Evidence of Eternity | Week 2 | Message

when I was in college and I came back home from California and was living at home, didn't even know what I was gonna do next. And, so I didn't even know how long I'd be there. I was just doing a semester at ASU deciding what I was gonna do, and I get a jury note duty notice.

And the weird thing is it said grand jury. I didn't even know what that was. You know, I was like, what's a grand jury? Is that where they play trumpets when you walk in? I

don't know. So I so my dad explains it to me and it's like, oh, it's like a trial before a trial. It's usually for a big deal. And the problem with grand jury, when I go in there, inform you it's not like you're just doing duty for a day. If you end up on this trial, it's it could be every day for a few hours or this one was gonna be twice a week for from every twice a week from 05:30PM

till nine. And I was gonna have to drive to Downtown Phoenix to do this, and it was gonna was map out to be about five, maybe six months long.

So for five or six months, twice a week, I was gonna have to drive into downtown. Now it sounded interesting. It was gonna be a big deal, lots of evidence, and you know, you wanna do your civic duty? I mean, was lots of good reasons to it. It wasn't like I was opposed to the whole concept. It's just like many of you I thought, especially at that age, I go, I don't have time for this.

I got other things I would rather do. I know that might be interesting, but I just, I I don't hate the idea. I just don't wanna do it. You know, I just didn't wanna do it. So I thought, I gotta get out of this. And and and so I thought, you know what, I'll tell him I'm a full time student, I got a part time job, and I don't even know if I'm staying in the state of Arizona. And I thought that would get me out because they start asking is there anything that would disqualify you? And before I get my turn to share anything, this other college age guy speaks up. I'm a full time student,

and when I get out, I have a part time job, but when I finish the program, I'm already lined up to move out of state to to get a job, whatever, somewhere. And the guy the judge goes, well, full time student, part time job does not disqualify from you this. And when does your program end? And he goes, it's like in eight months or whatever. He goes, well, that'll this will be done by then. So no. So then I realized, okay. My first idea doesn't disqualify me. And even my idea if I might not be here, you have to give an exact date of when you're going. I'd be like, I don't know. Well then, he would say, well then you know this, you're not leaving until this is done.

So I'm like, what am I gonna do? I don't wanna do this. And I just was think. Think, Bill. You gotta get out of this. And I remembered my dad telling my mom when she got jury duty, I was like, I don't wanna do it. I gotta blah blah blah blah. And he goes, Dan, you know, if you really don't wanna do your civic duty, all you gotta do is say something really biased and they'll kick you off.

And I just remember him saying that. I go, I got it. But he goes but I go, you can't make it obvious because I'm like, you're just doing that on purpose, aren't you? And then they're gonna be mad at me. So I just I just waited for my moment. They asked me a question about, hey, can you feel like you can look at evidence in a in a in a in a clear manner and process this? Kinda like how you like an and I to not oversell the bias, I just said, oh, yeah. I think I'm great at it. Kinda land the idea that I wanted to be on the jury, and I I could do it well because you know what? And I think I got a good knack of just knowing that wherever there's smoke, there's always fire, and then I just kept talking. Just kinda slip that in there, and then I prayed it worked. And then I got down there dismissing, and the lawyers are talking, the judge is like, who do we want? Who do we not want? They had one more that had to go, and then they they got their jury set. I'm sitting there next to the other college guy going,

and and and they called my number and I got to leave. I'm like, sorry, pal. I go, I don't have to do this. And I left.

And the whole point was it wasn't that it was a bad thing. It wasn't even something that I wouldn't have maybe been interested in. I knew it was a good thing. I just was too easily distracted. Like, at this point in my life, I don't have time to look at that. I just don't wanna do it.

And I think that's an actual truth for a lot of us who are even believers, or if you're even a skeptic of Christianity, is we don't wanna look at the evidence that Jesus is who he said he was.

We believe all the little you hear the rumor out there or this, you have some people say, well, he's a myth. He didn't really exist, or he was a good teacher. He's this. It was like but we don't actually wanna take the time to be on the jury

and dig into the actual evidence that is there and see that he is who he said he is. And today, we're talking about the evidence that he rose from the dead because that is a really key key element. And and so what we're gonna do today is is is is we are gonna literally

take this from a from a from a kind of a trial point of view.

A trial point of view. A matter of fact, I I actually brought this. You ever watch the the the lawyer shows like Suits? Anyone watch that? They always had one of these in their hands. They come in the office.

There it is. You know, there's our problem. I I found it. I found the answer. There's the case. There it is. So here, I brought all these notes. It's good. So I need to stay on track because I got a lot of stuff, and I usually like to do my normal preaching style is just make up whatever I wanna say at the spot, but I can't do that today. Okay? So so I gotta be lawyer, Bill, which is actually a cool moment for me because my

my college speech and debate professor said if I ever wasn't a pastor, I could probably be a very successful lawyer. So we'll we'll find out right now, and and my fee is exorbitant, so get ready to pay it. So no. And the reason we wanna look at this way is because there is actually a very well known guy,

a saint named Sir Lionel Luckhoo, and he was a knighted British citizen, but he was a a barrister, a lawyer, and he was defense attorney, and for for murder cases for people. And he is still in the Guinness Book of World Records for having won 245 consecutive acquittals.

And he didn't do it by just playing the heartstrings. He was a very methodical, logical he said, you take the reason, you look at the evidence, and then you walk a jury down the road to show that with reason and logic and evidence, this is most likely what happened, and that's how he was a lawyer.

Well, when he was in his sixties, 63 years old, he got challenged in some way to consider the evidence of who Jesus is because he never bothered. And someone challenged him. So he's okay. He approached looking at Jesus and his resurrection as he did a lawyer,

and he just accrued all the evidence, and he looked at it, and he went over it, and at age 63, he raised his hand like many people do in this church, and said, I'm accepting the love of Christ, and I'm admitting that he is the Lord. And here's what he said about it. He said this, I say unequivocally,

and he even said it like a lawyer, I say unequivocally that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.

And that's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna step in. I'm taking some of his arguments and some of that, but then all the bible, and then what I've done is I've put together five exhibits

as a lawyer. Five exhibits of evidence to show this simple big idea. Here's my opening remark. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what we are gonna see by the end of this this this trial is simply this, reason says risen. Reason

says risen. And that is the verdict that I think we all will have to come to when we're done looking at this. So here we go. Why? Why do is this important?

In first Corinthians chapter 15, Paul is writing to this church and he's discussing the idea of the resurrection of Christ, and why it's so central and important and for anyone who's doubting and even people that wanted to believe in Jesus may not believe in this. He said, this is why it's so important starting in verse 17. He said, and if Christ has not been raised,

then your faith is useless and you're still guilty of your sins. In that case, all you die believing in Christ are lost.

And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. So in other words, what he's saying is if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, we're all wasting our time in church. But if he did, then we have life, we have hope, and everything else he said is true.

So it really comes down to this moment. And you know what's funny is in surveys, 78% of Americans still say, yeah, I believe Jesus rose from the dead.

But they don't wanna look at the evidence. They don't do they really believe or like me in college not wanting to be on this tree? Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. It's a good thing, but I'm just not gonna pay any attention to it. Well, if it is true, we have to make a decision. You and I have to make a decision if it's true.

And so let's look at this evidence.

Exhibit a. Exhibit a is the empty tomb. The empty tomb. The fact that his tomb was empty. I'm gonna show you that it really was historically proven fact. That that that experts, historians, people of this time, and not just the Bible, extra biblical Roman historians, Jewish historians,

people have actually written and talked about how they know this tomb was empty. You might not believe Jesus was raised from the dead, but what is a historical

fact is it was empty on that Sunday. But before we can prove that, a lot of people believe this is a more newer theory that's come up that has to be addressed, that's happening in our culture now about myth and legend, and it's just there's no evidence behind it. But people are just trying to say, yeah, the tomb was empty because it never existed because Jesus never existed. Jesus is kind of in movies, they can make a composite kind of character that's symbolic,

and that's who he was. He never really existed. That is the most bunk thing ever. I can answer it simply. There are more extra biblical cross reference references

to Jesus including other religious books like the Koran and all that that talk about Jesus as a real person. But actually, Roman historians, Jewish historians, documents, there is more evidence that Jesus walked this earth than I'll just give you a list of some other people from contemporary ancient times.

Here's a list of people that have way less evidence that they actually existed than Jesus, yet nobody doubts their existence. Historians do not have a doubt in their mind that he existed, yet people wanna doubt Jesus. Here's a list. Socrates.

So apparently, there's less evidence that he could have helped Bill and Ted do their speech at the end. Alexander the Great. There is no surviving stuff that actually talks about him historically other than his first biography written four hundred years after he was born. Julius Caesar.

There is less writing about him than the 27 books of the New Testament and all the other extra biblical. The most recent sources about him that still survive over a hundred years after his death.

Hammurabi and his code, there's absolutely no real evidence other than the few little hieroglyphic inscriptions and there's no actual any other extra biblical or historical references to him in any way shape or form. Cleopatra, she may have walked like an Egyptian, but there's no historical proof that she did. Know?

Pythagoras, so if you hated using his theorem in math class, you can maybe say, maybe he never existed, so I don't have to do this. Try that with your teacher and see if that happens. That's just a a little list. So he did live. It's it's it's it's it's not checking your brain at the door. He existed.

And as Matthew twenty eight six says this, he is not here. He has risen just as he said. He is not here, but he was here. He just wasn't there. So that goes into this idea of the empty tomb. What do we look at there? Couple things about the empty tomb.

Why do we know it's empty, and what what's the big deal about it? First of all, it was a very public burial. He was buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, a member of the Sanhedrin.

His location was publicly known and traceable, so everybody would have known. It was the tomb was it was sealed and guarded by Roman soldiers, yet the body ended up missing anyways. The body and missing. Multiple witnesses confirm this, not just biblical,

but also Jewish leaders never claimed the body was there, and there's hostile sources, sources outside of the Bible. Holodot, Yeshu, Tacitus, you can go look these up, Josephus. There's a lot of other reference people that cross reference that said there was this uproar over this missing body.

Historical fact. So ladies and gentlemen, the jury, here's what I gotta say that we gotta make we have to look at today.

This doesn't prove necessarily that he rose from the dead alone. But what is not able to be argued was the existence of Jesus and the fact that his body did disappear. That is historically proven fact with more quotes and evidence than all of these other people I listed,

that we all accept what Julius Caesar did. Everything about his career, we accept. There is no actual extra biblical until hundreds of years after he lived, and yet we accept that that's how it happened. Body was missing. Fact. The question is, what happened to it? What happened with this empty tomb?

Well, there's been some theories. And and and the Jewish leaders, they never claimed the body was still there. The truth is Romans never claimed it was there. The reality is neither one of them would want the body to be missing.

The Jewish leaders and the Romans, they could agree on that because it would cause problems, which it did. They didn't like uproar. They didn't like that. They didn't like this. So so what happens is if there was a body and this became a deal, there's some of the historical references are there was an uproar in Jerusalem over this the missing body of the Christus. There was this these things going on that caused an uproar. In the Romans, if there was a body, they knew where it is. If there was a body, they would have dragged that body through the streets

and shown right away. But they didn't because they didn't have one. They knew it was missing. The Jewish leaders, same thing. They wanted there to be body, but since it was gone, they didn't deny it was gone, but they made up a cover story. And the Bible does talk about that.

In the Bible in Matthew 28 talks about how Caiaphas the high priest actually met with the Roman guards who were assigned to watch the body, and then actually said, hey, you're gonna say you were asleep? And then of course, he says, but don't worry, we will smooth things over with the governor basically,

which what what that meant was he knew that they would be in trouble if they fell asleep during this job. It would be a big deal for them to fall asleep. Matter of fact, at that time, failing in a guard duty like that, the usual punishment was execution.

So they said, we'll smooth it over. We're gonna bribe you and you're gonna say this, and don't worry, we'll make sure you're okay, which actually was helpful to them because they're getting paid money and they knew that with the body disappeared, if they didn't wanna accept the actual plan, they might have been accused and put to death anyways. So now they had a plan. They accepted it because both sides wanted this problem to go away. Because Rome,

they didn't care about Jesus. They didn't care about how they would Jews worship. They didn't care about any of that. You know what they cared about? Pay your taxes, don't rebel, and don't cause problems for us.

Pontius Pilate, the governor at the time, the reason he washed his hands of it because his wife had a dream and he just didn't wanna deal with this, because if you were made if you were the Roman governor of that district, that means you were basically at the back end of a career or hanging on loosely because it was almost a punishment to get sent there.

So it wasn't so he's probably told, you better not let any problems. And all these problems that was happening, uproars, these civil wars, he was on thin ice. So he's like, I need this problem to go away. The Jewish leaders did not want his body to be gone. They didn't want him because they're like, we want Jesus to go away.

And I think if you think with your brain as we look at this reason here, most theories today are people still want Jesus to just go away. But they're not logical. Because if you look at that plan, it doesn't make any sense.

Matter of fact, if I was the lawyer that prosecuting this case, I would definitely have taken my little folder and said, okay. I called to the stands the head of the Roman guard that night. They'd come up. He'd sit down, say state your name for the case, and he would say, I am Marcus Aurelius Peperonius,

head of the guard. Okay, mister Peperonius.

Walk us through what happened that night. So you were put on guard duty for yes. Why were you put on guard duty? Well, this Jesus was raising a stir. People were falling. They believed he was the Messiah, which was a problem for us, because a lot them said he's the real king, and that really upset Caesar, you know, and we don't want that. We had to put rest, and then all a sudden he dies, and there was rumors of people that he kept preaching about how he was gonna come back and and then come back to life. Everyone was worried about that, so the high priest and then came and said, we need to do something about this, and and and the governor agreed. We So were put on guard duty to make sure nothing happens to that body. So I go, so this is a pretty important assignment.

Yes. Very critical. Good. So what happened? How did the body disappear on you? Well, the the disciples stole it. Okay. So how when did they do that? And how how do you know that? Why why didn't you stop them? Well, we were asleep. Okay. So you fell asleep on this most important duty ever as professionals. Yes.

And then so what you're saying is then the a a little band of fishermen and all of them snuck in next to you asleep next to this this tomb that sealed also and rolled a two ton stone away without waking you up as professional soldiers, dragged a body that was wrapped tightly and buried under 75 pounds of spices,

and got that out of there in the dark, and you you you never woke up. No, sir. So just when you finally woke up, body was gone. Yes. Okay. And then here's where I'd Columbo it all to pieces. I'd turn around and say, okay. Just one more question, mister Pepperonius.

If you were asleep the whole time, how did you know it was the disciples? No further questions, your honor. But I just wanna say, no further questions. Guys, it doesn't hold water at all. And the only reason

the public for at large kinda kinda went on with it eventually, but Christians didn't. A lot of people didn't believe this is just because you had the religious leaders and the government at the time go in on together. That's believable. And they just pushed this down. They just walked away from it.

But why would the disciples and and and what's crazy about this is the disciples, so you're saying that they were in on a lie. If they're in on a lie, we're gonna start to see that that makes no sense either because

because and that's what modern says. They say, they just they might have believed it, but but the only way that if the tomb really was empty, the only way it could not have been a resurrection would be potentially the disciples stealing the body like that story was. Well, then they are living an entire lie of their religious beliefs. Everything they're the system they're building, all that. And they go, yeah. That's why they wrote the gospels later and put in the story that that he rose from the dead. That was made up later. That all happened. And they're all saying that. I go, but if that's true,

as a lawyer, then why every gospel describes that it was women that found the empty tomb? Because at this time, they were a little bit stupid. They didn't trust they wouldn't a woman was not even allowed to give testimony in a court.

They would they would be considered if people read that it was women, go, fast poof. I'm not gonna believe that. So if they're they knew it's not true, and they're purposely writing the story to manipulate like everyone says the Bible is trying to do, they're manipulative,

why would they be so dumb that all four gospel writers said, you know who found the empty tomb? The people that the public will say, that that's not believable.

Doesn't make sense, does it? It's not logical. So then what's happened? You know, it's funny with that missing body theory. This is where I know God just a little bit extra here for the for the court. Circumstantial. But God does have kind of an ironic sense of humor.

Because Caiaphas, who made up the cover story about the body being taken, that it wasn't empty, They've found archaeologists found his family tomb. Actually, it's the first family tomb of it was the first one. They found more since, but it was the first one of any New Testament character listed in the Bible

that they found their actual resting site. And guess who was in his tomb? Caiaphas. Uh-huh. It's funny that God allowed us to find him first when he was the one that said, nope. Jesus is dead. And the truth is he's saying, actually, Caiaphas, you're dead.

So what's happened later on when that doesn't hold water, another theory came, and that's been the one that's more modern. It's called the swoon theory. I call it the princess bride theory, that Jesus was just mostly dead, and that somehow after he died,

he was able to come at crawl out of and get out of it. He he he was only looked dead, but then he revived and and and came back and got out. That comes back to the same problem. How did he get out of the tomb?

How did he survive the whipping? The whipping itself, they said it was more brutal. That's why he couldn't carry his cross. When they would they would brutally whip with this metal tip whip. If I went through the medical stuff, we'd all get nauseous,

and and and they beat him even more. And so the one of the things they did, it was cruel. It made it more painful, but in some ways, was merciful because the whipping itself usually made you die faster on the cross. And Jesus, they whipped so brutally that his spine would have been showing,

sides of his intestines they would have been showing. It would have beat him all the way down. He would have lost a lot of blood already.

So that alone, modern x the JAMA, the Journal of American Medical Association '86 looked at all of the studies of it, and they said he was definitely dead. He wouldn't have survived the whipping. If he would have just that whipping would have killed him. Might have taken him a few days, but he was gonna die from that alone.

And and and the other thing is Roman executions by crucifixion was 100% fatal.

And and they stabbed him through the heart when they thought he was dead rather than breaking his legs, and it said the liquid came out that says, prove that he had already been dead. Also, he wasn't, he was then because they knew exactly where to they they they would do that right through the heart.

So he was dead. They wouldn't let him come off of the cross unless they confirmed he was dead. Because the Romans wanted to make sure he is dead because they need everyone to see that he was dead because they didn't want this problem they ended up having anyways. It makes complete sense.

And if he did, how would he escape? Wrapped under 75 pounds of spices. And then the disciples, if they did find so they either had to help him or somehow he got out of that all by himself, which is a pretty big miracle in of itself, and then they see him half dead and all that, that doesn't really inspire

boldness of saying, he is the Messiah. It's more like he got lucky and survived. And then what happened to him? You see, the empty tomb shows, ladies and gentlemen, reason says risen. Exhibit b,

the early creed and the eyewitness testimony. Early creed and eyewitness testimony. I wanna read a little bit more out of Ephesians Corinthians, first Corinthians 15 back in verse three. Paul says this, I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me.

So this is a teaching he was taught when he first became a believer. Christ died for our sins just as the scripture said. He was buried and was raised from the dead on the third day just as scripture said. He was seen by Peter and then by more than by the 12. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers.

At one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

Then he was seen by James, and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God's church.

So think about what he's saying there. It's first, he's listing a creed. So there's this creed, and then he's talking testimony all the way to himself.

And and if you look at that, that creed was those first couple verses. I passed on to you what was most important to me, and then passed on to me, and when he says, Christ died for our sins, he was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day.

That was a it was at a creedal form, and and that's critical. And now now what first of all, what's a creed? I'm not talking about Apollo, and I'm not gonna talk about arms wide open. I'm talking about you guys still know that band. Wow. But

a creed was a simple short for like how it says, this this this. It was a list. It was a simple way of learning. It was when you wrote something into a creed, it was the way of formalizing

a teaching, something that was really important. It's almost like making a list of how I give you big ideas. It was like, here's the big ideas so it can be passed on, it could be taught, it could be learned quickly. And that happened, and he's reading this.

And this is only twenty, twenty five years after the rest of You're still and that's why he says the eyewitnesses, all these people are still alive, most of them. In other words, you can go talk to the people, including me. I saw them too.

And then though, but this creed, why this is so important in this creed is it's it's like it it proves that a legend didn't arise and turn into a myth.

That most people today try to say if you deny who Jesus is and want him to go away, you're like, well, he never really resurrected. He wasn't really claiming to be God. He wasn't this that was his disciples. It was this myth and this legend and a cult of personality that formed up. The problem with that is cults of personality. Legends that rise up and turn mythical to where they actually distort the truth of what happened

never happened that fast. This creed has been shown to have come into existence within thirty six months of Jesus' death and resurrection. Within three years. That's important. And we know it came into existence, in case you're a skeptic, was a guy named Gerd Ludman. Gerd. I've I've struggled with some Gerd.

He's a skeptic New Testament scholar. Now that's important to know if you wanna not check your brain at the door in faith. There's a lot of scholars of the Bible that don't wanna believe that Jesus is Lord of all. They don't wanna believe the supernatural and the spiritual aspects. But you know what they don't doubt?

The historicity and the reliability of the Bible when it talks about history. They don't doubt that. They don't doubt the the the the the that the Bible's been the best archaeological book ever. They found sites based on where it said it was. That is not disputed, people.

Because this guy Gurud Lumin doesn't wanna believe in Jesus, but he is an expert in the New Testament, and he said that about this creed. He said it is obvious, proven fact that there is no later than three years after Jesus was killed that this came into existence. Now now here's the thing. Gurud should then understand

that that should give him evidence that maybe you should listen to the claims that he rose from the dead. Because legends that are mythic

never happen that fast. If you already have a creed being taught to people in a city where everybody saw the crucifixion, knew where he was buried, and it starts exploding and going crazy, and you have all these eyewitnesses, this did not develop over hundreds of years.

And what they say is for legends to do that, it takes at least two generations for a myth to become a legend. At least two generations. So at least fifty, seventy five to a hundred years minimum. Minimum. Matter of fact, a a historian and a British scholar on ancient Rome, A. N. Sherwin White said this in 1844.

He did the study, says it does take at least two generations, and he even put out a challenge to all historians, all scholars. He says, find one example in history where a legend developed and distorted historical facts within three years. No one ever has.

So the argument, ladies and gentlemen, that you'll hear out there today that Jesus was a good teacher, he was this, but it was more of a legend that was developed that the gospel writers later added isn't true. Because the idea that he the body was missing and he rose from the dead was there from the very beginning. The very

beginning. That's important. And then he adds the eyewitness testimonies, because that's the only thing that adds to it. There was over five about 515 total witnesses. And once again, even skeptical scholars of Jesus' divinity do not doubt that there was 515 eyewitnesses. What they try to do is say it was a mass illusion.

Like, you know, a history illusion, but anyone of modern, if you studied illusions, that's not possible.

You don't have 500 you don't even have two people that have the exact same illusion in different times and different places. It doesn't happen. Matter of fact, experts today that are are experts on this, they'll tell you over and over again, you know what? If that actually happened, if 515 people had the same illusion and and and appearance of Jesus to them at the at the same time, but in different spots,

that would be a greater miracle and take more weirdness than Jesus just rising from the dead.

And so you had all these. And think about how many 559 witnesses. Mean, if this was court, I'd be like, alright. You know what I'm gonna do? Eyewitness testimony is the key. So if I'm trying to get Jesus acquitted of of being in the grave, and and actually he he resurrected,

I would start lining up that you would bring in the eyewitness testimony. Right? So say I line them up. I'm Laura. Okay. We're we're gonna we're gonna have these guys line up. They get fifteen minutes each time to share their story. And if you did fifteen minutes for each of them, that's seven thousand seven hundred and twenty five minutes. That's a hundred and twenty eight point seven five hours, five point three six days if it's twenty four hours straight. So let's just be more like a court. We're gonna do eight hours a day in court. So I'm gonna bring in all my eyewitness testimony. We're gonna listen to them for eight hours a day. It would take sixteen days

to hear their testimonies. And that's a proven fact that they had all these people that saw it. That's why the legend rose. You see, the the fact that that that that when you talk about why it's important that a creed happens early,

it means that the truth was known. It was already there. It didn't distort the the future later. For example, I was talking about Tony Gwen last week.

We know Tony Gwen wasn't a mythic legend, he's just a true legend, that he really was that awesome. Why? Well, we have his recorded stats. We can see the stats, but how many people in this room watched him play? That's the point. People knew the truth. They knew what was going on. In other words, ladies and gentlemen,

eyewitness testimony in early creed says that reason says risen. And then out of those witnesses and out of that, exhibit c is the extraordinary transformation of the disciples.

We know for a fact they were scattered. There wasn't as many of them. We knew that Jesus got really popular, but when he started talking about dying and people realized that who was following first said, oh, we just want the guy that's gonna get rid of our Rome problem. We want the political messiah.

But you know what? That seems dumb. People never look for a political messiah, especially not anymore. Right? Come on, people. Think with your people haven't changed much. And when they realize, oh, he's not gonna fix the economy and do all this, I'm out.

And so then he end up with a small group. And then when he died, his only his closest disciples, the the the twelve, one betrayed him, the other 11 freaked out. They were scattered, you know, Peter

actually betrays him. You have all these weird things happening. And then after he rose from the dead, he appeared. All of a sudden, they started gathering again. And then there was about a 100 as the witnesses started to gather, you had just days, just days after Jesus

was dead, within fifty days, all of a sudden, have Peter show up with a 130 believers that now it's grown back up to a 130 in just days. But then he gets up and does exactly what Jesus said, when my spirit comes on you, the holy spirit, then the mission's really gonna start rolling.

And so after all three years with Jesus, all this, now it's back to a 133, he gives one sermon, and 3,000 people say yes to Jesus, and it's off to the races. And the reason Christians got persecuted was not because they were

not speaking any truth, it wasn't because they were bad, it wasn't because it's because the truth was expanding and going so fast. The church was growing so quick. It scared the leadership. It scared them. That's why.

The truth is, like, think about it. The the the explosion of the church, the in the transform you know, this explosion of the church after this this this idea of this transformation of the disciples was crazy. It was crazy. And here's the deal, when it comes to these original disciples

and how it changed them, including James, as he listed James. That was Jesus' half brother who came during Jesus' life ministry and tried to take him home with the rest of his family because they didn't believe he was the Messiah. He did not believe in Jesus.

And then after he dies, all of a sudden, he becomes a massive follower. He wrote the book of James. What changed? The one theory people say, well, you know, they just wanted to build up, you know, get money, get influence. Would people use religion to manipulate? Maybe they did that. But here's the problem with that.

They never got any of that.

Every one of them got poor. Every one of them got persecuted. Every one of them lived the rest of their life worse off than before they followed Jesus. And out of the 11 original disciples, 10 were executed in the most horrendously brutal ways you'd ever seen, and John ended up exiled onto an island.

Nobody dies for a lie. That's a fact. That's a fact. Now people say, but well, what if you just believe it? True. There's a quote that's absolutely true

that I I add to the evidence. People will die for what they believe to be true even if it's a lie. Meaning, it could be a lie, if you believe it and you don't know, then you'll you'll die for it. But no one will die for something that they know isn't true. Well, we've established Jesus existed. He was crucified.

His tomb was empty. We've looked at the idea that the only way His tomb could be empty, if he didn't resurrect would be the disciples would need to be in on it. They would have to know beyond a shadow of a doubt this was a lie and a fabrication.

Well, if they did that, they were dumb to say it was women that were the first ones to see it. And then you say, well, it doesn't matter. They just wanted to get rich and famous. They didn't. They all got poor,

and as they died horrible deaths, not one of them cracked. Not one. Even all the Christians that didn't see Jesus in the in the Roman reads, not one recanted their faith. Not one. You tell me a movement that's totally built on a lie, that failed, that somebody is not gonna crack, and say this was a total a

debacle. This was a horribly planned, horribly executed plan to scheme people. At some point, nobody. Nobody did.

See, if they knew it was a lie, wouldn't have changed like this. They wouldn't have written women into the empty tomb if they found it. They they wouldn't have they wouldn't have lived in more poverty and suffering, and then die brutally for this lie. So ladies and gentlemen, exhibit c says, reason says risen.

And then exhibit d is the explosion of the church like I already alluded to.

What's crazy is the church exploded in Jerusalem, which used logic. The church began in Jerusalem, the site of the crucifixion, the site of where he was buried.

A site where the Romans didn't want this to happen, the Jewish leaders didn't want it to happen, and it happened anyways. And thousand believed in days like I just said. And the Roman writers, Pliny, Suetonius, Tacitus, they all confirmed that this church exploded and the early Christians devotion and expansion was amazing.

A matter of fact, when Paul wrote this, first Corinthians, the church in Jerusalem is about twenty five years after Jesus died and resurrected. The church in Jerusalem now had about a 100,000 people in it. It's funny when people say, we gotta get back to the New Testament churches where they were small.

We're like not even a tenth the size of that church. First Baptist Church of Jerusalem was a big church.

The the population of Jerusalem at that time was 300,000. Don't check your brains at the door when you when you think to believe in Jesus. It means you gotta check your brain. Guys, go study the actual facts.

And the fact is this, the reason they started getting persecuted more is they became one third of the population, and that freaked out all the leaders.

And they did it by just love, by pointing people to Jesus, by telling the truth about what really happened, and the Holy Spirit.

Reason says risen. And then the last one, exhibit e.

Exhibit e is every fulfilled prophecy written centuries before Jesus.

This is important. This will go back. This will expand. I don't have time to go on everything. Take all year, but you can go study this. The reliability of the Bible is if you really study from textual criticism all the way down, the Bible is the most reliable book ever written. It just is.

From a secular even the way we say how do you textually criticize whether it really is, it is the most reliable. We have the most copies, the most consistency, the most, and the Old Testament is the most proven because a lot of the theories to say Jesus didn't really rise from the dead is is when they go to these prophecies about him that he fulfilled,

they like to say, well, this couldn't have been written when it was written because there's no way, and or they'll change the Old Testament to say, it's just changed over the years. It got altered to match the narrative of Jesus

over the years. But then out they discovered these things called the Dead Sea Scrolls. Anybody ever heard of them? This is why it's so important. They know exactly they are able to age them. They know where it was. This Pomeran community, they know when they existed. They had buried. They found them perfectly preserved. I've seen them. They're in a in a in Jerusalem in a in a

his museum, and what they found was the entire Old Testament. And when they translated and looked at it, guess how consistent it was with the Old Testament that I have in my Bible right there now? Exactly the same. So

we have these Old Testament documents found that we know when they're written five hundred to a thousand years before Christ was ever born, and there's 300 prophecies, and he met every one of them. I wanna show you a chart of just eight.

Just eight common ones. Eight ones that you would know, because let's just just just take a manageable number for the for the sake of the jury and the time that we have. Eight of them. Born a virgin. Written in July, Matthew talks about it. Born in Bethlehem,

July. You start to say, well, that's anybody could yeah. But you start adding them together, and they get kinda ridiculous. Enter Jerusalem on a donkey. I mean, Jesus could have known that and just entered on a donkey. You could say that. Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, that starts to get weird.

And then you have but here's the next two are weird. Hands and feet pierced, describing how he'd be pierced in the hands and feet,

and then Isaiah talks about or Psalms talks about no. Isaiah talks about crucified with criminals. It starts talking about this idea of being crucified, hands and feet, pierced. Didn't use the exact word crucifix cruc yeah, crucification because that's a thousand BC and 700 BC. The Roman Empire didn't exist,

and they invented crucifixion. That was not a known way to kill someone at all, and it talks about hanging on a tree, hands and feet pierced. They are describing a crucifixion before it ever existed by an empire that didn't even exist, and it is proven that was written when it was written. It gets weird.

Buried in a rich man's tomb, Joseph of Arimathea. It talks about in Isaiah 700 BC. Resurrection predicted, Psalm sixteen ten, a thousand BC. They didn't even believe in resurrection back then. Guys, that's just eight. There's 292 more, and he meets them all.

Peter Stoner, a mathematician, did the odds on just one guy doing all eight of these. One guy having like I said, Dead Sea Scrolls says this was called out before Jesus. And so one just the odds of just those eight is one in 10 to the seventeenth power. That's you got one chance

in a one with 17 zeros. You're getting pretty close to stinking doctor strange looking at at at Iron Man going. The one chance to save the universe. And that's just eight of them. You know how what one in 10 to seventeenth power odds are? He

also went on to explain. Okay. I'll give you a visual illustration. He goes, imagine the state of Texas. Texas is huge, isn't it? Matter of fact, I have a picture of Texas, a map of everything that fits in Texas.

Texas fits three Texases. It fits The United States, Italy, Australia, and hey, throw in Greenland up there. No. That's not true. Because that has three Texases fitting in Texas.

The whole point is we all know Texas is big. And what Peterson said is one in 10 to 70 powers, you could cover the entire state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars.

You can then get in a helicopter, fly anywhere you want, pick a spot to land, stick your hand down in there, and pull out the one the one silver dollar that's got the mark on it that this is the one. That's just for those eight. You don't have to check your brain to know that Jesus is who he said he is.

Matter of fact, even beyond that, last night, I was just messing around. I asked Chet GPT.

Is Jesus actually does the evidence show that, you know, you have the whole Internet, you have everything to study out there, is Jesus most likely who he said he is? And it said, yes. It said based on the odds, the the the side the the evidence historically,

the crossed reference, the the proof of this, all the things being likely, it is more most likely that Jesus is the Messiah. So at least our future robot overlords believe in Jesus.

I'm just telling you from a logical perspective. That's all it does. It analyzes the data, looks at all the information out there, places it out there, and analyzed it, and said logically and consistently, it makes more sense that Jesus did rise from the dead and he is who he said he is. So that's it. Reason says risen.

I rest my faith. How about you? How about you? But

here's why this is critical. If this is true, what are you doing with it? You still a skeptic? Are you a Christian that's been not bold in your faith because you're like, yeah, I know. My faith is kinda blind. People make a point. You don't have to be intimidated.

The nice thing is you don't have to worry about what's going on politically or globally because this proves that if Jesus is who he said he is, and he rose from the dead, then you don't have to worry about who's president, who's this, when you know who the king is.

We can live confidently and comfortably in trusting him. But for those of you that are questioning this, those of you that never put your faith in Christ, I am telling you from a logical forget. I didn't even I I read a little bit of our scripture. Scripture is reliable, but I said I could show you from logic and reason without it

that you're being duped if you don't accept this. And the only reason you're pushing against it is the same reason the Romans did, the same reason the religious leaders did, the same reason a lot of Israel did, the same reason any of us does,

is I don't wanna be bothered with Jesus. I'd rather do my own thing and figure out my own problems and and get to what I think life will work. That's called sin. That's the problem we have. We all are born into being that way. And it's like this.

Haltford Hitchcock once made a TV kind of movie special, and it was about a woman that was sent to life in prison for murdering her husband. She did it. She knew it, but she wanted out. She didn't wanna spend her life in prison. And she's like, I'm gonna figure out a way.

I'm gonna figure out to to make I'm gonna get out of here. And as she drove into the prison, the show showed she looked over and she saw an old man burying a casket in a graveyard that was for the prison. That's where the prisoners that die go.

And she got a plan. She went to this old man, befriended him, started talking to him, found out he had cataracts, couldn't afford to can fix. She goes, hey, I got money, scrolled away, and I will give it to you to get your cataracts fixed if you help me escape.

So a plan was formulated. What she was to do is whenever a prisoner died, they'd ring a bell. There was a little viewing plate. They had a casket where they had them sitting in there waiting. They'd bury him the next day. And he says, when you're on your out your your free time, wherever you're out there, the next time you hear the bell, you gotta sneak in there and climb in the casket.

You'll get buried, but after dark, I'll come dig you up, and I'll get you out of there. So she she does it. Bell rings a few weeks later. She climbs in. Can you imagine that? Just climbing. She had a few matches, but she didn't wanna waste them. She just lays in there. Anybody claustrophobic?

Imagine claustrophobic with a dead body,

and she's sitting in there waiting. After a while, she feels it rolling. She feels it gets lowered. She hears the dirt landing on top. She knows she's buried. She figured it'd be a few hours because the time of the day they buried, she says she'll probably come back in a couple hours. It'll take them an hour or so, so it should be about three hours. Three hours goes by. Nothing. Four hours. Five hours. It's starting to get really hot. It's really gross.

She finally just lights a match because it's just dark, and she looks over, and she sees who's buried there with her. It's the old man.

That's the end of the special.

Think about it. To know that you put your faith in somebody that can't save you, that they're dead, and now you're gonna be dead? What are you putting your faith in? Because Jesus, if you lit a match, He's not in His grave. But you know who is? Confucius, Mohammed, Buddha, Joseph Smith. They're all in their graves.

They can't get you out. You can't get yourself out because you're already buried We're already sinners. That's what baptism is that we watched. It's a declaration

that Jesus was buried and dead, but he came back. So our old self is buried, and when we put our faith, we come back. Not just spiritually with our old self, but physically as well for eternal life. And reason says risen. Reason says surrender your faith to Jesus, and you'll be risen too.

And how you do that is you confess and you profess. You confess that just like that woman, I have committed sin. I am in this prison. I am in death. But only by handing that over to Jesus who came and lived and died for our sins and then rose to the from the dead, defeating death so we can have life,

you hand him your sin and you take his hand for your life. That's what it is. 656 people did this last week. I've I've made the offer again this week, and we've had several 100 already again. Maybe it's your turn.

So can you just close your eyes? I'm gonna close this out in prayer. And I wanna give some of you an opportunity to just say, hey, reason says risen. I'm gonna put my hand up and take Jesus' hand. If you're ready for that now, you see that now, you wanna put your faith in Jesus now, I'm gonna ask you to do that. Hold your hand up. Hold your hand up like you're giving him your sin and you're taking his hand. I see those hands going up all over. Just hold it up.

Nice and high. And then let's pray together. Just pray something like this, but make it your own words. Jesus, thank you that you died for me because I am a sinner. I've gone my own way. I've done my own thing. I've tried to figure it out, and I know that that leads to death.

But right now, in the best way I know how, I'm lifting my hand to you and saying thank you for taking my sin. Now take my hand because I put my faith in you, that you died for me, but you came back to life.

And now help understand that love. Help me to live from that. Help me to hold your hand the rest of my life and walk out what it means to live from the love that you gave me to give me this life that now I can live with you. Thank you for that.

Pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Wow. Ton of hands all up over the room again. Amen. Amen. Thanks so much for joining us online today. Let us know if we can help you in any way. And don't forget to follow us on social media to stay connected with everything happening here at Rock Point.