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Sermon Notes

BIG IDEA: The certainty of the Resurrection activates our faith. 

5 events/occurrences that were so strongly evidenced historically that nearly every scholar, both Christian and non-Christian, regards them as reliable and trustworthy facts. These 5 are: 

  1. Jesus died by Crucifixion. There are numerous references to this outside the Biblical record that report this. 
  2. The Disciples believed that Jesus appeared to them. They went from scared and hiding to boldly proclaiming His resurrection. All gave their lives for that claim except John (Note: this fact doesn't say Jesus actually rose from the dead, only that the disciples said He did and that He appeared to them). 
  3. The conversion of the Church persecutor Paul. Saul, the persecutor of Christians did a 180 and began preaching the very gospel he had been trying to stamp out. 
  4. The conversion of the skeptic James. James, the half-brother of Jesus, who was a skeptic during Jesus’s ministry, became a pillar in the early church after the crucifixion. 
  5. The empty tomb. The tomb that Jesus was buried in was empty shortly after His burial. 

Takeaways 

  1. Jesus was right – about everything! I think we can safely conclude that Jesus’s resurrection shows us that Jesus was right…about everything he said, not just the part about His rising again. 
  2. The answer to particularly critical questions is YES. Christianity teaches some things that sound too good to be true. Things like grace and mercy, and salvation as a gift, the list could go on. Through the resurrection of Christ, all these questions are answered with a resounding YES! 
  3. Give your relationship with Christ the importance it deserves. The next takeaway is based on a quote by C.S. Lewis. He said “Christianity, if false, is of NO importance, and if true, of INFINITE importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” 
  4. Confront any and all of your doubts you may have with the resurrection. It’s okay to question. It’s okay to have doubts. Having doubts about your faith, about Christianity, about God is not bad in and of itself. What’s bad are unexamined doubts and letting questions go unaddressed. 
  5. It’s okay to not know some things. The resurrection of Christ assures me that no matter what happens in this life, no matter what I don’t know or don’t understand, God has my back.