WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.780 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:20.760 that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:25.179 by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for 00:00:25.179 --> 00:00:31.519 us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:37.939 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really, 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:42.579 I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible, 00:00:43.239 --> 00:00:48.760 they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:54.560 do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:59.340 non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't 00:00:59.340 --> 00:01:04.680 hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:07.780 types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:08.820 --> 00:01:14.820 We're going to pray for ourselves and for Alan as he prepares to speak to us. Welcome, brother. 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:22.520 Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks and praise that there are many Muslims in this city, 00:01:22.519 --> 00:01:29.399 and many of us probably know Muslims. We give you thanks and praise that you have put us in proximity 00:01:29.399 --> 00:01:35.759 to them, and we ask that you grant us opportunities that we might tell them about Jesus. I ask, Father, 00:01:35.899 --> 00:01:41.479 for the anointing of your Holy Spirit upon this, our brother Alan, as he opens your Word and helps us 00:01:41.479 --> 00:01:47.519 to understand the gospel and the whole counsel of God better, and as he gives us some coaching and 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:56.579 encouragement as to ways to enter into good faith, friendly conversations with our Muslim friends 00:01:56.579 --> 00:02:02.399 about the gospel. And so, Father, we ask that you would bless Alan as he speaks and bless us as we 00:02:02.399 --> 00:02:08.379 listen. And we ask all of these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. 00:02:08.379 --> 00:02:10.579 Amen. Welcome, brother. Thank you, brother. 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:27.560 Well, good morning. My parents were born in the city of Baghdad, which is in the country of Iraq, 00:02:27.859 --> 00:02:32.500 which, by the way, if you're looking for a warmer vacation destination, I don't recommend you go there. 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:38.500 Things aren't quite settled there just yet. Maybe hold off for another, I don't know, 2,000 years, 00:02:38.759 --> 00:02:44.520 and things will get a little better. But my parents did not raise my brother and I as Muslims. 00:02:44.919 --> 00:02:51.560 Rather, they raised us as Christians. And the reason is, is because my people, my ethnic background, 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:58.780 is called a Syrian. Now, this is not to be confused with Syrian, which is a reference to the country in 00:02:58.780 --> 00:03:05.060 the Middle East that exists today. Those people are Syrians. I am from Assyria, which is a country 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:12.479 that has not existed for 2,700 years. Now, just out of curiosity, raise your hand if you've ever heard 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:17.580 of the Assyrian people at some point in your life. Yeah, looks like a lot of you have. Chances are, 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:23.520 if you've read any parts of the Old Testament, you'll recall the Assyrians, my people, are talked a lot 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:29.580 about in the Old Testament. Which sounds kind of cool, until you realize we were the sworn enemies 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:35.700 of Israel. So, consequently, that made us the sworn enemies of God. So, that was kind of a bummer growing 00:03:35.700 --> 00:03:41.400 up and kind of finding that out as you get older. But with therapy and counseling, I got over it. I'm 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:47.560 very comfortable in my skin today. So, be of good cheer. I'm comfortable today. All right. But enough 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:53.160 about my problems. Let's talk specifically about the nature of Islam and how we're supposed to reach 00:03:53.159 --> 00:04:00.300 out to Muslims that we might know as friends or family members, in fact. I remember when I first 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:05.300 started witnessing to Muslims, I thought to myself, well, I need to find some Muslims to start talking 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:10.759 to. That's probably the best way to get started. I was living in Los Angeles, and I knew of a very 00:04:10.759 --> 00:04:16.399 significant neighborhood that had a large population of Muslims. So, I thought to myself, all right, let's 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:21.100 go there. So, I drove to the neighborhood. I'm driving around. I'm looking for some Muslims to talk to. 00:04:21.100 --> 00:04:27.600 And I see this kind of mall area with a bunch of stores and restaurants. And the font that the 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:33.620 restaurants were using had this sort of like Arabic script kind of font. And I thought to myself, well, 00:04:33.700 --> 00:04:39.740 this must be the right place. So, I parked my car. I got out, started walking around. And I see these 00:04:39.740 --> 00:04:45.520 two guys that had a dark complexion, kind of looked like me. So, I'm like racially profiling them. And I'm 00:04:45.520 --> 00:04:50.460 like, oh, they must be Muslims, right? So, they're about to walk into a restaurant. And I ran up to the 00:04:50.459 --> 00:04:54.759 door. And I put my hand in the door. I said, excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you. I said, are you guys 00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:59.959 Muslims? And they kind of looked at each other a little bit hesitant and apprehensive. Like, why is 00:04:59.959 --> 00:05:05.219 some random person asking us this? But they eventually said, yeah, we're Muslims. Why? I said, oh, great. 00:05:05.479 --> 00:05:12.359 I said, hey, I'm a Christian. Would you like to talk about God and Jesus and the Bible? And they said, 00:05:12.459 --> 00:05:17.979 to my surprise, sure. Hey, why don't you come inside and sit down with us as we eat? I'm like, whoa, 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:24.180 that's great. That's really easy. Okay. So, we sit down. And for hours, we talked about God and Jesus 00:05:24.180 --> 00:05:29.960 and the Bible. And of course, we didn't agree on a whole bunch of things. But actually, the conversation 00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:37.120 was quite vigorous. And we went on for hours and had actually a really good time. Now, I want you to 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:44.700 think about this. As I got up to pay for my part of the meal, and I pulled out some money, they saw that. 00:05:44.699 --> 00:05:50.219 And they said, no, no, stop. Put away your money. They said, your money's not good here. We insist 00:05:50.219 --> 00:05:59.819 on paying for your meal. Now, imagine had I gone to an average, typical, sort of U.S. mall, 00:06:00.399 --> 00:06:05.740 and walked up to two average Americans and said to them the same thing. Hey, I'm a Christian. Would you 00:06:05.740 --> 00:06:11.360 like to talk about God and Jesus and the Bible? What do you think they'd say? Yeah. No would be the 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:15.759 nicest thing they'd say. It's more like, get lost, freak. Like, no, we don't want to talk about Jesus. 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:21.720 Like, get away from us, right? But see, this tells us something about Muslims. They actually love to talk 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:29.280 about God and Jesus and the Bible. And so, starting a conversation with a Muslim about religion or faith 00:06:29.280 --> 00:06:37.460 or God is like starting a conversation with Elon Musk about Tesla or SpaceX, right? I mean, if you just 00:06:37.459 --> 00:06:45.139 started the conversation, it would go. It's virtually effortless. And so, I'm thinking we have this wide 00:06:45.139 --> 00:06:52.599 open opportunity to talk to a massive group of people who are perfectly comfortable talking about 00:06:52.599 --> 00:06:59.139 faith and religion. And by the way, it turns out there are a whole bunch of Muslims to talk to. In fact, 00:06:59.500 --> 00:07:04.659 although this isn't a picture of every Muslim on the earth, this is a picture of Mecca, Saudi Arabia 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:09.760 during one of their gatherings. And it kind of shows, you know, all these little dots are people, 00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:15.640 by the way. It just shows the magnitude of this gathering alone. But we estimate that there are 00:07:15.640 --> 00:07:23.460 probably about 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. And when you think of the general world population, 00:07:24.320 --> 00:07:32.080 what that means is almost one in four people on the planet is a Muslim. Almost one in four. That's a lot 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:41.539 of Muslims. And when you consider a more sobering statistic, based on our best sort of demographic 00:07:41.539 --> 00:07:48.699 data, based on the rates of death in various countries, we estimate that every single day, 00:07:48.819 --> 00:07:59.079 about 40,273 Muslims die and enter eternity without Jesus. Over 40,000 Muslims die every single day and 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:04.699 enter eternity without Christ. So the question then becomes, okay, well, with those kinds of numbers, 00:08:04.899 --> 00:08:09.979 right, and with the fact that Muslims aren't just in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, they're all over the planet, 00:08:10.219 --> 00:08:15.959 and of course, they're in Ottawa as well, what should be our approach as we consider how we could reach 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:22.680 our Muslim neighbor? And fortunately, the scripture passage that we looked at just now helps actually 00:08:22.680 --> 00:08:29.240 answer this very question. And as you recall, as we looked at this passage, the Bible identifies us as 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:36.799 ambassadors for Christ. Which means if you're here this morning and you profess to be a follower of 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:44.700 Jesus, then you already are an ambassador for Christ. So that's not a title that's given to you after 00:08:44.700 --> 00:08:50.700 you've been a Christian for 20, 40, 60 years, and then we say, okay, well, now let's pin the blue ribbon 00:08:50.700 --> 00:08:58.320 upon your chest. You are now an ambassador. No. The instant you step over the line and decide to follow 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:05.660 Jesus, you become his ambassador and you become his representative. And that means however you come 00:09:05.660 --> 00:09:11.640 across to other people, all the things that you say and that you do ultimately is a reflection upon the 00:09:11.640 --> 00:09:18.800 good name of Jesus. And so a key question every one of us must ask ourselves is, well, what kind of ambassador 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:26.259 am I like? Am I an effective ambassador or am I an ineffective ambassador? Because regardless of 00:09:26.259 --> 00:09:32.299 which one you are, you are saying something about your king. But now the second thing that this passage 00:09:32.299 --> 00:09:38.319 here tells us is about the nature of our mission, right? So Paul tells us our identity. We're ambassadors 00:09:38.319 --> 00:09:43.319 for Christ. But notice what word is repeated three times in this passage. In fact, four if you consider the 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:50.600 passage we read during our scripture reading. And the word is reconcile or reconciliation. Now, the idea of 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:57.780 reconciliation is to bring together two parties that are at enmity with one another. And if you consider 00:09:57.780 --> 00:10:05.620 the fact that the Bible paints a picture of God and the world, and these two parties are at enmity with 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:13.240 one another. However, Paul, writing to the Corinthian believers says, you, however, have been reconciled to 00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:18.659 God. You've been made at peace with God. You are no longer an enemy of God, but you are now a friend of 00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:26.259 God. And since you have been reconciled to God, it is now your mission to proclaim that same message of 00:10:26.259 --> 00:10:33.600 reconciliation to the rest of the world. And so notice your identity is an ambassador for Jesus, 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:38.279 and your mission is to proclaim the message of reconciliation. The question then becomes, 00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:45.680 how do we fulfill that mission and that role when it comes to Islam? And I submit to you, the answer is 00:10:45.680 --> 00:10:53.840 exactly the way an ambassador would do it. Like a political ambassador, right? What do political 00:10:53.840 --> 00:11:02.519 ambassadors typically do? Two things. They learn, and then they engage. They learn about the people group 00:11:02.519 --> 00:11:08.079 they're going to go reach, and then they go and engage that people group. And so what I want to do 00:11:08.079 --> 00:11:13.279 here in my comments this morning is help you to do both. Learn something about Islam, and actually give 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:19.519 you some tactics to be able to engage Muslims. And in fact, I want to give you an overall strategy of how 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:27.360 I engage Muslims, and specifically address the most common objection you will run across when talking to 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:34.560 a Muslim. All right, so before we get to that overall strategy, let me just give you four background pieces 00:11:34.560 --> 00:11:42.720 of information about Islam that are relevant for you to understand so that it makes better sense why this 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:50.240 tactic is effective and why it works. Now, you may already know that in order to be a good Muslim, you're 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:57.720 supposed to practice certain behaviors. These are known as the five pillars of Islam. And these pillars 00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:04.539 are reciting a creed, they are prayer, they are fasting, they are giving alms, and they're going on a 00:12:04.539 --> 00:12:09.519 pilgrimage. Now, I don't want to spend too much time on that. These are just sort of religious practices 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:14.879 of Islam. You could probably Google them if you wanted to learn more about them. I'm more interested in 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:20.439 another aspect of Islamic faith, which is not necessarily the behaviors of Muslims, but rather 00:12:20.439 --> 00:12:27.639 the doctrinal positions they must adopt. So the behaviors of the five pillars of Islam, but the 00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:35.779 doctrinal positions that they must adopt are called the six articles of faith. And I want to make aware 00:12:35.779 --> 00:12:42.100 to you just four of them that are relevant for this specific tactic and strategy that I want you to 00:12:42.100 --> 00:12:50.080 understand. So the first significant article of faith that's important for you to understand is the 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:58.379 belief in the angels of Allah. Now, according to Islam, Allah has created angels. These angels do not 00:12:58.379 --> 00:13:06.720 have free will. They simply obey Allah and they administrate his kingdom. In fact, according to Islam, there are 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:12.980 two angels that follow each and every one of you throughout your entire life. One angel keeps track 00:13:12.980 --> 00:13:20.600 of all your good deeds, and another angel keeps track of all your bad deeds. Okay, so as my Gen X, I'm sorry, 00:13:20.680 --> 00:13:26.040 my Gen Z kids would say, that's mad sus that these angels are like following you all around throughout 00:13:26.040 --> 00:13:33.740 your whole life, right? Kind of creepy. But that's what Islam teaches. A second required belief in Islam 00:13:33.740 --> 00:13:42.960 is the belief in the prophets of Allah. Now, according to Islam, Allah has commissioned 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:48.600 different prophets throughout every human civilization. So every people group throughout 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:56.340 all of humanity has received some prophet who is a human being that was commissioned by Allah to receive 00:13:56.340 --> 00:14:02.620 revelation and proclaim the truth. And what's interesting is that a lot of people who are in the Bible 00:14:02.620 --> 00:14:09.879 are identified as prophets of Allah. So for example, Adam is considered to be a prophet of Allah. 00:14:10.840 --> 00:14:19.840 Moses is a prophet of Allah. David is a prophet of Allah. And most significantly, Jesus is identified 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:27.519 in the Quran as a prophet of Allah. And of course, not surprising, Muhammad also is a prophet of Allah. 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:33.819 Okay. Now, I put photo not available, not because I don't have an image or depiction of Muhammad. 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:42.019 I do. But as you probably know, it is wildly unpopular and politically incorrect to show images 00:14:42.019 --> 00:14:48.600 of Muhammad. And since, you know, many Muslims come to my presentations and sit, there's no need for me to 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:55.500 unnecessarily offend Muslims. Although interestingly, it was Muslims who first started creating artwork and 00:14:55.500 --> 00:15:00.960 images of Muhammad back in the 12th century. And they actually created lots of them. And some of them 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:07.039 are still hanging in museums around the world. But obviously, it has since fallen out of favor, 00:15:07.179 --> 00:15:12.679 according to Islam, for fear of idolatry and out of respect for prophets. Technically, they don't like me 00:15:12.679 --> 00:15:18.220 to show any images of any prophets. But they usually let me get away with, you know, showing pictures of 00:15:18.220 --> 00:15:26.100 Jesus and others. Anyways, the point here I'm trying to make is this. Belief in Jesus is a required 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:34.720 doctrine in Islam. Now, it's important to understand, their Jesus is not the same as the biblical or true 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:43.200 Jesus. Okay. According to Islam, Jesus is not part of the Trinity or the Son of God. And in fact, in the 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:51.379 Quran, it specifically teaches against this. Islam believes in what's called Tawheed, which is this 00:15:51.379 --> 00:16:00.340 form of monotheism that says there is one God, but this one God exists as one person. And so, they are 00:16:00.340 --> 00:16:06.500 vigorously anti-Trinitarian. In fact, to deny the doctrine that there is one God who exists as one 00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:12.759 person is to commit the most grievous sin in Islam. That's called the sin of shirk. It's an unpardonable sin. 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:19.480 Meaning, if you believe and attribute divinity to, say, Jesus or the Holy Spirit, you've committed 00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:25.780 that unpardonable sin called the sin of shirk. And if you die not having repented of it, you're 00:16:25.780 --> 00:16:32.320 guaranteed to go to hell. No questions asked. You know, do not pass go, do not collect 200, go directly 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:37.680 to hell, right? Anybody play Monopoly here? No? Okay. Maybe you recognize that reference. Okay. That's right. 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:45.120 Bad joke. All right. So, notice, in Islam, they don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God, part of the 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:52.279 Trinity. They also deny the crucifixion of Jesus. And that's because the Quran says he was not crucified, 00:16:52.699 --> 00:16:57.799 but rather he was made to appear as if he was crucified. And of course, if Jesus wasn't crucified, 00:16:58.099 --> 00:17:03.199 then he couldn't have been resurrected. And if he didn't get crucified and rise again, he can't atone for 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:13.539 sins. So, on the Islamic and false view of Jesus, Jesus is merely a human being who was commissioned 00:17:13.539 --> 00:17:21.160 to be a prophet. Just like we would say Moses was merely a human being who was commissioned to be a 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:27.080 prophet. And just like Muslims would say Muhammad is merely a human being who was commissioned to be a 00:17:27.079 --> 00:17:35.659 prophet. Now, despite this lower Christology that they have about Jesus, it's still rather interesting 00:17:35.659 --> 00:17:44.139 when you read the Quran to see what does the Quran say about Jesus. In fact, Jesus is the most referenced 00:17:44.139 --> 00:17:52.240 person in all of the Quran. 187 references to Jesus in the Quran compared to about 25 about Muhammad. 00:17:52.240 --> 00:18:00.059 And when you read the Quran, what you notice is the Quran has a very, very high view of Jesus. 00:18:00.759 --> 00:18:06.200 According to the Quran, his birth was announced by angels. And in fact, I have a citation there, 00:18:06.299 --> 00:18:13.099 Surah 3. The word surah just means chapter. So, chapter 3, verses 44 through 45 is where you'd find this. 00:18:14.019 --> 00:18:20.160 The Quran also affirms that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. The Quran teaches that Jesus 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:27.840 was able to perform miracles like heal sick people and raise the dead. The Quran affirms that Jesus 00:18:27.840 --> 00:18:35.320 lived a sinless and perfect life. The Quran even calls Jesus the Messiah. And according to the Quran, 00:18:35.880 --> 00:18:42.779 Jesus at the end of his life was taken up to be in the presence of Allah and he's the one who's 00:18:42.779 --> 00:18:52.379 appointed to come back at the end of time to kill the Antichrist, to break all the crosses, and to kill all the pigs. 00:18:54.139 --> 00:18:59.899 So, no more bacon wrapped filet mignon at that point, which would be a big bummer because bacon wrapped filet mignon is amazing, 00:19:00.299 --> 00:19:07.160 amazing food, right? Very tender filet, right? You can cut it almost like a butter knife, right? Filet is so tender. 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:12.759 But filet doesn't sometimes always have as much flavor as you want, but if you wrap it in bacon, 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:18.120 it adds some, you know, fatty flavor, which is great. Okay. That's not going away because, remember, 00:19:18.259 --> 00:19:25.740 this is Islamic theology. Islamic theology is false, right? Now, this is rather significant that the 00:19:25.740 --> 00:19:32.640 Quran itself affirms this about Jesus. But what's even more interesting is when you contrast with what 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:39.320 it says about Jesus with what it says about Muhammad. According to the Quran, there was no announcement 00:19:39.320 --> 00:19:45.920 of Muhammad's birth, right? He had a very ordinary birth. The Quran does not affirm any kind of miraculous 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:52.380 events to Muhammad. It doesn't say he was sinless. It doesn't call him the Messiah. And according to the 00:19:52.380 --> 00:19:59.600 Quran, Muhammad has been dead and buried in Saudi Arabia for the last 1400 years, and he's not the 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:07.359 appointed one to return. So what this tells me is that I, as a Christian, have tremendous freedom 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:15.339 to talk about Jesus with my Muslim friends and neighbors, right? Why? Because the Quran, which is 00:20:15.339 --> 00:20:23.619 the highest authority in Islam, speaks volumes about Jesus and has a very high view of who Jesus is. 00:20:23.619 --> 00:20:32.779 So this is also a key doctrinal position that Muslims must affirm about Jesus. So they must believe in 00:20:32.779 --> 00:20:37.739 Allah's angels. They must believe in the prophets of Allah. They also must believe, and here's another 00:20:37.739 --> 00:20:43.599 article of faith that Muslims must affirm, they also must believe in the final judgment. 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:53.579 And according to this doctrine, at the end of time, every human being will be resurrected and judged 00:20:53.579 --> 00:20:59.319 according to their deeds, okay? And so all the good and bad deeds are going to be brought upon 00:20:59.319 --> 00:21:04.339 and put onto a scale. And by the way, how do we know what good and bad deeds you have? 00:21:04.339 --> 00:21:09.480 Those angels, that's right, those angels that have been following your whole life, right, they will 00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:14.039 bring the deeds forth, they'll put them on a scale, and if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, 00:21:14.159 --> 00:21:18.539 you go to heaven. If your, I'm sorry, if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, you go to heaven. 00:21:18.639 --> 00:21:25.480 If your bad deeds outweigh your good deeds, you go to hell. So they have a meritorious based system 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:33.299 of salvation. It's based on merit. It's based on deeds, on what you do, right? Quite contrary to the 00:21:33.299 --> 00:21:38.519 gospel of Jesus Christ, which is based on grace and nothing that we can do ourselves. 00:21:40.039 --> 00:21:45.779 So this is, again, another required doctrinal position Muslims must affirm. And the fourth one 00:21:45.779 --> 00:21:53.139 that I want you to become aware of before I unpack this tactic is the belief in the books of Allah. 00:21:53.759 --> 00:22:02.639 Now, the Quran identifies four divine revelations that are from Allah, and it identifies them by name. 00:22:03.299 --> 00:22:10.500 All right? The first one, of course, is the Quran. So the Quran refers to itself as a divine revelation 00:22:10.500 --> 00:22:18.059 that is, that is from, of course, from Allah, and given to which prophet in Islam? Tell me out loud. 00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:27.859 Muhammad, exactly. The Quran also identifies the Torah as a true revelation on par with the Quran given 00:22:27.859 --> 00:22:35.959 to which prophet? Moses. That's right. The Psalms is also named in the Quran as a true revelation on par with the Quran 00:22:35.959 --> 00:22:44.419 given to which prophet? David. And then finally, the gospel is identified as a true revelation on par with the Quran 00:22:44.419 --> 00:22:50.939 given to which prophet? Jesus. Right. Now, I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute, Alan. 00:22:50.940 --> 00:22:58.019 Then, how could it be that Muslims are required to believe in the books of Allah? And one of those books 00:22:58.019 --> 00:23:04.220 is called the gospel. And, of course, if you think of the gospels, right, in the New Testament, 00:23:04.779 --> 00:23:10.059 they claim that Jesus was the Son of God, right? He makes a reference, and he says, I and the Father are one. 00:23:10.500 --> 00:23:17.039 The gospels affirm the death and crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, right? All of these things 00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:26.240 which Muslims, or I should say, what Islam denies. So, does anyone here know how do Muslims reconcile 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:30.839 the claim from the Quran, their highest authority, that the gospel is a true revelation, 00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:38.420 and yet deny all these aspects of what the gospels teach? That's right. It's corrupted. So, 00:23:39.420 --> 00:23:45.859 the number one objection that you will hear from a Muslim is that the gospel, and I'm not going to 00:23:45.859 --> 00:23:50.099 address the Torah and Psalms as much right now, because the gospel, I think, is most pertinent for 00:23:50.099 --> 00:23:56.419 our purposes to share the gospel. But the number one objection you will hear from a Muslim when you're 00:23:56.419 --> 00:24:00.139 talking to them about faith and religion, or if you're trying to share the gospel, is that they'll say 00:24:00.139 --> 00:24:08.439 the gospel is corrupted. Either Christians intentionally change the gospel, or as a result of their 00:24:08.440 --> 00:24:15.559 irresponsibility allowed it to become corrupted. Either way, what the gospels say is not accurate. 00:24:16.360 --> 00:24:21.660 It's got the words of Allah and the words of humans mixed in together, and we don't know which is which, 00:24:21.980 --> 00:24:27.840 so we can't trust it. Now, not only is this the most common objection we'll run across when talking 00:24:27.840 --> 00:24:34.580 to a Muslim, it's also the most serious objection. Because where are the words of Jesus and his message 00:24:34.579 --> 00:24:40.240 of reconciliation found? The gospels, right? But that's the very source of authority the Muslim's 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:44.839 going to say, uh-uh, you got to take that off the table when we're having a conversation, because that 00:24:44.839 --> 00:24:52.980 has become corrupted. All right, well, with that said, I want to tell you how to overcome that objection, 00:24:52.980 --> 00:24:59.159 because unless you address this objection, you are not going to go very far in your ability to share 00:24:59.160 --> 00:25:05.220 the gospel with the Muslim friend or neighbor. Because virtually every conversation with the 00:25:05.220 --> 00:25:10.940 Muslim at some point comes down to just one issue, and that one issue is authority. 00:25:12.620 --> 00:25:19.300 Muslims claim the Quran is the authoritative word of Allah. We would say, no, that's not the case. 00:25:19.560 --> 00:25:23.460 The Bible is, and specifically in this case, we want to share the gospel is the authority. 00:25:23.460 --> 00:25:29.500 And so you have to reconcile this issue. You have to deal with the issue of authority. 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:34.819 And here's what I've discovered in talking to Muslims for now over 15 or 20 years, 00:25:35.259 --> 00:25:44.579 is that there is a distinction between what many Muslims say and what Islam teaches. Meaning, 00:25:44.860 --> 00:25:50.319 there's a distinction between what Muslims say and what authoritative sources in Islam teach. 00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:58.319 And although Muslims will say the gospel is corrupted, it turns out that their highest authority, 00:25:58.779 --> 00:26:05.700 the Quran, teaches the opposite, that the gospel is a trustworthy revelation from Allah. 00:26:06.839 --> 00:26:17.159 And let me show you what this looks like. It turns out that the gospel, I'm sorry, the Quran affirms 00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:25.320 three things about the gospel. The first thing is this. The Quran affirms that the gospel is a divine 00:26:25.320 --> 00:26:31.800 revelation of Allah. And I have just three or so verses in the Quran cited here. There are actually 00:26:31.800 --> 00:26:36.960 probably a dozen. So I just want you to know that these statements I'm going to be making are not from 00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:43.360 some esoteric verse here that's maybe taken out of context and misinterpreted. Like, this is the plain 00:26:43.359 --> 00:26:49.979 teaching of the entire corpus of the document of the Quran. Okay? So the number one, the Quran affirms 00:26:49.979 --> 00:26:57.519 that gospel is a divine revelation of Allah. Number two, the Quran affirms that the gospel was available 00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:05.839 to be read in the 7th century when Muhammad was around and talking about Islam. Okay? Christians could read 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:12.539 it. Muslims could read it. It was available. And the third thing that the Quran affirms about the gospel 00:27:12.539 --> 00:27:19.659 is that the gospel is authoritative, which means it should be believed and obeyed. 00:27:21.119 --> 00:27:29.220 Now, if this is true, if what I'm saying here is accurate based on these verses, this is a monumental 00:27:29.220 --> 00:27:37.600 and very significant truth because now we have the highest authority in Islam affirming something 00:27:37.600 --> 00:27:43.900 about the gospel, which is that it is trustworthy and should be believed. And so here's kind of the 00:27:43.900 --> 00:27:54.779 logic of this approach. Notice, whatever the Quran affirms, Muslims must affirm. Right? Because remember, 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:58.500 the Quran is the highest authority in Islam. So whatever it says, Muslims must affirm. 00:27:58.500 --> 00:28:07.980 Premise two, the Quran affirms that the gospel is uncorrupted. Therefore, conclusion, therefore, 00:28:08.140 --> 00:28:14.599 Muslims must affirm the gospel is uncorrupted. So there's two premises there and then a conclusion. 00:28:15.140 --> 00:28:20.759 And for those of you who are into philosophy or logic, just so you know, this is what you call a valid 00:28:20.759 --> 00:28:28.319 deductive argument, which means if premise one is true and premise two is true, 00:28:28.500 --> 00:28:36.460 then the conclusion, the last sentence logically follows by necessity. It must be true. Now, which 00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:44.680 premise one or two is the one that the Muslims are most likely to reject? Two. That's right. No Muslim 00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:49.839 will reject one because of course, if the Quran says something, they must affirm it. Okay, well, it turns out 00:28:49.839 --> 00:28:53.339 that I've given you some citations, although I'm going to unpack it here in just a second, 00:28:53.339 --> 00:29:01.299 to show you that the Quran affirms that the gospel is uncorrupted. Now, although I had like probably, 00:29:01.299 --> 00:29:06.039 I don't know, nine or ten citations, that's a lot of numbers for you to remember in citations. 00:29:06.039 --> 00:29:13.159 Here's the thing. If you just remember one specific citation, surah 5, 46-47, 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:21.079 it turns out that this one passage incorporates all three points in these two verses. 00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:30.740 All right? So surah 5, verses 46-47. So chapter 5, verses 46-47, and I guess I had some color coding 00:29:30.740 --> 00:29:36.679 here, but I guess it didn't come through, but I think we can still do it. So, 00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:47.940 yeah, okay. So, this passage has all three points, right? So, let's take a look at what it says here. 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:56.299 Starting at the top, and we sent, and by the way, the we sent is a reference to a law. So, 00:29:56.340 --> 00:29:59.940 it's kind of the royal we don't think like, oh, is that the Trinity? That's not at all what's meant 00:29:59.940 --> 00:30:04.860 there. It's just a royal we. So, and we sent. So, Allah sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, 00:30:04.859 --> 00:30:11.279 the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah, and we gave him, meaning Jesus, 00:30:11.439 --> 00:30:18.179 the gospel. Okay? So, there's a claim where Jesus is given the gospel. So, it's coming from Allah. 00:30:18.959 --> 00:30:25.079 So, there's a claim that the gospel is a divine revelation. Then it says, the gospel in which was 00:30:25.079 --> 00:30:31.179 a guidance and light in confirming that which preceded it. So, there you have the claim that the 00:30:31.180 --> 00:30:38.539 gospel is authoritative. It's being described as a guidance and light. It is a guide for people to 00:30:38.539 --> 00:30:45.759 follow, and it provides a light for the truth. Why would Allah call the gospel a guide and a light 00:30:45.759 --> 00:30:52.160 if it was corrupted? That makes absolutely no sense. The only reason the Quran is saying this is because 00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:58.980 it presumes that the gospel is uncorrupted and trustworthy. Otherwise, why call it a guidance and light? 00:30:58.980 --> 00:31:06.519 It continues. So, which is a guidance and light confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as 00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:10.960 a guidance and instruction for the righteous. So, by the way, there, notice the Torah is also described 00:31:10.960 --> 00:31:18.720 as a guidance and light. And it says, and let the people of the gospel judge by what Allah has revealed 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:25.940 therein. Now, the phrase people of the gospel is a reference to Christians at the time. So, notice what 00:31:25.940 --> 00:31:31.279 the Quran is saying. Hey, you Christians, you should judge by what Allah has revealed in your gospel. 00:31:32.220 --> 00:31:38.039 Well, the only way the Christians could do that is if it existed with them in their hands at that time 00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:42.539 in the 7th century. And of course, we know it did because the gospels were produced in the 1st century. 00:31:42.680 --> 00:31:49.720 So, if it's still around 500 years or 600 years later, that's not a big surprise, right? So, notice the 00:31:49.720 --> 00:31:54.880 Quran is presuming that the gospel exists and is available to be read there at the time. 00:31:56.279 --> 00:32:00.700 It finally says, whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, then it is those who are 00:32:00.700 --> 00:32:08.180 defiantly disobedient. Again, another reference to the command by the Quran to consider the gospel 00:32:08.180 --> 00:32:13.680 authoritative because you're supposed to judge your life according to the gospel. And if you don't, 00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:20.700 you're disobeying. Well, why would the Quran say that if the gospel is corrupted? It wouldn't 00:32:20.700 --> 00:32:27.580 because the gospel was never corrupted in the 7th century when this was written. So, notice this 00:32:27.580 --> 00:32:35.900 one passage composed of two verses makes the claim that the Quran, I'm sorry, the Quran claims that the 00:32:35.900 --> 00:32:42.000 gospel is a divine revelation of Allah available in the 7th century to be read and is authoritative, 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:49.359 meaning it should be believed and obeyed. So, I like to have this, I have this citation memorized, 00:32:49.720 --> 00:32:55.619 and those other verses that I had for those other, for those three points, I just kind of keep on my 00:32:55.619 --> 00:33:00.279 cell phone written down so that if I'm in a conversation, I can just highlight them and show 00:33:00.279 --> 00:33:08.079 them to my Muslim friend when I'm talking to them, okay? I mean, it's just a quick thought experiment. 00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:15.339 If there were a Muslim, and I know this isn't going to happen, but if there was a Muslim who had never 00:33:15.339 --> 00:33:23.980 read the Quran, who had never heard the Bible or of Christianity, and had never been biased by a Muslim 00:33:23.980 --> 00:33:30.799 scholar or imam, and that Muslim was given the Quran to read from beginning to end, and then asked 00:33:30.799 --> 00:33:38.619 afterwards, tell me, what do you think the Quran says about the gospel? The only conclusion he would walk away 00:33:38.619 --> 00:33:44.879 with is, oh, the gospel seems to be this wonderful divine revelation that is a guidance and light, it's revered 00:33:44.879 --> 00:33:50.399 and honored, it's a wonderful thing that tells the truth from Allah. That's the only conclusion they would walk away 00:33:50.399 --> 00:33:57.599 with. Because the highest authority in Islam, that's what it teaches. It's only through Muslim culture has this idea 00:33:57.599 --> 00:34:04.199 that the gospel has become corrupted developed. It's just a cultural belief. In fact, through studying 00:34:04.199 --> 00:34:10.000 Islam, I discovered that for the first 400 years of Islam, there wasn't a single Muslim scholar, including 00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:15.699 Muhammad himself, who ever claimed the gospel was corrupted. No one ever did. It wasn't until the start 00:34:15.699 --> 00:34:20.599 of the Crusades that we saw the claim of the Bible being corrupted start to pop up. 00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:30.360 So, the Quran affirms that in the 7th century, the gospel was uncorrupted. Now, a Muslim might say, 00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:35.219 well, maybe it was uncorrupted then, but what about now? Hasn't it changed from the 7th century to now? 00:34:35.400 --> 00:34:41.159 Well, of course, we know that's not the case, because although copies have been made of the 00:34:41.159 --> 00:34:46.480 Quran, I'm sorry, of the gospel and the Bible from the first century all the way to today, 00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:53.820 and the Quran comes around in 632 AD and says, no, no, no, it was uncorrupted. We actually have copies 00:34:53.820 --> 00:35:03.559 of the entire Bible from the 4th century, so nearly, you know, 200 or so years before the Muslims 00:35:03.559 --> 00:35:09.280 came around, before the Quran came around, before Muhammad ever spoke. We have copies of the entire 00:35:09.280 --> 00:35:14.320 Bible. Now, there are some sections missing, but the gospels are all there. The New Testament's almost 00:35:14.320 --> 00:35:20.820 complete. And we can compare these earlier manuscripts of the Bible, these codices of the 00:35:20.820 --> 00:35:27.039 Bible, to today's Bibles, and they're virtually identical. Why? Because the transmission has been 00:35:27.039 --> 00:35:36.380 so perfectly preserved. And so, if nothing's changed since before the Quran to now, with regards to the 00:35:36.380 --> 00:35:41.840 gospel integrity, then if the gospel, if the Quran comes around in the 7th century and says, oh yeah, 00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:47.480 it was not corrupted, then nothing's changed even since the 7th century to today. So, Muslims can know, 00:35:47.600 --> 00:35:54.059 yeah, nothing's changed in the last 1400 years, therefore, we can know that nothing's changed in 00:35:54.059 --> 00:36:04.400 the gospel either. Okay, so, you know, I started using this tactic back in 2010. When I first started 00:36:04.400 --> 00:36:09.180 going to a maximum security state prison, I used to do ministry in this prison, and there's lots of 00:36:09.179 --> 00:36:13.839 Christians and Muslims that are in this prison. And so, I used to go and equip the Christians how to 00:36:13.839 --> 00:36:19.699 reach the Muslims there. I use it even, this is a picture from just last summer. I take Christians to 00:36:19.699 --> 00:36:27.359 mosques on a regular basis. This is 70, about 70 high school Christians. I will call up a mosque and say, 00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:31.919 hey, I would like to bring 70 high school Christians to your mosque tomorrow. Is that okay? 00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:38.720 Okay, I've been doing this for like 15 years. They always say yes. So, we go there. We watch their 00:36:38.720 --> 00:36:45.579 service. Then, we go up to a room upstairs in the mosque. We invite these top Islamic scholar there 00:36:45.579 --> 00:36:50.940 to give us a message and encourage us to convert to Islam. And then, we ask them questions, right? 00:36:51.180 --> 00:36:57.280 And of course, what we notice is the Islamic scholar always claims the Bible's corrupted. But of course, 00:36:57.280 --> 00:37:02.960 I've spent two days training these students how to understand this objection, how to respond to it. 00:37:02.980 --> 00:37:07.720 And of course, they're able to respond and just gently push back. And we've been doing this for 00:37:07.720 --> 00:37:13.800 years. And we have such a great relationship with this mosque and many others around the country because 00:37:13.800 --> 00:37:21.460 we are always conducting ourselves as ambassadors, right? Yes, we're engaging them, but we're doing it in 00:37:21.460 --> 00:37:27.240 a gracious, loving way because we remember we represent Christ in everything we do. So, we want to 00:37:27.239 --> 00:37:35.019 come across as winsome and gracious. All right, let me just close with my overall strategy 00:37:35.019 --> 00:37:41.039 and in terms of how I incorporate this tactic in my overall strategy when I talk to Muslims. 00:37:42.739 --> 00:37:49.699 When I have a chance to talk to a Muslim, I want to ask them one key question. And this key question 00:37:49.699 --> 00:37:56.239 is important because it can help me get to sharing the gospel in under 60 seconds. And here's the key 00:37:56.239 --> 00:38:03.039 question as you see it. My question is this, are you 100% sure you're going to heaven? 00:38:04.379 --> 00:38:10.079 Now, notice I don't ask them, are you confident or are you, do you think so? I say, are you 100% 00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:18.000 confident? Now, what do you think every Muslim says to this question? They say no. And the reason is 00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:22.039 because remember, they don't know what the angels are going to bring in terms of their good and bad deeds. 00:38:22.039 --> 00:38:27.860 They don't know what the scales are going to show. So, they don't have 100% confidence. So, my follow-up 00:38:27.860 --> 00:38:34.420 question is, well, would you like to have 100% confidence? Right? Now, I'm not saying that because 00:38:34.420 --> 00:38:39.179 I can offer it by virtue of anything I'm going to do. But you know what I'm talking about, right? You 00:38:39.179 --> 00:38:46.460 know what Christ has done. So, when they say, sure, I'm, yeah, of course I'd like to have 100% confidence. 00:38:46.460 --> 00:38:51.920 Or they're just curious, what are you as a Christian going to say to this? Here's what I do. I point them 00:38:51.920 --> 00:39:00.579 to John 3 16 through 18. Why? Because first of all, John 3 16 is the most well-known passage in all of 00:39:00.579 --> 00:39:05.099 Christendom, right? And so, you'll probably already have that reference memorized. All you got to do is 00:39:05.099 --> 00:39:11.599 just add a few more verses, okay? Second of all, it's Jesus speaking. And since they revere Jesus as a 00:39:11.599 --> 00:39:16.699 prophet, they're more likely to consider that. And third, because John is part of the gospel, that's 00:39:16.699 --> 00:39:23.599 also mentioned in the Quran as a true revelation from Allah. Now, I'll read this passage to them, 00:39:23.719 --> 00:39:27.860 or have them read it, because it's, you know, it's Jesus sharing the message of reconciliation. 00:39:28.500 --> 00:39:34.799 And if they say, well, but that's part of the gospel, that's corrupted. Well, then, of course, 00:39:34.860 --> 00:39:39.480 you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to go and use my tactic to show them that they can't 00:39:39.480 --> 00:39:46.179 cite that as an objection, right? So, I'm going to use the Quran as leverage, 00:39:46.179 --> 00:39:50.699 because that's their highest authority, to remind them, hey, by the way, your highest authority 00:39:50.699 --> 00:39:56.360 says it's not corrupted. Your highest authority of the Quran says it's a divine revelation of Allah. 00:39:56.360 --> 00:40:02.480 It's trustworthy. It should be obeyed. So, you can't claim it's corrupted. Once they acknowledge that, 00:40:02.639 --> 00:40:07.079 then you can go back to John 3 16 through 18, or whatever passage you want to go to. 00:40:07.079 --> 00:40:13.619 But again, I recommend something from the gospels where Jesus is speaking, because they revere Jesus. 00:40:14.739 --> 00:40:23.059 And they need to hear Jesus, because Jesus is the only person who can give them hope to have 100% 00:40:23.059 --> 00:40:32.639 confidence in their future and eternal destiny. Because Jesus addresses both sides of the Islamic scale. 00:40:32.639 --> 00:40:41.139 Think about this. Jesus, in his death and resurrection, by his atoning work on the cross, 00:40:42.639 --> 00:40:48.900 wipes away all of your bad deeds, all your sins, right? So, the side of the scale that would normally 00:40:48.900 --> 00:40:54.000 hold all of your bad deeds is completely unweighted, because Christ has atoned for all of them. 00:40:54.000 --> 00:41:01.500 But Christ doesn't just atone for your bad deeds. He also imputes his righteousness, which is a fancy way 00:41:01.500 --> 00:41:08.760 of saying his good credit, his perfect life, his perfect standing with God is credited to you. 00:41:09.739 --> 00:41:15.480 So, all, so the side of the scale that would hold all your good deeds is now perfectly weighted with the 00:41:15.480 --> 00:41:22.380 perfect life of Christ. So, with no bad deeds and all the perfect good deeds of Christ, the tips, 00:41:22.380 --> 00:41:30.180 the balance tips in your favor 100% perfectly. Of course, in the mind of a Muslim, right? So, this is why 00:41:30.180 --> 00:41:37.280 Jesus is the answer. This is why the gospel is the answer for Muslims, because only he can give 00:41:37.280 --> 00:41:43.440 100% certainty that they can go to heaven. Again, we can offer that to them, not because of anything 00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:50.760 that we're doing, because we're pointing them to Christ. So, that's my overall strategy of how I engage 00:41:50.760 --> 00:41:55.800 Muslims with the gospel, and again, incorporating that key tactic of leveraging their source of 00:41:55.800 --> 00:42:01.520 authority just for the sake of removing the objection that the gospel's corrupted. Address that, 00:42:01.820 --> 00:42:05.660 and you've addressed the issue of authority, and then you can turn to the gospel for the truth. 00:42:06.360 --> 00:42:13.700 Let me close in prayer before Pastor George comes about. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful that you 00:42:13.699 --> 00:42:21.359 have trusted us to be ambassadors for your son, Jesus. Lord, we're so humbled by that. We're just 00:42:21.359 --> 00:42:26.259 blown away by that, Lord. We thank you, though, that your Holy Spirit lives in us to give us the wisdom, 00:42:26.460 --> 00:42:32.859 the words, the courage to be able to communicate the truth, the message of reconciliation to all people, 00:42:32.939 --> 00:42:40.419 and especially to Muslims. Lord, help us not to see Muslims as the enemy, but people who desperately need 00:42:40.420 --> 00:42:45.500 to know the truth of the gospel. They're in a situation, they're in a system, they're being 00:42:45.500 --> 00:42:50.780 deceived by this idea that they can somehow work their way through their own righteousness to you. 00:42:51.420 --> 00:42:56.680 But, of course, you know the truth, and you've communicated the truth to us. Help us to be able 00:42:56.680 --> 00:43:01.700 to share with them the message of the gospel, that there's nothing that they can do, but that you've 00:43:01.700 --> 00:43:06.559 already done the work for them, Lord. They just need to put their trust in you and in your son, Jesus Christ. 00:43:06.559 --> 00:43:12.599 Thank you for this reality, Lord, that we can share with them. Help us as we communicate to our Muslim 00:43:12.599 --> 00:43:17.820 friends and neighbors to do it in a way that brings honor and glory to your son, Jesus' name. Amen. 00:43:17.820 --> 00:43:18.860 Amen. 00:43:19.699 --> 00:43:20.299 Thank you, Adam. 00:43:20.500 --> 00:43:20.820 Thank you.