WEBVTT 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:05.200 Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast. 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:11.039 Make sure you connect with us on social media to stay up to date on ministries and events happening at CCW. 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:14.960 We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message. 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:19.120 To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends. 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:33.359 Lifted high forever. 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:40.479 And the scripture said the angel said, He is not here, for he is risen as he said. 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:43.600 Come see the place where the Lord lay. 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:48.479 Go quickly and tell his disciples, he is risen from the dead. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:52.240 I'm not here to celebrate today a dead Savior. 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:57.600 Jesus is not in the casket, he's not in a tomb. 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:00.000 He's not in a mausoleum somewhere. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:04.319 Look at someone next to you and say, He's alive. 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:16.319 Forever. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:17.439 Amen. 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:18.799 You can be seated. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.599 Man, I'm so glad to see you this morning. 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:24.000 Y'all look beautiful. 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:26.959 Look at your neighbor and say, You look pretty. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:28.719 You do. 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:29.920 I mean it. 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:32.560 What a good looking crowd we have here. 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:34.959 What a good looking crowd. 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:37.280 Well, yesterday was fantastic. 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:47.519 We had our annual extravaganza, and the weatherman and the weather people and the depressed and discouraged people told us all week that the rain was going to get in the way. 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:51.760 But God said, We're going to have an extravaganza. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:57.040 And I think my last check we had about 1,100 people that came. 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:00.159 Gray, skies, clouds, rain. 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:01.760 So praise God. 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:05.439 I keep telling people, I know the weather man. 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:06.560 How about you? 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:09.360 And he did answer our prayers. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:10.479 He sent that on. 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:13.439 So man, I'm delighted, any guests that you're here. 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:16.479 I know we welcomed you, but thank you for being with us today. 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:21.360 It is an honor to us, and uh we hope that you enjoy this. 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:24.960 We are a community church that feels like family. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:30.479 And so if you're not in a church right now, we would love to be that family. 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:37.439 So the rest of us and guests, turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:40.080 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:48.960 Upon ordination to the ministry, I was told by a pastor, this is the gospel chapter of the Bible. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.319 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:59.280 As I was studying and looking, uh, the title for the message this morning is Reconstructed by Resurrection. 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:03.919 And I viewed, I don't know if you've seen it before, the case for Christ. 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:07.360 Again, it's a book that's been put out in the 80s. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:17.120 A Chicago Tribune writer named Lee Strobel went on a mission to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:19.759 The reason was it was very close to home. 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:26.879 His wife Leslie came to know Jesus at a church service, and he didn't like what was happening in his house all of a sudden. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:29.039 Things weren't the same. 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:43.599 And so he went on a course to go and disprove the bodily resurrection, that Jesus died on a cross, and he went to a psychologist and talked to a psychologist, and his theory about Jesus was disproved through a psychologist. 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:57.759 He went to a medical doctor to see if the crucifixion, if he never really died there or if they could have taken the body, and the physician disproved his theory, and he went on and on this track trying to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:09.919 Well, in 1 Corinthians 15, nearly 2,000 years before, there's a church at Corinth that was struggling with the same issue of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:27.040 Corinth was a port city with a bad reputation, but Paul went there on a missions trip and he spent 18 months, and as a result of him being in that city full of all kinds of people from all kinds of walks of life, many people came to know Christ and became Christians. 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:34.959 Well, chapter 15 is a letter that he's writing back to them to address this issue they're having with the resurrection. 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:39.360 I want you to look in chapter 15, verses 1 through 4. 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:41.279 This is what it says. 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:07.199 Hold on to that thought, underlying scriptures. 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:14.879 And verse 4, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:17.839 Now I want you to pass on to verse 17 quickly. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:26.879 It says this and if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:34.879 And so the same problem is happening with the church at Corinth that Lee Strobel some years later is investigating, trying to disprove. 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:44.399 And here's the problem: it takes faith to believe in the verbal and physical witness of something that we have not seen. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:45.839 It takes faith. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.399 And that for some people defies human logic. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:52.959 I need science, I need faith, I need to understand and calculate. 00:05:53.199 --> 00:06:02.160 But the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I have to tell you today, church, is unequivocally a divine God experience. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:04.000 It's a miracle. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:11.519 No one before or since has ever or can ever do what is claimed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:23.600 So much so that Lee Strobel, when he got to the end of that road studying that case, he turned his life over to Jesus Christ, finding there was no way to disprove what he went after and after. 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:27.040 He dedicated and now has dedicated his life to Christ. 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:35.360 So much so that Paul preached here to the city of Corinth vehemently that the resurrection was everything or their life was futile. 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:43.920 And I want to tell you today the entire reason that we're having an Easter service is this resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:49.759 Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, what we're doing here is really strange. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:58.959 If there is no resurrection of Jesus Christ, you guys just sang really well to nobody. 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:02.000 So we believe in this resurrection. 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:03.120 Let me pray. 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:10.800 Father, we thank you for filling this place with people today. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:13.040 We thank you for yesterday. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:21.920 God, we thank you today and every day for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the foundation and the cornerstone of our faith. 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:29.519 I pray today that you would open the hearts and minds of people to hear and understand this truth. 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:35.279 And God, not just to hear and understand it intellectually, but in a manner of heart change. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:39.279 Hear it in a way that changes the way that we look at this life. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:43.040 God help and be with us through this service in Jesus' name. 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:43.839 Amen. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:49.759 The first point this morning is this Christ died and resurrected for our sins. 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:51.120 So why did this happen? 00:07:51.279 --> 00:07:52.319 It was for our sins. 00:07:52.480 --> 00:08:02.480 Again, in verse 3 and 4, we read that as according to Scripture, verse 3, I delivered to you which I also received, that Christ died for our sins. 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:04.879 It was for you and my sins. 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:09.360 We couldn't die this death to pay the payment that was necessary. 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:14.079 And so in verse 3, there's this little phrase that's interesting, letter A this morning. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:18.399 It's the fulfillment of lots of prophecy. 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:27.519 So verse 3, and this resurrection of Jesus Christ, this little phrase, according to Scripture, means you need to go back and see what that means, where. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:33.279 And so, all the way, if you track this, you can track it all the way to the book of Genesis. 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:43.679 In Genesis chapter 22, verse 4, is the first sighting, I believe, where Jesus, where the Bible is showing us a picture of the resurrection. 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:50.639 Abraham is called to take his son Isaac up to a mountain and to sacrifice him as a faith test. 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:55.840 And so God calls him, he takes Isaac, doesn't tell him a lot about it, takes him up the mountain. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:03.200 And interestingly, the third day he finds a place and he puts Isaac on the altar on that third day. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:07.440 And as he's getting ready to do what God has called him to do, this is what I believe. 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:30.320 Now, Scripture doesn't say this, it's Pastor Rick's interpretation, but I believe at that moment for a father who loves his son to go through with a sacrifice like this, that Abraham was given vision or thought or idea that there must be a way, if I do what God has told me to do, the sacrifice, that my boy is going to be resurrected. 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:35.360 I believe Abraham believed in that moment in the resurrected. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:37.600 Even so, he did by faith. 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:43.600 He started to sacrifice his son, and God sent a lamb, which is a picture. 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:47.840 God sent a lamb that would save Isaac, his son. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:48.960 He was the sacrifice. 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:53.440 All the way to Genesis 22, we see the picture of resurrection. 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:57.519 Well, if you have a second, you can turn to 1 Kings chapter 17. 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:00.639 And 1 Kings chapter 17 of the Bible. 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:02.720 We're given another picture. 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:08.399 I only have a few complimentary verses we'll go from 1 Corinthians. 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:15.279 But in 1 Kings, there's this great picture of Elijah the prophet, chapter 17, and verse 18. 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:17.120 We're going to read just a few verses. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:21.360 So Elijah comes to this town, and this widow's son becomes sick. 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:25.200 So she says in verse 18 to Elijah, What have I to do with you, O man of God? 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:29.360 Have you come to me to bring my son to remembrance and to kill my son? 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:31.440 And he said to her, Give me your son. 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:36.399 So he took him out of her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, laid him on his own bed. 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:45.360 Then he cried out to the Lord and said, O Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I'm lodging by killing her son? 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:50.000 And he stretched himself out on the child three times. 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:51.039 Interesting. 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:56.480 And cried out to the Lord and said, O Lord my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him. 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:59.919 Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came back to him. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:04.240 Later it says, the woman said, I perceive that you are a man of God. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:12.000 And so, interesting though, I love the picture of my mind in the heavens when God says, Watch. 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:15.200 Hey, everybody, I want y'all to see this down here on earth. 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:23.120 Elijah lays over the child, and God, in all his power and might, and strength, first time Elijah prays, he could have healed him. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:24.000 No problem. 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:25.360 First time could have healed him. 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:31.519 Second time, but he says, Watch this, because there's going to become something special about my number three. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:38.320 When Elijah cried out that third time, the boy said, What are you doing here, sir? 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:39.679 Where's my mama? 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:42.799 When he prayed the third time. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:56.320 You see, I need you to understand the fulfillment according to scriptures, it says the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ fulfilled three hundred Old Testament prophecies. 00:11:56.559 --> 00:12:02.799 At a minimum 700 years, they had been prophesied before, at a maximum almost 2,000 years. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:08.399 Before they ever happened, this book was telling us it is going to happen. 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:09.519 Over 300. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:12.960 Maybe you don't understand the gravity of how big a deal that is. 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:20.240 Eight out of 300 of those prophecies, the chances of eight out of 300 is one and 100 trillion. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:27.840 A man's given an idea of what it would be like for eight out of the 300 to happen that was prophesied over 700 years before. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:36.000 He said, You could take the state of Texas and drop quarters two feet deep across the entire area of the state of Texas. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:40.639 Mark one with an X and tell a blind man to find that quarter. 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:48.720 That's the likelihood of eight out of these 300 prophecies to have happened over 700 years in the past. 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:50.320 And they've happened. 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:52.399 Verbatim church. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:56.639 But people say, I don't believe in Jesus. 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.399 I don't know what else we can do to make people believe. 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:01.600 I thought about it this way. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:02.879 I love the Red Sox. 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:04.399 Don't hold that against me. 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:04.879 Okay. 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:06.639 Braves are fine too. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:07.200 Okay. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:12.480 There's another team up north I'm not going to mention, but we're in church today. 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:16.480 And I know the Red Sox are just four and four right now, but it's very early. 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:16.960 Okay. 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:29.519 But if I told you the Red Sox are going to win tonight, and they're going to win by this score, many of you would say, huh, that's pretty amazing that Pastor Rick guessed that. 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:40.159 And if I came to you tomorrow and said the Red Sox are playing and they're going to win by this score, and I got that score right for the second time, you said, He really got lucky. 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:41.519 Something's going on. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:48.799 Third time, you'd say, guys, Pastor Rick is amazing with this baseball predictions. 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:55.679 Fourth time, you guys would say, honey, I'm thinking about gambling. 00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:00.960 And I think we should go make a visit to Pastor Rick. 00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:04.000 Because this is unbelievable. 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:07.279 Now listen, I uh I'm not telling you to gamble. 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:14.159 We did once, Heather and I went on a cruise and we did once uh win bingo. 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:14.480 Okay. 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:16.320 I'm just confessing, we're in church. 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:18.240 Okay, I'm confessing before you. 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:19.360 She made me play. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:26.799 We were on the honeymoon, and I'm gonna tell you, on the honeymoon, ladies, you can make us do anything you really want. 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:31.279 And I was like, I ain't playing bingo with a bunch of old people on a cruise ship. 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:33.200 And she said, please, I just want to play. 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:34.240 I'm like, oh, okay. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:35.600 That's how quick it went. 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:41.279 And the first game we played, she won the bingo thing and won$250. 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:43.759 And I'm like, I love bingo. 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:53.440 But if somebody had that kind of track record, you'd say, I need to pay attention to what's going on. 00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:59.840 We're not talking about one in 100 trillion, we're talking about way bigger odds that this could happen. 00:14:59.919 --> 00:15:01.360 And it's happened. 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:08.240 When the Bible says, as he died according to the scriptures, over 300 prophecies fulfilled. 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:09.919 Nobody can disprove it. 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:13.519 Why do you think this book has lasted the test of time and nobody can get rid of it? 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:17.279 They've tried to burn it, they've tried to tear it, they've tried to get it off the shelves. 00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:20.159 They can't because it's truth. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:22.320 The fulfillment of prophecy. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:26.799 The second letter, letter B, is the fulfillment of our payment. 00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:29.279 It's the fulfillment of our payment. 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:35.679 I want you to look at verse 3, and then I need you to backtrack over to Matthew chapter 27 just for a moment. 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:39.200 Fulfillment of our payment. 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:48.240 Verse 3 says, I delivered to you first of all that which I received, that Christ died for our sins. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:49.919 That's our payment. 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:52.240 And Matthew chapter 27. 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:57.840 And we're going to take a moment and just look at what it took in that payment. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:11.120 I was up early this morning watching the passion of the Christ, just reviewing what happened in those hours leading to the cross. 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:14.000 Matthew chapter 27, verse 26. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:20.799 The second part of the verse opens this way, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:27.519 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around him. 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:32.000 And they stripped him, and they put a scarlet robe on him. 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:42.000 When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:45.679 Then they spat on him, and they took the reed and they struck him on the head. 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:53.360 And when they had mocked him, and they took the robe off him, put his own clothes on, and led him away to be crucified. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:57.600 I need you to understand this morning the payment that happened for our sins. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:25.359 Jesus was scourged in the Roman manner, and so they would take something that was called a flagrum, or you've heard it called a cat of nine-tails, and it would be a piece of leather straps, straps coming off of it with pieces of bone and metal and glass, and they would take that whip and they'd whip it around Jesus' flesh, and they would pull it back, ripping his body and bones to pieces. 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:31.920 And they would say they would give a man that was scourged 39 lashes because a man couldn't take 40 and still lives. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:40.480 So they would whip it across him, just battering across his body, across his shoulders, across his back, across his legs. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:42.160 39 lashes. 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:49.519 And I'm telling you, this type of beating, this was excruciating pain. 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:52.880 You know, if you get in a fist fight, you have adrenaline. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:54.559 Anybody here been in a fist fight? 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:55.839 I've seen some of you guys. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:57.359 Okay, a few. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:00.319 Yeah, a fight? 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:01.519 You got something, preacher? 00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:03.119 We can go outside right now. 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:04.240 Okay? 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:07.279 I still have a crooked nose from a fist fight, okay? 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:08.880 But this I know about a fist fight. 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:17.759 Your adrenaline takes over in a fist fight, and you hear and you kind of see punches, but there's a little while where you don't feel them. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:20.079 Your adrenaline's just going wild. 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:23.440 But have you ever got a paper cut? 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:29.680 How many seconds before you realize the paper cut hurts? 00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:33.680 I'm talking an envelope can make you get to your knees. 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:36.559 You're like, I need a band. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:39.519 Right? 00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:42.559 A paper cut, immediate pain. 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:46.480 I'm telling you what happened to Jesus in these 39 lashes. 00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:48.079 It was immediate. 00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:52.720 And these shards were ripping apart his skin one after another. 00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:54.960 We're not talking about ten lashes. 00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:59.279 He would be unrecognizable to us through the scourging. 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:04.400 And then the Romans perfected crucifixion as if it was art. 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:06.000 It was so barbaric. 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:13.920 And the gospel writers write things in plain terms, and I don't think they can even do justice to the pain and the torture that was involved. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:19.359 And so the crucifixion, they said, writers said, it was to die a thousand deaths. 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:21.599 This kind of pain. 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:27.599 The term itself, excruciating, comes from a Latin term from the cross. 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:34.160 There's no other way to describe the worst type of pain than this barbaric shows. 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:54.559 Soldiers would take Jesus' arms as they fastened him to a cross with a rope, and then they would take a hammer out and they would put a long spike through him and bang a spike in one arm, bang a spike in the other, fasten him and then take his feet, and they would bang spikes through his feet. 00:19:54.720 --> 00:20:00.880 They would lift up the cross and his weight would shift down and tear through bones and pieces of him. 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:07.119 And he'd stand there on that cross and he'd be pulling himself up on the spikes. 00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:16.079 And the body, because of the loss of blood and the and the position that he was in, there would be great trauma to his chest and rib cage. 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:19.279 And breathing, it would become inhalation only. 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:34.480 As he's breathing, he'd take a deep breath up, trying to continue to breathe, and it was suffocating the victims, literally on the cross. 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:38.400 He was suffocating. 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:45.599 They thought they were crucifying Jesus Christ. 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:52.160 But nobody, nobody crucified Jesus Christ but Jesus Christ. 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:55.839 No one takes Jesus without his consent. 00:20:56.079 --> 00:20:57.920 He allowed the guards to take him. 00:20:58.240 --> 00:20:59.279 He went willingly. 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:01.359 He silently took a meeting. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:06.160 He willfully chose not to ask his father to send down a legion of angels. 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:10.240 He volunteered my payment. 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:11.680 It was mine. 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:14.079 It was my sin. 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:20.400 Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:22.880 The wages, the payment. 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:25.440 It's my sin and your sin. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:36.480 And then in a turn of things as the crucifixion goes on, we see in verse 46, Jesus cries out in a moment of mental anguish. 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:41.440 Now in Gethsemane, previous to the crucifixion, Jesus is in great mental anguish. 00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:43.039 You've been in mental anguish before. 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:47.359 You've placed things over and over before, lost sleep in mental anguish. 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:49.440 And it's a hard place to be. 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:59.759 And Jesus, in I think his greatest and saddest moment, Jesus, who before creation has been in perfect harmony with his Father, cries out. 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:03.759 Eli, Eli, Lama Sabakhtani. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:13.119 He says, Father, Father, why have you forsaken me? 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:20.079 For the first time, his perfect union has been split apart from his father. 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:21.599 He says, Why? 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:24.160 Why have you left me? 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:31.920 Have you ever seen a mother and child on the first day of school? 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:35.759 A mother dropping off that child. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:41.519 And that to that child, their everything at that moment is leaving them. 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:43.119 Have you seen this? 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:46.799 And the mother breaks down, her heart is just broken. 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:49.119 Now, as a father, I gotta tell you my process. 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:49.599 Okay? 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:56.640 If I'm taking the kid to nursery, if I'm taking them anywhere, I walk in, I say, hey, I'm rigged with my kid, here you go, and I'm gone. 00:22:57.359 --> 00:22:58.400 I ain't looking. 00:22:58.480 --> 00:22:59.920 I don't want the kid to look back to me. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:01.279 I don't want to catch his eyes. 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:06.000 It's yours to deal with now because if I'm made to feel sad for a second, I might break. 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:09.680 So I don't do, but moms go, oh, is my baby okay? 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:13.279 Oh, maybe, maybe I need to give it a sippy cup. 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:14.799 Just to, I know. 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:19.599 Listen, y'all, you think it's it's heart-rending. 00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:24.720 My children still listen to me to this day. 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:28.160 Let me tell you about the bed process in my house. 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:32.480 So this week we've been going through Holy Week, doing devotion by 8:30. 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:38.559 And I think it's it's really an ideal thing to think maybe by nine o'clock I'm done with devotion. 00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:40.319 Maybe by nine they'll be in bed. 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:44.960 And I'll have my bed with my wife, and we can whatever we need to do. 00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:45.519 Okay? 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:50.000 Watch TV, read more Bible, whatever it is, okay? 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:50.799 I'll have. 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:53.920 But this is what actually happens. 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:58.480 My children, my daughter stayed in my bed till she was four years old. 00:23:58.640 --> 00:23:58.960 Okay. 00:23:59.839 --> 00:24:03.119 So sometimes I wonder if she's gone. 00:24:03.359 --> 00:24:03.680 Okay? 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:05.599 She comes in around nine. 00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:08.559 Mama, I just want to see you a little bit longer talk. 00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:09.680 Weston comes in. 00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:10.880 Weston's the baby. 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:12.160 Y'all know how the baby is. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:14.880 And he says, Mama, can I just snuggle? 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:15.279 Right? 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:16.480 It's right before bedtime. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:17.279 Can we snuggle? 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:18.640 He is 10, y'all. 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:20.319 Can I just snuggle? 00:24:20.559 --> 00:24:23.279 And she's like, she says, okay, two minutes. 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:28.160 And he goes, two minutes! The boy can cry in an instant. 00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:29.359 Two minutes. 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:30.880 I need more. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:33.680 And he's a mess. 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:35.359 Why it's in there with us. 00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:36.960 And oh well, that'd be enough, right? 00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:38.079 That'd be enough mess for me. 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:43.920 Oh, but then I look over and there's sweet Charlotte, the little Yorkie, nestled up in Heather's hair over there. 00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:47.519 So I email Heather from across the bed. 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:56.000 Help! Look like a package of cigarettes in the bed or something. 00:24:56.079 --> 00:24:56.960 I don't know. 00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:00.000 And y'all, I'm short, but I'm not small. 00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:04.559 Okay, and I'm over there on my side looking at the cliff like any second. 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:14.640 All I want is my my my nine minutes of peacefulness where I'm gonna be able to stay awake for a little house on the prairie. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:15.839 That's all I want. 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:23.839 But you remember the days when mom and dad for you were everything? 00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:30.000 When you looked at mom or dad and it was safety and security, and they could do no wrong still. 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:34.480 You could sit in their lap and you just felt at home, at peace. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:36.960 They could do no wrong. 00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:41.680 God the Father could literally do no wrong. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:48.240 And Jesus, in this moment of sadness, I don't, I think we miss it sometimes. 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:51.359 Jesus decided to be crucified. 00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:53.119 He did that for you and for me. 00:25:53.279 --> 00:25:58.000 He was going to do his father's will, and he delighted to make his father happy. 00:25:58.079 --> 00:26:03.119 And in a moment of mental anguish, he said, Something feels different. 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:06.240 Father, where are you? 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:11.279 Father, no, why have you forsaken me? 00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:16.079 And he was heartbroken at the separation. 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:17.759 And he says, Why? 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:22.640 He who knew no sin, church, took my payment. 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:24.240 And he took your payment. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:25.359 And it was a great payment. 00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:31.440 Well, the second thing is this Christ died and resurrected and was seen. 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:35.039 He was seen. 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:38.640 How come Lee Strobel couldn't disprove this? 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:43.680 Because right here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 5 through 8, look at what it says. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:58.799 And that he was seen by Cephas, which is Peter, then by the twelve, and that he was seen by over 500 brethren together at once, whom the greater part remained to the present, as of the present time of his writing. 00:26:58.880 --> 00:27:02.160 These were people still alive, but some have fallen asleep. 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:06.880 After that, he was seen by James, and then by all the apostles. 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:12.400 Then last of all, he was seen by me, Paul, also, as born by one new out of time. 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:14.559 He says he was seen. 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:20.319 There's many things that you've never seen that yet you still believe. 00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:22.880 You've never seen air. 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:24.880 You've seen the effects of air. 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:26.880 You've never seen sleep. 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:29.359 Some of you say, for a long time, Pastor. 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:31.599 But you've slept. 00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:33.920 You've never seen imagination. 00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:36.559 But you believe in it, right? 00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:39.279 You've never seen sound. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:42.720 But you know it exists. 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:44.880 You've never seen Wi-Fi. 00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:47.119 Some of you said, I don't ever see it. 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:52.079 So what do we do with the things we haven't seen? 00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:58.880 Well, Hebrews 11:1 says this that faith is the substance of things hoped for. 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:01.440 It's the evidence of things not seen. 00:28:01.519 --> 00:28:02.079 It's faith. 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:06.559 And I want to tell you today, everyone here has faith. 00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:08.240 You have it. 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:11.440 If you're sitting in a chair today, you have faith. 00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:15.759 You I didn't see one person verify that that church was, that chair was going to work. 00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:16.720 They just sat. 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:17.920 So you have faith. 00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:19.920 Where do you direct your faith? 00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:21.200 Is a question. 00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:26.640 The proof here, verses 5 through 8, letter A, is of human verification. 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:32.720 He was seen, it says, by Peter, disciples, 500, James, and Paul. 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:39.599 Now at a crime scene, there's no stronger evidence, I believe, than an eyewitness. 00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:41.599 I just had jury duty. 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:44.240 Bless God, it came and it's gone. 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:47.599 But I had jury duty on a murder trial. 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:53.119 And as I was there, they brought five eyewitnesses to the courtroom. 00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:54.799 Okay, five eyewitnesses. 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:58.079 And this is strong case evidence for the case. 00:28:58.240 --> 00:28:59.519 Five eyewitnesses. 00:28:59.759 --> 00:29:03.519 Four of them could identify the suspect was there on site. 00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:12.640 Only one eyewitness identified that the suspect had a weapon and that the suspect pulled a trigger on a weapon. 00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:13.680 Only one. 00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:22.240 And with that one witness confirming that testimony, the suspect came in before the case was over and pled guilty. 00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:28.319 One eyewitness caused a person to plead guilty to that case. 00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:32.000 Over five hundred and fifteen witnesses. 00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:40.960 Do you think in a court of law, if 515 witnesses were brought forth in any trial that anyone would object to what they were saying? 00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:45.039 Whatever they claim, we would feel like this has to be confirmed. 00:29:46.079 --> 00:29:48.880 And so the proof of human verification. 00:29:49.039 --> 00:29:55.839 I need to tell you something here, letter B, the proof of human nature, about the way that humans interact with things. 00:29:56.160 --> 00:29:57.519 The proof of human nature. 00:29:57.599 --> 00:29:59.839 Look at verse 29 through 33. 00:30:00.799 --> 00:30:05.039 This is how Paul tries to sum up his argument about the resurrection. 00:30:05.359 --> 00:30:07.599 He says, People are denying it. 00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:09.920 Verse 29. 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:14.240 Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead? 00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:20.319 If there's no resurrection, if the dead do not rise at all, why then are they baptized? 00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:23.680