Why Did He Have to Rise — John 20

0:00 Meeting this morning, I was about at the point where I thought I could just come up here and ask if there's any questions or we could be dismissed, you know, because there's a lot of resurrection discussion this morning, which was great. In fact, it was reassuring to know how important and how vital this topic is for all of us. And we're already up and running. It's fantastic. I love our tech guys.

0:26 Jacob, thank you, and everybody else that assisted in that process. Christianity stands or falls with the resurrection. Been reading, I told you the last time I spoke that started reading the evidence that demands a verdict, and there could have been no better timing to start reading that book than when I was gonna be given chapter 20 to work on, so that worked out great. Any thoughts on this? Resurrection stands and falls with the resurrection.

1:01 Let's make this interactive for a minute. Amen. Amen? Well one of the things I think about, and I think back to when I was a kid, which seems so many years ago now.

1:16 It has been

1:17 many ago That's why it seems that way. But I think back to when I was a kid, and and if someone had asked me, now let's do it this way. Only kids can answer this. You have to be under 14 to answer this, and you're still under 14. So, why did Jesus die?

1:39 Why did he have to die? Yes.

1:42 Because because we had sins and we had to die for

1:46 our sins. And he had to die for sin, right? He he took the punishment that that we deserved because we were not right with god. It's very true. Why did he have to rise?

2:01 That's a little tougher, isn't it? And I remember as a kid wondering, you know, they always said that that without Christ raising from the dead, that it would be, there was, our salvation was meaningless. It didn't matter. And I wondered about that, and I thought, I don't know that even as an adult, you know, that I could have put together a list, and even today it's not gonna be as comprehensive as I would like to be. I found that as I was going through this, this should be a weekend series.

2:30 You know what I mean? This is not a get it done in forty minutes type situation, but, so I'm gonna do the best I can to be brief and hit some major points, but the more I read, the more I realized there's so much more to this than I, even as an adult, realized and fully appreciated. But I'm gonna ask the question again. Why did he have to rise? Yes.

2:53 He had to rise because

2:55 I like it, yes.

2:56 We would be serving a dead god then. Wouldn't be

3:01 able rise. That's a great answer. We'd be serving a dead god. Even more so, even more so, he wouldn't have been God. Right?

3:12 Even more disheartening. Okay. So let's let's pray first, and then we'll get into this this idea that without without the resurrections, we have no hope, and we're still dead in our sins. Heavenly father, we thank you. First of all, this morning as we remembered, what you went through on the cross on our behalf, and how you gave yourself for us to be the atonement, the propitiation for our sin.

3:44 We pray, Lord, for those here that today know you as savior, that they will be encouraged by what they hear. And for those that don't know you as savior, Lord, that they would be convicted of their sin, convicted of their need for a savior, convicted that they need you, their risen and living Lord. We pray these things in your name, amen. Okay. So, and that's really, you know, that's really the direction I decided as I was going through this, the Lord led me to this point, and I don't think I started reading this for no reason.

4:25 Think once again that was Lord led. And I want to consider this morning, as we go through, we're going to briefly kind of go through John 20, and we're going to more summarize that because I want to get into some of the things that have to do with the reasons Christ had to die and raise from rise from again, why he had to be resurrected, right? Why he had to raise and why he cannot be god if he did not rise. Why he isn't God and why our faith is futile if he didn't. Let's turn to...

4:59 And, you know, wait. As I'm getting more comfortable with technology, I wanna read this first. If I get a mouse going, there it is. You got hyperlinks? I have hyperlinks, yes.

5:17 Very, very something else, yes. And the crowd went, oh. Now if I could just expand this enough that we can see it, there we go, let's go full. Nope, that didn't do it. That is full, That's what we're gonna get.

5:34 Okay. Tell me out here, what?

5:38 Press up a little. Oh,

5:43 that's because of my bad vision, I can't see it up here, see it better up there. Thank you. I do use that all the time actually at school. So I should know that. Alright, now let's see if I can get this in.

5:58 This was supposed to save time. You know that? That's what I find at school, you know, now that we take we take attendance electronically, well, by the time I get homework grades in and take attendance, it takes ten minutes, where it used to take me three minutes to walk around the room and do it all at once. But anyways, So it does always make us easier. If you wanna turn your Bibles, can.

6:52 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life, we, that's us, hope in Christ, and we of all men are the most pitiable, or in the new international version, the most to be pitied. We are the most pitiable of all men if Christ is not risen.

7:25 So to set this up, we want to just clarify how significant, how important it is. This is a foundational aspect of our faith as Christians that Jesus rose from the dead. We're going to look in Acts chapter two later that when Peter goes out and and it came up this morning which was great. Came up this morning. Acts chapter two that Peter when he goes out to discuss what it was that it meant for for people to come to this place of redemption in Jesus, that the foundation of that was the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

8:01 And so we want to look at why that's the case. Let's go to John chapter 20, and we'll begin looking at that. Okay. Now, as I said, not going to read through all of it, just want to kind of highlight some things. We start out chapter 20, and Mary Magdalene has gone to the tomb to see the Lord.

8:27 Now one of the things I really loved about last week, and obviously Bruce did an amazing job with chapter 19, or the end of chapter 19, and one of the things that I love that he emphasized was the control that, through the whole thing, God was in control. From every detail, to the fulfillment of all prophecy, to the fact that they put a crown of thorns on his head, and while that was painful and meant to be mocking, how true was it that he was deserving of a crown, right? And that they put the sign above his head that didn't say that he claimed, like the Pharisees wanted, that he claimed to be the king of the Jews, but that he was the king of the Jews. Those are things that, you know, we look at and say, wow, that's coincidence. No, that's God in control.

9:14 And God is completely in control here, and we're gonna talk about how Jesus, said that this is what was gonna happen. So nothing's nothing's a surprise. But it was a surprise to them. It was a surprise to the to the disciples. Mary Magdalene comes to find the empty tomb and and doesn't know what to think of it, and so she runs back and she goes and talks to Peter and John and tells them.

9:36 And then the two of them, they race out, and I don't know, maybe it's because John writing it that he wanted to make sure that we knew that he beat Peter. Dunno I if that was a competitive thing, that he wanted to know that he beat Peter to the tomb. I'm sure if it was me and maybe Kip or Kyle or somebody like that that we were racing and I beat them, I would probably want people to know. That was the case. John beats him to the tomb, Peter goes right in, which if you guys remember a long time ago, John Bartos talked about Peter and how he was just like, you know, if he saw it, he just did it.

10:11 He didn't think things over a whole lot. He was very impulsive in that way. Well, he runs right into the tomb where John kind of hesitated before he went in, and then John follows him in and sees the claws laying on where Jesus had laid. I want you to take a look at, we're gonna look at verses six through nine there in chapter 20, and I just went, there we go. And where's my mouse?

10:41 Now I do this because I know that some people, they get distracted with the challenge of trying to find everything instead of focusing on please tell me if there's something up there too that's hard to see. I'm trying not to turn around and look at it all the time. That's gonna be hard to see. I'm about this close to going back to overhead transparencies, you know that, right? That is not a joke.

11:06 I was real close last night to going that route. Okay, then Simon Peter came, followed him, and went into the tomb, and he saw the linen cloths laying there and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. The first thing I thought as I was going through this, well not even the first thing, I read it over and over and over again, and then after a while, that part just kind of grabbed onto me. I don't know why, but I guess maybe because, you know, John has said, and what we'll go over again at the end of this chapter, John said the reason why he wrote this was what? We brought it up multiple times since Ray brought it up in the first place.

11:46 What was the whole purpose of writing the Gospel of John? That you would believe, that you would believe. Why is that important? His little, just that little statement there that it was not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. And the more I thought about that, I thought, why would he include such a, just a minor detail?

12:06 Why was that, in the big scheme of this, is that really important? The answer is no, and yet it is. To me it's important because I'm thinking if I was about to be... We're we're considering here the most important event in in all of human history. The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

12:22 The most important event in human history, and certainly the most important event in John's life, and he was there to witness it, and he walks into that tomb, and he sees it, do you think that that picture would be engraved in your mind for life? I think so. I think it definitely would be. When I consider the things that I forget on a daily basis. Yeah, the kids are nodding, yes.

12:47 I am Tammy's nodding somewhere, right? Where are you, Tammy? Yes, you know, the things that I forget on a daily basis, I said that. That's what I said. I didn't...

12:57 I never said that. You know what I mean? They have to bring recordings. Yes, you did, dad. You said that.

13:03 I know all the things I forget. Would I forget walking into the empty tomb of my Lord and savior and seeing what was there? I love that detail. I love that he said, and the cloth was folded separately. You know, it's not that big of a deal, but yet, to me, it's a reassurance that this isn't.

13:51 So that's John. For as yet, they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Now how does that come into play? I thought about, this is why we're gonna focus on this section for a minute. One of the claims, if you look in the other gospels, and I made this whole chart that I'm not even gonna use, but anyways, if you look at the other gospels, one, in the other gospels, in the gospel of Matthew, it talks about how the priests and the elders got together and said, we need to guard the tomb, right?

14:18 We're going to seal it, we're going do all that. And then the guards, the angel of the Lord comes down, moves the stone, there's an earthquake, there's trembling, there's fear, there's all this stuff. The guards witness this, they go back and they tell the chief priest what happened, that Jesus is gone. And the chief priest in hearing this say what? What was their response?

14:37 What should we do? What's the answer to this? Not, we should believe, what was their answer?

14:42 That they fell asleep.

14:44 That who, yes, to say that the guards had fallen asleep or something, right? And then what were they supposed to do though? What were those guards supposed to do? Tell them like spread the word that the disciples them. That's right.

14:54 Spread the word that the disciples stole them. They paid them off, here's some cash, Just tell everybody that the disciples stole them. This is their answer to the problem because they had no other, what do you do? He's risen. What are we going to what are we going to do?

15:08 The disciples moved the stones with the guards there, and well, that's the best thing they could come up with, right? So what you see here, that the Pharisees and chief priests had a better idea of what Jesus meant. They were the ones that were concerned that he said he was going to rise after three days. They were concerned about that. That's why they sealed the tomb and put the guards there in the first place, right?

15:35 But the disciples, not to their credit, didn't understand it at all. They had no idea. In fact, if you look in... If you could look through the gospels, John the Baptist seems to be the only person outside of possibly some of the priests and Pharisees that seemed to have some clue what Jesus was talking about, or at least what he was what he was claiming, that John the Baptist is the only person that had any idea what Jesus was there for at all. Would you say that's pretty accurate?

16:04 Is anybody... I mean, you could disclaim that here, but he understood that. He understood that. There weren't too many. Now, did other people recognize that he was the son of God?

16:13 Yes. But did they really fully understand why what his purpose wasn't coming? No. And it certainly wasn't the disciples. As much as Peter loved Jesus, he didn't understand.

16:22 He didn't get it. And so what we see here is that John didn't get it either. And Peter didn't get it either. And yet, that counters the claim that those priests made. The chief priests and the Pharisees said, they stole the body.

16:36 They did all this. They didn't even understand what the whole thing was about. It just claims the fact, you know, the fact that they didn't get it and admit that they didn't get it throughout the gospels that they didn't understand where Jesus was coming from. It disclaims this idea that they stole the body and they were all in cahoots. Right?

16:56 Didn't happen that way. So Mary Magdalene finds that empty tomb. Peter and John get there, transitioning here. So after, obviously Mary couldn't outrun Peter and John, but she gets there eventually to the tomb. She encounters these two angels, one sitting at the head and one sitting at the feet of where Jesus had been laid.

17:17 And I know that I'm going to mess up the lay and lean and line rise and raise at times, so just ignore that and move on. But then she turns and there's this man there that she doesn't recognize, and she assumes it's the gardener, and she's upset and she's crying, he says, well, why are you weeping? The angel said it first, and then he says, why are we weeping? I just want to know where you took our Lord. I just want to know where you've his body.

17:47 And Jesus says, Mary. Which I imagine that is a pretty powerful moment too. Saying her name, she immediately recognized who he was. And she turns and grabs onto him, we know that because of his reaction. Let's turn to in John chapter 20 and verse, let's start at verse 15.

18:10 Woman, why are you weeping? Why are you, whom are you seeking? She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him, Rabboni, which means teacher.

18:31 Jesus said to her, do not cling to me, which obviously it's... Her immediate reaction was to go and hug him, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my god and your God. So she runs off to tell the disciples what happened. There it is. Okay.

19:00 So the disciples are in hiding. Mary runs off to go tell them, and the disciples are in hiding. Now why are they in hiding? They're in hiding because they just saw what happened to Jesus, and they know that as disciples and followers of Jesus that they too are in danger, and so they're afraid that they have the same fate awaiting them. So they're hiding, they're frightened by this whole thing, and so Jesus appears in their midst, and they are at first taken aback by it, and they don't know what to think.

20:08 Not to mention, to think of the last time that they saw Jesus, what did he look like? Beaten, bloodied, unrecognizable, right? So he certainly didn't look like that. But he did still have the holes in his hands, and he had the holes in his feet, and he had the hole in his side. And so he shows that to them and they say, it's you.

20:28 They recognize him, and they believe. So in preparation, and we're gonna look at this, let's go in fact turn to verse, let's skip right down to it. Verse 21, let's start there. So Jesus said to them again, peace to you as the father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.

20:56 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Now my first reaction to that when I considered how am I going to address this was I could try to skip right over it and hope that nobody notices, right? That was my first response, but I thought, and I was that close, but the more I read and the more I looked into it and saw what other people's opinions of it was, because I certainly didn't have the answers myself, There's some things that kind of, that made some sense. Okay?

21:26 So if we look at, you receive the Holy Spirit. We know, if you look at John chapter seven, we know that Jesus says that the Holy Spirit would not be fully given until when? Till he's glorified, right? He was going to be glorified first, and then then the the, you know, the Pentecost would take place, right? So we know that the Holy Spirit wasn't given in full here at this moment.

21:51 Was it given, you know, this is one of the theories that it was given in in partiality to help them understand finally what was going on. I could buy that a little bit, right? That that they were given it in partiality or whatever. I I don't know how how to express that because, you know, we've always believed that the spirit is given in full. Once you have the spirit, you have the spirit, period, right?

22:12 You have all the spirit you all ever need. But the second part, if you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they're retained. Now we know. We know.

22:25 We have the whole rest of scripture to let us know that only one person can forgive sins. God. Only God can forgive sins. The disciples were not given the ability to forgive sins, and taking one verse and saying that this, yes, the disciples were, would be a mistake when it contradicts and goes against all of scripture, all we know about scripture. So it had to mean something else, right?

22:48 Jesus meant something by it, but what did he mean? And I think I think what he gave the disciples in their preparation for the Pentecost, and as they were preparing for this whole, the ministry that they were about to undergo, and that they're about to take out to the world, was that they were going to have the ability to discern between those who had accepted Christ and those who weren't. And guess what? We're given the same thing. I did not baptize Jenna and Kyle and Mason because I didn't think that they accepted the Lord as savior.

23:20 Through discussion, through sitting down and talking, through talking about what they believed, they had given me an idea that, yes, they had done this. But also, by the way they lived their lives and the priorities that they have and those types of things, it was evident that, yes, they had accepted Christ as their Lord. I use that discernment and baptize, otherwise, could I baptize anyone? How could any of us baptize anyone? Right?

23:43 Because we we couldn't do that. And so I think, and this is the interpretation that I felt I was most comfortable with, at least, that that they were given the... He was telling them that they had the ability now to discern between those people who were going to know him and be followers of Christ and those who weren't. Because what does he tell them in the great commission? Go out to the whole of the world and baptize.

24:04 Right? Does that that make sense? Please tell me whether or not, and if you don't think so, if you think there's another interpretation, let's talk really right now. I would be open to that.

24:14 Yes? I I was thinking if you forgive his sins, instead of sins, trespasses, because that shows up in the front floors prior to Mhmm. If you forgive others' trespasses, the Lord will forgive you also your trespasses.

24:29 So you're saying this is more on a personal basis, not on a spiritual level, but that they should be forgiving in their attitudes? Yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm open. The one that I, as I went through three or four different takes on this, the one that seemed to be the most consistent with what we see in scripture in the book of Acts, you know, what Peter talks about in Acts, this seemed to be consistent with that. But I certainly think it's open for discussion. Where'd I put my glasses?

24:58 Alright. So that takes us through verse 23. I'm waiting for my mouse to appear. There it is. And somehow...

25:13 Yes, there we go. So Jesus appears again through the chapter. Jesus appears again to the disciples, but this time it's when Thomas had been there and Thomas, of course, we all know the story of doubting Thomas, right? He doubted. So the other disciples, the other 10 disciples are telling them, hey, the Lord came.

25:30 He was here. He was risen. He's risen. Tom's like, no, not until I touch his hands and put my hand in his side am I going to believe that. And I think this story was put in there for a reason.

25:43 It wasn't just about showing how little faith Thomas had, but it's showing you in a sense the heart of God and what he wants. Okay? Because let's look at what he says. Let's, in fact, let's turn to verse 20... I'm sorry, let's go to verse 27.

26:03 So then he said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands, and reach your hand here and put it in my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. So once he put his hands into his, you know, touched his hands with where the hole, where the nails had been, and he touched his side where the spear had got thrust into his side. And notice he says, reach your hand here and put it into my side, You know, into my side.

26:32 So, I mean, obviously it's only a few days old, right? And Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God. My Lord and my God. That revelation takes place there. Thomas finally gets it.

26:48 But there's something important for us here too. Verse 29, Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. You see, God's given us plenty of, plenty to know that he's real, that he is the creator, that he loves us. He's given us plenty to know that.

27:15 The question is why do we ignore it? Or why do some ignore it, right? Why is that? And it's because we're too caught up in our wanting to live lives for ourselves, or our own philosophy, and you you see all these different reasons why people reject the Lord. But Romans chapter one makes it very obvious that whether you, whether this happened or not, whether you touched his side or you touched his hands and saw it yourself, God, the evidence of God and his incredible power is around us, and there's no question, nobody has an excuse, right?

27:54 No one has an excuse. Okay. Let's take a look. Let me start getting to the, start getting to some of the finer points here. And so that takes us then to the last part of the chapter, which of course is the reason why John wrote this in the first place.

28:16 And that was so that we would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. And I love that this has been a focus throughout this whole time in John. One of the things that I've really been drawn to is how well do I know the evidence? How well do I know the right things to say, the right things to share, to convince somebody that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that there's without question. One of the beauties, I think, when you first come to the Lord, you come in faith, right?

28:48 And then you believe, you believe. And even though you might not necessarily know a whole bunch, you believe, right? You have that childlike faith that's talked about, right? What a great place it is when you get to the point, and I can't pick a day, I don't know when it happened exactly because it's a process, that you know. That you just know that there's no longer any question or that it's about belief, but you know.

29:16 Now how does that happen? And I'm going to tell you, to me, that is one of the proofs of Christ's resurrection, that I know is a proof of Christ's resurrection. Think about that for a little bit, and I'll come back to it, all right? Okay. I really do hate technology.

29:40 I really do, you guys don't understand. See, that wasn't supposed to happen. Back to overheads, kids. I don't even know where I'm at. I gotta stop using that, I'll just use this.

30:34 We have plenty of scriptures, a lot of them we read this morning, that tell us what was supposed to happen. Let's look briefly. Like I said, this was supposed to be a time saver. Boom. Let's...

30:48 Oh, no. And then it's coming up in that weird format. Let me get this. I need a regular mouse too. So I'm gonna remind me next time to have a regular mouse and not this type of mouse.

31:02 You can see it? Okay. Alright, Isaiah 50 three:nine through 11. And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. Couldn't be more true, could it?

31:19 They made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, as we know about Joseph of Arimathea, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief, Talking about his death. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.

31:58 And so you look at this and you see obviously a reference to the Lord's death, that this was gonna come. And what is this, six hundred years, five hundred years before Christ was born. And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper his hand. But if you look at here, he shall see his seed and he shall prolong his days. So this is talking about after he's been bruised, after he's been killed, that he would prolong his days, which would be a reference to, of course, the resurrection.

32:30 So this was prophesied. We see it here. We see it in Isaiah nine. Let's take a look at that one. For unto us a child is born.

32:41 Unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace. Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and the peace, there will be no end. So there's a reference not only to his first coming, but also to his second coming. And upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever.

33:14 What does this tell us? What does this prophecy tell us? How does this relate to resurrection? It doesn't say anything about rising from the dead, but what does it relate to? This is interactive again.

33:30 What does it relate to? What's the promise there?

33:33 The government's gonna be on him forever, he has to be alive.

33:36 That's right. You can't carry the government on your shoulders if you don't have shoulders, right? He's, that this was going to be our king that would reign forevermore. We're going look at first Chronicles as well to see that. Quickly in Job, and I have to go quickly because obviously time is slipping away.

33:58 This is Job nineteen twenty three-thirty six. Oh that my words were written, oh that, oh and I should, a little background, he's responding of course to one of his friends that are questioning him and berating him, and so he's responding to them. Oh that my words were written, oh that they were inscribed in a book, that they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead forever, for I know that my redeemer lives. Now how long ago before Jesus' birth was this and death? How long?

34:31 Well they say that Job was probably the first book written, right? First book written. So thousands, right? Thousands of years, over a thousand, right? And he shall know at last, or he shall stand at last on the earth.

34:45 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God. So it doesn't just refer to a living God, a God that lives forevermore, right? Not a dead God, but a living God, but it also refers to what? Our resurrection. He knows that he will stand in the flesh before his God, Right?

35:09 So these are these are revelations that take place. These are prophecy that take place hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ. Right? In some case, over a thousand. That's easier.

35:27 Once again, why am I dead? Well, God also promised David that his throne would be established forever. We're gonna look at this very quickly, or I might just summarize it because that's probably the best thing to do. But in one Chronicles 17, you can also find it in two Samuel, or that David is promised that his kingdom would reign forever. That his kingdom would go on forever.

35:52 That God promised that through his lineage that his kingdom would reign forever. Now if you look at the end of both the, whether it's the kings of Judah or Israel, it doesn't matter. The end about when? Any ideas? When do they end?

36:10 I mean, they haven't had a king in a long, long time. When was the last king, true king of Israel or Judah that they had? Fifth century? Fifth century BC, right? It was about the last time that they had a king.

36:24 And then there's that period of quiet, right? That period of quiet after Malachi that there's no, there's nothing. No prophecy, you know, the distance, the Israelites were feeling that distance of God as they were people that were being punished for their sins and their rejection of him. And then, here comes Jesus, right? And Jesus fulfilling that prophecy as the king that would reign forever of the line of David.

37:12 The living water, the way, the truth, the resurrection, the life. You could come up with all these things that he claimed to be that said... And that's why I love when some groups say, well, Jesus never really claimed to be God. What? You know, and there are.

37:25 I mean, that's that's part of the Muslim faith. Muslims believe that Jesus never claimed to be God. He was a great prophet, but he never really claimed to be God. Right? Isn't that part of their belief?

37:32 Yeah. He's a great man, but not God. I am the way, the truth, the life. I am the resurrection and the life. And he clearly claimed to be the son of God.

37:41 Now, if he claimed to be the son of God, and the son of God at the Messiah was coming through prophecy was told that he would die for sin and then be raised again and live eternally and reign on the throne of David for eternity. If that's what he's going to be and Jesus claimed to be that guy and he didn't raise from the dead, and he didn't rise, I knew I was gonna do that all day long. He didn't rise, then what does it mean? That's right. That's exactly right.

38:17 We're going to look at those verses briefly there. So if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then he was either a lunatic or a liar or both. Right? He was either just like this guy who was like crazy, and you know, you've heard of people that maybe have issues with that, and they get this, sometimes that manic depressive thing where on the manic side, I had a friend who actually went through this a little bit, you know, and had lofty claims of himself, Okay? And and was deluded in that way.

38:47 So he was either terribly deluded or he was a liar. It's one of those two things. Let's take a look at just, we don't, I I know you guys, for the most part, know these claims, but let's take a look at one at least. Although a couple of them are really important. So in Matthew 17, he says, Son of man are about betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and in the third day he will be raised.

39:14 Right? He makes that claim in 17. He makes it all over the place, so it's not like there aren't a million references you can go to. You can go to a whole bunch. This one's real important because this is where the chief priests and Pharisees, they figured it out even though his disciples didn't.

39:32 They figured it out. Where's my glasses? I love on the tape when there's these dead spots. Okay, so in John chapter two, so the Jews answered and said to him, what sign do you show us since you do these things? And Jesus answered them and said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up, and what a claim to be made.

39:58 He said, I don't need to show you a sign. I'll show you one sign. You want to see a sign? I'll show you a sign. You want to know that I am who I say I am?

40:05 Let me show you. And that's how important this is, right? He... That's what Jesus said. You want to see a sign, I will show you a sign.

40:14 I'm going to raise from the dead. How about that? How about that? And you still won't believe. Because didn't they know?

40:21 Didn't they hear from the guards? Didn't the guards come and tell them with trembling and fear what they saw, what they witnessed? Right? The earth shaking, the angels, stones moving. Right?

40:32 They went and told the Pharisees, they still didn't believe. Still it was just a ruse, a setup. Unbelievable, isn't it? I wish we could say it were better, but we'd probably have been the same way. Oops, that's not supposed to go there.

40:52 That's an interesting link. Let's try that link one more time because I'd like to read this one. There it is. John seventeen eighteen. Therefore my father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again.

41:11 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. Not only does he claim that he's dying for the father, but listen to this, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This command I received from my father. So he was making the claim. Jesus made the claim that he could raise himself from the dead.

41:32 He was giving his life. He wasn't being taken from him. And he could take it back up again. That's quite a claim, isn't it? Well here's what we know.

42:03 But, and I wanted to get through a couple of these, but biblical and secular documentation of his life is unquestioning. There is no question that Jesus lived on the earth. So if you have, if you're one of those people who go, well, I don't know if, you know, the Christ Smith thing, and that's, it's garbage. There is enough, whether you take the Bible, and I'm kind of, I've gotten to the point where it's like, those people that treat the Bible well, that's for Christians. That's all it is.

42:27 No, it's a history book, people. It's a history book. The Muslims use it as a history book. All kinds of different faiths look at the Bible as history, because it is history. It's some of the best documentation of what happened before Christ, you know, that whole time before Christ, and all the things, whether it's through Egypt and you name it, right?

42:47 It's some of the best documentation of what's happened that mankind has ever known. It's substantiated time and time again. Archaeology, I love, I read this book called The Bible is History, okay? And it was not a book written in support of the Bible. It was not there to refute it, it was just saying here's some things we found, okay?

43:05 And it takes some of the archeological digs that they've done, and they said there's no record, we find nothing of this city that's here in the Old Testament that was supposedly destroyed by the Israelites as they went to whatever. One of those cities, he said there's no record of it, we found nothing. And then they dig, and then they dig some more, and guess what they find? The city right where the bible said it was supposed to be, just like God said it would be. Right?

43:28 Just like it was. It was there. And that stuff happens over and over again. They try to disprove the bible, and the Bible ends up on top. Why?

43:34 Because it's God's word, people. That's it. That's all, you know what I mean? It's God's word. It's gonna win every time.

43:39 And so they try to disprove it. But I wanna take a second because there's some good stuff in here, and if you're one of those that's a doubter, you're like, well the Bible is the only, you know, if that's the only authority you have, well that's that's just religious, that's biased, right? Well the Bible is history, I know that, but here, secular historian. Let's start with Josephus, and of course he's probably the most famous of the secular historians that reference Christ. This is from him.

44:03 At this time, there was a wise man who was called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous, and many people from among the Jews and other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die, and those who who would become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets had recounted wonders. That's a secular historian saying that.

44:35 That's not the Bible, that's someone who wasn't even a believer. How do we know he's not a believer? Later on he talks about the the, you know, almost in quotes the myth of of Christ being the son of God. He didn't believe that. But he's recounting here that the fact that Jesus did live was put to death, and that the disciples claimed that he was alive, right, and were still serving him.

44:56 How about this? We take a look, you have hundreds of eyewitnesses. We're not going to turn there because we're, we only have a couple minutes, But the hundreds of eyewitnesses that Paul references in first Corinthians a whole bunch of different sections. Maybe I will read it real quick. Real quick.

45:10 First Corinthians chapter 15. I'm going to go fast. You don't have to turn there. I'm just gonna bust through it. If I can find it here.

45:21 There we go. For I delivered to you, this is in verse three. For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. See, he was the fulfillment of prophecy, wasn't he? And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, that he was seen by Cephas, and then by the 12, Cephas being Peter.

45:41 All after that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. So some have died, but many of them still remain, of those 500 that saw him. After that, he was seen by James, and by all the apostles. Then at last, last of all, he was seen by me also as one born out of due time. Right?

46:05 There's plenty of eyewitnesses that saw it. What do we, you know, and I guess it depends on how much credence do you put on eyewitness accounts, right? Well, we do, our whole basis of law is based on that, isn't it? Right? Witnesses, crimes have to be witnessed, things have to be witnessed for them to be real.

46:23 A wedding has to, you have to have a witness, don't you? You have to have witnesses, witness is a huge part of it. How about 500? Is that enough? 500 people that didn't deter from their original story that they saw Christ, the risen Christ, and then that's been passed down.

46:38 Well, how do we know that that's really accurate? Well, here's my question. If all those followers, what was the motivation? If it wasn't real, if Jesus wasn't really alive, what was their motivation to go through what they went through? Let's listen to Tacitus here.

46:53 This is again, I'm not using biblical, we know about the persecution that they suffered based on what the Bible tells us. How about Tacitus? This is in reference, Nero, this is when Rome was on fire for six days, and so in response to that fire, Nero has to have somebody to blame even though people think he did it, which he probably did. Hence, to suppress the rumor. This is Tacitus, who is a Roman historian.

47:17 He falsely charged with guilt and punished the most exquisite... With the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christ, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius. But the pernicious superstition repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea where the mischief originated, but also through the city of Rome. What happened?

47:49 What did Tacitus do? Well, let's look at another one by him. At this time there was wise men called... Gee, no, that's the wrong one. Hold on.

48:03 He talks about later, and I'm going to miss my point here. Talks about later, there's a cruel punishments that that that happened to the to the Jews. That they were... That they put animal clothes on them and... Or the skins of animals and sent them out to be attacked by dogs.

48:17 They put dogs, you know, like in the arena or whatever, dogs, lions, whatever, to attack and kill them. And they put animal clothes on them to to make the, you know, the the dogs go after them. They they've been trained based on scent. They they they crucified them and burned them to use them as street lights. You know, we talked about that one before.

48:36 They used them as street lights, burned them on the crosses. Now let me ask you a question. What would be the motivation? How about this? This is Plinius Secondus, who was also, he was the governor of Bithynia.

48:51 Okay? And he's he's right, he's he's explaining that he killed so many men and women, boys and girls, and these are Christians. There were so many being put to death that he wondered if he should continue killing anyone who was discovered to be a Christian, or if he should kill only certain ones. He explained that he made the Christians bow down to the statues of Trajan. Right?

49:11 Am I saying that right? He goes on to say that he also made them curse Christ, which a genuine Christian cannot be induced to do. And that's a quote from him. A genuine Christian cannot be induced to do. Why were they doing it?

49:26 For a lie? They're going go through all those tortures and and betrayed. They were persecuted folks for in their homeland, they were persecuted in other countries around the world. That persecution still goes on, doesn't it? The attack on Christianity still goes on.

49:58 Second, that it demonstrated God's satisfaction with the son and with that sacrifice. Guys, Jesus was, as we read in Revelations, he was worthy, he was the lamb of God, he was the only one worthy. He was the only one perfect. He came down in the form of man and suffered and died because he was the only one who could do it. He was the only one who could take away sin.

50:20 That empty tomb was God's seal, right? His check, satisfaction, I'm satisfied that that is my son, and he did it. He accomplished it, worthy is the lamb. It demonstrated Christ's divinity. He truly is the son of God.

50:36 It demonstrated that Jesus' power over death, his power over sin, and his defeat of Satan. Hallelujah. That's what shows us. And that, and then our promise and our hope that we too will be resurrected. Okay, I'm sorry I went a little bit over.

50:52 Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus, our risen savior. Lord, we pray that there's any here today that do not believe, that have not yet understood the importance of your death and resurrection, and that without you, they are lost. We pray that you'll help them to consider these things today, and come to a knowledge of who you are, be in relationship with you. And Lord, for those of us that do know you, we thank you.

51:26 You are our hope. You are our everything. We owe it all to you, and we just thank you and praise you. Your name, amen.