Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?
Last week, we reflected on Jesus’ crucifixion – this week, we look at His resurrection from the dead, which is what we celebrate on Easter. We look at the facts surrounding the Biblical accounts and the importance of the resurrection to us as Christians.
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Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?Sun, Aug 27, 2023 10 AM • 59:48SUMMARY KEYWORDSJesus, people, resurrection, good, peter, bible, church, happened, john, died, witnesses, women, disciples, Mary, remember, pastor, interesting, mark, historical, body
Good morning. Welcome. If you're new here among us, my name is Gene I serve here at C3 church as your pastor. And I wonder if there's anyone else here today, who has had a job that you hated so much, you would call in sick a lot for it. And then you start to kind of run out of excuses, right? So you got to give your boss excuses that like, he can't really like shut down really, you're going to call in for that. So I had this one job. When I was much younger, that I hated so much. I think my grandmother died five times. So it made me think of a story about a guy, similar situation. And so he wants to leave work early and take a couple days off. So he tells his boss, hey, my grandmother died. Scott, the news, you know, so, got to leave. You know, I'm really sad. And it's on the funeral buses. Okay, what are you going to say to that? It worked for me five times, right? So. So he leaves work, he comes back to work a few days later. And the boss says to him, Hey, do you do you believe in the resurrection? Your Christian Right? He says, yeah. Oh, good. Because right after you left the other day, your grandmother came to visit you. All right, today. Today, we're going to talk about the resurrection. Hence the joke, right? So that's where it was. Last week, we talked about the crucifixion of Jesus, the passion. This week, we're going to talk about the resurrection. And this is kind of interesting approaching it. This is usually the Easter message, this is what we talked about on Easter. So I thought about it. And like, I just did this message just like four months ago, or whatever it was. And so I thought about it a little more. And what was interesting was, was like, Okay, this is just where we are in this series, definitely have to honor the text. That's just that's it. But then my wife sent me an email. And it was like, Oh, look at this. And it was all about like, some domain news source saying, like, Jesus probably didn't exist. And I was like, Okay, we're going to do this message. So it's really, really important. So I realized something when you're talking about the resurrection. And we're just talking about the factual Jesus. It's very, very important to outsiders, because the world is still lying about Jesus. So if you're a skeptical person here today, this is good information for you. If you're dealing with a lot of unbelievers, this is good information for you. If you're struggling with your faith a little bit, this is good information for you. Right. So faith comes through hearing we need to hear and know and be intelligent Christians aren't supposed to be stupid, we're supposed to be intelligent. And also, we'll see later be able to make a defense in a good way for what we believe, tell people why. So I'm going to boil this down for you and give you some very, very simple facts and make it real easy to understand. You can take notes if you want, or just watch it later. But it's just easy stuff to remember. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to pick up right after the death of Jesus, so you have the Roman soldier witnessing to him. Afterwards, what happens is and so here's the thing, I'm putting it all together. So you got four gospels here, and I'm going to put them all together for you just kind of mash them together. Today, so I'll just paraphrase it and then we'll put the scriptures up on the screen where I'm going to where I've been Joseph environment, Thea. And Nicodemus, you got to get to John's Gospel to count to get the two people but Joseph asks Pilate for Jesus's body. Now, Pilate surprised why. Well, I told you, when people are crucified, normally, you just kind of run out of oxygen. You can't keep pulling yourself up and get that diaphragm to work. That's it and you die. So he's surprised because Jesus has died in about six hours. That's it. But remember, the scourging all the torture, he went there nails probably right through here. He's also bleeding out probably dies of some kind of cardiac arrest. I'm not a doctor. But, you know, some have said that. So he dies a little faster. But it's a bold move on Joseph's part, says, Yeah, you can bury him. That's great. So he and Nicodemus they prepare the body 75 pounds of this ointment with myrrh, long linen cloth, and they prepare the body for burial. And he puts him in Joseph's tomb, roll stone in front of it. Meanwhile, the Jews are very concerned, they're worried their main concern is, look, the disciples are going to steal the body. And they're going to say Jesus rose from the dead, and we'll be worse off than we were before. So the Romans were like, Okay, great. Go seal it. And we'll give you some guards. You can put some guards in front of it. Good. So this all happens in the background. Now, in the meantime, there are women watching this thing happen. But before we get there, again, the Bible is not in chronological order. So that you understand if you do not yet we're just getting different perspectives on the same event. So we had a baptism Wednesday, and I was kind of making jokes about this Bible study, but when you think about it, it's pretty good way to put it if You asked, you know, for different people who are there, they wouldn't all give you the same order of events or things that happen, right? They get some things wrong. Or, you know, like my daughter Sophie remembered, yeah, my dad told a couple bad jokes again and ruin the moment, right, you know. So like, that's what you would remember. But you know, at least Yeah, she's much nicer. And she might remember all this is a great spiritual experience, people were saved, right? So you start highlighting different things going on. It's exactly how the Gospels work. They're just different perspectives. Maybe John coming in later looking at the other accounts and saying, Okay, well, these things were important, too. So that's how it is. So they won't give us the same details. And the problem with the resurrection account, and this is why people poke a lot of holes in it, I just want to equip you with that kind of illustration. Because one of the first things you're going to be hit with is, well, there are contradictions. They say different things, you know, so it's the wrong way of looking at it. Of course, they're going to say different things because they didn't like corroborate, right. They didn't say, hey, let's get our story straight. Right. So they didn't do that if they're just telling the truth. So the first thing you're going to run into, the angels aren't as difficult. I'll explain that to you. But there are many Mary's like, it seemed like everybody wants to be named Mary. Right? Like, like the popular name of the year, right? You know, like, you ever do that, like, when my name was really popular that year? It seems like everybody's named Mary. So just to kind of give you an idea what's going on, they follow and watch Joseph the burial, right? But they're trying to prepare, like the spices and all the stuff they need for the burial. And they kind of run out of time. And so it's a Sabbath, they have to stop. But different writers will give us different Mary's. So in Matthew, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, that's not helpful. Right? So Mark, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, alright, then Luke, the women from Galilee? How many Pray tell? We don't know. So it says the women of Galilee follow. So there could be lots of women there, right. So it's just what certain writers are choosing to point out and we'll get to John, and he'll tell you. So what we're going to do is kind of put it all together. Like I said, normally, if you're new here, normally, lots and lots and lots of scriptures, I put them up on the screen and go try to read and read really fast. So today, we're just going to paraphrase it, I'm going to put it together because it became so arduous and complicated to like, cut this verse out here. And this first goes in there, and it was just, it was crazy, right? So yeah, literally, to get this right. You have to be nuts like me, and sit there with like four Bibles. And like, you're just trying to get it all together. So I made you a chart. And so there it is, right there. And this is the order. So it's going to stay up as I kind of paraphrase this. And if you're in your Bible, you can do this. You can look in the app later to kind of see where it goes. But this is where it is and kind of how you have to put it together if you're doing it chronologically. Ish. All right. So again, the many Mary's so here you have Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome. So they start out for the tomb. So they're going to do this Sunday morning, stop for the Sabbath. They're going to say, Okay, here we go. We're going to go prepare Jesus body. And what they're wondering is like, oh, you know, how are we going to roll the stone away? What are we going to do? In Luke, very early Sunday morning, the women went to the tomb. Again, we don't know how many. So it leaves the door open for more people. So it's Sunday, the women set out for the tomb. The big thing is, you know, how are we going to get this big old stone out of the way? Well, in the meantime, there's an earthquake and an angel rolls the stone away, the guards, they pass out.
So this has occurred previously, so they're asking this question, now, the women find the tomb, stone has moved, whoa. So Mary Magdalene, she runs and tells Peter, this is kind of hard to catch when you're reading, if you're paying attention, though. Mary Magdalene goes, gets Peter stones moved. There's no mention of the body yet. Now, if you go to John, and I always think that this is funny. But John and Peter and John is writing remember, right and Peter's like the lead apostle, so John makes sure that he tells everybody that he won the race to the to read it, it's actually funny. So the disciple Jesus love, got there first, you know, and it was just it's kind of a really funny thing. Maybe there's rivalry. So what happens is John kind of peeks his head in the tomb, he doesn't actually go in it because he added it to him. He sees the linen wrappings, the face cloth is folded, people have asked that question, why is it all folded up? So that right, you know, the body wasn't stolen? And I've given this illustration before, if you're going to steal something from someone, you're not going to take time to like, do the laundry, right. So, you know, hey, let's do this guy's TV and all that stuff, we should really do the laundry, right? Because, you know, that'd be the nice thing to do. So we're not going to do that. So why would someone steal Jesus's body and be like, oh, you know, fold it up on the that's why it's mentioned there most likely. So Peter goes in, and he sees Jesus is gone. So that's the big thing there. It's kind of interesting, because Jonathan mentioned that he calls himself the disciple of Jesus loved another thing there. He says it well then they believe but then they just go home. It's really weird. It's very uneventful. And if you're reading it, you're kind of like, okay, I guess that's it, but it's setting this up. So now you have the women entering the tomb. And here's like the angels. Want to count the men in the white robe, right, Mary standing outside, and she's weeping. swoops in looks, she beholds two angels. Now there's two angels. And the thing is, well, first of all, one angel says, He has risen, right? He's not here. He's risen. Go tell the disciples about it. Well, Mary is really upset. I'm shortening that whole exchange right there. And so Woman, why are you weeping? So they said to Mary, because they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid him. So why are you crying? But she had responded to the angels. It gets confusing. You have this dialogue here, didn't know where she took him, and it reiterates that, then she turned around, she saw someone standing there now it's a little confusing, because she doesn't know it's Jesus. She supposes that it's the gardener. Right? But finally, well, again, women, why are you weeping? Now? Supposing to be the gardener? Sir, if you've carried away she thinks like the gardener took the body, if you cared, tell me where he is. And I'll take Jesus says Mary Rabona. You know, she recognizes his voice, she knows that she cleans to him. Don't claim to me, woman, I've not yet ascended to the Father. But again, go tell the disciples. So then you have the women on their way back. They're also witnessing Jesus, they see Jesus right. And they worship him. That's an important note there, they worship Jesus. So this is kind of how it breaks down. Now, Jesus will now appear to others. And so this kind of stuff happens after this. So keep in mind that women are the first witnesses to Jesus. And I'll talk about why that's so remarkable. Now you have the Emmaus road. Cleopas and friend, run into Jesus are about seven miles away from Jerusalem. They're kind of walking there. And then God, it's kind of like, doesn't let them see Jesus. Yeah, who Jesus is and stuff. And so Jesus has to explain from Scripture they are another funny thing happens like, hey, come have dinner with us. And Jesus hanging out eating with them. That's interesting. Why is he keep eating with people? Well, it's a real body. And sure enough, this comes up with the disciples. So he appears in a locked room. So what are they saying? How did he get in the room? It's locked up, right? It appears and he says, Peace be with you. And they're like, it's a ghost. So they freak out. And he's like, no, no, it's really me. I'm not a ghost. Ghosts don't have the body and looks he shows him the wounds. Remember? Now Thomas isn't there like Tom is Jesus has appeared, is resurrected from the dead. And I won't I won't believe until I see. And here's where we get the nails. Right? We know he was crucified with the nails. Why? John 20. It says that I don't believe until I see the nails. It says that right in Greek. Right there. Okay, then he shows up again, eight days later, please be with you. Right and forgot again. He's like, no, no, Thomas, check it out. And then he finally believes is my Lord and my God. So for those of you we talked about this before, they never considered Jesus God. Or some people will say that. No, Thomas calls him God, right there. Alright, so then you have another interaction. If you're reading John, and we're going to kind of do this next week, a little more, I'm going to kind of lead to the ascension with this, but you have this thing where they're fishing and he's like casting a net on the right side of the boat and they cast 100 They get 153 fish, do not speculate. This means nothing, just it's 153 fish. They're just documenting what it was. And again, Jesus eats with them. He's hanging out, he prepared a charcoal fire and everything and eat with them again, also worth noting that I believe it's Luke's account where he actually he says he's hungry. And they give him like some grilled fish. So it's like three times, from my recollection, very interesting, all proofs that Jesus has risen in a real body. Now, here's the thing, we see that the disciples like Peter Thomas, they do come to believe. But if you're reading Mark's summary, he summarizes it, mark is short, 16 chapters. So it's like the shortest of all the Gospel accounts. And so he's summarizing a lot of these things. So he kind of does this all real quick, but we noticed something right before that. Mark 16, nine after Jesus rose from the dead early on Sunday morning. The first person who saw him was Mary Magdalene, the woman for whom he had cast out seven demons. She went to the disciples who are grieving and weeping and told them what had happened. But when she told them that Jesus was alive, and she had seen him, they didn't believe her. Afterward, he appeared in a different form two of his followers, we talked about all this summary what I just said, who were walking from Jerusalem into the country, they rushed back to tell the others, but no one believed them. Still later, he appeared to the 11 disciples as they were eating together, he rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead. If we look at what happened between Jesus's appearance of the women, and probably like right before the mass road, we see this Matthew 2811. As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. Remember, they fainted while they woke up, I guess and went there, a meeting with the elders was called, and decided to give the soldiers a large bribe, they told the soldiers, you must say, Jesus's disciples came during the night while they were sleeping and stole his body. If the governor hears about it, we'll stand up for you so you won't get in trouble. So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told today to say, and their story is still widely spread among the Jews. And they still tell it today, kind of mashed up together their little dyslexia kick in. So their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today. And indeed, this continues to this day. There are a lot of competing worldviews trying to take down Christianity. That's a big thing. But it has stood the test of time, around 2000 years. And I will explain to you why today. Now, before I mentioned this show, and it's just another kind of angle to think about this, because if you know me, well, you know, I don't like Christian movies. And that sounds really weird coming from a pastor what, you know, what are you talking about? Okay, so that's the first thing, let's all be really real about this low budget like that. That's an upset, right? Usually not good. I could use other descriptive words, but again, might say a bad word by accident. So they're not good. Usually, let's just be honest, right? They're not like a great representation of what we do. They don't, in my opinion, artistically, I was a musician and artists, right? Like, they don't artistically represent my lord, right? It really well, they should be as good as all the other movies and they're not. The other thing, especially if it's about the Bible. They all get it wrong. I have not seen one, not one Christian movie that actually gets it right. They all feel the need to go off the script in some way, shape, or form. I'm like, What are you doing? And so to me, I just get the bothers me, this is my favorite book. And so you make a movie about it. I want it to be exact. And it's never that way. It's just never ever that way. They got to go. Even the best ones like no, you know, the only ones I've seen where they just read. That's it. They have like these actors. And it's like the gospel of Mark, you can look it up. I don't used to be on Netflix. But the guy just reads the Bible. I'm like, it's like, thank you. Why? Because it's ever again. I can make a better story than God. What, like, we need to fill in the gaps. I'm like, no, no, no, no, there are no gaps. No gaps, no gaps here, right. So I get kind of riled up. And so I won't go too far. You guys have heard this speech before? If you've been here for a while. But the other thing it does, and people don't think about this a lot. But you got to think about this for a second. In an attempt to entertain Christians, because those are the only people watching it right? They say, well, we'll get this out. A lot of people watch it like, no, no, no, no, they're watching like the last Marvel movie or something. Right? So they're not watching it. So. But like an attempt to entertain Christians, they make the work of the people on the front lines harder. Because what happens when you change one thing, things start to fall apart down the line. There are mistakes. God doesn't make contradictions we do. We don't we're not that he's not a bad writer we are. And so if we think, Oh, we can change this, and it'll be better.
Nope, it's not going to happen. Right? So now, if there are non Christians watching, they're not going to read the Bible. And by the way, the reason Christians like these shows is because they're not reading the Bible. Because if you knew it, you wouldn't like it. Right? So, but they're going to watch it, and they're going to be like, well, you remember this one time when Jesus did that, and that and that was wrong, or that was a contradiction, I guess. Thank you. All right, and they're not reading the Bible. That's all they've ever seen. So it gives this false picture of Jesus. And that in and of itself is wrong. Okay, that's my event. Thank you. All right. So the one Christian movie, it's not about the Bible, that's why I like it. So it's called a case for Christ. And it's actually a really good movie. I don't know what the budget was, doesn't matter. They did a good job. They did a really good job, I was able to sit through it and not go like, Oh, it's terrible, right. But it's based on a real guy named Lee Strobel. And their little booklets if you want one, I can give you one if you'd like to read a case for Christ. And so the premise is this. It's essentially that and just I might get a little wrong. But the big idea here is at least Robles like an investigative journalist. His wife is a Christian. He doesn't like it. He's not he's an atheist, right as he sets out to try to prove it wrong, using what everyone should use the historical method and I'll explain a little bit of that to you in a second. Right. So journalism tools, historical method sets out to do it. Now there are a lot of cool people represented in the movie. They're not actually in the movie, but it's about them like William Lane Craig, smart guy, I don't recommend a lot of scholars, he's really good. Gary Habermas is not very popular guy, but he's super, super smart. Now, I'll tell you about a little thing he came up with, I do the condensed version of it heavily borrowed from him. So he interviews all these people, he goes to all these different people. And long story short, in the process of doing this, he actually becomes a Christian. Why? Because using the right method, it's like, oh, this really happened. This is unbelievable. And he becomes a Christian. But in the process, he's told one thing, it's really important. Like, if you want to take down Krishna, like what do I do to take down Christianity? One thing, disprove the resurrection, if you can disprove that, it's over, it all falls apart, just prove the resurrection. So back in the day, Paul, writing First Corinthians knew this, he knew that this was a big problem. So if you're looking at First Corinthians, and it just get you there, I won't go through the whole thing. But basically, the church is having problems. They're having different, you know, one through four chapters one through four pastor worship, do we do that today? You know, so they're having sex, like typical problems that we still have today. But he gets to chapter 15. And he gets to this issue of the resurrection. And he writes this first Corinthians 15. One. Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters of the good news I preached to you before you welcome to then and you still stand firm in it. It is the good news that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you, unless, of course, you believe something that was never true. In the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had been passed on to me, Christ died for our sins, just as a Scripture said, He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as Scripture said, he was seen by Peter and then by the 12. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. He was seen that he was seen by James and later by all the apostles last of all, as though he had been born at the wrong time untimely born. So he means I also saw him. So what he does, he sets this up, but he's like, let me give you the basics of the gospel like this, just the basics, so I can get to the resurrection, right? So some people be like, That's it. That's the gospel. Not quite, but he's just doing it quickly. So he can get right to the resurrection. That's what he's going to do. These are the facts. And now we get to this point, the rest of the chapter is going to be all about the resurrection, because it's essential to what we believe. So here's what he says about it. First Corinthians 1512. But tell me this, since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying, there will be no resurrection of the dead, for if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless. And our faith is useless. And we apostles would be lying about God forbid, said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can't be true if there's no resurrection of the dead. And if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised in your faith is useless, and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died, believing in Christ are lost. And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. If the resurrection didn't happen, your faith is worthless. This is nothing. It means nothing. That's how important what we're talking about today is our understanding of it. And our belief that it really happened. If we don't believe it, if it didn't happen, I might as well go home right now. So just like today, back then there was some saying didn't happen. They doubt it. So later, Peter addresses this too, but not exactly on the point of the resurrection in the same way, sir went to First Peter, remember, honor everybody. Jesus is our example. We should, you know, sometimes we're going to be called to suffer and that's kind of the big thing here, we're going to suffer for him. Maybe people are going to mistreat us, we might die like Jesus. But don't repay insult for insult. Don't do that. He didn't retaliate. It's exactly what it says. So first, Peter to leading into three. So first, Peter 313. When we get into that section now, who want to harm you, if you're eager to do good, but even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don't worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope, as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. The last part people just feel. Right? So if you're in the Greek here you get to word called apologia. So apologetics where apologetics comes from. And so it's to make a defense is literally what it means. Now Peter knows he's going to throw that word out there, what we do? What are we going to do with that word? Wow, we're going to make a defense. So what do we do? Let's go back to the armor of God and forget that the sword is a sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Right? So we're like, Peter, you know, we're going to cut some ears off now, you know, because we're making a defense, we have to be defensive, right? So he makes sure to say, right, what is this? Be ready to do it in a gentle and respectful way? Can we go back one slide? Let's just look at that again. Let's see if we can do that. Can we see it again? There we go. Right. I'm not making this up. Do it in a gentle and respectful way. Do words, right? Against that one? Why? Well, this is what we do. Thank you. This is what we do. Right? We look for any excuse to tear someone down, right? Like kicking the dog. And so, right, we had a bad day. So I hope you don't do that. But anyway, no one left. Don't kick your dog. It's not nice. So we do that to people, right? So we have to be careful that I've said this before, I have never won an argument. Never. Right. If I argue with someone, it's just two people that go. And then we leave same position in the first place. big waste of time. big waste of time, counterproductive to everything Jesus did, like, what are you doing? So don't argue, we have to be careful when we make a defense for what we believe that we don't put the person on the defense. We don't make them defensive. Because that's what we do. We comment people hard. What are they there? They're not listening anymore. They're just like, No, you know, that's it. We don't want people to take that kind of posture, they're not going to receive the message. So how do you do it? Well, you do it in a gentle and respectful way with the facts, just a factual discussion. So today, we're going to look at the facts, we're going to take a look at what Christianity is and how we got here, like how we believe this and why it hasn't been taken down. 2000 years around 2000 year. Alright, so first one, this sounds like it's kind of obvious, but it's not. Christianity is based on eyewitness testimony. And normally, you'd think like, of course, right? Of course, it would be. Why then would anyone believe it? Well, most other worldviews are not. So you can ask them? Why would you believe that? That's an interesting approach. So ask a question. Like, I know I why I'm not there to tell you what I tell you today, you'll be able to say this, too. And this is why I believe, first of all, historically, I have faith. I have a relationship with Jesus Christ, but that person isn't there yet. So you don't start with that? Just sounds like nonsense. Like, what? relationship with the dead guy, you know? And that's what they said, in the early church. Do? You don't start there? Like start with Okay, let the facts let's just look at the facts. And that's what Paul did, right? What did Paul do to get to the resurrection? The facts, you outline the facts, why should we do it any different, right? Same thing. So you just ask me a question. Like, this is why I believe and I'll get there. But why do you believe what you believe? So if you're talking to someone, a Muslim person who Islam? Well, because Muhammad said, so? That's it. That's all there is. That's all they got? One guy goes, hasn't experienced comes back tells a bunch of other people. This is what happened.
No, it didn't. You know what I mean? Like, what do you do with that? Right? So here's another one lot to surprise. A lot of people they say it, but it's the truth. So I don't care. Mormons. That's not Christianity. That's a call. That's a call. They believe in crazy things. Like, they won't tell you that when they come to the door on the white shirts and everything. But when you get into the call, you'll find out. Jesus is a god. He's not the God is a God, and we can be a god like him. And then we get like our own planet. We have to wear like secret pajamas. And if our wife isn't nice to us, she doesn't get into heaven. All that's true. That sounds crazy. It's crazy. All right. And so same thing, right? Like whatever it was 1800 years later, some guy comes along, has an experience tells everyone about it. And you just got to believe them. And both of them have a lot in common. The main thing is they're rip off religions. They just take the Bible. So the Bible in both of these cases, like 600 years later, maybe 18 The Bible was well known about. Everyone knew about it, except it this is history. This is what happened. And they took it and went and they distorted it. They're distortions of the Bible. It's a rip off religion. Alright, so You don't have to say all that. I'm saying that to you guys, because most of y'all are here Christians probably, if you're Mormon, sorry, not sorry. But we can talk later. Be mad at me. It's okay. Happens all the time. But talking to you, you know, you just ask a question like, why do you believe this? Like, let's the fat. Why do you believe this? It's not history. And no this to about either of those documents, whether it'd be the Koran, or whether it'd be whatever the Book of Mormon, no, scholars consider those history books. They're not. They're laughable. They don't hold up to the historical methods. So we'll talk about this. So Jesus, and here we go. First thing you have to understand Christianity is exactly the opposite. So when we're looking at the New Testament, just talk about the New Testament today, because the Old Testament is very complicated. When we're looking at the New Testament, we are looking, I often call them witnesses, we talked about this Bible study, because they, for the most part, are people who were witnesses to the events. They saw it, or they interviewed people who saw it, we're talking about primary and secondary documents and things like that, in historical terms, but when you think about it, how do we get the news of something happening? Well, you normally have a second person, like a reporter, saying what happened, and then maybe they interview the person. So even with the interviewers, it's the same way we get our news, but the Bible is even better. Because with the Bible, you have New Testament, Matthew, he's not a reporter. He's an apostle, you actually witnessed a lot of this stuff. Mark, he's a little boy, we didn't really get into this. But it's funny, like when Jesus gets arrested, he runs away naked. That's probably mark. But he's John Mark. So Peter gets out of jail from the angel and it goes to John Mark's house, his mom's name is Mary, another Mary. Imagine, right. So John Mark, he's around for this stuff. Paul gets mad at him at one point, but then we know from reading Second Timothy, they must have made up you can see it he Peter calls him a son to him. He's around. He knows the people. Right? Luke, Dr. Luke, okay. Not there in the Gospels. But we see him in Acts traveling companion of Paul, really smart guy uses big Greek words that I have to look up. So thanks, Luke. You couldn't give us him? Now he's around. He interviews people. John, the disciple Jesus loved he's already this axe written by Luke. Paul writes 13 letters, right, Romans First Corinthians Second Corinthians Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians Colossians First Thessalonians Second Thessalonians First Timothy, second, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and maybe not Hebrews. Right. So we don't know. But I'll give you 26. Right. So we don't know who wrote that. It's up for debate. Great theology, though. So Paul, a witness like as he's saying here to the resurrected Jesus. Right. James Jesus brother. First and second. Peter, Peter talked about him. The first or third John, John. Jude, the other Judas right. So he's not the Judas Iscariot one. Let's do an apostle. Revelation. John. Witnesses pretty good. So compared to today, wow. You know, these aren't just like reporters saying, This is what he said. You got to believe me? No, believe me, I saw it. Witnesses, incredible. The women as witnesses. This is really incredible when you think about it, and scholars will use this one a lot. Because other scholars know this. Back then women were not considered credible witnesses. If you were in a court of law, they could not be a witness. You've come a long way. So right, so just the way it was then. So think about it. These are the ones that you put there witnessing Jesus first. No one's going to believe it back then. So why would you do that? Right if you're going to make up a story in this time period, like you know, you'd have Peter right you know, he slashed off the year Jesus wouldn't heal it because Peter is not wrong. He's the hero it's the army of one right you're going to rewrite this right now Peter and kill some of the soldiers but there's they get overwhelmed there's too many sounds good right there's too many though. Jesus though. They're taking away Jesus but and Peter is bleeding. He's got wounds and stuff like that, right? You know, the two swords they don't have enough all we should listen to Jesus just two swords and they're like, 11 of us didn't work out. Right. So it's going to be something like that something crazy, right? And the women, you know what I mean? Like they're cooking, you know, like the I don't know what they're doing whatever women did, then they're not like going, where are the disciples? You're good. They didn't even bother bearing Jesus. No, they're too scared. They're a bunch of cowards. But the women go and they're getting the spices observe this the law observing the Sabbath. Okay, now we're going to go back out who's going to roll the stone away? Should have thought of that first. But you know what? The disciples didn't do it. They're a bunch of cowards. They don't What did Mark say? They don't believe and Jesus shows up. He didn't rebuke the women did he? know Mary. He rebuked him disciples because they refused to believe this is embarrassing. Really, you call yourself apostles really? Think about this, right? That's kind of what you're thinking, if you're thinking of this, right? Here's why it's that way. Because that's exactly what happened. Even if it causes these leaders in the early church, great embarrassment. Think about it, Peter, Get behind Me, Satan. I wouldn't want that in the story. She's going to just leave that part out. You know, you wonder the conversations, like goes to Matthew, really, you had to put that part in. Like, that's why I laugh when I see John because it seems like John's taking some shots at theater. But you know, but great embarrassment. He's like, that's just what happened. And this was so mind blowing. He came back from watch me. He came back from the dead. That's it all bets are off. I don't care about me anymore. They literally just die to themselves and all of a sudden start getting it better. Not completely right all the time. But whoa, it happened. The other thing, this doesn't sound obvious. But a lot of people will poke at the Bible and they'll say you might have heard this. The Bible is like playing a game of telephone. Right? It was written hundreds of years later and maybe you heard that one. Wrong. Where's my buzzer from Bible study again? Wrong. Like they got me a buzzer which is just amazing for me. Terrible for everyone else in the room. Fantastic. Wait. I love it. I'm going to have like a life buzzer someone's got to get me something like the portable or something on the keychain. like it'd be like not respectful or gentle though. So we're not going to do I just abuse you guys because you're Christians already. Alright, so anyway, not obvious. You're welcome. So, no, it's reciprocal. We do it to each other. It's fun. It's a joke anyway. It it's not that way. I just told you right now you just shut down that argument? No, written by witnesses, they had to be alive to write it right. So no, it's credible. So here is what Gary Habermas brings to the table, kind of a shortened version of that scholars explanation. And it's good thinking. So if you've heard this before, great, but listen to it again and memorize it because it really blows people's minds. So if you're dealing with a skeptical believer, so we shut down that argument, shut up. No, no, don't say that. But so like, no, stop with that argument. But here's the thing. Do you believe the Alexander the Great existence? The answer unless they're nuts will be yes. If they say no, be like, listen, we're kind of done here. I'm sorry. So just pray for them. But yes, of course. Why? Because I learned about him in school. What class? History class? Ah, so you believe in him based on what was written about him? Yes, the answer will be got it. Well, let's look at what was written about him. What we have we base our knowledge of Alexander the Great on the oldest document that we have life of Alexander by Plutarch. What's interesting about that, is it's written right around ish, the same time the gospels were, same type of literary genre, big words, ancient Greco Roman biographies. The gospels are ancient Greco Roman Greco Roman biographies to a history person, you don't have to memorize all that. But just the writings around the same time that 100 ad, life of Alexander by blue dark gods was a little bit before. That's okay. We'll work with that. But if you know anything about history, here's the problem. Alexander the Great died in 323, BC, June or July.
Wait a minute. So if you're good at math, it's about 400 years later, we have the first writing about him that we have today. Hold on. So we're basing our belief in Alexander the Great on something that someone who could not have known him, wrote 400 years later, the answer is yes. And you believe it. You just said you had faith? You just said yes. That's kind of interesting. So the charge it's made against the Bible, it's actually true of all history of that time. It's all written way later. The other thing is, it's a wealth of information. So when you're looking at historical documents, done a lot of work in this in this field, this area, right, I'm no expert, but I've done a lot of looking around a lot of reading a lot of work, what you see generally, and not that all these things are histories or whatever. But when you're looking at these works, you're looking at Aristotle, Plato, Plato's Plato, looking at these things, again at home, or like the Iliad, I think the Iliad has 686 copies, right. So that's Yeah, but that's a lot. That's the most right and you're looking at like Aristotle played four copies. 47 copies, something like that. The New Testament, over 5800 copies in the Greek alone. And they're all within 95% agreement of one another. And they're all the same doesn't matter where you found it found in one country or another. They're really just the same. That's a miracle. When it comes to historical works, people don't understand that. It's unbelievable. Here's the thing. We talked about primary documents, right? First Corinthians, so about doing these things, respectfully and gently, one technique I'll share with you. I like to give people what they will give me. So just think about this for a second, right? Because you're going to find yourself in a sub argument, when you don't want to get caught there. So if you have a really good argument for something, just stick with it. Like people, people don't know when to stop talking. I know you're like, preach to yourself. But I do you know, eventually, like somebody's like, giving me Satan, right? Anyway, but, you know, like, awkward you feel ever feel that awkward in the silence. They just say something stupid. It's like, oh, you know what I mean? I should have stopped just stop. When in doubt, just pray talk to God or something like that, like, so uncomfortable. It's hard to do. But there's like four seconds guys was like no time at all. Isn't that interesting? Stop. If you have a good argument, make the case and shut it. Just be quiet. Because what a good lawyer is going to look for is like the four or five other things you say that were weaker than that. And they're just going to concentrate all the attention on that. And ever forget about the good one. Don't do that. So when doing apologetics, just make your case and walk away. That's it. So we're talking about the resurrection? What's going to happen if you start making your case for all these different random places in the Bible that you might not understand? They're going to say, Oh, well, that's interesting. Use Hebrews, they don't know who wrote it. And that's it, you're going to be like, what they think, but they think they don't know who wrote it, and they're going to even though we have 26 other books, these they're going to forget that they even exist. And then, you know, the people listening are going to be like, Wow, I didn't know that. So one thing you should know that it takes a long time to figure this out. I'll just give it to you. seculars got even people who don't believe in Jesus. Any real historian and incredible story will give you first Corinthians. You can say, can we use First Corinthians? Yes. Do you object to using that? Is it a historical document? Yep. You can use it as a historical document. So Gary Habermas taught me that. So A, B, they will also acknowledge that Paul is a real historical person. They won't deny that. If a historian says No, he wasn't. They're just not even credible. There's no way by the historical he was a real person. He was a leader in the church. And he believes what he's saying. They'll give you all of that. The people the top of the hill, give you all that stuff. So cool. Let's work with that. See, see how you did that to the sub argument. Right. So we're, you're getting them to say yes, a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's look at this. Look at the witnesses. And by historical standard, First Corinthians 15, four, we were there, right, but let's look at it again. He's talking about Jesus was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as a Scripture said, he was seen by Peter and then the 12. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all apostle. And last of all, they've been born at the wrong time. I also saw him now. This is a lot of witnesses. Think about that. Public. If you don't believe me, go ask all the top church leaders. Go ask 500 people, some of them are dead, but whatever, about 500 people this happen. I mean, think about that, right? If you're going to lie about something, you're going to be like, check with everybody. They're all going to agree with me. He's very confident about that. Why? Because that's what happened. And that's where scholars go, you know, they don't feel like I don't know. They believe that. They start coming up with other theories, but now you have them on their heels. I got started making up theories about it. Okay, I don't have a theory. Here. I have the historical facts. Here's one other thing as we draw it to a close a little bit, got a couple more things. One other thing. First Corinthians scholars will say this, too. It's probably 25 years after the crucifixion. That's incredible for that time period. There's literally so if you had one apologetics page, your Bible, don't tear it out, but the market, that's where you go. It's unbeatable. There's nothing like it. Amazing. So there you are first Corinthians 15. Memorize it, do your homework. So these are The facts Jesus claimed to be God, he got killed for making that claim Mark 1462. Right. So these things are documented by the New Testament writers by witnesses to it.
If that weren't enough you have the Old Testament, which have hundreds of Sniper ish prophecies. I mean, they're so accurate that Jesus fulfills on the other end of it. So we're looking at it from the future. But if you look at it from the past, it's equally as amazing.
Nothing else like it. Nobody has Alexander the Great doesn't have nobody has that. So on both ends, both the future and the past, it's perfect. That's what you need to know today. As a Christian, that's what you need to be on reserve the application for you guys. Right? If that's you, get out there and spread the good news. Tell people about it. The Bible commands all of us to do that. Oh, it's first Peters to the church as a whole felt like Timothy or Titus, where you might argue like, wow, he was just telling that to Titus, right? Nope. All of us need to know what I just told you. we're commanded to, to be able to make a defense but in kind, gentle, respectful way. Remember the fruits of the Spirit. Right? Love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control. Good stuff. That means the Holy Spirit's working in you. If you're letting the flesh work, it's the opposite outbursts of anger and defensiveness. All the arguing? That's wrong. As bad read Galatians five if you don't believe me. So that's for you. If you're a believer today, get out there and share it. This is amazing. Because I'm nervous. I'm like, listen, Moses. I'm not good with words. Go share it, then share it with like a cup of coffee, share it with love, right? Lead with something like that. Be nice. Be kind to one another and others out there. That's for you. And if you're new here, and maybe you're like kind of on the fence, Listen, guys. I don't know what you're into. Right? So but it doesn't matter. Right. So let's just like I will not talk politics, but like if you're a red sheep, or a blue sheep today. I love you both. Right? But here's the thing. Don't answer this aloud. But you must be disappointed. How can you be on either side of the aisle? And be like,
Yes, this is going great. If you're saying that. I'll pray for you like, this is going very badly on either side very badly.
Very, very badly. And it doesn't seem like anyone's going to step up to make it any better. Why? Because no one is. No one is don't look for another Messiah. There isn't one to all humans. Don't look for Jesus in me like that. Like, no, I am wrong. I say all the time. I can be wrong. Not about this. Not about this. Can people use it? No. I'm right. Today. I was right. I'll be wrong later about the type of food. Which pizza is the best and you're from Chicago and then I'll be wrong to you. Right, but you're wrong. So anyway. Right, but I'm flawed. I'm flawed. I'm not always the best father, and not always the best husband. Don't look for it in a pastor. Don't look for it in a person. So here's the thing if you don't you, you will be disappointed. Don't print yourself. Right? No, you will live life just a life of disappointment. That's what I just future. There we go the profit. Right. If you reject Jesus, I promise you will be living the rest of your life and disappointment and you will die that way as well. It's a promise guarantee. But let me tell you something. Jesus never disappoints. Jesus is never wrong. You can have the satisfaction this peace and the privilege of serving the most Hi king. Oh, you know, I got this or this guy's our President Lincoln. Whatever. He's the king of all kings. He's going to judge them all. He's coming back. That is a tremendous amount of confidence. See what it does to you. Then you can experience His love, joy, peace, patience. It's a lot better than the anger that events with law. You can live a life my wife and I were talking about that walking out the houses were like man, like there's so much free space in my head because of Jesus. And they're having imaginary arguments with people. Well, I'm not angry all the time. It's great. It's great. And so you have that never disappoints. So if you're tired of that life, it just seems void of purpose or you're always looking for new purpose and all these different things that always disappoint you. If you're tired, the sin, the shame, the regret this hamster wheel of nonsense, get off. Bask in that love, the joy, the peace, the peace. It's just unbelievable. You're invited into a relationship with Jesus, and by the fall into the family of faith. And despite all the jokes, I tell, it's a really great group of people. All right, I love you guys a lot. We have a lot of fun. And there's always a lot of joy come, you'll come up in the cafe, there's like joy, if anyone argues we just kicked them out. I hate it. It is such a contrast. I've been in a lot of different churches where there's all the time. It's so different here. Like that. When someone comes in like that, I'm like, Ah, you know what I mean? Like, get out. Right? Because we believe in Jesus. We're just trying to do what he said, and it's beautiful. It's a wonderful thing, no matter where you are, you're going to send, I'm going to say, We're going to mess up. That's fine. I don't want to start there. I want to talk about that. Right? We'll get there. Let's talk about Jesus. And so you're invited and just if, if you have not yet been baptized, if you just heard the gospel, if you don't believe you just heard the gospel. That's it info gave you every reason to believe this. If you're feeling led, I don't want to be emotional. I don't want to hear some song made me cry. And then I ran up made an altar call. And then a week later, like, you know, I'm done with it. No, no, I want you to have firm rock solid faith. And if that's you, and you're getting there, good, let's talk, I want to talk to you. So you will be told after the message, how you can talk to me. Or you can just come right up to me and like, shake my hand because I'm a real human being like, Hey, check it out. Not a ghost. So you can say hi to me. And we'll talk and exchanged numbers. And that's it tell you about baptism, we'll get you baptized. Dunk you. Right. So that's fine. And just, if you're passing through, a lot of people come through, and I'm on vacation like you from Naples. No. Here's the thing. And this is a good reminder, to all of us, who are members of this church who considers us anymore. Now you're going to stop saying, Well, who are parts of this family or parts of this family? That's how I feel about it. Parts of this family just as a reminder, because we kind of like take things for granted, right? Let's not take this for granted. But if you're passing through, here's the thing, right? And get baptized. But you need to find a Bible believing church. It's really important to think about this for one second, even if I just take a couple extra minutes here, there's plenty of food, you'll live, it's okay. You won't be late for lunch. If you made lunch plans at 11. What's wrong with you? You should make them at 12. That's why we do this right? So you have plenty of time to get to you. I don't even know why I still feel bad about that. Because all you guys are like you can keep preaching. Not all you guys but anyway, most of you, the ones I listened to. So here's the thing, Bible believing church, you're getting that. So it's really important. And most churches are not unfortunately, that's just the sad truth. They're not. It's why so many people can watch the chosen. Because they'll know the Bible if you did, it would really bother you. Right? They're not. So you're going to find a Bible believing church, where the pastor looked at the wall outside, were devoted to the word right fell to the breaking the bread, the prayer, that's what the church needs to be devoted to read Acts, we're going to get to it chapter two, chapters. Six, right, the apostles the people teaching, they were like, in the word all the time. That's, that's the this is the rock. They're just going to build it on that and I know Jesus is the rock. Don't hit me when the scriptures but you get the point. This is what it's built on the Word of God. Right? And then we go from there. But if this is wrong, it crumbles. So whoever is teaching is needs to be that. So you need to find someone who just loves the word of God and a group of people around you. They want to hear the Word of God, you go to the church, it's just a bunch of opinions and like one line of Scripture. Wrong. Like I don't want to hear that. It needs to be a lot of Scripture. Right? Paraphrase a lot today, but you get the point. It's coming from there. And I'm speaking God's word to you. Not like oh, I just feel like I need to say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No feelings. This this right. So that's the first thing right? That's it they need to be devoted if the guy gets up and just read you the Bible for like an hour. Perfect church right. So that's it. That's what you want. The Word of God. That's important. The other thing you want a church that is not based on things of the world of the person is getting up there and just like they're asking you for money so they can have a jet right? That's an obvious one and that happens. Leave right? This person here does not need to be trying to get rich and famous off all y'all that I say that right? As a New Yorker, all y'all that's not No, been there, done that. Been there done that I'm done with that part, right? My wife works. You know, we have money from before. That's great. That's why we have some nice things. We kept some nice things this year right now my function is not to get rich or to get famous. If it is, leave the church. It is not. Right. That's not what I'm thinking about right now. I'm thinking about souls, souls, souls, souls like, brings tears to my eyes, the tips I care about in this moment that you will all be saved. We all get to hang out and have any pizza. I'd hate to see that stop myself from crying. Right. That's all I want. Money. Whatever. Right? That's not important in my mind right now. It's about the people, not the production. It's about the people, not the production. And that feels so good. If you're a leader, another church you're traveling through, we get pastors that come here because they like the Bible and stuff. Listen, man, if you're a pastor, someone, I'm going to tell you something, like get your people to a place where if you didn't have the worship, the singing all that stuff, you'll be like, whatever. I don't care how perfect you are. So if this is the pastor's, if you're watching this, and you're a pastor, you are so distracted from this by the nonsense and that nonsense is production. Now, I will say this, this goes out to a lot more people than are here today. And that's why I even bother, like putting on pants and shoes. No, I don't go around my underwear. But shorts. I like shirt. You know, I hate dressing like this. I literally hate it. Like I get as soon as I can just get out of this stuff. It's so annoying. I came here from not to wear shoes and Florida. This is ridiculous. But we try to look good, you know, for the camera, and not that I look good. But, you know, I know myself. But anyway, like, it's just we're trying to present Well, because kids, I have literally a microsecond to get to them, right? So we do this. And this is missions. Very, very economical missions don't cost a whole lot to reach. And we get people like in India everywhere. That's cool. This is the only reason why otherwise come to Bible study. I'm in shorts and sandals. Right? I don't. Okay, we, it's so freeing because as a pastor you come in, you're like, oh, no, this is going to go wrong, that's going to the wrong. The that's not what you should be thinking about. You should be thinking about this. Right? To go to a church where they're just there to pad in this, it's all about this. And then by extension, it's all about loving one another. So as we close today, I'm just going to invite you, you'll be invited to go hang out in the fellowship, it's the other half of the worship service, I call it because we're doing what the other half of the four points in acts at the church did. That's where that happens. That's the other half of the worship service. So join us in that. But again, like just to reiterate, if you're a part of the family here, Jesus is put in the most high position at this church. Amen.
We pray for you, Lord. Thank you for everyone who took the time to come today and be a part of the family of faith. To hear Your word preached. I pray for them, that they would surrender to your will be filled with your Holy Spirit. Vehicles of Your grace, your mercy, and love your joy, your peace as they go out this week. Spread your gospel message I asked these things in Jesus's name. Amen.