So she's great. She's actually going to step
here because there's a point where she's going to read
something and right off here the back so happy, happy
resurrection Sunday, right. This is the the message named
today is proved it and that is what he did 2000 years ago,
right? This is he didn't just say
stuff, he proved it. And so she's going to read this
is this is a little excerpt out of the Angel story, which is a
Max Lucado book. It is not, this is not
scripture. This is this is a story a guy
wrote with the idea of what possibly could have been
happening in heaven or with the heavenly being.
So this is she's going to read a the very end of the book and
it's Gabriel Gabriel. Gabriel is, is the one speaking
and there's a couple other angels mentioned as he's going
through it. But I would read this, but I
would probably start crying because if you, if you look at
this guys, we sit in this room and I, I taught on Wednesday
about, about the cross and all that went on there.
And it was 2000 years ago. And it's something that we know
what happens. The Angel watched it first hand
and they watched it with complete power to stop it.
They, there was, there was nobody.
The Romans weren't strong enough to stop them, right?
101 Angel kills 188,000 Syrians, right?
So so that they had that they had to just watch.
And this is Gabriel when God reveals this plan to him.
In that moment a wonderful thing happened.
As we looked at the baby Jesus, the darkness lifted.
Not the darkness of night, but the darkness of the mystery.
Heaven's enlightenment engulfed the legions.
Our minds were filled with truth we had never before known.
We became aware for the first time of the Father's plan to
rescue those who bear His name. He revealed to us all that was
to come. At once.
Amazed and stunned, the eye of every Angel went to one part of
the Child, the hands which would be pierced at the pounding of
the nail. God told us you will not save
him. You will watch, you will hear,
you will yearn, but you will not rescue.
Paragon and Agus turn to me, begging for an explanation.
I had none. I exist to serve my King and I
must watch him be tortured to look to Michael.
His face was stone hard with torment.
I recognized the look, for I felt the same.
We could not fathom the command. How will we sit silent as you
suffer? We asked in unison.
There was no response. Sophia was whispering.
I drew near to hear his words. A child has been given to us.
God has given us a son. He will be responsible for
leading the people. His name will be wonderful
counselor, powerful God Father who lives forever Prince of
Peace. He will be wounded for the wrong
they did, crushed for the evil they did.
The punishment which will make them well will be given to Him.
They will be healed because of His wounds.
Once again I heard the words I had heard first in the throne
room. Only this time I understood.
So this is He, Emmanuel. So this is God's gift, a Savior.
He shall save His people from their sins.
And Lord, I just thank you. I thank you for all of it.
Lord, I thank you. I thank you, Father, for being
willing to send your son. I thank you, Jesus, for being
willing to come, Lord. And Lord, that as we go through
what you've done and the gift that you've given us, Lord, that
you would just open our ears to hear and open our eyes to see.
And Lord, give us a give us your heart to understand, Lord, and
be in our midst today filled with your spirit.
I pray this in Jesus name. So when you, when you look at it
from the heavenly perspective, I don't know, for me, it just
gives that so it really happened.
And I know that we, we stand up here on, I stand up here on
Sunday and I, I tell you the Bible's the truth and it's the
word of God. And but I can tell you that if
you, if you dig into this, if you dig into he is risen, you
will find that it is true. And if it is true, the rest of
the Bible is easily easy to believe.
And I'm not going to today, I'm not going to stand up here and
give you an apologetics lesson on all the reasons that it is
true that Jesus rose from the dead.
I'll tell you there's there's books out there.
The one that comes to mind is that was coming to mind right
before I said that. That's funny.
I will remember and let you know there is a, a case for Christ
Lee Strobel. And Lee Strobel was an
investigative journalist who his his girlfriend or his wife got
saved and he was disgusted. He was an atheist and he was, he
went about to prove that Jesus did not rise from the dead.
And what he ended up proving was Jesus rose from the dead and
obviously wrote the book he saved.
But the point is, the information is out there if you
want to find it. And I will touch on some of it.
But we're just going to take the Bible as the truth.
As we go through this, I'll point out some moments that that
really prove that it's true. But the the big thing that he
proved, guys, is on the cross. He said it is finished, saying
it's finished and it being finished are two different
things, right? Unless you're God, in which case
on Sunday when he rose from the dead, that was just proving he
had the right to say it was finished.
So we're going to actually be in to begin.
We're going to be in First Corinthians 15, and this is Paul
talking. And this is just the importance
of this being true. Moreover, brethren, I declare to
you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received, in
which you you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold
fast that word which I preach to you, unless, unless you believed
in vain. For I delivered to you first of
all that which I also received, that Jesus Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was
buried, and that he rose again on the third day according to
the Scriptures. And that he was seen by Cephas
then by the 12:00, and after that he was seen by over 500
brethren at once, whom the greater part remained to the
present. But some have fallen asleep.
So that's one of those. And we'll, we'll dig into it a
farther down, but so this is during the lifetime of Jesus, of
not of Jesus, of, of those that watch these 500 men, many of
them are still alive. The the apostles, many of them
are still alive. The witnesses, many of them are
still alive. So this, the point is, is that
if I stood up here today and told you that John F Kennedy
rose from the dead and would anybody believe me?
No. Why?
Because we know that that didn't happen.
And there is there is no there we are in a in a time frame that
we can prove that right. And this is this is this.
And they are not afraid to share out loud.
And we'll by the end of this, we will have numerous times where
they shared bluntly in front of people that could have said
you're lying. That didn't happen.
But I'm going to do some review from Wednesday.
We talked about Jesus was beaten and crucified while the heavens
watched, right? And that's, we just, we just
kind of heard what that was going to be like.
Oh, and that book is called an Angel Story by Max Lucado, if
you guys are interested. And it's, it's all about, it's
all about Christmas from that perspective.
The Tri-cities Calvary Chapel's youth group reads that every
Christmas as like a Christmas Eve's.
They're not like a Christmas evening thing that they do to
the kids. And it's it's pretty powerful
just because it's not. It's just looking at it from the
position of the real right, is that that we get the idea that
where we're at is real and heavens ghosty and there there's
nothing farther from the truth. Heaven's the real and we're the
ghosty, which means as solid as this is, heaven is more solid,
right? And so as Jesus is doing this,
just know that it's being done completely and forever.
But at the same time, Satan, Satan and his were celebrating
thinking they had won, right? That I mean, that's, that's the,
that's as God leads them down this path, right?
That's one of those things that I, I love about the story.
You know, Jesus or Satan is probably saying it at some point
during the crucifixion. There will be no seed crushing
today or no head crushing today by that seed, right?
Is that he, he had finally like put a fork in it.
He'd finished, he'd won the game.
And my question is, when did Satan figure out he had
overplayed his hand? You know what, when, when it
went dark for three hours, you know, because that darkness.
And that's, that's one of those proofs when you look into the,
when you look into the resurrection, that's one of the,
or the crucifixion, that's one of the proofs that had happened
is there was 3 hours of darkness between noon and 3:00.
So that that three hours of darkness happens and it's it's
documented by secular non Christian historians.
And some of them, some of them just explain it as it happened.
Some of them explained it and say it was an eclipse.
The problem with an eclipse is that Passover is, is on a full
moon and which means if you guys don't know how all that works,
the sun is over there and the moon is over there and the earth
isn't blocking either 1 So they it can't be an eclipse, right?
Because but it was dark for three hours.
So you got to wonder, did Satan go, Well, that's unfortunate.
And then the earth started quaking.
Well, I'm getting somebody's attention.
And then then you got to wonder when Jesus said it is finished,
was that the moment that he went, well, what's finished?
And I tell you that the one that the one that is always, let me
see, where am I at? So Luke 2344 says now it was
about the 6th hour and there was darkness over the earth until
the 9th hour. The sun was darkened and the
veil of the temple was torn in two.
So what's, what's the deal? And we've talked about the veil
in the past, but this veil is is actually what it's all about.
But it's not the veil in the temple.
The temple veil was really cool and very symbolic of what the
veil was. But Exodus 2631 says you shall
make a veil woven of blue, purple and scarlet thread and
fine and woven linen. It shall be woven with artistic
design and cherubim. You shall hang it upon the four
pillars of the Acacia wood overlaid with gold.
Their hooks shall be gold upon the four sockets of silver.
And you shall hang the veil from the class.
Then you shall bring the Ark of the Testimony in there behind
the veil. The veil shall be the divider
for you between the Holy Place and the Most Holy.
You shall put the mercy seat upon the Ark of the Testimony in
the Most Holy Place. So this veil is separating the
Holy Place from the Most Holy Place and and we're not we're
not Jewish from back then or we're not Israelis.
And that's that seems distant, but the idea there is the mercy
seat was where that was. That was God's throne on earth.
But in Hebrews it says, for Christ has not entered the holy
places made with hands which are copies of the true, but into
heaven itself. Now to to appear in the presence
of God for us. That's what he did in heaven.
He took down that wall of separation and gave us the gave
us the ability to come into God's presence, not not in my
power, right, not because I'm special, but because in Christ.
And if I am saved and I'm in him, I now have the the the
right through what he did on the cross to come into the presence
of God and have have conversations with him and and
be that that cool of the day, being able to just talk and
speak to God, not as not as something that is afar off
right. This is this is the thing about
Christianity is we dig into the proof we serve a living God.
We don't serve a religion. And I know that I you, you guys
have me up here every week and and I beat on that.
But it is so important for you to understand it isn't a game to
be played. It it is if you, if you do not
have a relationship with Jesus and you're in church every
Sunday and you stand up front every Sunday and you do
everything that's at a church to be able to do, but you do not
have a relationship with the living God.
You are lost. And that relationship isn't
something that is. It isn't ghosty.
It's it's simple. Lord, come into me.
I want to come into you. Forgive me for my sins, but it's
something you have to do between you and him.
You someone can lead you in a prayer, but the prayers words
are not magical. Your heart being changed, is
that right? That proof is there and the
thing about that proof is when when you are in Christ and in
His grace, you become more than conquerors, right?
And what that means is you live in a different way.
There is a joy about your life. That isn't because isn't because
you go to church and I have joy. Look at me, I smile all the
time. There is a peace in your life in
my life that is given to us by him that I can't explain to
others. I mean, I can explain it, but I
it, it's literally mine. It's something he gave me and
that that being more than conquerors means that I can
trust him, right? And and the one of the reasons I
can trust him is that he proved it.
But Romans 837 it it Paul's talking about this.
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor
any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Jesus our Lord.
So Paul proclaims that nothing can separate us when we're in
Christ. You give your life to the Lord.
You are safe in Him now you need to remain in him and that means
it's no different than I need to remain married to my wife,
right? It's we have a relationship and
but there isn't anybody that is going to snatch us out of his
hand. He is, he is able to do what he
says He can do in my I shared this on Wednesday and those that
were here are going to hear it again.
But when Jesus proved it right, when he said it is finished and
then rose again, that rising again is exactly like what he
does in Luke 523 with the paralyzed man.
And that is the Pharisees were doubting whether or not he had
the power to do what he said he could do.
And so Jesus said he could do it and then he did it.
And so that's the tomb, right? He said he could do it, and it
was done. The empty tomb just proves that
he was right. Does that make sense?
It's Luke 523, which is easier to say to you, say your sins are
forgiven you, or to say, rise up and walk.
And So what has happened here is this man was lowered down
through the ceiling by his friends, and he landed in front
of him, a paralyzed man. And Jesus says your sins are
forgiven. And the Pharisees and the
Sadducees and all the religious leaders lost their everliving
mind because this guy is forgiving sins, and how can he
forgive sins? And so Jesus says, which is
easier to say your sins are forgiven, or rise up and walk,
but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to
forgive sins, He said to the man.
Who was paralyzed I say to you, arise, take up your bed and go
your go to your house. Immediately he rose up before
them and took up for them had been lying on Oh, where did I
go? Immediately he rose up before
them, took up what he had been lying on and separated to,
departed to his home glorifying God.
And they were all amazed and glorified God.
And we're filled with fear, saying we have seen strange
things today. So Jesus explains over and over,
you can go. You can go from the beginning to
the end of every one of the Gospels and He will explain to
you every way it can be explained.
God is in charge. He is running this show and He
is giving power for each step of the show.
The only power that Satan has, the only power darkness gets is
given to him by God. And that doesn't mean that God
is darkness. It means that God is allowing to
move the story forward as God says, right?
It's his story. It's like think of a think of a
novel and the writer right at the end of the at the end of the
story, all the people win. But there's got to be a bad guy
right to to get the get the good guys where he wants, wants them
to go. And that's that that analogy
breaks down. Yes, it does, but that's the
idea, right? Luke 2252 Then Jesus said to the
chief priests, captains, captains of the temple and the
elders who had come to him. Have you come out against a
robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you daily in the
temple, you did not try to seize me but in your hour, but sorry,
but this is your hour and the power of darkness.
So that power of darkness, right?
So that isn't the dunamis, which we, we talk about dunamis and
that's, that's explosive power, right?
That isn't that power. This is this is delegated power.
This is you. It's like it's the, the police
have the have the power to write us a ticket out here.
And they were given that power by the city, right?
And the city was given that power to to have police write
that by the state. And the state was given that
power by America, right? And it's, it's those that kind
of power just delegated power, right?
You're allowed, you were allowed in this moment to run, to run
this. And Jesus goes on to explain to
the world, which would be Pilot because Pilot is, I always feel
for Pilot because if his life didn't change, if, if things
didn't go another way for him before his death, he had a
second meeting with Jesus, it didn't go well.
And we don't want to ever be that right?
We, we want to, we want to make that, that decision.
And Pilot may have right. I, I don't, I don't condemn him
because I don't know. But I know in this moment he
made some bad choices. But John 1910 it says then
Pilate said to him, are you not speaking to me?
Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you and the
power to release you? Jesus answered, you could have
no power at all against me unless it had been given you
from above. Therefore, no one delivers me to
you or sorry, the ones who delivered me to you has the
greater sin. And, and the point there is
Jesus says it later on that that he's going to lay down his life
and he has the, he has the power to lay it down and pick it up
right. Jesus and the Father and the
Holy Spirit run this whole thing.
You know it. You'll, you'll hear different,
different people talk about the Jews crucify Jesus, the Romans
crucify Jesus. And, and the facts are this was
his story. It was the plan.
Because like I said, there's a point where I'm sure Satan went
that didn't go like I wanted it, where he overplayed his hand.
And that was God just letting it just going, you have it do your
worst. And Satan went to work, right?
So then we finally get to he's risen, right?
And that is this is these are the the moments in this proof.
So the best, the best proof that Jesus rose from the dead is
there's many of them. But the one I, I love is that
you know who God had placed right outside the tomb doors?
He had guards and he had Roman guards.
Now these Roman guards, if they let, if they let some fishermen
swing by, roll the tomb, the the stone away and steal the body,
these are Romans. They didn't like Jews to begin
with. And they were Romans whose lies
were on the line. Because if they fail, they can
be killed. And so you put all that together
and they're the best witnesses because they're not going to lie
for nobody, right? They are, they are literally
their, their necks are on the line.
So it says Matthew 2762. On the next day, which followed
the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees
gathered together to pilot, saying, Sir, we remember while
he was alive, how that deceiver said, After three days I will
rise. Therefore command the two.
Command that the tomb be secured until the 3rd day, unless his
disciples come by night, steal him away and say that the people
are, and say to the people, He has risen from the dead, so that
last deception will be worse than the first.
Pilot said to them, You have a guard go your way, make it as
secure as you know how. So they went and made the tomb
secure, sealing the stone and setting a guard.
And I kind of like that backhanded comment of Pilot
because remember, this is after the crucifixion.
This is after three days of darkness or three hours of
darkness. This is after the veil torn 2
and and Pilot at this point is coming.
Yeah, you go make it as secure as you know how, right?
I'm, I'm pretty sure we're all in trouble here, right?
And so that's that the guards were there to witness this.
And and if you can imagine Peter and John or James or any of them
showing up with swords and they're going to take on the
Roman soldiers, that going to work out.
I mean, they Peter, Peter just a day before had like denied Jesus
to a little girl. I'm pretty sure he wasn't
picking up a sword against the soldiers.
But so then Matthew 28 verse 2 says, and behold, there was a
great earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from
heaven for sorry for an Angel of the Lord descended from heaven
and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on
it. His countenance was like
lightning, his clothes as white as snow.
And the guard shook for fear of him and became like dead man.
OK, so let's go back to the beginning story that Faye read.
So this is this is the one shot. This is an Angel that has wanted
to whack off Roman heads for days at this point, right?
Because they and he gets to scare him to death, right?
And he gets, I mean, he gets to make a show and because you got
to know at this moment, guys, the, the stone was not rolled
away to let Jesus out. It was rolled away to let us in,
right? Jesus was gone.
This is this is, this is the, the Angel knows exactly what's
happened. The Lord is alive and hey, let,
let me go down and take care of these guards.
Now he isn't allowed to touch him, but he does he does give
him a bit of a you know, and they became like dead men,
right? That's that's pretty scary.
So but all of that to be said, these soldiers failed and the
penalty for failure was death. So and this will go into some
hardness of heart of guys. When you look around the world
and you go, how can they not the level of hardness this part
takes. Matthew 28 now 2011 Now while
they were going, behold, some of the guards came into the city
and reported to the chief priests all the things that had
happened when they had assembled with the elders and consulted
together. They gave a large sum of money
to the soldiers saying tell the tell them his disciple came at
his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept.
And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease
appease him and make you secure. So the the soldiers weren't
going to pilot that'll get him killed.
They go to the they go to the chief priests.
And I know that we always look at them and they're the guys
with the black mask. And and you know, if they this
was a stage, you're going to say Boo when they came up on stage,
that kind of stuff. When you read that, how hard are
those hearts? How how they the guards, these
are these are not Jewish guards. These are not believers.
These are just just Roman soldiers.
Come and tell you that an Angel of light came down and rolled a
stone away from a tomb and there was no body in the tomb anymore
and you were there the entire time.
And this leads you to believe that Jesus was telling the truth
and that he is risen. And the Pharisees and the
Sadducees and the the leaders say, let's cover it up.
I mean that they even thought they could, but they were
willing to try it. I mean that there is a level of,
of just blindness in that I always say when, when Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead, the, the leaders left there
going, well, how are we going to kill Lazarus too?
And, and so guys, that blindness is real.
And when we talk about that, that blindness will not go away
in debate, right? You're not going to debate that
blindness out of somebody. You're not going to debate that
because you proved the things right.
How how that blindness is taken away is prayer.
And I say that when you Fast forward to Paul or when Saul was
persecuting the church, imagine how many people were praying for
or against him. But there was definitely prayer
battling Saul, whether that was they were praying he would see
the light or they were praying he would be killed and not kill
them because he was not nice and the scales were taken off his
eyes, right? Paul was this level of blind
about who Jesus was. And then because the scales were
taken off his eyes, he became the writer of of a good most of
the New Testament, right. So no prayer is is the thing,
guys. It's not debate, right?
It's not say the right thing. It's say the thing the Lord
asked you to say. But now we are we are truly now
to where he is risen. Mark 16 One.
Now when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Mary, the
mother of James, and Salomon brought spices, that they might
come and anoint him. Very early in the morning on the
first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had
risen. And they said among themselves,
Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for
us? But when they looked up, they
saw that the stone had been rolled away, for that was, for
it was very large. And entering the tomb they saw a
young man clothed in long white robes, sitting on the right
side. And they were alarmed.
But he said, He said to them, Do not be alarmed.
You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.
He is risen. He is not there or He's not
here. See the place where they laid
him. But but go and tell the
disciples and Peter that He is going before you into Galilee.
There you will see Him. And he said, and as he said to
you, sorry, there you will see Him, as he said to you.
So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they
trembled and were amazed, and they said nothing to anyone, for
they were afraid. So this is not saying that they
didn't go and tell the disciples.
This is saying that they didn't tell anybody along the way
because in Luke it talks about then they returned from the tomb
and this is the ladies from the tomb to the 11 and all of the
rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Jonah,
Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who
told these things to the apostles.
And their words seem to them like idols, idol tales.
And they did not believe them, but Peter arose and ran to the
tomb. So as we go through these three
accounts, this is where people would say there are, there are
discrete, there are they? They contradict each other
because they mentioned different people and they're, they were
all the ladies. And then there's in John.
It's going to talk about it just being Mary, but it doesn't say
only Mary. It just says Mary and Mary is
the one that speaks. So it's it's the way you explain
that is think of a drive by shooting.
Please show up and they start asking questions and the first
person they go and they so a car came by and was shooting at us
and it's a 95 Monte Carlo. And then they go to the next
person and they say some guys, some guys were shooting at us.
One of them was tall, one of them was short.
And then the last one says James, I recognize him was in
was in a car and he was shooting at us.
OK, all of those are true, right?
But they just were more specific or less specific.
You don't. It's one of those that as the
gospel writers were writing, and John is John is specifically
drawing out particular things in his story.
They're they're writing to tell you the story, not to change the
story. They don't do that, but they
they want you to. They're emphasizing parts of it
that they want you to see. And so then you get to John 20
verse one says now the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went
to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the
stone had been taken away from the tomb.
Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple
whom Jesus loved. And if you guys don't know, that
is John. He that's how he that's what he
calls himself all through the book of John and said to them
they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not
know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out and the
other disciple and we're going and they went to the tomb.
Now I love this part because this is so guys are the same.
They were the same 2000 years ago as they are today.
Opportunity to point out that I'm faster than you.
So verse 4. So they both ran together, and
the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb 1st And he
stooped down and looked inside, looked in, and saw the linen
clothes lying there. Yet he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb, and
he saw the linen clothes lying there, and the handkerchief that
had been around his head, not lying with the linen clothes,
but folded up together in a place by itself.
Then the other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also,
and saw and believed, for as yet they did not know the Scripture,
that he must rise again from the dead.
Then the disciple went out again.
The disciples went out again together to their own homes.
I love that about John. It adds proof to me that that a
guy wrote it because truth, right?
I'm faster than Peter. He's kind of slow and wrote it
for all time and eternity. Imagine Peter was excited about
that when he got to to read it. Really.
But Jesus then shows, shows up to them all in Luke.
And he this time he shows up in an inner room.
Another passage, it says the doors were locked, which means
he had to come. He had to come in somehow and if
you listen to guys that are way smarter than me, you have to
fold yourselves through multiple dimensions to be able to just
enter a room. But so he's, you know, glorified
bodies are pretty cool. But that all being said, this is
his proof Jesus wasn't a ghost. He wasn't he didn't he didn't
show up and walked in and walked out.
He showed up and proved he was a lie.
Luke 2436 says Now as the as now they said these things, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, Peace to
you. But they were terrified and
frightened, and suppose they had seen a spirit.
And he said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do you doubt
arise? Why does doubt arise in your
hearts? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is myself. Handle me and see, for the
Spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
But while they still did not believe, for joy and marvel, he
said to them, Have you any food here?
So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb,
and he took it and ate it in their presence.
Then he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you
while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled,
which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets, and the
Psalms concerning me. And he opened their
understandings, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
And he said to them, Thus it is written.
Thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and rise from the dead
on the third day and they repent and and that repentance and
remission of sins should be priests in his name to all
nations beginning in Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these
things. And I know that's a lot, but he
he wanted them to touch him and say you're I'm real.
And then and then eating food, he changed the environment he
was in, right? He ate food.
It didn't he didn't want to ghost.
He ate food. You guys watch Casper the
friendly ghost where he's eating and it's just falling on the
floor behind him. That isn't the story, right?
Jesus ate fish and it went into his stomach and and he had
honeycomb and it went into his stomach.
And this is this is his, his proof to them.
But remember, he, he continued for 40 days more meeting with up
to 500 people. He, he met John and he, he met
James and he spoke with him. He talked to him.
And then they said things they told people, right?
They continued to speak of, of this and the people believed
them because they saw it and they had friends that saw it.
So this is not something that, that it's like, oh, that was a
neat fable. You'll find that that as you go
through the Bible, it loses all of its fable and legend when you
just read it because it it gives you verifiable things, things
you can. I mean, it takes work if you
want to dig into it, but if you dig into it, you will find that
it's true. See, so Paul and that first,
first Corinthians 15, he reminds us that Jesus has risen.
And if he's not risen, guys, and this Paul will go through all
this. If he is not raised up, then we
are not saved because because then we are we are worse than
another religion because we say we have freedom, because Jesus
has risen from the dead. And if he is not risen from the
dead, we do not have freedom and we are not right.
We are not able to have that ability to speak to the Lord,
but he is risen and there is proof, right?
1st Corinthians 1514 says, and this is Paul speaking and he
says it way better than I do. If Christ is not risen, then our
preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have
testified of God that He is, that he raised up Christ, whom
he did not raise up. If in fact the dead do not rise,
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 only we have
hope in Christ, we are all the most pitiable, which means if
Jesus isn't living, then we are wasting our time.
But he finishes in verse 20 and says, but now Christ is risen
from the dead and has become the first fruit for those who have
fallen asleep. For since by man came death by
man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For Adam all died. Even so in Christ all shall be
made alive. And that is crucial, right, that
that idea there is that through Adam we all we have all sinned.
We we, we have a sin nature and Christ coming as a man and dying
on a cross, if that's all he was, if he was a guy and he was
perfect and he never sinned, if that's all he was when he died
on the cross, he could save one person because everybody sin
leads to death. So he could save somebody who
had some another Sinner, but he couldn't save the whole world
unless he was God. And he proved he was God when he
rose again on 3rd day. When he said it was finished, it
was finished and then he proved it.
And if you go back to Matthew 16 verse 15, and this is that
passage where him and Peter talking about who he is.
And he said And Peter said, and he said to them, but sorry,
Jesus said, and he said to him said to them, but who do you say
I am? Simon Peter answered and said,
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you side Simon
Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
Father who is in heaven, and I also say to you, Peter, on this
rock I will build my church, and the gates of Haiti shall not
prevail against it. And this is where knowing what
it says is really important because what it says is you are
Peter, which is Petros, which is stone.
And on this rock, which is Petra, which is bedrock.
And they're big. There's big difference, right?
There's a gravel versus the mountain.
And then that so the truth, so the the bedrock that Jesus will
build his church on that the gates of hell will not prevail
against is he is the Christ, the son of the living God.
That's the truth. And that's, that's the proof
that he gives when he walks out of the grave and, and he
continues to give it to us in, in our lives.
It says in first Corinthians 15550 death.
Where is your sting? Oh, Hades, where is your
victory? Guys, if you're in Christ and
you know, you know, you don't have to worry, right?
I, I, I joke about construction and all that stuff.
And you always have to raise your hand.
Who has your CPR card? And my, my standard line to my
guys is that, you know, everybody raise their hand who
has it. I said, hey, if I go down, I'm
good. No kissing, right?
You can do some, you can do some compressions if you feel like
it, you know, jump up and down on my chest.
But I'm good. I know where I'm going to you.
And that's my, you know, it's kind of my jab at them first
thing in the morning just to keep everybody alive and awake
that, you know, getting right. But Jesus is more important than
having your CPR card right now. Here's here's I said there was
they they all talked about it and there was proof, right.
So Peter days after, right, 40 days after this is just after
Pentecost. And Peter stands up in Jerusalem
where it happened. And this was easy to shut down.
This was easy to tell him to sit down and shut up.
You're lying men of Israel. This is Acts 2 verses 22, and it
says, Men of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you, by
miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in
your midst, and you yourself also know him.
Being delivered by the determined purpose and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands and
crucified and put to death whom God raised up, having loosed the
pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be
held by it. That's easily proved wrong if it
isn't true. This is, this is within 40 days,
50 days of sorry, 50 days of the crucifixion if Jesus didn't rise
from the dead. There's a bunch of people and
there's 3000 of them. Get saved.
But there's a bunch of the chief priests and the magistrate
saying his body's right here. I don't know what you're talking
about. And if you don't, if if you're
here today and you're like, well, I'm not sure.
He wrote from the dead, come see me, I can share stuff with you.
But no, it happened. This is true.
And because it's true, everything else we read is true,
right? Romans 69 says no, knowing that
Christ, having being raised from the dead, dies no more death, no
longer has dominion over him for death, that he died.
He died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives
to God and you can have that life.
But The thing is guys, is that we are all sinners and we many
of us in this room know these verses, right?
Romans 323 I didn't say it. He said it for all his sin and
fall short of the glory of God. There is nothing I bring to that
tomb, nothing. I I say it pretty often that the
only thing I brought to Jesus was my need for him.
Period. And if we're all sinners, the
wages of sin is death. The reason that death couldn't
hold Jesus is he had no sin. And Romans 623 says, but the
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So the reason that we can trust that first is that he rose and
he proved that he's able. And here's one that Gabriel was
wrestling with right. And on that the beginning,
beginning, but God demonstrated his own loves towards us.
Yeah, that's dirt in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. So as as the angels who were
made to serve God heard God's plan and went watched you make
them out of dirt. They're they're they're you call
them by your name, but I watched you make them out of dirt and
you're going to let them do what Lord and I have to stand and do
what Lord God demonstrated his own love towards us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us to get that
that we are that important to him.
He he proved his love to us on that day, the distance he was
willing to go. He said a lot of things guys and
he proved they were all true 2000 years ago when he walked
out of the two and and spoke to us.
And you can have that relationship.
If you don't have that relationship, come and see me.
If you do have that relationship celebrated, celebrate it daily.
Spend time with your your risen savior who wants to spend time
with you, wants to spend time with you enough that he was
willing to do everything. It took all of it and and BI
want to get weird in the Angel thing, but think of the angels
and the and somebody gets saved and then doesn't have time to
spend time with him. Think of them going what how
does that work? What do you mean?
You've you have access to the living God and you're too busy.
How so spend time with him and Lord, I just I lift up today.
Lord, thank you. Thank you so much for all that
you've done. Thank you that we can trust you
and that you, you're here with us today, that you're here with
us now, Lord, that you, you go in and out with us, that you
just take care of us, Lord, and that you proved who you are.
And Lord I, I just thank you for all that you do for us.
Be with us today. Guide and direct us.
And I pray this all in Jesus name, Amen.