Billy Graham Most Viewed Sermon | Pastor Reacts

Wise Disciple

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

You know, I think in many ways, in some ways, it's easier not to be a

00:06

Christian in this world. Because the devil may leave you alone. The moment you receive

00:12

Christ as Savior, you're in for it. Unless you live on your knees and live in the scriptures and keep your guard up and have your spiritual armor on at all times.

00:25

Because if you let down even one day as a Christian, you're in Good for Graham.

00:30

He's not preaching a self -help Jesus. He's not preaching a Jesus that helps you live your best life now.

00:36

You know, just literally a couple days ago, I heard a preacher say, if you're living your best life now, then that means the next life is going to be exponentially worse.

00:45

If you're living your best life now, then you must be a non -believer. Welcome back to a brand new series called

00:59

Pastor Reacts. My name is Nate, and this is Wise Disciple, where we're helping you become the effective

01:04

Christian that you were meant to be. Now, I've worn a lot of hats in the last 15 years, and one of those hats was the hat of preaching pastor at a local church here in Las Vegas.

01:14

I was also trained by one of the best preaching pastors that I've ever seen, and I spent a year with him in his intern program, where he taught me, among many things, how to preach.

01:23

And that's just one of my passions, teaching and preaching. So I'm drawing from my background in those areas to do this kind of an exercise.

01:30

Well, if you haven't seen the first episode that I did, I looked at the most popular sermon on YouTube by Stephen Furtick.

01:37

Wait. Now, you're going to have a reaction to that one way or the other, so I just wanted to give pause there. But I encourage you to check that out, all right?

01:44

Today, I'm going to be looking at one of the most popular sermons on YouTube by Billy Graham. Now, I'm excited to do this because I've never actually seen a full sermon preached by Mr.

01:53

Graham. His reputation definitely precedes him. More than 3 .2 million people have responded to the invitation to accept

02:02

Jesus as Lord and Savior at Billy Graham Crusades. His radio broadcasts have gone out to an estimated two billion people.

02:10

I mean, these are amazing stats. But why was he so compelling? What kind of preacher was he?

02:16

What about his sermons resonated so much with so many people? Well, let's find out together. Join me as I watch

02:22

Billy Graham's sermon entitled, Who is Jesus? So let's go. This will be an hour of decision, and you will never be the same today.

02:37

Even if you refuse Christ, you'll never be the same. Once you've faced him, once you've heard the gospel and rejected it, you can never be the same.

02:47

It says, when the rich young ruler rejected Christ, he turned away, grieved, emotionally disturbed.

02:56

Because when you reject the claims of Christ, that's a very serious thing.

03:04

It will be an hour of decision for many of you who receive him today. Your life will never be the same.

03:10

Your home will never be the same. So every preacher is faced with the issue of beginning.

03:17

How do we begin our sermons? How do we begin the message? And preachers answer this question differently.

03:23

Some like to tell a story. Some like to share a statistic. Some like to ask a question.

03:28

Some will just open up the scripture and just start reading. What Billy Graham is doing is he's setting the table for his message.

03:35

Today, you're going to hear a message that is going to be life -changing. You will be faced with an important decision by the end of this message.

03:42

And what's great about this approach is it sets the table for what he's about to say. And it also raises the stakes.

03:50

Anyone who has ears to hear should be leaning in right about now. Billy Graham's not going to be reading the yellow pages today.

03:55

He's going to share the gospel. Now today, I want you to turn with me to Luke's gospel, the 11th chapter.

04:03

The 11th chapter of Luke's gospel, beginning with verse 29.

04:10

Beginning with verse 29, I hope you have your Bibles. How many have a

04:16

Bible today? Lift them up. Look at the Bibles. Thousands of Bibles everywhere.

04:23

So Graham is old school. He speaks like an old school broadcaster.

04:29

You can tell that he knows all of the mediums through which his message is going to be sent out. I mean, not only is the sermon going to be broadcast on television, but it's probably going out through radio broadcast.

04:40

And so he speaks accordingly. Lift up your Bibles if you have one. Look at all those Bibles. We've got thousands of Bibles lifted up everywhere.

04:48

If you're a radio listener, right, you're driving your car, you're at home, whatever. Now you know what's going on in the room, right?

04:55

Now the 29th chapter, or the 11th chapter and the 29th verse of Luke's gospel.

05:01

And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, this is an evil generation.

05:10

They seek a sign and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

05:17

For as Jonah was a sign unto Nineveh, so shall also the son of man be to this generation.

05:25

The queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.

05:32

For she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than Solomon is here.

05:41

The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it.

05:47

For they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold, a greater than Jonah is here.

05:56

Amen. I mean, that's the word of the Lord right there. A lot of passion flowing out of Graham here.

06:03

The urgency of the moment is definitely felt. For many in the audience, this is a chance for them to reconcile themselves to the

06:11

Lord, and Graham knows it. I mean, he 100 % believes in it, and so he's essentially shouting his words.

06:20

That's good. Does that mean that every preacher needs to shout? No, but it does mean that every preacher better be passionate about what they're preaching.

06:27

Now, ancient Israel wanted Jesus to do something sensational to prove that he was really the son of God.

06:38

But Jesus is saying in this passage, you're seeking for a sign.

06:44

All right, I'll give you a sign. I am the sign.

06:51

And Jesus was saying that the people of Jonah's day listened to the message of God and repented, and they're going to rise up at the judgment as witnesses against the people of Jesus' day that rejected him.

07:10

He said the queen of the south recognized the wisdom of Solomon, but he said, in me, you have a greater wisdom than all the wisdom of Solomon.

07:21

There's an obstacle that every good preacher and speaker and teacher and even debater needs to overcome, and that's the obstacle of credibility.

07:32

Who are you? That's the question that every person asks when someone gets up to speak, especially for the first time.

07:39

Who the heck is this guy? Right? And so, Graham answers this question simply by speaking with authority, simply by almost shouting like he's doing.

07:50

He's implicitly telling the listener, pay attention, I'm someone that you need to listen to, and I'm saying something very important.

07:57

Now, arguably, by the time he's preaching the sermon, people know who he is, his reputation precedes him, and so that's why the room is probably sold out, it looks sold out, but nevertheless, every sermon requires a development of what we call ethos.

08:12

I will say this, the authoritarian tone that Graham takes and the shouting style that he employs probably is not as popular today as it was in the 20th century.

08:24

You know, if a lot of preachers shouted today the way that Graham is doing back then, would their messages be well received today?

08:31

I don't know, I don't think so. So, in other words, the style of a preacher's speech changes with what is culturally acceptable.

08:39

Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. The gospel message does not change, but the style of speaking does.

08:44

And don't forget, at the end of the day, when the Holy Spirit moves, it doesn't matter if someone's screaming or if they're whispering, right?

08:50

It's just interesting to watch Graham because I think we're watching just an old -school style that was well -received back in the day, and it all helps

08:59

Graham to establish and maintain his credibility when he preaches the Word. What think ye of Christ?

09:07

There's a rock opera at the moment called Jesus Christ the

09:13

Superstar. All over the country, thousands of young people are talking about Christ.

09:19

They can't escape him. There's a Broadway play right now entitled Godspell, a musical version of St.

09:27

Matthew's Gospel. There's a new movie right now called Brother John in which Sidney Poitier plays

09:33

Jesus Christ in the form of an Alabama black man. The front cover of Life magazine a few weeks ago ran

09:42

Jesus Christ Superstar, and this rock opera from England was confronting young people with one question.

09:52

Who is Jesus Christ? An 87 -minute long electronic probe into the life of Jesus.

10:02

Who is Jesus? This is very important. The goal of the preacher is to relay

10:09

God's revelation in a manner that is glorifying to God and transformative to the listener, all right?

10:16

That's kind of my way of saying it, but it comes from a few places in the scripture. 2 Timothy 2 verse 15 says, do your best to present yourself to God as one who rightly handles the word of truth.

10:27

Ephesians 4 verse 11 says that the Lord gives the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ.

10:39

So, in other words, the preacher rightly handles the word of God to equip the saints for ministry.

10:47

Well, how do you equip the saints? Part of the answer is help them understand how the word comes to bear on their lives and the lives of every single person on this planet.

10:57

And Graham has clearly set the parameters of the talk. Who is Jesus? Everyone needs to answer this question.

11:04

And a lot of people are, apparently, because back in whatever year this is, 1971 or something, there are all kinds of plays out there about Jesus.

11:13

Jesus Christ, the superstar, right? Godspell, and others. It's interesting to me that in 1971, the plays, the books, the operas, the movies about Jesus.

11:28

Our generation cannot escape Jesus. And when Good News for Modern Man came out, a new translation of the

11:36

New Testament by the American Bible Society, they sold 25 million copies. We cannot escape

11:43

Jesus. I've never heard of an opera or a play even about Buddha or Mohammed or Gandhi.

11:56

But how— Well, they made a movie about Gandhi eventually, right? 1980 -something, right?

12:03

One best actor, or best picture, or something. Ben Kingsley played Gandhi. But again, Graham is driving home the point, and it's very clear, we all need to answer the question, who is

12:12

Jesus? Why? Because how you respond to Jesus determines your eternity. Graham is very clear.

12:19

It's very simple in his takeaway. And that's good, because simple is memorable. Pastor, preacher, teacher, are you watching this video?

12:27

Simple is memorable. I used to say to pastors all the time before they would preach, we need to, as preachers and pastors, we need to kiss the congregation.

12:36

Now that's a little gauche, okay, to say that, but kiss is just an acronym. It means keep it simple, stupid.

12:43

A lot of us, we're so excited. We get out of seminary, and we want to throw in a 90 -page dissertation on a

12:53

Sunday morning, and that's too much information. We got to keep it simple. And Graham is keeping it simple, and that goes a long way to being memorable.

13:00

You remember that day when Saul, who was persecuting Christians, was on the road to Damascus, and a blinding light came, and he fell down, and the first question he asked was, who art thou,

13:13

Lord? The question that our generation of young people on the campus are asking today is, who art thou,

13:21

Lord? Who is Jesus? Why cannot we escape him?

13:27

Why is he in our conscience and in our mind, so that our plays, and our poems, and our operas are about him?

13:38

Is he just a revolutionary hero, or is he something more? He only lived 33 years.

13:47

He never traveled more than 100 miles. He never had any formal education, and yet 2 ,000 years later, an entire generation is talking about Jesus Christ.

14:07

He's bringing up a solid point. You know, why has the person of Jesus and the message of Jesus persisted for so long?

14:16

I'm sure a lot of non -believers would love it if Jesus had not persisted for thousands of years and touched the hearts of so many and transformed them from sinner to saint.

14:24

But I think it's a legitimate point to ask, what was so significant about Jesus? But it's also a good setup for where Graham is probably going, so you kind of heard it a little bit already.

14:34

There's a little bit of C .S. Lewis in there. Is Jesus just a revolutionary? Is he something more?

14:40

I can see how the combination of Graham's authoritarian style and his very simple and methodical approach to setting up the big idea, which again centers on answering the question, who is

14:52

Jesus? And then, you know, going to the scripture, reading the scripture, and providing the relevant examples and stories,

14:58

I can see how all of this comes together to make listening to him so compelling. He's doing a great job.

15:04

He's not an expository preacher, though. Maybe I should say something more about that later. Some say that he was a madman.

15:13

Some of the people of his day said he was mad, said he was a maniac. Was he? There were others that said he was revolutionary.

15:24

He'd come to lead a revolution. Was he a revolutionary? In the sense that he changed men's lives, he was, but he never led a revolution against Rome.

15:36

He never led a revolution against the existing authorities. As a matter of fact, some of them tried to get him to, and some of them thought he was going to, and when they found out that he was building a spiritual kingdom, they were no longer interested in him.

15:52

And when they tried to tempt him about that, he said, bring me a coin. And he said, whose picture's on that coin?

15:58

They said, Caesar. He said, all right, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are

16:04

God's. And the scripture says they quit asking him questions. They didn't know how to answer that. This is a very effective way of teaching, and this is how

16:13

I've often taught things. That is, you know, to kind of set up this mystery that must be solved, and to speak in a way that invites the listener to solve the mystery, to help you solve the mystery.

16:25

Who is Jesus, right? There's the mystery. In the Bible, people thought he was lots of things, but he wasn't those things.

16:33

Today, people think he's a hippie, or he's Sidney Poitier or something, but he's not those things either.

16:39

So, what's the answer to the mystery? And when Graham finally eliminates all of these other answers, and he gets to the real answer, which is,

16:47

Jesus is the Son of God, who offers salvation to all who will repent and follow after him, those with an ear to hear will have traveled this investigative journey with Graham, and by God's grace, they'll conclude the right answer, and they'll give their lives to Jesus.

17:02

Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of the living God. And you know, at his incarnation, or his birth, that was not his birth, or that wasn't the beginning, that wasn't the origin of Jesus.

17:18

That was the beginning, that was the beginning of his incarnation, because he has always existed.

17:25

From everlasting to everlasting, he is God, the Bible says. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

17:36

In other words, the Logos, the word of God, the eternal

17:42

God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and lived like a man among us.

17:50

That's what the Bible teaches, and when you come to Jesus Christ, you have to accept that.

17:57

He was the Son of God. Amen. So, he's given the Bible's answer to the question, who is

18:03

Jesus? He's the Son of God. And now he's touching on the Gospel message.

18:09

Not only must you know that Jesus is the Son of God, but you also must accept that.

18:15

So, so far, he's set up the mystery, which acts as the theme of the message, and then he's going to the

18:21

Bible to answer the question, and he's eliminating all of the things that non -believers claim

18:26

Jesus is in order to introduce the correct answer now. And the audience is going with him down this methodical journey.

18:33

This is very well done. The last thing that Graham must do is to bring in the practical.

18:39

Knowing who Jesus really is, now what must a person do very practically moving forward?

18:45

In response, what should they do to this message? There must be an opportunity for repentance.

18:50

There must be an opportunity for a commitment to follow after Jesus Christ. This is an Acts chapter 2 moment with Peter at Pentecost.

18:57

So, let's see what happens. And if you don't have the resurrection, you don't have any Gospel. Jesus Christ is alive.

19:07

And when they went out to the tomb that morning, they heard the greatest news the world has ever known.

19:14

He is not here. He is risen. He is alive today.

19:21

And the thing that inspired the disciples to turn the world upside down in their day was the resurrection.

19:27

They went everywhere declaring that Jesus is alive. You know, some of us

19:33

Christians live as though Jesus is dead. I'm going to let that one sit for a moment.

19:42

Some of us non -believers? No. Some of us Christians act like Jesus Christ is dead.

19:51

He's not dead. He's alive. Oh, you're going through your troubles and your trials and your temptations and your testings and your pressures.

20:02

And you're under satanic attack all the time, constantly. You know, I think in many ways, in some ways, it's easier not to be a

20:12

Christian in this world. Because the devil may leave you alone. The moment you receive

20:19

Christ as Savior, you're in for it. Unless you live on your knees and live in the scriptures and keep your guard up and have your spiritual armor on at all times.

20:31

Because if you let down even one day as a Christian, you're in trouble. This is not a health, wealth, and prosperity message by any stretch.

20:40

And praise God for that, because health, wealth, and prosperity is unbiblical. I hate to burst anyone's bubble here, but the

20:48

Bible says, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you as if something strange is going on.

20:54

Why? Because in this world, you will have tribulation, Christian. Who said that?

20:59

Jesus said that. In this world, you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

21:05

So, be sober -minded because the devil prowls around like a lion seeking to devour you.

21:12

Good for Graham. He's not preaching a self -help Jesus. He's not preaching a Jesus that helps you live your best life now.

21:19

You know, just literally a couple days ago, I heard a preacher say, if you're living your best life now, then that means the next life is going to be exponentially worse.

21:28

If you're living your best life now, then you must be a non -believer. In this life, we will have tribulation.

21:35

It is a promise. And Graham is being realistic to those who will make that commitment to follow after Jesus.

21:42

So, good for him. Who art thou, Lord? Jesus Christ, are you who you say you are?

21:52

This is the question that every one of you today are going to have to answer. Who is Jesus?

21:59

If Jesus claimed to be God, knowing he wasn't God, then he's a liar.

22:05

And we will have to say, Jesus, you're a liar. You're a fraud and a hoax and you're the biggest fraud in the history of the human race.

22:16

Or, if Jesus thought he was God and did not know the difference, then he desperately needed mental help.

22:28

He needed several psychiatrists. The third alternative is that he was who he claims to be,

22:38

God in the flesh. Right. So, there it is. It's the Lord lunatic liar argument from C .S.

22:44

Lewis, which is, it's interesting to me. It has not been my experience that a lot of pastors know and appreciate apologetics.

22:54

Unfortunately, that's just the reality of today's church culture. Apologetics is still largely this unappreciated or underappreciated aspect of Christian education, when in reality, apologetics is fundamental to the

23:06

Christian. It is fundamental to evangelism in the 21st century, and I love that Graham uses

23:12

Lewis here. It shows me that he is well -read and perhaps appreciates the role of apologetics, because this is purely an evangelistic message that Graham is preaching.

23:23

And yet, an argument by C .S. Lewis is slipped in here. So, good for Graham. Now, some of you can ridicule.

23:31

Some of you can reject him. Some can just put it off and say, I'm going to wait till another time.

23:37

Or you can accept him as your Lord and your Savior and your Master and the

23:42

Son of God, and he will come into your heart and forgive your sin and change your life. And you are asked today to receive him.

23:52

In fact, if you're going to go to heaven, the Bible teaches, you have to receive him. If you're going to have your sins forgiven, you have to receive him.

24:00

And I'm going to ask you to do it today, and I'm going to ask you to do it publicly. How do you do it?

24:07

I'm going to ask hundreds of you to get up out of your seat right now and come and stand in front of this platform quietly and reverently and say,

24:15

I want Christ in my heart. I want him to forgive my sin. I want to know

24:21

I'm going to heaven. I want him to change my life. I receive him as my Lord and Savior. If you're with friends or relatives or in a delegation, they'll wait.

24:30

If you've come in a bus, they'll wait. Why do I ask you to come forward? Because every person

24:35

Jesus ever called in the New Testament, he called publicly. And so now it's time to repent and commit yourself to following Jesus Christ.

24:46

And Graham has his own way of saying that, but he's now provided the practical step in response to his sermon and what a sermon it was.

24:56

Let's just watch and see how the crowd responds here. From all over the stadium, as God is speaking, you may be in the choir and this may be your last moment with God.

26:04

She loses a silver coin and then she finds it again. So do the angels of God. They rejoice over one sinner who repents and look at that.

26:14

Praise God. I'm praying that these folks followed Jesus passionately all the days of their life.

26:20

This was a really strong sermon, and I liked Graham's approach. It was very simple. He kissed his audience.

26:27

In other words, he kept it very simple for them. Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God.

26:33

He died for your sins and offers salvation. Okay, now get up right now and do something about it.

26:39

It's really by the numbers, but it's also not dispassionate or clinical. This is a preacher who is operating on all thrusters.

26:48

He knows his scripture. He knows how to communicate the word. He knows the goal of the preacher.

26:54

He knows why he's up there. He knows what his job is, and he did all of these things in a manner that, again, just relays

27:02

God's word and is transformative for the listener. That's every preacher's goal, and praise God, Graham has achieved it.

27:09

So I mentioned this before, but Graham is not an expository preacher. He's a topical preacher, and there's nothing wrong with that.

27:15

But I was trained in expository preaching. This is primarily the type of preaching that I would do at the pulpit on a

27:21

Sunday. In expository sermons, the focus of the sermon is a portion of the scripture, and what the preacher does is he reads that passage or text, and then he spends the whole time fleshing that out for the congregation.

27:34

And it comes out of the spirit of what Augustine said, when the Bible speaks, God speaks.

27:40

So the passage or the text shapes what the preacher is going to say and the application that should follow.

27:46

But Graham is not an expository preacher. He's more topical in his approach. So in a topical sermon, the focus of the sermon is not a passage of the scripture, but it's more like a biblical theme, maybe a biblical idea, maybe even a question.

28:00

And so here for Graham, he's dealing with a question, who is Jesus? And he just keeps hitting that nail with his hammer quite a bit.

28:07

So then the focus becomes answering this question by bringing up various passages of scripture to unpack who

28:14

Jesus is. I mean, I lost count of how many references and passages in the Bible that Graham brought up, but it was quite a few.

28:20

Again, expository sermons, topical sermons, these are legitimate ways to preach at the pulpit.

28:27

I do have a question, just kind of in closing, like on the back end of sermons like Graham's, where he's at a venue, and it looks like a lot of people have shown up to hear him.

28:36

And then it's understood that Graham is going to go off and travel to another city shortly thereafter. And the question is, what happens to these folks who came forward?

28:44

There must be some kind of a way for these folks who just made a commitment to Jesus Christ.

28:51

There must be a way for them to be discipled. Now, I heard that that's where the Navigators organization came in, you know, to help folks like these.

28:59

And so hopefully these folks were poured into by spiritual mentors who then trained them up so they could go and make more disciples, because that's the goal.

29:08

That's the Great Commission, go and make more disciples. But all in all, I would say this was a great sermon. I can see now why so many listen to him preach.

29:16

What are your thoughts? Was this a great sermon? What do you think about Billy Graham's preaching? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

29:22

As always, I will take a break and return soon with more videos, but make sure to check out my Debate Teacher React series.