Your skepticism does not negate
the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Folks, whether
or not you believe it, whether or not you subscribe to it, whether
or not you ascribe to it, some 2,000 years ago, the second person
of the triune Godhead came to this earth. He became incarnate. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did
not regard equality with God as a thing to be held on to,
but made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form
of a servant that was made in the likeness of men. Philippians
2, 5-7. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. John 1, 1-3, and verse 14. Christ Jesus came into this world,
1 Timothy 1.15, whether or not you believe it, whether or not
you ascribe to it, whether or not you subscribe to it. Some
2000 years ago, the second person of the triune Godhead took upon
himself flesh and blood. And whether or not you believe
it, whether or not you ascribe to it, whether or not you subscribe
to it, After living approximately 33 years, he died on a cross
with real wood and real nails. And there he paid the penalty
for the sins of lost humanity. And whether or not you buy into
this, whether you ascribe to it, whether you subscribe to
it, three days later, he arose from the dead, physically, visibly,
and triumphantly. And whether or not... You hold
to this. If you don't trust in Christ
and in Christ alone for your salvation before the end of life's
short day, you're gonna wind up in a not very nice place.
What the Bible calls the lake of fire, for you see, Jesus is
the exclusive way. That's what he said in John 14,
six, I am the way. He did not say I'm one of many
ways. I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father, but by me. In John 10.9, he said, I am the
door. The apostles preached in Acts
4.12. There's none other name under heaven given amongst men
whereby we must be saved. Your skepticism this morning
does not negate the truth of the resurrection. Christianity,
unlike every other religion in the world today, is an empirical
faith. It is rooted in objective, historical,
verifiable evidence. And we might add, not in a little
bit of evidence, not in a small amount of evidence, Christianity
is supported by overwhelming evidence, by amount of evidence. Folks, the tomb of the Lord Jesus
Christ on that first Easter Sunday morning was empty. And had it
not been empty, the moment the apostles started preaching the
resurrection, they wouldn't have done so. They weren't even anticipating
a resurrection. But let's just say for the sake
of discussion that they started to preach the resurrection. When
there was no resurrection, you know what the Jewish and our
Roman authorities would have done? They would have gone to the tomb
of Joseph of Arimathea where the body of Christ was laid.
They would have opened the tomb. They would have produced the
body and paraded it down the streets of Jerusalem and said
to everybody, look, here's the body. What these apostles are
preaching is ridiculous. Here it is. They couldn't do that. Well, of course they couldn't
do that. The body was stolen. The Roman or Jewish authority
stole the body. Think about that for a moment.
You know, there are actually people who believe that. The body was
stolen. Are you kidding me? What reason
would the Jewish or Roman authorities have? What motivation would they
have to steal the body of Christ? They didn't wanna start the Christian
movement. They wanted to stomp out the
Christian movement. No, no, you're getting me wrong.
The disciples stole the body, really? What motivation would
they have to steal the body of Christ? Do you know what the
disciples went through for preaching the resurrection? If church history
is correct, every single one of them, without exception, apart
from John, died a horrible martyr's death. And John was banished to the
Isle of Patmos. Why would they steal the body?
They had no motivation to do so, to preach a false resurrection. Now, the reason the tomb was
empty is because Jesus had risen from the dead. And the tomb was
not only empty that first Sunday morning, but Jesus made all sorts
of post-resurrection appearances, not just here, but on so many
other occasions, including on one occasion, Paul writes in
1 Corinthians 15, to 500 brethren at one time, Paul goes on to
say, of whom the greater part remain unto the present, but
some have fallen asleep. And you know what Paul is saying
there, of those 500 brethren, that Jesus appeared to on that
one glorious occasion. Most are still living. Most are
still alive, which means you can put them on the stand and
interrogate them and see if they're Alnetso. Christ showed himself alive after
his passion, Acts 1.3, by many infallible proofs, being seen
of them for 40 days and speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom
of God. Now, what this means for you
this morning is this. It's absolutely irrational for
anyone to reject the resurrection of Jesus Christ.