should just be on the floor or next to you somewhere.

There it is.

Thank you, Lulu.

This book that you might be able to see over there,

it's called The Reason for God by a man called Tim Keller.

He is a pastor in New York.

And that's a really helpful book to dive deeper into this, if you would like.

So we're going to see these four clues.

The first of all, the first one is the Big Bang.

And this really is questioning, well, why is there anything?

Why is there something?

Why is there anything physical?

Where did the sandstone, is this sandstone?

Is this sandstone?

Does anybody know?

Is this actual sandstone?

No, it's not.

I'm getting conflicting evidence.

Oh, okay.

It's fake.

Okay.

Where does whatever this is come from?

Well, certainly it wasn't mined out of a quarry because it's not real sandstone.

But where do any of these things around us that we see come from?

Well, maybe they were in the ground originally,

but where does that ground come from?

Where does this planet come from?

Stephen Hawking, the scientist, wrote, and I should have these quotes on the screen.

Thank you, Wendy.

That almost everyone now believes that the universe and time itself had a beginning at the Big Bang.

Stephen Hawking is making this big claim that everything came from something.

And so something sparked.

There was a point where suddenly everything was and it flew through the universe that had now just been created

and cooled and crashed together and became the origin of everything.

Another scientist, a man by the name of Francis Collins, questions the origins of that Big Bang.

He wrote,

We have this very solid conclusion that the universe had an origin, the Big Bang.

15 billion years ago, the universe began with an unimaginably bright flash of energy from an infinitesimally small point.

That implies that before that, there was nothing.

I can't imagine how nature, in this case the universe, could have created itself.

And the very fact that universe had a beginning implies that someone was able to begin it.

Something had to make the Big Bang happen.

It had to be outside of nature, outside of the physical reality.

Parents know this.

If you've ever had a mess in your house and you've come in and there's several children there and you see the mess,

you will say, where did this mess come from?

And these children are very convinced at this point that the Big Bang created itself

because they will say, I have no idea.

This mess just appeared.

It wasn't me.

And it certainly was not my sibling.

It just created itself.

This is the first clue that there is a God because something must come from somewhere.

The second clue to believe that there is a God is that on this life, on this planet that was created,

there is a situation for life to flourish.

You know, the universe is here, there's planets.

But to have the right conditions for life to exist is incredibly specific.

For organic life to exist, there must be so many things perfectly right.

The speed of light has to be right.

The sun has to be the exact right distance away from the earth,

although it feels that over the last couple of days we've moved several hundred thousand meters closer.

But we haven't melted into a puddle.

And we're not too far that we are too cold.

Gravity has to be constant so that it's not changing,

so that in one point we're not being dragged down to the earth and then at another point floating off.

We have the right amount of atmospheric pressure around us for liquid to be on the surface of the earth.

We have the right ingredients.

We have the mix of heavy elements and organic molecules for life.

We have the right mixture on our planet of water and land so that we have both continents and oceans.

Again, Stephen Hawking concludes,

the odds against a universe like ours emerging out of the Big Bang are enormous.

I think there are clearly religious implications.

And then elsewhere he says,

it would be very difficult to explain why the universe would have begun in just this way,

except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us.

It is as if this planet was created for human life.

This is the second clue.

The first clue is that something came out of nothing.

It must have been created.

And this something has defied all the odds to actually be a place that could sustain life.

Now, so far, the clues that we've seen to believe in a God have been scientific.

Others will suggest that it is all just random.

There are millions of planets in all of the galaxies.

The one we are on just happens to have the right conditions.

If there is no God and all of this is an accident,

you know, we are accidents and there is no purpose for anything.

Belief in God is just a way for humans to survive and pass on our DNA to others.

The question then is, what about beauty?

What about our emotions and love?

Are they just chemical reactions in our brains and nothing else?

So, is love real at all?

You know, when I look at my wife,

I missed you then, I was looking at Nick.

He's not my wife.

He's lovely.

He's beauty itself.

That's fine.

But when I look at my wife, am I feeling anything real?

Do I have any love for her and my kids?

Or is it just chemicals in my brain tricking me

so that I have children and pass on my DNA

to further our species?

Is there really no special significance to my wife and my kids?

All of us experience some form of art,

some ideas as profoundly beautiful.

They are a mixture of desire and a sense of longing.

Now, some argue that beauty has its origin in practical things.

You know, the need to display ourselves to attract a mate like a...

What's the bird that does that with the big...

I was going to say pelican, but it's not that one.

A peacock.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Am I just peacocking up here?

Is that all that beauty is?

It's just to find a mate.

But when we find something beautiful,

it is often not functional.

But because it reflects the one who made it.

It's a recognition that the world around us was made good,

but it has been corrupted.

Ugliness is not inherent,

but just as Paul said in Romans 1,

God's invisible qualities are seen in his creation.

His goodness and desire to have us enjoy beauty

is for the sake of beauty.

I have not chosen to find the sunrise beautiful

because it helps me in any particular way,

but because it reflects the one who made it.

People in politics often talk about the pub test.

Have you heard of the pub test?

The pub test is just our gut feel.

What do people...

What does a random group of people think?

They talk about the pub test when it talks to politicians.

Oh, you know, this guy's policy fails the pub test

because it just doesn't follow common sense.

I don't think that thinking about beauty

from just an evolutionary standpoint

passes the pub test.

I don't think...

I'm not happy just to say that everything I do

and the way I love my wife

and the way I find beauty,

and, you know, you look at these stained glass windows

and you think they're beautiful,

or the way I love my children,

I don't think that that could just be chemical reactions.

I don't think it passes our experience.

Those we love are more than what our brain

could be tricked into doing.

I think this is the third clue

that there is something beyond the physical,

that there is beauty that we find

which can't just be connected to evolution.

The fourth reason, the fourth clue

to believe that there is a God

is that we have morals.

We give humans dignity

and we fight for human rights.

But where do our beliefs

about what is right and wrong come from?

Have they just evolved with humans

and are now about taking care of the community?

All human beings have moral feelings.

We call it a conscience.

When we consider doing an act

that we think would be wrong,

something in our brain,

something in the way we are made,

will encourage us to refrain.

It doesn't mean we always do it,

but we have an inbuilt sense

of what is right and what is wrong.

But these standards also sit outside of us.

So 1939, when the Nazis went to war,

when they were killing Jews,

they didn't think there was a problem.

They didn't think there was a moral issue.

They actually thought it was morally right

to do that.

Everybody else, however,

seemed to have an issue.

You know, England,

the United States,

Australia,

didn't just sit back and go,

well, your morals are fine for you,

you have created that system

of what is right,

you do that.

We went, no, no, no, no.

It is not right to kill a person

just because of their ethnicity.

And so World War II happened.

We don't care if they felt

there was a problem with us

enforcing our morals on someone else.

Morals sit outside of us

and a war was fought.

Evolutionists would argue

that morals have helped

to help us take care of our own

so that our species continues.

But when I walk past a person

who is not from my community,

say a homeless person,

who is not from my community,

I feel an obligation to help them,

a moral obligation.

Even though it is not going to help me

or the continuation of my community,

those who are outside,

I still feel an obligation.

In evolutionary biology,

they speak of the violence

inherent in it.

If a species is to survive,

it is only because it will

kill other species.

Violence in nature

is totally natural.

And so why isn't it okay

for strong humans

to kill weak humans?

It seems disgusting

to even suggest that.

If the world was made by

a God of peace

and justice

and love,

then that is how we know

that violence

and oppression

and hate are wrong.

If you believe in human rights,

then it makes so much more sense

to believe that there is a God

who He has created us

in His image,

in His beauty

and that is why we

are valuable.

This is the fourth clue

that there is a God,

that we consider humans

of more worth than animals.

Now,

I've only briefly touched

on all of these.

Please,

talk to me later

if you want to look at these.

Get Tim Keller's

The Reason for God

to investigate these.

But maybe the Big Bang

caused itself to happen.

Maybe we're just in a world

that won the lottery

when it came to odds

and it's just

really convenient

that this world

had the right conditions

for life.

Maybe beauty

is meaningless.

Maybe morals

aren't a good enough reason.

But all of these

are questions

that we have

to wrestle with.

I think it actually

takes more faith

to believe against these.

People often say,

I wish I had

your faith

to believe in God.

I wish I had

as much faith as you.

I just don't have

that kind of faith.

I wish I could believe

in God like you

but I just don't have

that much faith.

I actually think

it takes more faith.

I think it's a bigger

leap of faith

to believe that

something could come

from nothing.

I believe that

it's not consistent

with everything

we see around us.

It's still a really

big leap of faith

to think that the earth

just so happens

to have all the exact

conditions for life

to flourish and function

just by pure chance.

I think that's a really

big leap to take.

It's a big leap of faith

to think that beauty

and morals

are part of an

evolutionary advantage.

Believing that there

is a God

takes less faith

than believing

there is not.

I think there is

more reason

to believe in God

just by looking

around the world

as Paul said to us

in Romans 1.

Instead of the Christian

closing their eyes

to science

and just being

a blind faith

I believe it's

the opposite.

I believe that all

the evidence

points to a God.

But that is just

an argument

to believe in a God.

Why should we believe

in the Christian God?

First of all

it's really helpful

that God has

revealed himself.

Jesus came

to make this

unknown God

known.

We see God

revealing himself

throughout the Old Testament

but then he reveals

himself fully

in Jesus.

The God who created

the universe

the one who

made this planet

with the right conditions

to live

the one who made

beauty

the one who made

morals

who made us

in his image

Jesus came

to make this God

known.

Now we're going

to read from

John 14

John 14:1

verse 1

and it seems

I've forgotten

everything this morning

I left my book

down here

I left my last

couple pages

of my sermon

down here

Thank you

Lulu

Lulu's trying

to read it

for me

So please

we're going

to read from

John 14

John 14:1

verse 1 and 2

Do not let

your hearts

be troubled

You believe

in God

believe also

in me

My father's

house has

many rooms

if that were

not so

I would have

told you

I was going

to prepare

a place

for you

So Jesus

has been

with God

for eternity

He says

that he is

going to

prepare God's

place

his house

which has

many rooms

he must

have been

there

Jesus

must have

been at

God's

side

to know

what it

was like

and this

is why

Jesus

repeatedly

calls God

his father

he has

a unique

relationship

with him

he has

known him

for eternity

and has

come to

reveal him

to us

and Jesus

makes this

really exclusive

claim

in verse 6

of John 14

Jesus answered

I am

the way

and the truth

and the life

no one

comes to the

father

except through

me

if you

really know

me

you will

know

my father

as well

from now

on

you do

know

you do

know him

and have

seen him

I typed

that up

wrong

Jesus

is the

way

the truth

and the

life

now you

might

remember

this

from Sunday

school

this is

one of

those

Bible

verses

that stick

in our

heads

Jesus

is the

way

the

truth

and

the

life

but

Jesus

is

the

truth

because

he

is

the

ultimate

revelation

of God

himself

he is

God's

word

made

flesh

words

are how

we

communicate

ourselves

you know

me

you know

the things

that I

like

and my

preference

because

I speak

you can

know

what I

like

what I

don't

like

you can

know

my

character

whether I

speak the

truth

or I

speak

lies

whether I

put down

other

people

you can

know me

by my

words

and this

is who

God is

Jesus

is

God's

word

and that

helps us

that

reveals him

to us

we know

who God

is because

he has

spoken to

us

in

Jesus

he speaks

and reveals

himself to

us

in Jesus

and now

Jesus is

not just

the way

to God

he doesn't

say follow

me I

know where

God is

come and

follow me

and I'll

take you

to him

he says

I am

the way

itself

he is

the way

not a

way

he is

the only

way

to God

so if

we ignore

Jesus

we ignore

God

you can't

know

God

if you

don't

know

Jesus

we can

see all

of those

reasons

that we've

seen before

we can

look at

all those

clues

that there

is a

God

behind

this

universe

but unless

we believe

in Jesus

we won't

know

the God

who has

made it

you can't

know God

if you

don't know

Jesus

he has

spoken

and made

himself

known

now

at this

point

you might

be

thinking

why

should

we care

about

Jesus

even

if

there

is

a

God

why

should

I

care

about

Jesus

who

lived

2000

years

ago

and I

think

that's

a really

good

question

that's

a really

valid

question

and all

of this

hangs on

one part

of the

Bible

one part

of the

story

it's

called

the

resurrection

Jesus

God

himself

came

to make

his

father

known

to

us

brutally

murdered

on a

cross

placed

into

a

tomb

and was

dead

killed

by the

Roman

experts

in

killing

three days

later

he was

alive

what do

we do

with this

how do

we account

for this

if

Jesus

was really

raised from

the dead

then you

have to

accept

what he

said

if he

wasn't

raised from

the dead

then you

can ignore

him

and you

can see

these clues

that there

is a

God

and just

think

oh

that's

interesting

there must

be a

God

but if

Jesus

was

raised

from

the

dead

it

proves

that

he

is

the

revelation

of

God

and

that

God

is

the

one

who

has

made

the

universe

and

made

us

Jesus

was

placed

into

a

tomb

and yet

this

tomb

was

found

empty

and

Jesus

was

seen

by

hundreds

of

people

after

his

death

if

the

resurrection

happened

it

means

there

is

hope

we

are

not

just

accidents

on a

universal

scale

maybe

you

say

just

an

accident

but

you

know

I

still

love

you

we

are

not

accidents

if

the

resurrection

happened

we

are

not

just

ants

lucky

to

be

living

on

the

only

rock

in

the

universe

that

could

hold

us

if

Jesus

was

raised

from

the

dead

then

it

means

that

there

is

a

God

who

designed

this

whole

universe

to

contain

life

that

even

though

this

life

us

humans

would

try

and live

without

our

creator

he

would

enter

into

it

himself

taking

on

human

forms

suffering

humility

weakness

and death

so he

could

redeem

his

people

if

Jesus

was

raised

from

the

dead

then

it

means

that

God

has

made

us

like

him

one

that

delights

in

beauty

a

people

made

to

love

like

their

creator

and

if

Jesus

was

raised

from

the

dead

it

means

that

God

values

us

he

has

made

us

have

higher

dignity

than

animals

that

humans

should

be

protected

and

preserved

because

we

have

a

God

who

loves

us

believing

that

there

is

a

God

is

the

best

way

to

understand

this

universe

around

us

and

believing

that

the

Christian

God

also

makes

the

most

sense

of

who

Jesus

is

he

is

God's

word

come

to

reveal

God

so

that

we

could

know

him

pray

with

me

heavenly

father

we

thank

you

so

much

that

you

have

indeed

spoken

to

us

that

even

though

we

could

see

the

world

around

us

and

be

convinced

of

you

that

we

don't

have

to

question

and

wonder

and

ask

who

you

are

that

you

have

made

yourself

known

that

you

have

spoken

to

in

Jesus

heavenly

father

we

ask

that

you

would

convince

us

of

this

that

when

we

are

asked

why

do

you

believe

in

a

God

we

can

answer

with

full

confidence

that

you

exist

father

we may

have

doubts

we may

continue

to have

doubts

but we

thank you

that there

is

so much

evidence

father

we

thank you

that

having

faith

in

you

is

not

irrational

but it

does

make

the

most

sense

of

the

way

you

have

made

this

universe

father

we

thank

you

for

the

gift

of

faith

that

we

can

believe

in

you

please

make

us

like

you

make

us

to

love

other

people

make

us

to

love

beauty

but

not

abuse

beauty

and

father

we

ask

that

you

would

grow

us

knowing

and

loving

you

each

day

that

we

live

until

we

see

you

and

we

ask

this

in

your

son's

name

amen