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So good evening everybody. You have your Bibles turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 15. Now about halfway through tonight's lesson. I'm going to show a five-minute video. I don't normally do that when I'm preaching.
But it goes along with the lesson that I'm going to be giving so at that time I will be moving the board out of the way, but Just kind of get an idea of what we're doing tonight, and we are on night three of the subject of apologetics.
What does apologetics mean. Raise your hand you know? Okay. You want to take a guess? That's okay. What does it mean? What does apologetics mean? To give a defense and What are we giving a defense for?
The hope that is within us and what must we have to be able to give a defense. Iceman. Yeah, that's that's his name from now on that thing is a cool nickname. Iceman all right. Yes, you can't defend what you don't have therefore We are giving a defense for the hope that is within us and that hope must actually exist within us and I Know that in a room this size.
There are some of you who are believers. There are some of you who are not believers there are some of you who are maybe think you are maybe you've maybe you've made a profession, but you don't really have a Genuine faith and so.
My first night that was really what that was about and honestly my wife and I were talking about this earlier that really is the the crux of everything. Because if you don't have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
One day you are going to face him. One day you're going to step off into eternity and you don't know when that day is going to come and it can come at any time. Our hearts are beating in our chest. Literally at the command of Almighty God and our hearts can stop at any moment.
I'm just this is on my mind. It's on my heart. We recently experienced a very sad tragedy at our own church and As my wife and I were just sort of talking about that this afternoon got to thinking about the fact that some of you were 12 15 17 years old.
You Don't know you might think well, hey man, I'm gonna live till I'm 80. You don't know that. You don't know that you're going to make it to your 20s. You don't know that you're gonna make it out of your 20s.
And again, I'm not just throwing out this appeal of emotion. I'm telling you the facts. And it's it's real it's so real and so sad. So with that in our mind I want us to consider what we've talked about last night.
We talked about the existence and nature of God. We said when it comes to apologetics, that's the that's the slam-dunk. And the reason why that's the slam-dunk is because the Bible says that they already have enough evidence.
So as far as proving the existence of God, it's not really necessary. We just have to point to it. It's not something that has to be proven because the Bible says they they already have so much evidence for the existence of God that they are without excuse.
No, man will be able to face God at judgment and say hey, I just didn't know you were there. Well in tonight's lesson We're going to be going a step further. Because as I said from the beginning I do not teach bare Theistic apologetics because that's where a lot of people start and stop.
They just prove that God exists which is easy and then that's it. That is not Christian apologetics. Christian apologetics is not just defending the existence of God. Christian apologetics is defending the person and work of Christ and the nature and reliability of the scriptures and.
So tonight we're going to look at the person and work of Christ if you have your Bibles open to 1st Corinthians 15.
Go to verse 12, and this is what it says.
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 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. We are even found to be Misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised 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 Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised Your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those 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. But in fact Christ has raised from the dead the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death by a man also came the resurrection from the dead.
For as in Adam all die. So also in Christ shall all Be made alive. Let's pray Father I thank you for your word. I Thank you now Lord that you have given us another opportunity to hear your word Lord. We we never know when the last time we may hear your word might be.
So I pray even now God That you would open up our hearts to understand what this word says. I Pray that you would keep me from error as I pray every time I preach. I Pray that your Holy Spirit would speak Lord that he would not only Go through the ear and into the mind but into the heart for the believers Lord the young people that their Faith would be bolstered encouraged and that they would be more equipped to give a defense for the hope that is within them.
And Lord for the unbelievers. For those who have not yet believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that tonight would be a day a time of reckoning. And Lord that they would recognize That there is only one name under heaven given among men By which we must be saved and that is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's in his name we pray Amen. Now we've been talking about apologetics making a defense for the hope that is within you and tonight. I chose a passage which is an Apologetics passage, even though some people might not see it that way.
What Paul is doing in this passage is he is making a defense for the risen Christ During this time. This would be the first century During this time in a place called Corinth. There were those in the church who were denying the resurrection.
Now that may seem somewhat foolish to us. Why would anybody be a Christian and deny the resurrection? Well, there were a lot of different Viewpoints that had culminated in the church at Corinth because Corinth was a Metropolitan area where a lot of people came out of different religious backgrounds and and as they came into the church and began to be Saved they began to bring with them some of their false beliefs that they had before they became Christians.
And so there was a lot of mixture of ideas of things that were going on if you've ever read 1st Corinthians Paul is throughout the book correcting error correcting all kinds of problems. In fact I did a series on 1st Corinthians a few years ago and the title of the series was a church with problems because that's what they were just a church with problems and One of the problems that they faced were people within the church who were saying there is no resurrection of the dead and Paul's response to that Was if there is no resurrection from the dead.
Then Christ has not been raised. By the way, that's what you call a logical deduction. If there is no resurrection and we say Christ was raised then we're liars. One of the they both can't be true one cancels out the other if there's no resurrection.
Then Jesus wasn't raised and if Jesus was raised and there is resurrection you get the idea. This is a logical syllogism and it makes sense and Paul is making a logical argument based upon one simple fact if Christ has been raised then resurrection is true.
If Christ hasn't been raised then we are all believing a lie. You might as well just go home. So Paul hinges his apologetic about the nature of Christ and the work of Christ on one event in human history and that is the resurrection of Christ.
He says if Christ has not been raised. We of all people are most to be pitied. Because all we're doing is celebrating a lie. Think about it. Why do we gather on Sunday? Never asked that question, you know, the Jews didn't gather on Sunday the Jews gathered on Saturday.
Saturday was the Sabbath that was given by God to Israel in Exodus 16. It was ratified in the Decalogue in Exodus 22, and he tells them that they are to worship on what day? The seventh day. Class what day is the seventh day?
Saturday Saturday is the seventh day. But when Jesus Christ arose he arose not on the Sabbath. He was actually in the grave on the Sabbath. He arose on Sunday the first day of the week and from then forward Christians began to meet not on the day which represented the old covenant, which was the Sabbath.
But they began to celebrate the day which represented the new covenant. Which was the day the Lord rose from the dead Sunday. From then on the church began to worship on the first day of the week. We see this in the book of Acts.
We see this in first Corinthians. We see this in other books where the church is meeting on the first day of the week. Why. Because they were celebrating this was the day Christ arose and every you know, we celebrate once a year.
We celebrate that day called Resurrection Sunday. All right. Sometimes we call it Easter Sunday. But you know what every Sunday is resurrection Sunday. I mean, even though we have once a year that we consider the resurrection.
Maybe at a higher point every every son the whole reason we gather on Sunday morning is because it's the Lord's Day, that's what we call it and we gather on that day because this day is The day that Jesus rose from the dead.
So remember apologetics is not just about defending the existence of God apologetics is about defending the risen Christ. And if somebody asks you why do you believe? Jesus is who he said he was. First and foremost is he gave us the proof of his own resurrection.
Muhammad died guess where he's at. He's still in the grave. Buddha died. He's still in the grave. Krishna died. Still there. I don't know what that meant. But okay Christ died. Three days later He rose from the dead and there's a lot of there's a lot of myth Surrounding the death and the resurrection of Christ.
There are some people who make the argument that Christ didn't really die. That's called the swoon theory. The swoon theory was when Jesus was on the cross hanging between heaven and earth. He simply passed out and They took him down off the cross too early.
They put him in the tomb. He was only Partially dead. He wasn't all the way dead and the cool damp tomb Revived him and somehow after three days He was able to muster up the strength to move a giant stone out from the mouth of the cave and walk into his Disciples room through a locked door somehow and convinced them that he was a risen Savior.
There's there's a Greek word for that. It's called baloney Is exactly what it is. It's baloney. The swoon theory has no historical merit if there's one thing Roman soldiers was good at. They was good at killing folk.
They killed folk all the time and they killed folk in the most ridiculous of ways. Some of you probably saw the passion of the Christ. I don't particularly care for some of that film but the death of Christ and the viciousness with which he was killed.
It's fairly accurate now. There's some other things. There's some Roman Catholic stuff in that movie. That's not so accurate, but there's a lot in that movie as far as the viciousness of his death. It was fairly fairly accurate.
He was beat with a with a scourge a Scourge was a whip that had little metal pieces that were sewn into it. So that whenever that whip would hit his body it would attach itself to the flesh and when it was pulled back to hit again It would tear pieces of flesh away so that it would open up gaping wounds in his flesh and he would begin to bleed and They struck his back.
Multiple times with that because pilot was hoping according to the text pilot was hoping this would give the Jewish leaders their pound of flesh and that they would be satisfied with a beaten Jesus and he could let him go free because he'd been flogged.
Well, they weren't satisfied with their pound of flesh. They wanted more they wanted him dead so pilot rests a wooden timber across his back forces him to walk up Mount Golgotha and as he's walking he loses his ability to stand and so they take a man named siren Simon from a place called Cyrene which was in Africa and They tell Simon of Cyrene to come and help carry the cross the rest of the way they get there.
They lay him down on that cross. They take his hands and they nail his hands to the wood. They they take his feet and there's some there's some Archaeological evidence that his feet were not crossed over one another as we often see in the picture, but rather were set beside the The post and was the nails went in sideways that there's some evidence is that's how it was done.
Which would have made it even more painful and more difficult to go into the side of the the the ankle essentially. They lifted up the the post and they dropped it in a hole in the ground so you can imagine the How much that would hurt.
At this point Jesus is bleeding from the crown of thorns that's in his head. He's bleeding from the wounds in his back he's bleeding from the wounds in his wrists and in his ankles or his hands and his feet depending on where they put the nails and he Begins the process the slow agonizing process of death by asphyxiation.
Death by asphyxiation is death by your own body crushing your lungs. Because every time he would breathe out He would have a desire to breathe in but the weight of his body was too much so every time he breathed in he could breathe in less and What's amazing is according to biblical record.
He said seven different statements from the cross. He spoke seven times. It was hard enough just to catch a breath. And yet he was able to speak seven times seven different statements from the cross. According to the text he dies.
And yet they wanted to assure that he was dead. What they did to the other man was they clubbed them in the ankles. Because what the way that you survive a crucifixion is you press up on your the the nails and you take a breath.
Well, if you club somebody's legs, I can't they can't push up anymore. So they clubbed the legs of the other man broke their legs. They didn't break Jesus's legs because he was already dead. But to ensure that he was dead they took a spear and they shoved it up through his ribs.
Piercing him in the heart. The Bible says it bled bled out blood and water. There's some differences of opinion as to why that is. Some people believe it was because he'd been dead long enough for the blood platelets to begin to separate and it looked like water.
That was coming out. Others believe it was a piercing of the pericardium. Which is the sack that surrounds the heart which is filled with a substance. It looks like water. Either way the wound that began to flood out of his side.
Demonstrated that he was dead. Now go back to the swoon theory for just a moment. The swoon theory says a man who was beaten bloodied hung on a cross somehow three days later walked out of the tomb and Convinced over 500 people that he was a savior.
He would have looked like a Beaten and bloodied man. He wouldn't have looked like anyone's savior if that was the truth. The story just doesn't hold water. There's other stories the Apostles stole his body.
In fact, that one's in the Bible. That was how the Jewish leaders satisfied the soldiers Commanders was that they said well the body has been stolen. Let me ask you a question, what do we know about the disciples after Jesus was arrested what happened to them.
They scattered in fear. Does that sound like a group of men who would be able to come back together on their own? Not only steal the body but then go on to give themselves up to death for something. They knew was a lie.
That's key by the way. That had that happen had they stole the body of Jesus had they come and Convinced the world of a risen Jesus that they knew wasn't really risen. Then that means they spent the next 30 to 50 years Not only living a lie.
But dying for a lie. Now many men will die for something that's not true if they believe it. But nobody will die for a lie if they know it's a lie. That's what we're being told to believe that these men died for a lie that they knew was a lie.
They just don't hold water. But probably the most convincing of The of the events of that time. Outside of that just the pure resurrection of Christ Was the conversion of one man his name was Saul of Tarsus.
Saul was a Jewish man. He was a man who believed in God's law and he hated the Christian Church. Because he believed that it was an aberration of the Lord Scriptures and So he went about persecuting the church.
In fact what we know about Saul was the first Christian martyr. Who was the first Christian martyr. Show a hand. Stephen thank you. Stephen is the first Christian martyr. What was Paul doing? While Stephen was stoned to death.
That's right. Very good young man. He was holding the people's coats. He was giving approval to their murderous rage and Not very long later. This man who not only hated the church, but was willing to see Christians persecuted and even murdered had a absolutely life changing event.
Where he not only became a Christian He became the most powerful Evangelist and missionary in the first century not only taking the gospel to his community but taking the gospel into Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey up into Macedonia into Greece into this city of Corinth that we're talking about and he wrote more than half of the books that you call your New Testament.
It has been said by scholars that the conversion of the Apostle Paul is one of the greatest testimonies to the factual nature of the resurrection of Christ that we possess because nothing would have changed his mind other than an absolutely supernatural encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the man writing this the man who's saying if Jesus is not risen. We are the most to be pitied. He's a man who knows it for himself because he was walking to oh, by the way. Where was he going on the road to Damascus?
You may know Damascus this is this would be clear. That's where the road goes. Okay, just making sure he's on the way to Damascus he's on the road to Damascus. Jesus Shows himself to him he sees the risen Christ his life is forever changed and Human history is forever changed as the Apostle Paul becomes the greatest evangelist the world would ever know.
So all of this is just the background of tonight's lesson all this is just introduction. Because if we are going to defend Christ defend the Christian faith, I do believe it begins with the resurrection.
Now there are other things we could discuss. Jesus is virgin birth. Jesus is divinity. All of those things are true. All of those things are taught by the scriptures. But Paul tells us if Jesus wasn't raised.
We don't have anything to hope in and if he was raised everything he said was true. So this is the foundation of our hope. This is the foundation of how we worship why we worship and what we worship is the risen Christ if you still wonder.
Boy, I wonder if Jesus was raised. That's the that that will change your life. When you come to the conclusion, yes, he was. Because that's that that changed everything. You realize our whole world is based on this event the life of one man.
Back, let me ask you a question. What year is it? What's 2022? Is it 20 is it? 2022 years since the dawn of man. No, is it twenty two thousand twenty two years since the birth of Muhammad. Is it 2022 years since the flood.
No, it's it's it's Anno Domini. Which is Latin in the year of our Lord. 2022. Jesus Christ coming into the world changed the world. Guess what? It's 2022 everywhere. Because the Jesus Christ life changed the world now.
I Want to deal with another objection? We've talked about the swoon theory. We've talked about this, you know, the body of Jesus being stolen all of these myths. There is another myth that has become popular.
This is where the video is going to come in but not just yet. But in a few minutes. There is a very popular myth which has. Which has gained some traction especially in the last few years. I would say within my lifetime.
It's risen substantially and That is the myth that all ancient religions Had dying and rising gods. Christianity has a dying and rising God. Therefore the syllogism is if all ancient religions had dying and rising gods.
Christianity has dying and rising gods. Therefore Christianity is no different from any other ancient religion whether you're the the the Egyptians who were worshiping Horus or Ra or whether you are the Mithra ites who are worshiping Mithras or any of these other Cults, we're just no different than any of them because they all have dying and rising gods.
By the way, if you are familiar with the movie zeitgeist, which I doubt any of you are but if you are This was the foundation of that film the idea that Jesus isn't any different than any of these other myths.
How many of you have ever seen well, I doubt it but you're all young but maybe some of the older folks. How many ever seen Bill Maher's movie religious? Okay, Bill Maher is a pretty pretty famous Television personality and he's an atheist and he did a movie called Religious and where he was saying it's ridiculous to believe in God.
That's why I called it religious and in that film he compared Jesus to some of the false gods of the ancient world. Like for instance, he said this or he didn't say this, but this is the argument. He would argue this Mithras.
Mithras was a god who was born of a virgin and he rose from the dead. Jesus is no different from Mithras or Addis. Addis was born of a virgin and rose from the dead. He's no different from Addis or Horus the Egyptian God of the Sun.
He was born on December 25th born of a virgin. Baptized in a river by on up the baptizer. He had 12 disciples. He was crucified and he was raised in three days later. See don't you understand Christianity is no different than any of these other false religions.
You want to know what the problem with all of that is. Well, they are they are they are true historical Cults, but everything I just said is is factually inaccurate. I for instance, let me give you the first one Mithras.
Mithras was not born of a virgin. He was born from a rock. It's not quite the same thing and he did not die and rise from the grave. In fact. According to Mithraean scholars and yeah, there are people who go to school to learn and become yeah, I don't know why did they do according to the leading Mithraic scholars Quote, we don't know anything about the death of Mithras.
We have a lot of monuments but almost no evidence because this was a secret religion. But I know of no references to a death and resurrection. So somebody tells you well Jesus is just like Mithras. He died and rose again.
Guess what? It just ain't true. You see what you have to understand is we live in an age and I know you've heard this before. We live in an age of fake news guys. We live in an age where people say things and there's no one around to say hey, that's baloney.
But that's what we got to do when they say Jesus is just like Mithras. Mithras died and rose again. No, he did not. There's no evidence for that and comparing Jesus to Mithras is a false comparison. You could say liar liar.
Pants on fire. That's what is it's just a lie. Addis they say Addis was born of a virgin rose from the dead. Well, let me tell you the story of Addis the false. God Addis was a young man. He was in love with Sybil also known as the great mother goddess.
Addis was unfaithful to Sybil and it drove him mad and he castrated himself and he died ouch. And that's why the priests of Sybil are eunuchs also weird. Furthermore the belief in a resurrection of Addis cannot be traced until around the year 150.
150 years after what? Christ so Christ in the Christian followers couldn't have been influenced by somebody who came a hundred and fifty years later. Again, it doesn't hold water. The one that you'll hear often though and this is the video we're going to watch.
You'll hear them say Horus because Horus was before Jesus. Horus is an ancient Egyptian God. False God, but an ancient Egyptian worshipped being and They'll say he was born on December 25th. He was born of a virgin.
He was baptized in the river by an on up by on up the baptizer. He had 12 disciples. He was crucified. He was resurrected three days later. None of that is true. That is all the word for that my grandmother used to use is poppycock.
It's what is it's not true. There is no reference in Egyptian mythology to Horus being crucified and raised three days later. There's no documentation anywhere for a figure called on up the baptizer. His mother was not a virgin woman.
She was the goddess Isis who gave birth to him through Osiris who was the false God and there's no specific date for his birth. Anybody who tells you different is basing it on false Information that's not historically accurate.
In fact, it's based on the claims of a self-taught Egyptologist named Gerald Massey who lived in the 19th century and has Almost universally been debunked by all legitimate Egyptologists. It just ain't true all of these claims are just claims and what you will find is If people are not willing to believe the gospel they will be willing to believe anything else.
Because they are suppressing the truth and unrighteousness and what we learned last night. They're actively suppressing the truth. Therefore they don't need evidence for Mithras or Horus or any of this other stuff because all of that.
They just want something to prove the gospel wrong. But it doesn't. These claims are false these claims of The Christian faith not being unique are false. The Christian faith is absolutely unique. There is no other faith in the world Where the one person who that faith is based on not only died But rose from the dead and was seen by over 500 people Who were willing not only to live for him but die for him.
The claims of Christianity are absolutely unique and strongly supported by the historical record but also not only do we have a risen Christ. But as we're going to see tomorrow night We have a scripture which testifies That this Christ would raise and The testification of his raising the testimony rather of his raising not only happened after he was raised But even before when the Old Covenant prophesied that he would come and that he would die Several years ago.
I had a lady come to our church. She sat through the service seemed like a very fine nice lady. Afterwards she came up to me and she said listen, I Just don't know if I believe all of this stuff. I Just don't know if I believe what the Bible says.
So we went into my office we sat down she sat across from my desk. And I said I want to read you something and I opened up my Bible and I read these words. I Sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and by his wounds. We are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
I said ma 'am. I said, I know you don't know a whole lot about Scripture. We've talked a little bit I said, but who is that talking about? And she said well that's about Jesus. I Said that was written 700 years Before Jesus was born that was written by the Prophet Isaiah 700 years before Jesus ever walked the earth.
When it comes to Jesus We are faced with Absolutely unrelenting realities there. Dozens if not hundreds of Old Testament prophecies written about him before he was born that tell of his life death and resurrection.
In fact first Corinthians 15 Paul says he died according to the scriptures and he was raised according to the scriptures telling us the scriptures prophesied those events. There are hundreds of eyewitnesses to his life burial and resurrection.
The movement known as the Christian Christian Church started with only a handful of people including the Apostle Paul and In a century had spread all around the known world and within three centuries had become the dominant religion on the planet.
The man Jesus Christ is the most controversial and yet celebrated figure in the history of mankind. So when we are faced with the Lord Jesus Christ, we are faced with what CS Lewis called a trilemma. And this is where I'm going to leave you tonight, so please just hang with me for one more minute.
CS Lewis said this he said when we are faced with the claims of Jesus Christ. We are faced with a trilemma meaning a a three-part question. Who is Jesus? CS Lewis said he is either a liar a Man who came and claimed to be the Son of God and he wasn't and he knew it that would make him a liar.
He said or we're faced with a man who was a lunatic. He came he claimed to be the Son of God. He wasn't but he didn't know it. That would make him a lunatic or he was the Lord. If what he said was true He is the Lord.
Every time I do a funeral and I do funerals also. I work With a local funeral home and I do minute I minister to grieving families all the time. I actually worked in a funeral home when I was your age it was one of my first jobs and so I've been around grieving families for for years and years and years and So I feel like it's a way that God uses me in ministry and almost every time I talk to families during the funeral I talk about this question.
There's a lot of them are unbelievers. The reason why they call me is because they don't have a pastor their own. The reason why they don't have a pastor their Own is because they don't go to church of their own.
The reason they don't go to church of their own is because generally they're unbelievers. But they want a Christian to come and talk about them at death because at death we realize that we got to do something.
By that time guess what it's too late. But they want somebody to say something nice. And so what I normally do is I say first of all, you need to understand when I'm preaching the sermon. I say this I say first of all You need to understand this is not for the person who died this is for you who are still alive and I go through the gospel and I talk about what Lewis said.
CS Lewis said this he said Jesus is either a liar a lunatic in the or the Lord. You're going to go out that door in just a few minutes and in your heart of hearts. You have to decide the answer to that question if Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
He proved himself the Lord and Paul says if he's not raised. Then it's all a lie but in fact He has been raised. Therefore you have every reason to trust in him. Let's pray father, I thank you for your word and I thank you for our risen Savior and Lord, we know that he has risen.
It is a historical fact and Lord. I pray that we would place our trust in him and Lord. Recognizing that the the truthfulness of his resurrection bears weight to the truthfulness of everything else and Lord because we serve a risen Christ we know that we too will rise if we trust in him and We pray all this Lord in Jesus name and for his sake.
Amen.