A New Beginning presents a great book to show you how to easily share the gospel by Pastor Greg Laurie. The book is called Tell Someone You Can Share the Good News. And I wrote it with this thought in mind. I acted as though I were sitting down with an individual and sharing truths I've learned about evangelism. And it's something that is really important to me.
And I want to share what I've learned with you in this book, Tell Someone. Yours for a gift of any amount at harvest.org. Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you. If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.
Wow, I'm so delighted to be out here with y'all in Harvest Church, and I would be remiss if I didn't first introduce my wife. I brought the redhead with me, and let me tell you all: when the redhead is on the front row, I preach better, ladies and gentlemen. Audrey, can you stand? Will you welcome my wife, Audrey, who's here today? Um And, you know, just pray for us.
We have five kids at home, so we're hoping they don't burn the house down while we're gone. In fact, I brought a picture of our family. I'm the pastor of my home. I really take that seriously. Audrey and I are blessed with five children, two teenagers, and triplets.
Um You know, it's amazing. We asked the people of God to pray. We struggled with infertility. If you're a new Christian, just be careful if you ever have a prayer request, okay? Because the people of God really pray.
We had Lily, she's amazing. She's going to be at a Brandon Lake concert tonight in Dallas. She loves the Lord. Just got back from a mission trip in the UK. Justin is my best friend.
He's 13. And we were living in Houston at the time, H-Town. And my wife made a key statement. She's like, We're going to have one more child. I'm like, one more.
I really keyed in on that. You know what I mean? And then we went to the sonogram appointment, and our sonogram specialist was not the typical one. He wasn't that friendly, wasn't that talkative. I wasn't vibing him, if you know what I mean.
And all of a sudden, he goes, A, B, C, one, two, three. And I thought, Are you singing a Michael Jackson song right now? And he said, Baby A, baby B, baby C, you're having triplets. And my wife's body, Started shaking. You all clap.
Go ahead and clap. You can come over and watch them anytime, okay? Come. Take them off my hands at any time. But they are nine now, so that means we've not slept in nine years, ladies and gentlemen.
So we are having fun this weekend without them. And all God's people said amen. They're home with an awesome helper. But you know, I take very seriously what I do, and the message that I'm bringing today at all of the campuses across Harvest is one that has genuinely impacted our five children. All five have come to Christ recently.
All five have now been baptized. The triplets are like the Trinity. What one does, the other two do automatically.
So they all got baptized and got saved at the same time. And, you know, at one time, we were buying 700 diapers a month.
So can you just pray for me? And seriously, thank you for everyone who buys a book, ladies and gentlemen. You've helped. You've really helped with that. My name is honored at Costco for my patronage of the diaper aisle there.
So delighted to be here. Pastor Jonathan and Britt, thank you for hosting me so well. And Audrey, we had such a fun time at dinner the other night. They took us to Pirates Cove. What an experience to go there and just to see the spiritual history and what God is doing, He's continuing to do.
And I met someone today from Arizona. He's coming back from Arizona, he and his son, just to be baptized on August 16. And so, get in your car and come back and get baptized. Thank you, Jonathan, for hosting me. I love your pastor, Pastor Greg.
I have ministered, I've been ministered to through his preaching my entire Christian life. You all know you have an amazing pastor here, right? I mean, you just know he's legendary. Wow. I have so many fun stories about Pastor Greg.
The first thing I'll say is: you know, back in the day, you know, there was a day before social media. All remember those days? Like, you didn't really know what people looked like that much. The internet wasn't really a thing. Anyone remember the 90s here?
I mean, the 90s was an amazing time to be alive. And I was really getting serious in my walk with Christ. And I had a job, I had to drive a lot, and I would turn on my radio to bought radio network, and I would listen to this guy named Greg Laurie. And this was the new beginning radio broadcast. And I would just eat up all of his sermons.
I remember the first time I preached, this is before AI, Chat GTP. I sat there on a cassette player and I recorded and I wrote down every word that he said because I preached the sermon as if it was my own sermon. Every word, all the jokes, they were mine. I just loved it. It was about how you know you're saved and the spiritual birthmarks that you have.
I've never forgotten that. But, you know, hearing him, he has a really cool voice, too. I mean, he really sounds in my mind like he's from Southern California. In my mind's eye, you know, I had not met him, I couldn't have picked him out from an audience, but I knew his voice, and I really thought that listening to him preach, he looked something like Patrick Swayze from the movie Point Break. You remember that?
Remember what Patrick Swayze looked like in Point Brank Anyone? I mean, he looks really cool.
So I would hear Greg Laurie preach, but this is what I would see in my mind. And you can imagine how surprised I was. Wait a minute. You can imagine how surprised I was when I'm in Jerusalem a few years later and I finally get the opportunity to meet Greg Laurie. And this is what he looked like in Jerusalem.
Not like Patrick Swayze, but there he is. But still very cool.
So Pastor Greg, thank you so much for your amazing ministry. I take it really seriously that he's invited me and really honored to be in his pulpit. I'm praying that God raises up many more Greg Lorries in future days. We need it. And watching the Crusade last Saturday, I was preaching in New York and having the opportunity to watch what God did through all of you and through this great move of God.
I agree with what he said. God has not given up on Southern California. God's not given up on the world. The gospel still changes lives.
So, thank you for this amazing church. Again, Jonathan, thank you for your leadership. I'm excited, just a little commercial. I come out of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas. My pastor, Dr.
Jack Graham, sends his greetings, and I have the opportunity to give leadership now to the world's largest biblical worldview conference. We have over 5,000 people that come to our conference, and I'm so excited. One of our keynote preachers this year is Jonathan Laurie in September. Come to Dallas if you want to hang out for three days.
So we're really excited. We had people from 23 states attend our Christian Worldview Conference last year, and it continues to grow. All right, let's go to our Bibles and go to John chapter 20. I have brought a special message, and I want to give greetings to everyone watching right now in Maui. Audrey and I and our family, we've actually attended Harvest Maui and bought all the swag from the merch shop.
We love Harvest Maui. And you all are blessed today because at the Maui campus, you all have a replica of the Shroud of Turin. And then those of you who I've just come from Riverside, our entire exhibit on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus right now is live at the Riverside campus. It's going to be available for the next few days. And then we say the best for last.
Just kidding. We have it coming next Sunday right here to the Orange County campus as well.
So you're not going to only want to miss Pastor Greg being back next weekend, but the entire resurrection exhibit will be back here next Sunday. I've got a few artifacts, though, I've brought to help aid me in the communication of God's Word. I actually decided to bring my copy of the Bible. I'm going to unroll it because this is a scroll. You're looking at a 1,000-year-old Torah scroll, ladies and gentlemen.
Do you know what a Torah scroll is? This is one of the first five books of the Old Testament. It's not an entire book. This is just three chapters of the book of Numbers. And the fact that Numbers 30 starts right up here.
Remember, our Jewish friends read their Bibles right to left. And so, right up here, Numbers 30, verse 1 begins. I see the personal name for God right there in the second line down. If you want to get a picture right on the edge, there's Yad Hay Vavhev. That's Yahweh.
Moses delivered all the words the Lord had commanded him to say to the tribes of Israel. This is very pertinent for our message today because when Jesus Christ was resurrected, he found himself on the road to Emmaus. And if you remember, he walked with two disciples. One's name is Cleopas. We don't know the name of the other.
We think maybe Mary, his wife. And Jesus decides to do a Bible study that first Sunday of. that he was resurrected. And do you remember what he did? Luke 24 verse 27 says that Jesus began with Moses and the prophets and he showed them how all of scripture, not some of it, not a few verses, all of the Old Testament pointed to me, to Jesus Christ.
That's what he said. And isn't it cool that I brought a Torah scroll? I have an idea in my mind that at some point during that Bible study, Jesus said in Numbers, the book of Numbers spoke of me. And so, you know what? If you can't trust people in California, who can you trust, ladies and gentlemen?
I feel led to do something that my team gets upset a little bit when I do that, but I feel like you all look like an amazingly trustworthy bunch. I'm just going to pass this around, okay? I want you to just pass it around while I preach. I want you to feel this artifact of scripture. This was smuggled out of Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein, and it was given to our ministry.
Pastor Jonathan, could I just hand this to you and let's just pass it down the rows? Please, no one steal this. Can I trust this audience? It's a priceless artifact of the Word of God. Take it with you and enjoy it.
I'm so excited to be talking about so many new discoveries that prove that Christianity is true, that prove the Bible is true. And today I'm talking about what I think is the most exciting discovery that we have, the most exciting artifact that gives evidence to the truth claims of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And I want to make a few things very clear. I'm a biblicist. I'm a sola scriptura guy.
I believe all we need for faith and practice is found in the Word of God. But the cool thing about our Bibles, unlike any other religious texts, no other religions can claim this. The cool thing about our Bibles is they are about real people, real places, and real events. That means that the things that the Bible speaks about, there should be fallout evidentially all over the Bible lands. And I'm so delighted to tell you that there certainly is.
And we need to know how we can defend the Christian faith and these skeptics. Times. Don't you agree? We need to know what are the evidences, especially for our skeptical friends who might even say, you know what, prove that Jesus exists, but don't use the Bible. I don't want you to privilege that text.
I'm so excited to be bringing you artifacts today and discoveries that simply buttress. They underscore the truth claims of Christianity. And when we talk about these discoveries, when you go to the land of Israel, when you read about these exciting things that God is doing as we get closer to the second coming and more and more discoveries are revealed that just simply underscore the truth of Christianity, it's like a mason. We're just putting another brick in the wall of our faith. And so I've come here in prayer to strengthen your faith.
I've come here to put more bricks in the wall of your faith.
Some of you, you're skeptically minded, and I've come here, I'm very skeptically minded myself, to say, what's it going to take for you to believe in Jesus? I mean, how much more proof do you really need? And there are so many great artifacts. Pastor Jonathan eloquently shared about the Dead Sea Scrolls. And you have a Torah scroll in front of you.
You can get on a plane today and you can go to Germany to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, a delightful museum. And you can walk through those purple Babylonian gates that they have at the Pergama Museum. And you can, in your mind's eye, realize that Daniel, the prophet, walked through those gates as a 16-year-old when Daniel 1:8 said, But Daniel purposed in his heart to serve the Lord. This is the beauty I often say when I'm interviewed on shows or YouTube about Christianity, and that Christianity's closest cousin is archaeology. And no other religion can claim that, like our faith.
Well, I want to introduce you to another artifact that you may or may not be aware of called the Shroud of Turin. And as we saw in the video, the Shroud of Turin testifies as an artifact to the life, the death, the burial, and make no mistake, to the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now, does that sound just a little too good to be true to you? It certainly did to me until very recently, until I got beyond just being YouTube or TikTok smart about these things. I got beyond the sound bites and into the substance of this discovery. And what I found was ultimately life-changing. I came to realize that the Shroud of Turin is the most studied archaeological artifact on the planet, and evangelical Christians need to know about this.
And so, my question for you in our message today, which emanates out of John chapter 20, verses 1 through 8, is who is the man of the shroud? Who is this man who is crucified in the shroud? In fact, our ministry put together an AI-driven we created this in mid-journey. This is what we think Jesus looked like. If you just put in the data point of the shroud of Turin, the face of God, which is in the shroud, along with the earliest icon we have of Jesus, which is currently at Mount Sinai, dating to the 6th century.
Isn't that piercing to look in his eyes and wonder, is this a possible rendition of what Jesus looked like? Who is the man of the shroud? When we're talking, though, about a burial cloth, as Pastor Jonathan said, that has an image of a crucified man that corresponds and matches the biblical description of how Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.
Now, I speak to a lot of university students, and one way I like to ask them to be a little bit more clear, we're talking about a flash, the moment of resurrection, and it left an image in the cloth.
So, are we talking about the fact, did Jesus take the first selfie? That's really one way that we can think about it. This is another AI image. AI is flawed. I have no idea why he's holding what looks like a Blackberry.
But in any case, this is Jesus maybe taking the selfie. People ask me all the time: JJ, do we have enough evidence? To really believe in the resurrection of Jesus, we do. In my book, Body of Proof, I give the seven best reasons to believe in the bodily, physical resurrection of Jesus and why it matters today. That's the beauty of the Christian faith.
We know the exact day that Jesus is crucified, he's crucified on April 3rd, AD 33. It's the best established fact of the ancient world. If we cannot believe that Jesus was crucified under the reign of Pontius Pilate and Tiberius Caesar, we shouldn't believe in anything from the Roman Empire. We know the day that he was resurrected. It happened very early morning on Sunday, April the 5th, AD 33.
You mean we know the exact date, JJ? We do based on the evidence. We have then, beyond that, we have the gospel as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and in the Paul Line works. We have incredible airtight evidence right there. But then, as I've said, because Jesus was resurrected in history, I mean, had you been there that first Easter Sunday, He was no ghost.
He was no phantom. People were not having kind of psychedelic experiences. No, they really saw Jesus physically alive and it transformed their lives. And we have evidence of that fact in what I believe is the Shroud of Turin. And it goes beyond the typical evidence that's accepted in the court of law.
I really believe it's airtight. I believe it's a slam-dunk case, and I'm going to share why that is with you over the next few minutes.
So, the real question to apply to our life is: Are you ready? Regardless if the shroud is authentic or not, are you really ready to meet the resurrected Christ? I mean, that's really what it comes down to. When his eyes look in your eyes someday, are you ready to meet the resurrected one? Let's look at John chapter 20 together.
And this is verse 1.
Now, on the first day of the week, that would be Sunday, as I said, April 5th, 1833. I love this. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb while it's still early. I love this passage. I always quote your pastor when I preach this passage.
It was Greg Laurie who said, Mary was the last one at the cross, and she was the first one at the tomb, showing that her life had been transformed. Notice the Bible says she comes to the tomb while it was still dark. According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, sunrise, that first Easter Sunday, would have been 5.43 in the morning.
So Easter sunrise services are nothing new, Harvest Family. They've been happening since the very first Sunday. Notice that she sees something. And in my notes, I have all the times the words saw or to see are used in the scripture. In fact, let's say that word saw out loud.
She saw. A little louder, I can't hear you. She saw. She saw something. 11 times in John 20, we see that the disciples see something and it invigorates their faith.
This reminds me as a believer, we're not talking about vibing Christianity or taking some kind of blind step of faith. No, it's a leap in the light. We're watching the evidence and we're making a decision based on that. What does she see? The Bible says in verse 1, she sees the stone, which likely weighed nearly 3,000 pounds, had been taken away from the tomb.
Verse 2, so she ran and she went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, we know that's John, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. Look at verse 3.
So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going towards the tomb. Verse 4, both of them were running together, but the other disciple, I love this narrative in the Bible. John wants you to know he's faster than Peter, ladies and gentlemen. The other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. By the way, do we have any runners here this morning?
Just by a show of hands, any joggers you've already done 20 miles today? You always know a runner because they tell you they're a runner, ladies and gentlemen. Have you noticed this? There's more running in this chapter of the Gospels than all other 89 chapters of the Gospels combined. This tells me that the resurrection of Jesus should energize me, it should make me put on my hocus and want to run and tell people about Christ.
That's what the resurrection does, and this is what it's doing in the disciples' life. Both of them were running, verse 4. The other disciple outruns Peter and reaches the tomb first. Verse 5, and here it is. Look at the language here.
There's an economy of words in the gospels, friends. They don't have a lot of room to write. They don't have scrolls like what you have in your hand. Notice what it says. And stooping to look in, next week here at Orange County, you will see a 3D printed first-century tomb model, and you'll see why they had to stoop down to look in.
And what do they see lying there? He saw, there it is, the linen cloths lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw, there it is, I love this, the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with a linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. I love verse 8.
Verse 8 is why I've come to harvest church this weekend. Then the other disciple, Yeah. Who beat Peter and reached the tomb first? Also went in. I love this, he saw and he believed.
Let's say that out loud. He saw and he believed. You say, wait a minute, Jeremiah, wasn't John already a follower of Jesus? Of course he was. But this evidence caused him to believe even more.
How many of you know I can believe more today? I can have a stronger faith today. I can be more fervent in my love for Jesus today. And that's what this evidence, that's what the truth of the resurrection does. It not only energizes us to run and tell people about Jesus, it strengthens our own faith.
Where I can say, I later on in John 20, I love what Mary explains: I have seen the Lord. And that is the game changer.
Some of us, we need to see and we need to believe more.
So, what are we talking about? What is this artifact, Jeremiah?
Well, remember, I'm not talking about a relic. A relic, I have allergic reactions to Catholic relics, but artifacts can be tested by science. They can be tested by the physical sciences. And the Shroud of Turin is an artifact that many scientists have studied. I will share more about that later.
We are talking, as Jonathan said, about the grave clothes of Jesus. This is the burial cloth. If you've been to Chipotle later, Chipotle later, it's like a pita.
Okay, it's one cloth. It's about 14 feet long. They would have laid it out on the slab that Jesus' body is laid on there in Jerusalem. They would have put his body on it, and then they would have wrapped it around the head from the top and then down towards the feet. Then they would have taken strips and they would have put his hands together, his feet together.
They would have taken the face cloth off that had covered his face when he died on the cross because of Jewish sensitivities. And then something happened. In the moment of resurrection, This incredible light power is emitted, and we believe it left an image on the cloth of what Jesus' body looked like the moment before resurrection. According to the shroud, and you'll see this next weekend, you can see it today at the Maui campus and in Riverside. Jesus is 5'11 inches tall.
He's physically fit. He weighs 170 to 180 pounds. Remember, Uber wasn't a thing in the first century.
Some of us need a reminder. Jesus walked everywhere. There was no ride-sharing app. I love this. And what does the Bible say?
All four gospels mention the burial cloth that was wrapped around Jesus' body. If you're taking notes, that's in Matthew 27, 59 to 60, Mark 15:46, Luke 23:53, John 19, 39 to 42. All of the biblical accounts also confirm that women found the burial tomb, but Jesus' body was not there. The burial garment was there, but not the body. Body.
So if you stole the body, you would not have taken the bloody body out of the burial garment. You would have just stolen all of it. You would have taken all of it. And so I believe the shroud brings us face to face with the resurrected Christ. And listen, other than the Bible, nothing else does that.
Now, I want to do a little exercise with you that is really fun. Jonathan pointed out in the intro that as we're getting closer to the second coming of Jesus Christ, the rapture of the church, there seems to be an abundance. I mean, there's this spiritual awakening happening right now that Pastor Greg is going to preach on next weekend. Friends, it's amazing to me in scholarship, all of the discoveries that are happening right now that are causing people to go to God's Word instead of Google. And I think that's a really positive development, don't you?
These discoveries are showing that the Bible is trustworthy.
So it's like God knew 1800 years after the resurrection, this thing photography would be invented. And in 1898, a lawyer who was a part-time kind of hobbyist photographer took his camera, which I saw the other day in Turin, Italy, Jonathan. It looks like a dorm fridge. It had glass plates. This is before celluloid film.
By the way, you remember we used to have to take pictures not on cameras. You had to go get the film developed. Kodak, remember those days? Remember? Nobody remembers those days.
Never mind. And a picture is taken. This is one of the first flash photography photos ever taken. The exposures took 14 minutes and 20 minutes. And he goes, his name is Sekandapia.
I have a panel on him in our exhibit. He goes in the dark room because all anyone had ever seen for 1,800 years is this sepia-colored grave clothes, which kind of has a faint image of a guy, but you have to stare at it, disappears if you get closer than eight feet. You can only see it if you stand eight feet back. He goes in the darkroom, and what he sees causes him to say never appropriately the following three words. Are you ready for what he said?
Oh my God. Never more appropriately, because Sekanda Pia is a Christian and he believed he was looking at the face of Jesus Christ. I want you to have that same experience right now.
So grab your phone. And go into your settings of your phone. I want us to transport like we're in the dark room. This is so cool. And those of you that are watching in Riverside and Maui, you can do this right now.
If you're watching at home at harvest.church, harvestonline, do this. You can do this later on YouTube if you're watching this message. What I want you to do is go into settings and please turn on classic invert in your settings. We're wanting to just simply invert the camera. We have some instructions that will help you on the screen.
Someone said you can just search though classic invert in the settings and just turn it on and that turned my screen white. Like it makes the screen colors invert. And then here's the cool part. Are you ready? If you're ready, say yes.
Are you guys ready? Everybody's there. Hold up your phone, open up your camera app, and let's look at the shroud together like we're in the dark room. And I want you to see what, wow.
So everyone doing that, scroll in with your fingers. And I'm gonna just be your tour guide, like we're all going through the exhibit right now. Right here is the front of the crucified man. Look at his face. That is what Secondopias saw.
You're gonna see all kinds of wounds and abrasions on the face. The beard has been plucked. The right eye has been so bloodied, it's shut like he's a heavyweight fighter. There is all kinds of blood on the forehead and the top of the head from the crown of thorns. We come back, and I want you to see this above the triangle.
Can you scroll in where I'm pointing, church family, and those of you online? You're gonna see that there is a bunch of blood right here fluorescing. This is right next to rib 5 and 6. Those of you that are Bible readers, do you recall what happens? Jesus dies very quickly on the cross.
They're breaking the legs of the criminals on the right and the left, but they don't break Jesus' legs because he was already dead. But they did stab him, the Gospel of John says, into the heart. And do you remember what John's Gospel says? Blood and water came out. Friends, that is a pool of blood right next to rib five and six, and that is post, as I've said in the YouTube videos, post-mortem blood.
Think about that for a minute. This is not blood he bled when he was alive. This is blood that drained from his body when he was stabbed. According to the blood reports, this is six parts pulmonary edema, one part blood, meaning Jesus was suffocating in his own blood. I want you to let this in.
Sink in, come on down, and you can see. I want you to look at the nail scars in the hands and the wrists. This is what the shroud gets ripe. We're all so influenced by early Christian art. We think that Jesus was pierced through his palm.
But scientists who've actually studied this on cadavers show that the body would not actually stay on the cross, even weighing 170 pounds, unless it was nailed through the wrist. The shroud actually gets it right. There are nail prints through the wrist. By the way, you Greek scholars, wrist, hands, same word in the Greek Bibles. You can come all the way down and you're going to see the wound marks, the scourge marks.
We've counted how many lacerations there are on the front, 172, but the back is where. We just need to take a breath. Let's just take a breath together because this is a lot. It's a lot to see this for the first time. And when I first look at the back of the head, there is so much blood on the head.
It's just blood everywhere on the head. And then you come down and you see all the lacerations on the back. abrasions across the shoulders. All the way down the legs. There's not a part of this man whose body has not been bloodied or scourged.
We've counted it 372 scourge marks on the crucified man. We don't have the lateral side, so we can conservatively estimate that there are 700 wounds on the body of Jesus. John 19:1 says, and Pilate had Jesus flogged. It's one of the most understated passages. in all the Bible.
It's unimaginable the torment he went through, and yet he's presented, and the Bible says he did it willingly because he loved you and me that much. And so I want to just share some observations. Praise God. My time is running, so I want to skip ahead to three observations that. Really allow me to apply this sermon to my life.
And I want to share with you, I was a skeptic about the Shroud until about three and a half years ago. And now I've become a defender of it based on the evidence because I'm not irrational. Number one, I want you to know that I've learned since that very serious scholars and experts believe that the shroud is authentic. And they have staked their reputations scientifically on that data. I recently took, I used to live in Oxford, Audrey and I, for three years when I did my doctoral residency.
But I had been to C.S. Lewis's home many times. I love C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, that great defender of Christianity in the 20th century. I had never seen what I'm about to show you.
I took my pastor, Jack Graham, to C.S. Lewis's home, and we went in his bedroom. It's a really inspirational experience to do that. And I look, and C.S. Lewis had a picture of the face of Jesus from the Shroud of Turin in his bedroom.
And we're there with a female Lewis scholar. She's walking us through his home. In fact, I just want to show you, this is a 13-second clip from the home of C.S. Lewis.
So when I say that serious scholars and thinkers take it seriously, Seriously, check out C.S. Lewis's bedroom with me for a minute. Uh So Lewis kept an image of the Shardoturian above his mantelpiece as a reminder that our God had a face of the incarnation. Wow, here it is. And we're in his bedroom right now.
Wow. Even C.S. Lewis needed a reminder that our God has a face. And friends, the Bible says that Jesus narrates God to us. If you want to look for God, if you want to find God, look no further than Jesus Christ, the God-man.
The one who's fully God and fully man. John's gospel, which we're reading in John chapter one, says, Jesus came from the Father. I love this, full of grace and truth. Jesus did not come to judge you into his kingdom. He came to love you in his kingdom.
And he didn't get on ChatGP and write a fake love note to us. Have you noticed that? He didn't send us a chat GTP text. He didn't say, roses are red, violets are blue, so I love you. He showed us his love for us.
in the most radical way possible. He took us when we were at our worst and still went to the cross. The Gospel of Luke says Jesus set his face like flint towards Calvary. No wonder he struggled the night before his crucifixion. He knew what was waiting for him.
No wonder he wept great drops of blood, saying, God, if there's any other way, but not my will, your will, I'll still go. That's the beauty of love.
Some of us are more skeptically minded, and I want to just show you what I've learned. Over 102 scientific disciplines have studied the shroud in over 600,000 hours of scientific study. In fact, our media team in Dallas put together all 102 different scientific disciplines. And so, as you go today in Riverside and Maui through the exhibit, you look at the Shroud, and the next week here in Orange County, you can take time to look at these different conclusions from medical doctors. Max Fry, who was a criminologist serving in the Nuremberg trials, who spent five years of his life tracing the 56 pollen flower spores on the shroud, many of which are only unique to the land of Israel and only bloom at the time of Passover when Jesus was crucified.
You can read all about that and see why the shroud is the most studied artifact in the world. Number two, science cannot explain how there is an image in this. That's another big one for me that pushed me away from my skepticism. Science has proven it's not man-made. There's no paint, there's no dye, there's no pigment, but they can't really explain how this image is in there.
It's superficial. You can't see it if you get closer than eight feet. Our best rocket scientists, I've met a scientist at the Riverside campus from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who went through the book signing line. I shook his hand and he verified so much of what I said. We still to this day have no idea how this image is in the shroud.
It's beyond our modern scientific understanding. Number three, the evidence then most powerfully points to the conclusion that the Jesus of the Bible is the man of the shroud. And that is what I want to just close with: on a few reflections that help us understand how much God loves us.
So many people I talk to today, they question: does God really love me? How can I know for sure? Maybe you're here today and you feel like You've sinned God's love away from you, that you've messed up for like the 7,000th time. How can God still love me?
Well, as I said, He showed us in the most radical way. This is the helmet of thorns. I want all of you to look at this. And in the exhibit that will be here next weekend, you can touch this. Friends, the Bible says that the Roman soldiers Fashioned a crown of thorns.
Now, for me, since I know the shroud is not a hoax, when you see the crucified criminal with the crown of thorns, it puts it beyond all doubt that we are really talking about Jesus of Nazareth. Look at these Bethlehem thorns. They're about three inches long, and they're honestly as sharp as nails when they dry. Pastor Jonathan, do you want to try this on and see if it works? Can you imagine the criminal, the Roman executioners, putting this on Jesus' head?
He's been scourged. Pilate presents him echo homo, behold the man, and only then they see him bloodied and bruised, and the crowd begins to yell, Crucify him. You know, when I pause to look at this crown, it just takes my breath away. Because I realize my sin is ugly. My sin bloodied the body of my Savior.
There's nothing cool about my sin. It took a body. The book of Hebrews says, sacrifices and offerings you did not require, but a body you prepared for me. I look at this crown of thorns and I'm immediately reminded that. Jesus died for me, not when I met my Sunday best, but He knows everything there is to know about me, and He still died in my place.
That is love in the most real way possible, isn't it? And you know what's amazing? I look at this crown and I think, you know, wait a minute, Lord, it should have been my head in that crown. It should have been my body bloodied on the cross. And God said, No, Jeremiah, no, I'm sending my best for you.
You saw the photo. We have four sons. I wouldn't give them for anyone. Can you imagine? God did not send His worst for you, He sent His best.
And his name is Jesus. And the beauty of the grace of God that we preach, if you were the only one to ever believe, He still would have come. Does it sound too good to be true? That's how you know its grace, ladies and gentlemen. And that's why the Bible says that the cross is like an itemized receipt.
You know, I paid for dinner last night at a great restaurant, but it always bothers me they didn't bring me an itemized receipt. I want to make sure I wasn't overcharged. When I look at the shroud, It's like an itemized receipt. of all the ways in which Jesus loves me. Of the way in which he willingly died for me when I was at my worst.
That's grace. And then we come to this beautiful artifact that I've showed in very few places, because I just received it about a week and a half ago. In the exhibit, we actually have replicas of execution nails. This is an actual Roman period execution crucifixion nail. Did you know they would be reused again and again?
The crucifixion nails that placed Jesus' body on the cross had likely been used on many other criminals. Let that sink in. You say, Jeremiah, why isn't it straight?
Well, it's curved and bent because the Roman executioners love to maximize torment to hasten death. And often, as the executed criminal was hanging on the cross, they would actually adjust. The nails to inflict even deeper pain. Can you imagine that? And I look at this, and I'm reminded that the Bible says.
My sin was paid for with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. It was sinless blood, it was blood that didn't deserve to be there. Let that sink in. Colossians say that God took all of our sin and He nailed it to the cross. He doesn't place it on us anymore.
He doesn't hold it over our head anymore because it's been paid for by Jesus Christ. This is why it's called good news, ladies and gentlemen. This is why you should walk out of here today and say, no matter what I'm facing, I can have hope. And Jesus rose again. That is the hope that we preach.
I love this. I love that promise from God's word. We have an image of the blood on the shroud. I want you to see this. There is red blood all over the shroud.
Skeptics will say, oh, blood doesn't stay red.
Well, hold on. Broken down red blood cells spill into the plasma, producing an enzyme called bilirubin. And that is what has kept the blood red all of these years. There's pints and pints of blood all over the shroud. And then we have a picture, a close-up of those crucified hands.
Hands and wrists. It reminds me, I just preached on Psalm 22 two weeks ago at Prestonwood. Do you remember what the Bible said? In Psalm 22:16, David sees it prophetically. A thousand years before crucifixion, he says, They pierced my hands and my feet.
Isaiah 56, let these prophetic words wash over you. I gave my back to those who struck to those who struck me. Psalm 129:3, the executioners plowed upon my back, they made their furrows long. We saw the crown of thorns, and then we closed with the beautiful face of Jesus. You know, it is a wonderful thing to seek the face of Jesus.
Revelation 22:4 says, The day is coming, we will see him face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says the same thing. I love this. This entire sermon has been, are you ready to see him face to face? Are you ready today to look him in the eyes and see his love for you?
to see he's not judging you, but he has a great plan for your life. Stop being COO of your life and just turn it all over to Jesus Christ today and say, Lord, I'm ready.
Some of us, we've already become a Christian, sure. But we need to nail it down, and no pun intended, nail it down, ladies and gentlemen. We need to nail it down in a new way today. We need to be like John in John 20, verse 8, and say, Lord, help me to see and believe more.
Some of you, God is calling you to do great things, and today you hear the Holy Spirit calling you. Not man, not a pastor, but the Holy Spirit saying, I'm calling you out. I'm calling you to a special place of service in this church. It's time today. You see everything Jesus has done for you.
You see that itemized receipt behind me. And today it's time to get on the playing field of what God's called you to do. And you know what? I believe the Holy Spirit is really good at his job today. He's speaking to every one of us in the exact way that we need to hear it.
And, friends, I want to just close where I began. Are you ready to meet the Risen One? He's looking at you right now. And he has his arms outstretched, I believe it. And you know what?
It's penetrating to think that we're going to see him face to face. And we get a glimpse of them today thanks to this special artifact, and especially thanks. to the Word of God. I pray if you're not prepared to meet the risen one, you'll get prepared right now. Let's bow our heads and pray.
Every head bowed, every eye closed. Those of you watching online, this is a very special moment in our service. This is not a time to leave or to exit or to vacate. This is a time we should be praying for the people around us on our row, family members who are watching, friends who are here. God, we ask that your spirit would work and have liberty.
We know that the Bible says the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And He's been doing that the entire time as the gospel has been clearly presented today. I want to be clear that I cannot forgive you of your sins, but I can lead you to the one who can, Jesus Christ. The Bible is very clear that John 1:12 says, But as many as received him, that's an act of faith. But as many as received him, to those he gave the right to be called the children of God.
Today, have you risen? Have you received Christ? I'm not talking about religion. I'm not talking about being catechized or confirmed, or maybe you were baptized and didn't really understand it. I'm talking about beginning a relationship with the resurrected one, Jesus Christ, who loves you so much.
If you want to know for sure that heaven's your home, that Jesus is your Savior, and that you're really ready to meet Him face to face. I want to encourage you, no matter where you're listening to this sermon, to pray this prayer to receive Christ. It's a beautiful prayer. It's not the words that save you. The words are just simply a symbolic reflection of what your heart is saying.
Yes, Jesus, come into my life.
So if that's you, and I'm going to ask every believer to be in prayer right now as God's Spirit is working. If that's you, I want to encourage you to pray this prayer wherever you're at. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for me. That's right, you just say that prayer. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for me.
And right now by faith. And right now by faith, I invite you, Jesus. Into my life. To be my Savior. To be my Lord.
to forgive me of my sins. and to give me eternal life in heaven. Help me now. on my new Christian walk. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said.
Amen and amen. Can we put our hands together and welcome all those who have prayed into the family of God? We praise God for this. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it.
Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on know God. Mm-hmm.
