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[0:00] Well, we're on the fourth question of the Christianity Explored.! The first was, who is Jesus? The second was, why did he come?

[0:11] The third was, why did he die? And last time we saw that this eternal Son of God, who's both God and man, came into the world to save sinners from hell and the judgment of God upon our sin.

[0:26] And he did it by dying on the cross as a substitute in the place of his people. Now, the question then that we come to today is number four.

[0:38] Did Jesus rise from the dead? How do most biographies end? With the death of the one that's being written about.

[0:56] Isn't that true? That you have so many chapters and then it comes to an end. Even if there's part one and part two, there's still an end.

[1:07] And if it was a good person that was having the biography written about them, it's sad because their life came to an end. And we'd like to have read more. If it was a bad person, we're kind of glad that it came to an end.

[1:18] But all biographies end with the person's death. There's nothing more to say about them. But none of the four gospel accounts of Jesus end with his death.

[1:32] That should startle us if we know anything about literature and biographies. And when we come to the gospels to find that it doesn't end with Jesus' death.

[1:44] Luke and the other three gospels all testify to the fact that Jesus Christ physically arose from the dead. And this is one way that Christianity separates itself from all other religions.

[1:58] Our hero, indeed the Bible's hero, is not a dead figure of history. But he is the ever living son of God. Yes, crucified, dead, and buried, but now risen and alive and well.

[2:13] So, as we're exploring Christianity, we cannot escape the fact that the resurrection of Jesus is no small matter in this whole religion called Christianity.

[2:28] In fact, Paul calls it one of the matters of first importance. It's one of those most important things about the gospel. In fact, Paul goes on to say that the entire Christian religion hangs on the truthfulness of this claim.

[2:47] That Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And so he'll say if Jesus is not risen, as he said, then Jesus is no good man.

[2:58] He's no good teacher. He's rather a liar. He's a deceiver. He's a scam artist. If he's not risen, then Christian preachers like myself are liars and false witnesses because we're saying that he did rise.

[3:13] And our preaching is useless. And so is your faith in this Jesus. If he's not risen, you're still lost in your sin. You're still without hope and to be pitied more than all men.

[3:24] And if Jesus is not risen and there is no resurrection, then let us eat and drink and be merry. For tomorrow we die. And so we see that it's the pin upon which all the claims of Jesus are either vindicated and proven true or it's the card that falls.

[3:43] And the whole house of cards of Christianity comes crashing down with its false claim. Such is the importance of the resurrection of Jesus to the whole of Christian teaching.

[3:57] Now, why is that? Why is the resurrection so critical to all that Christianity teaches? Why does falsehood at this point ruin the whole teaching of Christianity?

[4:16] What do you think? Dare? He's not God. Okay? We have no hope.

[4:28] Roger? So the sacrifice that he made, his death on the cross was not acceptable to the Father. He leaves him in the dead, leaves him in the grave.

[4:43] Can you trust anything he said? Can you trust anything he said? If he didn't rise, why not? Because he said he would. Not once, not twice, but many times he claimed that he would rise again.

[4:59] And that's why this is such a critical issue. The credibility of Jesus is on the line. Is he the true son of God or is he a liar? Now, turn to chapter 9 and verse 20 in Luke's gospel.

[5:15] And let's just see how Jesus prepared his disciples ahead of time, not only about his death, but also telling them that he would rise again.

[5:27] So chapter 9, verse 20 and verses 20 to 22. Josh, do you have that? Well, what about you, he asked?

[5:40] What do you say, man? Peter answered, the Christ of God. Jesus strictly warned him not to tell this to anyone. And he said, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and the teachers of the law.

[5:56] And he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Okay. The third day be raised to life. Notice the must. There is a must about Jesus' resurrection.

[6:10] It's as must, a divine necessity as his death. He must die, but he also must rise again. Or this whole mission of saving sinners is a failure.

[6:24] All right, over to chapter 18. Getting closer to his death, we find him drawing them aside to prepare them once again.

[6:38] 1831. Yes, Dennis, it's good to see you. And do you have eyes to read this morning? We're praising God for that surgery on Wednesday.

[6:49] All right, let's hear, Dennis. We're reading 31 to 34. Then he took the twelve side and told them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written about, written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.

[7:04] For he will be handed over to the Gentiles, and he will be mocked and insulted, spit on. And after they flog him, they will kill him, and he will rise on the third day. They understood none of these things.

[7:17] The meaning of the saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. Again, very clear in words they should have understood.

[7:30] He will rise again. Notice, this was not something new that Jesus was teaching. It was not a novel thing for him to say that the Messiah, the Christ, will rise again.

[7:44] Rather, he says, the Old Testament prophets. So, part one of your Bible, hundreds and even thousand years earlier, had said that the coming Christ would rise again.

[7:56] So, it had been foretold. Jesus reminds them of this. That this is not new with me. The Old Testament spoke of it.

[8:06] And yet, they did not understand the meaning was hidden from them. And part of what hid it from them was their own prejudice and ideas about the coming Messiah.

[8:18] Certainly, Messiah, who is to bring salvation and is to set us free and to rule and reign over all things forever. He can't die.

[8:28] And so, though it was foretold by the prophets and Jesus, they did not understand what this idea of resurrection and rising again meant.

[8:42] Now, this was to be the ultimate sign, then, that Jesus is the Christ. That he has divine authority. As Jesus traveled around Palestine, he was accredited by God by doing many miracles, signs and wonders before the people.

[9:00] As we've read the Gospel of Luke, we've seen that. All these signs and wonders, these miracles, they were signs. They were signs pointing to the fact that this is God's anointed one.

[9:12] This is the one with God's authority over death, disease, demons, creation, salvation, forgiveness of sins.

[9:23] This is he. How did they know it? By the signs and wonders that he performed. And he did them as no one else had ever done. And though these miracles were signs pointing to his divine authority, nevertheless, the people, the Jews, just kept asking for another sign.

[9:46] And Jesus' miracles were never enough for their unbelieving hearts. Look at chapter 11 and verse 29 and 30. Chapter 11, 29 and 30.

[10:02] Rhonda, do you have that? Yeah. Yeah. As the crowds increased, Jesus said, this is a wicked generation. And ask for a miraculous sign, and none will be given there, except the sign of Jonah.

[10:17] For as Jonah was a sign to Ninevites, so also was the son of man to this generation. Okay. Does Jesus commend them for asking for a sign?

[10:29] No, he rebukes them. A wicked and a degenerate, how does he put it? A wicked generation asks for a miracle. He had been showing them sign after sign, and they're still asking.

[10:41] It's unbelief. It's wicked unbelief that asks for more and more signs. And now he just says point blank, none will be given it, except what? What will be the ultimate sign?

[10:53] What does he call it? The sign of Jonah. What is that sign? Good. That's in Matthew 12 and verse 40. That as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

[11:14] So Jonah went down in the belly of the fish. He was down for three days, and then he was up and back on planet earth.

[11:25] Even so, the son of man will return from the belly of the earth after three days. This would be the ultimate sign. It's the ultimate proof that Jesus is this divine Savior come from heaven on this mission of saving sinners.

[11:43] It would be his life over his life after death. Now, he showed that in raising others from the dead. The son of the widow of Nain, the little 12-year-old girl, Lazarus.

[11:59] He had shown his power over death, but now it would be seen in its ultimate form by his own resurrection from the dead. So this is the proof of all that he ever claimed to be.

[12:09] Jesus himself is ready to hang all of his claims on this one sign, the sign of Jonah. If it doesn't happen, you can dismiss all that I've ever said as bogus.

[12:21] He puts all of his eggs in this one basket. I will rise again. Now, how can he speak with such certainty that he's willing to trash it all if this doesn't happen?

[12:33] And not everybody should talk that way, but he's God, isn't he? And he knows the end from the beginning. And he does indeed have life over death. So his resurrection from the dead proves the truthfulness of all of his claims.

[12:50] Who he is. He is God's eternal son. The anointed king with divine authority. It proves his mission. He did come to earth to save sinners from the judgment of God.

[13:04] And he does accomplish it by dying on the cross. The resurrection proves, as one said, that the father has been pleased with his sacrifice and raises him from the dead.

[13:16] He does have authority to forgive sins. He does have authority over all creation and death. Not only his, but mine, too.

[13:27] Now, there's something else that he claimed in chapter 22. He's on trial before the Jewish court. And notice his claim here.

[13:44] Chapter 22, 66 through 69. 22, 66 to 69.

[13:57] Rhonda Miller, would you read that, please? At the break that comes low of the elders of the people, the chief priests and the teachers of the law met together. And Jesus has led the fore them. If you ever cry to his let, tell us.

[14:11] Jesus answered, I tell you, he will not believe me. And if I ask you, he may not answer. But from now on, the Son of man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God. They all asked, have you been the Son of God?

[14:23] He replied, you're right in cleaning my hand. Okay. Thank you. So here's the question. Is Jesus this son of God that was promised?

[14:36] Is he the Christ? And he says, yes, I am. And you're going to see what? You're going to see me in a different light, aren't you? You see me now in weakness.

[14:47] I'm bound. And I'm being accused. But how are they going to see him in the future? Seated at God's right hand. That place of highest honor.

[15:00] It's reserved for his own son. Ruling and reigning with him over all things. He says in another place, you will see me coming again with the clouds. With power and great glory at the end of this age.

[15:12] With authority to judge all people and to assign to them their eternal destinies. You'll see me in a whole different manner than what you see me now. That's a claim, isn't it?

[15:23] A claim of being Christ the king. And all of this will be proven true or not by his rising or not rising from the dead, as he said. Well, did it happen?

[15:34] Did it really happen? That's the big question, isn't it? Unbelievers say no. No, it didn't happen. These things just don't happen. We've never seen a man three days dead come back to life.

[15:48] But why should that not cause us to conclude that Jesus did not rise again? The fact that we have not seen it in our day. Or should it?

[16:01] Should that be okay? Then that's an impossibility. It could not have happened because it doesn't happen today. Why should that prove that he didn't rise or not prove that he didn't rise?

[16:14] Hmm. Lots of other things that we've never seen that we still believe. Like what? Okay. Any fact of history we could say.

[16:27] We've not seen it. I mean, unless it's modern history. But, yeah, past history. We've not seen it, and yet we believe it to be true. All right? Fair enough. Were there other things that Jesus did that we're not seeing happen today?

[16:42] Okay? So, if we have from Luke the historian who checked into these things and found eyewitnesses, not singular but plural, and many of them, that saw Jesus do things that no one's ever done before, that even his enemies would come to him and say, we know that you're a man sent from, for no man can do these things.

[17:08] Well, then, we shouldn't be surprised to find him claiming to rise from the dead. We don't see people speaking to the wind and it's stopping and to the waves and them calming.

[17:25] These things don't happen. And yet, he did them. And so it is with the resurrection. There's nothing too hard for God. Jesus is a supernatural person, and so the things that are impossible to men are possible to him.

[17:41] Now, Luke looked into this claim as well, this claim of the resurrection of Jesus, and he established it as a well-founded fact based on eyewitnesses to the risen Christ.

[17:53] The Gospels alone tell us of 11 different times in different places when Jesus was seen after his death and resurrection by different people.

[18:06] Ones. They saw him. One person saw him. Two people at the same time saw him. There were twos that saw him. And there were even the twelve, the eleven, that saw him at the same time.

[18:23] And believe it or not, Paul says there were five hundred that saw him at the same time. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, he tells us that.

[18:33] And many of these folks were still alive when these gospel accounts were put down on paper. So if you don't believe me, go ask them. They're still around.

[18:44] They saw Jesus. Go interview one of those five hundred and then interview another and see if their stories match. These things were well attested by faithful eyewitnesses.

[18:55] So if a matter can be established upon the credible witness of two or three, this is far more credible. There are studies comparing the witness of the Gospels to other events of history that we take as, sure, we do believe that George Washington was the first president of America.

[19:14] No doubters here. But it compares, well, how many documents do we have testifying to that fact? And then how many do we have testifying to the truth of the resurrection?

[19:26] Again, we see that this is not just a blind faith into some weird claim of a few weird people living in one place. And, no, this was well attested by many different witnesses.

[19:40] Now, I want to give you three lines of confirming evidence for the real resurrection of Jesus' body from the dead. The first is just the empty tomb. The empty tomb.

[19:51] Just six weeks, seven weeks later, Jesus' resurrection is being boldly preached in Jerusalem where he died and where he was buried.

[20:04] And all that men would have had to do, and believe me, there were many that wanted to prove that it was a phony thing, all they would have had to do was to produce the body of Jesus.

[20:15] You say, see? It's a lie. And that had been the end of Christianity. But it never happened. There was a cover-up story told by the Jews to discredit the resurrection of Jesus, and it was this very thing that the disciples came at night and stole the body away.

[20:33] You can read it in Matthew 28. But a guard had been posted. A guard of soldiers had been requested by the Jewish leaders to prevent this very thing from happening.

[20:46] They said, we remember that he said he would rise on the third day. And so post a guard or else his disciples will come and steal the body, and the last deception will be worse than the first.

[20:58] And so Pilate said, fine, post a guard. Put a seal on the tomb so we can see if anybody's tampering and if there's any foul play here.

[21:12] And so it was done. But Jesus rose from the dead. And the soldiers went back on their backs when the angel came down and opened the tomb.

[21:25] And they ran and told their superiors. And in the end, they were paid off to say the disciples came and stole the body while they were sleeping.

[21:36] Any of you see a problem with that testimony? The disciples came and stole his body while we were sleeping. If you're an attorney and you're going to cross-examine these soldiers, what are you going to ask them?

[21:54] How do you know you were sleeping? That's right. Do you sleep with your eyes open? Are you conscious when you're sleeping? You're telling us two things that can't hold water.

[22:06] You're telling us you're asleep, and yet you're telling us that the disciples came and stole the body. You can't say both. So their idea has holes in it.

[22:17] The empty tomb is a stubborn fact that will not go away, but it makes perfect sense if things happened just as Jesus said they would, that he would rise from the dead.

[22:29] Now, a second line of evidence that is confirming the resurrection is the fact that women were the first to testify to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Chapter 23, verse 49 tells us that these women, who were they?

[22:48] Well, 23, 49. Those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.

[23:03] Watching what things? The crucifixion, the death of Jesus, his breathing of his last. They saw Jesus die. Verses 55 and 56.

[23:14] The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes, but they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

[23:27] They saw Jesus die. They saw him taken down from the cross. They followed Joseph and Nicodemus to the tomb and saw them place Jesus' body in the tomb.

[23:38] They went home to get spices and rested on the Sabbath, preparing to come back to the grave. And that's what we find in chapter 24, that they're headed back on the first day of the week to the tomb.

[23:55] Now, what were they expecting to find at the tomb? A risen Jesus? A dead Jesus.

[24:06] What did you say? A big rock. Okay. So, they're expecting to find a big rock that they saw rolled over the opening of the grave and Jesus' body inside.

[24:20] A dead Jesus. How do we know they're expecting a dead Jesus? Alright. So, they gathered the spices and they're coming to finish the wrapping of his body for burial.

[24:35] So, you don't do that to living people, do you? They're coming to expect to find a dead body. In fact, as Jeff says, they're worried about that huge stone.

[24:50] How are they going to remove it to get into the dead body and to anoint it for death, for burial? Now, they had been with Jesus when he had told them that he was going to die and rise again on the third day.

[25:05] But they hadn't understood or remembered those words either. They're heading to the grave to find a dead man. And they're so buried in grief at his death.

[25:17] They're not thinking at all about resurrection. So, these first witnesses to the resurrection are not women that are weak-minded and so expecting Jesus to rise that they will take anything that they see as evidence of his resurrection.

[25:38] No. A raised Jesus is the last thing on earth that they're expecting. So, surprise marks their findings at the tomb.

[25:49] They're surprised to find the stone rolled away. They're surprised to find Jesus' body not in there, but gone. They're surprised to see two angels appearing as men gleaming in clothing like lightning.

[26:02] They're surprised to hear their message of these angels explaining why Jesus is not there. Verses 6 and 7. Why do you look for the living among the dead?

[26:15] He's not here. He has risen. They're surprised when they're reminded of what Jesus has told them. Verses 6 and 7.

[26:26] Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee. The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men. Be crucified and on the third day be raised again.

[26:38] Then they remembered his words. Jesus. Not before. Then. Again, surprise. It all makes sense to them now, but not before.

[26:51] And so they hurry back to tell the eleven and others with them. So all four of the Gospels tell us of women being the first to witness the empty tomb and to proclaim that he is risen.

[27:03] Matthew even tells us that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were the first that Jesus appeared to. They actually saw the risen Jesus. Now, follow me.

[27:16] If the Gospel accounts are nothing more than a story that Christians made up to convince their fellow Jews that Jesus was alive from the dead, they never would have had women as the first witnesses of that event.

[27:37] That would have been a huge blunder. Why? Because first century Palestinian Jews were not politically correct. A woman's testimony was not considered trustworthy by first century Jewish leaders, so much so that they were not even allowed to be a witness in a court of law.

[27:59] Well, Josephus, the Jewish historian of that era, writes about the kind of witnesses to be heard in a court of law, and he talks positively about what kinds of people they need to be.

[28:10] But let not the testimony of women be admitted on account of the frivolity and boldness of their sex. And on he goes. Not servants and so on and so forth.

[28:21] So if you were a Christian wanting to make up a story that would convince your fellow Jews of Jesus' resurrection, you'd never use women as the initial key witnesses if you wanted it to be credible.

[28:34] And the fact that all four of the Gospel writers do this very thing argues what? Genuineness. Why else would they put it in there if it didn't happen that way?

[28:47] They would otherwise be embarrassed of such testimony. In trying to persuade their fellow Jews. Well, obviously God has no problem with women being trustworthy witnesses.

[29:02] He chose them as the first witnesses of the resurrected Christ. Do you see how that bears witness to the credibility of the Gospel accounts of the resurrection in itself?

[29:18] And it's interesting, isn't it, to read in verse 11 of the Apostles' response to these women's testimony. What was it? They didn't believe them.

[29:32] Why not? What did it sound like? Like nonsense. What is so nonsensical about Jesus doing what he said he would do?

[29:46] When he said he would do it? And yet, so out of touch with the idea of a Messiah dying and rising again, they say the words of the women seem to them like nonsense.

[30:05] Now that's on record, isn't it? So to their own embarrassment, they are acknowledging that in the Gospel records, that women believed it before they did. Again, not the way men would want to have the story told, unless indeed it was just the truth.

[30:22] But Peter, he did run to check it out himself. Maybe he had more at stake in the matter. The last that he had seen Jesus was a look that sent him out weeping.

[30:40] And so Peter runs, verse 12, to check it out himself, and says that he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away wondering to himself what had happened.

[30:55] That's interesting. Different ones make different things of that. Perhaps the strips of linen were not lying there in a heap of unraveled messes, but that they were still in the shape of a body, only there was no body in it.

[31:14] It does tell us that it was something about those strips of linen lying by themselves that sent him away wondering.

[31:25] And so he leaves the grave scratching his head. The testimony of the women has a ring of truth to the account.

[31:36] Otherwise, this is not something that would be written. Any questions on that second line of confirming evidence? The women as the first testimonies to the risen Christ.

[31:52] A third line of confirming evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is the transformed lives of the disciples of Christ. Just consider what these disciples of Jesus were before and after meeting the risen Christ.

[32:07] First before. What can we say about these disciples? We've seen them recently if we've read through Luke's account. Well, they all forsook Jesus at his arrest, didn't they?

[32:18] They ran for their lives. And outside Jesus' trial, Peter in fear denied three times that he even knew him. And all of them were shocked and saddened by Jesus' death and had their hopes dashed.

[32:31] As we read from two of them here on the road to Emmaus, verse 21, chapter 24, they said to Jesus, who they did not recognize, we had hope that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel, but our chief priests and the rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him.

[32:53] So we had hope, but our hopes are gone. And so the 11 are now where? They're holed in behind locked doors, hiding for fear of the Jews in a room in Jerusalem.

[33:07] That's before. Nothing hard to believe about that testimony, is there? All right? After. After seeing the risen Christ, their joy and confidence has no bounds.

[33:24] They boldly proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus in the very city where he was murdered, just seven weeks later. They were unmoved by the threats of the Jewish leaders who commanded them to speak no more about Jesus.

[33:40] They imprisoned them. They beat them. They tortured them. They threatened them again to not speak in Jesus' name. And they left their beating rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering for the name of Jesus.

[33:57] And day after day, they just kept preaching, both publicly, out in the open, and from house to house, that Jesus is the Christ. Yes, crucified, but now risen, ascended, exalted, and reigning in heaven.

[34:11] These are the same men that just weeks earlier were hiding and trembling for fear behind a locked door. Now boldly unmoved, even willing to suffer, and yes, to die for this claim that Jesus is alive.

[34:30] Now why do I put that forth as a confirming evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? It's very hard to believe that these otherwise fearful men would die for a message if they knew it was a lie.

[34:46] If indeed, as the rumor from the soldiers went, that they came in the middle of the night while the soldiers were sleeping and stole the body of Jesus and went and buried him in some hidden place.

[35:02] What happens when they're brought before the high court of Israel and they're on trial and their lives are in the balance? Will they stand up and claim Jesus has risen from the dead if they know through and through that it's a lie?

[35:23] They really just stole the body. That's hard to explain. Men love to live. There's a natural desire to live and you see, it's a little different than saying, well, Muslims die for their faith all the time.

[35:41] But it's different. How is it different when suicide bombers go into a church service with their bombs and blow themselves up and kill Christians? How is that different?

[35:53] They die for their faith and their faith we know is not true. Well, maybe that's all that these disciples are doing. Why is that not apples to apples? They die for their faith.

[36:06] Pardon? They die for their faith. Okay. They were actually, yeah, ready to be crucified, ready to die, be tortured. But how is that different than these guys blowing themselves up?

[36:21] Yes, Will? The disciples never killed anybody. Okay. Disciples never killed anybody. Peter got close with a sword, got in here. Mark?

[36:31] What Muslims believe? What they're doing. Okay. So Muslims believe that if I go out in martyrdom, I've got all kinds of women waiting for me and pleasures in heaven.

[36:45] They believe these things are true and therefore they act on their belief. Now they may be believing wrong things that move them to do... But if the disciples know that these hands buried the body of Jesus after we stole him from the tomb, that's different.

[37:04] They're not dying for some belief that he's risen. They're dying for a lie. Something that they know is a lie. Now that is something different.

[37:15] Men will die for something they believe to be true, but will men die for something they know is a lie? That's hard to swallow. And it's just another auxiliary truth and evidence for the fact that these men had indeed seen the risen Jesus and they never were the same.

[37:38] They never were the same. And that makes sense with what you read because Luke's gospel is not the last book that he wrote. He wrote the book of Acts and there you can see how he continues on with the record of what happened to these disciples and what happened to the message of Christ and what was Jesus continuing to do after he was raised from the dead.

[38:00] You read the book of Acts and you find out these men have been changed. And part of it was due to the fact that the Holy Spirit was given to them to give them boldness to proclaim this message.

[38:14] Part of it was due to the fact that Jesus in this own chapter he opened their eyes to see that the scriptures indeed had talked about him dying and rising again.

[38:27] But you can't take away the reality that these men had seen the living Christ and they were witnesses of that fact. That's what you find in the book of Acts.

[38:38] They just kept bearing witness. In fact, you find the book of Acts in the presentation of the gospel. The resurrection is mentioned a whole lot more than present day gospel presentations.

[38:48] As you hear people presenting the gospel, the resurrection of Jesus is not nearly as prominent today as it was in the book of Acts. Indeed, Jesus says to them here in verse 48, well, verse 45.

[39:05] This was when he came back and appeared to the 12 disciples. The 11, verse 45 of chapter 24. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.

[39:18] And he told them this is what is written. That Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

[39:29] You are witnesses of these things. So you've been chosen to bear witness. Why? Because you've seen me. You've seen me.

[39:39] In fact, that becomes the qualification for the apostle to replace Judas. What's the qualification? You must have gone in and out with Jesus and been a witness of the resurrection.

[39:53] Going back to the time of John the Baptist's baptism all through his life and to have seen the resurrection. You must meet that qualification. Why? Because we're called to be witnesses to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

[40:07] So, that's what we find. again, something that hits us is that these disciples were not predisposed to believe the resurrection.

[40:26] No, in fact, the enemies had more faith in the resurrection than they did. They're the ones that called for the guard. Why? Because they remembered Jesus said he would rise on the third day.

[40:36] Did the twelve remember? No. No, they're shocked. In fact, the sound of it from their women sounded like nonsense. They would only believe when Jesus himself appears to them and they put their fingers in his hands and the nail prints and their hand into the side where the spear hole was and even then they could hardly believe it for joy and Jesus says get some fish.

[41:02] Give me something to eat. Let me show you. I'm not a phantom. I'm a real body and he ate fish in their presence. Well, poor Thomas wasn't there and he says well, I'll never believe. They told him he's alive.

[41:14] He appeared to us. I'll never believe unless I put my fingers into the nail prints and you remember the story John chapter 20 the next week in the same place Jesus suddenly appears to the disciples and turns immediately to Thomas and says Thomas, come here put your fingers in my hands.

[41:38] Remember his response? Down on the ground the words my Lord and my God you are risen from the dead and you're Lord you're God.

[41:55]  Can you see how the fact that we have the resurrection vindicated by skeptical disciples by skeptical Thomases that only makes their testimony all the more credible not gullible people not people expecting the resurrection but people the last thing on earth they expected was a risen Jesus and when they saw him they still couldn't believe it unless they touched him and then my Lord and my God well that's the that's the testimony of Luke it's the testimony of the four gospels that Jesus indeed is risen and what that means is that everything he claims is therefore true that's Christianity explored the fourth question did Jesus rise from the dead our time's gone so we're dismissed