All right, we're here in Acts chapter one, and I'm going to be preaching an Easter sermon
about the resurrection of Jesus.
And we're here in Acts chapter one, and let me just read you a few verses before
we get started.
It says here in verse number one, Acts chapter one verse one, the former treatise
have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.
Until the day in which He was taken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had
given commandments onto the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom also He showed Himself
alive after His passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and
speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Here in verse number three, it says, to whom also He showed Himself alive, referring
to Jesus showing Himself alive, and what it's saying is He showed Himself alive after
He was crucified, after He was killed.
So it's speaking in verse three about the resurrection of Jesus, and what it says
is He showed Himself alive after His passion, by many infallible proofs.
What the Bible is saying here in Acts one three is there is physical and real evidence
to show the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now I want you to realize before I get into this sermon, I want to have a healthy
introduction because I do not want you to get the wrong idea, because I believe
the things in the Bible because the Bible says it's so.
I don't care what history, science, archaeology, or anything else under the sun says.
If the Word of God says it, I believe it.
So there could be things like Jonah being swallowed by a whale three days and three
nights.
Well, do you really believe that?
Yes.
It doesn't matter if I don't have empirical evidence for it.
But at the same time, the things that we believe actually make sense.
We do not have a blind and stupid faith like some religions.
You look at the sacred texts or holy books of religions like Hinduism.
It's like, do you really believe this?
It's like, well, you know, I don't know, maybe it happened, maybe it didn't.
Or the Hadith, the sayings of Muhammad and these miracles, no witnesses.
They don't tell you the time or the place, but just take it by fact, right?
Or for example, Mormonism.
Mormonism has this elaborate battle between the Lamanites and the Nephites.
Not only do they not have evidence, all evidence says it's wrong.
It's not true.
They have no archaeological evidence, and the evidence points against them.
And what I want you to realize is it's not that way with Christianity.
The things we believe make sense.
In fact, the Bible gives dates and times and locations saying, fact check me, because
this is true.
And what the Bible says with the resurrection of Jesus, the single biggest event in Christianity,
that there are infallible proofs, infallible meaning, incapable of making mistakes or
being wrong, meaning there is evidence that cannot be refuted that shows that Jesus
rose again.
Now, I believe in the resurrection, and I got saved by hearing the word of God, and
I didn't need archaeological proof to cause me to believe in the resurrection.
But what I'm telling you is with the resurrection, we actually have proof.
Bible says many infallible proofs where basically if you don't believe in the resurrection
of Jesus, you are a fool or ignorant of the evidence that is actually out there.
Now, go to Romans 10 before you get started.
I want to make sure that we don't get the wrong idea because we believe what the
word of God says because the word of God says it.
And that's good enough for me.
Romans 10, verse 17, you say, why is that?
Well, the reason why that is is because I've put my faith in what the word of God
said, and I've already made a decision.
This is certainly the word of God.
I believe every single word, every single line in this book.
So if it says it, I don't care what chapter.
I don't care what you tell me about history.
I believe what the word of God says.
And people could say that's foolish and that's fine, but this is what the Bible says
in verse 17.
So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Faith comes by hearing the word of God.
So here's the thing.
Does a person get saved via a debate between is God real?
No.
You know how they get saved?
By somebody explaining what the word of God says.
You open up, you show what the word of God says.
That is how somebody gets saved.
I am not into apologetics ministries because they say a lot, they use so much money and
resources and time, and guess what?
They get nobody saved, and yet we do a soul-winning marathon and we get a lot of people saved.
Because that's how people get saved.
Go to Romans 1, Romans 1, Romans 1.
In fact, Peter actually experienced things like on the Mount of Transfiguration.
And what he says in 2 Peter 1, you're in Romans 1, but in 2 Peter 1, what Peter says
is we have a more sure word of prophecy, more sure than what my own eyes have seen
and what I've heard and what I've experienced is what the Bible actually says.
That is more sure, it is more accurate.
You say why?
Because your eyes and your ears can deceive you.
Your experiences can deceive you.
And even when you look at Peter with Cornelius, when he actually changes his beliefs, it's
not because he saw this vision, it's because all of a sudden the Old Testament scriptures
made sense.
Oh, I get it now.
This is the change at the resurrection of Jesus.
You say why?
Because Peter leaned on what the Bible said above anything else.
And this is our beliefs right here.
We can look at what the word of God says.
Romans 1 verse 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
How does a Jew get saved?
By hearing the gospel of Jesus through the word of God.
How does a Greek, which would be kind of similar to an atheist or agnostic or whatever
today or I guess, you know, under Eastern religion, searching after wisdom.
How do they get saved?
They get saved by hearing the gospel through the word of God.
How does a Buddhist get saved?
By hearing the gospel through the word of God.
How does anybody get saved?
How did you get saved?
Somebody explained to you what the Bible says and you believed it.
That's how everybody gets saved, right?
And they can say that's foolish, but we still preach Christ crucified on the Jews
assembling block and onto the Greeks foolishness regardless of what the Jews or the Greeks
have to say about it.
This says in verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness,
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed
it onto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being
understood by the things that are made even as eternal power in God so that they are
without excuse.
And what the Bible says here is the evidence is actually out there that you can look and
not even just realize there's a God, you can actually understand some things about
God.
Now, nobody gets saved by walking outside and looking up at the sky, but that proves
God is real.
And I'll tell you what, it's good enough for a young child.
You explain to a child, look outside, do you think that that son made itself or did
somebody make it?
Somebody made it.
The name of that person is God.
And it makes sense to kids.
And atheists can say, well, that's foolish, but the reality is when they were kids, that
also was good enough for them, like, yeah, that makes sense.
You know why?
Because it is put inside of us.
When you see something, you realize there's no way that made itself, right?
And the Bible says this right after verse 16, when people get saved, that there's people
and they are without excuse.
And here's what it said though in verse 18, they hold the truth in unrighteousness.
I mean, the evidence is there.
The facts are there.
They just don't want to believe.
You would be a fool if you say that you do not believe God.
In fact, the Bible says the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.
By the way, you can look at some of the most famous and successful real scientists,
not fake scientists, not theoretical fake scientists like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking,
but real scientists like Isaac Newton.
Isaac Newton wrote commentary on books of the Bible.
You can read his commentary on Revelation and Daniel online, and he has statements where
he said that you are a fool if you look at what has been designed that is so perfectly
in sync, and then you say there is no God.
You're an idiot, right?
So it's not just me saying this, Isaac Newton, which would probably be considered
the smartest person of the last thousand years, he also said you're an idiot if you
don't believe in God, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Hawking, whomever
you want to name, right?
Turn your Bible to Matthew 27.
Matthew 27.
Now, before I give you four proofs of the resurrection that are infallible beyond dispute,
and by the way, there's probably a lot more things that you could mention, but before
Jesus rose again, a couple things had to take place.
Number one, Jesus had to live.
He had to be real.
You can't rise again from the dead if you never existed, and not only did he have to
actually live and exist, but he had to have been crucified, he had to have been killed
before you could say that he was resurrected.
Now what's interesting is I've read a lot of these books by these famous atheists
recently like The God Delusion.
Two times in The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins makes the statement, well, how do you
even know if Jesus was a real person?
And Christopher Hitchens is famous for saying, well, how do we even know that Jesus Christ
was real?
And they think that sounds clever.
They think it sounds really smart.
And when they make a statement like that, you know what you told me, Richard Dawkins?
The entire book you wrote has zero credibility because you're either a liar or a very ignorant
man, very uneducated.
There is a famous New Testament scholar, or you'd say skeptic, of the things of the New
Testament because pretty much all the scholars and experts are people that don't actually
believe the Bible.
And his name is Bart Ehrman.
Bart Ehrman's probably the most famous.
And Bart Ehrman labels himself as an agnostic.
He's not a militant atheist like Richard Dawkins.
But he would say, well, you know what, I'm in between.
Maybe God's real, maybe he's not.
I'm not really sure.
But he doesn't really line up completely with the militant atheists, but obviously he
doesn't even know if God is real according to him.
And so he's agnostic.
But you know what?
He, who's the most famous New Testament scholar, the considered expert on the history and on
the facts of the life of Jesus, has said there are certain things that we cannot deny.
Not only can you not deny that he existed, but you cannot deny that Jesus was crucified.
Because there's so much evidence of people that wrote about it, even people that didn't
believe in these facts, it is a fact beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was crucified.
Not only that, another fact that he's listed is this, that shortly after Jesus' death,
the disciples had experiences that led them to believe and proclaim that Jesus had been
resurrected and that had appeared to them.
So even someone that does not believe on Jesus for salvation says, well, it's a fact
a lot of people said they talked to Jesus.
And his theory of how that could be possible, even though he doesn't believe it, is they
just all kind of got caught up in emotion, and they thought they saw Jesus, but
they didn't.
Here's what's so foolish about that.
They didn't just think they saw a vision of Jesus in the sky.
They said they sat down and ate with him.
It's not just, well, I saw something.
It's not just it was 11 o'clock at night.
Oh, man, I think I saw something.
No, they sat down and talked to him and ate with him.
Another thing he said is a fact is this.
Within a few years after the death of Jesus, Paul the apostle converted after a personal
experience that he interpreted as a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to him.
Why does he mention Paul the apostle?
Because nobody disputes that Paul the apostle lived.
There's so much evidence that Paul the apostle was a real person and converted so many people.
Even people like Richard Dawkins, I don't know, maybe he's foolish enough to say,
how do you know Paul was real?
I don't know.
But nobody that studies history at all would say that Paul was not real.
And so he's saying it's significant because this is a very famous person, and he also
said that he talked to Jesus on the road to Damascus.
Now you wonder why someone like Bart Ehrman doesn't believe in this if he thinks these
facts are indisputable.
And it shows it's not about the evidence because all the evidence is there, and he's
still like, I don't know if I believe this, but he also says it's foolish to say that
Jesus didn't even exist.
Why is it that it would be foolish to say Jesus didn't exist?
Well, because nobody denies the existence of Paul.
Nobody denies the existence of Peter and James and John, very famous people.
These are not just random people.
These are famous people.
Peter's a pretty famous person in history that the Catholic Church bases their religion
on.
Right?
They'll say he's the first pope.
Nobody's going to dispute that he existed.
Another person that is indisputable that existed is Pontius Pilate.
That is indisputable.
He was a real person.
It's not some random name where you look it up online, well, this person didn't exist.
Look, Pontius Pilate and King Herod are known to be real people.
You can't dispute that.
I mean, even Luke stated in Luke 1 that many people wrote about these events, and
if you study this out, a lot of people, not just Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
a lot of people wrote about the life of Jesus, and a lot of people that did not believe
on Jesus wrote about it.
There are so many in history where you can find their writings on Jesus.
They lived through it.
They saw him.
So if you sit here and say, well, how do you know that he even lived?
That's like saying, how do you know the Son is real?
Maybe it's your imagination.
That's just a stupid statement from someone who's either ignorant or a wicked person or
both.
Maybe both.
And look, you can look at people that lived before Jesus.
Nobody disputes whether Julius Caesar was real or Alexander the Great or Antiochus Epiphanes.
These are famous people in history.
You know what?
There's a lot more written about Jesus Christ and a lot more evidence for anybody that
came before him.
So there's no doubt that he was a real person.
He existed.
He was crucified.
I don't want to spend a lot of time on history because if you're talking to someone
that tries to argue that, they're just an idiot.
They think they sound smart.
Somebody says, well, how do you know Jesus was real?
It's like, you are an idiot, right?
But what are some facts that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the resurrection
took place?
Well, point number one, his body was not in the tomb.
Nobody could find his body.
Matthew 27, verse 62, now the next day that followed the day of the preparation,
the chief priests and Pharisees came together under Pilate saying, sir, we remember that
that deceiver said while he's yet alive, after three days, I will rise again.
I love this verse.
We remember implies what?
We forgot.
Pontius Pilate, we forgot to mention to you before you killed Jesus, oh, he's going
to rise again from the dead after three days.
It's like we forgot.
We just remembered, and in the same verse, they called Jesus a deceiver.
I'm sorry, but you're the one that seems like a deceiver.
Oh, we forgot to tell you he's going to rise again from the dead.
No, actually, oftentimes people project things that are actually inside of themselves
onto others.
You're the deceiver.
You know it, and you're trying to project it onto Jesus, right?
But they say we remember he's going to rise again.
Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day lest his disciples
come by night and steal him away and say unto the people, he has risen from the dead,
so the last error shall be worse than the first.
Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as he can.
So they went and made the sepulchre, sealing the stone and setting a watch.
Look, this is not only what the Bible says, which we are going to be using Bible
for this sermon, but logic would tell you that they would closely guard that body
to make sure it was not stolen, to make sure that he didn't rise again,
to do whatever they had.
They would have had soldiers guarding the body and making sure.
That way, when people are saying, hey, I saw Jesus rise again,
you know what they could do?
They could just say, well, here he is.
He's dead.
And here's what you have to understand.
Islam does not rise and fall on one event like Christianity.
Hinduism does not rise and fall on one event like Christianity.
Buddhism does not rise and fall on one event like Christianity.
But Christianity rises and falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And if there is no resurrection, if Jesus never rose again,
everything we do is in vain.
Everything we do is pointless.
Everything we do is a waste of time.
Go to 1 Corinthians 15.
Look, if it turned out that Jesus didn't rise again,
which obviously we know he did, but if it turned out he didn't rise again,
you know what my advice to you would be?
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
Live it up on earth.
Do whatever makes you happy, because serving God means nothing
since it's all fake anyway.
I mean, look, I don't want you to misunderstand this.
I like living in the Philippines.
I plan to be here my whole life.
I visited in 2014.
I immediately like the Philippines.
People are really receptive to the gospel.
But the reality is, if it turned out that everything I'm preaching was fake,
I'd be like, what am I doing here?
My family lives in the US.
My career I had, I threw away.
What did I do?
I wasted my life.
That is what my reaction would be if it all turned out to be fake.
And look, if everything was fake, you're throwing your life away right now.
You know what?
Going soul winning on soul winning marathons is difficult.
It's hard.
And sometimes when you're doing it, it's not even necessarily fun and exciting.
Sometimes it's hard.
You want to rest.
But what makes it worth it is when you get done, you're like, man, it was all worth it.
But what if it turned out nobody was getting saved?
It's like, well, what are we doing?
It's a waste of time.
Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 17,
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain.
You are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ,
We are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Look, if it was all fake, we're the most miserable people on earth.
We do this because we know that God will bless us.
We do this because it's the right thing to do.
We do this because of the rewards that are going to take place one day.
But if it's all fake, what are we doing?
We're wasting our time.
But see, here's the thing, because we know the resurrection is a fact that it's true.
Everything we do is worth it.
Turn your Bible to John chapter 2.
John 2.
You see, it would have been very easy to destroy Christianity in the early days.
After Jesus died, you say, well, how could they have destroyed Christianity?
Just show His body.
That's the end of Christianity.
We see the disciples, they're beaten, they're defeated, they're depressed.
Now I believe they understood the resurrection, but they didn't understand the time.
It's interesting how the enemies of God are paying attention very closely to the three days.
Although the disciples, it kind of goes over their head, they're not paying attention.
And in some ways it makes sense, because in our modern day, people that hate what you're doing,
they'll listen to all the sermons and everything trying to tear it apart,
and sometimes they can get all these finer details that sometimes we might miss.
But they're defeated, they're depressed.
They're like, what are we doing?
We gave up our job as fishermen.
We gave up our careers.
What was the point?
All they had to do was show the body, and guess what?
That's the end of Christianity.
The religion would be a side note in history.
Religions of the past.
Wow, there's this small cult 2,000 years ago that followed this man called Jesus Christ.
But they couldn't show the body.
You know why?
Because he had risen again.
John 2, verse 19.
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Then said the Jews, 40 in six years was this temple and building,
and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
And it says here, verse 21, and it's funny because later on,
they accuse of Jesus of saying he's going to destroy the temple.
He didn't say he was going to destroy the temple.
He said, you're going to destroy the temple.
I'm going to build it back up in three days.
But of course, he wasn't speaking about a temple as in a building,
but it says in verse 21, but he spake of the temple of his body,
when therefore he was risen from the dead.
His disciples remembered that he had said this unto them,
and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
Now notice in verse 19, he said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
So what is Jesus saying?
You're going to kill me, and I'm going to resurrect myself from the dead.
What's the result?
They get so angry that it leads them to kill him,
and it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And then he resurrects himself from the dead.
But here's the thing.
The enemies knew three days he's going to rise again.
So you know what they would have done on day four and day five?
Ha ha, here's Jesus.
We told you it was fake.
We told you it wasn't real.
Why did they not do that?
Because the body wasn't there.
He had risen again.
Explain that to me, Bart Ehrman, how that's logical.
I mean, he had risen again from the dead.
Now go in your Bible to Matthew 28.
How foolish is it to say that 1,000 people think they spoke and talked to Jesus
and sat down and ate with him?
They were all just on LSD.
They were all just imagining things.
They all got caught up in emotion.
How is that logical?
And look, once again, it doesn't matter what is logical.
It matters what the Bible says, but we're talking about the infallible proofs.
And you look at this with evidence and logic,
and you look at people that doubt the Bible,
they think they're so smart.
Actually, you're a fool.
All the evidence would say that he rose again from the dead.
Why?
Well, number one, his body wasn't there.
Number two, though, the eyewitness accounts.
Not only could the enemies not produce the body,
but many people spoke about they saw Jesus and wrote about this.
Once again, it was not just saved people that wrote about Jesus.
Unsaved people living during that time wrote about these things also.
It says in Matthew 28, verse 12,
And when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel,
they gave large money under the soldiers, saying,
Say he his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept.
So they have a lot of soldiers that are guarding the body.
Let's just say that they all fell asleep at the same time.
Do you realize how stupid that is?
You got like 20 people guarding the body,
and they all happen to fall asleep at the same time.
Look, that happens in a movie, not in real life.
They all just happen to fall asleep when they're guarding the body.
None of them could stay awake to watch the body or take turns.
You've got to be kidding me.
That's the only thing they could say, though.
We've got to come up with an excuse why his body's not here.
Everybody fell asleep and they stole the body.
Yeah, that's real logical.
That makes a lot of sense.
The evidence is on our side on this.
And if this comes to the governor's ears,
we will persuade him and secure you.
So they took the money and did as they were taught,
and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
So basically, they're just paying people off to tell this lie.
Just say this took place, here's money,
and then we'll just get the word out there
and just tell everybody the body was stolen.
They thought that would be enough, but it wasn't,
because Christianity exploded in growth.
Now, when it says this is commonly reported among the Jews until this day,
what that literally means is when this was written,
it was commonly reported.
But you know what?
It's still commonly reported among the Jews this day also.
Well, his body was stolen.
Really? Is that the best you have?
Because the evidence would say that's pretty foolish.
All these people watching the body happened to fall asleep.
That's the best.
That's the best you've got to explain away why his body wasn't there.
Verse 16,
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee,
into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw him, they worshiped him.
But some doubted.
And Jesus came and spake unto them.
So it's not just they saw Jesus in the sky.
You know, there's been these Catholic things through history
where someone says, I saw Mary over there, or whatever.
No, Jesus came and spoke to them.
He came and talked to them.
Many times he came and talked to them.
And that's what it said, many infallible proofs,
and one of the things mentioned directly there,
speaking to them of things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
So it wasn't just they saw Jesus.
No, Jesus came and spoke to them.
He came and talked to them.
He came and explained these things to them.
Then it says here, in verse number 18,
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,
All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever commanded you,
and lo, I am with you all the way, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Go in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15.
And in 1 Corinthians 15, it details for us more in depth
of the people that Jesus appeared to and spoke to and talked.
He spoke of things pertaining to the kingdom of God to these people.
1 Corinthians 15, verse 1,
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you,
which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand,
by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day,
according to the scriptures.
And so once again, this is not just some random thing here in verses 3 and 4,
where it's just like, well, you know what?
Jesus died, was buried, and rose again,
and there's no evidence whatsoever.
It's just some random thing.
No, actually, we can look at the evidence,
and it points toward the fact that he rose again.
And I want you to realize, with other religions,
they randomly have these stories,
and it's like, do you actually believe this literally took place?
And many times, they're just going to be like,
well, you know, it's just kind of metaphorical.
It's like it kind of took place.
Like, the stories of Hinduism are so ridiculous.
It's like, do you believe this took place,
like in another universe or something, another dimension?
Well, I mean, it's kind of real,
but it kind of teaches us something.
Mormonism, all of the things they mention
go against what history and archaeology tells us.
It's not like that with Jesus Christ.
It says in verse 5,
and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the 12.
Who is Cephas?
We're talking about Peter.
Peter's a pretty famous person in history.
He's a person that you cannot dispute was a real person,
and Peter said, you know what?
I saw Jesus, and he spoke to me,
and he talked to me about the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Then he appeared to the 12th,
and many of those people
are historically very well-known people.
Then it says in verse number 6,
after that, he was seen of about 500 brethren at once,
of whom the greater part remain under this present,
but some are falling asleep,
indicating some have passed away
between when he appeared
and 1 Corinthians 15, verse 6, when this is written.
What it says is 500 brethren at once.
After that, he was seen of James,
then of all the apostles, and guess what?
James is a pretty well-known character
in history as well.
You cannot dispute the fact that Jesus was a real person,
but there were eyewitness accounts.
All of these people said,
you know what?
I saw the risen Savior, and I talked to him.
Do you realize how absurd it would be
to say that all these people
were able to make up this story
that lasted for this long that wasn't true?
Because remember when Jesus was crucified,
they had trouble finding two people
whose testimonies matched.
And you mean to tell me
they have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people,
and their testimonies all match,
they couldn't argue against it,
they all matched, well, they stole the body.
Do you realize how hard it would be
to get 500 people to all tell the same lie perfectly
and sync with one another?
That's absurd.
And look, evidence and logic would tell us, guess what?
Exactly what the Bible says took place,
that Jesus rose again from the dead.
Go to John 21, John 21.
Now look, if you're trying to convince people
that are unsaved about the resurrection, what do you do?
You turn to the Bible
and show them what the Word of God says.
We get that, we believe that, we understand that.
It comes down to what the Word of God says.
But here's what I'm telling you,
there are many infallible proofs of the resurrection.
What we believe makes sense.
History backs up what I'm saying.
Archeology backs up what I'm saying.
And when people are trying to dispute it,
it just makes them look foolish
because all the evidence is on our side.
People act like, well, you know what?
You Christians are just uneducated.
You believe in things like the virgin birth
and the worldwide flood and Jonah was swallowed by a whale
and they try to mock us by looking at miraculous events
and say that we're stupid.
And then you can look at something like this and say,
well, who's the idiot?
Because all the evidence points toward the fact
the resurrection was real.
And so when you say you don't believe in the resurrection,
you're either showing that you are ignorant,
uneducated on the topic,
or you just don't wanna believe in what the Bible says.
By the way, when you see these skeptics
that mock the Bible,
they're not experts in studying the history
or the archeology on these things.
Because Bart Ehrman's saying,
Richard Dawkins is an idiot.
That's what he's saying.
He's saying Christopher Hitchens is an idiot.
That's what he's saying.
Because they know nothing about this.
I'll tell you what Richard Dawkins is an expert in.
He's an expert in fake science, evolutionary biology.
He's an expert at something that didn't take place.
He's an expert because of his book,
The Selfish Gene that came out 50 years ago.
And here's the thing,
you ask him about so many subjects,
because you can look in his book, The God Delusion,
and he shows ignorance over and over and over again
on topic after topic after topic.
He's an expert on one thing,
and it's something that's not even real.
And then people are trying to use him to say,
wow, it shows you there's no God.
It's like, I'm sorry, I read the book,
and he shows he knows very little about philosophy.
I don't, for the life of me,
understand how someone can get a doctorate in philosophy,
and yet he makes so many errors
that Wikipedia shows you're just an idiot.
And these are the people that are going to convince people,
well, you know, the evidence,
the smart people don't believe in God.
No, actually, the evidence is on our side
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So not only do we have the fact
that his body was not in the tomb,
not only do we have the eyewitness accounts
that give us proof of the resurrection,
another thing that gives us proof of the resurrection
is that the apostles and the disciples
were willing to die for their belief in the resurrection.
Do you mean to tell me they were gonna die
for something they knew was a lie?
I mean, you can use the approach Bart Ehrman does,
well, they all just were imagining it.
I think that's pretty foolish.
But it's also very foolish to say
they were all willing to die for a lie,
because history will tell us
that almost all of the closest followers of Jesus
were martyred for what they believed.
Notice what it says in John 21,
and look, I get it, history can be wrong,
you can agree or disagree,
but the Bible actually shows us a few of them
that were martyred.
John 21, verse 17.
"'He saith unto him the third time,
"'Simon, son of Jonas, love is thou me?'
"'Peter was grieved because he said unto him
"'the third time, love is thou me.'"
Why is Peter grieved when he says this the third time?
Because how many times did Peter deny Jesus?
Three times.
So when he says it the third time,
it kind of comes to his mind,
and it grieves him.
He's sad, he feels bad,
because he denied Jesus three times.
And he said unto him,
"'Lord, thou knowest all things.
"'Thou knowest that I love thee.
"'Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep.'"
Now, when Peter says,
"'Lord, thou knowest all things,
"'thou knowest that I love thee,"
do you know what Peter is saying to Jesus?
You're God.
Thou knowest all things.
You're omniscient.
Jesus, you're asking this question,
but you know that I love you.
Why is he saying that?
Because he's saying that Jesus is God.
It looks like Peter believed that Jesus was God
because he said,
"'You're omniscient, Jesus, you know all things.'"
Verse 18,
"'Verily, verily, I say to thee,
"'When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself,
"'and walkest whither thou wouldest.
"'But when thou shalt be old,
"'thou shalt stretch forth thy hands,
"'and another shall gird thee,
"'and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.'"
Now, look, you could read verse 18
and be like, okay, let me break down the sentence.
I'm confused.
What is this talking about?
And I get that, except for the fact verse 19
specifically tells us what verse 18 is about.
Verse 19 says,
"'This spake he signifying by what death
"'he should glorify God.
"'And when he had spoken this,
"'he saith unto him, Follow me.'"
So, according to verse 19,
verse 18 is about the fact that Peter was martyred,
about the fact that he was killed
for the beliefs that he had.
Now, I personally believe,
when it says that thou stretch forth thy hands,
that seems to indicate that Peter was also crucified.
That's what history tells us,
although history says Peter was crucified upside down,
that may or may not be true,
but when it says thou stretches forth thy hands,
that seems to be speaking about the fact
that he'd be crucified.
And it's interesting because of the fact
Peter denied Jesus because he did not want
to be crucified, he did not want to be martyred,
and then yet, he dies in the same way
that he was once afraid of.
But no longer in fear, you look at the life of Peter
and he's bold, he's confident, he doesn't back down.
But this signifying by what death he glorified God.
So we see that Peter was martyred.
Now look, if Jesus never spoke to Peter
because he didn't rise again,
if the event never took place,
do you really believe that Peter was that dumb
to say, I'm gonna die for something that's not true?
Do you really think somebody would do that?
I don't, that makes no logical sense.
Go to your Bible to Acts 7, Acts 7.
Because, I mean, there are things that people
will lie about, but then when they're really afraid
of getting in trouble, all of a sudden,
it was just a lie.
One of the famous examples, I thought about this
during the sermon yesterday, who knows the name
Charles Taze Russell, who knows that name?
Very few people know that name, you know why?
Because Jehovah's Witnesses are embarrassed
about their founder.
Charles Taze Russell is the man that founded
the Jehovah's Witnesses, and they made their own Bible,
the New World Order of Translation,
and Charles Taze Russell, he claimed to be an expert
at Greek and Hebrew and all these languages,
and eventually he went into a courtroom on the stand,
and they were testing his knowledge of Greek.
He claimed to be fluent, he claimed to be an expert.
It's like, can you just give us the letters
of the Greek alphabet?
It's like alpha, beta, omega.
They're like, you don't know Greek, do you?
He's like, I don't know Greek, I was lying about it.
Why, because he's afraid of getting in trouble.
He's afraid of being thrown in jail,
being crucified, not just dying, being crucified,
being tortured to death.
You mean to tell me Peter knew it was a lie,
he lied about the resurrection, and he's like,
you know what, I'm just gonna be crucified anyway.
That's ridiculous.
That doesn't make any sense.
And the Bible does not specifically state
all the apostles, but history will tell us
that most of them were martyred for what they believed.
A lot of them were martyred.
If none of them spoke to Jesus and it was all a lie,
why would they be willing to do that?
Doesn't make any sense.
Here's another example of being martyred in the Bible.
We see Stephen in Acts 7.
Stephen in Acts 7, verse 51.
Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised and hardened ears,
ye do always resist the Holy Ghost
as your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?
And they have slain them with show before
the coming of the just one,
of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.
So Stephen goes with this bold sermon to these people.
They kill them, they stone them to death,
but Stephen on the inside, he knew it's just a lie,
but I'm gonna pretend it's true anyway
while they're killing me.
That's absurd.
That doesn't make any sense.
No, these men, they saw the resurrected Savior.
They spoke to him.
They talked to him.
They knew it was true, and they didn't just see a vision.
He sat down and spoke to them and talked to them
and ate with them, and he expounded the Word of God
because they understood
the Old Testament scriptures more deeply.
And you mean to tell me,
well, they all just made it up.
That is absurd.
Go to your Bible, 2 Timothy 4.
I'll show you one other, 2 Timothy 4.
And you can look it up online.
I encourage you to do that.
Look at what history will tell us about the deaths
of these men, the apostles, and these people.
And you know what, when it comes to those
that are not directly mentioned in the Bible,
we cannot be 100% for certain,
but we can certainly be certain with Peter.
It directly says that he was martyred.
And I would say that since there's a lot of history
to verify of these famous people,
because you have to realize the closest followers of Jesus
were pretty famous historical characters,
and so when they write about
this is how this famous historical person died,
it's probably pretty accurate.
So for example, if you were to read about
how Julius Caesar died, you know what?
It's probably pretty accurate that he was betrayed
and that he was stabbed and attacked by a bunch of men.
Wouldn't you look at that and say, it's probably true?
Even though that took place before Jesus.
Why is that?
Because when they write about the death
of a famous person and many people write about it,
it's probably pretty accurate.
Maybe some of the finer details could be wrong,
but I'm pretty certain that Alexander the Great
died as a young man.
Why are you so certain?
You know why I'm certain?
Because he's a pretty famous person
that a lot of people wrote about it.
And look, when you're looking at famous people
like Peter, like James, like these people,
you can trust the history's probably pretty accurate.
2 Timothy 4, verse five.
And in 2 Timothy chapter four,
this is the last book of Paul the Apostle.
What I personally believe
is that Paul the Apostle knew he was about to die
because of the fact his execution date was set.
That is what history does tell us.
It doesn't directly say he was martyred,
but I believe that is the reason
why he knew he was about to die,
and you reap what you sow.
You help Christians get put to death,
you reap what you sow.
Same thing takes place to Paul the Apostle.
2 Timothy chapter four, verse five.
But what's thou in all things?
Endure affliction to the work of an evangelist.
Make full proof of thy ministry,
for I am now ready to be offered
and the time my departure is at hand,
I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
You know, when he says I am ready to be offered,
he's saying he is going to be tortured to death.
His date of execution is set.
He's ready to be offered.
The time my departure is at hand,
I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day,
and not to me only, but unto all them also
that love his appearing.
And look, famous people that knew Jesus,
that were his apostles, that were his disciples,
that were his closest followers,
many of them, many of them were executed
because they believed in the resurrection.
They saw Jesus, they spoke to him, they talked to him.
You mean to tell me they're all just making it up?
I'm sorry, but that does not make any sense whatsoever.
Go in your Bible to Acts chapter one, Acts one.
Now is this the primary reason
why we believe in the resurrection?
Of course not.
The primary reason we believe in the resurrection
is the Bible says it.
That's why we believe it.
But I want you to realize the faith that we have
is not a dumb and illogical faith that makes no sense.
You think of all the things throughout history
that the Bible is right on.
So for example, it used to be a lot of women
would die during pregnancy
because what would take place is in hospitals,
they would have like a tub of water
and you'd wash your hands in it,
and then you'd wash your hands
in the same water later on.
And so what's taking place is they're passing germs
and infecting women that are giving birth.
So many women die during pregnancy,
and yet the Bible says in Leviticus,
wash your hands under running water.
And in fact, when someone actually came with that
and said this was their suggestion,
this was hundreds of years ago,
they said that person was insane.
I don't remember the name of the person offhand,
but they said that person's insane,
they don't know what they're talking about,
and yet the Bible was way ahead of its time
with basic information like that.
The Bible is always ahead of its time,
the Bible is always accurate,
and the evidence and the proofs
actually match up what the Bible says,
even with the resurrection.
Because this could be something you think of,
we take it by faith,
because the Word of God says that,
and that is true,
and yet the Word of God says in Acts 1, verse 3,
there are many infallible proofs
that prove the resurrection took place.
And I'm telling you,
history proves the resurrection took place.
Archeology proves the resurrection took place.
We have the fact that his body was not in the tomb,
we have the fact of all the eyewitness accounts,
we have the fact that his disciples and apostles
were willing to die for this,
we also have the fact that the explosion of growth
in Christianity is something the world has never seen,
and it will never see again.
And it's not merely the growth in Christianity,
because remember, the resurrection of Jesus
also brought with it some changes in the law,
not of the moral law, but of the customs.
And this dramatically grew as a religion
with changed customs.
Now I want us to understand this,
because you see this all throughout the New Testament,
that they're confused on some things,
does this apply, does it not apply,
and you see that there's this Jewish fighting
against the changing of the customs.
And I want you to think about, in your life,
what is kind of the big public event you do
that shows your change in belief?
Baptism.
I'm sure many of you would say
that when you got baptized, your family was offended
and angry at you for getting baptized, right?
Your Catholic family was mad at you.
I mean, you could have said whatever you want,
but when you actually got baptized,
you're basically saying publicly,
I reject Catholicism, I believe on Christ.
And it offended your family,
it offended those that you knew,
because you're rejecting your old faith
and believing on Christ.
And in the early days of Christianity,
there are all these changes to the law
as a result of the resurrection.
I mean, now all of a sudden, they're eating pig meat.
Do you realize how controversial that was during that day?
Do you realize how much persecution you would get
as a Jewish person via ethnicity,
but a Christian via faith,
when they find out that you're eating pig meat?
So it's an explosion in Christianity,
but also with these changed beliefs,
how is that possible?
It's only possible because of the fact
that so many people saw the resurrection,
and they could not stop this massive growth
in this religion.
They couldn't produce the body.
They couldn't argue against the eyewitness accounts.
You've got this battle during that time,
the eyewitness accounts versus them saying
they stole the body.
And realize, those that are saying
they saw the resurrected Savior,
they are not people with political power.
They are not the presidents.
They are not the governors.
They are not the people
that would get the word out very well,
but the eyewitness accounts were so powerful
that people would say,
hey, I've had 10 people tell me
that they talked to Jesus.
I don't think they're all lying.
Eventually, it gets to the point where you say,
you know what, I'm a fool if I don't believe this.
And this is why, after the resurrection,
what do you see?
You see a lot of people converting to Christianity.
Now, of course, people still have to hear
an accurate presentation of the gospel,
but then what you're going to see in Acts 2
is this explosion.
Because go to Acts 1.
Let me show this to you.
Acts 1, verse 7.
And he said unto them,
it is not for you to know the times or the seasons
which the Father hath put in His own power.
But ye shall receive power
after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you,
and ye shall be witnesses on me
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea,
and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
I want you to realize
how ridiculous this statement might seem
to somebody listening.
You've got a small group of people.
There are a lot of people that are saved,
but there's a small group willing
to publicly line up with Jesus.
And he says, you're going to be witnesses unto me
unto the end of the earth?
Now, of course, we're a church,
and there are plenty of churches that are like-minded,
plenty of churches that are right on salvation,
but imagine if we were a small group
and nobody else in the world believed that we did.
And I were to stand up here and say,
you know what?
We're going to be witnesses
unto the end of the earth.
It would seem ridiculous.
How are we going to get that message out to everybody?
But then you go to Acts chapter 2,
Acts 2,
Acts chapter 2, verse 1.
And it says in Acts 2, verse 1,
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord in one place.
Now, the day of Pentecost is a very big religious event.
And what's taking place in Acts 2
is at a big religious event,
you have people that will visit from all over.
This is not the exact same thing,
but think about when we had the missions trip
just earlier last month, right?
We had people from around the world
that came to the missions trip
because it's a big event.
The day of Pentecost is a big event,
and there's people that are Jewish
by their ethnicity and their beliefs,
and they're coming to Jerusalem,
and they've heard about these events,
and I'm sure it's on everybody's mind.
Everybody's talking about Jesus,
regardless of their opinion.
But it doesn't mean these people are all saved.
But they come from all these countries
from under heaven, and it says in verse 2,
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven
as of a rushing mighty wind,
and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared on them clove and tongues
like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost
and began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And they were dwelling at Jerusalem,
Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
And there's people from all over,
and what takes place?
God gives them the ability
to speak in languages they did not know.
And guess what?
They speak in languages,
and the multitudes are getting saved in Acts chapter 2.
Drop down to verse number 41.
Acts 2, verse 41.
And it says in Acts 2, verse 41,
Then they that gladly receive his word were baptized,
and the same day they were added unto them
about 3,000 souls.
And they continued steadfast in the apostles' doctrine
and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.
Now it says in verse number 41,
the people that gladly received the word were baptized.
Does that say that everybody
that received the word was baptized?
No, it doesn't.
3,000 people gladly received the word of God,
but you don't have to gladly receive
the word of God to be saved.
You have to receive Him.
As many as received Him,
whether it's glad or not as glad.
And gladly or with joy is implying
that there's actually something to it.
So 3,000 people got baptized.
There was probably people who were there
and they didn't have a change of clothes
or they didn't want to get baptized
because baptism's a bit inconvenient.
And they just chose not to get baptized.
We don't know how many people got saved,
but here's what I'm saying.
In our modern day, do I think it's possible
for someone to get like 100 salvations in one day?
I don't believe that's possible.
I don't believe you can thoroughly give the gospel
and get 100 people saved.
But I don't know about during Acts chapter two
because the way I imagine it,
you'd have like 15 people just listening.
I mean, and they're listening intently like,
we've heard about all these miracles
and you're just showing them
and they're like, make sense, I believe it.
And you're like, how many do we count?
I mean, I guess they'll count like six of them,
but they all seem to get it.
It's like you have no idea
because they're all listening, they're getting it.
You say, why?
Because it's right after the resurrection,
there's all these miracles
and the ultimate proof was the resurrection.
And the only argument against it is,
well, they stole the body.
And if you were someone that didn't want to deny reality,
you'd be like.
It's like, and you know what?
I'm sure you think of all these references
in the Old Testament to the living God.
And now all of a sudden you're like,
I am the resurrection and the life, it makes sense.
It makes sense, I never thought about that.
Destroy this temple in three days, I will raise it up.
And as they're expounding these scriptures,
people are like, it makes sense.
This is what the Old Testament says.
And then they believed on Christ and got saved.
Many people got saved.
There was this explosion.
You say, why?
Because of the fact the resurrection is a fact.
Many infallible proofs.
I mean, you're there
and then you've got hundreds of people say,
I saw Jesus, I spoke to him, I saw him.
You'd be like, I don't think they're all lying.
You'd be insane to think that they're all lying.
Many infallible proofs.
And Christianity explodes,
but it doesn't just explode.
There's changed beliefs.
You say, why?
Because Jesus expounded the scriptures to them
and all of a sudden these things are making sense
and they're explaining it and you've got all these people
and they just changed their customs.
Why?
Because the resurrection's a fact.
And if you go on in the book of Acts,
you're gonna see Saul persecutes the church
and guess what?
It doesn't stop.
Stephen gets stoned, Saul persecutes the church.
They spread out.
They're preaching this everywhere.
Now remember, Peter,
before he knew about the resurrection
or even before Jesus was killed,
he doesn't wanna die.
And after the resurrection took place,
it's an event that is so real to him,
he spoke to Jesus where even though he was afraid,
he just stood up and he was bold.
And this is one of those things that if I believe
that if we were living during this time period,
we would have boldly been proclaiming Jesus also
because you would feel ashamed and horrible
and have such a guilty conscience
if you were not willing to line up.
I mean, look, imagine an event
where there is so much persecution
against believing on Christ,
it gets to the point where it's so much
that it forces you to say, you know what?
I also believe it.
Because it makes you so mad
as they're fighting against you.
And all of them were boldly standing up
and multitudes are getting saved
and then they're spreading out
and churches are spreading everywhere.
Now look, churches like that over there
have grown very quickly.
Yeah, like at one one millionth the rate
of Christianity after the resurrection.
All around the world, there are churches.
Now I get they're not all like us at all.
I get that most of these churches
have unsaved people in them,
but they would say they believe in the resurrection.
And now the belief of the resurrection of Jesus Christ
and a belief in Jesus,
it's all over the world that people believe this.
How is it possible that it spreads so rapidly?
Because here's the difference
between Islam and Christianity.
You know how Islam spread?
By force.
They force people to convert
and people are afraid for their lives
if they say they're not Muslim.
Christianity is the opposite.
You'd be afraid for your life
if you said you were a Christian.
And yet it exploded.
Why?
Because you saw the resurrected Savior,
you talked to him, you're like,
man, I've gotta spread this
and then the message goes everywhere.
Now look, these are four things that I mentioned.
I'm not saying these are the only proofs
of the resurrection,
but four things that I think are infallible proofs
that show us, yeah, the resurrection's a fact.
Number one, his body was no longer there.
I think that one's probably the strongest.
It's like all you have to do is show the body
and then they're excused.
They stole the body.
I mean, can you imagine that you're at a place
that's guarded by people with weapons
and then a few people with no weapons,
ordinary people that are not like Samson
with his superhuman strength,
just broke in and stole the body
and not only were they sleeping,
they didn't wake up when the tomb was rolled?
I mean, come on, you gotta be kidding me.
They would've woken up and there's a ton of them,
but none of them woke up at all
while they stole the body.
They just did it quietly.
We'll just quietly roll away the tomb.
Roll away this, I mean, you gotta be kidding me.
They just quietly did that
and nobody heard them whatsoever.
That's ridiculous.
The body wasn't there.
But there's also a multitude of eyewitness accounts,
not just people saying they believed in the resurrection,
but that they saw and spoke to Jesus.
Because you can say, well, I saw the resurrection
and ah, you just saw something.
I spoke to him.
He sat down, he talked with me.
He told me, hello, Thomas, quit doubting, right?
Eyewitness accounts.
Number three, because the disciples
were willing to die for this.
They wouldn't die for something that was a lie.
They obviously meant it when they saw.
They saw the resurrected savior.
And lastly, because of the explosion of Christianity
with these changed beliefs
is like nothing the world has ever seen
and the world is never gonna see
anything like that ever again.
And so look, why do we believe in the resurrection?
Because thus saith the Lord,
it's what the word of God says.
But I want you to realize our faith
is not a vain and stupid faith with no evidence.
Actually, even the resurrection of Jesus Christ
has many infallible proofs that show us
it was a real event.
Let's close in word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here this Easter
and help us to remember, you know,
not only the death of your son, Jesus Christ,
but also his resurrection
and that there are infallible proofs.
And help us to believe what the Bible says
because the Bible says it,
but help us also understand that, you know,
the things we believe are not stupid things
or not things that we have to take by faith,
but all evidence contradicts it,
but actually the evidence is on our side.
And help us today boldly go out,
please give us a fair weather
to boldly proclaim the resurrection
through the word of God
and get a lot of people saved
that are not yet trusting you.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.