Resurrection Morning

The message today will be directed to believers and unbelievers!

Here we are again, Another Easter Service: I have a few questions:

How many have you attended through out your life? How much proof do you need? What action have you taken on the message of Jesus Resurrection? Has it changed your life?

Luke 24:1-12

Verses 1-3 The stone was not rolled away so that Jesus could get out, because He was already gone! It was rolled away so others could get in and see for themselves that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead!

Verse 4 two “men” Messengers from God- Angels - These are two of God’s heavenly host- created spiritual beings taking on the form of men to appear at the tomb

Verses 5-6a Why seek the living among the dead? He is not here, HE IS RISEN!

**A lot of people often look for God among the dead. They read their bible as a mere historical document and go to church as if they were going to a memorial service. Jesus is not among the dead!! HE LIVES!

Do you look for Jesus among the living? Do you expect him to be active in the world and in the church? Look for signs of his power—they are all around you.

The fact of the matter is this: The resurrection was not created by the church, the church was created by the resurrection….

Verses 6b-8 We need to be reminded of how Jesus spoke and the words he said!

This remark is both a call to remember and a rebuke. God often says things we fail to understand because we have trouble accepting them. But when God speaks, we must NOT LISTEN according to the categories we are used to OR OUR TRADITIONS, but with hearts that recognize who is speaking!

**There are 12 recorded appearances of Jesus after His resurrection. The largest group of people to see Him is recorded by Paul in 1 Cor 15:6

You may be hear today and say, Preacher I don’t trust what the Bible says! It is biased, just a bunch of Christians got together and made the story OF JESUS UP!

Well ok then! Let’s look outside the Bible-These records are from pagan unbelievers……!!

A. Flavius Josephus- 37 AD - 100 AD a Roman-Jewish Historian and military leader

He made two references in his writings about Jesus of Nazareth- (Jewish Antiquities)

1. Talking about the Sanhedrin’s condemnation of James:

“James, the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ.”

2. In his earliest quote from “Testimonium Flavianum”

“ About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man. For he….wrought surprising feats….He was the Christ. When Pilate… condemned him to be crucified, those who had…come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared restored to life…..and the tribe of Christians ……has…..not disappeared.”

B The Babylonian Talmud- a collection of Jewish Rabbinical writings 70 AD - 500 AD

“On the eve of the Passover Yeshua was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald….cried, “He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy.”

C. Cornelius Tacitus- Roman Historian 55 AD - 120 AD

“Therefore, to stop the rumor, Nero substituted as culprits and punished in the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue.”

D. Pliny the Younger - Roman Governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor wrote a letter to Trajan in 112 AD asking for advise in how to conduct legal proceedings against the Christians.

“they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food-but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.”

E. Lucian -2nd Century Greek satirist who mocked the Christians

“ The Christians….worship a man to this day-the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account….[it] was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.”

After all of the facts:

Jesus was verified to have been an actual person who was born and lived among us! Yes Jesus was and is who He claimed to be!

Jesus was a Rabbi that had many disciples

Jesus was tried, beaten, spat upon and crucified

Jesus was victorious over death and appeared to many.

Most people will still reject Him and still claim its all a lie! WHY? Because they create Red Herrings- definition:

subject that takes people's attention away from the central point being considered:

Goes like this: Well if I can blame the lack of scientific evidence that He actually lived….

Some have made statements like this: Show me Jesus medical records and I’ll believe.

NO MATTER YOUR RED HERRING- THE MAIN POINT OF A PERSONS UNBELIEF (WHETHER OR NOT YOU ADMIT IT) IS FOUND IN MATTHEW 16:24-26

Matthew 16:24–26 NKJV

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

THE UNBELIEVER LOVES THEIR SIN!

**LET HIM DENY HIMSELF-

THEY LOVE TO PARTY AND THEIR DRUNKENNESS

THEY LOVE TO HAVE SEX WITH WHO THEY WANT, WHEN THEY WANT. FORNICATORS AND ADULTERERS

THEY LOVE THEIR DIRTY JOKES AND PROFANE LANGUAGE

THEY LOVE THEIR GREED AND POWER OVER THEIR OWN LIVES

THEY LOVE TO TAKE WHAT DOESN’T BELONG TO THEM- IN ANT WAY THEY CAN

THEY LOVE MY BODY, MY CHOICE- LET’S KILL THE UNBORN (IMAGERS OF GOD)

THEY LOVE TO BULLY PEOPLE

THEY LOVE TO MOCK JESUS-

**TAKE UP HIS OWN CROSS

THEY DON’T WANT TO GIVE UP THEIR SINS AND TURN TO GOD- THEY DON’T WANT TO ANSWER TO ANYBODY, LIVE LIKE THEY WANT TO.

**FOLLOW ME

THEY DON’T WANT TO ANSWER TO ANYBODY, LIVE LIKE THEY WANT TO. FOLLOWING JESUS REQUIRES REPENTANCE- MEANS:

Repentance is the act whereby one turns from his or her sin, idolatry, and rebellion and turns to God in faith.

John 3:16-21