This is the Introduction to the Sermon. You will receive the full manuscript sermon in Word format when you purchase.
Title: “Jesus and the Skeptics”
Series: ENCOUNTERING JESUS
Are you ever asked any really tough questions? I get them all the time. Awhile back, comedian George Carlin asked some tough questions:
*If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him ... is he still wrong?
*If the "black box" flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn't the whole airplane made out of that stuff?
*Why is there an expiration date on sour cream? [end of illustration.]
Now the questions thrown at Jesus were much tougher and very cleverly thought out. The guys that Jesus was constantly up against were some tough cookies. For the most part, they were a group of religious intellectuals that were always questioning His every move. It seemed every time He did something good, this elitist, intellectually superior group of religious leaders called it into question. They never had a good word to say about someone who was giving sight to the blind, casting demons out of troubled people, helping the lame to walk, and feeding those who were hungry.
In their close encounter with Jesus we’re looking at today, we find that they have several questions that they want to ask Him, tough questions that they think will trip Him up. They had one purpose in mind – they wanted to discredit Him and get Him in hot water with the authorities so that he could be killed. They pulled together their best thinkers and asked Him a series of questions in an effort to discredit his ministry in one of two ways – either lower the opinion that the people had of Him or get Him in trouble with the Roman authorities. This Final Week encounter shows the hatred of Jesus by those who had the most to lose.