[MUSIC PLAYING] God isn't really
something to worship. He's just waiting to
destroy all of us. [INTERPOSING VOICES] I guess there's a God
out there somewhere. I hope there is a God. God isn't really
something you worship. [INTERPOSING VOICES] God is everywhere. [SIREN BLARING] I was working calls for service. We'd just been chasing
a guy that ran from us, and I was moving back
to my car, and this lady started honking at me and
frantically waving her hands. So I ran over and said,
ma'am, what's going on? And her husband was driving
and he had a medical episode, and it was probably
a heart attack, and he was just sitting
in the driver's seat. I initially felt over
and he had a pulse, and so I was reassuring her that
everything was going to be OK and held his hand
until he passed away. Rescue wasn't able
to get there in time. And honestly, there was
nothing that I could do. But as soon as he
had passed away, I was the first one there
to be there to console her, to tell her everything
was going to be OK. And she ended up writing
a thank you note, telling me how important
that was for her that she didn't
have to experience the death of her husband alone. Growing up, my dad
was a firefighter. He was a retired deputy chief
for the fire department, and I always thought I was
going to be a firefighter. But you can't do
that till you're 21, so I enlist in the Marine Corps. Deployed to Iraq, got a
lot of training and stuff. And when I got back
from deployment and went back to school, and
between classes and wrestling practice, Cops was
always on, the show Cops, and it was on repeat. So I would just kind
of come back from class and watch it every day. And just the stories of
the officers on there and why they do the
job and watching the excitement and the exciting
things that they got to do and how they dealt with people
just really made me think, hey, that's what I
want to do is be a cop. My first year in
particular, I was in two officer-involved shootings. The first one was a
man named Chris Chase, put it on some body
armor, armed himself with some weapons
and ammunition, and decided to
ambushed the officers. He initially shot three officers
and then stole a police car and led us on a
high speed chase. I joined the pursuit. And in the pursuit, he
was firing at officers as he was driving as they
were trying to stop him. And he shot one
additional officer, a BCSO deputy named Robin. He critically injured
her, almost killed her, but she was a tough marine
and she bounced back. Every day, whether it's
your first day at work or it's your last day
at work, the potential for a deadly encounter is there. So I just take
every day, and I'm prepared for
whatever comes at me. And I don't take
any day for granted, and there is no routine day. Michelle's very
supportive and very proud to be married to
a law enforcement officer, someone who's able to
protect and serve the public. And she's very proud of that. I may not come home, and she
knows in the back of my mind that I may not come
home, but she honestly believes that I am. And that's a burden
that she has to live with that I may not
come home, and I have to live that with that as well. I may not come home
one day, and she may get a knock on the door
saying, excuse me, ma'am. Your husband's been killed
in the line of duty. It's a burden,
but it's something that we bear with
honor and with pride and that's our service
to the community. And being a law
enforcement officer, we work around the
clock, shift work. Plus being in the K9 unit, I
get called out all the time. I miss holidays,
I miss birthdays, I miss family gatherings. I've got to leave the
movie theater or dinner, and she's left by herself while
I'm running off to do the call. So that's a unique challenge. But, again, she
handles it really well. She has faith in the Lord and
as do I that He's protecting me, He's watching over me. And like Pastor
Skip says, you're invincible til the
Lord is done with you, and then there's nothing
you can do to survive. And so that's the
way I live my life. I trust the Lord. And if it's my day to go,
then it's my day to go, and I'm OK with that. The sound of the Velcro
coming off the vest is a great sound
to me and Michelle she hears it because
I'm home safe and I'm about to take
down my armor I'd be lying if I said stuff
doesn't come home with you. I can still remember that
lady, and that was years ago, that I was there for. There's countless stories
that, I mean, honestly, I've forgotten a lot of them. And if I sit here
talking long enough, I'll remember a lot more
stories and interactions where you just get to
see the human dimension on a different level. Where they are literally
on their worst day, and I'm there trying to
help, trying to bring peace to the situation. When people are running away,
we're running into that. And I think that's lost
on people sometimes that they just see us in
video clips on TV that show one portion
of what happened without telling the full
story of what happened. The decisions that we
make are split second, and they're often life or death. That's the scariest part is that
we're dissected in slow motion, but we act in regular time. But it's something that we're
willing to do for the public. I've been around a lot of people
who breathe their last breath, and I've been the
last person that they see due to horrendous
acts of violence. And what weapons
can do to a person and you see it firsthand,
it's not like the movies. It's very gruesome. And so you think
about that sometimes. But being a Christian, the
Lord really protects me, and I kind of leave
it at the door, so to speak, and kind
of compartmentalize it and think about the good
things that I've done and not miss the bad things that
I've seen or been a part of. Pray for law enforcement
officers as a whole that we make the best
decisions that we can, and we have clarity of mind in that we
go out every day with sincerity and honor the position
that we're in. Pray for the departments, the
leadership in the departments, and the local, city, municipal,
and state governments that they make laws and rules
and regulations that help our profession
and help us as a society do the best that we can. This is a job, a
career, a calling that you don't really
seek a lot of praise. But it's very nice for people
that come up and say, hey, thank you for your service. We appreciate what you do. We support you. Just a little thing like
that goes a long way. Helps us to remember
that not everybody feels the same way that's
being portrayed out there and that they do support us and
that they do like what we do. To anybody that out
there wants to know more about law enforcement or
has a negative view of them, I encourage them to go
to citizen police academy and see what it's like
to be a police officer or to go on a ride along or
some of the community events that we have-- coffee with
a cop or another event to kind of meet officers and
see what they're all about, see what policing
is all about so that they can make their
own decision on what the profession is all about. [MUSIC PLAYING] [APPLAUSE] Let me ask you to
do something for me. If you are in law
enforcement, whether you are active or retired, whether
it is local or federal, would you please
stand to your feet, just so we can honor
you this morning. [APPLAUSE] Thank you for that. [APPLAUSE] Yeah. It's a special weekend
to honor law enforcement. We just felt that, especially
in this climate that is so toxic in our media
and in our culture that is crying to defund
the police, we need them knowing
that we support them, and we are confident in
what they do and thankful for what they do. And so to pray for our police
officers, our law enforcement today, I'm going
to introduce you to Mike Geier, who is the chief
of police for the Albuquerque Police Department. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Mike has served as a police
officer, a law enforcement officer for 47
years, including 24 of those years in the
City of Albuquerque, and he has been the chief
of police for our city, for the last three years. He is going to be
retiring, and we just thought this is an
appropriate way to thank him and to pray for him. But he's going to pray for
law enforcement officers. One thing I need to let you
know he is a man of God. He is a family man. Mike has been married
to his wife Judy-- I said 43 years last night. It's 45 years. His wife was wondering what
happened to those two years. And it's just precious. Here's a man who's been
married to his wife, served the community, and
has been our police chief. We're honored that
you're here with us, sir. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. This is a prayer for
our police officers. Heavenly Father, we
come to you today thankful you for the men and
women or our police force, who serve and protect
us around the clock. We rest better each night
and go about our daily lives in safety knowing that our
police force is always a phone call away to help us
in our time of need. We pray your special
strength and protection upon our police
officers as they go about their work of
keeping the peace, preventing crime, catching
lawbreakers, intervening in personal disputes,
caring for victims, assisting the mentally
ill, finding the lost, regulating traffic, keeping
demonstrations peaceful, fighting the battle
against drugs, intervening in domestic abuse,
protecting against terrorism, investigating crimes, jailing
criminals, and working with the court system. And we thank you
for all these things that our police
officers do for us. We are overwhelmed with
a sense of gratitude. We also have a renewed sense
of the complexity and enormity of their jobs. We thank you for
each individual who has answered the call
to this crucial service to our communities and
for the spirit of service that they exhibit. We pray that they will receive
the support they deserve from the community, the
funding, and equipment they need to do their
jobs, and the training they need to keep them ready to
face the ever-changing world. We pray for your
divine protection on each of our
police men and woman. We pray Isaiah 54:17 for
them that no weapon formed against them will prosper. We pray Psalm 34:7,
that protecting angels will surround them. We pray Deuteronomy 31:6,
that they will be strong, courageous, and fearless. We pray Ephesians 6:10
to 18, that they would be protected by the armor of God. And we pray James 1:5,
that you would generously give them wisdom and
discernment in every situation. We end by thanking you for the
example of Christlike service that they give us for laying
their lives on the line. For in the Bible, it
says, greater love has no man that he lay down
his life for his friends. That's John 15:3. We pray your blessings
and protections on the families of
our police officers. We thank you for the
sacrifices made by the families that we might live our
lives in peace and security. And we thank you for all our
police officers who provide liberty and justice for us. We pray this in the strong and
mighty name of Jesus, our Lord, amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Chief. Bless you. [APPLAUSE] I'd like to pray for Mike now. Father, we want to thank
you for our chief of police. Thank you, Lord, for
the years that he has served, the commitment
with which he has served. Thank you, Lord, for his family,
and thank you for his devotion to his family. Thank you that you
have kept him safe and given him wisdom
through the years. We entrust him to
you, Lord, as he now is able to rest after
earning it for so long. Father, we pray that
you would continue to use him as he serves you
and serves this community. In Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you, sir. Bless you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you all. Thank you. Would you turn in
your Bibles, please, this morning to the book of
First Corinthians, Chapter 15. We are currently in a
series we call, 2020, Seeing Truth Clearly. What we have been doing is
going through the core biblical doctrines, the teachings that
constitute the Christian faith, our belief in God-- our belief in God
and His attributes. We looked at the
Lord Jesus Christ the last couple of
weeks, and today we are looking at his Resurrection. First Corinthians, Chapter 15. There is a man who took his wife
to Israel on a Holy Land tour. Not only did he bring
his wife to Israel, but he brought his
mother-in-law as well. Well, as things would
happen, while they were on the tour in Israel,
his mother-in-law died. And she was taken to a
local undertaker, who extended his condolences
but said, sir, you have a couple of
options at this point. You can send her body home,
back to the United States. That'll cost you about $5,000. Or we can bury her here
in Israel, the Holy Land, for only about $150. The man thought about it,
and he said, you know, ship that body back home. And the undertaker
was a little confused. He goes, boy, it's going
to cost a lot of money, and just think about it. She could be buried here in
the Holy City of Jerusalem for only $150. And the man said, well, look, a
man died here 2,000 years ago, and he was buried here in this
town and he rose from the dead. [LAUGHTER] And he said, I just
can't take that chance. [LAUGHTER] Have you ever
thought about this? The best news the
world ever heard came from a graveyard
2,000 years ago? And the news was,
death has died. Death has been conquered
through a Resurrection. Chapter 15 of First Corinthians
is a chapter devoted entirely to the doctrine of Resurrection. It is a lengthy chapter. It is a detailed chapter. It has 58 verses. Most of it is talking about
our future resurrection. You should care
about this chapter. This is your future. But all of that is predicated
upon another resurrection, and that is one that has already
happened-- the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection of Christ
is the heart of our message. It is the core of Christianity. It's the guts of the Gospel. It's the very pinnacle of
New Testament preaching. Without the Resurrection,
none of the other truths would even matter,
and Christianity would be relegated to one
among many religions that are in the world. You see, by the time
of Paul the apostle, the Greeks and Romans
already had their way of thinking about the world. And one was to
deny the importance of the physical world. The Greeks believed
in a pluralism, where the material world was evil. Only the spiritual
world was of any value. And five centuries
before Paul, one of their influential
writers was a man by the name of Aeschylus, who
had a simple statement that infiltrated the Greek mind. He said, once a man dies and
the earth drinks up his blood, there is no resurrection. Think of that statement. Once a man dies and the
earth drinks up his blood, there is no resurrection. Paul the apostle
would be quick to say, I beg to differ with you. There is a resurrection, and
let me give you evidence of one that has already happened-- the Resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1, First Corinthians 15. "Moreover brethren,
I declare to you the gospel, which I preach to
you, which also you received and in which you stand, by
which also you are saved. If you hold fast that word
which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to
you first of all"-- and that could be translated
"first of importance or priority," "I deliver to
you first that which I also received, that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried, that he rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures. And that he was
seen by Cephas--" that is Peter--
"then by the twelve. After that, he was seen by
over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part
remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that, he was
seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all, He
was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time." Now the skeptic will
say, look, we can't prove that Jesus rose from the dead. There's no scientific proof
of either the existence of Jesus nor his Resurrection. And yet, lawyers who have
studied the Resurrection will testify and say that the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best attested to
fact of ancient history. I mean, if you
think about it, how do we know that anything
happened historically? How do we know, for example,
that Abraham Lincoln was indeed the 16th president
of the United States? There is no scientific proof
that Lincoln was our president. We can't recreate
him in a laboratory. We can't bring him back to life. We can't replicate and repeat
that experiment over and over and over and over again,
which is the basis of the scientific method. We can't calculate an equation
to prove his existence. And yet, we can assert with
a high degree of probability that Abraham Lincoln was
indeed the 16th president of the United States. And we can assert with a
high degree of probability that he was
assassinated in 1865. How do we do that? Simple-- by appealing
to historical evidence. And when you mount
up the evidence, it brings into clear
view that that happened. What is the evidence? Well, there were
people who saw Lincoln. That's eyewitness testimony. They wrote about what they saw. They wrote about
the conversations they had with him. We have some of Lincoln's
own writings in his journal. We even have photographs
of Abraham Lincoln, and we even have his
likeness on our pennies. So all of that testifies
to a collective belief-- an American belief--
that Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president
of the United States. In that sense, we have proof. Maybe a better word
would be "evidence." If you want to determine what
happened in a court of law, it's the same thing
as historical research that I just mentioned. In a court of law,
eyewitnesses are brought in. They are deemed credible
or not credible. They're examined. They're cross examined. Motives are examined. Physical evidence is
admitted and scrutinized, be it fingerprints or
writings or emails or texts. And given that, we have
far greater evidence that Jesus existed and
His Resurrection happened than we have that Plato
existed or Homer existed. So what I'd like to
do, by looking again at these verses with you that
we just read, is offer to you what Paul offered
to his writers, and that is lines of evidence. We'll call them proofs of the
bodily Resurrection of Christ. There are three of them. Paul says, first of
all, His Resurrection was anticipated by the
scriptures-- the Old Testament scriptures. In Verse 3, he said,
"I delivered to you first of all that,
which I also received, that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures. That He was buried, and that
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." Twice, he is referring back
to Old Testament textual basis, the Scriptures. Why? Because the death, burial, and
Resurrection of Jesus Christ is clearly foretold
in the Old Testament. Jesus himself appealed
to the Old Testament. Remember, when he was walking
on the road to Emmaus, after His Resurrection with a
couple of unnamed disciples? They didn't recognize
that it was Him. They didn't expect
a Resurrection. Now He shows up, and
He's walking with them and talking with them. He asked them a
couple of questions. They answer back. And He says to
them these words-- "Oh foolish ones
and slow of heart to believe in all that
the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ to
have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And then we are told, "Beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them
in all the scripture the things concerning Himself." What was that all about? It was an Old
Testament Bible study to show that the Messiah was
predicted to die and rise again or to enter into His glory. When the Jews asked Jesus for
a sign that He was the Messiah, He said to them, a foolish
and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign,
but no sign will be given to it except the
sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the
belly of the whale three days and three nights,
so the Son of Man will be in the heart
of the earth three days and three nights. He appeals to an Old
Testament prophet to provide a picture, a
foreshadowing of death, burial, and Resurrection. But the real scripture that
predicts the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is
found in Psalm 16, and Peter knew that text. And Peter, when he preached
on the day of Pentecost, brought up that Psalm to
his audience in Jerusalem. And in my version,
the New King James that I preach from every week,
he quotes Psalm 16 as saying, David writes,
"Therefore, you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor
will you allow your Holy One to seek corruption." But I want to share
that from the New Living translation, where it
says, "You will not leave my soul among
the dead, nor will you allow your Holy One
to rot in the grave." That's just kind of an
in-your-face translation of that concept. You're not going to allow
your Holy One, or my soul, among the dead or allow your
Holy One to rot in the grave. Now he's quoting Psalm 16. Then Peter goes on to
explain the meaning to them of Psalm 16. He said, "David was not
referring to himself when he spoke these words. David was looking
into the future and predicting the
Messiah's Resurrection." And if you know anything
about that sermon that Peter preached, he
said, I can prove to you that David wasn't talking
about himself because here's his grave. David is still dead. So when he said,
you're not going to let my soul rot in
the grave, he obviously wasn't talking about himself
because he's still there. He must then have been referring
to the son of David who would come, the
Messiah who would come. Jesus Christ and
His Resurrection. So Peter is saying
David didn't write Psalm 16 as a personal story
but as a prophetic statement. So Jesus appealed to
the Old Testament, Peter appealed to
the Old Testament, and so did Paul the apostle. Paul stood before a couple of
Roman governors and King Herod Agrippa. He went through a couple of
years of trial in Caesarea. And when he stood before King
Herod Agrippa, in Acts 26, Paul said, "I teach nothing
except what the prophets and Moses said would
happen, that the Messiah would suffer and
be first to rise from the dead as a light to
the Jews and Gentiles alike." Even Jesus himself predicted
His own Resurrection. Though it's not an Old
Testament scripture per se, Jesus plainly told his
disciples in Mark Chapter 8, "Then Jesus began
to tell them that He the Son of Man would
suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the
leaders, the leading priests, the teachers of
the religious law. He would be killed,
and three days later he would rise again." You see, Jesus Christ has
three basic credentials. Number one, his impact on
history, unlike any other. Number two, prophecy about him. Over 300 predictions made
about his birth, lineage, life, burial, death, Resurrection,
et cetera-- over 300. So his impact on history
fulfilled prophecy. And number three, His
Resurrection from the dead. And that's what sets Him apart
from other religious leaders. It's what sets
Christianity apart from other world religions. There are about 25 other books
claiming to be holy scripture. There's one thing
they all lack-- prophecy, prediction. The Bible is packed full
of predicted prophecy. One fourth of the Bible
roughly is prophecy, where God predicts what is
going to happen before it even happens. It's very, very impressive. Anybody can make predictions
about the future, but when you layer it with
details and then it happens, it does something to your faith. That's what Jesus said
was the purpose of it. In John 14, Verse 29,
our Lord said this, "And now I have told you before
it comes that when it does come to pass, you may believe." So here's Paul. He's about to tell us about
our future resurrection. He begins by saying, let me tell
you about Jesus' Resurrection and how we know it
is a historical fact. And it's, number
one, because it was anticipated by the Scripture,
the Old Testament predicted it. There is a second line of
evidence, second proof. And that is the Resurrection
was after His death. Now, you might hear that
and go, well, that's duh. That's pretty obvious. You have to die before
you're resurrected. Yeah. But Paul wants to make a point
that Jesus actually died. That's the meaning
behind Verse 4. It said In verse 3 that
He died for our sins, according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried. Now, that's just not a
little insignificant detail. By saying He was
buried is to say, He really, truly,
physically died. That's why He was buried. He was buried
because He was dead. He was put in the
grave for three days. So Jesus actually died. I underscore that because
there has been afoot a belief that Jesus didn't die. There is a theory that
has been going around for years that Jesus
didn't die but He just fainted on the cross
and He looked dead. And they put Him in the
grave in that condition. So when he got out of the
grave, it wasn't a Resurrection, it was a resuscitation. Back in 1965, a book was written
that took the world by storm. People just loved
to read this book. They thought it was the latest,
greatest, coolest thing. It was called The Passover
Plot by Hugh Schonfield. And Schonfield said that
Jesus planned His own death and staged a Resurrection. So here you have a man talking
about the way, the truth, and the life lying to everybody. That was what he postulated. Jesus planned his own death
and staged a Resurrection. What he said is that He
had one of his followers give Him water laced with a drug
that rendered Him unconscious. Then He had another
disciple, Joseph of Arimathea stick Him in a tomb. And He was alive in
that tomb, and then was in the next couple of
days nursed back to health. That's called the swoon theory. The swoon theory
is basically Jesus was exhausted from the
ordeal of almost dying. He had significant blood loss. He passed out, and He
was stuck in the tomb. And they get very creative
about this theory. They even say Jesus
went into a deep coma. But the cool atmosphere of the
tomb and the aromatic spices used in burial preparation
served to revive Him. And He got back up
and He stretched. And then He moved a two
ton stone by Himself and walked out. That's their explanation. And when I hear it, I go really? You believe that? Well, you have a lot
more faith than I have. If you believe a person
can go through that kind of physical ordeal
to be stuck in a tomb in a cold, damp
environment and get better after a couple of days,
wow, that never happens. There was a letter that was
written to a local newspaper, and the person that
wrote the letter said, "Our preacher on Easter
said that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that
His disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think? Sincerely signed, Bewildered." So somebody at the
newspaper wrote back, "Dear Bewildered, beat
your preacher with a cat o' nine tails with
39 heavy strokes. Nail him to a cross, hang him
out in the sun for six hours, run a spear through his
heart, and embalm him, and put him in an
airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens." The Gospels say He died. He died. Matthew's account says,
"He yielded up His spirit." Mark and Luke simply say,
"He breathed His last." That's death. John's gospel puts it this way-- "Bowing his head, He
gave up His spirit." And in the same account records
that when the Roman soldiers walked by, because they were
breaking legs of the victims, they didn't break Jesus'
legs because they saw He was already dead. So they had testified to
the fact that He was dead. And when you retrace the
steps of Jesus to the cross, you come with one
conclusion after that-- He was dead. Not mostly dead. He was dead. Last week we talked
about his ordeal in the Garden of
Gethsemane, that he sweat great drops of blood. And we noted to you that rare
but prevalent medical condition under certain circumstances
of extreme mental anguish called hematidrosis where the
tiny capillaries in the blood vessels burst, and it looks
like a person is sweating blood. It speaks of high anxiety. If that happened, and the
Bible says it did happen, then Jesus would be rendered
extremely weak after that. From that point,
He was arrested, and He went through a trial. Not one trial, but
six separate trials. That evening, through the
night, into the next morning, into the next day. He stood before Annas the
high priest, number one. He was taken to Caiaphas the
high priest, trial number two. He was taken early in the
morning to Pontius Pilate-- that's trial number three. He was taken before
the entire Sanhedrin-- that is the Jewish
ruling elders. He was then sent to Herod
Antipas for a trial-- that's trial number five. Then he was sent back
to Pontius Pilate for a final verdict-- that
is the sixth and final trial of Jesus. After that, Pilate
had him beaten-- "scourged" is the
New Testament term. The Romans had a
special implement called a flagrum, which
was a handle with leather thongs attached to it. Woven in between were
pieces of lead and glass. It was designed to grab
the skin, lay hold of it, and eviscerate the victim. 39 times that hit
the skin of Jesus. His back would have been
taut for that event. Then, after that, they put a
crown of thorns on his head. The scalp was highly vascular. It bleeds a lot. This I know from
personal experience. So after no sleep, after lots of
blood loss, after high anxiety, then they give him
his cross to carry to the place of execution. And he didn't even
carry the whole cross. The Romans wouldn't do that. The cross weighed too
much, like a few pounds. So they gave him the upper
top piece-- the cross being called the
patibulum, which weighed between 70 and 90 pounds. They placed that
on his shoulder. He couldn't even
make it all the way. He collapsed. Simon carried it to Golgotha. Jesus was then strapped to
the cross with huge iron tapered spikes in between his
radius and ulna at his wrist. Specifically designed
by the Romans so the victim would have
to pull up on the spikes to get air and exhale. Jesus died on that
cross and He was buried. So it was anticipated
in Scripture. It was after a literal,
physical death, not a swoon. He didn't pass out. He died. And then the third
line of evidence is simply that it was
affirmed by others. Notice in Verse
4, "He was buried, He rose again the third day
according to the scriptures and that He was seen by
Cephas and then by the twelve. After that, He was
seen by over 500 at once, of whom the greater
part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that, He was
seen by James, then by all the apostles. Last of all, He was
seen by me also." These are appearances of Jesus. He appeared. How do you prove a Resurrection? You show up. All right. You show up. So this is eyewitness testimony,
and eyewitness testimony has always been--
if it's credible testimony-- the most
reliable form of evidence. Paul brings in five witnesses. Now, why was it
important for Jesus to actually appear to
people after His death? Was it to scare them,
so he could go "boo" and watch what happens? Because people were
legitimately freaked out when He showed up sometimes. They were scared. No. The reason Jesus
physically appeared was to quell any rumors of
what happened to that body. Back in 1876-- you probably
remember this story from your history books-- Wild Bill Hickok was
murdered in South Dakota, a little town called
Deadwood, South Dakota. Young gunslinger walked into
a bar, put a gun to his head, and shot him right there on
the spot in a poker game. That was 1876. He was buried in the White
Gulch Cemetery in South Dakota. Seven years later, they moved
his body from that cemetery to another cemetery, the
Mount Moriah Cemetery. If you were to have visited
the original grave of Wild Bill Hickok after he was moved,
you would see an empty grave. And you could say, huh,
what happened to that body? And you could say, well, maybe
he was raised from the dead. But somebody who knew
better would say, he didn't rise from the dead. They just moved his body. So to quell any rumors that
they just moved his body-- because after all,
even His enemies, Jesus' enemies said, if you
remember when He was alive, Jesus kept saying He's going
to rise again from the dead. We're afraid His disciples
are going to move the body. That's why Jesus appeared
is to quell any rumors. So who did He appear to? First on Paul's list is Cephas-- that's the Aramaic
term for "Peter." It means "rock" in Aramaic. Pétros is his Greek name. Simon is his Hebrew name. He appeared to Peter. Why did He appear to Peter? Well, there's probably
a lot of reasons. But of all the
people that needed that, I think Peter's pretty
high up on the list, don't you? I think Peter needed to
see Jesus most of all. He was most remorseful
because he denied Jesus. He denied him three times. So Jesus appeared to him and
said, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Finally, Peter said,
look, you know everything. You know I love you. And then Jesus graciously
forgave him, basically saying, then serve Me. Than feed My sheep. Feed My sheep. Tend My lambs. And He reinstated him
back into service. Now, when Jesus
appeared to Peter, you have to understand Peter's
kind of life in a nutshell. Before Jesus and Peter
ever got together, what did Peter do for a living? He was a fisherman. That sounds good to a lot of
us, but it was just a job. He got up every morning,
put his nets in his boat, took his boat on
the Sea of Galilee, fished, brought it home,
hung out with his wife. Did it again, did it again. It was just a
monotonous, boring life. I'm sure just working
for a living every day, Peter even got up and
thought, is this it? Is this all there is to life? I just work all day and come
back home and do it again? Until one day somebody
walked into his life and put His gracious finger
in his chest and said, from now on, you're
going to fish for men. Follow me. And something grew
in Peter's heart. It's called hope. As Peter listened
to Jesus' messages, as he watched His miracles. And he came to believe, this is
the promised Messiah of Israel who's going to bring a kingdom. And his hope grew and grew
and grew until the last week of Jesus' life, He
kept confusing Peter by saying things like,
I'm going to leave. You're not going to
see me any longer. I'm going to die. And it was all confusing. And then when it really
happened and Jesus died on the cross, Peter's hope,
which was at an all time high, his hope meter bottomed out. He was hopeless. He had no hope. He just went back to fishing
at the Sea of Galilee till the day Jesus showed
up after the Resurrection. And John said to
Peter, while Peter was in the boat, hey
look at the shore. That's the Lord. And I love the story. It says Peter took
his outer robe, which was dry, laying in the boat. And he picked it up
and he put it on him, and then he jumped in the water. Well, why do you put your outer
coat on to jump in the water because you're just
going to get it wet and then stand on the
beach sopping wet and cold? But you don't think
at times like that. He just reacted. It's the Lord. So he came and he
saw the risen Lord. He appeared to Peter. At that point,
Peter's hope resurged. So when he writes
First Peter, Chapter 1, Peter said, "Blessed be God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to
His abundant mercy, He has begotten us
again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus from the dead." I'll put it in my words, Peter
went from hopeless living to living hope in
a second's time. He needed that apparition. He got it. Second on the list, it
says, after he was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. Who does that refer to? Sure. The apostles, the
disciples of Jesus. The twelve. Even though when Jesus appeared
to them, there weren't twelve. Judas had hung himself. He betrayed Jesus, so
there were actually 11. And the first time Jesus showed
up there, weren't even 11. There were 10 because
Thomas wasn't there. But this has become
the collective term for his disciples. They were just known
as "the twelve," so Paul writes it that way. To the twelve. That happened on Easter evening. They were assembled
together in a room. The doors were locked because
they were afraid, it says, of the Jews. And Jesus just materialized. They're eating dinner
and all a sudden, whoosh. And he just said, "Peace." Not like peace, but like
peace my peace to you. And when he appeared to
them, it transformed to them. They were suddenly
lifted out of despair, and they would go on to
different parts of the world, bringing the Gospel message. And almost all of them, without
exception, were martyred, killed because they believed
in the Resurrection. They kept saying, He's alive,
He's alive, He's alive. And they died for that belief. This is strong, strong evidence. William Lane Craig, a very
noted apologist, wrote this. "Without the belief
in the Resurrection, the Christian faith could
not have come into being. The disciples would have
remained crushed and defeated men. Even if they
continued to remember Jesus as their beloved
teacher, His crucifixion would have silenced any hope
of His being the Messiah. The cross would have remained
the sad and shameful end of His career." But it didn't. They were propelled
outward and onward. The Resurrection turned
cowards into martyrs. Bold ones at that. So eye witness Peter
and the twelve. Next on Paul's list, he
just talks about 500. Look at Verse 6. "After that, he was seen by over
500 brethren"-- watch this-- "at once." Not individually. In one meeting. Of about 500 people,
Jesus showed up. "Of whom the greater part
remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep." That's a nice biblical way of
saying, they kicked the bucket. They're dead. Most of them are alive. Because when Paul wrote
this, it was 25 years after the Resurrection. A lot of them had died. Many of them were still alive. Now, we don't know
who these 500 are. We don't know where
this happened. Presumably it happened
up in Galilee. But Paul's point is this-- lot of people saw Jesus
alive after the Resurrection. So if you're a skeptic, go
find one of these people, because there is a bunch
of them still alive. And here's the
undergirding point-- the Resurrection was
not some event that occurred to just a few
people in a remote location. Rather, it happened in a
huge metropolitan city, and there were many
eyewitnesses to verify it. Lee Strobel, who was at one time
the editor, the legal editor, for The Chicago
Tribune newspaper and now a strong
believer in Jesus after examining the
evidence wrote this, "If we were holding a trial to
determine the facts concerning the Resurrection, and if we
were to call to the witness stand every witness who
personally encountered the resurrected Jesus and
we cross-examined them for only 15 minutes. If we went around the
clock without a break, we would be listening
to firsthand testimony for more than 128 hours. That's over five
days-worth of testimony." And he says this-- "Who could possibly
walk away unconvinced?" Only somebody who is not
thinking through the facts. So he appeared to over 500. Next on the list,
he mentions James. Notice that with me. Verse 7, "And after that,
he was seen by James." Now, the only problem with this
is, we don't know which James. There was a few of them, right? There was James
the son of Zebedee, the brother of the Apostle John. There was James the
son of Alphaeus, also numbered
among the followers of Jesus, the close followers. My guess is that this was James,
the half brother of Jesus. You know, Jesus was
born of a virgin, Mary. But after he was
born, Joseph and Mary had normal physical
relationships and had sons and daughters. The Bible even
lists them by name. The oldest half
brother was James. James, along with the
rest of the siblings, did not believe Jesus
was the Messiah. John Chapter 7 said, they
did not believe in Him. Mark Chapter 3 even says,
James and the other brothers thought Jesus was nuts. He had a messiah complex. They came to Galilee to rescue
Him from Himself one time. So he was an unbeliever. Now, just sympathize for
just a moment with James. I'm not excusing him at all,
but just sympathize with him. Imagine having the
only big brother in the world who never sinned. All right. I mean, you have to live with
somebody who never talked back to mom and dad? Never blew it. So they did not believe,
but he came to believe. How did he come to believe? Well, Jesus showed up. He appeared. He appeared to him
after his death, burial, and Resurrection. Showed himself to James. James then shows up
in the first part of the Book of Acts in the
upper room in Jerusalem as a believer, along
with his mother Mary. They're part of
the early church. James goes on to be a
leader in the early church. He goes on to direct the
conference in Acts Chapter 15, all as a direct result of
Jesus appearing to him. Now, James would be
somebody objective because James was not
predisposed to believing at all in a Resurrection. He didn't even believe
Jesus was the Messiah. And when he died, he just
said, He kind of deserved it. But when Jesus appeared to
him after the Resurrection, it was enough to
change his mind. But the point being
is that here you have James, a denier,
and Peter also a denier. They would both be objective. They were not predisposed to
believing in a Resurrection. That's strong evidence. Then, finally, it says he
appeared to Paul, Verse 8. "Last of all," Paul
says, "He was seen by me also as one born
out of due time." Jesus appeared to Paul,
not only post-Resurrection but post-Ascension
on the Damascus Road. You know the story
from the book of Acts. There are a number
of theories trying to explain the Resurrection. I mentioned one,
the swoon theory. Let me tell you about another
theory unbelievers have. It's called the
hallucination theory. Can you guess what that is? Yeah. They saw Jesus alive
but they hallucinated. They thought they saw Him alive. That's all that was. It was what
delusional people see. The problem with the theory
is that psychiatrists tell us hallucinations
only occur in certain types of people-- usually people who are
high strung, people that are very imaginative. But Jesus appeared to people
with different psychological profiles. For example, he appeared to
Mary Magdalene, who was weeping. He appeared to a group
of other women, who it says were astonished. He appeared to Peter,
who was full of remorse. He appeared to Thomas,
who was full of doubt. He appeared to two on the Emmaus
road who were disappointed. Also, he appeared, it
says, to 500 at once. Here's the thing
about hallucinations. They don't occur to a group. If you're delusional,
and you think you see something, if everybody
thinks they see the same thing, guess what happened? They saw the same thing
because it really happened. So the hallucination
theory doesn't hold up. Here's the bottom line-- Jesus said, I am the
Resurrection and the life, and then He proved it by
getting out of the grave. He said, nobody takes
My life from Me. I lay it down of Myself. I have the power to lay it down. I have the power
to take it again. He announced it, and He did it. And this is one of the
great facts of history. Why? Because if Jesus
rose from the dead, and He predicted
that He would, that means every other promise Jesus
made to you, you can lean on. If it can do that, then
He can do the rest of it because He is alive. Also, you have a message. I hope you know by now, the
world is pretty hopeless. Especially during
this season right now, they're very hopeless. Suicides are up. You and I have a message
of hope, living hope. Jesus is alive to change lives. [APPLAUSE] Our Father in
Heaven, we thank you for this glorious fact
of the Resurrection. We understand that
Paul was telling us about our future
bodily resurrection, but it was all predicated
on the first fruits, on what happened in the
life and death and burial and Resurrection of our Lord. We remember the words of
our Lord Jesus, who gave us what we just said, but
with the economy of words, when He said, "Because I
live, you also will live. And because you
live, Lord Jesus, we know that we will live
forever in glorified bodies, resurrected bodies
in your presence. Thank you for that
great hope that sets what we believe apart
from what anyone else believes or disbelieves. We have hop. Help us, Lord, to spread around. Your love, your
hope to a world that desperately needs to hear it. I pray for anyone who
doesn't know You yet here, listening to this
message, that they would say yes to the Savior. You who are within
earshot of this message, if you find that your
life is hopeless, why don't you call out to Him? Call out to Him now. Get on with it. Say yes to the Savior. Invite him into your heart. Say to Him right now,
Lord, I'm a sinner. I admit it. Help me, save me. I believe in Jesus. I believe He died for me. I believe He rose again. And I turn from my past
to Jesus as my Savior. Take my life. Take it now. In Jesus' name. Amen. We hope you enjoyed this special
service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how
this message impacted you. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And, just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
CalvaryNM.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
