Good evening. The question, what does one man's life, what does one man's death matter? That's the topic for tonight. We're really not going to be talking so much about his death. as much about His resurrection. That's really going to be the focus for tonight. Did Jesus really die? Did He really rise from the dead? That's the question. It makes a huge difference on what Christianity rests upon. If you can prove that He did not rise from the dead, all the pillars of Christianity crumble to the ground. Christianity as a religion itself can be destroyed. My job as a pastor is completely futile and I'm getting paid for nothing, basically. My life, my purpose, it all changes quite drastically if this did not happen. So, that's what we're going to be considering tonight. By no means am I an expert on this topic. But I just read recently in Hebrews that resurrection is mentioned as one of the elementary doctrines of the Christian faith. And so I think I'm qualified to speak on the elementary things. We'll begin there. But I also, part of my background in addition to having my graduate-level degree in theology. My undergraduate degree was in history, specifically in ancient civilizations, and I also had a minor in comparative religion, and so we're going to be looking at the topic from that perspective tonight, primarily. For the sake of time, I'll just give you some of my thought processes. I can't prove these things. We don't have time to do that, so I'm going to give you some of my presuppositions to begin with. First, I believe in the existence of God. I also believe that God has revealed Himself to us through His Word, and in that Word God has revealed that He is the maker of all things and the sustainer of life. And also, I believe that God has performed miracles here on earth, but the normal means, the normal way in which God works is through what we sometimes refer to as natural laws. Now, you need to understand my particular position in reference to miracles themselves might help you understand where I'm coming from. My view of miracles today is what's referred to as cessationism, which basically means, in a nutshell, that miracles are not normal occurrences. It's not something that we should expect to happen on a daily basis, nor has it happened on a regular occurrence throughout the history of the world. In fact, if you look at the whole spectrum of Scripture, the whole range of what's happening there, very few instances do you see miracles happening on a regular basis. Most of them occur around the period of Moses and his life and then later on during the time of Elijah and Elisha in the Old Testament. And then we also see them again, many of them happening at the same time during the time of Jesus and the life of his apostles. Outside of those times, very rarely do we see a miracle occur at all. And I give that to you as a background to help you see that overall miracles are not something that are to be demanded by God. In fact it's the exact opposite of that. He gives His miracle for a very specific purpose. In the Old Testament, if you remember, if you've ever read about the story of the Exodus account, when God raises up Moses to be His mouthpiece and to lead His people out of Israel. Moses' first complaint, other than not wanting to do the job, is, these people won't believe me. They won't believe that you've spoken to me. And so immediately God gives him the ability to be a miracle worker in order to prove that his message is from God and that his authority is from God. And so you see, there's a very specific purpose to the miracle itself. God doesn't give miracles to us every time an individual desires, oh Lord, show me some great power. In fact, oftentimes the Pharisees were asking God to show miracles right after he had just performed a miracle. And then he says, a wicked generation is the one who desires such things that even if you had a man raised from the dead, you still wouldn't believe it in that sense. And so because of that, my view today is that God is not in the habit of doing these things at all, but particularly during the times when he is giving us new revelation. And since I don't believe he's giving us any new revelation until the time that Christ returns, I'm not expecting a biblical miracle in that sense to occur. Now what does that mean for us? Well, if you've ever read David Hume, one of the greatest skeptics of Christianity, his great point was that if you take away the miracles, you take away Christianity. And in a sense that's true. If you can take away the miracle of the resurrection, you can destroy the Christian faith. But that's not what he means by that. What he means is that not only did the miracle have to happen then, you have to be able to replicate it today. That we have to be able to witness it ourselves today in order for it to be something that is legitimate, that could be used as evidence in any sense. Of course, he's using circular reasoning, assuming that in order for something to happen, it has to happen again and again. You could use the same logic to the miracle of life itself, right? Think about it. Life coming from non-life that's happened at some point on our Earth in the past. Now, it hasn't happened since then. We haven't been able to replicate that in any way. We're able to clone other creatures, but we're not able to do what was originally done. And no other planet that we're aware of is it happening there either. And so, according to that logic, since we can't see it again, we can't believe in the miracle of life itself. But yet, obviously, it's right before us. We see evidence of it in that sense, but we can't believe that it happened according to that line of reasoning. And so because of that, anyone who comes into this argument from a metaphysical perspective saying, this can't be, this can't ever happen, the concept, the miracle of the resurrection could never be because I don't believe in miracles, you're not going to hear anything I have to say for the rest of the night, pretty sure. But nevertheless, I'm not going to spend much time on the metaphysical or the philosophical realm, but rather stick to the historical realm. I think that gives us much more evidence to go by in order to understand what really happened You know, in temples and in sacred places around the world, you can find the remains of Confucius, of Buddha, of Muhammad. Whether it's their ashes, whether it's a tooth, whether it's bones, you can find their remains. And yet, when it comes to Christ, you can find two gravesites, if you will, two tombs, but there's nothing there. He's not there. That's one thing we know to be an historical fact. His body's not there. His remains are not there. Even the ancient enemies of Christianity, including the unbelieving Jews and the unbelieving Romans, attested to that, that his body is not there. Of course, the empty tomb alone is not enough to convince any of us, though, of the resurrection of Christ. It can't be taken in isolation. And so tonight, what I'd like for us to consider is first the Christian case for the resurrection of Christ, and then I want us to consider the skeptic's challenges to that doctrine of the resurrection, and then finally what his resurrection or non-resurrection means for the world today and for the years ahead. So first let's consider the Christian case for the resurrection of Christ. Again, it's not based upon the empty tomb alone, but upon seven other evidences that I'm going to submit to you tonight. The first one being the identity and the self-understanding of Christ Himself. Second, the purity and truthfulness of Christ as a man, as a prophet. Third, the predictive prophecies concerning His resurrection. Fourth, the testimony of multiple witnesses concerning His resurrection. Fifth, the credibility of those witnesses. Sixth, the birth of the Church. And seventh, the purpose of the four Gospels. First, let's consider the identity and self-understanding of Christ. If Jesus was in fact raised from the dead, never to die again, His is the most unique ministry of any religious leader in the world. That in and of itself is very unique. But that's not the only thing that sets apart Christ from the other religious leaders of this world. Ravi Zacharias in his book, Jesus Among the Gods, he explains that in every other religion, there's a distinction made between the prophet and his teachings. There's a distinction made between the man and his message. If you think about it, Muhammad taught the five pillars of Islam. He didn't teach himself. Buddha taught the noble path to enlightenment, but he didn't teach about himself. Christ, on the other hand, said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. It's not Muhammad who transforms you. but it's the Koran or the five pillars. It's not Buddha that transforms you, but it's his way to escape the life of suffering. Jesus is saying, I am the way to God. I'm the only way to God. It's a very exclusive claim that no other religious leader makes in the same way. In addition, Buddha did not know the way that he was teaching. Not at first. He had to search for the way. And so he went in search of a way of an escape from the suffering in life. Muhammad also didn't know the way. He went looking for it. He went praying in caves trying to find out what was God's message unto him. And at first, Muhammad didn't believe that he was a messenger of God. He had allegedly received messages from God, but it was his own wife who had to convince him that it was from God. And then he wasn't making it up himself. He wasn't sure. Neither was Buddha sure at first. Jesus, on the other hand, from the records we have of him, even from The young age of 12 and below, he's saying, I must be in my father's house. That's a very important statement to make because he's claiming God to be his father and he must be in the temple. He's not referring to his local residence, but rather he must be in the temple where his father dwells. In addition to that, if we look through all the I am statements that he makes throughout the scriptures, the one pertaining to our topic tonight is I am the resurrection and the life. He's not saying there is a way to the resurrection. He's saying I am the resurrection itself. Again, something very unique that no other religious leader comes remotely close to. Second, in addition to that, consider the uniqueness of his purity and his truthfulness as a prophet. Again, neither Buddha nor Muhammad ever claimed to come from heaven. Neither one of them ever claimed to be born of God. Muhammad supposedly visited heaven once, and Buddha allegedly reached nirvana, but neither one of them came from that place. Neither one of them came from God, if you will. By their own admission, not only that, but they didn't live a sinless life. They admitted freely that they had made errors, that they had sinned in some way. The fact that Buddha entered many rebirths proves that he had lived many imperfect lives first. In the same way, there's at least two surahs that mention Muhammad's need to ask for forgiveness for his sins because he had made errors in his life. Jesus, on the other hand, challenges His antagonist to convict Him of any sin, and they're unable to do it. According to the records that we have, none of them dared even to bring up an accusation against Him. Ultimately, the final accusation against Him on the cross is that He claimed to be the Son of God, not that He had done anything wrong otherwise. Yet, if He said that He was the Son of God, and that He was the resurrection, He was the life, and yet did not rise from the dead, then there's no reason for us to believe that Jesus was a good man at all, nor was he a truthful man, nor was he a holy man. I think it's quite strange that a lot of people that don't receive Christ as Lord can still see him as a good teacher in that sense, because he would have to be a liar of some kind. He would have to be some strange man that you would have no reason to believe whatsoever, because nothing of what He said came true. So consider that first of all, His purity and truthfulness. But then third, consider the predictive prophecies concerning His resurrection. and the resurrection in general. You know some have said that in the Old Testament the people really didn't believe in the eternal life. They really didn't believe in the concept of resurrection until much later on toward the time of Christ. That's simply not true. From the very beginning, again look at Genesis chapter 2 and 3 when it begins to describe this tree of eternal life. The very fact that they had lost access to this eternal life anticipates them wanting to go back to that. And the very promise early on in the scripture is that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent and would restore things to the way they were before and something much better than that. So there's always this aspect of how do we get back to the paradise of God? How do we get back to the garden of Eden? How do we get back to eternal life? And we see that early on, even in Genesis chapter five, I think it is, Remember, we find this strange account of Enoch who walked with God and he was no more because God took him. Where did God take him? Early on in Scripture we see there's a place that God has, separate from where man is currently, that God wants to have a holy righteous man to be with him where he is. And it's not until later we see another account of a man named Elijah, in a very similar way, that he goes up in a whirlwind in that particular passage it says that he takes him up to heaven to be where God is, that he might dwell with Him in that sense. But even early on we see Job is a very early piece of writing that is written during the same period of time as the patriarchs were living. So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And we see very early on there in John chapter 19 Job is crying out in the midst of his suffering, but he also has this firm and certain belief in a Redeemer. who's going to stand next to him on the day of judgment. And he says, after my flesh has been destroyed, in my flesh, with my own eyes, I will see God. He has a very certain understanding of the resurrection very early on. And if you think that's not the case for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, even if you listen to some of the Reformed Jews, they'll tell you that the whole concept of the family burial plot hinges on this idea that they're waiting for the resurrection of the dead. And so we see that all of Abraham's descendants make a point of having that burial plot in the promised land because God had made them a promise that they would inherit that land. And if you remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it was a desert when they were there. There was nothing for them whatsoever. But by faith, they believed in this kingdom to come that they would inherit in their own flesh. And so it's not just this idea of eternal life, but the idea of resurrection itself that we see throughout the Old Testament. It's not as clear as we see as it is in the New Testament, but there's progressive revelation. In the same way with every other doctrine, we have a fuller understanding of those doctrines the farther history unfolds. But with the coming of Christ in the New Testament, we see the fullest picture. Three times Jesus is predicting His own death. his own burial and his own resurrection. He even predicts the very ones that would crucify him, again pointing to how God has sovereignly ordained all of this to happen. But when some of his antagonists ask him for another sign to prove his authority, he says to them simply in John chapter 2, destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days." And in that case he's not referring to the physical temple itself in Jerusalem but rather to his own physical body. Destroy this body and I will raise it up again in three days. What greater miracle, think about it. What greater miracle could Jesus have performed in order to prove his identity, in order to prove his authority as the Son of God? If you remember, Muhammad predicted that he would come back to Mecca as a conqueror, and he did. He also predicted that some of his enemies would fall in a certain way and have their blood shed on that ground, and they did. One of those feats can be accomplished by a strong leader. The other one that Jesus predicted can't be accomplished by any man. What man can make himself resurrect? What man can predict such a brutal agony of a death in which he died and be willing to go through with that in order to prove that his message was true? It's quite a different comparison than what we see in the other religions. And then in addition to that, fourthly I want us to consider the testimony of the multiple witnesses who claim to have seen the resurrected Christ. In Acts chapter 1 verse 3 Luke tells us that Jesus presented Himself alive after His sufferings by many infallible proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking to them of the Kingdom of God. Now the word that He uses there in the Greek is this idea that it's a certain signpost that cannot be denied. It's an infallible proof what He showed them of His body, allowing them to touch His flesh, His skin and bones. And lastly, before we take a break, let's look at some of these resurrection occurrences that the witnesses saw for their own eyes. First, there appeared on that first Sunday morning, Jesus appeared to the women who came to anoint His dead body. It's the first time we see anything of the resurrected Christ. Then afterwards, Mary Magdalene is the first one to see Him individually as she's returning to the tomb after having told Peter and John about His resurrection. Then third, he appeared to Cleopas and his friend, the two men that were walking on the road to Emmaus. And again, they're able to see him, not recognizing him at first, but then later understanding who he really is. Fourth, he would appear to the 11 disciples without Thomas in the upper room in Jerusalem, and he tells them to touch him, to see that he is flesh and bone. They all thought he was a ghost at first. And then afterwards, a week later, again, Jesus appears to the disciples, but this time with Thomas, the doubting disciple. And he purposely invites him to stick his finger into his side and into the nail marks into his hands. The following week, he appears again to the seven of the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee, where he's reinstating Peter to be the shepherd over his flock. Then He appears to the disciples on a mountain in Galilee. It's probably at this point that Paul makes reference in 1 Corinthians 15 that 500 disciples saw Him at the same time. It's during this time that they see the resurrected Christ. And it was probably after that, next he appeared to James, his half-brother, who wrote one of the epistles later on. And then finally to the 11 disciples, again 40 days after his resurrection when we see the ascension of Christ up in heaven. And we'll talk a little bit more about that when we return. So if you want to take a break, there is coffee and tea and other things of that nature in there, so let's do that. And I'll remind you one more time, get a index card, write your questions, think about your questions and then write them down and get them back to me as we reconvene. And we will have an opportunity to get more questions after part two of Pastor Boland's questions and we'll go from there. So you're dismissed, enjoy. These appearances were not just done with individuals but through groups of people, sometimes 10, sometimes 2, sometimes 500 in that sense. It's very rare for someone to have a hallucination when they're with a group of 500 other people who are seeing the exact same thing, literally. So again, this is something else to consider. The fifth one would be to consider the credibility of the witnesses themselves. You must know that none of these men were born into affluent families. None of them were men of great education. And they had very little connections to anyone in the powerful realms. weren't smart enough, if you will, to develop a worldwide conspiracy in order for people of every nation to buy into something that they had done on their own. They had nothing to gain by telling lies. They didn't gain any power. They didn't gain any land. They didn't gain any privilege from it. In fact, all they received from all of their preaching and all of their labor was insult. and persecution and eventually death. Blaise Pascal said it this way, he said, I believe those witnesses that get their throats cut. which is pretty much what happened with almost all of them. But in spite of all the threats, in spite of all the bodily harm and even the possibility of martyrdom, they never changed their message. It was consistent throughout. They continued to preach the resurrection of Christ from the dead. In fact, it was such a great transformation that these men who at first were very fearful became very bold. If you look back to the account of what happens with Peter, Peter, in the beginning, is afraid of a little servant girl telling the truth about him. And then, just a few weeks later, he's standing before the Sanhedrin, boldly preaching the gospel before all of those who have the power to turn him over to the Roman authorities to put him to death. Quite a transformation. Eventually, all the apostles, except for John, would seal their testimony with their own blood. John, instead, would spend most of the rest of his life on the island of Patmos, basically being forced to make idols to false gods in prison for his preaching. It's truly unfathomable though to think that all of these men would sacrifice their lives for a hoax. We've never seen that in any other realm. In the field of psychology there's no evidence ever of a single person who is willing to give up his life for a lie. and to have this many people be willing to do that, it's just unfathomable. Again, the skeptic David Hume would say this, what's more likely, that deluded fanatics would die for a delusion or that a man would come back from the dead to life? Again, if you put it in that terms, obviously, the reasonable response would be that men would be deluded. But he's taking one aspect of science and comparing it to others. And again it would be a miracle for a psychologist to see what's being seen here. It would be a miracle in many other ways historically as well to see all of these men be able to come across with a conspiracy theory that that many people would buy into and that no one would ever turn them over and tell the truth. Then six, consider also the birth of the church itself. All historians agree that the Christian church started in Jerusalem, not somewhere else. And it all started around the year 30 AD after the crucifixion of Christ. It was not created hundreds of years later. It wasn't created in some distant land that didn't have to have these truths verified in some way. created hundreds of years after the fact, giving the time for legends to develop. All of this began to happen within the first decade of Christ's death and His resurrection appearances. Paul's epistles were public letters that were read in all of these churches all throughout the Roman Empire. And in those letters, specifically if you look at 1 Corinthians 15 he is mentioning all of these people by name as witnesses to the resurrection. And he's basically goading them in to go see and listen to these people for themselves. It's not like these people weren't known. Go and talk to them yourselves. All of these people were eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Christ. How is it that these early Christians, all coming from a Jewish background, who only believe that God alone is the one true God, how is it that now they're praying to Christ? That's a huge transformation. How is it that they take the Lord's holy Sabbath and change it from Saturday to Sunday? That's a huge transformation. How is it that they take the greatest Jewish festival, the Passover, and change it to Easter? All of these early believers were Jews. These were not Gentiles who just wanted to have their way with religious festivals. These were men who believed in the one true God. And now they're turning all of these things toward Christ. Then if you consider that in addition to those who stood against them, look at the chief priests, Annas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. All they had to do was to provide the evidence. All they had to do was put this rebellion down easily through convincing them with better arguments, showing them that theirs were futile, they're worthless, there was nothing there. They couldn't do anything, they couldn't put a stop to this. And you can always tell when there's some truth involved when people begin to turn toward persecution. People begin to show forth their power because they aren't able to use arguments anymore. They get angry and so they start to use force because the arguments won't work because these people still believed. Why is it that all these people are believing? in contradiction to what all these religious people are saying in the established authorities. Then lastly, consider the purpose of the four Gospels themselves. In each Gospel, the same events surrounding Christ's life, death, and resurrection are treated in the same detail. And each one of the Gospels slows down their focus on that last week. because they want you to understand specifically the reason and the purpose for His resurrection. John tells his readers, "...that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, that life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and we testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us, that which we have seen and we heard, We proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." You know, there have been many who have denied the event claiming either that Christ's body was stolen, or perhaps they went to the wrong tomb, they went to the wrong grave, or that they were merely hallucinating as I mentioned before. These challenges are really easy to answer. Even in the Gospels themselves we see early on the Sanhedrin, according to all the Gospels, the Sanhedrin are paying the guards that are supposed to be watching over the tomb to put out the story that while they were sleeping, the disciples came and stole the body. Of course, as you know, if you're asleep, you don't really know who took the body or what happened to the body in that regard. And they also promised to pay off the Roman authorities to make sure they weren't put to death. There are many different variations to the stolen body theory, but it would be nigh impossible to get past the Roman guard. all of those men were charged with that particular task of safeguarding the tomb. And all of them would be put to death if they didn't do their job. In addition to that, the Roman seal was affixed to the tomb itself, threatening anyone who tampered with that seal with crucifixion themselves. So again, you look at the fearfulness of these disciples. when they're running away when Christ is arrested. Do you see these men all of a sudden having the boldness to go and steal the body and break the seal of the tomb? And then if they were to have taken it, to have the gall to preach to everyone within those first few weeks. Hypocrisy. I just don't understand how that could be possible. If somehow the disciples went to the wrong tomb or merely were hallucinating, all the authorities had to do was to show the body as evidence and that would have been done. That would have been answered. Later on, I know many of you have heard the swoon theory, suggesting that Jesus didn't really die on the cross, but either he fainted or he blacked out because of the extreme amount of pain he was going through. And it was only later on that he woke up in the tomb and was able somehow, with the wound from the spear in his side, the wounds on his hands and his feet, to break out of his mummified bandages, then roll a two-ton stone uphill by himself with pierced hands and then walk away on pierced feet all the while somehow undercover from Romans or anyone else seeing this. And then able to go before His disciples and present Himself as the Lord of Life. in whatever situation you would find him in. Obviously, no disciple would have believed that story if he himself had somehow come back to life from some fainting. Better arguments exist, ones that try to use a more remote argument. Lessing's ugly broad ditch is the idea that it's almost impossible to know anything that far back in time because there's a big chasm between what happened then and what happened now and we'll never really know. And so early on, even the last few centuries, we've had many men that have taught us that the gospel accounts themselves weren't written until two or three hundred years after the fact. We now know from archaeological evidence that simply isn't the case, that these men that were writing the gospels Their writings are dated to the time in which they lived. And we know even more so that the Apostle Paul is writing within the first decade after Christ's crucifixion. He's already mentioning the names of the witnesses early on. This didn't happen hundreds of years later. They didn't have time to develop legends. They didn't have time to sit around and come up with better doctrines of the resurrection. They just simply didn't have time to do that. Immediately, there was a watching world who could have thwarted any of their false attempts. Let's not forget, though, that the tomb itself was not empty. His wrappings were left behind. understand the traditions of how they would bury someone. They would wrap them up like a mummy, and they would put many pounds of spices in between each layer. And the way it's described in scripture, I think the way it's often taught, is that somehow all of these bandages were folded up and placed on a stone in the cave. That's not really the way it's described. Again, it doesn't say this in scripture, but if you look at the tradition surrounding the burial, they were like in a mummified casing. And the way it's described is that literally Jesus' immortal body just passes right through the bandages. So what you have left behind is not a bunch of wrappings laying around like this, but rather sort of a chrysalis that's still intact of what used to be a body. That is sitting there. Why would any robber come and steal a body and leave the casing? Why would anyone take a body and leave the casing? It just doesn't make sense. Clearly, there's something else to this story. And then finally, I'd like for us to consider what the doctrine of the resurrection means for us today. Paul said, if Christ is not raised, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith is in vain, for anyone who believes in this story. That we who preach the gospel are false witnesses, that we're scoundrels. That we who believe it are to be the most pitied people alive for living a life based upon lies. If Christ is not raised, Paul says, let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Why bother even getting up in the morning? What's the point? What's the purpose? We might as well sleep in. If Christ did not rise, then Karl Marx might be right. That religion truly is the opium of the masses. We're really just trying to hold down the little man with the fear of religion. If Christ didn't rise, then Sigmund Freud was right. That Christianity really is just wish fulfillment. That's all it is. That's all we're just hoping for something better than it really is. If Christ didn't rise, then perhaps Macbeth was right, saying that life is just a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It's a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. On the other hand, if Christ is risen, then his identity as the Son of God is proven with power that He is the Savior and Lord of all. If Christ is risen there is an answer to all our fears and all our sorrows. If Christ is risen, there's an answer to all of our guilt, all of our shame, all of our disgrace, that gnawing feeling within us that not only is there something wrong with the world, but there's something wrong with us. And the resurrection of Christ answers that. If Christ is risen, then we're not alone. If Christ is risen, there is a reward for the righteous and a punishment for the wicked. There's a reason for our labor. If Christ is risen, there is a purpose in life. There is a meaning in suffering. There's a glorious end to all those who trust in Christ. If Christ is risen, our labor, there's a reward for it. The law of diminishing returns is only temporary, and our current dystopian view of this world is in total error. If Christ is risen, there is a culmination to all things. There is an end. There is a day of judgment. There is a day of justice in which all wrongs will be made right. If Christ is risen, there will be a day in which all things will be laid bare. There is a hope not only for our souls, but for our bodies. There is a hope not only for our families, but for our nation. Not only for our nation, but for this earth, for in the resurrection of Christ all things, the scripture teaches, will be made new. Even this earth that is currently groaning in pain, because of our sin will be redeemed for its corruption, and it will shine in all the glory for which God created it. If Christ is risen, we who have been united with Christ by faith will enjoy a new heavens and a new earth. If Christ is risen, all things are made new." Friend, no eye has yet seen the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. And I submit to you that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Still time, I got about four questions here that'll get us rolling and feel free to generate more questions and just bring them on up as we proceed with the Q&A portion of our evening. And as usual, my lovely wife has tried to order these questions in ascending difficulties. So we'll hopefully start off with the easy ones and get to the more difficult ones. But again, just encourage you all, don't hesitate to bring any more questions. So the first one here I think probably addresses maybe your cessationist comment in the first part of your lecture. We have all heard stories of someone whose kidneys were failing or had cancer and after prayer the next morning they are completely healed and doctors have no explanation. Could you speak to events like this and aren't these in fact miracles? I got you. So I tried to clarify what I meant by biblical miracle in the sense of a miracle that was specific to something that was so outstanding there could be no denying it. There are many things that God, still in His sovereignty, is working out His ways on this earth, and oftentimes those ways are easily understood by us. Sometimes they're not. Whether or not it's a miracle, I'm not sure. In every case, I think it's possible. But I don't think there's such a thing as a miracle worker. That there is such a thing that God has raised up a person to bring healing for that particular purpose outside of the realm of medicine, etc. To give you, for instance, I've gone to some of these countries in which people have supposedly been raised from the dead or have received a great miracle through someone laying on their hands. When I talk to the people themselves, it's not as clear as it seems to be when we receive the news here. In fact, in one of the countries that I visited, I remember one of the pastors asking me what I thought of Benny Hinn, because when Benny Hinn came to town, all the hospitals emptied and went to go see Benny Hinn. Sadly, he told me that everyone who came in on a stretcher left on a stretcher. Everyone who came in in a wheelchair left in a wheelchair. What I mean by that is this. When Jesus healed someone, no one can deny that he was healed. Now today, when someone's healed, we don't always understand how it happened. I'm not denying that God is always at work in everything in this world, but just in the sense that it was such an outstanding manifestation of God's power that no one could deny. I don't think that's the norm for our life here now. Next question, Jesus stated that the sign he would give would be the sign of Jonah. Three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. Did Jesus spend three days and three nights in the tomb? Portions of yes. In that sense yes. Obviously he didn't spend 24 hours for the three days and three nights. That's my short answer. Third question, is celebrating resurrection biblical? Is there more to that? That's it. Certainly I think it is in the sense that every Sunday you could say is Resurrection Sunday because basically every Sabbath day now is not only pointing to a remembrance of God's creation, or even a remembrance of God's salvation of the Israelites out of Egypt. But now it's specifically pointing to our exodus out of our own bondage to sin and bondage to Satan. And so every Sunday we're remembering God's great work of salvation. through His death and through His resurrection. So certainly I think each, we should celebrate it all the time. We shouldn't limit it to one particular day in March or one particular day in April. Last question. So anyone out there got another question? Now is the time. What does it mean that Jesus was raised for our justification? Okay. Certainly. So the word justification is a legal term which implies that someone is standing before a court of law, in this case God's heavenly court, and we stand accused of sin. Each one of us has sinned and are sinners and thus we stand guilty before a holy God. And when Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin and died for us on the cross, through His death He paid the penalty for our sin. But through His resurrection He the first time he enters into heaven, he enters into that heavenly court and offers his own body as a perfect sacrifice for sin. But then through his resurrection, when he's reunited with his body, we who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are also united with him by faith. And that our new life now, we have now been crucified with Christ. We've died under sin. and now have a new life in Christ. And so anyone who is dead to sin there is no more any accusation against that person. They have been declared righteous, they have been declared good because of what Christ did. And as a result through His resurrection we now stand before God as new people. Those who when God looks at us He sees His perfect Son. And he looks at us and he says, this is my son. With him I am well pleased. So our salvation, our justification is not based upon, when we go to that heavenly court ourselves, we're not going to go up there and say, well I tried to do my best. I tried to do enough good works. it'll never be enough. Because all it takes is one sin to kick Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. It only takes one sin for us not to be accepted. So Christ has to pay for all the sins. He has to die and to cover all of our sins in order to justify us. And it's through that resurrection that we have that new life in Christ, that new identity in Him with hope for that physical resurrection of ourselves as well. Very good. Excellent. Okay, I'll spare you any verbal questions. Anyone want to take this last minute opportunity and ask a question for Pastor Boland before we wrap up for this evening? We're all good? OK, excellent. Well, thanks, Professor Bull. I appreciate your time. No problem. Thank you. Thank you. I've sort of been, I think, negligent over the past several Friday night seminars, making mention of the people behind the scenes who've made each of these events possible. So I want you all to know who's working hard, Roddy, Plank, Darren Hauser, Chris Popovich up there doing the audio, Sterling Harmon, and Pete Benedict. We should all thank them for making these things happen and doing the planning. So I know it doesn't come easy. So thanks. And again I mentioned this at the beginning of the evening, we're coming together again I think reverting back to the second Friday of the month in April, April 8th and Pastor Lucas Dorado who is the RUF Minister over at UConn will be our speaker on how did we get here, spontaneous combustion or the breath of God. I probably made a little light of this at the beginning, but I suspect that this is a talk having to do with creation and origins of the world and humanity, so I'm sure it'll be an excellent lecture. And then lastly, if you don't have a church home, we certainly welcome you, invite you to come back here on Sunday. We have Sunday school at 9.30. then worship service here at 1030 in the morning and then there's an evening service Sunday evening at 630 and we'd love to see you all attend that as well. So you're dismissed and we look forward to seeing you guys and gals next month. Thank you. You're dismissed.