- It was a wonderful Jewish couple that was from New York City, and they decided that this was the year that they were going to travel to the Holy Land or Israel and go on a tour, much like the ones that we do here. So they saved up for this trip of a lifetime and they ended up flying into Tel Aviv and they began their tour. They had a wonderful Jewish tour guide that covered all of the Biblical sites, had a magnificent time. They ended up in Jerusalem. They were walking around the Mount of Olives, actually they had walked up the Mount of Olives and while they were doing so, her husband began to have some severe heart pains. He actually collapsed because of a massive heart attack. It was a pretty tragic situation for them. So the long and short of it is she began to make some plans to fly him back, which you can imagine is pretty expensive to the United States, however, her Jewish tour guide actually contacted his Rabbi in Israel and talked to him about what had happened. So he agreed to come by and talk with her and just be with her in the midst of such a tragic loss. He said, "Look, here's what I'll do." Because really it's the dream of many Jewish people to go to the Holy Land, but also if they would die, to be buried on the Mount of Olives in a Jewish cemetery. And so he said, "I can arrange for this to happen "even though you're a U.S. citizen, "I can really make some connections here "and we'd be able to get you buried "here on the Mount of Olives in the Jewish cemetery." She said, "Well let me think about it." So she went back to the hotel that night and then the next morning he contacted her asked if she would like to do this, plus it would save a whole lot of money. And she said, "Well I decided not to keep him here." And he said, "Really? Why is that the case?" She said, "Well while we were on tour, "what I had heard was there was a man "who died in Jerusalem. "He rose three days later "and I simply cannot take that chance with my husband." One of my favorites. Quite frankly, the resurrection of Jesus Christ changes absolutely everything. The reason why we had baptisms today that correspond with our topic is just a God thing how he always arranges these deals, is because they have experienced really the new transforming life that comes because of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ and it is the hope of all who have trusted Christ as Savior that we will experience a physical resurrection. We are in the midst of a series called The Unshakeable Truth. And if you haven't been here over the past several weeks, I would encourage you to go online, you can check out the messages. But today we're gonna talk about the essential truth of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. We want to talk about why it's important to our faith. And then we're actually gonna talk about some facts, some evidence of his physical resurrection to equip you to be able to have wonderful conversations in our culture today about what you believe regarding the physical resurrection of Christ. Next week, we're gonna come back, we're actually gonna talk about why we do not fear death, and how we live in light of this incredible truth we're gonna unpack today. So here's what I want us to focus on today. We believe the truth that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and on the third day bodily rose, that's important, to life again in order to transform our lives and secure our eternal salvation. I want you to take your notes out that you were handed on your way in. If you're new with us it's an easy way to write down some of the things that we talk about here at Rockpoint. And we've given you most of the outline. Grab a pen. You can also take out a Bible. Whether it's the one you brought in here, your electronic version, you can take the Bible that is in the chair rack in front of you, I want you to turn just to one passage today, it's 1 Corinthians 15 and locate verse 12. It is page 961 in your chair Bible. Most of the verses that I am going to refer to are found up on the screen except for this passage. We're gonna have a chance to look at it in just a moment. But we want to begin by taking a look at the reasons the resurrection is important. The first one is this. It is essential for our salvation and physical, that's important, physical immortality. Now when we look into the second half of your Bible or we often times refer to it as The New Testament. Whenever resurrection is mentioned it always refers to a physical, bodily resurrection. Not spiritual in terms of a body, when the body's involved it means physical. And the reason that's important is because we're gonna find out in just a second there was some ideas that were going on back in the 1st century that was based on Greek thought, whereby the body disintegrated and the spirit kinda exited into some blissful experience. Well that's based on Greek mythology and in the 1st century whenever the word resurrection was used it always meant a physical resurrection. And it is very, very clear not only in the 1st century, but also throughout The New Testament, when Jesus is referred to as arising from the grave, it means that something happened to him that has never happened before. It's why Paul the Apostle who wrote most of the second half of your Bible in The New Testament, he was in the city of Athens, Greece and as he was having a conversation with these Greek individuals who believed that the body was destroyed and the spirit went off into never never land as part of Greek mythology, that's what got them in all kinds of trouble. So for those of you that are new to the Christian faith and you read through books like the Book of Acts, which is the history of the church, and you get to Acts 17 and all of a sudden Paul starts talking about the resurrection and people in Athens are coming unglued, the reason is because he was talking about how Jesus Christ who was fully God actually arose with a physical body. That was brand new to them. They had not heard that before. So it is essential for our salvation and physical immortality. Why is that the case? Let me point you to Romans 4:22 and 25. It's up on the screen, you can just write down the reference when we do this. I'm gonna read them when they're up on the screen. He says that is why his faith, he's talking about Abraham, he's an individual in the Old Testament, and he had a right relationship with God because of his faith in God. He trusted God. He says that is why his, Abraham's, faith was counted to him as righteousness. He was made right with God. But the words, it was counted to him, were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also, you and me. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, notice this, who was delivered up for our trespasses, that's his crucifixion, and raised for our justification. The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is critical to and I being made right with God. As a matter of fact, it is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that's God's stamp of approval that accepted the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ on your behalf. For those of you that might be new today, you're new to Rockpoint, you're new to the faith, let me explain it this way. You and I are declared sinners. We're sinners because we do not meet God's perfect standard, we miss his mark, and we do so by the things we do and the things we say. As a matter of fact, sin is all about the I, the middle letter, in the word sin. And by our attitudes and our motives and our actions, we're always putting ourselves first. That's considered sin. Just like when a child disobeys mom and dad, which is a sin, it's in the Ten Commandments by the way, they deserve to be punished because I'm not perfect by my attitudes and my actions, I deserve the consequences and I'm punished. And God says that punishment is not just a little one, it's for all eternity. However, he provided a substitute and that was Jesus Christ. He's the only one that's ever lived a perfect life. He's the only one that could actually be accepted by God in full payment for your sin if he would willingly give his life and he did. He willingly gave his life in full payment for your sins so that he was punished, not me. So that I'm no longer guilty because of the things that I have done. And when I accept that I am a sinner and I trust Jesus Christ as my savior and my Lord, trusting in him alone for eternal life, then I am forgiven. I believe he died for me and rose from the grave so that I can find forgiveness of sin. The Bible says that I am justified or just as if I had never sinned. I'm made right with God. Now, here's what Paul says in Romans 10:9. He says, "if you confess with your mouth "that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart "that God raised him from the dead", that's physical, "you will be saved. "For with the heart one believes and is justified", made right with God, "and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." In other words, we almost have a moment, a moment in time, where we finally come to grips with the fact that we are sinners and we need a savior, and we turn to Jesus Christ and we trust him as Savior and Lord. And it is because he paid the price for my sin on the cross, he was raised to new life that he broke the power of sin and death so that I might have physical new life one day and also spiritual life with him. And it's all because of the cross and the resurrection. Now, you're already in 1 Corinthians 15, so now let's go there. There was this crazy idea that came into churches. Some of you might be new to church and you're thinking, "Man there's a lot of crazy "ideas in those churches." So yeah it can happen and here's one of them. They actually believed that when you died your body was destroyed and your spirit went into bliss. Paul says can't happen because of the physical resurrection. Look down at verse 12. He says, "Now if Christ is proclaimed "as raised from the dead, "how can some of you say there is no "resurrection of the dead? "But if there is no resurrection of the dead, "then not even Christ has been raised." If you don't come back to life physically because you believe in Christ then Christ didn't come back to life. It's all or nothing, it's not either or. And that's because he came to break the power of death, both physical death and spiritual death, which means separation from God forever. He came to gain total victory. Now look at verse 14. "And if Christ has not been raised, "then our preaching is in vain "and your faith is in vain. "We are even found to be misrepresenting God "because we testified about God "that he raised Christ whom he did not raise, "if it is true that the dead are not raised. "For if the dead are not raised, "not even Christ has been raised. "And if Christ has not been raised, "your faith is futile "and you are still in your sins. "And those also who have fallen asleep in Christ "have perished if in Christ we have "hope in this life only, "we are of all people most to be pitied." Paul says five things here. He says, first, if you don't believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, our faith is useless. He said earlier it's the way we find justification. It's the way we are made right. Why? Because the resurrection proves that God accepted the perfect sacrifice for our sin, Jesus Christ. It's the vindication that his sacrifice was the final sacrifice for your sin. We can find forgiveness now. Number two, we're still in our sins. Number three, our departed loved ones are lost. People that have believed before us and already died. Number four, Paul and the Apostles are false witnesses. They're running around the world telling people that Jesus is alive. In other words, they're lying. And number five, we are to be pitied more than all men because we have placed our entire eternal destiny on this central issue, Christ died and he rose again. And he did so to break the power of death. Paul says it this way in 2 Timothy 1:10, "And which now has been manifested through "the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus", notice this, "who abolished death and brought life "and immortality to light through the gospel." He abolished physical death and spiritual separation from God forever for all those who are willing to believe he died for their sin and rose from the grave. It's essential. His bodily resurrection is essential and this is another piece I wanted to talk about and so put your thinking caps on and stay with me okay. On this one it is so important. It's one we often times overlook. The resurrection of Jesus Christ physically is essential because Jesus Christ is now in heaven actually continuing his ministry for me so that I can be saved for all eternity. See, Jesus had to be a human being to be my representative in every way, both in death and also in life. Now, in order to understand this we turn to a book in the New Testament, second half of your Bible, we don't know who the author is, but it's called Hebrews. I'm gonna give you a couple of verses that are really important to think about. In Chapter 2 Verse 17 here's what it says, therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, it's talking about Jesus here, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation. Don't get lost in that word if you weren't with us a couple of weeks ago. It means to satisfy God and to satisfy his wrath. He says he became our merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation, to satisfy God for our sins, the sins of the people. Now what we find out in the book of Hebrews in Chapter 5 Verse 1 is that every high priest is chosen among men to represent us. What's a high priest? Well, when you get into the Old Testament and you look at the Jewish nation, they had a group of individuals called priests, and the high priests represented the people one time a year on a time that's called Yom Kippur and he would take the blood from a sacrifice, they actually performed animal sacrifices then, he would go into the very inner part of the temple and it was called the Holy of Holies and he would sprinkle blood in there on the Ark of Covenant. The reason is this, one time a year this sacrifice was honored by God, the high priest is the only one who can go in there as the representative on behalf of the people so that that sacrifice was a temporary covering for sin so that God could live with the people who were sinful like you and me. And it was the high priest that would represent that sacrifice, he would be what's called the mediator between God and the people with the sacrifice so that God could be with people who were sinful. The reason is because he's Holy, he's righteous. He can't have any contact with sin. Now what this is saying is this, that Jesus Christ was incarnated as a human being. He was fully God but he was fully human. Now it's important because I think often times people may think today that Jesus Christ was a man and then he died and then he became divine and that's a lie, that's not true. Jesus Christ added his humanity to his divinity fully God, fully man, and here's the phrase I want you to remember, forever. That's important to what we're talking about here. Never to be changed. Fully God and fully man. He lived a perfect life, he died as full payment for my sin, he rose physically so that as the resurrected living Lord of the universe, fully human, fully God, he continues to be my human, yet still fully divine, my human, yet divine, high priest before God continually in heaven physically offering his payment for my sin on my behalf. That means my salvation is eternally secured because it's based on the perfect work of Christ. I keep sinning, you keep sinning, but his death was once for all and it covers us past, present and future. No matter what our sin, he keeps that before the Father as a permanent covering for my sin so that my sin is washed away based on the perfect work of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7:20 says his role as high priest goes on forever. Hebrews 7:25 says this, consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always, notice this, lives to make intercession for him. Lives means he's physically alive. He conquered both sin and death. Paul says it this way in 1 Timothy 2:5, he says, "For there is one God, "and there is one mediator," remember he's the high priest as I said, "between God and men", notice this, "the man Christ Jesus." Why? Because he's physically alive representing me. Only in becoming human could he identify with us fully and only in becoming human could he represent us, continuing as my high priest. Let's go into a couple other reasons why it proves creation will be liberated from bondage. Sin has affected everything around us if you haven't noticed, you and everybody else and everything. That's why Paul says in Romans 8:22 and 23, he says, "For we know that the whole creation "has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. "And not only the creation, "but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit "grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, "the redemption of our bodies." That means we're going to experience a physical resurrection. Everything you saw pictured in Baptism pictures a greater spiritual truth that these individuals now have a relationship with God, but one day they will be resurrected as Jesus Christ was. That's our hope. That's the point. Next is addresses false doctrine. It's another reason why we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As I told you, there's a lot of goofy stuff that sometimes enters into church and that happened in the 1st century. So John, who was the youngest disciple, became an Apostle for the faith, he wrote a couple of books in your New Testament. One bears his name, John the Gospel, and the other is 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. Here's what he says in one of those short little books called 1 John 4:2, it's towards the end of the New Testament, he says, "By this you know the Spirit of God, "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ "has come in the flesh is from God." The word has come actually means he came in the flesh and continues to be in the flesh. That's the idea, but it's an immortal flesh, it's a resurrected physical life okay. You're gonna be able to see him, touch him, be with him just like he was after the resurrection. Major upgrades on his body, okay, we're gonna get those too, but it means he's physically alive. How about this next one. It confirms that Jesus and the Apostles told the truth. Jesus Christ claimed he was God in John 8:58. He said in 11:25 of the same book, John, that "I am the resurrection and the life". He said in Matthew 12:40 he said, "For just as Jonah", so he confirms the fact that the story in the Old Testament Jonah's true, he says, "For just as Jonah was three days "and three nights in the belly of the great fish, "so will the Son of Man be three days "and three nights in the heart of the earth." He's claiming that he's going to come back to life again. It proves his deity. It proves that everything he said was true. And it wasn't just Jesus, it was Peter, it was Paul. I'll just give you one example. In Peter, Acts 2:23 and 24, after the resurrection he stands up in front of thousands of people on the temple mound in Jerusalem and he says "this Jesus delivered up "according to the definite plan "and foreknowledge of God, you crucified." He's in Jerusalem. "You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, "God raised him up." He's talking about a physical resurrection there. "Loosening the pangs of death, "he conquered it because it was not possible "for him to be held by it." He gives total and complete victory. So if you don't believe it, then you believe that Jesus and the Apostles were liars. Now let's begin to talk about the facts of the resurrection that support our faith. Let me say this real quick. We'll spend the rest of our time giving you seven facts. I want to say this, for those of you that are familiar with this, for those of you that have been a part of Rockpoint, you've been part of another church, for those of you that have just put your faith and trust in Jesus, I mean you are ready to go and you wanna go around the world and tell everybody about God's good news, let me give you just one word of caution. Whenever you talk with somebody about your faith in Jesus Christ, begin to share your story, the tendency is man, I'm just gonna put the whole truck on 'em right now. We're gonna dump everything right there, totally convince them that they gotta do all of this. Well, here's what I want you to do, just stop at that moment and resist it and just begin to ask a few questions about what they believe. That's important because you're beginning to establish a relationship with them, plus you're letting them begin to share with you their story and what they actually believe and then the facts that I'm giving you right now can be sprinkled in depending on where they are at. Now let me start out with this, Simon Greenleaf, Dr. Simon Greenleaf, he was the Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University. He was responsible for, at least partly responsible for the rise of Harvard Law School. He said this, "According to the laws of "legal evidence used in a court of law, "there is more evidence for the historical fact "of the resurrection of Jesus Christ "than for just about any other event in history." So let's take a look at them. Fact one, the Roman seal was broken. Now you have to understand this. When the stone was rolled in front of the tomb where Jesus was laid, they would take a piece of string, they would attach it across the seal, or across where the crack was, the stone was right in front of the tomb, they would take a piece of string and they would attach it to the stone with one glob of clay and actually to the side of the tomb on the other side with another clump of clay. And then they would take the insignet ring that had the seal, it's like the signature, of the Roman governor Pilate. He's the guy that gave the order to crucify Jesus. It would be stamped on both sides. That seal or that piece of string was never to be broken. If it was and you did it without their approval, you would face capital punishment. So right away you're realizing this is a serious deal, nobody's just gonna walk in there and probably steal his body because of this. Fact two, there was a tomb that was empty. It's totally undeniable. If you go with us I'll show you which one I think it is. They found two tombs over there that are more than likely the one that Christ was in. But Jesus followers and his critics agreed that there was no body. They never found it, there's not been a shred of evidence to indicate otherwise. And it's fascinating because the disciples, the individuals who were cowards before the resurrection, we'll talk about this in a minute, all of a sudden got incredible boldness and it was in Jerusalem, not Athens, not Rome, not Istanbul, they were stayed right in Jerusalem 40 days after the resurrection. Clearly enough time to find that body. This isn't New York City. And they stood up on the temple mound, this is ground zero, the epicenter of everything God's done in the past and everything He's gonna do in the future, Peter stands up on the temple mound and he starts proclaiming that Jesus Christ is alive. They would've easily been able to produce a body, right, and that would've gotten rid of everything. The tomb was empty. And then 3,000 people gave their lives to Jesus Christ. Both Roman historians like Joe Cephus clearly believe in the resurrection. They believe he came back from life again, they report it, so it's even outside of the Bible. I don't know if he actually believed it himself, but he reported that people did. The other thing I want you to consider is this, unfortunately back in the 1st century, women were not held in as high regard as they are today. And so according to Jewish law unfortunately in the 1st century, they were not given legal status to be a witness in a court of law except for in extenuating circumstances. So think about this, they're starting a brand new movement, why on earth would somebody concoct a false story and start with witnesses who would not even be recognized in a court of law and then portray the disciples who were a bunch of cowards and they actually reported it, running around hiding behind closed doors, and they were the individuals that would actually be the heroes of the faith in the Book of Acts. Why would you start a story that way? It would've been easily not believed. If they were gonna do this, they would not have started with the women if they concocted this story, and they certainly would've portrayed the disciples as the heroes of the faith. They only reason why they reported the facts as they were is because it is all true. People over the years have put together stories regarding where's this body. As a matter of fact one is found in Matthew chapter 28 starting in verse 11, where the Jewish officials actually went to the tomb, because it's just a short walk, they would've been able to see all the evidence, realizing that wait a minute, the guards that came and talked to us and told us that something significant happened really did happen, these guys didn't fall asleep, which I'll mention in just a minute. And so they told the Roman guards a lie and said "Here's what we want you to do. "We want you to go around and tell people "that the disciples stole the body", and because of what I'm gonna mention in just a minute, "if you get in trouble with Pilate, the governor, "we'll pay him off." So now let's talk about fact three, the Roman guard, and they were on guard. The Romans that were guarding the tomb according to all the historical accounts that are there, there was probably anywhere from four to 16. It was a day/night watch, so it would probably would've been 16. They rotated in shifts. Four would be awake, the others would sleep. Four would guard the tomb, the other 12 would be in semi-circle around the tomb with their feet out, their heads back so that when someone came to perhaps maybe steal the body or do something they'd be able to jump up and fight them off. This was a Roman fighting force. This was not a ragtag army. And what you need to understand is that if they fell asleep, okay, there are several problems. The first one is this, if you believe the lie in Matthew 28 that the Jewish officials started back then that they fell asleep, then the question you have to ask yourself which is pretty obvious is "how did they know it was the disciples "that came and stole the body "because they were asleep?" Okay that's pretty obvious. Second reason why they didn't fall asleep is because if they did fall asleep they would experience capital punishment. Pilate would kill 'em. See you just couldn't fall asleep on the job. So if you're at work and you're nodding your head in your office during the week, just think, if I were a Roman soldier, I would lose my life for this. So believe me they probably had massive amounts of Red Bull or something, I don't know, but they had to stay awake. Then the other thing is just amazing to me is if you believe they fell asleep and somehow the disciples came in and stole the body, they would've had to have moved this massive stone, which I'm gonna mention in a minute, make all kinds of noise and somehow they would've never woken up in that process. Okay, it's just totally illogical. Well, how about the transformation of the disciples. This is absolutely remarkable. These guys were cowards before the crucifixion. They were running scared, they were hiding behind closed doors. Peter is the only one, we always knock Peter, Peter was the only one that displayed any sense of courage as Jesus was being arrested. He pulled out a sword. However, he was a terrible swordsman because he tried to cut the guy's head off and just got his ear. Okay, he just missed. And yet he's the guy that denied Jesus. They knew that they would experience death and suffering, and yet after the resurrection because of what happened, because they know they saw the body of Jesus Christ alive, they touched him, they were with him, I mean you had skeptics like Thomas and they ate with him. They stood up in Jerusalem where the place where he was crucified and actually said, "He is alive." It's amazing and there are multiple accounts over and over of physical interaction, there was total transformation. How about this one, fact five, the stone was moved. Now John in the Gospel of John 20:1 he actually says, "the stone was picked up "and moved away from the tomb." And just so you know, follow me visually here, there was the tomb and then there's this massive round stone and it was on an incline, they only way they kept it up away from the actual entrance was they put a rock in front of the stone wheel and they would pull it and then it would roll down in front of the actual tomb. Guess how much that stone weighed? Anywhere from 1/2 to two tons. Now if it was completely picked up and moved away, that obviously tells you that it was miraculous. Because if you had a group of disciples that decided to come in there and try and move it up, they would've made a whole lot of noise and the guards would've found them, would've easily been discovered. Now the stone was removed but it was removed not so that Jesus could get out, it was removed so that we could look in and see that his body wasn't there and that the tomb was empty right. Well, not exactly. The tomb wasn't empty, there were grave clothes that were there. And that's the next fact. When Jesus died, it says in John that Nicodemus brought 75 pounds of spices. And what they would do is they would take his body, what they did with Jesus, they would've wrapped him in the cloth with 75 pounds of spices in between the wrappings around this body and they would've pinned his arms right next to his body. And it does two things. See there's a theory that is out there that it's called the swoon theory that Jesus didn't really die. It's almost funny to say, but he almost died but he didn't. You've seen Princess Bride, okay, but he didn't really, really, really die. That's the guy that says, "marriage is a beautiful" anyway we'll stop there. And somehow when he got into the cold tomb he resuscitated himself. Think about it, he was totally wrapped up, okay, and John says that when he looked in the wrappings around Jesus' body were lying on the stone slab as if Jesus passed right through, it wasn't a mess. And the covering over his head was neatly folded up like your linen sheets off to the side okay. So if Jesus didn't die then somehow he was placed in a tomb, his arms are pinned to his side, he didn't have a razor blade with him, so I don't know how on earth he got out of that. 75 pounds of hardened spices all over his body, figured out how to get that stuff off of him and then he's gonna neatly take the top of his head wrapping off, fold it up, put it over to the side and then there's no handles on the inside. He's gonna actually get the stone and physically move it up and then he's gonna run out of the tomb naked. Come on. It's totally improbable. And second, it tells us that no one stole the body because if they stole the body they would not have left the burial cloths there. His body would have started decomposition. There's no way they're gonna take them off, he would've stunk. So if they stole the body, and I mean even if they tried to take them off, they would've shredded them. They wouldn't have been there. And finally, the last one is this, the eyewitness accounts. This is absolutely overwhelming. They observed Jesus' death, he really did die, and you have repeated, repeated statements historically that can prove the fact that they saw the resurrected living Jesus Christ. Even extra biblical evidence from the 1st century, historians like I said, Joe Cephus, point out the fact that Jesus Christ rose and no credible scholar Christian or not denies the fact that Jesus Christ died and therefore it presupposes well you gotta believe he came back to life again based on the overwhelming evidence. There were women that saw him first. As I said, they didn't even meet the legal precedent so it had to be true. There were other individuals who were skeptics like Thomas that were physically able to touch him, he appeared to people for 40 days. As a matter of fact by the time we get to 1 Corinthians, Paul the Apostle writes for us in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus Christ died, he was buried and he rose from the grave. 23 years after his resurrection and the verses I just referred to are verses three to five in Chapter 15 that was based on an early Christian hymn were by the early Christians right after his resurrection began to proclaim it and he recorded it in 1 Corinthians. It's absolutely incontrovertible proof that Christ is alive. Plus Paul. Paul, I mean this guy was a hostile witness wasn't he? He put people like you and me in jail. And yet he believed that Christ came back to life again. So here's two things I want you take out of here. First is this, I want you to be equipped to have intelligent conversations about your faith. That's why we covered this today. Next week we'll come back to another topic in this one about the fear of death, but I wanted you to be able to have intelligent conversations that your faith is built on fact. Second, if you are here today and you've never put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, I want to give you that opportunity just like the people here. And if you come to that point in your life where you're willing to admit that you're a sinner and you need a savior, and you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin and rose from the grave then tell him. And tell him that you want to trust in him as your Savior and your Lord. You can do that in your own way with your own words but the key is "God, I'm a sinner, "I believe Jesus you died for me "and physically rose from the grave "and I now accept the gift of your death on my behalf "and I trust you as my Savior and I want to follow you." And then if you believe that and you believe it's true and a lot of this stuff was like yeah, I get it, I get it, I believe it, thank you very much, then why aren't you telling somebody about it? Because it's the only hope they have. Let's pray. Father thank you for who you are. Thank you for your love for us. I ask, Lord, that you would guide us as we leave this place to walk out of here with a sense of confidence that you are Savior, that you are Lord, that we follow you and we want to tell others about you because of what you've done on our behalf and that you are coming again and we need to be ready. It's in Christ name we pray. Amen.