Adrian Rogers: 1 Corinthians 15 – The Resurrection of Jesus Conquered Death



THE SECRET IS OUT AND WHAT IS THE SECRET? MILLIONS UPON THIS EARTH WILL ONE DAY GO TO HEAVEN WITHOUT DYING AND THOSE WHO KNOW THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO SLEEP IN THE GRAVE, WILL BE RAISED UP. NOW THE LIVING SAINTS WILL BE CHANGED

IN A MOMENT AND THE DEAD SAINTS WILL BE RAISED FROM THE GRAVE. THERE IS GOING TO BE A RESURRECTION.YOU SEE, GOD IS NOT FINISHED WITH US. WHEN WE DIE WE GO IN THE SPIRIT IMMEDIATELY, AH, TO HEAVEN, BUT THE BODY GOES TO THE GRAVE TO

AWAIT THE RESURRECTION. WHEN ADAM, AH, SINNED AGAINST GOD, HE DIED IMMEDIATELY IN HIS SPIRIT, PROGRESSIVELY IN HIS SOUL, AND ULTIMATELY IN HIS BODY. AH, WHEN OUR LORD REDEEMS US, HE PUTS THAT IN REVERSE. WE’RE JUSTIFIED IMMEDIATELY IN THE SPIRIT, SANCTIFIED PROGRESSIVELY IN THE SOUL,

AND GLORIFIED ULTIMATELY IN THE BODY. GOD IS NOT GOING TO LEAVE THESE BODIES OF OURS IN THE GRAVE. WE ARE COMING OUT OF THAT GRAVE. YOU SAY, “ADRIAN, DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT?” YES, I REALLY BELIEVE THAT. YOU SAY, “ISN’T THAT A LITTLE SUPERNATURAL?” THAT’S IT;

YOU’VE GOT IT. THAT’S IT. THE WHOLE CREATION IS SUPERNATURAL. GOD MADE EVERYTHING OUT OF NOTHING. YOU THINK HE CAN’T RAISE ME OUT OF SOMETHING? PROFOUND TRUTH. SIMPLY STATED. THIS IS LOVE WORTH FINDING WITH PASTOR, TEACHER, AND AUTHOR ADRIAN ROGERS. WOULD YOU TAKE GOD’S WORD AND FIND FIRST CORINTHIANS CHAPTER

15 IF YOU WOULD. IN A MOMENT WE’RE GOING TO BEGIN READING IN VERSE 45. BUT, AH, LET ME JUST SAY THAT, AH, WE ARE TALKING TODAY ABOUT THE VICTORY THAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST HAS WON OVER DEATH. THE TITLE OF OUR BIBLE STUDY THIS

MORNING; THE DAY DEATH DIED, THE DAY DEATH DIED. NOW DEATH IS A MONSTER TO BE DEALT WITH AND WITH EVERY TICK OF YOUR WATCH, SOMEWHERE ON PLANET EARTH, A SOUL DIES. [SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP] PEOPLE ARE DYING. ALL AROUND PEOPLE ARE DYING, AND YET, HUH, WE, WE DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT

DEATH. WE DON’T WANT TO FACE DEATH. YOU MENTION DEATH AND PEOPLE WILL CHANGE THE SUBJECT LIKE THEY’RE SWITCHING CHANNELS ON TELEVISION. PEOPLE DIE AND THEY DIE IN STRANGE WAYS. HAROLD LEE DUNCAN WAS CUTTING HIS GRASS; HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN WERE WATCHING. SUDDENLY HE SEIZED HIS LEFT SIDE, CRUMPLED TO THE GROUND,

AND HE WAS DEAD. A SMALL, HALF INCH PIECE OF WIRE, NO BIGGER IN DIAMETER THAN A PENCIL LEAD, HAD BEEN FLUNG BY THAT POWER MOWER INTO HIS HEAD, ENTERED HIS BRAIN, AND HE DIED INSTANTANEOUSLY. DEATH IS A FACT AND PEOPLE DIE SUDDENLY, INSTANTANEOUSLY,

AND IN STRANGE WAYS. THERE ARE THREE THINGS I WANT US TO SEE IN THE SCRIPTURE, AH, THAT WE ARE GOING TO READ IN JUST A MOMENT, AND I’LL TELL YOU WHAT THEY ARE AHEAD OF TIME. I WANT YOU TO SEE THE SOVEREIGN MAJESTY OF OUR REDEEMER. I WANT

YOU TO SEE THE SACRED, UH, MYSTERY OF OUR RAPTURE. AND THEN I WANT YOU TO SEE THE STEADFAST MINISTRY OF THE SAINTS, NOW OF THE REDEEMED. NOW LOOK IF YOU WILL AS WE READ THIS SCRIPTURE AND SEE IF YOU CAN FIND THOSE THINGS. FIRST CORINTHIANS AND READ WITH ME NOW BEGINNING IN VERSE,

CHAPTER 15 BEGINNING IN VERSE 45, “AND SO IT IS WRITTEN, ‘THE FIRST MAN, ADAM, WAS MADE A LIVING SOUL; THE LAST ADAM WAS MADE A QUICKENING,” THAT IS, A LIFE-GIVING, “SPIRIT.’ HOWBEIT, THAT WAS NOT FIRST WHICH IS SPIRITUAL, BUT THAT WHICH IS NATURAL.” THAT IS,

THE FIRST ADAM CAME BEFORE JESUS. “AND AFTERWARD THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUAL. THE FIRST MAN IS OF THE EARTH, EARTHY; THE SECOND MAN,” THE SECOND ADAM, “IS THE LORD FROM HEAVEN. AND AS IS THE EARTHY, SUCH ARE THEY ALSO THAT ARE EARTHY; AND AS IS THE HEAVENLY,

SUCH ARE THEY ALSO THAT ARE HEAVENLY. AND AS WE HAVE BORNE THE IMAGE OF THE EARTHY, WE SHALL ALSO BEAR THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY. NOW THIS I SAY, BRETHREN, THAT FLESH AND BLOOD CANNOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD; NEITHER DOTH CORRUPTION INHERIT INCORRUPTION. BEHOLD,

I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY; WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP, BUT WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED, IN A MOMENT, IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE, AT THE LAST TRUMP, FOR THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND, AND THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE, AND WE SHALL BE CHANGED. FOR THIS CORRUPTIBLE

MUST PUT ON INCORRUPTION, AND THIS MORTAL MUST PUT ON IMMORTALITY. SO, WHEN THIS CORRUPTIBLE SHALL HAVE PUT ON INCORRUPTION, AND THIS MORTAL SHALL HAVE PUT ON IMMORTALITY, THEN SHALL BE BROUGHT TO PASS THE SAYING THAT IS WRITTEN, ‘DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. O DEATH,

WHERE IS THY STING? O GRAVE, WHERE IS THY VICTORY?’ THE STING OF DEATH IS SIN, AND THE STRENGTH OF SIN IS THE LAW. BUT THANKS BE TO GOD, WHICH GIVETH US THE VICTORY THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. THEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, BE YE STEADFAST, UNMOVABLE, ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF

THE LORD, FORASMUCH AS YE KNOW THAT YOUR LABOR IS NOT IN VAIN IN THE LORD.” NOW THINK FOR JUST A MOMENT ABOUT THE SOVEREIGN MAJESTY OF OUR REDEEMER. WHY IS HE KING? WHY IS HE LORD? HE HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD AND HE IS LORD. JESUS

CAME OUT OF THAT GRAVE AND JESUS BECAME THE DEATH OF DEATH. NOW LISTEN TO ME. WHEN JESUS WALKED OUT OF THAT GRAVE HE DID MORE THAN SURVIVE DEATH, ARE YOU LISTENING? HE DECIMATED DEATH. HE DIDN’T SURVIVE DEATH; HE DESTROYED DEATH. HE IS CALLED, “THE FIRST FRUITS,” AND HE IS CALLED,

“THE LAST ADAM.” LOOK IF YOU WILL, AH, IN THE SCRIPTURE AGAIN HERE IN VERSE 47. LOOK AT IT, “THE FIRST MAN IS OF THE LA, IS OF THE EARTH, EARTHLY; THE SECOND MAN IS THE LORD FROM HEAVEN.” HE IS CALLED, AH,

“THE SECOND MAN,” OR AGAIN LOOK OVER IN VERSE 22 IF YOU WILL. HE IS CALLED, “THE LAST ADAM.” “FOR AS IN ADAM ALL DIE, EVEN SO IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE.” HE IS, “THE LAST ADAM.” THE FIRST ADAM WAS THE ADAM THAT MARRIED EVE,

AND THE LAST ADAM IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. NOW, IN THE FIRST MAN WE ALL FELL. IN THE SECOND MAN WE’RE ALL REDEEMED. I READ SOMEWHERE OF SOME MEN WHO WERE CLIMBING THE MATTERHORN, THAT MAJESTIC, MAJESTIC, UH, MOUNTAIN IN SWITZERLAND AND THERE WERE FOUR OF THEM

TOGETHER. THERE WERE TWO GUIDES AND TWO TOURISTS. FIRST OF ALL, THERE WAS A GUIDE, THEN THERE WAS A TOURIST, THEN THERE WAS A GUIDE, AND THEN THERE WAS A TOURIST. AND THEY WERE GOING UP THAT STEEP, AH, ICY SLOPE AND THEY WERE ALL TIED TOGETHER. NOW THE,

THE LAST MAN, AH, THE, UH, OR THE FIRST, THE LAST MAN TIED TO THE ROPE WAS A TOURIST AND HE PUT HIS FOOT DOWN ON THE ICE AND HE SLIPPED AND HE SWUNG OVER THE SIDE. WHEN HE DID HE WAS TIED TO THE SECOND MAN WHO WAS A, A,

THE NEXT GUIDE WHO WAS A, A, A SKILLED ALPINE CLIMBER, BUT HE WAS DRAGGED OVER. WHEN HE WENT OVER HE, UH, HE PULLED THE NEXT MAN OVER. NOW THE LEAD GUIDE FELT THE TUG ON THE ROPE, HE KNEW WHAT WAS HAPPENING,

AND HE DUG HIS CLEATS IN AND PUT HIS PICKAX INTO THE ICE AND BULGED HIS MUSCLES AND HELD FOR ALL HE COULD HOLD, AND THESE OTHER THREE MEN WERE DANGLING, BUT THEY FINALLY GOT THEIR FEET BACK ON AND ALL FOUR OF THEM WENT UP, AH, THE MOUNTAIN TOGETHER. NOW FOLKS,

I WANT TO TELL YOU THAT FIRST MAN WHO SLIPPED WAS ADAM, BUT THAT LAST MAN WHO HELD WAS JESUS. HA, HA, WE’RE ALL TIED, WE’RE ALL TIED TOGETHER, BUT THANK GOD, THANK GOD FOR, AH, THAT, UH, THAT LAST MAN, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST,

WHO HAS SURVIVED FOR US. NOW, NOT ONLY IS JESUS IN THIS PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE CALLED, “THE SECOND ADAM,” OR THE, “THE SECOND MAN FROM HEAVEN,” BUT HE IS ALSO CALLED, “THE FIRST FRUITS OF THEM THAT SLEPT.” IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, IN THE OLD TESTAMENT WHEN THEY WERE HAVING A HARVEST THE

PRIEST WOULD GO OUT IN THE FIELD AND THEY WOULD FIND A SHEAF OF, OF FIRST RIPENED GRAIN. THEY WOULD TAKE THAT INTO THE TEMPLE AND, AH, THEY WOULD HAVE A, A REAL CEREMONY CALLED, THE FEAST OF THE FIRST FRUITS, AND, AH, THEY WOULD TAKE THAT, AH, SHEAF OF GRAIN AND THEY WOULD

WAVE IT BEFORE THE LORD AND THEN PUT IT ON THE ALTAR. WHAT IT WAS WAS THANKSGIVING TO GOD AND AN ACT OF FAITH SAYING, “LORD, THIS TYPIFIES THE HARVEST THAT YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE US.” NOW JESUS IS THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE RESURRECTION. AH, HE, MY FRIEND,

HAS APPEARED IN HEAVEN FOR US, AND LIKE HIS RESURRECTION, WILL BE OUR RESURRECTION. AH, WHEN HE COMES AGAIN WE’RE GOING TO HAVE THE HARVEST, OF WHICH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE FIRST FRUITS. NOW HERE’S THE SECOND THING I WANT YOU TO SEE. NOT ONLY THE, THE SOVEREIGN MAJESTY OF THE REDEEMER,

BUT IT FOLLOWS AS NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY YOU’RE GOING TO SEE THE SACRED MYSTERY OF THE RAPTURE. WHAT DOES HIS RESURRECTION HAVE TO DO WITH OUR RESURRECTION? WELL, OUR RESURRECTION, WE ARE, WE ARE THE HARVEST, HE IS THE FIRST FRUITS, SO PAUL FOLLOWS THIS UP A LITTLE BIT, AH, IF,

IF YOU WILL, AH, LOOK IN, IN, AH, VERSE 51. HE SAYS, “BEHOLD, I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY; WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP,” THAT IS, NOT EVERYBODY IS GOING TO DIE, “WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP, BUT WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED.” SOUNDS LIKE A MOTTO WE COULD

HAVE IN THE CHURCH NURSERY. “WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP BUT WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED.” [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] HUH, HUH. “BEHOLD, I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY; WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP, BUT WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED, IN A MOMENT, IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE, AT THE LAST TRUMP;

FOR THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND, AND THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE, AND WE SHALL BE CHANGED. FOR THIS CORRUPTIBLE MUST PUT ON INCORRUPTION, AND THIS MORTAL MUST PUT ON IMMORTALITY.” NOW, NOTICE WHAT HE SAYS, “BEHOLD, I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY.” NOW HOW DOES THAT SENTENCE BEGIN?

“BEHOLD.” IT MEANS PAY ATTENTION. ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION? THE APOSTLE PAUL IS TELLING YOU TO PAY ATTENTION. “BEHOLD, I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY.” NOW WHY DOES HE CALL IT A MYSTERY? WELL, IT’S A SACRED SECRET. A MYSTERY IN THE BIBLE IS SOMETHING THAT YOU COULD NOT FIGURE OUT YOURSELF. HUMAN WIT,

WISDOM, AND INGENUITY, SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION WOULD NEVER SHOW IT TO YOU. IT IS A TRUTH REVEALED, AH, BY DIVINE REVELATION. AND THIS IS A MYSTERY, IT IS A SACRED SECRET THAT HAD BEEN A SECRET FOR MANY YEARS. IT WAS NOT REVEALED TO THE ANGELS. IT WAS NOT REVEALED TO

THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS. IT WAS A MYSTERY. AH, NOT REVEALED TO ISAIAH, TO JEREMIAH, EZEKIEL, DANIEL, THEY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS MYSTERY UNTIL IN THE LAST DAYS GOD REVEALED THIS MYSTERY. THE SECRET IS OUT AND WHAT IS THE SECRET? MILLIONS UPON THIS EARTH WILL ONE DAY GO TO HEAVEN

WITHOUT DYING AND THOSE WHO KNOW THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO SLEEP IN THE GRAVE, WILL BE RAISED UP. WE CALL THIS THE SACRED MYSTERY OF THE RAPTURE. YOU SEE, GOD IS NOT FINISHED WITH US. WHEN WE DIE WE GO IN THE SPIRIT

IMMEDIATELY, AH, TO HEAVEN, BUT THE BODY GOES TO THE GRAVE TO AWAIT THE RESURRECTION. WHEN ADAM, AH, SINNED AGAINST GOD, HE DIED IMMEDIATELY IN HIS SPIRIT, PROGRESSIVELY IN HIS SOUL, AND ULTIMATELY IN HIS BODY. AH, WHEN OUR LORD REDEEMS US, HE PUTS THAT IN REVERSE. WE’RE JUSTIFIED IMMEDIATELY IN THE SPIRIT,

SANCTIFIED PROGRESSIVELY IN THE SOUL, AND GLORIFIED ULTIMATELY IN THE BODY. GOD IS NOT GOING TO LEAVE THESE BODIES OF OURS IN THE GRAVE. WE ARE COMING OUT OF THAT GRAVE. YOU SAY, “ADRIAN, DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT?” YES, I REALLY BELIEVE THAT. YOU SAY, “ISN’T THAT A LITTLE SUPERNATURAL?” THAT’S IT;

YOU’VE GOT IT. THAT’S IT. THE WHOLE CREATION IS SUPERNATURAL. GOD MADE EVERYTHING OUT OF NOTHING. YOU THINK HE CAN’T RAISE ME OUT OF SOMETHING? OF COURSE HE CAN, OF COURSE HE WILL. AH, THAT’S THE REASON THE APOSTLE PAUL SAID TO AN INCREDULOUS KING WHOSE NAME WAS AGRIPPA IN ACTS

CHAPTER 26 AND VERSE EIGHT, “WHY SHOULD IT BE THOUGHT A THING INCREDIBLE WITH YOU, THAT GOD SHOULD RAISE THE DEAD?” IN THIS CHAPTER PAUL GIVES AN ILLUSTRATION OF IT. AH, LOOK IF YOU WILL IN, IN CHAPTER 15, UH, VERSE 35, “BUT SOME MAN WILL SAY ‘HOW ARE THE DEAD RAISED UP?’” I MEAN,

GOOD NIGHT, HOW’S, HOW’S THIS GOING TO HAPPEN? “‘AND WITH WHAT BODY DO THEY COME?’ THOU FOOL, THAT WHICH THOU SOWEST IS NOT QUICKENED, EXCEPT IT DIE.” WHEN YOU PUT A SEED IN THE GROUND THAT SEED HAS TO DIE BEFORE IT COMES BACK TO LIFE. “AND THAT WHICH THOU

SOWEST, THOU SOWEST NOT THAT BODY THAT SHALL BE, BUT A BARE GRAIN, IT MAY CHANCE OF WHEAT, OR OF SOME OTHER GRAIN. BUT GOD GIVETH IT A BODY AS IT HATH PLEASED HIM, AND TO EVERY SEED HIS OWN BODY.” NOW THE APOSTLE PAUL SAYS, “WHY SHOULD YOU MARVEL AT THE RESURRECTION?

EVERY TIME YOU PUT A SEED IN THE GROUND YOU HAVE A PICTURE OF THE RESURRECTION.” A SEED GOES INTO THE GROUND, IT DIES, AH, IT, IT, IT IS BURIED, IT DIES, IT ROTS, BUT OUT OF THAT SEED COMES NEW, GLORIOUS LIFE, MORE GLORIOUS THAN THE SEED THAT WENT IN THE GROUND. BUT,

NOW HERE’S THE POINT. FROM THE TIME THAT JESUS WENT AWAY TO THE TIME THAT HE IS COME AGAIN, HE COULD HAVE COME AT ANY MOMENT. UH, WE ARE NOT WAITING FOR SOME SIGN TO BE FULFILLED. THOSE THINGS MAY ENCOURAGE OUR FAITH IN A WAY,

BUT THEY DON’T PROVE THAT JESUS IS NEAR. HE COULD HAVE COME AT ANY TIME. YOU SAY, “WELL PASTOR, AREN’T WE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS?” WELL THE LAST DAYS BEGAN AT PENTECOST. FIRST JOHN TWO VERSE 18, “LITTLE CHILDREN, IT IS THE LAST TIME, IT IS THE LAST TIME.” JOHN SAID THAT 2000

YEARS AGO. AH, THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS IS ALWAYS IMMINENT. AH, THE EARLY CHRISTIANS LOOKED FOR JESUS TO COME. PHILIPPIANS THREE VERSE 20 PAUL SAID, “FOR OUR CONVERSATION IS IN HEAVEN, FROM WHENCE ALSO WE LOOK FOR THE SAVIOR, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.” HE TOLD THOSE IN THESSALONICA IN FIRST

THESSALONIANS ONE VERSES NINE AND 10. AH, HE SAID, “FOR THEY THEMSELVES SHOW OF US WHAT MANNER OF ENTERING IN WE HAD UNTO YOU, AND HOW YE TURNED TO GOD FROM IDOLS, TO SERVE THE LIVING AND TRUE GOD. AND TO WAIT FOR HIS SON FROM HEAVEN.” THOSE EARLY CHRISTIANS 2000 YEARS AGO WERE

WAITING FOR JESUS. THE APOSTLE JAMES SAID IN JAMES CHAPTER FIVE AND VERSE EIGHT. “STABLISH YOUR HEARTS; THE COMING OF THE LORD DRAWETH NIGH.” PAUL TOLD TITUS IN TITUS TWO VERSE 13 WE ARE TO BE, “LOOKING FOR THAT BLESSED HOPE, AND THE GLORIOUS APPEARING OF THE GREAT GOD AND OUR SAVIOR,

JESUS CHRIST.” FOLKS, WHAT AM I SAYING? I AM SAYING THAT JESUS MAY COME BEFORE I FINISH THIS MESSAGE. NOW WE HAVE AN IDEA WE’RE LIVING IN THE LAST PART OF THE LAST DAYS, SURELY, AND WE’RE 2000 YEARS CLOSER TO THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS THAN

THEY WERE IN PAUL’S DAY, BUT I’M TELLING YOU, FROM THE TIME THAT HE WENT UP PEOPLE WERE REMEMBERING THE MESSAGE OF THOSE ANGELS WHICH SAID, “YE MEN OF GALILEE, WHY STAND YE GAZING THUS INTO HEAVEN. THIS SAME JESUS WHICH IS TAKEN UP FROM YOU SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER AS YE HAVE

SEEN HIM GO INTO HEAVEN.” SO WE’RE WATCHING AND WAITING FOR THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO COME, AND HE MAY COME AT ANY MOMENT. SO, WHAT HAVE WE TALKED ABOUT? WE’VE TALKED ABOUT THE SOVEREIGN MAJESTY OF OUR LORD. HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD AND BECAME THE DEATH OF DEATH. AND THEN WE’VE TALKED,

NOT ONLY ABOUT THE, THE, THE SOVEREIGN MAJESTY OF THE REDEEMER, BUT THE, THE SACRED MYSTERY OF THE RAPTURE. AND NOW LET’S MOVE TO THE THIRD AND FINAL THING. AND THE THIRD AND FINAL THING, FOLKS, IS THE STEADFAST MINISTRY OF THE REDEEMED. WHAT DOES ALL OF THAT MEAN TO US? WELL,

NOTICE IN VERSE 54. HE BEGINS IT WITH THE WORD SO, HA, HA, SO, NOW HE’S, HE’S, HE’S BUILDING TO A POINT. HE IS NOT TRYING TO MAKE BETTER THEOLOGIANS OUT OF US, HE TRYING TO MAKE BETTER CHRISTIANS OUT OF US. SO, LISTEN TO IT NOW, “SO, WHEN THIS CORRUPTIBLE SHALL HAVE PUT

ON INCORRUPTION, AND THIS MORTAL SHALL HAVE PUT ON IMMORTALITY, THEN SHALL BE BROUGHT TO PASS THE SAYING THAT IS WRITTEN, ‘DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. O DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING? O GRAVE, WHERE IS THY VICTORY?’ THE STRING OF DEATH IS SIN, AND THE STRENGTH OF SIN IS THE LAW. BUT

THANKS BE TO GOD, WHICH GIVETH US THE VICTORY THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. THEREFORE,” UNDERSCORE THAT, “THEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, BE YE STEADFAST, UNMOVABLE, ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF THE LORD, FORASMUCH AS YE KNOW THAT YOUR LABOR IS NOT IN VAIN IN THE

LORD.” NOW, WHAT’S HE TALKING ABOUT? HE’S TALKING ABOUT THE VICTORY AND YOU AND I ARE TO BE LIVING EVERY DAY, EVERY MOMENT, SERVING CHRIST IN THE LIGHT OF THAT VICTORY. WHAT HE IS SAYING IS THAT JESUS CHRIST HAS CONQUERED DEATH. JESUS HAS BEEN

THE DEATH OF DEATH SO HE TAKES THE PAIN OUT OF PARTING, THE GLOOM OUT OF THE GRAVE. HE TAKES THE STRENGTH OUT OF SIN AND THE STING OUT OF DEATH, AND HE GIVES US A HOPE THAT IS STEADFAST AND SURE SO THAT WE CAN LITERALLY MOCK DEATH. WE

CAN RIDICULE DEATH. WE CAN LAUGH AT DEATH. NOTICE WHAT HE SAYS. “O DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING?” WELL, HE SAYS, AH, THE STRENGTH, AH, “THE STING OF DEATH IS SIN, AND THE STRENGTH OF SIN IS THE LAW.” THE LAWS MAKE SIN SIN AND SO THEREFORE, SIN BECOMES A STING TO US,

BUT JESUS CHRIST PULLED THE STING FROM DEATH. JESUS TOOK THAT STING IN HIS OWN BODY AND REMOVED IT FROM, AH, DEATH. HE FULFILLED THE LAW FOR US AND THEREFORE DEATH HOLDS NO TERRORS FOR US. IF I CAN ILLUSTRATE THIS WAY; AH, AH,

AH, AH, A WOMAN HAD HER TWO CHILDREN IN A GARDEN AND THEY WERE ENJOYING A BEAUTIFUL DAY LIKE WE HAVE TODAY, AND A BIG BEE LIT ON THE LITTLE BOY AND STUNG HIM AND THE LITTLE BOY BEGAN TO CRY AND THERE CAME, A,

THAT SWOLLEN PLACE WHERE THAT BEE HAD STUNG THE LITTLE BOY. AND THEN THE BEE BEGAN TO BUZZ AROUND THE LITTLE GIRL. HA, HA, THE LITTLE GIRL WAS FRIGHTENED TO DEATH AND SHE WAS TERRIFIED. BY THIS TIME THE LITTLE BOY HAD QUIETENED DOWN, AND THE MOTHER SAID, “DARLING,” TO THE LITTLE GIRL,

“DON’T BE AFRAID. COME OVER HERE AND LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING. LOOK REAL CLOSELY AT BROTHER’S ARM. DO YOU SEE THE STINGER THAT’S THERE? WHEN THAT BEE STUNG LITTLE BROTHER HE LEFT HIS STINGER.” DID YOU KNOW THAT A BEE DOES THAT? HE CAN’T STING BUT ONE TIME. DO YOU KNOW THAT? HA,

HA. “AND THE BEE LEFT HIS STINGER IN LITTLE BROTHER. DO YOU SEE IT THERE?” SHE SAID, “NOW SWEETHEART, THAT BEE CAN’T HURT YOU CAUSE HE LEFT HIS STINGER IN LITTLE BROTHER. HE MAY BUZZ, HE MAY FRIGHTEN YOU, BUT HE CANNOT HURT YOU.” NOW FRIEND,

I WANT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING. THE STING OF DEATH WAS TAKEN BY JESUS AND DEATH CANNOT HURT YOU. AH, DEATH MAY FRIGHTEN YOU, BUT, BUT I WANT TO SAY THAT JESUS HAS TAKEN THE STING OUT OF DEATH, AND JESUS HAS TAKEN THE GLOOM OUT OF THE GRAVE AND YOU HAVE,

REMEMBER WE SAID THE RAPTURE WAS WHAT? AH, THE, THE LIVING SAINTS WILL BE TRANSLATED AND THE DEAD SAINTS WILL BE RAISED. NOW NOTICE THE TWO-FOLD ANTHEM OF THE REDEEMED WHERE THE APOSTLE PAUL HERE IS ILLUSTRATING IT. WHEN, WHEN JESUS COMES AT THE RAPTURE YOU AND I ARE GOING TO LOOK

BACK AT THE GRAVE AND AT DEATH AND WE’RE GOING TO MOCK THEM, AND THOSE OF US WHO HAVE BEEN, AH, WHO HAVE BEEN RAPTURED, AH, AH, AND WE NEVER DIE, WE’RE GOING TO SAY. “O DEATH,” HA, “WHERE IS YOUR STING,” AND THOSE WHO HAVE COME OUT OF THE

GRAVE ARE GOING TO SAY, “O GRAVE, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY.” AND THEN TOGETHER WE’RE GOING TO SAY, “THANKS BE UNTO GOD THAT GIVETH US THE VICTORY THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.” AMEN? NOW, NOW LISTEN, COME TO THE BOTTOM, BOTTOM LINE OF ALL OF THIS. THERE IS THE,

THERE IS THE SOVEREIGN MAJESTY OF THE REDEEMER, THERE IS THE SACRED MYSTERY OF THE RAPTURE, AND THEN THERE’S THE STEADFAST MINISTRY OF THE SAINTS. NOW I’M SAYING IT ALL TO BRING YOU TO THIS POINT. LOOK AGAIN WHERE HE SAYS IN VERSE 58, I BELIEVE, THEREFORE, LOOK AT IT,

LOOK AT IT, “THEREFORE, THEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, BE YE STEADFAST, UNMOVABLE, ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF THE LORD, FORASMUCH AS YE KNOW THAT YOUR LABOR IS NOT IN VAIN IN THE LORD.” YOU ARE TO HAVE STABILITY; BE STEADFAST. DON’T GET BLOWN AROUND;

STAY IN THERE. WE’RE LIVING IN A DAY WHERE EVERYTHING THAT’S NOT NAILED DOWN IS COMING LOOSE. “THEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, BE YE STEADFAST.” HAVE STABILITY, BE UNMOVABLE. AND THEN HAVE FERVENCY, “ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF THE LORD.” NOW, IF YOU BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS COMING AGAIN,

AND YOU DO, WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? GO TO WORK FOR JESUS. OCCUPY TILL HE COMES. GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF THE CLOUDS OF PROPHECY AND GET YOUR FEET ON THE SO, ON THE PAVEMENT OF SOUL WINNING. AND YOU KNOW THE, THE GREAT PROOF THAT YOU BELIEVE THESE

THINGS TO BE TRUE IS WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO WARN MEN AND WOMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, TO FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME? THERE NEEDS TO BE ST, STABILITY. THERE NEEDS TO BE FERVENCY. AH, “ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF THE LORD.” AND THEN THERE

NEEDS TO BE EXPECTANCY. “FOR YOU KNOW THAT YOUR LABOR IS NOT IN VAIN IN THE LORD.” IT PAYS TO SERVE JESUS, IT PAYS EVERY DAY. NOW WE KNOW THAT JESUS LIVES. HERE’S THE QUESTION; DO YOU LIVE? HA, I DIDN’T SAY DO YOU EXIST;

DO YOU LIVE? ARE YOU SAVED? DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU’RE SAVED? WELL, YOU CAN BE SAVED RIGHT NOW. GOD WILL SAVE YOU IF YOU’LL TRUST HIM. AND I WANT YOU TO PRAY THIS PRAYER AFTER ME OUT OF YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW, “DEAR GOD,

I KNOW THAT YOU LOVE ME AND I KNOW LORD JESUS THAT YOU WANT TO SAVE ME. YOU DIED TO SAVE ME. LORD JESUS, I NEED TO BE SAVED. I WANT TO BE SAVED. I WANT MY SINS FORGIVEN. I WANT TO BE READY WHEN I DIE, OR WHEN YOU COME,

TO MEET YOU. FORGIVE MY SIN. CLEANSE MY LIFE. TAKE CONTROL OF MY LIFE. BEGIN NOW TO MAKE ME THE PERSON YOU WANT ME TO BE. AND LORD JESUS, HELP ME NEVER TO BE ASHAMED OF YOU BECAUSE YOU DIED FOR ME. IN YOUR NAME I PRAY, AMEN.

#Adrian #Rogers #Corinthians #Resurrection #Jesus #Conquered #Death

1. The Resurrection of Jesus (Introduction)



ARGUMENT VASKRSENJA ISUSA HRISTA Isusovo vaskrsenje jeste suštinska osnova hrišćanstva. Naša vera na ovome ili opstaje ili propada. Apostol Pavle postavio je ovu osnovu veoma rano, u svom prvom pismu Korinćanima. “Ako Hristos nije vaskrsnut iz mrtvih, onda je naše propovedanje uzaludno, i vaša vera je uzaludna. Tada smo čak i lažni svedoci Boga,

Jer smo svedočili o Bogu da je vaskrsnuo Hristosa, koga nije vaskrsnuo, ako je tačno da mrtvi nisu vaskrsnuti. Jer ako mrtvi nisu vaskrsnuti, onda ni Hristos nije vaskrsnut. A ako Hristos nije vaskrsnut, uzalud vam vera vaša, još uvek ste u gresima svojim. A i oni koji su zaspali u Hristu, nestali su.

Ako samo u ovom životu imamo veru u Hrista, onda nas treba sažaljevati više od bilo koga. Dakle, ako Hristos nije vaskrsnut onda nema ni hrišćanstva, i sve što radimo je uzaludno. Međutim, sa tako velikim ulogom ipak imamo sreće jer je vaskrsenje čudo koje ima više istorijskih dokaza od bilo koje tvrdnje o čudu.

Entoni Flu postao je deista pri kraju svog života ali dok je još uvek bio ateista, priznao je sledeće “Dokaz za vaskrsenje bolji je od čudotvornih tvrdnji iz bilo koje druge religije. Izuzetno se razlikuje i po kvalitetu i po količini…” Pre nego što pređemo na dokaze, moramo postaviti određene temelje.

Mnogi skeptici tvrde da, osim ako nemamo apsolutni dokaz, onda se vaskrsenje nije desilo i ne možemo reći da se desilo. Kao i obično, to nije tačno. Običan skepticizam i postavljanje izuzetno visokog praga neće predstavljati problem u istorijskoj odbrani vaskrsenja. Ako svi dokazi ukazuju na vaskrsenje, a neko ne misli da je to dovoljno,

Samo zato što su proizvoljno postavili prag tako da se ne može dostići, to neće opovrgnuti čitav slučaj, niti će ponuditi bolje objašnjenje za iznete dokaze niti će pokazati da dokazi nemaju zaključak da se vaskrsenje najverovatnije desilo. Možemo da nastavljamo da branimo slučaj vaskrsenja, bez da se brinemo za nekoga sa ovakvom dozom skepticizma.

To zapravo ne predstavlja problem za sam slučaj niti nudi bolje objašnjenje za dokaze. Pa, kako onda branimo slučaj i koji je cilj argumenta vaskrsenja? Cilj ne može biti pokazivanje da je vaskrsenje tačno na način kao što neko može da pokaže da se nešto dogodilo time što će ponoviti eksperiment.

Vaskrsenje je događaj koji se dogodio u prošlosti i ne može se ponoviti. Zato se zaključak može postići na način na koji se pokazuje istorijska činjenica ili na način kojim se zaključuje forenzičko istraživanje. Kao što Avizer Taker kaže, “Istoriografija ne rekonstruiše događaje. Ona ne može oživeti Cezara niti ponoviti bitku kod Akcijuma.

Istoriografija pokušava da pruži hipotetički opis i analizu nekih prošlih događaja kao najbolje objašnjenje prisutnih dokaza. Osoba procenjuje dokaze a zatim zaključuje prema teoriji koja najbolje objašnjava podatke. Ovo može da potvrdi vaskrsenje onako kako bi se pokazalo da se neki drugi istorijski događaj dogodio.

Tu predlažemo više teorija a zatim gledamo koja se najbolje uklapa u podatke. Ako teorija ne podržava podatke, ona se odbacuje kao nedovoljna i kao manje verovatna u odnosu na druge teorije koje bolje opisuju prisutne podatke. Takođe želim da kažem da jedini fer način pristupa prema vaskrsenju jeste pristup metodičke neutralnosti,

Gde onaj koji tvrdi nešto ima odgovornost da to i dokaže. Ako ja kažem da je Isus vaskrsao iz mrtvih, onda moram i da pokažem da ta teorija najbolje opisuje podatke, dok druge teorije to ne mogu. Međutim, ovo je mač sa dve oštrice. Jer ako ja prikažem slučaj, ateista ili musliman

Ne mogu samo da kažu da nisam u pravu i da Isus nije vaskrsao. On ili ona moraju da pruže kontraargumente sa boljim objašnjenjem onoga što oni misle da se dogodilo i moraju da pokažu zašto objašnjenje vaskrsenja nije u stanju da objasni podatke.

D. H. Fišer ističe da je “teret dokazivanja uvek na onome koji donosi tvrdnju, ali takođe i na onome koji opovrgava ili daje suprotstavljajuću tvrdnju.” Naravno, čovek može i da bude suzdržan i da ostane agnostik po ovom pitanju. Ali, to lično ubeđenje ne stvara objektivni argument protiv onoga koji iznosi istorijsku tvrdnju

Niti izaziva ili pobija predstavljen argument. Ako to žele da urade, onda moraju da predlože suprotstavljajuću teoriju i podrže je dokazima i verodostojnošću. Na kraju, za sam argument za vaskrsenje pomaže nam da prvo adresiramo ove tri stvari. One nisu nužno potrebne za slučaj vaskrsenja ali pomažu u celokupnom cilju.

Prvo, mogu se pružiti dokazi o postojanju Boga u vidu formalnih argumenata. Pre nego što pružimo dokaze za vaskrsenje i ustanovimo da je hrišćanstvo tačno, pomaže ukoliko prvo imamo dokaze za opštog teističkog tvorca. Kombinujući argumente iz prirodne teologije sa argumentom vaskrsenja dobijamo bolji, akumulisaniji slučaj za hrišćanski teizam.

Pošto smo ovo već uradili, naš slučaj bi ojačalo to ako već postoje dokazi da Bog postoji i da je u stanju da prouzrokuje takav događaj. Drugo, korisno je stvoriti slučaj i za pouzdanost Novog zaveta. Kad budemo prolazili kroz dokaze, nećemo da pretpostavljamo

Da je Novi zavet inspirisan ili da je precizan u svakom detalju, ili čak i u većini detalja. Samo ćemo se držati činjenica koje podržavaju naučnici i dokazi. Ali, barem bi trebalo da stvorimo slučaj da dokumenti nisu u potpunosti nepouzdani i da imaju dobar istorijski slučaj.

A pošto smo i ovo uradili, to će pomoći našem celokupnom argumentu. Treće, moramo da pokažemo da čuda nisu logični nemogući događaji, a ovo smo takođe uradili. Sada, kada smo dali dokaze za teistički pogled na svet, pokazali da je Novi zavet pouzdan i ustanovili da su čuda barem logički moguća,

Možemo nastaviti sa argumentom za vaskrsenje, uz ovo kao našu osnovu. Zatim ćemo ispratiti sa dodatnim dokazima, prikazaćemo sukobljene teorije i pobićemo prigovore koji postoje. INSPIRING PHILOSOPHY Preveo: Filip Eskić

#Resurrection #Jesus #Introduction

PASSOVER and the RESURRECTION – Isaiah’s New Exodus



Passover or the Feast of Freedom is the foundational feast of the Jewish people. In it, we remember God’s loving kindness in saving his people from bondage in Egypt and creating Israel as a nation. All that so that God himself would dwell among His people

And give us His Word in order to bless all nations. But could it be that this feast actually alludes to an even greater salvation yet to come? In the story of the crossing of the Red Sea. Moses encourages his nation to trust God. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

Then, after God saves them from the Egyptians, it says. When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in His servant, Moses. But this would not be the

Last time at which God was gracious towards his people. God spoke to the Prophet Isaiah in Chapter 52 about a totally new exodus. Be cheerful, shout joyfully. Together you ruins of Jerusalem for the Lord has comforted His people. He has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord has buried His holy arm in the sight of all nations so that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. Isaiah prophesied that God would restore the nation of Israel, that He would save them from their enemies, grant them peace and security.

However, this time the salvation will not only include a physical redemption. Rather, it will include a spiritual redemption reaching the whole world. And this is what Isaiah talks about in the next chapter. Chapter 53. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way.

But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all to fall on Him, just like the Passover lamb. Isaiah prophesied that the servant of the Lord would give his life to save his people. In chapter 53, The Salvation that the servant of the Lord brings to

Israel is not from Egypt or from the plague of the first born. Rather, it is the salvation from our personal sinfulness. The salvation God offers to us is from our guilt. After Isaiah describes the death of the servant, he continues to prophesy that he would prolong his days.

How can it be the only way the servant of the Lord can prolong his days after his death is through His resurrection? No wonder that when we quote these verses to our Jewish brethren, they think we quote from the New Testament. But the Hebrew Bible states clearly

That the Messiah had to suffer and die to redeem his people. But he doesn’t remain in the grave. He rises and grants forgiveness of sins and justifies the sinner by the knowledge of the righteous one. My servant will justify the many. In first Corinthians 15, Paul boldly declares

That if the Messiah has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith also is in vain. If the Messiah has not been raised, in other words, since the beginning of the faith in Yeshua, the Messiah, his resurrection stood as the cornerstone, the very foundation

Upon which the truth of Yeshua stands or falls. If you’re sure did not rise up from the dead, then his death is meaningless. We are still in Egypt without a savior. Guilty before God and slaves to sins, bondage. The disciples did not expect the resurrection of Yeshua.

They thought and hoped that he would free Israel from the Egyptians of that time, the Romans. They thought he would strike them and drive them out of the land. They missed part of the message of the prophets. They thought that the idea of a crucified

Messiah is a failing Messiah at best, or worse, a false messiah whom they would need to replace with another Moses who would deliver them from the Romans against all odds. And in contrast to their initial expectations after Yeshua’s death. Something happened. The disciples began to insist that

Yeshua, in fact, rose from the dead and conquered death. They began to proclaim their message in Jerusalem, in the very place where Yeshua was crucified and buried, where everyone could go and check if the tomb was in fact empty. Not only did they proclaim the message boldly,

But they were ready and willing to suffer and even die for it. And most of them did. The significance of the resurrection is that it validates Yeshua’s message. His gospel is true. Yeshua claimed to be God himself, who came to free us from sin, to cleanse us from our guilt and justify us.

The resurrection is the proof that his radical claims about his identity and work were true. Moreover, his resurrection gives us hope and assurance that this life is not all that there is. The death is not the end. On the basis of Yeshua’s resurrection, the New Testament proclaims that anyone

Who puts his faith in him will rise up from the dead to everlasting life. But the fact is, Messiah has been raised from the dead. The first fruit of those who are asleep for since by a man death came, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.

Four as in Adam all die. So also in Messiah, all will be made alive. The gift of salvation is given freely. We receive it through faith, through putting our trust in the Savior of Israel. Yeshua, notice that in the story of the Exodus.

Or more specifically in the crossing of the Red Sea, the nation of Israel did not need to do anything to merit their salvation from the Egyptians. Their own power could not stop the Egyptian army God alone, granting them freedom and salvation. They only needed to step in faith towards the water.

As the author of Hebrews puts it by faith, they pass through the Red Sea as through dry land. All people, Jews and Gentiles, are guilty before God and find themselves separated from Him due to their personal sinfulness. In Hebrew, the word sin comes from the same root

As missing the mark in our inherent sinfulness as humans. We miss God’s mark, but through Yeshua, as death and resurrection, he opened a new way to enter into an eternal relationship with God through faith. Yeshua was delivered over because of our wrongdoings and was raised for our justification.

This relationship cannot be broken since it is established upon the perfect sacrifice of the ultimate Passover lamb. The sacrifice of Yeshua. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world for by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. So what about you?

Have you put your faith in Yeshua? If not, today is the day of salvation. If you want to receive forgiveness of sins, eternal life and a living relationship with your loving creator, simply talk to your Heavenly Father in your own words. He listens and that is the meaning of prayer. Rejoice with us.

For He is risen. He is risen indeed.

#PASSOVER #RESURRECTION #Isaiahs #Exodus

The Death and Resurrection of Christ | Billy Graham Classic



From our archives… The Billy Graham Classics. [applause] My message is going to be brief, and my text is going to be Luke the 23rd chapter beginning at verse 42. “Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. “And Jesus said unto him, “Verily, I say unto thee,

“today thou shall be with me in paradise.” The greatest and most historical event of all of history, was when Jesus Christ died on that cross. And when Christ died on the cross, the lightning flashed, the thunder roared, the darkness came. As the nails had gone into the hands of Christ

And a spear had gone into his side and the nails through his feet. And Jesus was hanging between heaven and earth suffering for us. The soldiers had taken him out of his prison and they put a crimson robe on him, they’d beaten him two or three times.

And then they took two or three murders with him. Two of them in particular, who were going to be crucified with him. And then they took him across Jerusalem and they made each one of them bear a placard, or at least herald went before them to bear a placard

Telling of their crimes. And then Jesus stumbled and fell. He was weak from the loss of blood and they compelled an African to help him carry his cross. And as long as the history of man shall go, we will always remember that it was an African that helped Jesus bare his cross.

There are people today that say that Christianity is the white man’s religion. Don’t you believe it. For all of those who believe in Jesus Christ, He belongs to all people. He came from that part of the world that touches Asia, Africa, and Europe.

He belongs as much to the African as he does to the European; and as much to the European as he does to the Asian. Jesus Christ belongs to all people, but an African helped him carry His cross. And then when they got to Golgotha, these soldiers went about their work,

Nailing the nails in. These two murderers and thieves that were being crucified with Jesus were yelling, screaming, crying, but Jesus never uttered a word. And they took some medicated wine that acted as a sedative and gave it to the two thieves. And they took it and they offered it to Jesus,

And He refused it, because He wanted to drink the very bitter dregs of death in our place for us. He wanted to suffer all of death, showing that God loved the world and God was willing to forgive the sins of the world because of what Christ was doing on that cross.

The people that were watching were laughing and sneering. They said, “He saved others, why can’t he save himself?” Come on, you worked great miracles. Why don’t you work one more? You raised Lazarus from the dead. You raised a widow’s son from the dead. Why can’t you save yourself?

Those blind people did not realize that God had foreordained and predetermined that Jesus Christ was to die the death of the cross. And it was only through that death that the world could find forgiveness and salvation. There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved.

The apostle Paul was an intellectual. One of the most brilliant men that ever lived. And Paul went to Corinth. Pagan, intellectual, immoral Corinth. The university center of the ancient world. And Paul said, “I’m determined to know nothing among you “save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Why did Paul say that?

He said that because God has locked up in the cross the secret of the universe. The only way that earth can ever find reconciliation with heaven is by way of the cross. The only way that you can ever get to heaven is by way of the cross.

And if Jesus Christ had not gone to the cross, you could have never had sin forgiven. You could have never gone to heaven. And the problems of earth would have never had a solution. Only by the way of the cross can we find our way back to God.

That’s why it was important that Jesus stay on the cross. Because you see, man is in rebellion against God. Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden of Eden. And every man since Adam and Eve has broken God’s law and sinned against God.

And as a result of that, God and man are separated. And man’s only way back to God is through Jesus Christ. Man had broken the law. Man deserved death. He deserved judgment. He deserved hell, but God said, “Wait a minute. “I’ll give My Son.

I’ll let him die. I’ll let him take the judgment and the hell for you. And if you will put your trust and your faith in My Son, I will forgive your sin. I will change your life. I will give you an inner peace and joy and satisfaction

That you would never find in any other way. Jesus was dying on that cross for your sins and your sins. Some people say, “Why don’t you try to make your gospel relevant?” The most relevant message in the world tonight is the fact that Christ died for you. He died in your place.

He shed his blood for you. And without that experience, no one can get to heaven. Yes, Jesus Christ died. And the people laughed and sneered. And two people that sneered and laughed the most, were these two thieves and murderers that were dying with Him. They were both mocking him.

But one of them became strangely silent. And finally, this one that was silent turned and rebuked the other thief or the murderer and said, “We’re dying justly.” “We deserve to be crucified, but not this man in the middle. “He’s a good man. “He is the Son of God.”

Then he turned to him and asked him what seemed to be an improbable, an impossible question. He said, “Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” Will you remember me, Lord? And then Jesus gave one of the most astounding answers in the history of the world.

The angels in heaven must’ve been shaken and startled and amazed when they heard what Jesus answered. Jesus said, “Today, today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.” Think of it. Here was a thief, a murderer, a man that had committed every crime in the books,

Dying, turns to Jesus in his dying moment and says, “Lord, remember me.” He didn’t even say forgive me. He didn’t even say, Lord, take me to heaven with you. He didn’t say, “Lord prefer me.” He just said, “Lord, remember me.” And Jesus answered quick as a flash and said,

“Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.” And to all of you people that think you can’t be converted in a moment and that you cannot be saved at this hour, at this moment, in this rain, in Baton Rouge and have your whole life transformed.

You read the stories of the New Testament and the encounters that people had with Jesus. There are many of you that came here tonight in this rain that never dreamed that you were going to meet Jesus. You came out of curiosity

Or you came because your bus was already on the way, or you had already promised some friends to come, or you’re a student here at the university and you came out of curiosity. Many of the people of the New Testament that came to Jesus never planned it. They never thought that

They would have their lives changed. This thief on the cross that had been in prison, knew that he was going to die on a cross. He knew he deserved it. He never dreamed that before the night came, that day he would be in heaven. He deserved judgment. He deserved hell.

I’m going to see that man in heaven someday, by the grace of God. He wasn’t saved by his good works. He didn’t even have time to be baptized. He didn’t have time for anything, but he’s in heaven. That’s the grace and the mercy of God.

I want to tell you that the greatest word in all the language of men is forgiveness. That Jesus forgave him of every sin he’d ever committed. Wiped the slate clean and he was in heaven. There are three things about this passage. The whole gospel is in it. There’s repentance.

It’s the only death bed repentance in the whole Bible. I don’t know what led this fellow to ask that question or to make that statement. It might’ve been the prayer that Jesus had just prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”

It might’ve been what Jesus had said to John concerning his mother. I don’t know what it is or what it was, but the Holy Spirit used it. The Holy Spirit used it to convict him and to convince him that he needed Jesus and he repented of his sins at that moment,

And he was saved. I can imagine the other thief saying, “Why, what have you done?” Have you turned preacher or something? You remember, we strangled that old merchant for his gold. Remember, you kidnapped that little child. Remember that girl you raped. Remember that person you slew.

You think God’s going to forgive you? Are you turn a preacher? He can’t forgive you. I don’t care what your sin is. I don’t care how deep in sin you’ve gone. I don’t care what you’ve done. God can forgive you. God can cleanse you.

God can make you a new person tonight, if you put your faith and your trust in Him. Yes, he repented. And the second thing he did was to believe The Bible says, “If we believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, “we shall be saved.” The Scripture says,

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ “and thou shall be saved.” “But as many as received Him “to them gave He power to become the sons of God, “even to them that believe on His name.” Just repent and believe and then you’ll be saved. He said, “When thou comest into Thy kingdom,”

As though he were thinking of some far off kingdom age, somewhere, and Jesus answered and said today, right now, you’ll be saved Right now, you can have eternal life. You can put your trust and your confidence in Christ now. And he did. And that day he went to paradise.

Now it’s the word “remember” that I want you to think about a moment. He said, “Lord, remember me.” Did you know that God forgets? Did you know that there’s a scripture in Jeremiah 31:34 that says, “I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more.“

God can forget. God, forget your sin. What does God forget? God never forgets the universe. He sends the rain. Yes, sir. God sends the rain, but the rain falls on the just and the unjust. The sun comes up on the just and the unjust.

God blesses all of us with all of his blessings. He never forgets. Supposed He forgot to send rain? Suppose the sun ceased to shine. The earth would turn into a glacier. Suppose God would forget because the scripture says that God holds the whole universe together.

If God ever took his hand off, it would blow to pieces. And then the scripture says that God remembers you. Tonight, I had in my little office here where I see people, a lady and her children and a mother, and their son and their husband is a prisoner in North Vietnam.

I don’t think any of us will ever know what these families have suffered. I don’t think any of us will ever know what those boys out there have probably gone through psychologically and physically, never knowing. And then we had another one come and see us tonight. And her husband, she’s just found out,

Is alive and a prisoner, but for a long time, she didn’t know. He was only missing an action. But let me tell you this, God remembers them. And when we bowed our heads in the little office and prayed that God would remember them and that His grace and His love

Would reach out to North Vietnam, to the prison camp and touch them. God remembers them and God answers prayer. How many times has God been with you? You don’t even know, because you see, you almost had a wreck the other day, but you were saved from it. Why?

When you get to heaven, you may find out why. It might’ve been divine intervention. And that happens to all of us. God remembers you. And then God never forgets our sins either. The Bible says, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” The Bible says, “God is not mocked,

“for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” The Bible says, “For God shall bring every work into judgment.” God is going to judge every sin that’s ever been committed. What is your sin that so easily besets you? It’s going to be brought to light, all the secret things.

God is going to judge it. God never forgets sin. No sin has ever been forgotten by God. God has recorded everything you’ve ever done and all the things you’ve ever thought, from the time you were born, until the time you die. It’s all there.

It’s all in the record books. And God will never forget. Nothing is going to be forgotten. How do you stand before God? But there’s one thing God can forget. He can forget sin because of Christ. The Bible says in II Corinthians 5:21,

“He has made Him to be sin for us.” It says in Isaiah 53, “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” It says in 1 Peter, 2:24, “Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” The Scripture teaches that God can forget our sins

Because of Christ. The sin that would damn us. The sin that would send us to judgment. The sin that would send us to hell. God can forget. In Hebrews 1:3 it says your sins are purged. In Isaiah 43 it says your sins are blotted out.

In Psalm 103 it says your sins are put away. Isaiah 38 says your sins are put behind His back. And in Hebrews it says God can remember your sin no more. Ladies and gentlemen, because Christ died, because He rose again, because of what He did, God cannot remember my sins.

I’ve committed plenty of sins in my life. And even if I’d only committed one sin in my whole life, it’s enough to cause me to go to the judgment and be lost, because I could keep the whole law and yet offend in one point and I’d be guilty of all.

But God has forgotten my sin. He forgot every sin that I have ever committed. Every one He has forgotten. He’s the only person in the whole universe that can forget. He has the ability to forget. Has He forgotten your sin?

Have you brought your sin and laid it at the feet of Jesus? What a night to give your life to Christ? You may never have another moment like this. The Bible says, “He that hardened his heart, “being often reproved, “shall suddenly be cut off and that without remedy.”

You’ve sat here for over two hours in the rain. Many of you are soaked all the way through and you’ve done it because you want your sins forgiven, many of you. And others of you have sat there because you’re praying for somebody that needs Christ. And this is your hour and your moment

And may never come again like this. I’m going to ask you to do something that I saw people in London do. I saw people in San Diego do. I saw people in Pittsburgh do. I’m going to ask scores of you to get up out of your seat

Right now, come across this field in the rain and stand here. And by coming say, “I want Christ in my life. “I want my sin forgiven. “I want to know I’m going to heaven. “I want to know that I will not be at the judgment “in that final day.

“I want my life transformed by the power of Christ. I’m going to ask you to come right now, men, women, young people, God has spoken to you. You need Christ. And in a moment like this, you’ll never forget. I met a missionary out in the Far East, a few months ago,

Said I received Christ one of those nights at Wembley Stadium, in the pouring rain in England, I stood ankle deep in mud to find Christ and said, I thank God, because if it hadn’t been for the rain, I don’t know whether I would have come that night or not.

But he said there was something about the challenge of coming forward in the rain that challenged me and it changed my life. Yes, it’s not easy to come, but Christ went to the cross for you. Many people are on the way now.

You get up and come and make your commitment to Christ. ♪ Just as I am and waiting not ♪ As hundreds are responding to Mr. Graham’s invitation to make a public commitment to Jesus Christ. You can make that same commitment right where you are. Just pick up the phone

And call the number you see on your screen. Special friends are waiting to talk with you and pray with you about this most important decision. ♪ O Lamb of God, I come, I come. ♪ Now I want to say a word to all of you that have come.

You’ve come tonight to make your commitment to Christ because you want your sins forgiven. You want to know you’re going to heaven. You want a new direction in your life, and you’ve come to make a commitment to Christ because you want him to forget your sin and save your soul.

Well, I want to tell you, He remembers you and He loves you and He wants to forgive you. He loves you. Keep that in mind now, that God loves you and is willing to forgive and forget all the past. And from tonight on, there are four things that are very important.

First, read your Bible every day. We’re going to give you a Gospel of John. We want you to read it several times before you read any other part of the Bible. We’re going to give you a Bible study. We’re going to give you some verses of Scripture to learn, memorize.

This helps you to grow. “Desire the sincere milk of the word “that you may grow thereby,” the scripture says. You cannot grow in the Christian life without reading and studying the scriptures every day. Secondly, pray. God will hear and answer your prayer. You’re His child now. He loves you.

Take every detail to God in prayer. He will answer your prayers. Don’t let a day go by but that you spend a few minutes every morning, every evening and all during the day in prayer. And pray about everything, whatever the details are. Nothing is too small to bring to God’s attention.

And then thirdly, witness for Christ. How do you witness? You’re witness by the smile on your face. You witness by the new attitude you have in the dormitory, the new attitude you have toward work, the new attitude you have in the home.

And then you witnesse by going to somebody of another race and going out of your way to be kind and courteous and gracious. And people will soon say, “Well, what’s happened to you, Mary?” And you can say, “Well, I’ve found Christ. “He’s changed my life.” That’s witnessing.

And then fourthly, get into a church where Christ is preached and get to work for Christ. Get into the church and work in the church. You say, “But I don’t like to go to church.” Jesus went to the churches of his day and they weren’t all they were supposed to be,

But He did it to set us an example that we should go to church. Four things, read the Bible, pray, witness, and go to church. Now I’m going to ask that we bow our heads and I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. Oh God, I’m a sinner.

I’m sorry for my sin. I’m willing to turn from my sin. I receive Christ as Savior. I confess Him as Lord from this moment on. I want to follow Him and serve Him in the fellowship of His church, in Christ’s name. Amen. If you just prayed that prayer with my father,

Or if you have any questions about a relationship with Jesus Christ, why don’t you call the number on the screen. There will be someone there to talk with you, pray with you and answer those questions. And remember, God loves you! If you would like to commit your life to Jesus Christ,

Please call us right now, toll free at 1-877-772-4559. That’s 1-877-772-4559. Or you can write to us at: Billy Graham 1 Billy Graham Parkway Department C Charlotte, NC 28201 Or you can contact us on the web 24/7 at PeaceWithGod.tv.

We’ll get the same helps to you that we give to everyone who responds at the invitation. On behalf of Franklin Graham and The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Thank you for watching and thank you for your prayers. It’s Anne, she’s in trouble.

If you don’t take it to the edge every chance you get, you’re dead already, baby. (woman) I was in trouble and I didn’t know what to do. (slap) “Ow!” (Nazi) Where are the Jews? I knew that I could take on the world.

It’s like you’re in a dream, but not really a dream, this is reality. I don’t really believe in all this but I know something crazy is happening right now. (Billy Graham) “Tonight, “I’m glad to tell you as we close “that the Lord Jesus Christ can be received, “your sins forgiven.”

(woman) The Billy Graham Library is a place for all walks of life, (man) to recharge, (woman) reflect, (young man) renew your faith, (young girl) and return again and again.

#Death #Resurrection #Christ #Billy #Graham #Classic

Luke 24 | The Risen Lord Jesus Christ Appears to the Apostles | The Bible



Peace be unto you. [MURMURING] Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

Have ye here any meat? These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

#Luke #Risen #Lord #Jesus #Christ #Appears #Apostles #Bible

How The Resurrection Gives Us Hope with Rick Warren



– Would you take out your message notes inside your Easter bag. I want us to look at how the resurrection gives us hope. How the resurrection gives us hope. When Jesus Christ was crucified in 33 AD, there were only about 120 followers that were true to his message at that time.

They were meeting in upper room, about 120 followers. Today, 2,000 years later, 2.3 billion people in the world, billion, claim to be a follower of Christ, 2.3 billion. Now let me put that in perspective. That means one out of every three people on this planet, one out of every three would say

I am a follower of Jesus Christ. The Christian church is by far, by far, the largest organization on planet Earth. Nothing else comes close to the size of the Christian church, nothing else comes close, 2.3 billion followers of Christ. The church is bigger than China.

The church is bigger than China and Europe put together. The Christian church, followers of Christ, is bigger than China and Europe and the United States put together. Nothing is bigger on planet Earth than the church of Jesus Christ. How in the world did that happen?

Why did Christianity spread so far and so fast? How did a little band of 12 poor fishermen, the people that Jesus chose to be his first followers, how did that expand into one out of every three people on planet Earth? In a word, the resurrection. That changed everything.

When God said I’m gonna come to Earth and die for the sins of all mankind and then I’m gonna prove that I’m God by coming back to life three days later, that is the single most significant event in history, nothing comes close. It split history into AD and BC.

Every other event in history is dated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, either before or after. Even your birthday is dated by the day, the month, and the year on how many years it’s been since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the single most significant event in history. Because Jesus was resurrected.

Now let me explains the difference between resurrection and resuscitation, they are not the same. People get resuscitated all the time. If you faint, we’ll resuscitate you. If you go in a coma, you can be resuscitated. People will die for 15 minutes or 20 minutes,

Or my heart stopped for a certain number of time and then they go write a book about how they went to heaven and back in 20 minutes. You can throw all those books away, those are resuscitation. Resurrection means you’ve been buried in the ground

For three days and then you come back to life. Only Jesus Christ has done that. That’s not resuscitation, folks. That’s resurrection, and that single event changed all of history. And what it did is it turned these first followers of Christ from being disconsolate and depressed and disillusioned

And in despair and defeated into courageous and contagious people filled with hope. And they began to spread the message of hope everywhere. Because when they saw Jesus had come back to life, it changed everything. What I wanna do this Easter is I want us to look at

The six reasons why followers of Jesus Christ are the most hopeful people on the planet. We have more hope than anybody else, there’s no contest. We have far more hope than anybody else in the world because of what Jesus Christ did at the resurrection. Why do we have hope?

Six reasons, if you’re writin’ these down, here’s the first one. Number one, the first reason Jesus’s resurrection gives us hope is we have been completely forgiven. We have been completely forgiven. Jesus repeatedly said over and over, I’m gonna die on the cross to pay for all your sins.

He said it over and over and over. And then he said, and then I’m gonna come back to life three days later to prove that I am who I say I am. Now, if he hadn’t done the second part, the first part doesn’t really matter. If he didn’t come back to life,

Then I have every reason to doubt that he died for my sins. The two go together. Now let me give you some good news. There on your outline, the Bible says this. Ephesians chapter one, verse seven, In Christ we are set free by the blood of his death.

And so we have forgiveness of sins because of God’s rich grace. Now we’re all imperfect, so we all carry regrets and we all carry remorse and we always wish we had done things differently, we all have sins and things that we feel bad about, guilty about.

God doesn’t want you carrying guilt through life. God doesn’t want you carrying a load of shame through life. The whole reason he died on the cross was so that you could be free from all of that guilt, all of that shame. Guilt wastes an awful lot of energy.

It fatigues you, it tires you, it robs you of peace of mind. But Jesus said, I came to die for your sins so you don’t have to die for them. I was hung on the cross so you’d quit hangin’ yourself on the cross. I don’t know if you’ve ever asked the question

Or thought about it, who really killed Jesus? Who put Jesus on the cross? Who is to blame for Jesus bein’ on the cross? Well, it wasn’t Judas, and it wasn’t Caiaphas the high priest, and it wasn’t Pilate the governor, and it wasn’t the Romans, and it wasn’t the religious leaders,

And it wasn’t even the crowd. The answer is two fold, who put Jesus on the cross, and this is may shock you, this may shock you, but the answer is two fold. The first answer is this, God did. God did, God put Jesus on the cross.

It was his plan from the very beginning. It’s why Jesus came to Earth, to die for our sins. That’s the whole reason, it was God’s plan before any of us were ever born. Here’s what the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 53, in the Bible. All of us have strayed away like sheep.

In other words, we’ve all done our own thing. We’ve all left God’s plan to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him, talkin’ about Jesus, the guilt and sins of us all. From prison and trial, they led him away to his death. But who among the people realized

That he was dying for their sins, that he was suffering for their punishment. Nobody realized that at the time. He had done no wrong, he had never deceived anyone, but he was buried like a criminal. He was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was God’s plan that he should suffer,

It was God’s plan. Yet, now notice the chance in tense here, when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have a multitude of children. In other words, they’ll be people who will follow him. I don’t know if you noticed in this passage the change in tense.

The first part is in past tense and then it goes to future. When his life is made in offering for sin, he will have a multitude of children. You know why that change in tense, past tense to future? Because this was written 700 years before Jesus Christ. This is a prophecy.

And Isaiah, 700 BC is telling and predicting exactly what’s gonna happen to the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God who comes to Earth, and this happened exactly how it happened. It was part of God’s plan. But the second one may surprise you too. Who put Jesus on the cross?

We did, I did, you did. If none of us had ever sinned, Jesus wouldn’t have to die for our sins. The Bible says this in Romans chapter four. Jesus was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God.

Circle the world us. He was raised from the dead, this what Easter’s all about. He was raised from the dead to make us right with God. Who’s included in us? You, me, us, we are made right with God. So we’ve been completely forgiven. That gives me hope, I’m not facing any judgment.

I have hope because I have been completely forgiven. Number two, second reason Jesus’s resurrection gives us hope, we’re no longer afraid to die. We are no longer afraid to die. Now, I mentioned this in the Good Friday services, that when Jesus Christ got on the cross,

One of the things he did is he broke the power of death and he broke the power of the fear of death. The fear of death is a universal fear, everybody has it. I’ve traveled all around the world. One time I went 46,000 miles in 40 days, literally circled completely the Earth,

And I found the fear of death everywhere. Because it’s unknown, we don’t know. But what did Jesus do? He came back to life. Let me explain this. If Jesus Christ hadn’t resurrected from the dead, you wouldn’t even know that there’s life after death. You wouldn’t even know it. You might guess at it.

You might say, well I hope there’s life after death. But you’d have nothing to prove it, but Jesus Christ came back and said, I’ve conquered death, there is greater life after death. And that’s good news, that gives us hope. Here’s what Jesus said, John chapter 11, verse 25.

Jesus promised, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though they die like everyone else, they will live again. That’s a reason for hope, that’s a reason for hope. If Jesus Christ hadn’t resurrected on Easter Sunday, we’re all helpless and all hopeless,

Death is the end, it’s over, that’s it. Now, when Jesus died, they buried him in a tomb. In those days, they didn’t bury people under the ground as much as they buried them in caves, kind of like mausoleums. And they would put a stone in front of the cave

And they would roll it away and put somebody in then roll it back. And they did this because entire families for generations would have a family tomb and there’d be a lot of people buried in the same cave. And so after Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea volunteered his tomb

And they rolled a huge stone in front of it. But then Pilate had it sealed so it couldn’t be moved back and he posted Roman guards on either side. Now, the 12 disciples who were followers of Jesus at this time, they’re scared to death.

They run, they turned tail and they run, they’re scared. None of them believed the resurrection would happen. And so they’re hiding in fear. They’re disillusioned, they’re depressed, they’re afraid they’re gonna be executed next as the followers of Jesus. And so they’re runnin’ away and they’re hiding.

Now three days later, on Easter Sunday morning, one of the women who’s traveling with the disciples, Mary Magdalene, decides she’s gonna go to the tomb to be there. So she goes to the tomb and when she gets there, she finds the seal has been broken, the stone has been rolled away,

There’s no body there, and the grave clothes that Jesus had been wrapped in are folded and sitting there on a step in the tomb. By the way, some people say, well maybe they stole the body. If you ever steal a body, leave the clothes on him. There would be no reason to take the clothes off of a person and steal the body. If you’re gonna steal, you may as well steal it with the clothes on it. But they’re left there. And so Mary thinks the body’s been stolen. That’s the logical conclusion.

And then all the sudden she hears a voice and so she turns around and Jesus is standing there, the risen Jesus Christ. And he says to her, Mary. And when she calls out his name, as she’d heard her name called many times, she knew it was the Lord.

And he says, Jesus says, go tell all my brothers, go tell all the disciples that I’m alive and I’m comin’ to see him. So Mary runs to this house where the disciples are inside with the locked for fear. She bangs on the door, they let her in and she says,

You guys aren’t gonna believe this, Jesus is alive. And you know what these great men of faith did? They doubted her, none of ’em believed her. They said, Mary you’ve either seen a ghost, you’ve had a hallucination, you’re just in deep grief. They don’t believe her at all.

What this clip on the screens. – Peter! Peter! Everyone, the tomb is open, he’s alive, I saw him! – That’s not possible. – I saw him. – Mary, maybe it was someone else. – You think I’m mad? Peter, see the tomb for yourself. – A cup, I need a cup and some wine. – What happened? – His body. His blood. I’m the way. The truth. And the life. – No. No, this isn’t real. – Thomas… Stop doubting. And believe. – It is you. – Because you see me, you believe. Blessed are those who have not seen me, but yet have believed. – So the point is this, even the disciples, none of Jesus’s followers actually believed he’d come back to life until they became eye witnesses of it.

It wasn’t just hearsay, they said I’ve got to see him. Now, let me ask you a question. If you saw someone walkin’ down the street that you had just buried three days earlier, how would you feel about that? Maybe confused, maybe scared to death, frightened, fearful, excited.

Do you think you would ever forget that experience? Not likely. Would it change your worldview about life and death? Oh yeah. Would it give you new hope? Oh yeah. That there might be life after death? Oh yeah, absolutely. One of the things that’s difficult to explain without the resurrection is the sudden change

In the disciples because at the crucifixion, they’re all scared to death, they’re running, they’re defeated, they’re demoralized, they’re in despair, they’re disillusioned, they’re depressed. Three days later, they’re ready to take on Nero and the Roman empire. What happened? They had seen Jesus, they were eye witnesses. They knew physically something had happened.

Not just them, but a lot of other people did too. But now they’ve got courageous confidence, now they’ve got contagious hope. Why? They are eyewitnesses. Here’s what Peter wrote down in his book. When we told you about the powerful coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we were not telling

Made-up stories that someone invented, rather we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. And not only these original 12, but Jesus came and stayed on Earth for another 40 days, walked around Jerusalem for 40 days. That’s why literally tens of thousands of people became believers in a very short time,

Because there were so many eyewitnesses. Here’s what the Bible says, Acts chapter one, verse three. For 40 days after his death, Jesus appeared to people many times in many ways that proved beyond doubt that he was alive. They saw him, and he talked with them about the kingdom of God.

Can you imagine being one of the executors who put Jesus on the cross, one of the soldiers and you saw that guy die and all the sudden he’s walkin’ down the street? And you go, he’s back. That would be strange. Paul lists just a few of the eyewitnesses.

This isn’t even an entire list. First Corinthians 15 he says, Christ died for our sins, just as the scriptures said. Then he was buried, and then he was raised from the dead on the third day. Then he says, he was seen by Peter, and then he was seen by the 12 apostles.

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 by now. He sits on a hillside and teaches 500 people. Then he was seen by James. Later he was seen by all the apostles.

Last of all, I saw him too. This isn’t even an entire list. For 40 days he has multiple meetings with a lot of different people. Friends, this is what’s called conclusive proof. This is what’s called definitive evidence. Having 900 eyewitnesses would stand up in any court anywhere in the world.

If I were to tell you that this afternoon over at Starbucks I saw the queen of England, you might have a reason to doubt that. ‘Cause it’s just one guy sayin’ it. But if there were 900 different people who said, oh no, she’s been here for 40 days,

She’s stayin’ at the Quality Inn. And we had dinner with her the other night and somebody says, oh well, we had breakfast. Another guy goes, well we went fishing with her. And I said, oh no, well we had her over for dinner. Another said, well we heard her with 500 people at a symposium.

And you had 900 eyewitnesses right off the bat, friends, now you’ve got a problem with your doubt. ‘Cause it’s not just me sayin’ it, it’s eyewitness and after eyewitness after eyewitness for 40 days. This is why the church exploded and within years, there were 30,000 members of the church just in Jerusalem.

And then it had grown to nearly a half a million and it exploded all over the Roman empire. And what had been persecuted, within 300 years is now the official religion of the Roman empire. Why? Because of the resurrection, there were so many eyewitnesses.

Now there’s a third reason we have hope and it’s this. We now have God’s spirit in us. We now have God’s spirit inside us. His spirit of power, his holy spirit, his spirit of love. The night before Jesus went to the cross, before he dies, he says, guys, I’m gonna be leavin’,

I’m goin’ back to heaven, but I’m gonna send my spirit to be inside you. Now at the end of 40 days, Jesus ascends back up to heaven. But before he did he tells ’em, he says, don’t do anything until I send your spirit. Don’t try to do anything on your own power.

Wait for my spirit, he’s gonna give you power. And in Acts chapter one, verse eight, Jesus says this, before he goes back to heaven. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and you’ll tell people everywhere about me; in Jerusalem, throughout Judea,

In Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth. And so 10 days later, after 40 days of resurrection, this is 50 days, God sends his Holy Spirit to live in every believer. I want you to watch these last words of Jesus to his disciples, watch this. – When the Holy Spirit comes to you, you’ll receive power. The power of the Holy Spirit can be with you all wherever you are. Go into the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Peace be with you. – My brothers, my sisters… we have work to do. – This is the third reason why Christianity spreads so fast after the resurrection. They had seen Jesus face to face, and then he says, I’m gonna send my spirit to be in you and he’s gonna give you power

To do things you couldn’t do on your own. So now they’ve gone from fearful to fearless. They’ve gone from hopeless to hopeful. They’ve gone from being cowards to being courageous. Let’s take on the Roman empire. Nothing is gonna stop them now. They’ve seen Jesus alive, he said what he said he is,

And now he’s saying I’m putting my spirit in you, and they’re empowered by God’s spirit. Do you know that God never intended for you to go through life just on your own power? God wants to have a personal connection with you. He wants to put his love, his power,

And his spirit inside you. That gives you a supernatural advantage. It gives you additional power that you don’t have on your own. When you don’t have that power, you say things like this. I’m at the end of my rope. I’m barely hangin’ on. I’m ready to throw in the towel.

I’m sick and tired of bein’ sick and tired. I’m runnin’ on fumes, I’m out of gas. I don’t feel like I can make it to the weekend. Why? Because you were never meant to live your life just on your own power. God wants you to be plugged into the power.

Until you’re plugged into the power, you can’t fulfill your purpose. A blender can’t fulfill its purpose unless it’s plugged into the power. A vacuum cleaner can’t fulfill its purpose unless it’s plugged into the power. You can’t fulfill your purpose unless you’re plug into God’s power. Now here’s the amazing thing.

The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, split history into AD and BC, that same power is available to you on a daily basis. You go, come on, Rick. No, I’m serious, look at this next verse. Ephesians chapter, verse 19 and 20. I pray that you will begin to understand,

This is the Bible talking, how incredibly great his power is, that’s God’s power, to help those who believe him. It is the same mighty power that raised Jesus, raised Christ, from the dead. What is this power? It’s the power of God’s spirit in your life.

Now listen, you say, well what does that mean to me? If God’s spirit can raise a dead Jesus, he can raise a dead marriage. If God’s spirit can raise a dead person, he can raise a dead career. If God’s spirit, resurrection power, can raise a dead man, he can raise a dead dream.

He can do anything in your life. He can do anything in your life, it’s all easy. What is this power? It’s the power to be free from your past. It’s the power to break those memories that have been holdin’ you back. It’s the power to start over when you feel like givin’ up.

It’s the power to change things you think you could never ever change and you can’t on your own. It’s the power to overcome habits and hurts and hangups that hold you back. It’s the power to keep goin’ when you feel like givin’ up. That power is available to you, that’s resurrection power.

That gave them hope, it’s the reason we have hope today. Number four, the fourth reason we live with the most hope, why we have more hope than anybody else is because God will never stop loving us. God will never, never, never stop loving us. Jeremiah chapter 31 in the Bible,

Verse three, God says this. I have loved you with an everlasting love. Did you know that? God says, I love you with an everlasting love. How long is everlasting? Forever, it’s everlasting, duh. God has never made a person he doesn’t love. In fact, you can’t make God stop loving you.

You can try but you’ll fail because God’s love is based on who he is not who you are. God will never stop loving you, and this is the fourth reason why Christianity spreads so fast, is because they carry not just the message of hope, but they carry the message of love.

God doesn’t wait for you to love him before he starts loving you. God loved you first. In fact, the only reason you’re breathing is ’cause God made you to love you. And the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16 and 17, it’s that next verse.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that’s Jesus, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send him son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. God wants you to know his love.

God not only wants you to know his love, he wants you to feel his love. Because when you feel God’s love, it transforms you and then you know what? He expects you to pass it on to other people. I’ve seen God turn hateful men into loving men.

I’ve seen God turn bigots and racists into gentlemen and gentlewomen. Because when God’s love hits your heart, it changes you. Now you’re saying, well I know God. Let me ask you, has your life changed? Well not really. Then you don’t know God. Because somebody as big as God

Can’t come into your life and it not change you. When God’s love comes into your life, it changes the way you react to everybody else. In fact, Jesus said it like this, John 13, it’s on the screen. I’m givin’ you a new commandment; love each other.

Just as I’ve loved you, you should love each other. And your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. Years later, John, one of the original 12 guys, would reemphasize this, and in First John chapter three he wrote this.

This is how we know who the children of God are. Anyone who doesn’t obey God’s command and doesn’t love others is not a child of God. This is the message we’ve heard from the beginning; we must love each other. That’s the kind of thing that God changes in your life.

You start even lovin’ your enemies when God comes into your life. The most amazing conversion in the Bible is the guy named Paul, he later became St. Paul. Paul was a religious terrorist. His job was to kill Christians. And he traveled all around the Palestine area killing Christians.

That was his job, he was a religious terrorist. And one day he’s goin’ to Syria, to Damascus, to kill a bunch of Christians there, and on the road to Damascus he encounters the resurrected Jesus Christ. And Jesus says to Paul, why are you persecuting me?

Paul falls to his knees and says, my Lord and my God. And the man who had been a religious terrorist becomes the apostle of love. And Paul wrote the most beautiful words on love ever written, First Corinthians 13. They are read at weddings literally every single day around the world.

Listen to Paul, the religious terrorist who became the apostle of love, listen to him talking about love. – But then Jesus came to me. Not in righteous anger or in judgment, but… in love. Without love we are nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it does not boast.

It is not proud, it keeps no records of wrongs. It rejoices with the truth. It bares all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things. When everything else disappears, faith, hope, and love remain. But the greatest of these… is love.

– Now, the fifth reason why we who are followers of Jesus Christ have more hope than anybody else is this. We know the purposes that we’re created for. We know the purpose of life. I’ve traveled all around the world and I’ve discovered most people don’t have the slightest idea

What is the purpose of their life. You say, what’s the purpose of your life? I don’t know. You can have success without having significance. Significance comes from knowing your purpose. Why am I here, what on Earth am I here for? Why does my life exist? What is the purpose of my life?

Does my life have any meaning? These are the fundamental questions of life. You could fill your life with popularity and power and possessions and all pleasures and not know your purpose, and there’s still the emptiness. When you don’t know your purpose in life, when you don’t know why you’re here on Earth,

Then there’s this big hole in you and you try to fill that emptiness with a lot of other stuff; money, sex, achievement, success, travel, pleasure, sports, hobbies. Those are all good things, but they’re never gonna take the place of knowing why in the world are you here, why do you exist,

Why are you even alive, what is the purpose of your life. There are thousands of verses about the purpose of your life in this book, but if you’ve never read it, you don’t know it. You don’t know what on Earth am I here for.

And at some point, even if you’re livin’ the good life, you put your head down on the pillow at night and you go, there’s gotta be more to life than this. Because there is, you were wired by God for much, much more.

You were made for so much more than simply the good life. You’re made for the better life. I don’t have time today, on Easter Sunday, to explain to you the five purposes of your life, but let me just quickly show you just a few of the thousands of verses

About God’s purpose for creating you. Psalm 138 says this, verse eight. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me because his love endures forever. What is that verse saying? It’s saying the reason there’s a purpose for your life is because you have a creator who loves you.

God always acts in love towards you, and because he loves you, he made you for a purpose. You were made by God and you were made for God and until you figure that out, life’s never gonna make sense. It’s just not gonna make sense. The next verse, Jeremiah 29, says this.

I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. He’s sayin’ that Gods’s purpose for your life is a good plan. You’re not gonna run from it, it’s not a bad thing.

It’s a good thing, it has hope and purpose and future. In the next verse, Jesus says in John chapter 10, Jesus says, My purpose is to give life in all it’s fullness. You’re not really livin’ until you’re connected to God, you’re just existing. You were made for so much more

Than to get up in the morning, go to work, come home, watch TV, go to bed, party on the weekend. Jesus said, you’re not really living. I came to give you life in its fullness. The key to your fulfillment in life is knowing your purpose in life.

The next verse, Romans 8:28, the Bible says this. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who’ve been called according to his purpose. When you’re living out the purpose you were created for, that God made you for, God says,

I’m gonna bring good even out of the bad stuff in your life. I’ll take all of it, even the dumb stuff, even the bad decisions I make, even my mistakes, even my sins, he says, I’ll figure that all out. I’ll work it all out for good in your life

Because you’re going for my purpose. That’s a great thing, that’s a great news. And then the says this, in Mark chapter eight Jesus says, If you insist on saving your life, you’re gonna lose it. In other words, are you gonna go with your plan or are you gonna go with God’s plan?

If you insist on saving your life, you’ll lose it. Only those who give away their lives for my sake and the good news will ever know what it means to really live. He’s saying, your plan is gonna lead you to frustration, you’re gonna lose. And by the way, how’s that goin’ for ya?

You’ve been goin’ on your plan for your life, how’s that workin’ out for ya? You totally fulfilled, you totally satisfied? Life’s everything you want it to be? God says, no, no, you go with my plan, then you’re gonna know how to really live. But you can’t go with your plan

And God’s plan at the same time. You gotta decide which one you’re gonna go for, your purpose in life or God’s purpose in your life. You were made for so much more. And he says, only if you give your life away will you ever know what it means to really live.

What’s he sayin’ there? You’re not ready to live til you know what’s worth dyin’ for. Do you know what you’d die for in life? If you don’t, you’re not really ready to live. After the resurrection, first tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, then millions of people because followers of Jesus Christ.

Of course as I said, now billions today. This scared the Roman empire because millions of people were becoming followers of the resurrected Jesus Christ. There were just too many eyewitnesses and it scared her to death. So the Roman empire started what was called the great persecution.

And for the first 300 years of Christianity, it was illegal to be a Christian. And if you made the decision to say I’m gonna become a follower of Christ, you were more likely to be fed to lions in the Colosseum, or crucified yourself, or beheaded. It meant ultimately, probably certain death.

People were signing their own death warrant by saying I’m gonna become a follower of Christ. Why did they become followers? Because of the hope, all the things we’ve just covered. All but one of the original 12 guys, original disciples, every one of those guys were murdered except one, John.

Steven was stoned to death, James was beheaded, Peter was crucified upside down, Paul was in prison in Rome and then he was executed. I want you to listen to the last words of Paul. Right before he goes to execution he says, I’ve fought the good fight,

I’ve finished the race, I’ve kept the faith. This is the kind of attitude, Christians were fearless in the face of death, why? Because they knew there was more to life than just here and now, watch this. – I’ve fought a good fight. I finished the race. And I kept the faith. – What baffled the Roman empire was how unafraid Christians were to die. Paul says it like this. For me to live is Christ, and dying is even better. He says, either way I win. If I’m alive, I’m just gonna live my purpose, the purpose that God created me for.

If I die, I just get to go to heaven sooner, I can’t lose. What do you do with a guy like that? Now, today American media doesn’t report this, but about a quarter of a billion, about 250 million of those Christians live in lands where they are persecuted for their faith.

In fact, about 90,000 Christians are killed every year right now. In fact, for the last 10 years, it’s been over a million believers, Christian believers, have been killed in the last 10 years, over one million. This morning in Sri Lanka a church was bombed and over 200 people died and 450 were wounded.

There is persecution going on today. But people go, why am I a Christian? Because I know there’s more to life than just here and now. That leads me to the sixth thing of hope and it’s this, here’s the sixth reason we have the most hope.

Because we have an eternal home waiting for us. We have an eternal home waiting for us. We know, as followers of Jesus, that death is not the end, it’s just the transition to better things. In fact, you’re gonna spend far more time on that side of eternity than on this side.

Here on this planet, you get 60, 70, 80, at the most you’re gonna get 100 years on this planet. But on the other side, those who know the Lord, who’ve accepted salvation, it’s trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions of years of freedom.

The last of the 12 disciples to die was a guy named John. Actually, the Romans tried to poison him. He was the only one not martyred, the poison didn’t work. So they exiled John to a prison colony on an island called Patmos in the middle of the Mediterranean.

And he actually lived to be quite an old man on the island of Patmos, in this prison. And by himself there, in his old age, he wrote the last book of the Bible, which is called the Revelation, and it is a vision of what heaven is like. What this, on the screen.

– I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last. The beginning and the end. – I knew it, I’ve been expecting death to come. – There will be no more death or mourning or crying… Or pain. I am making everything knew. Yes. I am coming soon. May the grace of the Lord be with all God’s people. – Amen. – What is heaven gonna be like? Well, in a word, it’s indescribable. It’s indescribable, you and I trying to understand what heaven is like would be like a mosquito trying to understand the internet. We don’t have the brain capacity. Here on planet Earth, we’re limited by three dimensions.

There are far more than three dimensions. There are dimensions we don’t even know about. But we know it’s gonna be incredible, it’s gonna be beautiful, it’s gonna be amazing. Why? Because look at the Earth. This is a broken planet, this is a fallen planet. Nothing works perfectly on this planet,

And yet there’s still a lot of beauty; sunrises and sunsets, and skis, and mountains, and trees, and these beautiful flowers, and the beaches, and all of the beauty that God created on Earth and this is an imperfect planet. Imagine what a perfect place is gonna be like

With all the sights and the sounds and the colors and the smells, where it’s absolutely perfect, and the tastes that are there. The problem with most people and heaven is because you have a TV vision of heaven, and on television and movies, they always show heaven as, first place, it’s totally white.

Now why would God, who created all the colors, make heaven so boring as all white? And then you’re walking around in fog up to about your knees and you’re wearing a white robe and you’ve got angel’s wings and you’re playing a harp. That would be hell. (audience laughing)

If that’s heaven, I don’t wanna go. I’d rather just stay here and serve, thank you. That’s not at all what heaven’s like, but the devil wants you to have this vision of heaven like it’s so boring, we’re all the same. The Bible says this about heaven, First Corinthians chapter two;

No eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, and no mind has ever imagined the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love him. For those who love him. I’ll be honest with you folks, I’ve been a pastor here for four decades, I have walked tens of thousands of people

Personally through their pain and their sorrow and their suffering and their sadness and their sickness, and the more that I see the Earth with all of its abuse and the affairs and the assaults and the rapes and the violence and the racism and the prejudice and the war, all of the bad things

That we see, the evil, the terrorism, the more that I see of that in the world, in our broken planet and the more that I have friends and family that have gone ahead of me into heaven, my mother and father are there, my older brother’s there,

I have a son in heaven, the older I get, the more heaven sounds like a good deal and the more I look forward to it and the more I’m ready for it. I’m certainly not afraid to die. Now this is why the resurrection gives us hope,

These six things, why we have more hope than anybody else on the planet. First, I am completely forgiven of everything I’ve ever done wrong. I’m gonna go to bed tonight with a clear conscience knowing that even the sins that I commit tomorrow and next year and in 10 years, if I’m still here,

That they’ve already been forgiven and paid for by Jesus Christ, I am completely forgiven. Then I know that I’m not afraid to die, ’cause I’m just not afraid to die. Then I have God’s spirit inside me, who gives me the power to make changes in my life

That I could never do on my own; habits and hurts and hangups and stuff that I don’t like about myself that I never could change before. Now I have God’s spirit inside of me to give me strength to make these changes. I know that God will never stop loving me.

It doesn’t matter what happens in my dazed head, I know one thing for sure; God will never, never, never stop loving me. I know that I’m living the purpose that I was created for and I know that one day I’m going to heaven without any doubt. I don’t have any question about that,

I’m absolutely certain I’m going to heaven. You know what my prayer is for you? Is that you would have that confidence. If you were to die tonight, are you certain you’d go to heaven? You go, well, I kind of hope so. Hope isn’t enough, you need to be certain.

You need to be certain, and God wants you to be certain. I could help you develop that certainty today. I guarantee ya I can. And if you were to stand before God tonight and God says to you, why should I let you into my house?

Why should I let you into my home for eternity? Do you know the password? You say, well I tried to be a nice person. Uh, wrong answer. You can’t be good enough to get into a perfect place. Heaven’s perfect and I’m not and neither are you.

You need a savior, that’s what Jesus came to do. If Jesus didn’t need to die on the cross for you, then it was a total waste of his blood. There’s only one way. Before Jesus went back to heaven, he said to his followers, let not your heart be troubled.

In other words, don’t get discouraged. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I’m going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. And Thomas said, Lord, we don’t know where you’re goin’ and we don’t know the way. And Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.

No one comes to the father except through me. I’m betting my life that Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, is not a liar. What are you bettin’ your life on? My prayer for you is that you will simply open your eyes, that you will today have a moment of clarity

That maybe you’ve never ever seen before. I want you to listen to this song before I finish, and during this song, I wanna challenge you to pray a simple prayer to God. Just say, God, open my eyes. Do you have enough courage to pray that prayer? Or does that even scare you?

God, open my eyes. If you’re really real, make yourself real to me. God, open my eyes, give me a moment of clarity. Help me to see the truth. – Thanks for checkin’ out this message on YouTube. My name is Jay and I’m Saddleback’s online pastor. I wanna invite you to take your next step by checking out our online community or help get you connected to a local Saddleback campus. Three things we have to offer you right now.

First, learn more about belonging to our church family by taking class 101. Second, don’t live life alone and get into community with others by joining an online small group or a local home group in your area. Third, join our Facebook group to be more engaged with our online community throughout the week.

Take your next step and learn where a local campus is near you by visiting Saddleback.com/online or email online@saddleback.com, hope to hear from you soon.

#Resurrection #Hope #Rick #Warren

Bishop Barron on the Resurrection of Jesus



Bisschop Barron over de Verrijzenis van Jezus De verrijzenis van Jezus uit de dood is het meest belangrijke feit uit het christendom. Als Jezus niet uit de dood is opgestaan, dan kunnen ik en andere bisschoppen, priesters en andere christelijke bedienaars wel een ander baantje zoeken,

En alle christenen zouden een ander geloof moeten aannemen. Sint Paulus zei: als Christus niet is verrezen, dan is je geloof niets waard, en dan zijn wij de meest beklagenswaardige mensen van allemaal. Er is werkelijk geen derde mogelijkheid.

Want als Jezus niet uit de dood is opgestaan, dan is dit alles een grote leugen en grap. Als hij wel uit de doden is verrezen, dan is Hij wie Hij zegt dat Hij is. En dan moet Hij het absolute centrum van ons leven worden.

C.S. Lewis had hier gelijk in: er is geen realistische derde optie. Zoals: “Ik denk niet dat Hij uit de doden is verrezen, maar Hij is een geweldige morele leraar. Nee, nee, als Hij niet is verrezen uit de dood, dan is het christendom bedrog. Zo centraal staat het.

Nu we gezien hebben hoe belangrijk de feitelijkheid van de verrijzenis is, welke lessen kunnen we er dan nu uit halen? Er zijn er natuurlijk wel duizend, maar ik haal er vandaag maar drie uit. Dus hier is de eerste les: Het gaat niet om deze wereld!

Ik wil voorzichtig zijn, omdat ik niet bedoel dat deze wereld slecht is, ik bedoel niet dat we er ons niet om moeten bekommeren, wat ik bedoel is dat de wereld van onze normale ervaringen, oftewel de wereld van de onmiddellijke algemene ervaring, de wereld, zo je wil, van het moderne secularisme,

Want wij zijn de eerste cultuur in de mensengeschiedenis, die grotendeels een seculier wereldbeeld aanneemt. Er is alleen maar deze wereld, en dat is alles. De opstanding zegt ons onomwonden, dat deze wereld, ook al is hij goed, niet de uiteindelijke horizon is van wat de werkelijkheid is.

Het vertelt ons, zoals de Bijbel het stelt, dat God werk maakt van het creëren van een nieuwe hemel en een nieuwe aarde. Hij wil deze wereld verheffen en omvormen. En de opstanding is er de beste aanwijzing voor dat dit waar is.

Ik zal je iets zeggen, waarvan ik denk dat het overduidelijk waar is. Ik denk dat Jean-Paul Sartre en zijn collega’s, de existentialisten, het helemaal bij het rechte eind hebben wanneer zij zeggen: als God niet bestaat, dan is het leven absurd. Dat is waar, dat is waar.

Ik bedoel, we kunnen wel van dingen genieten, hier en daar, in deze voorbijgaande wereld. Maar laten we ervoor uitkomen, als er geen God is, dan gaan we allemaal dood en blijven in onze graven en dat is einde verhaal. Dan is het leven in feite absurd.

Wat ik ook voor elkaar zal krijgen, dat zal uiteindelijk verdwijnen, ik zal geleidelijk verdwijnen en ieder die mij ooit gekend heeft ook. Wat heeft het voor zin? Een moreel goed mens zijn is belangrijk, ja, oké, maar als iemand pijn lijdt en doodgaat en ik daar niets aan doe,

Zal de wereld daar met uiterste onverschilligheid naar kijken, en we zullen uiteindelijk allemaal verdwijnen en de wereld ook. Wie maakt er zich druk om? Het punt hier is, dat als je een compleet seculier wereldbeeld aanhangt, dan is het leven in feite betekenisloos.

De verrijzenis van Jezus uit de doden is daarom een enorm belangrijk teken. Een enorm krachtig teken. Dat er iets anders gaande is. Dat God bezig is met iets wat onze gewone ervaringen overstijgt. Hier is tweede voorname les vanuit de opstanding: Tirannen, jullie tijd is voorbij!

Bedenk eens wat dat betekende voor de eerste christenen. Jezus, hun vriend en meester, is ter dood gebracht door Rome’s macht, in samenzwering met bepaalde Joodse leiders. Het kruis was hét grote teken van de tirannie, het gezag, de macht van Rome.

Zo van: als jij ons in de weg gaat staan, dan doen wij dit bij jou. Het kruis is bedoeld om afschuw te wekken. Daarom lieten ze het publiek zien. Denk aan Spartacus en collegae langs de Via Appia. Of in Jezus’ geval. Ze kruisigden Hem net naast de poort van de stad Jeruzalem,

Zodat niemand Hem kon missen. Ik heb nog zeer recent gelezen, dat het Kruis waarschijnlijk 3 meter hoog zou zijn. Weet je, omdat ze wilden dat het gezien werd. Het was het teken van de tirannieke macht van Rome. Dus, wanneer God Jezus uit de doden doet verrijzen,

Wat zegt dat dan aan de eerste christenen? Het zegt: ‘Nee, Caesars macht is niet beslissend, hij is niet de uiterste gezaghebbende. Zijn tirannie wordt feitelijk geoordeeld. Gods liefde is groter dan alles wat er in de wereld te vinden is. Bekijk nu hoe christenen dit inzicht heel creatief hebben gebruikt

Met heel krachtig effect door de eeuwen heen. Het beste recente voorbeeld is Johannes Paulus II in Polen. Ik denk aan de scène in 1979 op het Overwinningsplein in Warschau. Hij preekt er het Evangelie, preekt over God, mensenrechten en de verrijzenis, en de Poolse regering, communistisch, staat vlak achter hem.

En achter hen staat symbolisch de gehele troepenmacht van de Sovjetunie. Het enige wat Johannes Paulus had, hij had geen wapens, hij had geen leger, geen tanks, maar precies naast hem was dit gigantische kruis. Snap je, het kruis is altijd een bespotting van tirannen geweest.

Het is een manier om tegen tirannen te zeggen, dat we niet bang van ze zijn. Het ergste dat jullie ons kunnen aandoen, God heeft daar meer macht over. En Johannes Paulus, net als alle andere grote christelijke, sociale activisten door de eeuwen heen, kende de kracht van het kruis.

Daarom moeten we het niet privé maken. De huidige seculiere maatschappij wil dat we het kruis privé houden. Het is ons kleine symbool van onze vreemde hobby, die christendom heet. Nee, nee, het kruis is bedoeld, zoals het 2000 jaar geleden al was,

Om publiekelijk te worden opgezet. Het moet in het publieke gezichtsveld staan. En wij christenen moeten dat blijven doen. Want de tirannen moeten weten, dat hun tijd voorbij is. Hier is een derde les die ik uit de opstanding trek: De weg van de hoop wordt er voor iedereen opengesteld.

Waarom zeg ik dat? Bedenk dan dat het kruis de reis is van de Zoon van God, helemaal tot aan de grens van de Godverlatenheid. De Vader zond de Zoon de wereld in, helemaal tot aan de dood, en Paulus zegt zelfs de dood aan het kruis, wat de verschrikkelijkste manier was

Die ze zich konden indenken waarop iemand kon sterven. Het punt is, dat de Zoon zo ver weg is gezonden, tot aan de grenzen van het menselijk lijden. Ja zelfs tot aan het punt van Godverlatenheid. Dus wanneer Jezus aan het Kruis zegt: “God, mijn God, waarom hebt U mij verlaten?”

Wat heeft dat nu voor zin? De zin ervan is dat Hij zo ver weg is gezonden om iedereen op te halen, ieder die ver van God af is geraakt, wordt nu binnengehaald door de Zoon. Dus, als je zo hard je kunt wegrent van de Vader, waar ren je dan heen?

Je rent de armen van de Zoon in. Dat betekent het. Het uitstrekken van de Trinitaire Personen. En wanneer bij de opstanding, wanneer de Zoon in de Geest terugkeert bij de Vader, dan keert Hij terug, in ieder geval in principe, terwijl Hij de hele wereld verzamelt.

En daarom wordt de weg van de hoop opengesteld voor iedereen. Wanneer mensen de neiging hebben te zeggen, en ik hoor dat veel in mijn pastorale dienstwerk: ‘God zou mij nooit kunnen vergeven voor wat ik gedaan heb, ik ben zo slecht geweest, doe maar geen moeite voor mij,

Vader, God kan mij nooit vergeven.’ Nee, God is helemaal naar buiten getreden. Hij is naar iedere donkere hoek van de menselijke ervaring gegaan, zodat Hij de hele wereld tot Zich terug kon trekken. En daarom is de verrijzenis een teken van hoop. Dus, de eerste les: trancendentie, het leven bestaat uit meer dan

Datgene wat je kunt zien. Tweede les: de tirannen sidderen in de aanwezigheid van het kruis. Derde les: er is hoop voor iedereen. Er is hoop zelfs voor de meest hopelozen. Laat de macht van de verrijzenis in je eigen hart resoneren en maak het bekend aan een wereld die erop wacht.

#Bishop #Barron #Resurrection #Jesus

The Message of the Resurrection – Dr. Charles Stanley



The field guide to God’s presence is a tool you can use to go deeper with God. Order your free field guide today. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ male announcer: “In Touch” with Dr. Charles Stanley, reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ through sound biblical teaching.

Next on “In Touch,” “The Message of the Resurrection.” Dr. Charles Stanley: When we began the ministry in Russia, I wanted to be sure to go there and be sure we started it right and made all the preparation necessary. And one of the things I wanted to do was to go to Red Square

And visit Lenin’s tomb because I had been there about thirty years before, and the lines were so long, they said it would be about a two-hour wait before I could get in, so I walked away and thought, “Well, maybe one of these days.” This time there were no lines.

I walked in between a number of guards and there was a sign that said “No Talking.” I stood there gazing upon the lifeless corpse of a man, encased air-tight into a–in a glass covering, and stood there for a few moments and felt the despair,

The gloom, and thought to myself: here lies the lifeless corpse of a man who did not believe in God, who caused a bloody revolution, who put his whole nation in bondage, who caused bloodshed and death all across the world, and who left his followers with a shattered dream.

And worse than that, he left them with absolutely no hope of life beyond this one. I walked out of that place and stood there and turned around and thought for a few moments about another tomb I’d been in. This one, the crowds were still there,

And I waited till everyone was gone late that afternoon, and I walked into this tomb, not to look for a lifeless corpse because I knew He wasn’t there. I knew that I was walking into a tomb that was absolutely empty, and that’s why I’d come.

I thought to myself: what a difference in these two tombs, one of them is still filled and having to be guarded, a lifeless corpse. The other one is pure stone, nobody, no guards, no signs to keep me quiet. What an awesome difference in these two tombs, in these two men.

One of them is the message of gloom and despair and failure. The other is the message of hope and assurance and absolute eternal success. Which message had you rather hear? Which message had you rather believe? For me, I’ll choose the message from the second tomb,

The one in Jerusalem, the tomb of the Son of God. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Luke chapter twenty-four, and let’s read what happened, how He got placed there, and how He didn’t stay there very long at all. Twenty-fourth chapter of Luke, first verse,

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, and when they had entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living One among the dead?

He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and

Reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.” My friend, the best news the world could possibly hear is found in verse six. He is not here, but He has risen. This is the greatest news the world has ever heard because,

You see, if that were not true, you and I would have absolutely no hope and assurance of life after this one. What I’d like to do in this message is simply explain to you what is the real message of the resurrection? It isn’t simply the fact that Jesus died on the cross and

Somebody placed Him in their tomb and sealed it up and Romans that were there to guard it, and simply the fact that the rock, the stone was rolled away and suddenly His body was not there. That is the event. These are the things that took place.

But what is the message of the resurrection? So whether you’re a believer or not, I want you to listen carefully. The first thing that I understand about the message of the resurrection is this: that our Christ, Jesus Christ the Son of God who is our Savior and our Lord and

Our master, the Son of God is alive. He is not dead. You’ll recall that He told His disciples in that sixteenth chapter of Matthew, one of the first times He began to explain to them about the fact that He was going to have to die, here’s what He said to them.

“From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.” And you’ll recall that was so obnoxious to them that Peter rebuked Him.

And then also in the seventeenth chapter following the Mount of Transfiguration experience, the scripture says in verse twenty-two, “And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him,

And He will be raised on the third day.’ And they were deeply grieved.” So, what you find is all through the Gospels, you find one reference after the other of Jesus telling His disciples, “I’m going to have to die, but I’m not going to stay dead, I’m going to rise from the dead.”

And that is exactly what happened because on that morning when they came to prepare for His body, or to add the spices, they didn’t think it was probably done because it was done so quickly, He wasn’t there. And my friend, the world needs to hear the truth,

That the God whom you and I serve, the living God, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not buried in a tomb. He is not here, it is His absence, not His presence but His absence that causes us to rejoice. Now somebody says, “Well, then where is He?

Where is He if He’s not there?” I’ll tell you where He is, the Bible’s very clear about where He is. So, if you’ll turn to Hebrews chapter ten for a moment. Let’s look at this passage, Hebrews chapter ten. The Bible tells us everything you and I need to know.

And so somebody says, “Well, where is the Lord Jesus Christ? Where is the Son of God? If He rose from the dead, then where is He?” And the scripture says in chapter ten of Hebrews verse twelve, “But He, having suffered one sacrifice,” that is His life, “for sins for all time, sat down

At the right hand of God.” Our resurrected Christ is seated at the Father’s right hand. That’s where He is. And what is He doing? Well, the scripture tells us exactly what He’s doing because it tells us in the seventh chapter of Hebrews, verse twenty-five, “Hence also He is able to save forever those

Who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for us.” Where is He? He’s at the Father’s right hand. What is He doing? Making intercession for us. Well, what is He doing besides interceding and sitting as our advocate? The Bible says in chapter fourteen of John,

If you want to turn there for a moment. Here’s something else He’s doing. He said to His disciples in this fourteenth chapter, “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you;

I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I’m coming again, to receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” What is He doing? Seated at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us, acting as our advocate,

Like our attorney before the Father. And at the same time, He is preparing Heaven for us and He is doing that until He is finished, and the next thing, or the last thing I would say is simply this, and that is He’s waiting for the Father’s plan to be complete and

Then He’s coming back for all of us who are His children. So where is He? Seated at the Father’s right hand. But there’s another place that He is, and that is He is not only seated at the Father’s right hand, but He is living on the inside of every single child of

God in the presence of the Holy Spirit who sealed us and indwelt us the moment we received Him as our Savior. Turn to the fifteenth chapter of John to the most graphic picture that Jesus could possibly have painted for us and painted for

His disciples to remind us forever that He is with us, and also to tell us and to explain to us the intimate relationship that He has with every single one of His children. You’ll recall that He says in this first verse of John

Fifteen, “I am the true vine, My Father is the vinedresser. He’s the one who takes care of Him. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit. You are already clean because of the

Words which I have spoken to you.” Now watch verse four and five. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you,” that is bear fruit, “unless you abide in Me.”

Watch this, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who is abiding in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” What is He saying? Simply this. Lord Jesus Christ who is the risen Lord,

One of the first message, the basic bottom line message of the resurrection is this: that Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God is alive, seated at the Father’s right hand, making intercession for us, serving as our adequate–as our advocate, preparing heaven for us, and at the same time

Living on the inside of every single one of those of us who have trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. We can say in the very beginning, the message of the resurrection is: our Christ is indeed very much alive and eternally alive. The second message of the resurrection is this: that our

Sins have been forgiven and we are absolutely eternally secure in Him. If you’ll recall, He says He came to give His life a ransom for many. He came to seek and to save that which is lost. Look, if you will, in Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one, beginning in this very first chapter,

Paul talks about how we have been chosen in Christ. And then he says in verse seven, “In Him,” that is in Christ Jesus, “we have redemption,” that is His death purchased our salvation, “through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” You’ll recall also in First Peter,

Chapter one, when he is describing what Jesus has done for us, here’s what he says in First Peter chapter one, and beginning in verse eighteen, “Knowing that you and I were not redeemed,” or saved, “with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your

Forefathers, but with the precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” What is the message of the resurrection? Message of the resurrection is that our sins have been forgiven. The message of the resurrection is that you and I are eternally secure in Him.

But is that all the message of the resurrection? No, it’s not, because we, too, are going to experience a bodily resurrection. So, I want you to turn to First Corinthians fifteen. Let’s look at this for a moment, and I want us to look at these verses. First Corinthians fifteen.

Jesus called this resurrection a resurrection unto life. And so in this fifteenth chapter, he gives us some things here that I want us to notice. We also are going to experience a bodily resurrection. Now, when is that going to happen? Here’s what he tells us in verse twenty-three of chapter fifteen.

He says, “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.” Here’s what he’s saying. The first person to be resurrected from the dead and to live forever is the Lord Jesus Christ. Those whom Jesus Christ raised from the dead in His day died.

So they died. But Jesus Christ is the one who raised from the dead and lives forever. And so, the message here is this. That all of us who are His children, we too are going to have a bodily resurrection. With all that in mind, this has–takes on a little different meaning now.

John chapter six. What did we read? He said in verse thirty-seven, that the–He says, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven,

Not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me, I,” listen to this now, He says I, “lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” He said I lose nothing.

He says in a twinkling of an eye, these bodies are going to be resurrected, listen, fashioned like unto the body of the Son of God. His body was absolutely, totally glorified. When you and I, listen, when we leave this earth and this body

Leaves this earth, these bodies are going to leave this earth perfectly transformed, absolutely in the glory of the Son of God Himself. That’s the message of the resurrection. Man, listen, He says I’m not going to lose anything but raise it up on the last day.

This is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son, believes in Him, may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. He’s speaking of the body, because we’ll already be with Him. Raise him up on the last day. Raise up these bodies of ours.

Not going to lose anything. Bodies will be transformed just like He said. What’s the message of the resurrection? Every single one of us who knows Christ as our Savior, we too are going to experience a resurrection. Now, not only that, but heaven is going to be our eternal home.

The message of the resurrection is that heaven is our home. Because Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I’m coming again to receive you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also.”

Now, if we had time, we could talk a lot of things about what the Bible says about heaven. But you see, the most important thing about heaven is not what the streets are made of and whether they’re going to be castles, or whether they’re going to be something else.

That’s not even the issue. The issue’s this. The issue is that God’s there. The throne of God’s there. Jesus is there. The issue is that we’re going to be there. We’re, listen, we’re going to be serving Him, worshipping Him, praising Him, living with Him and living with

Our loved, listen, all that Almighty God has provided for us, listen, you and I can believe it because Christ rose from the dead, which validates everything He said. If He had not risen from the dead, we’d say, “Well, you know, other people have made all kind of

Promises, and we can look in their Bibles and see all of these things, but how do we know? Listen, the fact that He rose from the dead, listen, that’s proof. Listen, because that’s the final test. That is the ultimate proof that He’s the Son of God, the ultimate proof that He’s divine,

The ultimate proof of His promises to be true. And He says that He’s provided a heaven for us, and that’s where every single person whose name is written in the Lamb’s book of life is going to spend eternity. But I want to tell you something else about the resurrection,

A wonderful, wonderful truth about the resurrection, and that’s this: that you and I, listen, we have the promise that we’re going to meet our loved ones there. And we’re going to know them. Where do you get that? Well, in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians,

For example, he says we’re going to know even as we are known. When he said in First Thessalonians, that when Jesus Christ comes, we’re, listen, He’s bringing those who have passed on before, our loved ones, with Him. Then we too shall be caught up together.

And he says, “To meet them in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” He didn’t have to say that. Now, what–why would He have said we’re going to meet them in the air if we weren’t going to know them? And the truth is, it wouldn’t be heaven if there

Were all faceless creatures. We’re going to know each other. We’re going to have some kind of relationship that I don’t think anybody can fully understand. But it will be a wonderful relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We’ll have an absolute perfect relationship with one another.

That relationship is going to be to such a degree of intimacy and such a degree of pure holiness, that you and I couldn’t possibly understand on this earth, contained in these physical bodies with our emotions and our sinfulness, how you could relate to someone so absolutely in such a heavenly fashion.

But that is exactly what’s going to happen. We’re going to know each other. We shall know even as we are known. And we absolutely shall be no doubt and unquestionably perfectly known in heaven. Well, there’s just one other message of the resurrection I want to share, and that’s this.

When I look at this chapter and I see the events that took place and all about the tomb and all of these things and the spices and all the rest, and this is where people get hung up usually. That’s not the message of the resurrection. That’s the event of the resurrection.

The message of it is this. The message of the resurrection is because Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is living on the inside of every single one of us who is His children, we can face all the tomorrows with confidence and assurance and perfect peace,

That no matter what we have to face, we will be victorious. We will, because this earth is full of strife and stress and strains and violence and harm and hurt and shame. And because it is full of sorrow and pain, and because our valleys are oftentimes very long and very

Deep, and because our pathway oftentimes is full of pain and hurt and disappointments and discouragements. The message of the resurrection is this: you and I don’t walk through a single valley. We don’t walk through a long–along any pathway of life, no matter how hurtful and how painful,

Without the presence of the Son of God to enable us, strengthen us, help us, guard us, guide us, empower us, and cheer us on our way. That this life is not what it’s all about. This is just part of the journey. And at some point out there, when this journey is ended,

The Son of God who rose from the dead, who made us all these wondrous promises, is going to be standing there waiting for us to fulfill His last awesome promise. “I will come again to receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.” If you’re willing to pray a simple prayer and mean it with all of your heart, your eternal destiny can be changed in less than sixty seconds.

Your name will be written in the Lamb’s book of life within the next minute. And if that’s what you want, would you pray this prayer to Almighty God? Heavenly Father, I do believe the testimony of scripture, that Jesus Christ is your eternal Son.

I believe He went to the cross and died for my sins. I confess to You that I’m a sinner. I need Your forgiveness. I’m asking You to save me. I’m trusting You to do it right now. I accept the forgiveness of my sins. I accept Your gift of salvation.

I accept You as my personal Savior, in Jesus’s name, amen. If you’ve prayed that prayer, your name is written, never to be erased in the Lamb’s book of life, and God has a place for you in heaven. ♪♪♪

#Message #Resurrection #Charles #Stanley

Was Jesus Actually Resurrected



With 1 out of every 3 people on Earth identifying as Christian, it’s the single most important event in human history. But was Jesus of Nazareth really resurrected from the dead, and is there any evidence for it? To examine the question first we have to establish the historicity of Jesus himself.

While some doubt that he ever lived, no critical historian alive today doubts that Jesus of Nazareth was a real man who lived and died in the time attributed to him in the Gospels. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus mentions Jesus twice in his histories.

The first mention is widely regarded- even amongst Christian scholars- as having been doctored by a later Christian scribe to be more flattering, but still mentions Jesus as having been condemned and crucified by Roman authorities. The second mention of Jesus by Josephus is when he references the death of Jesus’s brother,

James, who was stoned to death for his belief in Jesus as the Christ. Jesus is also mentioned by the Roman historian Tacitus approximately 86 years after his crucifixion, and affirms that he was in fact crucified by Roman authorities and that a sizable contingent

Of his believers were present in Rome at the time of his writing, which further strengthens the biblical account of Saint Paul. Next, we have to establish the reliability of the evidence used to argue that the resurrection was a real event- namely Paul’s letters and the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Today that material is together, along with other books, known as the New Testament, and a critic would be right in arguing that one cannot use one’s own source material to argue for the validity of his or her argument. Except that is a serious misunderstanding of what the New Testament actually is- or

What it originally was. Today the New Testament is considered to be the second half of Christianity’s ‘holy book’, the Bible. Yet before it was largely codified around 200 A.D., the New Testament was a collection of apocalyptic revelations, letters to various churches, and the formal writing down of oral

Tradition in the form of the gospels. Specifically, Paul’s letters and the synoptic gospels are considered to be valid historical documents, that due to their content were later turned into a ‘holy book’. In the words of historian and New Testament scholar Dr. Gary Habermas, if you don’t use

The historically accepted books of the New Testament to argue for the historicity of Jesus, then critics will use them for you. But have the gospels reliably preserved historical details through the ages, and are Pauls’ letters still in their original form and untampered with for the purpose of empowering a Christian agenda?

Historian, New Testament scholar, and textual critic Bart Ehrman- himself an agnostic leaning towards atheism- points out that we don’t have the original autographs by which to authenticate the modern gospels and Paul’s letters. At best we have copies of copies of copies of copies, with the earliest recovered fragments

Dated back to around halfway through the second century. Furthermore, there is clear evidence of tampering with the gospels, with some passages in modern texts today widely known to have been introduced into the text well after the originals. Perhaps the most iconic of these fabricated bible passages is John 7:53-8:11, the story

Of Jesus and the adulterous woman. This story tells of how Jesus came across a woman about to be stoned to death for the sin of adultery by the Pharisee authorities. Jesus however interrupts the process and simply asks that the first man without sin cast the

First stone, resulting in the accusers dropping their rocks and going home. Finally, Jesus comforts the woman and tells her that he does not condemn her, then encourages her to go forth and sin no more. It’s a wonderful anecdote and example of Jesus as what 20th century Atheist philosopher Antony

Flew called, “a first-rate ethicist”. Except it never happened, the story was fabricated and inserted by an unknown scribe into the text, and is only one example of several. In further questioning the historical reliability of the gospels, Ehrman also points out that

Between various surviving ancient copies of the biblical texts are thousands of errors, and that the first written versions of the gospels and Paul’s letters weren’t created until decades after Jesus’ death- leaving plenty of room for details to be omitted, forgotten, or outright fabricated.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church wasn’t written until 55 A.D., with the gospel of Mark being written in 70 AD, Matthew in 80 AD, and John in 95 AD. That’s a spread of 25 to 65 years after the death of Jesus.

So with made-up stories, thousands of textual errors in the earliest available copies, and such a massive time gap between Jesus’s death and his history being recorded, is there any reason to think the New Testament is historically reliable? It’s well established that teachings about Jesus spread far and wide very quickly after

His death- in fact within as little as two or three years after the crucifixion, Jewish authorities were already persecuting Christians across the near-East in a bid to exterminate what they viewed as a heretical cult. This wide geographic dissemination of the core Christian knowledge about Jesus and his

Life events makes it incredibly unlikely that major revisions could have taken place without them being discovered- if for example Christian leaders in Rome wished to greatly change a core fact of the life, death, or teachings of Jesus, believers in Africa- which has one

Of the world’s oldest Christian communities- would have immediately identified the manipulation. The simple fact that we today are able to know that the story of Jesus and the adulterous woman was a fabrication is testament to how difficult it can be to make even minor changes

To the text without them being discovered thanks to the wide geographic distribution of the original material. Further, while Bart Ehrman is correct in pointing out the thousands of errors and discrepancies across various ancient manuscripts, the fact is that the overwhelming amount of these errors are insignificant to the core theology.

These errors are overwhelmingly misspellings and other textual errors, or errors so insignificant as to not affect the intended message of the scripture. While some may argue that over time errors can pile up, as in a game of telephone, the

Discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls proves the great diligence with which holy texts were copied and preserved by Jews. A medieval copy of the Old Testament compared with a copy discovered with the Dead Sea scrolls dating back to between the third century BC and first century AD showed that there were

Astonishingly few differences in the text- and once again, mostly copyist errors. The early Christians, being former devout Jews themselves, would have treated their religious texts with the same reverence and exacting care for precision. Further, while we don’t have the original autographs, we do have many preserved copies

Of some of the earliest church fathers’ writing on the gospels themselves. From their musings on these earliest versions of the gospels we can be confident that we do in fact, have an incredibly well preserved collection that if not perfectly, extremely accurately reflects the content and message of the autographs.

Professor Ehrman correctly points out to discrepancies in the gospel accounts themselves as proof that they are not reliable. On just the discovery of the empty tomb, the gospels vary in the telling. Matthew states that Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” went to the tomb.

There they found an angel, who told them that Jesus was risen and that they should tell the disciples and that they should go to Galilee to meet up with Jesus. Mark states that both Maries, and a third woman- Salome- went to the tomb and found

A young man inside who told them to tell the disciples to go meet the risen Jesus in Galilee. Luke states that “the women” went to the tomb, and entering the empty tomb they could not find Jesus when suddenly two men in bright clothes appeared before them.

They are not told to tell the disciples about the tomb nor to go anywhere. John states that Mary Magadalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance, so she went rushing back to Peter and one of the other disciples and

Claimed that the Jewish authorities or the Romans had removed Jesus’s body. Peter and the other disciple returned to the tomb to find Jesus’s burial clothing, while Mary somewhere outside the tomb and crying, sees two angels and Jesus- though is not allowed to immediately recognize Jesus.

So how can the various gospels be reconcilable if they differ so much in their re-telling of the empty tomb? It’s important to note that only one of the gospel acounts- John’s- actually differs in any significant way. Matthew, Mark, and Luke were not written side-by-side, but rather individually by different people,

Thus it’s unsurprising that they would slightly differ in their historical retelling. Neither of those three gospels contradicts the other, they merely mention details important to them. While Luke seems to state that a group of women went to the tomb, Matthew and Mark don’t

Omit the possibility- they simply focus on two of the women in that group important to the writer. Luke also does not say that the women are instructed to tell the disciples, or to tell them to go to Galilee to meet Jesus there, but the omission of this detail does not mean

It didn’t happen- the writer of Luke could have very correctly assumed that this part of the history was so well known, it was unnecessary to add it to his account. The presence of the angels is likewise complimentary, as Matthew and Mark may have simply chosen

To focus on the important angel- the one speaking. John is the only gospel that differs significantly, and is thus not considered a synoptic gospel- yet that is consistent with the overall theme of John which explores who Jesus was, not what Jesus historically did.

Most historians accept this fact and don’t consider John a purely historical document anyways, and neither should we. As we can see then, the differences in the gospel accounts are a) insignificant to the core facts, and b) largely an issue of focus, rather than irreconcilable discrepancies.

For comparison consider the accounts of the Titanic’s survivors- many of them swore that the ship sunk without breaking in two, while the rest swore that they saw the ship physically break in two. Nobody however doubted that the ship had sunk, or any of the events immediately after the sinking.

Further, if the gospel accounts had been perfectly accurate to each other, they would’ve almost certainly been collaborated, seriously damaging their value as historical documents. Lastly, while no serious historian objects to the time gap between the gospels and Jesus’s death as being cause for concern over inaccuracy, many non-historian critics do.

After all, how accurate can a historical account be if it’s written decades after the subject’s death? First, this is ignoring the strong oral tradition of ancient Jews. In the first century, very few people knew how to read or write, and thus most people

Would rely on oral retelling of history- and specially of their religious texts, with a very strong emphasis on accuracy. To a devout Jew, the thought of mangling holy scripture by poorly recollecting it was an unthinkable heresy. This strong oral tradition would have been present in the early Christians as well, themselves

Recently converted Jews. Next, while the earliest writings on Jesus date to 25 years after his death, the fact that we have at least 11 historical sources for Jesus within a century of his death makes Jesus of Nazareth the gold standard for ancient historians.

Take for example Alexander the Great, of whom there’s not a single history class in the world that doesn’t tell of his deeds. Yet the earliest available sources for Alexander date to over 300 years after his death. How about Tiberius Caesar then, the emperor of the Roman empire during the life and death

Of Jesus? Surely if anyone was to be well-attested to it would be the leader of the most powerful empire at the time. Yet while one contemporary source exists, it’s highly unreliable for historians as it speaks on an all-too personal note.

The best, and earliest, source for the life and times of Rome’s emperor when Jesus died is Publius Cornelius Tacitus, writing a full eighty years after Tiberius’s death. The next after that is Suetonius, 85 years after his death, and Cassius Dio almost two centuries later.

Simply put, to doubt the veracity of the historical account of the scriptures is to put into doubt every single event of ancient history, as the life, death, and teachings of Jesus are the best sourced histories in the ancient world. With the gospels and letters of Saint Paul accepted as valid historical documents, is

There then any evidence for the resurrection as a historical event? We can begin our investigation with the empty tomb. In the gospel accounts, the tomb is discovered empty by Mary Magdalene. Jesus’s burial clothes are there, but not the body. Critics have argued that the empty tomb was an early Christian fabrication, and presented

Various theories as to what really happened. The first is that the entire empty tomb narrative was a fabrication, yet this has been widely rejected by critical historians as the scriptures themselves record the Jewish authorities reacting to the empty tomb by claiming that the disciples had stolen the body, along with their own

Refutation to this claim. An obvious back-and-forth dialogue is preserved, showing that whatever the cause, the tomb of Jesus was in fact discovered empty. Next is the claim that the Jewish Sanhedrin was right, and the disciples did steal the body. This is frankly, an absurd proposition, as guards had been posted to the tomb.

In all likelihood these were actually Jewish temple guards, as it’s incredibly unlikely that Pilate would have bothered to involve Roman guards in what he saw as a purely Jewish religious dispute, and instead simply told the Sanhedrin to use the guards they already possessed themselves.

The idea of the disciples bribing Jewish temple guards successfully so as to perpetuate their heretical belief in a resurrected Messiah is incredulous to the point of sheer absurdity, let alone bribing Roman guards who would themselves face death for such a massive dereliction of duty when the tomb was found empty.

The next theory is the ‘apparent death’ theory. This theory states that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, and instead survived his crucifixion, somehow slipped past his tomb guards, and returned to the disciples who celebrated him as the resurrected Son of God.

Once more, it is completely absurd to believe that a severely injured Jesus, who had just survived a scourging, then being crucified, and in need of critical medical care, could possibly return to his disciples and convince them that despite his utterly broken body, he had in fact defeated death, quote, “in glory”.

Secondly, crucifixion was simply not a survivable event unless the person was immediately rescued. The way that a person was crucified would lead to a slow but sure asphyxiation as the downward pull of gravity forced an individual to physically push against the nails embedded

In his feet in order to lift their chest up and relieve the pressure, allowing them to gasp for breath. This would have been not only an excruciatingly painful experience, but an exhausting one, compounded by the effects of blood loss and exposure. Additionally, Roman guards were quite used to crucifying Jewish would-be Messiahs and

Rebels by this time, and were under pains of their own death to ensure that their prisoner could not be rescued and did indeed die on their cross. Lastly, in the account of the crucifixion in John 19, we have a Roman centurion ensuring

That Jesus is truly dead by piercing his side with a spear, stabbing upwards and into the heart to deliver a killing blow. The scripture states that “blood and water” came out of the wound, which perfectly mirrors exactly what modern medical science would expect from such a wound on a person who died

After being crucified. Before death, fluid would have collected in the membrane around the heart and lungs due to heart failure- this is known as a pericardial and pleural effusion. Upon Jesus’s body being pierced by the spear, this fluid would have leaked out of the wound,

Followed by blood, exactly as reported in John 19, strongly hinting that whoever wrote the John account either was physically present at the crucifixion or had testimony from a witness who was. So is the empty tomb narrative accurate? There is no realistic reason to believe that Jesus’s body was stolen, or that Jesus survived

His crucifixion. Without an empty tomb, there could be no Christian narrative of a resurrection. As a well-known figure due to his perceived blasphemy and heresy, the site of Jesus’s burial would have been known to anyone looking to debunk the disciple’s earliest claims of

Resurrection, and all the Jewish authorities would have had to do to shut the entire Christian movement down as soon as it arouse was to simply unseal the tomb and show that Jesus still lay there, dead, and that the disciples were liars. It’s important to note who discovered the empty tomb as well- women.

In the very patriarchal society of the ancient Jews, women were not regarded as credible witnesses in court. Both Jewish historian Josephus and Jewish philosopher Maimonides made it clear that women were not competent to testify in court. As Josephus pointed out, testimony of a deaf, mentally incompetent, or young person, as

Well as women, was excluded in most cases. Despite women being ineligible to serve as witnesses in most Jewish courts, the early Christians publicly proclaimed women- the least trustworthy members of society- as the discoverers of the empty tomb. This would not just have been an incredulous, but hugely embarrassing detail for the early

Disciples, and the fact that the detail remains is strong evidence that the disciples were simply accurately relaying the discovery of the empty tomb- no matter how embarrassing it was for them personally. Next in our investigation of the resurrection is the appearances of Jesus after his death.

The majority of new testament historians affirm that Jesus appeared to his disciples after his death. In the words of Ed Sanders, New Testament scholar and former professor at Duke University, “The following is an historical fact: the earliest disciples saw the risen Jesus.

I don’t know how exactly they saw him, but they saw him.” Most critics, including 20th century atheist philosopher Antony Flew ascribe to the hallucination theory to explain the postmortem appearances of Jesus. This theory posits that the disciples were stricken with grief-inspired hallucinations,

And confused them as the real, bodily appearance of a risen Jesus. There are, however, serious problems with this theory. First, any belief in Jesus’s resurrection due to a hallucination could have easily been dispelled by Jewish authorities by simply checking the tomb and finding the body still resting there.

Second, as is established by medical science, hallucinations cannot create new ideas- they simply work within the preexisting mental framework. As devout Jews, the disciples had no belief, let alone an ‘idea’ of a bodily resurrection that predated the end of days.

In the Jewish faith, resurrection only occurred on the last day, as God cast his judgment and called the faithful to live in paradise- before this event there could be no resurrection of the dead. Revivification of the recently dead, much like happens in our modern hospitals every

Day, was certainly possible, but not a resurrection to a “glorified body” as described by the disciples of Jesus. Therefore a hallucination could not have convinced a devout Jew that an event for which he had no basis for believing in, had occurred.

Secondly, the odds of all of the disciples- or at least enough to jump-start the Christian church- all suffering from grief hallucinations are astronomical to the point of, once more, absurdity. There is not a single other recorded case like it in verified medical history.

Further, it’s well recorded that Jesus appeared to groups of the disciples at the same time, and hallucinations cannot be shared between individuals. One individual cannot see what another is hallucinating, and vice-versa. Lastly, there’s the case of Saint Paul. Paul was in effect, a religious terrorist.

As the early Christian church spread rapidly, Paul was tasked with finding Christians and imprisoning or killing them on behalf of the Jewish authorities. Yet two to three years after the crucifixion, Paul- by his own account- encountered Jesus.

At the time he was on the way to the synagogues in Damascus to request their aid in arresting Christians and bringing them back to Jerusalem to undergo trial and possible execution. While on the road, Paul encounters Jesus and is blinded, and remains so until one of the

Very Christians he was sent to arrest or kill finds him and heals him. In ‘The Psychological Origins of the Resurrection Myth’, Jack Kent argues that Paul suffered from conversion disorder, a very real psychological disorder that commonly affects soldiers, police officers, and prison guards.

Commonly, sufferers will experience physical maladies with no apparent cause while under severe psychological stress- thus Paul’s blindness is believed to be a psychosomatic syndrome of his conversion disorder, itself caused by his internal conflict in killing and imprisoning innocent Christians. However, there are as usual problems with this theory.

Conversion disorder is short-lived, and thus would not explain Paul’s dramatic and lifelong change from devout Jew and persecutor of Christians, to a champion of the early Christian faith. It’s also incredibly implausible that Paul experienced conversion disorder along with visual and auditory hallucinations which led him to believe that Jesus was talking to him

Personally- not to mention the Messiah complex that would arise as Paul took on the mission of spreading the Christian faith far and wide. In short, Paul would have had to have been one of the most mentally ill individuals in history to suffer from all four mental disorders simultaneously at exactly this stretch of

Road on the way to Damascus. Hallucination theory simply can’t explain why a sworn enemy of the Christian church would experience the same hallucination as Jesus’s own disciples, years after Jesus’s death. It also cannot explain the postmortem appearances to entire groups of people as recorded by the disciples, as hallucinations are a personal experience.

Finally, a hallucination could not have led the disciples to believe in something they had no concept of before the event- namely, the preapocalyptic resurrection of their former teacher. Next is the marked change in the disciple’s lives as a result of their postmortem encounters with Jesus.

As stated about Paul, hallucinations simply do not lead to lifelong ideological changes, and the disciples clearly underwent dramatic and unprecedented ideological and theological changes practically overnight as a result of their experiences after the crucifixion. Immediately after Jesus’s death, the disciples went into hiding, fearful that the Jewish authorities would crucify them next.

It can’t be understated how devastating the crucifixion was for the disciples- not only had they lost their teacher, but he had suffered a criminal’s death, one so abhorrent to Jewish society that it was believed those who were crucified would not experience resurrection on the final day.

In the eyes of the disciples, Jesus had proven himself to be no different than the dozens of other self-proclaimed Jewish messiahs that came before, and after, his death. Yet we know that within months of the resurrection, possibly even weeks, the disciples were boldly proclaiming Jesus’s resurrection.

This is evidenced by two facts: the first is that the Christian church had spread so quickly that Paul was on his way to root it out in Damascus just two to three years after Jesus’s death. The second is what is known as the ‘Corinthian creed’, written down by Paul in 1 Corinthians

15, which reads: …that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. This creedial statement in Paul’s letter is authenticated as an early Christian creed

By the format it is written in the original Greek, which differs from the way the rest of Paul’s letter is written. In the ancient world, when you wanted to help someone who couldn’t read or write remember

Something, you put it in the form of a creed, and as Bart Ehrman himself attests, the Corinthian creed can be dated back to within one or two years of the crucifixion, with some historians dating it as early as mere months after Jesus’s death.

This means that within months after the crucifixion, the earliest Christians were already teaching Jesus’s resurrection- a concept that they had no ideological basis for prior to the crucifixion. And not only were the demoralized and terrified disciples coming to believe Jesus had risen

From the dead, but they were almost immediately spreading their belief to thousands of other Jews. Belief in the resurrection was far from the only heretical belief of the disciples however, as almost immediately after the crucifixion the young Christian church changed their celebration of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.

This move was motivated by the day of Jesus’s alleged resurrection and discovery of the empty tomb, and to first century Jews, would have been the height of heresy. Handed down to them by God himself, and honored for two thousand years, the sabbath and God’s

Commands to keep it holy were of paramount importance to the Jews, and suffused nearly every aspect of their culture. For the early Christians to be convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead, and thus shift their sabbath celebration from Saturday to Sunday, defying almost two thousand years

Of tradition, would have required an incredible burden of proof. As observed across history, religious schisms simply don’t spring up overnight, and yet one of the immediate defining characteristics of the early Christian church was its adoption of Sunday as the new sabbath.

Belief in Jesus as the messiah also completely defied all Jewish messianic expectations. To first century Jews, living under the Roman yoke and having experienced no independence for hundreds of years, the messiah was supposed to triumph over Israel’s enemies and drive them out of the land.

The messiah was not supposed to be tried by his enemies and then sentenced to a humiliating death on a cross- let alone be resurrected three days later only to leave Israel’s enemies in power. For the early Jews, the messiah was a triumphant figure, leading them to victory- not an atoning

Sacrifice for the sins of the world. Explaining how so many 1st century Jews could come to believe in this radically different version of a messiah is difficult, unless the disciples had proof in the postmortem encounters with Jesus, and the instructions they received during those visitations.

Critics argue that the entire narrative was fabricated by the early church, yet fail to account for how truly difficult it would be to come to believe in Jesus as messiah when he defied centuries of messianic expectations within a deeply religious society by dying as a criminal and not driving out Israel’s enemies.

Lastly, we have the faith of the disciples themselves. Christian claims that all or most of the original disciples were martyred cannot be substantiated, but there are good sources for several of the disciples. Peter’s martyrdom is attested to by Clement of Rome, an early church leader elected from

Amongst individuals who personally knew the disciples. He was crucified upside down, not believing himself worthy to die the same way as Jesus. The apostle James, not to be confused with Jesus’s brother, was killed by King Herod in about AD 44.

The martyrdom is attested to in the book of Acts, but also recorded by Clement of Alexandria who was born 100 years after James died. Paul, the famous persecutor of Christians, is widely attested to by the earliest church leadership as having been beheaded by emperor Nero sometime before 68 AD.

James, brother of Jesus, is written about by Jewish historian Josephus, who writes that James was executed by stoning in 62 AD. James’ murder, according to Josephus, offended many of the citizens as it had been carried out by a hastily organized Jewish court during a lapse in imperial oversight of the region.

James’ martyrdom is particularly striking because as the gospels state, he believed Jesus was crazy while alive, and yet would later die for his faith that his own brother was indeed the messiah. While the rest of the disciples cannot be confirmed as having been martyred, the ones

Which can be confirmed paint a telling picture of a group of men who refused to give up their belief in Jesus as messiah despite the threat of death. Often painted as con artists by critics, there is no possible reason to believe that if the

Disciples were truly con men, they would have stuck to the con all the way up to their own execution- and yet history records no mention of their recanting of their beliefs. Simply put, men don’t die for false beliefs. The final argument for the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as a historical event argues

That the crucifixion and resurrection account simply lacks legendary embellishments, as is present in nearly every other religion. This however is only mostly true, as there are clear signs of legendary-ism that creep into scripture. For example, when Jesus dies the gospels speak of a period of darkness, or of many of the

Dead returning to life briefly, or of the veil in the temple separating the holy of holies from the public tearing in two. While there is some evidence that an eclipse may have occurred on the day Jesus died, there is no evidence that the dead walked briefly through the streets of Jerusalem, or that

The earth shook and the temple was damaged in any way. These are almost certainly, simply legendary embellishments. However, when compared with other religious texts what immediately stands out about the New Testament is the starkness of the text. In fact, the entire account of the life, death, and postmortem appearances of Jesus is quite

Embarrassing to the early church. Even before Jesus dies, the scriptures attest to bickering, whining, and complaining from his own disciples. Jesus frequently rebuffs them for their lack of faith or foolishness, and even outright chastises Peter- the man on whom the church would be built- as having an ungodly way of thinking about things.

One of Jesus’s closest disciples is a tax collector for the Romans- men who were seen as traitors and were so reviled by Jewish society that they were not allowed to worship at the temple and were considered unclean along with various animals.

Jesus’s own family was no better, with the gospels recording that they believed he was crazy- this would be most telling for James, his brother, who would shortly after the crucifixion come to believe in Jesus as messiah and even die for that belief.

When Jesus is arrested, Peter- again, the most important of the disciples- denies Jesus three times, then flees along with the rest of the disciples to hide in fear and shame. When Jesus is crucified, most of the gospel accounts state that at best, only a few of the disciples watched from a great distance.

Only the gospel of John, least reliable in this matter, mentions that a single disciple was even near the cross- though what’s clear is that the disciples didn’t dare come close for fear of their own arrest. After Jesus’s death, none of the disciples believe in his promise to return after three days.

They are so demoralized by the crucifixion that they are hiding from the Jewish authorities, and even when Mary Magdalene brings them news of the empty tomb, they refuse to believe. It’s only when Jesus appears bodily to them that they believe, and even then at least

One of them, Thomas, refuses to believe Jesus isn’t a ghost until Jesus offers that he physically touch him. The picture painted by the gospels of the original disciples is that of scared, doubting, at times unfaithful men- exactly the opposite of what you would expect if the entire narrative

Had simply been created for the purposes of legitimizing a belief in Jesus. Rather than painting them as great patriarchs of wisdom and faith as would be expected, the New Testament is downright frequently embarrassing in its portrayal of the disciples- evidence that the scribes who penned the original gospels were more interested in recording

Truth than fictionalizing accounts and infusing them with legendary attributes. From a radical and sudden shift in deeply held religious beliefs, to the independently attested accounts of bodily postmortem appearances of Jesus, to the inexplicable explosion in growth of the early church, the question of if Jesus rose from the dead or not remains

Without a plausible naturalistic answer. While a naturalistic theory can be posited that answers one or more of the facts behind the early church, no one theory can explain all of them together. The truth is something significant happened in Jerusalem in the early 30s AD, an event

So incredible that it immediately split the Jewish faith in two and led to an explosion in belief in Jesus of Nazareth, executed as a blasphemer and criminal, as the risen Messiah. Now go watch most weird passages in the bible, or click this other video instead!

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