Well, good morning, everybody. It's so good to see you all this
morning. If you have your Bibles with
you, please turn with me to 1st Corinthians chapter 15.
First Corinthians chapter 15. And our subject to this morning
is the evidence for the resurrection of Christ.
The evidence for the resurrection of Christ.
First Corinthians chapter 15. And we'll begin reading from
verse one. Now I want to remind you,
brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you
received, in which you stand, and by which you are being
saved. If you hold fast to the Word I
preached to you, unless you believed in vain, For I
delivered to you as of first importance what I also received,
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in
accordance with the Scriptures. And he appeared to Cephas, then
to the 12th. Then He appeared to more than
500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though
some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, and
then all to all the apostles. Last of all, as to 1 untimely
born, He appeared also to me, where I'm also the least of the
apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted
the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am
what I am, and on His grace towards me was not in vain.
On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was
not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was
I or they. So we preach.
So you believed our gracious Lord.
We do once more come before you this morning, on this day to
which we remember the resurrection of our Lord Jesus
Christ as you remember his victory over the grave, as the
one who will ultimately satisfy the right of the wrath of God,
the one who will ultimately pay the penalty that we rightly
devour. And so, God, as we approach your
word this morning, I pray for humility, I pray for wisdom.
I pray for clarity. I ask Lordy that you will come
and speak to us. Some of you may be perhaps
familiar with Lee Strobel. But before I get there, I do
want to just quickly recommend to you, let's put it up if we
have that, I do want to recommend to you this book.
Some of you may be familiar with the writings of Doctor John
Stott. He was an extraordinary
theologian and writer and wrote to this classic.
This is one of the classic, it's called The Cross of Christ by
Doctor John Stott. And so if you're looking for a
helpful book as you think about the cross and what the cross
means, I would recommend that book to you.
He simplifies all of the difficult theological terms and
he really makes it easy for one to follow his argument on the
cross of Christ. So I would like to recommend
that book to you. And I think this place in
Claremont, I forgot what it's called now, has the book, forgot
the name. I'll remember.
Or you can buy it on Amazon as well.
Christian book discounters. It's called Christian Book
discounters right here in Clemont.
They do have, they do have this book.
Some of you may be familiar with Lee Strobel.
He is an investigative journalist.
Years ago, his wife had converted to Christianity and
she was an agnostic. And Lee Strobel, of course, he
is an atheist. And because his wife had come to
faith and converted to Christianity, this bothered Lee
Strobel very much. He was not happy about this.
And then he decided to do something radical.
He said to his wife, I'm going to investigate the validity of,
of, of Christianity. More importantly, I'm going to
focus on the resurrection of Christ because I want to prove
to you that the resurrection of Christ, it is a myth.
It is a legend. In other words, it never took
place. That's all this trouble said to
his wife. I bet you in two days I will be
able to disprove the resurrection.
Of course, this is an investigative journalist.
He also has a legal background and he started to investigate.
Now this is what he wrote after the investigation.
Please bear with me. This is a bit of a long quote.
He writes the following after having done his investigation.
He says the following. Even as an atheist, I understood
one thing about Christianity. It rises or falls on the
resurrection of Jesus. After all, anyone can claim to
be divine as Jesus did, directly or indirectly.
Yet if Jesus predicted he would die and rise again three days
later and then did it, that would be pretty good evidence he
was telling the truth about his identity.
In other words, Easter is then the ball game.
He says as they law trained the journalist at the Chicago
Tribune, I also knew something else.
Dead bodies stay dead. I have seen lots of cops during
my career as a reporter, and none of them ever regained life,
especially after three days. So I figured it would be easy to
disprove the resurrection and thus liberate my wife from the
newfound faith in Jesus. Give me a weekend, I told her.
I can shred Christianity's central claim.
Well, it wasn't that easy. Maybe I thought Jesus never
really died on the cross as the four Gospels claim.
But unfortunately for me, the evidence of Jesus execution was
so extensive that even the atheist New Testament scholar
heard calls it undisputable. That's because we not only have
multiple other accounts of Jesus death in the New Testament, but
we've also got 5 ancient sources outside the Bible that confirms
its execution. Finally I reach my verdict, the
resurrection. The evidence for the
resurrection of Jesus was clear and convincing.
That is why I repented of my sin received in him as my forgiver
and leader in November 1981. Ultimately, I would see my
morality, my worldview, my marriage, even my career
transformed as a result. Isn't this amazing?
A man who would say, I'm on a journey to investigate the
validity of Christianity. I want to prove to my wife that
she's wrong, and yet God would use that to convert him.
And so as we consider the story of Lee Strobel, there are others
on the other side again, who do not affirm the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, including many theologians and scholars.
Some of them do not affirm the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I've voted to you one Gert Ludeman, who is an atheist
scholar. He calls himself that anyway.
He's given himself that title that he is a an atheist.
New Testament scholar Richard Dawkins, who's also an atheist,
writes the following. Presumably what happened to
Jesus was what happens to all of us when we die.
We decompose. Accounts of Jesus resurrection
and ascension are about a well documented as Jack and the
Beanstalk. In other words, they are a fairy
tale. That's all he's saying there.
But Bellman, also an scholar, writes the following.
While Jesus likely existed, A maritalized resurrection is a
matter of faith, not historical fact.
And noting that historians cannot argue for a supernatural
explanation of the Mt 2 and so others still argue today that in
fact there is no resurrection. Can I say even in the biblical
text we still find those kind of people who did not believe in
the resurrection? There were a set and sect of the
of the Jews in the biblical text that also did not affirm the
resurrection. They were known as the Sadduces
infected. The Sadduces were a wealthy kind
of Jewish leaders. They were in powerful positions
including high priest as well as the the chief priest as well.
They were ruling in the Saint Harbro.
In other words, they had about 70 seats in the Jewish council
and yet they denied the resurrection.
In Matthew 22 verse 23, it says the same day the Sadducees came
to him who say there is no resurrection.
So Jesus himself encountered people in his own day who did
not believe in the in the resurrection church.
The resurrection is the most thing, most important truth that
you will ever hear, because the resurrection changes everything.
Without the resurrection of Christ, we have no gospel, we
have no salvation, we have no hope, we have no eternal life.
Without the resurrection, there is no reason for us to gather
this morning here. We ought to close shop and go
home. Without the resurrection of
Christ we will face the wrath of God, because the death of Christ
did not satisfy the wrath of God.
The propitiation was simply not enough.
Without the resurrection we have no Holy Spirit, for He must go
and the Holy Spirit must come. So without the resurrection we
have no Holy Spirit, and without the resurrection we have no High
Priest who prays on our behalf. Without the resurrection,
Christianity is simply a dead and cold religion.
The implications of the resurrection are massive for the
Church of God. Without the resurrection, we are
simply wasting our time and I should not be standing behind
this pulpit. The reason for that is if Christ
has not been raised, we are simply worshipping a dead hero.
But the Apostle Paul is going to argue as to why the resurrection
is imported. In other words, what is Paul's
attitude towards that? What would Paul say to the
people of his day who also some of them doubted because we read
in verse 12 of First Corinthians 15.
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can
some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
In other words, there are others at church at Corinth who are
doubting the resurrection of Christ and of course likely
being influenced by the many philosophies and the religious
myth of the day within the Greek culture.
And because of that, they also denied the afterlife.
And the apostle Paul is going to give a well structured A
detailed argument as to why we ought to affirm the bodily
resurrection, but also its implication for our
glorification. And that's what he's going to do
in this few verses. And he's going to do that under
for headings or for ways in which he argues for this, not
just the first argument the Apostle Paul gives as to why we
ought to believe in the resurrection.
He does that in verses 1, verses 2, and verses 3.
And, and, and, and, and I love this because the first thing the
Apostle Paul does, before he addresses the actual
resurrection, the first thing he does, he shows us that the
resurrection itself is part of the Gospel.
He says, Now I remind you, brothers, the Gospel I priest to
you which you have received, in which you stand, by which you
are being saved, and you hold fast to the word I priest you
unless you believe in vain. And he concludes in verse 4A he
was raised on the third day. And so the argument of the
apostle Paul is that the the resurrection is part of the
gospel. In other words, there is no
regeneration, there is no conversion, there is no
salvation without the resurrection.
That's his point today that man cannot be saved if Christ
remains in the grave. So you cannot separate then the
our conversion from the resurrection.
First Peter one in fact the Zorba ready this passage this
morning in our prayer meeting. First Peter 1/3 Praise be to the
God the Father follow Jesus Christ in his great mercy.
He has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Again, the author connects the resurrection of Christ to our
salvation or to our conversion. Because through the resurrection
only Jesus Christ gives us new life.
Not only new life, He gives us New Hope.
And so if one claims to be a Christian, they ought to affirm
the resurrection. Why?
Because you cannot be saved without it.
If there is no resurrection, you are remaining in your sins this
morning. Without the resurrection, we are
all dead, doomed, and we are all damned.
And so the apostle Paul says, I want you to know that your
conversion story is because of the resurrection.
The second thing it says to them.
For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received,
that Christ died your sins in accordance to the Scriptures.
Not as the apostle Paul is going to argue for the resurrection,
but he argued for the resurrection by first showing
that Jesus indeed did die. Because if Jesus did not die,
you cannot argue for the resurrection because he simply
did not die. But the Apostle Paul wants to
argue that Jesus did die. Jesus, as you know, the story in
the Gospels, he went through flogging, he was beaten
brutally, his flesh was removed, He was bleeding profusely, He
was hungry, he was dehydrated. They spat on him, they
blasphemed him. And as you know, as he is on the
cross, they have a a professional executioner to be
there to ensure that Jesus is declared dead.
They want to make sure, and that's why they have that
particular individual there who will have a spear.
And the biblical text tells us that they did put a spear on his
side. Blood and water came out which
punctured his heart to, to, to guarantee beyond the shadow of a
doubt that indeed Jesus is dead. They wanted to make sure that he
is dead. It was a painful death.
It was a form of humiliation and Jesus breathed his last breath
and he would say to the Father fuck to you I commit my spirit.
Isaiah 700 years before Christ, he would prophesied that, but he
was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crossed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought us peace was on him.
By his wounds we are healed and that prophecy is fulfilled.
Matthew 27 verse 50. And when Jesus had cried out
with a loud voice, he yelled up his spirit.
John 1930 When Jesus had received the Summer Wine, he
said it is finished. He bowed his head and gave his
spirit. Church Paul wants us to know
Jesus died. John Piper puts it this way.
Commenting on the cross of Christ, he writes the following.
Not just death, death by betrayal, death by abandonment,
death by denial, and death by torture.
Jesus died. Therefore, suppose said, I want
to prove to you that indeed Jesus died, and then he tells us
the reason as well. He did not just that he died and
there's a reason why he died. He tells us what's the reason he
died for your sins, for your sins.
It would be our sin that would take the Son of Man to the cross
and that he would face the wrath of God on our behalf.
It is because our sin is waiting.
The justice of God must be satisfied, and the only way to
satisfy the justice of God was through a perfect lamp.
And Jesus becomes that lamp that will meet all of the
requirements of the Old Testament sacrifice, that
shadow, that picture of a perfect and unblamished Lamb.
He would become that on our behalf.
So the apostle Paul said, I want you to know that Christ died,
but he died as a substitute, taking upon himself what we
rightly deserved. He grounds his argument that the
gospel, that the gospel is, is is faved or grounded in the
resurrection of Christ #2 He reminds us that Jesus died.
Thirdly, he not only died, the Apostle Paul says not just verse
four, he says he was buried and he was raised on the third day.
According with the Scriptures as you know as you read the Gospel
that Jesus is taken off the cross and they take his body to
be prepared for the burial. Matthew 2627 writes the
following. In the evening approach there
came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who was who had
himself become the disciple of Jesus going to pilot.
He asked for Jesus body and pilot ordered that he be given
to him. Now Matthew gave us a detail
that Mark. Perhaps he does not give but
gives a different one. The first thing Matthew give
tells us is that he was the disciple of Jesus Christ, but
also he was of course a rich and a wealthy guy.
Mark gives us another detail which I think is important.
Mark gives this detail that Joseph Aramathea respected
member of the council. In other words, he was part of
the Saint Hunter and he was part of the perhaps had one of the 70
seats in the council, but who was himself looking for the
Kingdom of God, took courage and went to pilot and asked for the
body of Jesus. So this man who is a prominent
member of the council, this man who is rich, who is well known,
perhaps someone who is well known in the 1st century, is the
one who takes the body of Jesus Christ to show that indeed Jesus
again is dead, but also that Jesus will be buried.
He's not only dead, but Jesus will be buried, theologian and
medical doctor Martin Lord Jones writes the following.
You may look at a body that appears to be dead, but if there
is no doubt or query, you do not bury it until we are absolutely
certain that death has taken place.
The reason Jesus must be buried is because he is dead, and so
he's not only dead, but also he is buried.
Burial in the sense is the absolute proof and evidence that
Jesus is dead in the fullest sense of the term.
It is not merely a suspension of life, but death itself.
So this is proof that indeed Jesus had died.
So the apostle Paul says he had died, but also he was buried as
well. And the third, the other thing
Paul is going to show, it says I want to prove to you again that
Jesus has been raised to life. He's saying, I want to give you
another evidence from verse 5 to verse 8.
And the kind of evidence that the apostle Paul is going to
give here is the whole historical account of the
witnesses to the resurrection. Notice the first person who has
been called up, it is Cephas. In other words, it is Peter.
It's going to be. Now I want you not to be
confused. And often, you know, we call him
Peter and we call him Cephas. But Cephas mainly is, is in
Aramaic. But when talk about Peter that
often is in Greek. So it's called here Cephas using
the Aramaic that is dead. But we also have to 1st ask the
question here as we look at Cephas, but also as we look at
the 12th. Now there are a few questions we
ought to ask here because at this point in time Judas had
died. Judas is dead and yet the
apostle Paul is saying he appeared to the 12th.
So who is the 12th? Because Judas is dead.
And we know that Matthias is only chosen after the after the
ascension of Christ. So why would the apostle Paul
says 12 or not 11? Because at this point there are
only 11 disciples, not 12 disciples.
Judas is gone. Matthias has not been chosen as
yet. And yet the apostle Peter Paul
rather says we appeared to the 12 disciples.
It is often important to note the words in the Bible.
Now we must always understand that the word 12 in the Bible,
sometimes it simply means a designated title, not a
numerical number or a numerical count.
So when the apostle P Paul here is saying 12, it doesn't mean
literally that there are 12 disciples that Jesus appears to
you because there are only 11, but rather a title that was
given to a designated group. And in this case, the disciples
were known as the 12. So even if you were to see 10
disciples, people would say, hey, this one is part of the 12
even though there's only 10 disciples.
So 12 does not mean 12 in this case because there are only 11
disciples. So there is example in first in
in John 2024 where it says, but Thomas one of the 12.
So the 12 does not mean that there are 12, but it just means
that it is a a designated title that is given to a specific
group and it's given to the disciples.
But there are only 11 of them at this point in time because we
know from Mark 16 for Jesus appeared to the E to the 11 as
they were eating. He rebuked them for their lack
of faith and their stubbornness, refusal to believe those who had
seen him after he had risen. But the apostle Paul chooses
simply to use a designated type. But also then he appears to
Peter. He appears to Cephas as well,
the one who denied him. And he said Jesus appeared to
him. What a way, or it's such a
beautiful way. God shows his grace and love to
the one who has denied him, and he appears to him.
And so Paul says, I wanted to show you that there are those
who have seen Jesus after the resurrection.
He says Cephas saw him, the 12 saw him.
In other words, the 11 saw him. But he says that's not enough.
I also want to show you that he appeared to more people as well
and not just in verse 6, he says, and then he appeared to
more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still
alive. Jesus is life on earth after the
resurrection. We know it was about 40 days.
And the apostle Paul says, I want to prove to you that indeed
he was raised to life. He appeared to more than 500
people. He appeared to large crowd.
Jesus was not hiding. And he says to them, listen,
some of them are dead, that some of them are alive.
You can go in and ask them about the resurrection.
They will indeed testify that Jesus has been raised from the
dead. What wonderful evidence is that?
I think you can dispute it. Maybe if it's one or two people,
I don't know if you can, you can dispute.
I don't know how many were still alive at this point in time, but
surely perhaps because a lot of them were still alive.
And poster Paul says go and ask them.
They will tell you he is raised from the dead.
Says that's, that's that's the evidence.
What else do you need? He appeared to see this.
He appeared to the 12th. He appeared to 500 people.
And the apostle says maybe that's not enough for you.
I'll give you more evidence to show you this resurrection of
Jesus Christ. He says he also appeared to
James and to all the apostles. Quite interesting.
Quite interesting that in verse 6.
So in verse 5 he uses the word that he appeared to the 12.
But in verse 7 he said he appeared to all the apostles.
I love the language there because it does mean something
slightly different. But also he appeared to James.
Now James is the half brother of Jesus.
Jesus had four brothers. So Jesus was not just James
Jesus according to the scriptures he had about four
brothers. But really we know two of his
brothers James. And who knows?
And who was other Jesus brother? Was Jude was his brother Jude
the one who writes the book of Judah's Jesus brother?
So James and Jude are Jesus brother.
And we also know according to the biblical text, that Jesus
also had sisters. He had brothers, four brothers.
We know they were four. We also know he had sisters.
I'm not going to tell you the number because the number of the
sister doesn't come from the text.
It comes from reading other additional sources.
So I won't give you that because it's not in the Bible.
But he had about four brothers, Jude and George.
The interesting thing about Jude and James, it says here he
appeared to James, is that James and Jude, we assume that did not
believe in the resurrection. In other words, when Jesus was
still on earth, they did not affirm his divinity.
They did not affirm that he was God or he was the Saviour, the
anointed one. For it says, I want to read to
you in Matthew 7, verse three, he says, so his brothers said to
him, leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see
the words that you're doing Now verse 7, verse 5 says this is
important. Not even his brothers believed
in Him. So we know in Jesus's earthly
ministry, his brothers did not affirm His divinity, nor affirm
that indeed He was the anointed one.
In fact, as you read other passages, it seems that some of
his family was annoyed by him and what Jesus was doing.
They did not believe his rose from the dead.
They did not believe He was God or He was the Messiah.
But yet we read in the biblical text that now Jesus appears to
his own half brother. He appears to James.
I'm not sure how many of you would worship your own brother.
You definitely have to be convinced of the evidence that
he is what he says he is for you to give your life to your own
brother. Obviously Jesus was the older
brother. We know that probably James.
George was the younger brother, but James is convinced to such
an extent, they are convinced of this resurrection, that James
and Jude become church leaders. They lead churches, both of
them. They write books in the New
Testament, the book of James and the book of Jude.
They become prominent leaders in the early church and pastoring A
prominent church in Jerusalem. We know that from the book of
Acts and the apostle Paul says, do you want evidence that this
guy has been been raised to life?
I want you to know that his own brother and his own family
actually worships him. Now, when Jude opens up his
book, he writes the following Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James to those who are called beloved in God
the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.
What a wonderful way for James to open up that book.
He's not only my brother, but in fact I am a servant of my
brother because indeed my brother has been raised to life.
The King of kings, Lord of Lords, seated at the right hand
of the father. The half brother worships the
Big Brother because the Big Brother is divine and he is who
he claims he is. And so the apostle forces, I'll
give you that evidence. His own family worships him, he
says. Lastly, I want to give you the
last evidence in verse 8 and verse 9.
Last of all, as to untimely born.
He appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles
unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church
of God. Paul, who was a persecutor of
the church, radically, radically transformed by the grace of God.
For we know in Acts 9 verse 9, it says, so why are you
persecuting me? Why are you persecuting me?
Because whoever persecutes my people is persecuting me so.
So why are you persecuting me? And when the eyes of Paul, the
spiritual eyes of Paul, are open to this truth, this realization
that the Savior is speaking to him, and the Savior tells him to
go, He is commanded to go. He says, but rise and enter the
city, and you'll be told what you ought to do.
And I love the words of the apostle Paul that I am least of
the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle.
That's the power of the resurrection.
It looks for unworthy people. Paul, one who persecuted the
church that perhaps would have been written off by many people
as one who would not come to fight.
And yet he's the one who received the grace of God.
Church, No one is beyond the grace of God.
No one is beyond salvation. Moses as a murderer was not
beyond salvation. Gideon as a coward was not
passed by by the grace of God. He received the grace of God.
The grace of God is for unworthy people.
All of us, as we stand here this morning singing those wonderful
songs and, and sitting here this morning, we ought to remind
ourselves that when we came to Jesus, we came as unworthy
beings. For there was nothing good in
us. There was nothing attractive in
us. We are wretched sinners.
That's what we are. And yet just like the apostle
Paul, we have received the grace of God.
We did nothing to deserve it. We did nothing to earn it.
And yet God gave us this wonderful grace drew us to
himself and we experienced that resurrection power to such an
extent that the apostle Paul as he shares his resume in in
Philippians chapter 3 saying from the tribe of Benjamin, from
a Hebrew of Hebrews, according to the law, a Pharisee, He says,
now I, I have gained Christ. I consider all of those things
rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Christ order to
experience the very resurrection of Christ.
The resurrection of Christ is for unworthy people.
And so the Apostle Paul as he gives his resume, he says I too
was not worthy and yet I experience the grace of God
towards me. And so the apostle Paul's point
is this, as he shows this argument, he's saying if you
don't believe exhibit one, maybe you may believe 2.
If you don't believe 2, maybe you may believe three.
He gave this argument to shows that indeed Jesus has been
raised from the dead. But he argues then furthermore
that if Jesus has not been raised from the dead, they are
dire implications. Notice those implications from
verse 14 to verse 19. And if Christ has not been
raised from the dead, then our preaching is in vain and your
faith is futile. And if we even found to be
misrepresenting God because we testify about God that he had
been, that he raised Christ whom he did not raise.
If it is true that the dead are not raised, and if Christ has
not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your
sins. Verse 18, then those who have
fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
Verse 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life, we are all
people mostly to repeated. So he's saying if Christ has not
been raised, that's what's going on.
In other words, if Christ has not been raised from the dead,
you are still in your sins. You do not hope.
We don't do not have hope for the final resurrection.
Our preaching is useless and our preaching is in vain, and our
preaching is futile. He says if Christ has not been
raised, those who have fallen asleep will are not sharing
eternity with him. But because Christ is raised,
your preaching is not futile. So I want to say to us in
closing this morning as we consider and process and reflect
on this resurrection, what it means to us.
And so this morning, if you're feeling weary as a Christian, if
you're feeling exhausted as a Christian, when I say to you,
Christ, he is risen. If you are grieving this morning
and morning, this morning I want to say he is reason.
If you're feeling lonely this morning, He is reason.
If you're feeling unsure about tomorrow and doubting your
faith, He is reason. If you doubt His love this
morning, if you doubt His Shepherd in care this morning,
he is reason. To the one who is weak, to the
one who is weary, to the one who is discouraged this morning, He
is reason. And because of that, we have
hope, eternal hope of victory over sin and death.
We remember that wonderful old hymn sung by the Methodist
Church. Nothing in my hand I bring
simply to thy cross I cling. Our gracious Lord, we come
before you this morning to thank you for the resurrection power,
to thank you, Lord, for the evidence that the apostle Paul
gives us, the evidence that you appeared, that you were not
hiding, but you appeared. You appeared to Cephas, you
appeared to the 12th, you appeared to James, you appear to
all the apostles of God. They, the wider group of
apostles, you appeared to them, but also, Lord, you appeared to
the 500, perhaps even less. We're not sure, our Lord, we
know that you appeared, but we are also grateful that you
appeared to the apostle Paul himself, who through your
appearance experienced a radical transformation in his life.
And so, Lord, we pray this morning, appear to some of us
here this morning, save those who are far away from you.
Lord God, may they see you. May they know that you are one
who is alive, the one who's reigning and ruling, the one we
love to serve, the one we have given our lives to.
And so, Lord, we pray that appear to those this morning who
may be doubting, who may be seeking, We say, please Holy
Spirit, appear to them as well.