Live with Lon-Easter Message - The Compelling Evidence of Jesus' Resurrection

Well hello everybody and happy Easter to you. As we love to say the Lord is risen and you say he is risen indeed. So let's try it.

Ready? The Lord is risen. Amen. So we're going to be talking today about Easter and about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and what that means for our faith and what that means for our lives. But first I thought it would be wonderful for us to have a great old hymn of the faith that exalts the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's called Christ the Lord is Risen Today and so listen and be encouraged. Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia. Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia.

We do joys and triumphs high, Alleluia. Singing heavens and earth reply, Alleluia. Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia. Where all death is now thy sting, Alleluia.

Darling ones, ye all not same, Alleluia. Where thy victory, O great, Alleluia. The sweetening work is done, Alleluia. Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia. Death in vain, forbidden rise, Alleluia. Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia. Soaring now where Christ hath led, Alleluia. Calling our exalted King, Alleluia. Never give, like Him we rise, Alleluia. Out across the grave of skies, Alleluia. Wow, what a great hymn, made like him, like him we rise.

Wow, awesome. Well, let's open the scripture now and let's talk about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But before we do that, I want us to quiet our hearts and let's take a moment and just pray. And let's take the burdens of our heart, which I know could be manifold right now.

And let's lay them on the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden with burdens. And I will give you rest for your soul, for my burden is easy and my yoke is light. So lay your burdens on me. I can carry them, the Lord said.

You can't. They're too heavy for you. So let's take a moment. Matthew Chapter 11, Jesus said that. And let's pray. Lord Jesus, we come to you today because there is no place else for us to go with our problems and our burdens. Nowhere else where we can get relief. Nowhere else where we can exchange those burdens for the sweet peace of God that passes all understanding.

Philippians Chapter four. And so, dear God, take the burdens of our heart. Whether it's our health or the health of our loved ones or our financial issues or whatever it may be. Lord Jesus, our children, our grandchildren, our parents and Lord Jesus, you carry those burdens for us. Thank you, Father, that you offer to do that.

Help us take advantage of that. And help us understand, as the great him in Christ alone says, that from our very first breath to our very last breath, Jesus controls our destiny. And so it's in the power of Christ that we stand. And in your sovereign knowledge of every moment of every day of our life. So, Jesus, give us that peace that only you can give. Because you said in John's gospel, peace I give you.

Not like the world gives you. My peace I give you. Give it to our hearts now as we open the word of God and rejoice at your resurrection this Easter. And we pray this in Jesus name.

And everybody said Amen. Okay. Wow. Awesome.

So are we ready to study the word of God? Huh? Yeah. Okay.

Great. Now we're going to talk about the resurrection today because it's Easter weekend. And, you know, the resurrection was central to the preaching of the early church.

It was a sine qua non, without which nothing of every message that we find in the New Testament. The apostle Peter, which we're going to see in just a moment in Acts chapter two, included the resurrection in his very first sermon. In his second sermon in Acts chapter three and four, Peter preached the resurrection to Cornelius. Paul preached the resurrection to the philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens and everywhere else he went. Stephen preached the resurrection just before he was stoned in Acts chapter seven.

Paul preached the resurrection to the Roman governor Felix and then again to the Roman governor Festus. There is no Christian faith without the resurrection. Take the resurrection away from Christianity and Christianity is no more because Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship between us as sinners and a risen, alive forever savior.

And if there is no risen, alive forever savior, then there is nothing that Christianity offers that is unique, special or efficacious in getting us to heaven and forgiving our sins. But let me read you what Peter said in his very first sermon. Of course, we're using the New King James Bible and I'm in Acts chapter two, beginning at verse twenty two.

Here we go. Men of Israel, he said, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. Him, Jesus, being delivered by the determined that counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands and have crucified and put to death.

But the story didn't end there. Verse twenty four, whom God raised up. That is the resurrection having loosed the pangs of death because look at this. It was not possible that he, Jesus, should be held by it. Death for David says concerning him. Verse twenty seven, Psalm sixteen, because you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.

Verse twenty nine. Men and brethren, Peter says, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, who wrote Psalm sixteen, that he is both dead and buried in his tomb is with us to this day. In other words, David was not talking about himself, therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn an oath to him that of the fruit of his body. David's body, according to the flesh on the human level, he would raise up the Messiah to sit on his throne. And he, David, for seeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus God has raised up, that is from the dead, of which we are all witnesses. And so, my friends, can you see in this sermon and all the others we mentioned, the heart of that sermon is the resurrection. Now, not only did the apostles preach the resurrection, but Jesus himself mentioned the resurrection and told people that he was going to rise from the dead. For example, Matthew Chapter sixteen, verse twenty one, he told the disciples. He said that from that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes and be killed. Look and be raised to life again on the third day. Jesus also told the rabbis, his enemies, he was going to rise from the dead.

Look at this. Matthew Chapter twelve, for as Jonah, he says to them, was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights. So the son of man, that is Jesus himself, will it be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. And he told the crowds that he was going to rise from the dead. Look at John Chapter two, verse nineteen. Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it back up. Verse twenty, then the crowd said it has taken forty six years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days. But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them. And they believe the scripture and the word with Jesus had said, folks, everybody knew that Jesus had claimed he was going to rise from the dead. As a matter of fact, in Matthew's gospel, when look at this in Matthew Chapter twenty seven, when the rabbis went to Pilate and they wanted to put a guard at his tomb.

Look what they said. Matthew twenty seven, verse sixty three. They said, sir, we remember that when he was alive, this deceiver said after three days I will rise again.

Look at this. And so they said, therefore, command that the tomb shall be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, steal him away and say to the people, he has risen from the dead. And then this last deception will be worse than the first. So Pilate said to them, you have the guard that you asked for. Go your way and make the tomb as secure as you know how. So they went their way and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone with a wax seal and setting the guard. So there was nobody in Israel who did not know that Jesus had claimed he was going to rise from the dead.

He had made that clear. The real question is, did he do it? Did it really happen?

Well, that's the question I want us to answer this morning. And as I'm sharing this and what I want to do is bring some evidence to bear on this question of whether or not Jesus really did rise from the dead. And I have four pieces of compelling evidence that I want to share with you that prove as much as it is possible to humanly prove that the resurrection really did happen. So are you ready?

Here we go. Number one, we have the compelling evidence of the Roman soldiers. If you remember here in Matthew, Chapter 27, Peter said, go put a guard there at the at the tomb. And so the rabbis did that and sealed the tomb, the stone, the rolling stone with wax.

Now, a guard like this consisted of 15 enlisted men and one officer. And they understood that if they lost their prisoner, even their dead prisoner, that they would lose their lives. And so they had a lot at stake in making sure that Jesus's body did not disappear from this tomb.

You say, now, how do you know that they would that that was what happened? Well, let me read to you from Acts Chapter 12 here in Acts Chapter 12. Herod has put Peter in jail for preaching Christ and and Peter is released by an angel.

And look what it says in Acts Chapter 12, verse 18. Now, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what happened to Peter. He wasn't there.

Watch. And when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death here. They lost their prisoner. And as a result, they were put to death. And this is why in Acts Chapter 16, when the apostle Paul and Silas are in jail in Philippi, and there was a massive earthquake and the angel opened the doors to the prison.

This is why Acts Chapter 16, verse 27. And the keeper of the prison, who was a retired soldier, awaking from his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and would have killed himself, supposing the prisoners had fled. Why was he going to kill himself? Friends, excuse me, he was going to kill himself because he knew that they were going to put him to death anyway for losing his prisoners. So he figured he'd save him the trouble and just kill himself. And this is when next verse, verse 28, Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, Do yourself no harm.

Why? For we are all here. Nobody ran away. You didn't lose a single prisoner.

And of course, the famous, he came to Paul and Silas and fell on the ground and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? My point in all of this is that Roman soldiers understood you lose your prisoner, you lose your life. So, my friends, do you really think that a bunch of fishermen and a bunch of women could have gotten through 15 battle hardened Roman soldiers and their officer and stolen the body of Jesus when they understood what the stakes were for them? No way.

Impossible that that could have happened. Now, compelling piece of evidence. Number two, my friends, is the evidence of Jesus's enemies, the rabbis, the rabbis, of course, after Matthew Chapter 27 tells us about it, after the prisoners, after the guards, rather, had lost the body of Jesus. Look what happened. The Bible says, and when they had assembled with the elders, the soldiers had and taken counsel, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers saying, tell people his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept. Well, what about them?

How are they going to lose their lives? And the rabbi said, and if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him, probably bribe him and make you secure so you don't lose your life. Now, the rabbis were very upset that the apostles were going around in Jerusalem and the early disciples and preaching the resurrection. We find that when we turn to Acts Chapter four.

Take a look at that with me. Acts Chapter four, the rabbis gathered together and with Peter and John. And here's what it says. It says, and as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed. Acts four, two, that they taught the people and preached through Jesus, the resurrection from the dead. Verse three, and they laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. The rabbis then met with them and said, you stop preaching the resurrection. We don't want you preaching the resurrection. Friends, doesn't it occur to you that the rabbis had a much simpler solution than all the money they had to spend to bribe the guards and bribe Pilate and all the effort they had to spend to arrest the early disciples and keep telling them and throwing them in jail and beating them and keep telling them not to preach the resurrection?

Doesn't it occur to you there was a much simpler solution? All they had to do was go get the body of Jesus out of the tomb, stinking and rotten. And all they had to do was put it on a wagon and drive it around Jerusalem and say, take a look, here's the body of Jesus. You think he rose from the dead?

No way. Here's the body. We just took it rotten out of the grave. And there is no resurrection and there is no Christian faith. That would have solved the whole problem. No bribes, no beating people up. Just get the dead body and bring it.

You say, well, yeah, why didn't they? Well, friends, there was no dead body. He is not here. He is risen, just like he said, said the angel. And you say, well, maybe there was a dead body and they stole it away. No, we just talked about those Roman soldiers and said no bunch of fishermen and women are going to get in there, you know, with pitchforks and maybe a sword and steal away the body of Jesus. So if nobody stole the body of Jesus, but it wasn't in the tomb for the rabbis to show everybody, where did it go? If not, the resurrection.

Now, the third piece of compelling evidence that I want to share with you is the evidence, my friends, of the eyewitnesses. The Bible says that there were many people who saw the risen Christ, not just a few. Let me read to you. I'm in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, what the apostle Paul says. I'm beginning in verse three. Paul writes and says, For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received. Here comes that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures, all the messianic prophecies that predicted his death and his burial and his resurrection.

But he doesn't stop there. He said, And when he rose, verse five, he was seen by Cephas, that's Peter, then by the twelve, that's the early apostles. After that, he was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to this day. They're still alive.

Go ask them. Paul says, If you don't believe me, go ask one of them. And after that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

And last of all, on the road to Damascus, he was seen by me also. Look at all of these eyewitnesses that saw the risen Christ. Now, you know, I was doing a little bit of work in a book on evidence that they use in law school now.

In fact, I got several of those books and took a look at them. And I was particularly interested in how much credence, how much power was in eyewitness testimony. And I learned that there's been a movement away in these recent years in American jurisprudence from eyewitness testimony, because with DNA evidence and so many other things, and with the fact that eyewitness testimony is so often differing. So one person says that he had a blue shirt. Another eyewitness says he had a green shirt. And another one says he has a black shirt and that they can't get people to agree. And so there's not the emphasis on eyewitness testimony that there used to be. You say, well, Lon, what are you bringing that up for? That works against your point.

No, it doesn't. They were talking in these books about eyewitness testimony by only a couple of eyewitnesses who differed in their narration of what they saw of the event. This is not what we are talking about here with the resurrection of Jesus. We are talking about over five hundred and twenty eyewitnesses who all agree with one another on what they saw. They all saw the risen living Messiah.

That's a completely different thing than these law books are talking about. Five hundred and twenty witnesses who all agree with one another. And I ran into this interesting article that talks about Bayes Theorem. That's spelled B-A-Y-E-S. Bayes Theorem.

It's a mathematical theorem. And I want to read you the title of the article. The title of the article, and we'll put this up on the screen for you, is a Bayesian analysis of the cumulative effects of independent eyewitness testimony for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Man, what a title, huh? And it was written by a fellow named Dr. Depoe, and he is a mathematician, and he wrote this to defend the resurrection based upon the probability that all five hundred and twenty of these witnesses saw the same thing. May I read you his conclusion? And we'll put this on the screen. From the New Testament, one can count as many as five hundred and twenty witnesses to the resurrection.

This is Dr. Depoe, teaches at Western Michigan University. Given such a number, watch this, of independent witnesses testifying that an event occurred, the probability that this event did indeed happen goes up exponentially, according to Bayes Theorem, and becomes, look at this, close to certain. End of quote. Now you say, OK, understand what you're saying, but isn't it possible that all these eyewitnesses and all of these people were just running a scam? I mean, OK, who knows? Maybe the soldiers were in on it.

Who knows? Maybe there was a rabbi or two in on it that was getting paid off by Peter and the apostles. You know, maybe these witnesses were all paid off to say they saw the living Christ. I mean, look, we live in a world where there's a lot of things that aren't what they appear to be. So isn't it possible on that we just have a big old deception going on here? Well, no, that's not possible because of compelling piece of evidence number four. And that is the compelling evidence of the martyrdom of the eyewitnesses.

You say, what does that mean? What I mean, very simply, friends, is that virtually all of the eyewitnesses who were apostles to the resurrection of Jesus gave their life. They were martyr as opposed to in any way saying that this was a deception in any way, confessing that this was a hoax.

Let me let me just read to you the list. We have the apostle James, who was killed by Herod in Acts Chapter 12. We have Stephen, who was martyred in Acts Chapter seven. We have Thomas, who was martyred in India and John Mark, who was martyred in Egypt and Philip, who was martyred in Turkey and Matthew, who was martyred in Ethiopia.

And we have Peter, who was crucified upside down by Nero in 66 A.D. and Paul, whose head was chopped off at the third milepost of the Austrian Way in Rome in 66, also by Nero. All these people died rather than recant the resurrection. Now, that if this was a hoax, there is no way that happens, not human nature being human nature. Somebody, one of these guys, human nature being what it is, would have said, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. This was fun while we were collecting money and while this hoax was going good. But if you're talking about cutting my head off, if you're talking about killing me, well, no, no, no. This is no this is a sham.

I'll be happy to admit this is not real. Hey, we've all seen Law and Order. We know all we all know how to put them in separate rooms. And they say, which one of you is going to give it up quicker and get a better deal? And somebody always does sooner or later. Hey, many of us remember the Watergate fiasco back in the 70s, where John Dean went and turned state's evidence and said, whoa, baby, this is fine while it was working. But if you're going to start putting people in jail for this, oh, man, I'm not going down with the ship. I'm coming and I'm turning state's evidence.

This is human nature. And yet none of the apostles did this. Not one. John, who was the only apostle who was not martyred, was exiled to Patmos for two years for his faith. And he didn't deny the resurrection either. Why didn't these guys break?

Why didn't one of them break? Well, I'll tell you, it's very simple because this was not a hoax. They really saw the risen, glorified Messiah and they knew this was real and they were willing to give their lives rather than recant.

That is contrary to human nature and only happens if they knew they were telling the truth. And this was the real deal. So let's summarize. What are the compelling pieces of evidence we have for the resurrection? Number one, we have the compelling evidence of the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb. Number two, we have the compelling evidence of the rabbis who wanted to prove the resurrection didn't happen, but couldn't find the body. Number three, we have the compelling evidence of all the eyewitnesses and the probability that five hundred and twenty people would all testify to the very same facts.

And number four, we have the evidence of the martyrdom of the people who actually saw the risen Christ. Now, can I prove to you in a test tube that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened? No, I can't. Can I prove to you with some mathematical formula that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened? No, I can't. But friends, can I give you such compelling evidence that even Judge Judy would say that this evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt?

Friends, not only can I give you that kind of compelling evidence, I just did. Praise the Lord. Now, all of that leads us to our most important question, and that is, so what? Except we don't say so what. No, baby.

We scream so what. And I want an Easter so what today. So are you ready? Here we go. Come on now. Easter so what?

One, two, three. So what? Yes, yes, yes. And you know what I always say? How sweet it is.

You say, OK, long. So this is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The resurrection and that it happened. But tell me how this all should relate to my life on a practical level.

Well, I'm going to do that. Jesus said, and I want to read this to you. So I'm looking now in John's gospel. And here's what Jesus said in John's gospel.

Chapter 11, verse 25. He said, He who believes in me shall live, meaning in the afterlife, even if he dies here on earth. And in John 14, nine, Jesus said, because I live, you who believe in me, the apostles and us shall live also.

This is his amazing promise. And over and over, Jesus said this because you believe in me, you have eternal life and you shall never come into condemnation. John five, 24. But you have passed from death into eternal life. John Chapter 10. My sheep know me. They hear my voice and they know me and I give to them eternal life and they will never perish. Neither will anyone ever pluck them out of my father's hand. My father is greater than all and no one will pluck them out of his hand.

I and the father are one. And we could go on with all of these staggering promises that Jesus makes to those of us who believe in him, who trust what he did for us on the cross, shedding his blood to pay for our sin and then rising from the dead to prove that our sins had been forgiven and his payment had been accepted. This is what Romans Chapter one, verse three says. It says that Jesus was confirmed to be the son of God by the resurrection.

You say, but long. Listen, there's all these great religious leaders who all make these amazing promises about heaven and about eternal life. You know, there's Mohammed and there's Confucius and there's Buddha and there's Joseph Smith and the Mormons and there's the whatever.

They're all there. There's, you know, Scientology and there's Christian science. And so how do we know who's right, friend?

It's easy to know who's right. All we have to do is see who rose from the dead and who didn't. In fact, none, no other religion even claims that its founder and leader rose from the dead because it's a preposterous claim. But Christianity, true biblical Christianity, claims that its leader, the Messiah, the second person of the Godhead, clothed in human flesh from the virgin birth, that he rose from the dead and is alive forevermore and is coming back again even. And this is why Jesus said, as long as I live, you will live and I'm going to live forever. So so will you who believe in me.

Folks, I love to say it. Follow a dead savior. Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, Mary Baker Eddy, whoever, follow a dead savior and you'll end up just like them. But the good news of the Bible is that we don't have a dead savior. The good news of the Bible is that we have a living savior, a risen savior, alive forevermore, seated at the right hand of God, making intercession for us and waiting until it's time for the Father to put all of his enemies, Christ's enemies, under his feet like a footstool when he will come back, the Bible says, and he will bring true justice and judgment to the world and to the devil and to the demons and on I could go. But praise the Lord, we don't have a dead savior. We have a living savior who can back up the promises that he made because I live, you shall live also. And even when you die here on this earth, you shall still live in heaven with me.

Wow, awesome, awesome, awesome. This is the good news of the Bible, not just that Jesus went to the cross and paid for our sins, but that he rose from the dead to prove that that was the one and only payment God was going to ever accept. Not your good works, not your being a nice person, not your religious activity, not teaching Sunday school, not singing in the choir, not trying to keep the Ten Commandments, none of this. God only meets and forgives sinners at the cross. That's it. So I want to ask you, what are you trusting to get you into heaven?

What are you relying on? If you got to heaven and you stood at the pearly gates and Peter said, why should I let you in? I don't know if there's any pearly gates and I don't know if Peter is going to be there, but let's just say. And Peter said, why should I let you in? You're a sinner. What are you going to say to him?

I mean, you're going to stand there and go, hama, hama, hama, hama, hama, hama, hama. Are you going to have an answer? What's your answer going to be? Well, I sang in the choir, not going to work. I tried to teach Sunday school, not going to work. I tried to keep Ten Commandments, not going to work.

What's going to work? Friends, the only thing that's going to work is if we say, I come on the merits of Jesus, not my own merits, who for sinners bled and died. The pearly gates will open, the song says, and they'll welcome me inside. We come on the merits of Jesus, what he did on the cross and the fact that he rose from the dead and that we belong to him. And therefore, because I live, Jesus said, you will live also and the pearly gates will open and they'll welcome you inside. If you've never done that, my friends, it's time today, Easter, to trade in all these other things you've ever trusted, which aren't going to work. And to avail yourself of the one thing that the Bible says will work, trusting in Christ and what he did on the cross.

And he proved God would accept this payment arising from the dead. Let's bow our heads. And with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, here's what I want to do. I want to have a very short prayer in which those of you who've never done it will give up everything else you've ever trusted to get you into heaven. And instead, we'll rely upon what Jesus did for you on the cross. Plus nothing, not plus your good works, not plus you're trying to be a nice person, nothing.

Because you don't need anything else. It'll work all by itself and the resurrection proves it. So here we go. I'm going to pray one phrase at a time out loud, and I just want you to repeat it. You can repeat it out loud if you want.

Here we go. Lord Jesus, I come to you today because I want eternal life. I want to know that my sins are forgiven in the sight of a holy God and that when I leave this earth, I'm coming to heaven to live forever with you. And so today, I reject everything else I've ever trusted to forgive my sins and to get me into heaven. And instead, today, I place my full trust on the work of Jesus on the cross.

For me, shedding his blood to pay for my sin in the sight of God and then rising from the dead to prove to me that this is the payment God will honor and accept. I surrender my heart and life to you today as my Lord and Savior, Savior from my sins, Savior from hell. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Okay, look here now.

Look at me. If you prayed that prayer with me, I am so proud of you. Praise the Lord. How great is it to be able to tell people you gave your life to Jesus on Easter? But it doesn't matter. You give your life to Jesus any one of the other 364 and a quarter days and it's just as good. Doesn't matter.

But it is special. If you did that, I want you to go to LonSolomonMinistries.com and I want you to get in the sermon section, I want you to pull up my sermons entitled Spiritual Boot Camp. And I want you to listen to them.

They're exactly what they say. This is like a boot camp. This is basic stuff that everyone who's given their life to Jesus needs to know. And in that series, you know, we'll give you the biblical data that you need not only to tighten down this prayer and your faith that you started today, but even to defend your faith to others who are going to challenge you and say, what? You prayed and asked Jesus in your life, what?

Why would you do that? And you need you need information to defend your faith. I'll give it to you in that sermon series, Spiritual Boot Camp. Now, if you did not pray with me that prayer today, but you thought about it.

Yes, you did. You know what I want you to do? Yeah, I want you to go to LonSolomonMinistries.com and listen to Spiritual Boot Camp where we talk about who Jesus is and what he did on the cross and eternal security and all these things. And give you a much deeper explanation of all of this, the plan of salvation that God established in Jesus. And by the time you finish listening to that sermon series, I think maybe you will be prepared to give your heart and life to Jesus. And then, of course, we've got lots of other messages there that you can listen to to deepen your faith.

So happy Easter. The Lord is risen. He's risen indeed.

Yes, he has. And thank God. Friends, if you know Jesus, thank God. As Peter said, you have not followed cleverly devised fables. This is not a hoax.

This is the real deal. And praise the Lord, the day you close your eyes here on Earth, you will open them. The next breath you take will be on the shores of heaven in the presence of the living, risen Savior. Because he said, John 11, even the person that dies here on Earth will live forever in heaven. And he guaranteed it by his own eternal life. Because I live, you shall live also. God bless you and hope you'll join us next week as we continue on in our study of the Gospels. Thanks for listening.