Easter Sunday: The Best Explanation John 20

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For the last 2 ,000 years, people have wondered whether or not
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Jesus rose from the dead. This has been discussed by many people from all walks of life.
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This discussion has also taken place in the world of academia. New Testament scholars and history scholars have taken part in much debate.
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A Christian apologist by the name of William Lane Craig, and by the way, a Christian apologist is someone who defends the
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Christian faith, Craig has argued for the resurrection of Christ. He has stated that Christian and non -Christian scholars agree on four facts regarding the events of the weekend of Good Friday and Easter.
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Here are those four facts. Fact number one, after his crucifixion,
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Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in a tomb. Fact number two, on the
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Sunday after the crucifixion, Jesus' tomb was found empty by a group of his women followers.
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Fact number three, on different occasions, different individuals and groups experienced post -mortem appearances of Jesus.
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Fact number four, the original disciples suddenly and sincerely came to believe that Jesus was risen from the dead, despite their having every predisposition to the contrary.
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And what that means is that the disciples and all the Jews thought that the Messiah was going to come, but that he wasn't going to die and then rise again.
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They thought that he was going to come and conquer all of his foes. So they sincerely believed that Jesus was risen from the dead.
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So those four facts that I just read, almost all scholars, whether you're a Christian or a non -Christian, believe those to be true.
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Fact number four is the big one because scholars have largely concluded that the disciples did not lie.
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They truly believed they saw Jesus after his death. So how do you explain these appearances of Jesus?
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People have a natural bent that miracles do not happen. There was a movement that started in the 17th century known as the
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Enlightenment, when people concluded that miracles do not happen. So how do you explain this sincere belief of the disciples that they saw
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Jesus? Secular scholars have tried to explain this away.
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Here are three views that scholars have presented, and we are going to see the extremes that people try to go to in order to explain away the events of that Sunday.
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Some have said that Jesus did not die. He survived and appeared to them, but of course, we know that he died because the
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Gospels say that the soldiers pierced him and he bled out, and he could not have survived the spear being pierced through his side.
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In addition, when the centurion went to Pontius Pilate, Pontius Pilate asked him, is he dead? The soldier said, yes, he's dead, and these were trained killers.
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He would not have survived the crucifixion. Other scholars have said that after the death of Jesus, that the disciples saw visions of Jesus.
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So they didn't actually see him, but they saw visions of Jesus. Now, you might be able to believe this if maybe one or two people or maybe 10 saw
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Jesus after his death, but over 500 people? The New Testament says that over 500 people saw
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Jesus after he died. So we can write off that view as far -fetched. Thirdly, and this is the best one, or the funniest one, scholar
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William Lane Craig, who I already mentioned, was debating a scholar who said that Jesus had a twin brother and that that is who they saw.
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Sometimes scholars are the least intelligent people around, when you hear a view like that.
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So these are explanations that scholars have tried to offer, and the extremes they go to in order to explain what happened on Easter Sunday speaks volumes.
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What we will see today is that the best explanation for the events of that day is that Jesus really was raised from the dead.
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We are going to look at the evidence from John's gospel in John chapter 20. My goal is to show you that every effort to explain away the resurrection of Christ falls short, and John's testimony and documentation, along with that of the other gospel writers, is authentic and should be believed.
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So the proposition this morning, the big idea, is Jesus being raised from the dead is the best explanation for the events occurring on Easter Sunday.
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So if you have a Bible, please turn with me to John chapter 20. The four reasons,
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I have four reasons why Jesus being raised from the dead is the best explanation. So we're going to look at the evidence from John's gospel, and the first reason why is that grave robbers did not take the body.
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Let's look at the first ten verses of John chapter 20. Now on the first day of the week,
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Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
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So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the
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Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.
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Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
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And stooping to look in, he saw the linen clothes lying there, but he did not go in.
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Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen clothes lying there.
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And the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lined with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.
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Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. And he saw and believed.
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For as yet, they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.
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As I mentioned in the introduction, for 2 ,000 years, people have speculated what happened to the body of Jesus.
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In the intro, I mentioned that some believe Jesus walked out of the tomb himself. Another popular view along these lines is that grave robbers came and took the body.
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In order to determine if this is true, we need to look at the evidence from the account found in the
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Bible. Many have speculated that random grave robbers came and took the body. An even more popular view is that the disciples themselves came and took the body.
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Do you know where this originated? It originated with the Jewish leaders, the very ones who delivered
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Jesus up to be crucified. In the passage that Barb read earlier from Matthew 28, verses 11 -15, while they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.
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And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers.
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And said, tell people, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.
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And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.
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So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the
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Jews to this day. The Jewish leaders lied, and this has been a myth that has been spread to this day.
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Many Jews and non -Jews still believe this, and it originated with the
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Jewish leaders. Now, the Jewish leaders were eyewitnesses to the miracles of Jesus.
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They saw him doing things that no one else has done. At this moment, they probably realized that he was resurrected from the dead, that something did happen.
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So why did they believe? It's a good question to ask. Well, the answer is they hated him.
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And their hearts were hard. Jeremiah 17, 9 says that man's heart is deceitfully wicked, far more wicked than we could possibly imagine.
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And so instead of believing like they should have, they spread a lie. So let's look at the evidence about how we know the body was not stolen.
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We're going to first look at verses 2 through 5 of John 20. So Mary ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom
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Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.
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So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going to the tomb. Both of them were running together.
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But the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. By the way, it's comical there that John includes that.
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We know that John is faster than Peter, so we can settle that debate.
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And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Verse 5 says that linen cloths were lying in the tomb.
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If a grave robber were stealing the body, do you think they would take the time to take off his clothes?
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Of course, they would have been in a hurry. They would have grabbed the body and rushed out of the tomb.
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When thieves steal, they do it quickly. And so, by the fact that the clothes were actually taken off of Jesus, it tells you, the evidence points to this not being grave robbers.
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The second piece of evidence that suggests that this was not grave robbers is found in verses 6 and 7.
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It says that then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not in line with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.
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So Jesus, in addition to having cloths all over his body, he had a face cloth as well.
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And the face cloth was folded. Okay, I don't know if any of you have ever been robbed, but thieves typically don't clean up after their mess.
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Jesus folded the face cloth. By the way, John is including this for a reason.
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He's telling you this really happened. Jesus did not. The body was not stolen.
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That's why he includes these details. Jesus took off the buried clothes and neatly folded the face cloth.
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And Jesus did this, too, so that we would believe and not doubt. God often works this way.
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He gives us enough evidence to believe. But he wants us to have faith, too.
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So much of our faith is functional certainty. We don't have all of the evidence, but we have enough to believe.
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And he expects us to trust him. And this is a good example of that. He has given us enough.
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We know that John believed by what verse 8 says, as John and Peter run to the tomb.
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Verse 8 says, So the moment
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John looks into the tomb, he believes. Even though he didn't yet understand the scriptures, he believed that Jesus was raised from the dead.
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And Peter may have believed at this point by what Luke 24 12 says. Luke wrote that Peter marveled at what he saw.
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So he may have believed. We don't know for sure. But we know for sure that John did.
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And they believed, at least John did, even though he did not understand how a resurrected Messiah fit in with what the
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Old Testament said about the Messiah. Because remember, they thought there was going to be a conquering king coming through.
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They didn't expect him to die and rise again. But he knew that the body had not been there, that he was raised from the dead.
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So the best explanation for what happened on this Sunday is that Jesus really rose from the dead.
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The first reason why is that we can conclude grave robbers did not take the body. The second reason why the best explanation for what happened on this
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Sunday is that Jesus really rose from the dead, is that women played a prominent role in the events of that morning.
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We are going to see in the following verses that Mary did not see a stranger. But she saw the man she knew well.
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Then we are going to look at the significance of women playing such a prominent role in the events that took place on that Sunday.
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Verses 11 through 18. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb.
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And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
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They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my
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Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw
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Jesus standing. But she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,
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Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener?
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She said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.
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Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned to him and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher.
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Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them,
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I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
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I have seen the Lord. And that he had said these things to her.
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The narrator, the Apostle John of this account, states that Jesus was standing near her, but Mary did not know immediately that it was him.
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This suggests that while it was still him, Jesus looked a little different than what he looked like during his earthly life.
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And this is because during Jesus' 30 plus years of ministry, or the time that he spent on earth, he had a earthly body.
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He had a body like you and me, a body that was weak, a body that could get sick, a body that could die.
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But after the resurrection, Jesus had a heavenly body. He had a spiritual body, a body that was still physical, but it had power to it.
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It was a different kind of body, an indestructible one. In verse 15,
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Jesus talks to her. Mary thinks that Jesus is the gardener and has taken the body somewhere.
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By the way, this suggests that Jesus looked human, the fact that he looked like a gardener. Okay, if you're wondering what the future body looks like, it looks human.
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The moment that Mary knew that it was Jesus was when he said her name in verse 16. He says to her,
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Mary, it's at that point that Mary recognized that it was him.
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And this shows that Jesus knew her. The fact that he knew her name and the way that he said it persuaded her that it was really him.
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If you think about it, we all have loved ones who knew the Lord that one day you will be reunited with.
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And the way that you see them in the future, they might look different. I don't know, I'm speculating that they might look different than the way they look during their time on earth.
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But just imagine them walking up to you and saying your name. And you say, okay, I know who you are.
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This is my dad. This is my mom. This is my friend who died far too early.
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Jesus and Mary had a close relationship during their life on earth. And when Jesus says her name,
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Mary knows that this is Jesus. In verses 17 and 18,
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Jesus tells Mary to tell the disciples and that he will be ascending to the Father. Mary is the first person that Jesus appears to.
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The second people that Jesus appeared to were the other women described in Matthew 28 .9.
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And there's a list of women in Matthew 28 .9. In Matthew 28 .9,
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it says, Jesus met them and said greetings. And they came and told them, took a hold of his feet and worshiped him.
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And this was a long list of women that Jesus appeared to. The fact that Jesus appeared to women first is significant because the testimony of women in the first century was not trustworthy.
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Women were the ones who found the tomb empty to begin with. Now, the first person to see
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Jesus is a woman, Mary Magdalene. If the writers of the gospels who wrote the gospels years later were trying to make up an account of his resurrection, they would not have made up that women found his body first.
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They would have made sure it was someone who was more prominent in society.
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Maybe someone like a political leader in that region, in Judea.
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But it was not. It was common, ordinary women. The disciples recorded the true account of Christ's resurrection as it really happened.
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And they documented that women were the first ones to see him. And the reason they did that is because this is how it precisely played out.
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Like a historian, they documented how it happened. Once again, we see that the evidence suggests that a story is not being fabricated here.
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The account was documented carefully, not only by John, but also the other gospel writers.
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Women playing an important role is precisely what happened. And that's what they wrote.
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This is the second reason the resurrection of Christ is the best explanation for the events on Easter Sunday, that women played a prominent role.
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The third reason that the resurrection of Christ is the best explanation for the events on Easter Sunday is the eyewitnesses did not see a lookalike.
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They did not see a lookalike. As I mentioned in the introduction, Christian apologist
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William Lane Craig, who argues effectively for the legitimacy of the resurrection of Christ, once debated a man who agreed with him that the disciples thought they saw
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Jesus, only he said that the man that he debated said that it was a twin brother.
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Once again, you see the extremes that people go to in order to explain away what happened. That is why
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I am demonstrating that the evidence suggests he really was raised. For believers, this should fill you with confidence.
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And if you are not a believer in Christ, it should show you that this is credible and that this should not be an obstacle for you not to believe in Jesus.
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Now in verses 19 through 23, we are going to see that the same person who was crucified was the same one who appeared to them.
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Verses 19 through 23. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the
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Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you.
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When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the
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Lord. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the father has sent me, even so I am sending you.
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And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.
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If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.
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In these verses, the disciples were hiding because they feared what the Jews might do to them.
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By the way, they were terrified, the disciples were. They're not going to make up a story.
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They were terrified. They feared for their lives. And so the start of Christianity had to have come from a resurrection because these terrified people all of a sudden had all this boldness and they preached the gospel everywhere.
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That's another piece that I didn't even have in my sermon, but just pointing that out. Now, Peter and John would have been absent because Luke 24, 12 says that they left after the women told the disciples the tomb was empty.
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But the rest of the disciples would have been present. This is likely the fifth appearance that Jesus made.
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He appeared to Mary, the other women, the two on the road to Emmaus, which is described in the gospel of Luke.
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He then appeared to Peter, then these disciples in these verses. So as the disciples are sitting there, the rumors that he was raised from the dead are proved true.
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Jesus appears to them. Now the doors were locked and Jesus appears to them. So it is a miracle that Jesus is able to appear to them.
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So he probably went through the door, which tells you something about the new body that he had.
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Now in verse 20, Jesus shows them his hands and his side. This is an obvious reference to the wounds that he had after his crucifixion.
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It was at this point that they knew it was him. If you look at verse 20, then the disciples were glad when they saw the
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Lord. The same man who went to the cross and died is the same man who stood before them.
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When the apostle John, who wrote the book of Revelation and also wrote this, saw a vision of heaven, it says that he saw a lamb who appeared to have been slain, which means that Jesus today has a body with the marks of the crucifixion still on it.
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And so you might ask, well, why is that? Doesn't he have a new, perfect, glorified body? Well, the answer is,
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I think, that God wants to remind us forever what
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Jesus has done for us so that we will always worship Jesus for what he did for us on the cross.
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And so I think that's why he still has the mark from the spear in his side and the marks of the nails in his hands and his feet.
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In this appearance that Jesus made to his disciples, we can conclude that they really did see
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Jesus. The wounds that he still had proved it. It wasn't a lookalike.
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It was him. So we can conclude that the disciples did not see a lookalike or a twin brother.
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They saw Jesus. This is the third reason. The best explanation for the events on Easter Sunday is that Jesus was raised from the dead.
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The fourth and final reason that the best explanation for the events on Easter Sunday is that Jesus was raised from the dead is the greatest doubters were persuaded.
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The greatest doubters were persuaded. As we have seen, as different people saw
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Jesus, they believed one by one that this really was him. There was one disciple who had yet to see
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Jesus. His name was Thomas. The phrase, a doubting
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Thomas, you might hear people say that from time to time, comes from this account in John's gospel.
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Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared. We will see how Jesus appeared to him in verses 24 through 29.
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But let's first look at the first two verses here. 24 and 25. Now Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin, was not with them when
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Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side,
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I will never believe. Thomas did not believe their word, that they had seen the
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Lord. He would only believe if he could see Jesus himself.
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You heard this in today's world. I'm only going to believe if I can see it. If I can't see it,
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I'm not going to believe. This was Thomas's attitude. I'm not going to believe it unless I see it with my own eyes.
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So in verses 26 through 27, we see this account. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them.
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Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.
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Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side.
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Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, my Lord and my
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God. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
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As Jesus appears to him, he tells him to put his hands in his wounds and Thomas finally believes.
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It took a lot for Thomas to believe, but he finally did after seeing Jesus. And it is important to note here what it says in verse 28.
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In verse 28, Thomas says, my Lord and my God. He calls
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Jesus God here. Thomas knew Jesus was not just a man.
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He knew that he was God also. And this is important because in order for Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins, he needed to be
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God and man. This is how to resolve the conflict between a holy
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God and sinful mankind. He is the mediator between both and reconciles them through his death and resurrection.
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First Timothy 2 .5 says that there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man
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Christ Jesus. So he's God and man and he brings us together. If you don't believe that Jesus is
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God, what he did is not sufficient to pay for the sins of the world. So that's important to note.
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In verse 29, Jesus says something that we need to hear this morning because every one of us is in this boat.
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Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
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Of course, none of us have seen Jesus with our own eyes. None of us were there 2 ,000 years ago when this took place.
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We are depending on the testimony of eyewitnesses. Jesus says we are blessed if we receive their testimony, if we believe it.
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So my question to you is, do you believe? All of us have a propensity to doubt because seeing something supernatural like what happened on Easter Sunday is not common.
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We don't see people rising from the dead on a weekly basis. Most people go through their whole life without seeing a supernatural event.
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But what we have to realize is these eyewitnesses are trustworthy and miracles do happen.
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The creation of the universe, the fact that you're here right now by the way, is a miracle. The world and everything in it that you see came from the supernatural.
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God created it. That is the only explanation that makes sense. All these other theories of how we came to be, they're laughable.
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I mean, let's be honest, they're laughable because they're impossible. For the universe to have created itself and all of its complexity is impossible.
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So when you realize that the very existence of all that we see came about through a supernatural event, creation, it is not hard to believe that God is able to do a miracle within his creation.
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You hear it said that people don't rise from the dead. For the most part, that is true.
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But 2 ,000 years ago, it happened. And the question is, what are you going to do about it?
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That's the question that God is asking to the whole world. And it is the only conclusion that makes sense.
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You see the extremes that people go to to try to explain it away. None of them seem likely.
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They're all far -fetched. So with all this in mind, our doubt should be taken away.
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I mentioned that these eyewitnesses are trustworthy. People are not going to suffer and die for something they made up.
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People make things up if they gain from it. It happens all the time. Look at the life the disciples lived.
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They suffered and they died. Church tradition tells us that all of the disciples, except for John, died for their witness to Christ.
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And they suffered horrible deaths. And you think, well, John must have had a good. He didn't have a good.
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He was sent into exile on the island of Patmos. The apostle
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Paul, who was one of the greatest persecutors of the church, was on the road to Damascus to persecute more
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Christians, and Jesus appeared to him. And he went from being the greatest opponent to the Christian faith to the greatest defender of the
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Christian faith because he really saw Jesus. And some people say that he's the best Christian ever. Paul, because of his missionary work in the first century.
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And Paul, by the way, died in the 60s, in 60 -some AD, in Rome by being executed.
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People do not risk it all for a lie. They believe they saw Jesus and gave 100 % for him in their life.
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And so should we. Our life should be for him and no one else. How do we know that Jesus lives and that he lives in us?
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Well, there's a famous hymn that says, he lives in me. You've probably heard that hymn.
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How do I know that he lives? Because he lives in me. Anyone who believes in Christ, he has changed.
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He has made you a new creation. You know that it wasn't just external moral change.
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This was an inward change that happened to you. So no, you were not there, but you believe because when you believed, he gave you the
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Holy Spirit and your life has changed significantly from before you believed.
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Anyone who here today who's believed, that is your story. As Jesus says, you are blessed if you believe and have not seen him.
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So all of you who are here today and have believed in him, you are blessed because you haven't seen him, but you do believe that it happened and you're trusting in him for your salvation, for the forgiveness of your sins.
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Over 500 people saw the resurrected Christ and we are relying on their testimony.
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And their testimony is trustworthy. All of the evidence points that way.
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Thomas looked at the resurrected Christ and his doubt was taken away. When you look at the mountain of evidence that he was raised, your doubt too should be taken away.
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So this sermon this morning is making the argument that the best explanation for the events on Easter Sunday is that Jesus really was raised from the dead.
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I have presented many reasons why Christ resurrecting is the best explanation and I've zeroed in on four reasons from John's gospel.
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Grave robbers did not take the body of Jesus. Women played a prominent role in the events of that morning.
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Eyewitnesses did not see a lookalike and the greatest doubters were persuaded to believe.
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Some of you who are here today, you have believed this. And some of you have believed for 60, 70 years and you still believe to this day and you will always believe.
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But there's some of you who are here today who maybe you don't believe. And I hope that this will show you that this really did happen and that the only thing that's keeping you from coming to God is the hardness of your heart.
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And so my prayer for you is that the Holy Spirit would soften your heart so that you would believe and that you would see that this is not an intellectual reason.
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It's because of your heart that you don't believe. And don't come to faith just because this is credible.
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Yes, it's credible. But come to faith because you need a Savior. And Jesus died for your sins.
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The Apostle John at the end of chapter 20 explains why he wrote his gospel, including the appearances of Christ to others after his resurrection.
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Verses 30 and 31, he says, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.
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But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
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Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. That's why he wrote the gospel so that you would believe.
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So do you believe? That's the question that I'm asking this morning.
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If you genuinely believe, you will have life in his name. Eternal life.
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Your sins will be forgiven. The righteousness of Christ is given to you so that when
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God looks at you, he doesn't see you as a sinner. He sees Christ.
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And therefore, he can let you into his kingdom when you die. The hope of Christians is the resurrection of the dead.
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In 1 Corinthians 15, we read that Jesus is the firstfruits. He's the first one to rise from the dead.
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But a day is coming when all who belong to Jesus will also be raised from the dead.
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Imagine going to that cemetery, which is a mile down the road, and seeing bodies come out, being ripped out of the ground and glorified.
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That's going to happen someday. It happened to Jesus 2 ,000 years ago. And all who belong to him one day will be raised with him.
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And you will be raised with a body that will never be destroyed, that will be indestructible. Jesus was raised 2 ,000 years ago.
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And when he returns, he will raise you also, if you believe. So this wonderful future is yours this morning, if you believe.
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for Jesus.
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Thank you that he paid the penalty for our sins. Thank you that he truly was raised from the dead.
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Thank you, Lord, for the change that you bring to us when we believe. Thank you for who you are making us to be.
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And thank you for the future promise of the resurrection of the dead. Prepare us each day for that.
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And Lord, anybody here who came here today and doesn't believe, I pray, Lord, that you would, all the barriers,
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Lord, that are keeping them from believing, I pray that those would just be knocked down and that they would come to you and fall into the arms of Jesus after believing in him.
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That's my prayer, Lord. And that for believers, I pray that you would give us confidence that this message, this news that we share is true.
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It's history. It happened. And it changed the world forever. In Jesus' name, amen.