Resurrection

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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That's findmassmoney .gov. On this edition of The Wrap Report, I was recently on the

01:06

Hearts for the Lost podcast. Hearts for the Lost is a ministry devoted to evangelism.

01:12

We're going to be talking about specifically the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was a very informative podcast and I hope that you guys will enjoy it.

01:22

Check out Hearts for the Lost as well. Great ministry. Striving for Eternity partners with them and does things with them.

01:28

We love that ministry. And so, hope you guys enjoy this episode of The Wrap Report.

01:37

Welcome to The Wrap Report with your host, Andrew Rappaport, where we provide biblical interpretation and application.

01:44

This is a ministry of Striving for Eternity and the Christian podcast community. For more content or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

01:58

Welcome back to Hearts for the Lost, the podcast. This is J .R. Jim. I did it again, didn't

02:03

I, Brian? Jimmy De Los Santos in Dallas, Texas. And I'm with. Brian Nye in Indianapolis, Indiana.

02:09

How are you doing, Jimmy? I'm doing good, Brian. I'm doing good. Hey, it's going to be 105 degrees on this

02:16

Saturday when we're hosting. We're coming to Dallas, man. I'm so excited. Coming to Dallas to do a

02:22

Hearts for the Lost compelled conference here at Ecclesia Church in Dallas, in Mesquite, Texas. And it's going to be 105 degrees out there.

02:29

So this is going to be fun for you guys. We planned this well, didn't we? We did.

02:34

A little outside activity. I'll be all right. But you guys were showing me, the team was sending in the temperatures from whatever town that they're in.

02:41

And so Brad is showing a hundred and some degrees where he's at. A hundred and nine in Iowa. Yeah. In Iowa.

02:47

Iowa. Man, that's crazy. And so you have it. You have it pretty hot there as well, but not nearly.

02:53

Yeah. It was in the low hundreds. But yeah, let's not give AOC any more gunfire. So let's move on.

02:59

Yeah. Hey, Brian. So real quick. I know we got some things to talk about.

03:04

A lot of things going on. We say that to the end of the show because we got a special show that we're doing right now.

03:10

But before we get started on that, tell us, what's the purpose of what we what we do here at Hearts for the Lost? Yeah, man,

03:15

I'm so excited for this show. But this is really the mission of Hearts for the Lost, the podcast. What we keep trying to do is just to excite, educate and equip believers to share their faith biblically.

03:26

And we're going through some of the things today. We're going to go through what we're calling the questioning series.

03:33

When you do step out and you do share your faith, skeptics sometimes, okay, all times will pose questions on why they either don't believe or not sure where they are.

03:44

So we're trying to go through some of the top ones. Right. So we've got questioning God. We went through questioning God series, went through questioning the word.

03:51

Jimmy, you and I flushed out the deity of Christ when they question, is Jesus God? And that and then also, is he the only way and not the

04:00

Oprah way? Right. So we flushed all that out. But I am absolutely ecstatic today with our guest,

04:08

Jimmy. I mean, you and I, when we met that day in L .A. in 2018, this man was there, too, which is kind of cool.

04:17

But Mr. Andrew Rappaport, let me let me just tell you who we got today. If you don't know, he's with Striving for Eternity Ministries.

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And he'll let me know if I left something out. Also many. I think he's got up to three podcasts now, but the

04:31

Rappaport or I'm sorry, Andrew Rappaport's Rappaport is the big one.

04:37

If you want to be a podcaster and Thursday night is Apologetics Live on YouTube and also on the podcast.

04:44

I know of three books and the three I've read and share. And we've talked about already on this podcast many times.

04:52

What do we believe? A systematic theology book, really good book. What do they believe when you start getting some of these apologetic conversations and then also sharing good news with Mormons?

05:03

He's got a really good chapter in there. And like I said, he was team lead for Ray Comfort's ambassador,

05:10

Living Waters Ambassador Academy. Ladies and gentlemen, no one other than Mr. Andrew Rappaport.

05:17

Yeah, that was way too much. Thanks. What's up, man?

05:23

Good. Good. Yeah, that was the first time we met was at the Living Waters Ambassador Academy.

05:30

And you actually knew the podcast. So I was like, oh, you were that listener. I was always wondering who that one listener was that was listening to my little bitty podcast.

05:40

You know, Andrew, we met. I remember being on the bus. We met in at the same time, 2018 at Ambassadors Academy.

05:49

And I remember on the bus after after it was all over, we're headed back. The bus kind of broke out in song.

05:56

I don't know if you remember that. That that was an interesting that was an interesting thing to see a whole bunch of evangelists breaking out in the song after having had such a good day out witnessing and stuff.

06:09

But I remember you were sitting like right there close to me. It was it was an interesting day for me. Right. Very, very positive influence.

06:18

Right. Great comfort, living waters, all those guys. What we did. And that was the first time I met you. Of course,

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I was just a little fish at that time. Still am. You know, it's just it's just one of those things.

06:28

Probably didn't even recognize the fact that I was, you know, right there or anything like that. But that's that's the first time

06:35

I recognize it. You knew that or not? I didn't. You know, I meet a lot of people.

06:41

And so I don't always remember the first time. But what we did after that was we brought

06:46

Brian out to New York and said, OK, you you really want to get some evangelism skills.

06:52

You come to Union Square, New York City. Midtown. Oh, yeah. I've always said if you can evangelize in Union Square, you can evangelize anywhere.

07:02

I mean, you're going to deal with everything. Everything is out there and they're all together. They're all against the gospel.

07:10

Well, it's right outside of NYU. Is that Union Square? No, that was Washington Square. Yeah, we start we go there during the day because you get all the intellectual discussions.

07:18

And then 10 blocks up, we go to Union Square and it's as far from intellectual as you can get.

07:27

Wow. I mean, it's that of an extreme. You could be spending the day debating a

07:33

PhD professor in physics and then go 10 blocks up later that night talking about a guy that's created his own religion out of light.

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And that's our friend Solomon. You'll remember him. Solomon's been heckling me for 13 years.

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That's that's when you know you're heckler by name. You know, I his he had a child.

07:57

I got his child, you know, a gift. It's really interesting when you go to the same fishing hole.

08:04

Right. Week after week, year after year. You know, folks, you guys know this because you go regular places.

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And but for your audience, if you're if you go to a regular fishing hole, man, you get to know the regulars there.

08:18

Like I know we used to go to the mall once a month. And actually, we went three times a month because what we did was you're only allowed once a month.

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But I went with under my church name, striving fraternity name and another church name. And there was a high school kid, high school kids.

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We'd always be in the mall. We'd always be sharing the gospel with them. And they would just be it's a joke to them.

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They don't take it serious. You know, there's one week where they all came up to us and they said, hey, we're so glad you were here.

08:47

We look for you last weekend on Friday and Saturday. We look for you last night. We're so glad you guys are here.

08:53

We got questions for you. Like these guys usually make fun of us. So, you know, my buddy

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Pat says, why? What's up? Because one of the guys goes, a friend of ours died the other week, two weeks ago.

09:05

And they brought on all these, you know, guidance counselors to help us out. But none of them have real answers.

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We want to know what happens after we die. You know why they did that? Because they knew we'd be there.

09:18

They knew who was going to tell them the truth. That's the advantage of a regular fishing hole.

09:24

I tell you, when I went to New York with you, bro, we've always told our listeners, you're going to get a little nervous.

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And I couldn't even feel my tongue when I was with you that day. It was like the most nervous

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I've ever been. And especially with you and Anthony and Jorge. And I can't remember the other two.

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One from Chicago, one from Dallas. But yeah, it was so mind numbingly scary.

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But stepping into it once I got up on the box and once he got into it, it's like, all right, Holy Spirit, you're going to have to do this.

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And the reliance upon was just an amazing experience. And you're right. From Washington Square was all the intellectual, evolution, scientists, whatever.

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And then you square bed. And I'll never forget, I was up on the box and those people playing chess got in a fight and people were like scrambling.

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And I look at Anthony, I'm like, what do I do? He goes, preach the law. I'm like, OK. Yes, sir.

10:17

So it was awesome. But I tell you, you've got to tell this story, Andrew, because we always tell people when you're sharing your faith, you might not always see the results.

10:27

You told a story on a cast. I can't remember which one. It was the Mark Dever protege.

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He gave his testimony of the street preacher at the university. Can you give a short story of that? At my seminary, they have a conference.

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They'd have a conference every year, a leadership conference, and they had Mark Dever speak. And what Mark did, before he got up to speak, every time he had one of his interns, his pastor interns, get up and share their testimony.

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So there's one gentleman gets up and shares his testimony that 18 years ago he was at the University of Pennsylvania.

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He was at a place called The Hub. Actually, Pittsburgh is where he was. And so he's at a place called

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The Hub. And he had heard this open air preacher just preaching. He got so angry with the guy.

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He was yelling at the guy. And he went home and he went back home. And he was so convicted with what the guy said.

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A couple of days or weeks later, he ends up going and pulling a Bible off the shelf and reading it. And he gets saved.

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He gets saved. He ends up going to seminary. He's now an intern for Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D .C.

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And he's traveling around at conferences with Mark. And so I walked up to him and said, look, 18 years ago, there were not many of us doing that.

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It was before Ray Comfort was really known. And it's just, I mean, I didn't know who

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Ray was when I started doing it. There were a lot of others. I said, there's not a lot of us that do this. Give me all the details and let me see if I can find out who that preacher was.

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And so I put through the different networks, social media and things like that. And a woman contacted me and said, hey, you know,

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I think I might know who that was. My husband goes out evangelizing with a guy that goes to University of Pittsburgh and has been going there for like 25, 30 years.

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And so she put me in touch with the guy and I said, okay, what nights would you have been out there?

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I'd always be out on, it was either Friday or Saturday night. So I explained to him, like this is the spot where he would go.

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And I said, well, I would like to introduce you to someone that probably got saved under your preaching.

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And so I was able to get them connected by email and introduce these two gentlemen who didn't know 18 years prior.

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They thought they'd never see each other again, never talk to each other. Here's this evangelist that is thinking like, you know, who knows who got saved?

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And now he gets to find out that one of the guys is now a pastor from what he did.

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And he had no idea. It was just wonderful to see. That's awesome, man.

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And that just encourages me and it should encourage the listeners, our family, that man, just sharing your faith, you never know what

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God's going to do, right? It's the word, it's the spirit that cracks our heart. So it's just us to be faithful and sharing our faith, answering some questions, but again, not winning the argument, getting back to the gospel, and then let

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God do the rest. So, bro, that story is so awesome for me. Thank you for telling us. And if we're going to the same place, as we're saying,

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I go to Union Square, I would go year after year after year, and the regulars there knew who

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I was. They knew me by name, they knew me on social media, they would follow me, they would follow people that have contacted me, one way or another, either through the ministry, they'd go to the website or Facebook or something to let me know they got saved.

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People who had been heckling me for years, you know, seven, eight, nine years of heckling, and then like,

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I needed to reach out to you because I gave you such a hard time and I want you to know I just got baptized last week.

14:17

Oh, that is, yeah, that's good stuff. Matt, that's why we do it, right? Right, Jimmy? Yeah, that is exactly why we do it.

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But I got to say, I'm hungry for New York now. I hear this. I'm sitting there going,

14:30

OK, I hope somebody that has a church somewhere in the New York area reaches out to Hearts of the

14:35

Lost, brings us out because I'd like to, you know, take an extra day and go and check that out because that'd be something else.

14:41

But I've never been to New York. Don't know what it's like, but that Northeast when we went to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, I've been to Boston before, tried some witnessing out there.

14:49

I tell you what, man, the way that people in that region of the country are just,

14:57

I told the story on the last episode of that guy just, we're done here, you know, and stomped off.

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And I'm like, wow, that was something. And all it was, was, you know, God considers blasphemy to be something that is very serious.

15:13

Well, at least that's what men say, because men put words in his mouth. I'm like, OK. So that was that was an interesting that was an interesting little thing that happened there.

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So in Pennsylvania, when we went out there, I found that that was even though it's a small little town,

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I found that there was quite a few people that were just like, yeah, I don't want this. I don't want this. I don't want this. I'm in the

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Bible Belt. I think I get a lot more chances to go all the way through the gospel, get to the place where I can share

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Jesus Christ with others. And so that's what we want to do. But, you know, one thing I think, Brian, that I don't

15:45

I don't know this ever happens here in Texas, that someone would doubt the resurrection. But have you ever had someone doubt the resurrection?

15:53

Interesting you ask. And I was going to kind of do a subtle to you there. But all right. But yeah, no, this weekend, my wife

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Jane and I and Heath are with Hearts for Lost intern. There's a

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July 4th it's called Carmel Fest here. A bunch of people booze and then fireworks later.

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Anyway, I thought it was a great time to do a little date time and go hand out tracks to people.

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So we did that and actually put down Andrews. Sorry about that. But, yeah, so with hand out tracks and then

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I saw a booth that had for a mosque that had just opened up and Fisher's, which is a city right next door.

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So I meandered on over there to start asking questions. And lo and behold, we really got start coming up theology.

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Three things they brought up. I asked them, what are the three things you'd like to ask a Christian or go after if we had a chance to debate?

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They said first, the deity of Christ or the Trinity. Second, is he the only way?

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There are multiple ways. And then third, the big one was the resurrection and really the death burial and resurrection, right?

16:58

The death, they said, and then the swoon theory. And then was he really buried or not? Is he an actor? And then the true bodily resurrection.

17:05

So with that nice little transition there, Andrew. Before you get going, for the, you know, some of the crowd that maybe just getting into this, a mosque is related to what religion?

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Just so people know. Oh, Muslim or Islam. Yeah, Islam. We want to make sure anybody listening that doesn't know exactly what a mosque refers to.

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This is where the Muslims go to worship. And so that that's the kind of questions that they would have. But go ahead, Brian.

17:33

Yeah, no. So it was just interesting. These are the questions of the last couple events

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I've been at, even the anti -abortion a couple Saturdays ago, went to a

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Pride festival the week before. These questions come up, these questioning, you know, question the

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Bible question and God. But resurrection came up hard. So this is something I think we we're going to hammer tonight and just would love

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Andrew's expertise because you've been witnessing on the street. You've probably heard it a million times more than we have and just get your perspective and help our family of listeners weave through when they get this question.

18:12

Maybe some verses we can go to. And and yeah, man, just let's just open it up and start talking about the resurrection.

18:18

So let me say this. He's going to help me out a whole lot because, again, like I said, I'm in the Bible belt. I don't get a lot of pushback on the resurrection.

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But, Andrew, just to start us off, does it matter? Does it matter that the resurrection happened or not?

18:33

Well, let's see what Paul has to say in Romans 10, 9 and 10.

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That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, if he stopped there, we might go,

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OK, but he doesn't. He says, if you confess and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

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For with the heart one believes resulting in righteousness, but with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation.

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So Paul is saying there's two things. If someone's going to be saved, there's two things. They have to believe in their heart that they have to confess with their mouth

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Jesus is God and believe in their heart that he was raised from the dead. So Paul's saying, hey, there's two things you need to know.

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Resurrection is one of them. In fact, he's got an entire chapter in 1 Corinthians 15 dedicated to the resurrection because his argument in 1

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Corinthians 15 is basically if Jesus didn't rise from the dead then we're dead in our sin.

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Like, we're of all men in vain. I mean, we're wasting our time. We're wasting all the energy that we put toward trying to please

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God, please Christ and then if he's dead and he isn't resurrected then we're wasting our time.

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It's all null and void. So all of Christianity rests on the resurrection. The resurrection is the thing that vindicated and is what

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Jesus said that it is what vindicates everything he said. So he said he has the power to forgive sin.

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That he was going to go to his father's house and prepare a place for us. That he would be the judge of the world and all of these things hinge on the resurrection.

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He made that connection. So if he didn't raise from the dead then how would we know that we're forgiven of our sins?

20:28

How do we know we're going to rise from the dead? He was the first fruits. So the way that he set the example in his resurrection is for us to know that just as he rose from the dead there will be a time we rise from the dead.

20:45

Wow. That's good. You referenced 1 Corinthians 15 I want to read a little excerpt to that because I think that's really powerful.

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This is 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'm reading verses 12 through 19. This is what it says.

20:58

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

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But if there is no resurrection of the dead then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

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We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised

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Christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised not even

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Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

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Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only we are of all people most to be pitied.

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And that right there gets me because you can be Joel Osteen with your best life now and not have to believe in the resurrection but we don't believe in just this life.

21:58

We believe in the eternal life the life to come and beyond the grave going on that we all resurrect in.

22:06

I think Andrew you hit the nail on the head pointing to Paul's chapter 15 in 1

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Corinthians is very important to us and I think it hinges. Brian you got something to add to that?

22:18

Yeah no we spent an hour seven minutes last week we're already half hour into this and Andrew just answered both weeks question in one verse.

22:26

But I digress no we're going through John MacArthur and Mayhew's biblical doctrine in our theology class at church and MacArthur had a quote on this that I just love and he also references

22:41

Romans 10 9 through 10 he says and I quote there exists no greater event in redemption history than the resurrection of Christ because it completes and validates his sacrificial death and advances the program of the kingdom with an eternal leave him in Cain the resurrection must be believed in order for someone to experience salvation so is it necessary does it matter yes capital

23:08

Y exclamation point Yeah but you want to know son Brian is that this show is

23:14

Hearts for the Lost right this is about evangelism and yet so many evangelists when they share the gospel well as Ray Comfort says they leave

23:22

Christ on the cross or they leave him still in the tomb they forget to mention or don't see the importance of mentioning the resurrection because that's what everything hinges on when we explain the gospel it is that we were wicked sinners we are enemies in God's sight and God himself came to earth as a human being

23:46

I mean we want to go to heaven right but Jesus left heaven to come to earth

23:52

I mean think about it in heaven there's no sickness no sin no starvation no suffering he left that place where all the angels are singing his praises and he left that place to come to earth just let that sink in because none of us would be willing to do that once we get to heaven send me back no he came to earth for the explicit reason to die and then he said to prove that he is who he said he was almighty

24:18

God he would raise from the dead three days later now how much did people believe that what he said well the

24:26

Jewish leaders ended up getting a Roman guard to guard the tomb put a seal on it to make sure that he couldn't be couldn't get out no one would steal the body because they wanted to make sure that no one would try to deceive people and yet in in God's providence all of their efforts to try to protect what they were thinking was going to be some thieving going on to promote a lie ended up vindicating that there was no possible way to explain what happened other than the resurrection

24:59

I mean the Jewish leaders thought they were going to stop this thing cold in its tracks once Jesus died and they actually provided all of the proof that there's no other way to explain what happened other than a resurrection and that resurrection proves to us vindicates us that we can be forgiven of sin and we can have eternal life and and that's the importance of the resurrection

25:22

I mean I always ask it this way Jesus died what do dead people do they rot you know what

25:29

Jesus did he rose himself from the dead dead people don't do that right that's the evidence that he is

25:38

God Amen yeah that's good Andrew that's good I mean last week we got a little hyped up about Jesus this again studying for this it became apparent that this was this was the exclamation point on all of his miracles everything that that he had done up to this point getting to the resurrection and showing showing this there was there was something that he said in um in talking to to the

26:04

Jews John chapter 2 verses 18 through 20 so I'm going to read this real quick so the

26:09

Jews said to him what sign do you show us for doing these things Jesus answered them destroy this temple and in three days

26:16

I will raise it up the Jews then said it has taken 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days but he was speaking about the temple of his body when therefore he was raised from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken now what you were just what you were just talking about it solidifies something about the iffy faith that the

26:42

Jews had before it was a works righteousness thing and he was he was coming to them and saying all your works

26:49

I'm going to save you but what I'm going to do is I'm going to crack the whole thing wide open right and what you were just mentioning about evangelists

26:57

I remember hearing Ray Comfort talk about that how we leave them on the cross and I started I started adding the the not even just the resurrection but the ascension as well right and started talking about him sitting on the throne at the right hand of the father and mentioning the fact that what he did in doing that is he defeated death giving me the gift of eternal life

27:20

I can now live forever with him in glory as he sits on the throne where he is right now and so I I mention that because it's a fuller picture it's a fuller picture when we get out on the streets and people doubt the resurrection and when they tell us it's not possible for someone to raise from the dead you're right unless they are who he said he was last week we touched on liar, lunatic or lord and this week we're talking about the fact that if he says what he did now his this is what we're going to touch on in a minute his disciples their reaction what they did in a few minutes we're going to touch on that because I think it's important and one of the things that solidified my faith because it's really

28:04

I mean think about it from a from a secular point of view or from a common sense point of view most people would say yeah that's not going to happen somebody's not going to raise from the dead that's just not true and they're going to look at the bible like it's a fairy tale right but we've got some evidences we've got some proof so let's move into the place of evidence because most people who talk on the street are going to say show me some proof right now how can we just here in 2022 talk to someone that hasn't been to before Christ died and understand that this is actually true how how can we show them some evidence some proofs now here sitting in 2022 out on the streets well we do what we do with any other thing that's historical look at history right there's historical evidences now a lot of people will want to throw out the bible oh you can't count the bible because you know that they have a bias well we don't have

29:00

I mean we have evidences outside of the bible right we have early church fathers but we also have early church historians that were not

29:10

Christian like Josephus who was a Jewish person a

29:15

Jewish historian working for the Romans neither of which would have been interested in promoting

29:22

Christianity but he states about the resurrection as a fact not as as if people say this happened he just states it as a fact it's actually one of the reasons so many of the atheists try to discredit

29:33

Josephus because they're like oh he's a problem because so much of what he does is support the actual events but we have early church fathers we see that they people who were witnesses who were early in that but we have the scripture and the scripture is written by God now you're talking to someone that's an unbeliever and they don't believe that fine you don't give that up right we hold at least

30:00

I hold to two presuppositions God exists he has spoken and that's it

30:05

I'm not giving those up you want to tell me you don't think God exists your problem is you're just suppressing that in unrighteousness

30:13

God says you do and I'm going to trust God you don't want to believe the Bible that's up to you but you know

30:18

God has spoken and so we can look at the scriptures but let's look at the details of the scriptures you brought up what the disciples did right what did they do they ran and these guys wrote that down right think about what most people do think about any person who's writing their own accounts what do they do they praise them their good efforts the disciples are like a bunch of cowards in their own writings

30:44

I mean it's amazing I just got done preaching at church through Mark and you know one of the things that's so amazing to me is everybody else got what

30:53

Jesus was saying except the disciples I mean the gentiles got it the

30:59

Jewish leaders got it the you know the religious people that were not

31:04

Jewish got everybody seemed to get it except the disciples like he could say things and he would say it in parables so that they wouldn't understand but the only ones that didn't seem to ever understand were the disciples no one writes a book like that about themselves right they totally missed the point if they were making this up then they would not make it like that they missed the point when

31:28

Jesus said that he would die and be buried and raise again they would have made it as if we knew this all along and in the context of the day they would have never had women be the first ones be the witnesses that would have been so not credible at the time correct they would have never yeah because in that century women didn't have and by the way folks this is one of the things

31:53

I know so many people try to say that the Bible puts women down that's only because you don't understand the

32:00

Bible and you don't understand history in the first century women had like no voice so a woman giving testimony is not credible and yet it's the women that go to the men and give testimony that Jesus rose from the dead they're the first ones there so that themselves the fact that the men were not the first they wouldn't have written that down because again it makes them look pretty foolish but when you look at the account you know part of my testimony and I think you guys probably both heard my testimony before but I come from a

32:34

Jewish background knew nothing about Christ other than he was Hitler's God that's how

32:40

I was raised and the reason I say that is because Hitler supported the Roman Catholic Church or it was supported by the

32:46

Roman Catholic Church and you know Jewish people just look at Catholic churches that's what all Christians are we don't make the distinction of Baptist and Presbyterian and you guys might think that's weird but many of you don't make the distinction between Orthodox Reformed Conservative within Judaism you know and there's more than that but the thing is that I didn't know about Christ and the person who was sharing the gospel with me started by showing me prophecies

33:14

Old Testament New Testament my mind I'm sitting there I'm running calculations and it was beyond statistical impossibility which is 10 to the 48th power it was statistically impossible for these things to happen by chance and I said to Chuck I said

33:28

Chuck okay the New Testament had to have been written by God what does it say he talks about Christ that Christ is

33:36

God he came to earth he died was buried and rose from the dead I'm like wait stop dead people don't rise and he says well this is what happened and I started trying to come up with ways to explain how it could have been we can explain this away and if you guys read more than a carpenter or evidence man's a verdict

33:56

Josh McDowell gives you all these false views of the resurrection so I came up with all of them

34:01

I have one that I'll end with that was I think still original with me but you have the wrong tomb theory they just they brought

34:07

Jesus to the wrong tomb well remember the Jewish leaders got these guards from the

34:13

Romans to guard the tomb do you think that the guards whose lives are on the line if they fail in their mission do you think they didn't double check that they were at the right tomb you know because their life is at risk if they fail no they probably made sure of it the fact of you know maybe

34:31

Jesus didn't really die he just passed out on the cross they put him in there okay so he took off 75 pounds of cloth after hanging on a cross for several hours with his hands and feet pierced he takes the cloths off he gets up rolls like a 2 ,000 pound stone uphill by himself and gets past the

34:54

Roman guards without anybody noticing is that a believable story not not very much especially when you asterisk the fact that the

35:02

Romans made killing an art I mean they knew how to kill people they knew how many lashes would kill someone they knew that they took killing someone very seriously yeah going back to the at first the wrong tomb

35:16

I actually never heard that you just brought that up and I was like wow I never thought of that but isn't the

35:22

Bible very specific about Joseph of Arimathea being the one that said this man was prominent he's like hey give him to me

35:29

I'm gonna put him in my tomb not only that but it says in the scriptures that it was a new tomb so here's a tomb carved out of maybe rock and it's basically a cave they put you there in the cloths for one year after a year they basically take undo the cloths take all your bones put it in a little box stick the box in a shelf so that that tomb could be used for someone else wow so that this is how they would end up doing it so they could reuse the same tomb for more and more people well this one says it's a new tomb which means nobody had been in there before so it's not like they got the wrong body even this was not only a marked tomb that they knew who it was they knew who owned it it had never been used before Jesus was the first to use it that gives more meaning to an empty tomb there was no other bodies in there there was nobody at all in there that's good

36:37

I like that keep on going and what you see when we did find the resurrection how they find the cloths the cloths were just laid right there it's not like someone unraveled them they folded them and this is the thing is you look at all this the

36:52

Jewish leaders getting the Roman soldiers getting the tomb and sealing it all of that leaves no other explanation now the one that many people will come up with the one that Jewish leaders came up with and paid off the

37:05

Romans to say was his body was stolen by the disciples okay let's see is that possible they would have to get past the

37:14

Roman guard they were like fishermen tax collectors they weren't soldiers they're gonna get past the

37:23

Roman guard and the Romans aren't gonna come to the Jewish leaders and say they stole the body they're saying we don't know what happened to the body and the

37:30

Jewish leaders are saying say it was stolen so they somehow got past the Roman guard without being noticed were able to move a two thousand pound stone uphill without anyone hearing it or noticing it get the body out and took the time to put those clothes right back where they were so it looks nice and neat and then get out of there now that's far fetched but I have one argument that I think as far as I know is still original with me my last argument when

37:58

I was pleading to try to figure a way to explain away the resurrection I said to Chuck maybe the disciples came underneath the tomb they dug a hole came up underneath took the body out and filled it in and he just looks at me and says

38:12

Andrew in three days they didn't have heavy equipment back then and I mean I just sat there in the steps of a

38:18

Dairy Queen and just put my hands in my face just shaking my head he's like what's wrong I said if Jesus Christ rose from the dead then

38:27

Jesus Christ is everything he said about himself he is God and Chuck says what's wrong with that I said well if he is

38:34

God I'm accountable to him and if I'm accountable to him I've been I almost burned my house down twice

38:41

I mean there was no question whether I was a sinner I was not a good kid but it was the first time

38:46

I realized I was accountable to God see being raised Jewish I always thought I was God's chosen people I was in like Flynn I didn't have to do anything but this was the first time

38:55

I realized the resurrection made me realize I'm accountable to God and I'm going to face him on judgment day and I have nothing to say for myself and that's when

39:06

I realized that I needed Christ that's why the hardest thing is not getting someone saved it's getting someone lost right right because they don't think they're lost they don't think they need

39:16

Christ that's their problem yeah that's good amen and that's where the law comes in right that has been so helpful in walking through the law sorry

39:27

Jamie I cut you off no no I just want to share because what you just said Andrew reminded me of a quote that I had about the resurrection but Stephen Lawson listen to what he said the stone was rolled away from the tomb not to let

39:41

Jesus out but to let the dead out be saved amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen the power and coming of our

41:25

Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. So in other words,

41:30

Peter wasn't just reporting the news that he heard, but rather something he saw with his own eyes. So my question usually is, you know, why or how over 500 plus, right, 500 plus the apostles, plus in 1

41:42

Corinthians 15, how were they convinced to lie? And that to me, because this was written in the lifetime of other eyewitnesses, right, as Vody put together that, why

41:53

I choose to believe the Bible, but so everything could have been refuted in the lifetime of the folks that we're talking about.

42:00

Whoa, whoa, whoa, I didn't see anything like that. So for me, you know, in its own writing and the eyewitness accounts, plus the history, you know, as far as the writings, the time of the events and going back.

42:15

So for me, those two things specifically, the eyewitnesses are big, and it just, go ahead.

42:22

Well, let me just say, because you referenced it, but let me read it, 1 Corinthians 15, verse six. And after that, this is

42:29

Paul speaking, and after that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.

42:39

What's Paul doing there? He's arguing for the resurrection. He's appealing to some of you who are reading this, you were one of those 500.

42:48

You saw this with your own eyes. Now, you can't do that when you're telling a lie.

42:54

You can't appeal to the audience to vindicate what they saw with their own eyes, unless they saw it with their own eyes.

43:03

I think even more than that, Andrew, on that particular, I was right there at that verse with you on that. Even more than that, he's saying, go ask.

43:10

Yeah. Right, go ask them, they're right there. I mean, Paul is not gonna be crazy enough to write this out and tell people, go ask, see, and everybody would have said, okay, no, it didn't happen.

43:24

This writing would have been said, okay, this is worthless, but it stood the test of time because it was true.

43:30

And so I think that it's good that you appeal to that particular scripture right there. Go to the 500, go ask them.

43:37

You know, one of the things is people will make the argument, well, this is just a story that these four gospel writers got together, figured out, or they copied off of one another, and that's why there's these stories that are similar, and people started believing it.

43:52

And maybe the 500 just group hypnosis, or they talked themselves into, lots of different stories with that.

43:59

Well, when we look at the gospel accounts, though, a lot of people wanna sit there and try to say that it's a telephone game.

44:05

You've heard that, I'm sure, where it's one person told another person, and they kind of edit it, and so Mark writes, and then

44:11

Matthew kind of takes what Mark said, and adds a little, and Luke adds a little, and then John just writes his own thing.

44:18

That's the way they try to argue it. But the reason they're saying it is because, well, these guys have a little bit of a different account.

44:25

They don't have the exact same story. You know, a friend of mine, Jim Wallace, and not the liberal

44:30

Jim Wallace, but he goes by, as an author, he goes by J. Warner Wallace to separate himself from the liberal

44:36

Jim Wallace. But his book, Cold Case Christianity, Jim is a 20 -year cold case detective.

44:43

He's been on Dateline more than, I think, any other detective because he's that good at his job.

44:48

He's never lost a case. And he is an expert in first, in eyewitness testimony from years prior.

44:58

That's how he solves cold cases, is looking at eyewitness testimony and being able to identify what is real eyewitness testimony versus someone who's putting a story together.

45:08

And he always says, when he gets on a scene, the first thing he does is, like when he gets a call, he's got to go to a scene, first thing he does is say, separate the people.

45:16

Because once they come together, they have the exact same story. He knows that if they have the exact same story, they made it up.

45:22

Because nobody actually has the exact same story. They look at it from a different vantage point.

45:28

One person will say, well, there are three cars. One person just says the one car that was in the accident. Right? Those things happen.

45:35

That's what happens in the gospel accounts. And he goes through with his, he actually became a

45:40

Christian by looking to disprove the scriptures. And he said, I'm going to use my expertise as a cold case detective, apply my training to the gospels and prove that it is not eyewitness testimony.

45:54

And he came to the conclusion, it is eyewitness testimony. And he ended up bowing to the knee to Christ.

46:01

And that book, Cold Case Christianity, goes through the eyewitness testimony, what to look for in that.

46:06

And so the fact that we have the differences and the different vantage points and different things that are being viewed and emphasized is because you have different people that were eyewitnesses to it and recording it.

46:17

And that is an evidence that we can look at. If everybody gave the exact same account, exactly who is there?

46:26

Well, you have Mary and Mary and Mary, right? You have the mother of James and John, which some think is

46:34

Mary and some, you know. So you have these, why don't they all mention all the women?

46:41

Some mention these three, some mention those three. Some don't mention any, they just say women. They would, if it was organized and systematized for the purpose of telling a story, it would be identical.

46:54

That's what happens when you have someone making up a story. And that's not what we have in the gospel accounts.

47:01

We have firsthand testimony. Yeah. You know, I, even further than that, one of the things that really kind of solidified, you know, when

47:09

I was first learning about these things, I think this is important. Jimmy, everything you say is important.

47:18

Well, the thing about the disciples, the apostles is that they died for this.

47:25

Earlier, Angie, you were talking about how they fled. When Jesus was arrested, they left. Cowards left.

47:33

Here's Peter the night before, you know, at the supper. I would die for you, do anything for you, right?

47:38

And as soon as, here's the sign of trouble, boom. Cuts off a guy's ear and then runs, right? You know, they all ran.

47:46

But after seeing Christ resurrected from the dead, they were emboldened to the point that they would die.

47:55

And when I read, you know, when you read Fox's Book of Martyrs and you go and you start to read some of the accounts of the apostles and how they died, some of what they looked at, how can you not sit there and say, if this was all a hoax, if this was all just some made up story, something they wanted you, first of all, my first question would be why?

48:19

Why would these guys, after having followed a man that just died and was set in a tomb and didn't do anything after that, he would just fade off into the background?

48:28

Why would they wanna exalt him to something more? But more than that, why would they wanna die for him after this?

48:35

I believe the resurrection because the apostles absolutely went to their deaths, looking forward almost to their deaths so that they could be with Jesus once more.

48:48

This to me is probably the best piece of evidence for me in my walk with Christ that solidified my belief that the resurrection's real.

48:58

I have something to look forward to. I just wanted to throw that in there because when

49:04

I read those accounts, I was just like, how can somebody not believe this? Looking at these apostles and how they were, these disciples, how they were cowards at one point and emboldened to death even afterward.

49:17

I remember I had a pastor, he actually was, he ended up, they voted him out of the church.

49:24

He wasn't really qualified to be a pastor, but he was kind of an arrogant kind of guy. And I remember

49:29

I was in seminary and there were some things that I was trying to talk to him about and he made this statement and it always stuck with me.

49:38

He said, he like looks at me and says, Andrew, I've had more seminary training than you. I've had more pastoral experience than you.

49:45

I've been to more seminars and conferences than you. I've read more books than you. You shouldn't be correcting me.

49:51

And I just, I don't know where I came up with this. I don't know if you guys ever had this where something comes out of your mouth and you realize and wait, where did

49:57

I ever come up with that? That wasn't me? Well, that was this experience. Cause I looked at him, I said, you know, you got more seminary training than me.

50:05

You got more conferences and seminars than me. You've read more books than me. You got more pastoral experience than me.

50:10

You also have more of all of that than the apostle Peter. But in Acts chapter one, he didn't get it.

50:17

Acts chapter two, he got it. What did he get? The same Holy Spirit that possesses me. Wow, that's good.

50:23

It's not how much we know, it's who indwells us that makes the difference.

50:30

That's the whole thing. It's like, I don't need to have the seminary training. I don't need to know all the stuff to be able to share the gospel.

50:38

The Holy Spirit that took Peter, who fled the cowardly

50:44

Peter, to stand up and preach the message knowing that the Romans would arrest him, right?

50:49

They ended up arresting him, or the Jews I should say, and then letting him go. He just walks around and he's like, hey, you could arrest us, but we're gonna obey

50:58

God. What gave him that boldness? The Holy Spirit indwelling him. Well, if you are a believer in Christ, that very same

51:06

Holy Spirit indwells you. Can I read Romans 8, 11, please? And I'll add that right there.

51:11

Please, please. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised

51:17

Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

51:24

That, man, that should give you pause. And, you know,

51:29

I always say we shouldn't be praying for more boldness. We need to be praying for more righteousness because the righteous will be bold as a lion.

51:37

And right there, the righteousness comes from Christ. And that's what gives us the strength. So those are awesome.

51:42

When you were talking about Peter, I wanna read something Peter said in Acts chapter two, right?

51:48

You were just mentioning Acts chapter two. This is verse 22. I'm gonna read 23 to 24.

51:53

He said this, man of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this

52:06

Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

52:14

God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

52:21

You know, when I read that, this is that thing that gets me about, well, what we just experienced in the last couple of years.

52:28

You know, I keep saying this. I've said this over and over. People weren't afraid of COVID. They were afraid of dying, right?

52:35

They were afraid of death. And when I read this, it's one of those things, and I've posted a million times on social media, stop the fear, right?

52:44

And this is something I think as evangelists, we need to be able to use. Listen, I can tell you all day long about death.

52:51

We should talk about it. You should contemplate the day of your death because it's coming. 10 out of 10 people die.

52:56

It's 100 % mortality rate. I always love giving those statistics out to people. They'll look at me like I'm crazy. And then

53:02

I'll look at them and say, it's coming. It's coming, right? It would be good for you to think about that.

53:08

But I got some good news for you. He loosed the pangs of death when God raised Jesus from the dead, right?

53:14

And this is so important in our faith. And this is gonna be my last question to answer you before we start wrapping up.

53:21

But why is this a hill we should die on? Well, it's a hill we should die on because Jesus said so.

53:29

I mean, God said so. I mean, that's the ultimate reason, right? This is important because as Paul ends up arguing in 1

53:37

Corinthians, this is what our faith hinges on. You know, let me read a different thing from Paul.

53:45

Paul, this is 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.

53:56

He died for all so that they may live, no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf.

54:09

You see, we realize and really understand what the resurrection meant.

54:16

That compels us, we have a love for Christ. That will compel us to go out and share the gospel.

54:24

What is it that gets us out of our comfort zone? What gets us out of our comfort zone is the love of Christ.

54:30

We love Christ so much that we don't mind looking foolish in the eyes of the world. We love

54:36

Christ so much, we don't mind going into the world and looking like an idiot. We don't mind being rejected by them.

54:43

We don't mind that they're gonna ask us questions we don't know the answers for and we feel uncomfortable about it because we love

54:50

Christ. Why? Because he died and rose again and as it says there, the fact that he died, one for all, all died so that we might live.

55:02

If he didn't die, why is his death so important? He became a man, as a human being who never violated

55:11

God's law. He can be a perfect substitute for you and I. But guess what?

55:17

There's a problem. If he's just a temporal being, an angel, like the Jehovah Witnesses would say, or just a man, he can't die for anyone else but one person.

55:27

He's a temporal being. It would take him all eternity to pay that debt. But see, he's not just a man.

55:34

He's God Almighty, an eternal being. So as an eternal God, when he died once, that was an eternal death.

55:45

And so being God, he can die for all people once. He could do that.

55:52

And it would be once in time because of his nature. His nature is eternal and as a human, he was perfect.

55:59

And so because of that, his resurrection is the proof that he not just died as a payment of our sin, but that he can offer to us forgiveness of sin and everlasting life.

56:14

That's why we have eternal life, is because he rose from the dead. That's what vindicates it. So why is it a hill to die on?

56:22

Because without the resurrection, we're dead in our sin. That's why it's a hill to die on.

56:29

That's good, that's good. What do you got, Brian? Wow. What are your final thoughts here on all the answers you've given us?

56:36

Yeah, we really didn't get into it and the hill to die on. I mean, going back, it was the emergence of the church to the rapid emergence out of the thousands that came to Christ in the building of the church to what we have today.

56:51

But there was an article and I took it out and this was gonna be my close.

56:56

It was by Stephen Jordan. He wrote the nine evidences for the resurrection of Jesus. But basically the paragraph that I wanna quote, and I was gonna repurpose it, but man, it's the way it's written.

57:06

I'm going with it. Despite the amount of evidence provided, let's remember that the resurrection is more than a fact to be proven.

57:14

It's the culminating event in God's redemptive plan on behalf of mankind and has incredible implications for our lives today.

57:22

The shed blood of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead are not distant events in history. They're present realities that make it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins, as it says in Hebrews 9 .22,

57:33

experience and enjoy an intimate relationship with God, 1 Peter 3 .18, undergo radical transformation,

57:40

Galatians 1 .23, and carry out all that God has called us to do in our lives, Matthew 28 .20.

57:47

The resurrection of Jesus also gives us hope for the future. Since death was not the end for Christ, we have hope that it won't be the end for us either.

57:58

Amen, hallelujah. That is what we should be preaching. That's what we should be.

58:04

Preach Christ crucified, but also death, burial, and resurrection, all in our witness account in what we do.

58:14

To go off a little bit about what Andrew just gave us on why it's a hill to die on, when I asked that question,

58:20

I'm gonna quote John MacArthur. This will be my last little thing that, this is what he said, the truth of the resurrection gives life to every other area of gospel truth.

58:30

The resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns, and without which none of the other truths would much matter.

58:37

Without the resurrection, Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all other human philosophy and religious speculation.

58:46

The resurrection, this is now me, not Johnny Mac, but the resurrection sets our faith apart from every other religion in the world.

58:53

There is no other religious leader in the world that has come out of his tomb or his grave or anything like that.

59:01

Jesus Christ is the only one that has resurrected from the dead. He's the only one that is alive today.

59:07

And so when I look at that and I think, this is distinct. This is why when we go back to the last episode that we talked about, why he's the only way, hey, he's the only one alive to go to.

59:18

And we talk about where would we go if we couldn't go to Christ, right?

59:24

And so, Andrew, I wanna thank you for coming on the podcast and talking to us about the resurrection.

59:31

This is really a good time. Give us your last thoughts on what you think with the resurrection and even what we're doing here with Hearts for the

59:38

Lost. I know you've known about the ministry for quite some time. It's different having Brian as president.

59:43

It's a little bit different. It's taking on some new shapes and some new forms. You see the logo is different.

59:49

You can see it on his shirt. And so there's been quite a few changes that we've made, but last thoughts.

59:55

Well, I don't see it on his shirt. I see it on my coffee cup every morning that he gave me. No, it is really a privilege for me to be on here with you guys.

01:00:05

I love Hearts for the Lost, the work that you guys are doing, training people to evangelize.

01:00:12

You know, the heart you guys have at Hearts for the Lost, it's,

01:00:18

I mean, it's a passion that I have at Triving Fraternity, going into small churches, churches that can't afford to have people come in.

01:00:23

You know how many churches, the average size church is 25 in America. Wow.

01:00:29

Now you think about like the MacArthur size churches or the, you know, Joelstein size churches where they got thousands.

01:00:37

Well, that tells you there's a whole lot of small churches that have less than 25, right?

01:00:43

Those are the churches that are hurting. Those are the churches that need help. They would love to go out and share the gospel.

01:00:49

Well, guess what? We're such a small church, we can't bring anyone in. And the pastor's probably working bivocational so he can't really put the time into working on a program or training.

01:01:01

That's where Hearts for the Lost comes in, folks. They go into those churches to help those churches learn how to evangelize so those churches could get into their community and grow through the gospel.

01:01:16

Not through gimmicks and things like that. The gospel is God's church growth plan. Plan A.

01:01:23

Yeah, that's plan A and there is no plan B. So I'm gonna just say this and these guys didn't ask me to do this, but go to the website for Hearts for the

01:01:33

Lost. Donate there. Help them get where they gotta go to these churches that can't afford them so they can teach those people how to share the gospel.

01:01:44

Is the gospel important to you? Is the gospel something that you feel is an important thing?

01:01:53

Someone shared it with you? These guys go out and train people to do what someone did for you so you could have eternal life.

01:02:02

Help them get to some other church to do that very same thing. If you are listening and you're like, hey, our church isn't big.

01:02:09

Like we just don't have a lot of people. They don't care. Invite them anyway, okay?

01:02:16

They'll come. And so that's the thing is that's where their heart is.

01:02:22

It's in teaching people how to share the gospel. It's not about numbers. It's not about money.

01:02:27

It's about you and your church learning to share the gospel.

01:02:32

And then you know what they're gonna do after the training? They're gonna take you out. They're gonna take you out on the streets and put it to work right away so you see it in action.

01:02:41

And so that is a very valuable thing for the church today to have a para -church ministry like Hearts for the

01:02:49

Lost. So get connected with them. Get into their Facebook group if you're on Facebook.

01:02:54

Get into, they'll go through the website. Take this podcast. Well, maybe not this episode, but there are other episodes with their good guests.

01:03:02

Share it everywhere. Share it so others will find out about it and start learning and others will get excited about sharing the gospel.

01:03:11

There's so many Americans. They're so worried. Oh, look at the news. Oh, it's horrible. Oh, if only the

01:03:17

Republicans could take office again. The Republicans are not the solution to the problem of America.

01:03:22

Right, right. The gospel is. You wanna see America change? Get out there and share the gospel.

01:03:29

You wanna really see it change? Get all your friends, your Christian friends to share the gospel. Because I got news for you.

01:03:34

The politicians, they'll pretend to be Christian if it's gonna get them votes. They'll pretend to support

01:03:41

Christian values if they think it's gonna get them votes. But the reality is the solution to America's moral problem is found in the gospel.

01:03:49

We have the answer. And these guys will come out to your church and train your people to do that. Amen. So I'm just encouraging folks, check them out.

01:03:59

Man, that was impassioned. I appreciate that. Amen, thank you. Hey, what's going on? My job's away.

01:04:05

I usually have to talk about the donate button. I'm free. Well, first of all, it comes better coming from someone else.

01:04:12

And I'm kind of a regular listener, you guys, so I know your roles. Thank you, thank you.

01:04:18

Hey, Brian, so tell everybody how they can get ahold of us and, you know, all the good stuff.

01:04:24

Obviously, heartsforthelost .com on the website, you can, if you are a pastor, an elder, or wanna send information, because we do, we'll only come out if we're working under the authority of the leadership of the church, so the pastor or the elder.

01:04:41

And, or if you wanna donate, donate, you can check us out as far as, you know, what we believe.

01:04:48

Again, that we come and teach biblical principles and the gospel. We don't teach, per se, methods.

01:04:54

Come in and try, you know, the newest and latest and greatest. We keep it with scripture and the gospel.

01:05:01

And yeah, don't let size, if you're only a, if you're a smaller church, we'll work with you, man.

01:05:06

Maybe we can partner with another church in town, or maybe instead of a full team, we'll just have a couple guys, whatever.

01:05:11

We will make it work, and we will get there. We'll teach biblical principles. And the coolest part,

01:05:17

Andrew, you taught me well before the podcast, or right when we were getting started. You know, it's like, you told me,

01:05:23

Brian, don't worry about the number of listeners, or don't worry about your crowd. And that's hard for me, because I've got a flesh.

01:05:31

But you said, would you be happy, or would you be content, if in your ministry, where they're teaching on the podcast, you could have 15 to 20 people that showed up every

01:05:41

Sunday at church to listen to you teach? Would that be a good thing? I'm like, oh, that'd be great. Well, there you go.

01:05:47

Wouldn't it be great if you could go to a church with 20, or only have 20 podcast listeners, or whatever?

01:05:52

And that has stuck with me, and helped, and praise the Lord, that this went over 2 ,000 listeners, and downloads, and that's exciting and all.

01:06:02

But man, when I get little tweets, or Facebook posts from a youth pastor in Kenya that said, man, we found your podcast, and we're using it in our youth in Kenya to help share the faith in Africa.

01:06:16

And when I get things from all over the world, of either pastors or people that are encouraged to share their faith, wherever they're, whether it be

01:06:24

Sweden, or Netherlands, or Australia, man, it's just like, wow, that's what we're doing.

01:06:31

So thank you for that, keeping it all in perspective, and just training that. But anyway,

01:06:36

I got away from that. So Facebook, you can find us on Facebook. You can find all three of us. Andrew made a comeback on Facebook and Twitter.

01:06:43

So all three of us you can find on Facebook. You can find Hearts for the Lost. You can also go to Striving for Attendance in the

01:06:51

Ministries, where, man, if you can't get more learned on that website with all the podcast community that he does,

01:06:59

Christian podcast community, you've got books on there. You can go through Systematic Theology on your videos on there.

01:07:08

There is just so much theology to really beef up on there. Andrew, I've used so much of that.

01:07:14

Thank you. There's workbooks you can order as well to go through the curriculum. And then, do you have any,

01:07:20

Andrew, anything you'd like to plug as far as any events coming up that we can go see you? And maybe we can do a,

01:07:25

I told Andrew, man, maybe someday we can do a combine, Striving for Eternity, Hearts for the Lost events.

01:07:31

Maybe here in Indiana. You know, we could visit an Indiana pastor, right, that would like to invite Andrew Ravenborg into Indianapolis, because there's this sushi place that we're trying to get back at.

01:07:41

Or maybe Striving for Eternity could do the Friday night portion, and then Hearts for the Lost could do the Saturday morning portion.

01:07:47

Then we go to lunch, and all of us go out into, anyway, just think it out loud. But is there anything,

01:07:53

Andrew, you got out there that you'd like to push? Well, in a couple weeks, I'll be out again at Living Orders Ambassador Academy, which is where we all met.

01:08:02

I'll be leading a team out there. Excited about that. Actually, just before we started the recording for this, I was meeting with my team.

01:08:08

I do a team meeting. We're eight weeks out, so I'm starting to meet with them regularly every week and just get them ready for training them before we get to the streets.

01:08:17

So that's looking forward to that. And then

01:08:22

I think, Brian, you and I will probably see each other at the G3 Regional Conference down in D .C. I'm planning on going.

01:08:29

Jimmy will be there as well. Yeah. Yeah. And then I'm gonna be speaking in November at the

01:08:35

Reform Sola Deo Gloria Conference. I saw that. And that one's out in,

01:08:41

I'm trying to remember where that one is. I gotta pull that up now. That's what happens when you're speaking at too many conferences.

01:08:46

You don't remember which state you're in. So that is whatever

01:08:53

AGS is. Oh, that's in Augusta, Georgia. That's right. So that's Augusta, Georgia. And then

01:09:00

I know that somewhere I'm speaking at the Southwest Texas, what is it called again?

01:09:07

Looking it up, Southwest Bible Conference. That's out in Texas. Right.

01:09:13

So that one's coming up. So yeah, I'll be out of those places. Actually this next week, if anyone's in Maryland, depending when you guys drop this, but I will be in Ocean City, Maryland, July 15th to 20th with the

01:09:30

Repent and Witness Evangelism Camp. This is, if you guys haven't done, you guys would love to get involved in that.

01:09:37

It is an intense evangelism training because you have, we start off at like eight o 'clock for prayer, have like nine o 'clock teaching until roughly about noon.

01:09:48

And then you go out on the streets until like 11 o 'clock at night. And then you go home, get a little bit of sleep and start the same thing the next day.

01:09:57

And you got like four days of this. Long days, but you're gonna get so much training in that it's, you're gonna be able to like have so many people you could bounce ideas off of.

01:10:09

Hey, you know, I had this experience yesterday. How do I handle it? It's a great experience.

01:10:15

Actually, Repent and Witness is probably my favorite event of the year. It's run by Christian Collegian Network.

01:10:21

I think the website is repentandwitness .com. And they actually had some people drop out. So they do have openings this year,

01:10:28

Brian, just saying, Brian, Jimmy. I think they have five openings for some guys to jump in, just saying.

01:10:35

Well, I will be on my first year anniversary trip in Maui on the fifth day of that week.

01:10:41

That is an excuse. Yeah. What a lame excuse. I promise you, I promise you.

01:10:46

It's crazy, but you know, for work, I'll be in Kingston, Jamaica, working at a call center.

01:10:52

So I won't be in town either. Maybe next year. Yeah, maybe next year. Yeah. Sounds good though.

01:10:58

I like the idea. That sounds great. So we're gonna be in Dallas this weekend?

01:11:04

Yeah. Next month we will be in Westfield, Indiana, right? The month after that,

01:11:10

G3. In October, we've got the Houston thing. And boy, the guys on the team are really looking forward to maybe camping out outside Joel Osteen's church.

01:11:20

We're gonna stay a day later. And on Sunday, we're gonna open air at, what is it,

01:11:26

Lakeview, whatever they call it? Lakeview. Yeah, Lakeview Church. We're gonna preach to all the folk going to Joel. So that's gonna be a fun event.

01:11:32

You know, Jimmy, I wanted to ask you this earlier. You mentioned the Voice of the Martyrs. You think those guys are reading Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now?

01:11:39

I doubt it. I don't think so. I don't think that was in their repertoire, huh? Doubt it.

01:11:45

So, Brian, what do we got? Well, I tell you, I just want to thank you all, but we just want to remind you, have a heart and go share your faith.

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