UNREACHED
In Revelation 7, John shares his vision of heaven with members from every tribe, tongue, people and language standing in the throne room before the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over 7,000 unreached people groups around the world.
For the last six years, my family and friends have been on a journey to find, vet and fund the task remaining.
Come journey with us to the ends of the earth as we share the supernatural stories of God at work through the men and women he has called to reach the UNREACHED.
UNREACHED
None Like Jesus - Dr. Todd Ahrend
Dr. Todd Ahrend delivers a thought-provoking comparison between Christianity and major world religions, demonstrating the fundamental uniqueness of Jesus Christ among religious founders and belief systems. Through engaging stories and clear explanations, he dismantles the popular notion that all religions teach essentially the same truths while revealing the distinctiveness of Christianity's message, founder, and holy book.
• Islam focuses on submission to Allah with salvation through the Five Pillars, explicitly rejecting Christ's divinity and crucifixion
• Hinduism centers on escaping karma and the wheel of suffering through devotion to various gods
• Buddhism identifies desire as the root of suffering, seeking nirvana (annihilation) through the Eightfold Path
• Confucianism addresses social harmony through education rather than spiritual reconciliation
• Christianity uniquely offers grace rather than works, forgiveness of sins, and a resurrected founder
• Jesus alone claimed divinity, forgave sins, performed miracles to validate his authority, and conquered death
• While other religious founders' graves can be visited, Jesus' tomb remains empty
• The Bible stands unparalleled in its coherence despite being written across 1,500 years by 40 authors in 3 languages
Connect with us on Instagram @UnreachPodcast or email us at unreachedpodcast@gmail.com to learn more about reaching the 3,100 language groups still without access to Scripture.
Follow @unreachedpodcast on Instagram for more!
In Revelation 7, John shares his vision of heaven with members from every tribe, tongue, people, and language standing in the throne room before the Lamb. Yet today, there are still over 7,000 unreached people groups around the world. For the last six years, my family and friends have been on a journey to find that and find the task remaining journey with us to the ends of the earth. We share the supernatural stories of God of work.
SPEAKER_00:Hey friends, welcome to the Unreach Podcast. I'm Quinn Hudson, your host, and today we have a very special episode. Listen, you know we love Dr. Todd Arend around here at the Unreach Podcast. You've heard him talk about the mission of God before. But this talk from Todd Aaron is unlike anything else you've ever heard. There's none like it. In fact, it's actually called None Like Jesus. Today, Todd is gonna tackle world religions and how they differ from Christianity and the perspective of Christianity from those different world religions. Fascinating content today. So thanks again for tuning in to the Unreach podcast for this episode. Get your notes app ready. You're gonna need it. And let's listen to Dr. Todd Aaron present None Like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02:So we live down the street from University of Arkansas, and uh my wife surprised me. She calls up the University of Arkansas, International Student Department, and she says, Hey, can we get a student for Thanksgiving? They send us a Hindu named Bindu. I pick her up, I I I Google top ten Indian songs on Spotify. I have it crankin', and Bindu the Hindu. I'm like, how am I gonna remember your name? I don't know. She comes over for Thanksgiving, for Halloween, she's carving pumpkins for Easter, she's bringing her boyfriend and the curry, and we are literally trying to just spill Jesus on her. Her family has been a Hindu for fourteen hundred years. She's not interested in learning about Christianity. She doesn't want to read, she has no felt need. And her religion validates that all roads lead to God. So, fourteen hundred years, her religion validates it, she's not interested in changing and has no desire to read. How do we get Jesus to her? This is incredibly difficult, especially when everyone thinks all religions are the same. From professors to podcasts to pop stars to parents. All religions lead to the same basic truth. But is that correct? Is there anything unique about one of the other religions that make it stand out? Eight weeks ago, freshmen started college. They walk into philosophy 101 and they're bombarded immediately with this story. This is the first story you get in philosophy 101. Welcome, students. A king invites into his court five blind men. Unbeknownst to the five blind men, the king places in front of them an elephant. The king then asks the five blind men, reach out and tell me what you feel. The first blind man touches the tusk of the elephant and he cries out it's a sword. The second blind man touches the side of the elephant and he cries out it's a mud wall. The third blind man touches the leg of the elephant and he cries that it's a tree trunk. The fourth blind man touches the ear of the elephant and he cries that it's a banana leaf. The fifth blind man touches the tail of the elephant and he cries that it's a rope. And philosophy professors love this story. Why? Because it shows us all religions look different, but they're just touching different parts of God or the real. And so a Hindu's touching the tusk, a Buddhist is touching the side, a Christian's touching the tail. And so when I read the Hindu scriptures, yes, they're gonna sound different, but that's only because they're touching a different part of the real. Again, this is from Austin to Australia, this perspective. It's pervasive. But is it correct? Is it correct? A recent survey was done. What prevents you from communicating your faith to unbelievers? 70% of Christ's followers say there are multiple ways to heaven. This isn't just out there. This is in the pews, it's in the four-year of the church, it's in your Bible studies. They're not gonna tell you publicly, but when you invite them to do something in missions, hey, there's a missions lunch from 11 to 1 that we're gonna see how we can give and pray and change the world. Oh, I'm not interested. Oh, okay, I thought you didn't have the time to do it. No, I don't think the lost are lost. The majority of your friends who aren't who are Christians, who aren't interested in missions, they're not interested in missions because they don't think the lost are lost. Are all religions just the same path that leads to God? Or is there a uniqueness about Jesus? And what I want to do is I just want to walk you through the major religions, and I want to compare them to Christianity. And I think just the clouds in your mind might clear as you see and you're able to talk to your friends to say, no, there is none like him. So, Islam founder is Muhammad ibn Abdu Allah. The major problem in Islam is you are self-sufficient. You need to submit to Allah. That's mankind's problem. There is one God in Islam, he goes by Allah. You cannot know Allah, you can only know his will. And salvation is found in giving yourself to the five major pillars praying five times a day, fasting for 40 days, taking a pilgrimage to Mecca, saying the creed. Six hundred years after the death of Christ, a thousand miles away in Saudi Arabia, was a man who was born named Muhammad. His mother and father die when he's a young man, young age, and he's forced to lead caravans across the desert. He meets people who call themselves Jews. He asks the Jews, how many gods do you worship? And the Jews say, We worship one God. He meets people who call themselves Christians. Christianity had been around for 600 years. How many gods do you worship? We worship one God. And then he marries a woman older than him who's wealthy. He now has had he now has time and money, and he steals away and fasts in a cave. And in a cave, the angel Gabriel appears to him. So it is said in the Quran. And the angel Gabriel says, La ila ilallawa Muhammad Rasul Allah, there is one God, and you are his prophet. For the next 13 years he tells the story. He gains a hundred followers, and then his own people try to kill him because he was coming against the other gods that they worshiped. For the next 10 years after that, he builds the followers to 10,000. And if he came across your community or your caravan, Muhammad would give you three options. You could pay a tax for protection, you could convert to Islam, or you could fight. Because mankind's problem is self-sufficiency, you need to submit. How do you say the Arabic word submit? Islam. Islam. Muhammad denied the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the crucifixion. In Arabic, the word surah means chapter. O ye people of the book, exceed not the limits in your religion, and say not what is untrue. The Messiah, Jesus, Son of Mary, is only an apostle. Say not Trinity. It will be better for you. This is in their holy book. They deny the Trinity, they deny the divinity of Christ. In their ignorance, Christians have falsely ascribed to him sons and daughters. Who's Allah's wife? Allah has no wife. How then can he have a son? You can't. And they reject the crucifixion. Christians say, We've killed the Messiah on the cross. They slew him not. They crucified him not. They crucified someone who looked like him. And they were mistaking. But they did not really crucify him. God took him. And 1.2 billion Muslims are desperately trying to obey these five pillars that somehow Allah might find mercy on them. And completely different from Islam is Hinduism. It's completely different. See, my friends, all religions start with the same basic premise. Something is wrong with the world. But then they shoot off in totally different directions. They all start in the same starting line, something's wrong, and then they shoot off in different directions. Completely different, completely different from Islam is Hinduism. Founder, there is no founder. Gods, there's millions more gods in India than people in America. There's more gods to worship in India than people in America. Mankind's problem is karma. Karma. What you do in this life shows itself in your next life, whether to better or for worse. Salvation is devoting yourself to one of the gods. Devote yourself to one of the gods in the hope that it could spin you off the wheel of suffering. See, for Hinduism, they don't want to be born again. If you ask a Hindu, do you want to be born again? They're like, no, that's my problem. The wheel of suffering is every Hindu's problem. This wheel of suffering. And it's constantly spinning. Every life it spins. And there's 24 spokes on this wheel. And the hope of every Hindu is get me off this wheel of suffering. But every time I die and I'm reborn, I'm embedded in this wheel. And only giving devotion to one of the gods or goddesses can fling me off the wheel and return to Brahmin, the ultimate reality, like a drop of water in the ocean to be absorbed into him. So you have so many stories of the gods of India. I just went to Los Angeles and taught a class for three hours called The Gods of India. You can take three hours. Here's just one sample story, just to give you a flavor. Rama, Sitta, and Hanuman. Rama marries Sitta. Sitta is kidnapped by a demon king of Sri Lanka. And Rama has to go rescue her. But to kill the demon king, he has to get this wood, make an arrow, make a make a make a make a bow, and then shoot it at the demon king, but he has to go find this secret wood. Hanuman loves Rama. And he lives in the jungle, the monkey. And he knows where this wood is. And he buys the wood, he gets the wood, he makes a bow, he makes an arrow, Rama rescues Sitta, and Hanuman, if you open Hanuman's heart, you will see Rama and Sitta. He's the ultimate devotee. So today, when you're in a taxicab in India, on their dash is Hanuman, the monkey god. And you can ask them, why are you worshiping Hanuman? Why not Rama or Sitta or Krishna? Why not Ganesh? Because Hanuman is the ultimate devotee, and I need to help being devoted to the gods, so I'm gonna worship him who's the ultimate devotee, so that I can get to the other gods. My friends, how important is the wheel of suffering and samsara to the Hindu world? It's in their flag. It's embedded in their flag. Completely different. Completely different from Hinduism, completely different from Islam is Buddhism. Founder, Siddhartha Gitama. God, just like none, no gods. Mankind's problem, it's not Islam, self-sufficiency, it's not Hinduism, karma, it's completely different. Mankind's problem is suffering. Suffering. Salvation is found in the four noble truths of the teaching of Siddhartha. If Islam happened 600 years before after Christ, Siddhartha Gautama was born 600 years before Christ. And he was a Hindu. The founder of Buddhism was a devout Hindu. He became disillusioned with Hinduism. And he said, I don't believe in these millions of gods. There is no God. He sat under a tree to find the meaning of life. He spoke the Pali language. After living under this tree for 40 days, living on a grain of rice a day, he passes out. When he comes to, people around him start shouting in Pali. Enlightened one, enlightened one, enlightened one. Sergeant Getama hears that and takes that as his name. How do you say enlightened one in Buddhism? Buddha, Buddha, Buddha. That's what enlightened one means in the Pali language that they were speaking. And so for the next 80 years, here he is. He challenges people with these four noble truths. Remember, the problem in Buddhism is suffering. Noble truth number one, all life is suffering. All life is suffering. Get used to it. Noble truth number two, the reason there is suffering is you desire. You desire your neighbor's wife, you take her, there's suffering. You desire your neighbor's possession, you take it, there's war. Your desires are causing suffering. Noble truth number three, get rid of your desire. Well, how do I do that, Siddhartha? Good teaching always leads to more teaching. So follow this eightfold path of wisdom. And at age 83, someone put a bad piece of meat in Siddhartha Gautama's bowl as a beggar. And he dies of food poisoning. What's the hope of a Buddha? Of a Buddhist nirvana, not the band, but annihilation. Annihilation. When one breaks the cycle of karma, they enter. Remember, he was a Hindu, so he kept karma. He was a Hindu, so he kept karma. He kept the will of suffering. He was a Hindu. So Buddhism is going to have a lot of overlap. But at the very core, he says, there is no God, there is no soul, and our hope is to be annihilated. What does a Buddha, what does a Buddhist want in life? Nothing. Nothingness. So the greatest birthday card I ever received, I kept it. What do you get a Buddhist for his birthday? Nothing. And 650 million Buddhists are desperately trying to live without God and without soul and the hopes of being annihilated. And it is completely different than Islam. It is completely different than Hinduism. It is completely different than Confucianism. Welcome to the world's most boringest founder. I don't know how this religion started. It's tough to even classify it as a religion because it denies God. So people don't know whether to classify it as a religion. Founder, Confucius, God, none. Mankind's problem, it's not self-sufficiency, it's not karma, it's not suffering. It's completely different. Social harmony. How is salvation found? Education. Educate yourself. Educate yourself. That's how it's found. Confucius is the world's most boringest founder. Why? Because here he is, he's born, he's a teacher for 50 years, he retires, he goes back to his hometown, he dies at 73, leaving behind no written work and no real followers. But yet, if you Google Confucius says today, you get 1.2 billion hits. So how did he get so how did it happen? Well, 25 years after his death, his followers said, This is what we think he said. And they wrote it down in a book called The Analytics. And the Analytics are the holiest book for the Confucius world. And someone asked him, Hey, are you Confucius' follower? I am. Tell me about how to get to God. How do I get to God? One can hear about Confucius' accomplishments, but one cannot get to hear his view of human nature or the way to heaven. There's so much problems in this life. Don't worry about the afterlife. It's completely different than Hinduism, then Buddhism, then Islam. And then you have Christianity. Christianity. Founder, Jesus, God, Triune, Father, Son, and Spirit. Mankind's problem is not self-sufficiency, it's not suffering, it's not education, it's not submission, it is sin. You want to be your own king, and that's a problem. You don't make a good king. You barely make a good servant. And so salvation is found through faith and repentance and response. And when you compare these other religions, I challenge my kids to read the holy books of all the major religions because what it does is it shines bright on the gospel. It shows you, oh my gosh. Christianity, Christianity has the most incredible founder. It has the most incredible book. And it has the most incredible message. I mean, you just dip your toe in the pond of other religions, and very quickly, when you read the 6,000 verses of the Quran, you're like, wow, really? And when you read the Bhagavad Gita, the 700 verses, you're like, wow, really? The most incredible founder, the most incredible message, and the most incredible book. Think about this. Jesus was never confused. All of these founders, oh, is Hinduism right? Is Buddhism right? They were all confused, searching. Jesus was never confused. He was never searching. His face was always set to Jerusalem. He had his end goal in mind. All of these other religions says, God says to me, Jesus says, I say to you. Think about Jesus just among the other founders. I mean, just for Hinduism, for example. When we pulled up to go get Bindu the Hindu, remember her? When I pulled up to get Bindu the Hindu, she had a sleeve tattoo. And I said, Bindu, who is that on your arm? She says, This is Lord Krishna. This is who I worship.
SPEAKER_01:Bindu.
SPEAKER_02:Do you know what the second holiest book in the Hindu world says about Krishna? He likes to look at naked women. One day the girls, the gopis, left their garments on the shore. They began playing in the water, chanting Lord Krishna's name. Suddenly Krishna appeared in the trees, stole their garments. He teased the girls. Oh, you're so fatigued, girls. Come out of the water. Get your clothes back. Imagine if this was said in Mark chapter 2 about Jesus. He is the most unique founder. Muhammad, you know if you're going to Allah when you die. I have no assurance. I know not what shall be done with me. I only follow what is revealed to me. I'm just a warner. Muhammad! If you were not the prophet, what would happen? God would raise up someone else. I have of no value. I am just a messenger. I'm no more than a messenger. Muhammad! Do you need to confess your sins? I do. I do need to confess my sins. Allah has told me I need to confess my sins. Confucius! Are you unique? No. No. I'm not. I just transmit I do not create. No other religious founder would dare say this. No way. Confucius would never say this. Muhammad would never say this. From mountains to molecules, from planets to people, all things are created by me and for me. Could you ever read that in the Quran? No. Will you ever read it in the Analytics? No. Will you ever read in the Bog of Agida? No. Yet back up and read nine verses around Colossians. Nine verses you will never read in any other book. Jesus, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God. Wouldn't any other founder have said this? No. All things were created, heaven and earth, visible and invisible, thrones and dominions, all things hold together by him. He is the head. I mean, would Muhammad ever have said this? No. No. He fully God with Muhammad, with Confucius, with Siddhartha. No. He reconciles all things on heaven and earth. Just nine verses. In one of the first letters the Apostle Paul wrote. And it just stands alone in the universe as unbelievably unique. Would any other founder have said this about themselves? No. No. In five hundred AD, there was a man named Dionysus. And Dionysus said, I think, I think we should have something called time. And so Dionysus, to get time, here's what you have to do. You pick something in history and call it zero AD. And then time is defined by that. Did Dionassus pick Alexander the Great? No. Confucius? No. Siddharth Gitama? No. Who did time pick to function the calendar? Jesus. So Dionysus said, Jesus is zero AD. Now Alexander the Great is 300 years after that. The fall of Rome is 400 years before that. And Dionysus said, all time hinges on Jesus. When your non-believer friend today at 2 o'clock asks you, what's today's date? They're confessing Jesus is king and unique. And they just don't even know it. What's today's date? Oh, you know, 2025. How do we even measure that? We have the most incredible founder. We have the most incredible book. I mean, I challenge you, go buy a Quran, go buy a Bakh of Agida, go buy the Analytics, go buy the Tao De Ching. I encourage you to go buy these books and read them just to show you the uniqueness. The Quran was it's 114 chapters, it's 6,000 verses, it's the exact same size as the New Testament. There's no order of coherence, no prophecy, and it's very confusing to read. And every six verses warns you that if you disbelieve, you're going to hell. Every six verses. So you're constantly reminded if you disbelieve this, you will go to hell. For Confucius, it wasn't written down until way after his death. For the Bhagavad Gita, the holiest book in the Hindu world is the Bhagavad Gita. I read the Bhagavad Gita. Oh, I'm on a plane. 700 verses. Takes me about 37 minutes. And I get, I get to the end of the Bhagavad Gita. I'm like, let's go! Let's go! How is this unbelievable book for a billion people gonna end? Let's go! I think this is true. That's how the last line, this is my opinion, of the holiest book of the Bhagavad Gita ends. And I just compared that to the last line of revelation, and it was a little different. I compared this is my opinion with the last line of revelation, and you're gonna notice a difference. If any person changes one dot, the plagues of the bulls and the seals and the trumpets will be poured out on you and your family. Oh my goodness. But it's funny because most of our non-believing friends, they're like Bindu the Hindu. They've just been this religion forever. They have no felt need. They don't want to change. They think all roads lead to God, and they're not interested in reading. And you say, Would you read the Bible? Oh, I mean, it's just what old and full of fables and stories and then you go, wow, you know. There was another person that thought the same thing that this was full of fables and myths. Except he was a little different than you. He got an Oxford Full Ride Scholarship at age 14. And he was the chair of the religion department of ancient literature for his entire life. And he became a Jesus follower at 32 and wrote 41 books. I have been reading poems and romances and vision literature and legends and myths all my life. I know what they're like. I know none like this. We have the most unique book. My hero in the faith, John Wesley, that founded Methodism over a billion people influenced by his life. I want to know one thing. I want to know the way to heaven. How to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has come down to teach us that way for this purpose. He came from heaven. He has written it down in a book. Give me that book. At any price, give me the book of God. Think about this. The Quran was written over a period of 23 years. The Bible written over a period of 1500. The Quran had one author. The Bhagavita has one author. The Bible has 40. Over 1,500 years. The Quran was written in one language. The Bhagavida was written in one language. The Bible was written in three. The Quran was written on one continent. The Bible is written on three. The Bible begins in a garden with two people, it ends in a city with millions. It's one coherent book. The Bible is the most translated, stolen, and sold book in the world. It's the most translated, stolen, and sold book in the world. The Bible has been translated into 3,392 languages. 3,392 languages. Now just to put that in perspective, I'm going to tell you who's in second place. The little prince at six hundred and ten languages. And yet we're crushing it. There is nothing like the book that we have. And not only that, but the most incredible message. The most incredible message. There was a religious gathering in London. All the leaders of major religions gathered. Big room. And they were asking, what unique thing did Christianity bring to the table? One scholar stood up and said, God becoming man is unique to Christianity. And the Hindu scholar said, no, no, no, we have many Hindus. Krishna became man. That's not unique to Christianity. One religious scholar said, the resurrection, Jesus rising from the dead, that's unique to Christianity. The Buddhists stood up and said, No, no, no, no. We have bodhisattvas in Buddhism. That many of them have risen from the dead and they're here to help us. And then C.S. Lewis walks into the room and he says, What's the rumpus about? And they said, We're discussing what if anything is unique to Christianity. And he says, That's easy. Grace. The freely given, unmerited favor and love of God. Every other religion, you have to cry out, do these things, figure it out, fast, do something, but not in Christianity. Not in Christianity. It is unique. Now, going back to Philosophy 101 class, if you remember the elephant story, oh my goodness, that's so good. The elephant story, the five blind men. The only reason that story makes sense is because you have the sixth man in the room. You have the all-seeing king. The story makes no sense without the all-seeing king. And I have no problem telling my non-believing friends, this is the all-seeing king. And it tells me there is no one righteous, no, not one. But not only do we have the all-seeing King, the Bible, the elephant himself speaks. God wants to be known. This isn't you groping and finding and hunting and searching. This is him coming and invading. And so, what I want to do for the last little bit of our time, I want to do something really interesting. I want to take a story from the Bible. And I want to look at that story. And then I just want to see what Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, or Siddharth Gatama, or one of the Hindu gurus would have done. So I just picked one. I picked one at the beginning of Luke, the beginning of his ministry. Jesus has just begun his ministry in Luke chapter 5. One of those days he was teaching the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They were sitting there. They had come from Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. Now, this is the beginning of his ministry. Matthew 9 retells this story. Mark 4 retells this story. They add some, they add some definition. Mark 4 tells us that he was in Capernaum. That's north of Jerusalem. And look at this. Look at where people are coming. This is the beginning of his ministry. He starts his ministry in Luke 4. This is just the beginning. And they're coming from Jerusalem and Galilee and Judea. Okay, so we know he's in Capernaum, he's up here. And they're coming from, I mean, that's a six-hour walk, Galilee. But then they're also coming from a six-day walk. They want to find out who is this man who we don't know his rabbi, and he's teaching, and he's causing a ruckus. And so they walk from Judea, Jerusalem, and near Galilee to find him at Capernaum. And the story continues. And behold, some were bringing a bed, on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went to the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles before Jesus. Mark tells us there were four guys. These four guys they hear Jesus is coming through. They have their paralyzed friend. They think this is it. This is my moment. This is our time. They make a makeshift mat and they drag him across town, except there's a problem. It's ten people deep all the way around the house. Let's give them up. Let's come back next week. No, we're not gonna give them up. We're not gonna come back. Let's go around back. There's no windows, they can't even get in, and all of a sudden they're tin deep. When they get my sis, let's push me em up, one, push me em up, push him up women on the rum, woman, wum and push me em up. They push him up. You come up the next, you come em up the next, bring em um up, woman, bring em um. And here are the number four gummies and the pair of mess on the rum. Number one do we do? Peel the bum, wum, peel the bum. The strumble, the hem, the mumm, the bricks, the Pharisees are inside my dirt, dripping them. Like, what's going on? And humble opens 'em up. Humble opens them up. Hang them up with us, hang them up with us. They lower him down and they put him right before Jesus. And everything's I didn't run a rough for that. And Jesus ends the situation with saying, Your sins are forgiven. Now take the mat and the paralyzed man back home. And for the rest of eternity, when this story is told in churches, the point is this your spiritual needs are more important than your physical needs. Now go and teach that forever. And they grab the man and they start walking out of the room. And then the old Pharisees say something. Story's over. The Pharisees, who is this who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone? That is an accurate statement. No one can forgive sins except God. Why? Because the only person that can forgive you is the one who's been sinned against. If I burn down your house and then ask your neighbor to forgive me, they're going to be like, what is it to me? You didn't burn down my house. David says this, I have only sinned against God. Therefore, the Pharisees are right. No one can forgive sins except God alone. The Pharisees are right. They just didn't know the uniqueness of Jesus, that he was God incarnate. Can you imagine Muhammad saying your sins are forgiven? Can you imagine Confucius saying your sins are forgiven? But Jesus, without hesitation and a quiver in his voice, says, Your sins are forgiven. And so, therefore, from this point on, Luke chapter 5, the Pharisees say he's either a liar, he's lunatic, but he's not Lord. He's either a liar or a lunatic, but he's not Lord. And so they seek to kill him. And then Jesus, knowing their thoughts, says, Hey, four guys in the paralyzed, come back in here. Okay, they come back in here. And Jesus says this, why do you question your hearts? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or rise and walk? Pharisees, which one's easier to say? Your sins are forgiven or rise and walk? Well, it's easier to say, your sins are forgiven. That's easier. It requires no validation. If I walk down dirty sixth tonight at 10 o'clock and I tell people, your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven, your sins are forgiven, they're gonna be like, oh, thanks, you know. But if I pull people up from a wheelchair, they're gonna be like, oh my gosh, which one's harder? Is it harder to say to someone on dirty sixth, rise and walk, or your sins are forgiven? It's harder to say rise and walk. And Jesus says, guess what? To validate, rise and walk. Rise and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, rise and walk. Rise and walk. When you read this, you kind of fly over the part that he says son of man. That was his favorite nickname for himself. He'll say it in every chapter in Luke about himself. He'll say son of man in every chapter. Why did Jesus call himself son of man? Was that just a fun nickname to associate him with humanity? No. Because in the Old Testament, anybody who called themselves the Son of Man, his dominion was forever, his kingdom never ends, and the nations will bow down to him. So anytime someone says to you, I am the son of man in Scripture, that's a huge deal. Why? Daniel 7 says this: I saw a vision in the clouds, there came a son of man. He was the ancient of days, the father, gives him the authority. And his dominion and glory and kingdom will never fail. People and nations and language. Would this ever be said about Muhammad, Confucius, the Hindu gurus? My friends, in Luke chapter 5, we see Jesus taking on the name Son of Man. We see him forgiving sins, and then we see him saying, Rise and walk. Those are three unbelievable things that no other founder would ever do. I am the Son of Man, your sins are forgiven, rise and walk. And the end of Luke 5. Amazement. Amazement sees them all. Amazement. The holiest book, the holiest verse for the Jew is Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 6. It says this it's the first thing whispered in the baby's ear of a Jew, and it's the last thing whispered upon a dying man. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one. The Lord is one. The disciples knew this verse. They would never go against this verse. And yet, after three years with Jesus, they do. And Jesus never rebukes them when Thomas says, My Lord and my God. Instead, he says, Thomas, you've walked with me for three years. Blessed are you who've walked with me and you've seen me and you know this. But in 2025, there's gonna be people in Austin who are confused, who think all religions are the same, and they haven't seen me and touched me. Blessed are them when they respond. Muhammad would have never said, Your sins are forgiven. No, he would have said, Man, follow the five pillars in the hopes that this is a test from God from Allah. The Hindu gurus would never say to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven. They would have said to the paralyzed man, Your past life, you were probably a murderer or a thief, and this is why you were born. The Buddhists would never say your sins are forgiven. Siddhartha Gautama would say, All life is suffering. Just get used to this. Confucius would say, dive into education. Jesus is unique. You can go to the Mohabadi Temple in India and you can see the grave of Siddhartha Katama. You can go to Medina, Saudi Arabia, and you can see the grave of Muhammad. You can go to the Shandong province of China and you can see the grave of Confucius. You can go to Kartapur, Pakistan, and you can see the grave of Guru Nainak, the father of Sikhism. And you can drive 14 hours and 26 minutes from this stage to Navu, Illinois, and you can see the grave of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. But you cannot go to the grave of Jesus. He is unique among all the founders. And 3100 language groups today do not have a Bible, a missionary, and zero hope. And this is the reason Bless and the Unreach Podcast exists. It's to raise up goers and givers to the 3100 language groups that have nothing. And so, friends, as we leave here today, I want you to know this should change how you live and how you give and how you raise your kids. Christianity is unique among all the other religions, and don't buy the lie that they all teach the same basic truths. Thank you.
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