Family Matters 1: Responding vs. Reacting

April 28, 2019               NOTES NOT EDITED

Family Matters:  Responding vs. Reacting

Psalm 37:1-11

SIS: Building strong, godly families requires learning how to respond to God during difficult times.

One thing you can count on about trouble in this life is that you can count on having trouble in this life.  Jesus said this, Himself

Jn. 16:33  I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

Jesus warns us that trouble cannot be avoided, but it can be overcome—in fact, Jesus already conquered it for us!  We simply need to trust Him and learn how to respond to God through the Holy Spirit when we face difficult moments in life.  Trust is something we talk a lot about as Christians, but we fail to practice very well.  We tend to “think too small” when it comes to trusting God.

I hear people talk about trusting God all the time, but that generally means trusting God as long as it is “not too big a thing.”  Len Sullivan was a preacher from Tupelo, Mississippi, to Saskatchewan, Canada to start a church.  He ran a little fixit shop in town to help pay the bills.  People would bring him all kinds of stuff to fix from appliances to family treasures.  It was the mid 80’s and the economy in the small Canadian town was not great.  Sullivan’s little church received a small monthly assistance from a local mission, but most months were financially difficult.  Pastor Sullivan did what he had to do to make ends meet.  One week in April, with the ground still frozen and the air outside bitter cold, the Sullivans were down to a few dollars in the bank.  Pastor Sullivan’s normal approach to this common condition would be to look for his own solution.  This time, in a moment of either desperation or deep faith (he wasn’t sure, himself), he decided to fully trust God.  Pastor Sullivan prayed, “Dear Lord, all we need is a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, and a loaf of bread.”  He said Amen and went to his little fixit shop in town.  That afternoon a man came in to ask him to fix a leaky teakettle.  The teakettle could have been easily replaced with a new one, but the man said, “It belonged to my mother and is very special to me.  Please fix it?”  Pastor Sullivan fixed the kettle, free of charge.  The man insisted the Pastor take $10 for his efforts which Pastor Sullivan accepted graciously.  On the way home, Pastor Sullivan stopped at the corner grocery store and bought a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread.  The cost, $10.  Pastor Sullivan left that store with a sense of pride in his decision to “trust the Lord fully.”  In his prayers that night, Pastor Sullivan thanked God for providing for his family’s needs.  The answer he seemed to hear from the Lord burst Pastor Sullivan’s “bubble of pride.”  The Lord seemed to say, “Don’t you wish now you would have ask for a side of beef?”

Over the last forty plus years of ministry, I have watched the American family slowing disintegrate.  Look around any typical church in America and you will notice something missing—multi-generational congregations.  The “nuclear” family has literally exploded.  Many graduating seniors can’t wait to graduate and leave home, and sadly, leave the church.  The American Christian family has been the primary target in the Devil’s war against Christ, and the Devil has won many battles.

I want to “think bigger” about trusting God to help our church support the building of solid churches through these shaky times.

The Bible is full of wise counsel in how to build strong families.  The Jewish family has remained strong even though they have endured persecution like no other group throughout history.  The Jewish family revolved around the Torah, or the Law of God.  We’d refer to it as the Word of God.  Psalm 37 is one example in the O.T. of how to build solid families through shaky times.  Let’s read  it together:

¹ Do  not be agitated by evildoers; do not envy those who do wrong.  For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender green plants. ³ Trust in the Lord and do what is good; dwell in the land and live securely.  ^f4 Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires. ⁵ Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act, ⁶ making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday. ⁷ Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for Him; do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way, by the man who carries out evil plans. ⁸ Refrain from anger and give up your rage; do not be agitated—it can only bring harm. ⁹ For evildoers will be destroyed, but those who put their hope in the Lord will inherit the land. ¹⁰ A little while, and the wicked person will be no more; though you look for him, he will not be there. ¹¹ But the humble will inherit the land and will enjoy abundant prosperity.

Let me note that this is a particular type of Psalm called an “acrostic.”  An acrostic is a word build by the first letters of several words.  Scuba is an acrostic, for example, meaning Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. 

In Psalm 37, the first verse begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph.  Two verses go together under each letter of the alphabet, with the exception of a couple of places where three verses are grouped under one letter of the alphabet until all the letters are used.

This would make Psalm 37 easy to learn and the put into everyday practice. Since we don’t speak Hebrew, we will not be able to use this same “memory device.”  So, I am going to break down the first 11 verses in a three-part strategy for responding positively to God when we face difficult times, instead of reacting negatively to the situation.

Remember, I have told you before that “responding is positive and a reaction is negative,” as with the medicines we take to overcome illness.

An overcoming strategy includes Guarding Against False Solutions, Getting In Step With Almighty God, and Gaining Confidence By Knowing the Promises of God.

1.  Guarding Against False Solutions (v1)

¹ Do not be agitated by evildoers; do not envy those who do wrong. ² For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender green plants.

Verse 1 warns us against a “negative reaction” that focuses on our situation, instead of our Savior.  It is “natural” to react to trouble.  When we touch something hot, we pull back and may even scream.  That’s the “natural” reaction.  You have probably heard someone give someone else the advice, “Just do what comes naturally.”  That’s about the worse “reaction” to difficulty you could have.  The natural man does not possess the ability to do what’s right. 

Verse 1 is a warning about reacting to your problem emotionally. Our emotions lead us to “false solutions,” that may make us feel better initially but, in fact, make the situation worse in the long run. 

The CSB describes reacting negatively to trouble as, becoming “agitated.” Other translations use the words “do not fret (ESV)”; or “do not worry (NLT).”  Literally it says, “do not burn.”  The idea is one of getting angry.  In other words, “don’t react negatively.”  The construction of the verb in this opening phrase does not refer to the “normal emotional reaction to an adverse situation” like I said earlier about reacting to touching something hot.  This verb form is an “intensive” form, referring to a heightened or prolonged reaction.  It is also “reflexive” (hithpael) meaning the one causing the reaction is one’s self.  Reacting according to our natural instincts causes us to surrender control to our situation.  When we react to our situation instead of responding to our Savior, we are no longer in control of our actions, but we submit to the control by external factors.  We let our situation dictate our actions, rather than the Holy Spirit.  This puts us on a path to settle on “false solutions” to our problems instead of God’s solution.

This usually leads us to the oldest “false solution” in the world, blaming someone else!  The blame game empowers our problem and exacerbates our troubles.  We cannot fix the problem if all we do is try to fix the blame.  Notice this is what the Psalm warns against in vs 1:

do not envy those who do wrong. ² For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender green plants.

Many times, oftentimes, other people may be the cause of our present difficulties; but, we cannot fix other people.  We must surrender, that is respond, to the Savior and let Him fix our problem.  Anything we try do in our own flesh, without seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will be a “false solution” and leave us worse off than if we had done nothing.

False solutions put all the emphasis on the problem, to such an extent that all we can see is the problem.  Take riding a bike for example.  If you are riding a bicycle and suddenly you see something in front of you so that you don’t have time to stop, if you keep focused on that obstacle, you will hit it every time.  The key is to focus beyond the problem to the solution.  It does not good to curse the darkness—you must learn to light a candle.  The way you light a candle when you are surrounded by darkness is to pray!  Prayer focuses your attention on the Savior—Our Solution—rather than the problem.

Years ago I heard someone say, “prayer must be our first response, not our last resort.”  Trouble activates our “natural instincts” for self-preservation—that usually results in panic.  We need to guard against this natural instinct which leads to false solutions.  Our first response to trouble should be to “seek the Lord in prayer.”  This is something we must do ourselves (hithpael stem, instensive and reflexive).  When we focus on the Savior, we guard against false solutions to our problems.

2.  GETTING In Step With God (3-7)

Prayer is the first step in getting in step with God, but we must go further to become “more than conquerors through Christ Jesus Our Lord” (Rom. 8:37). There are four essential aspects to Getting In Step with God.  NUMBER 1 is learning to “trust God.”

We spoke about “trusting God” a few minutes ago.  We learned that when it comes to trusting God, we often “think too small.”  We don’t fully trust in God and so we do not fully overcome our difficulties.  Parents must start very early in a child’s life teaching them how to make trusting God a common experience in life.  Notice verse 3:

Trust in the Lord and do what is good.  Notice the connection between trusting the Lord and “doing what is good.”  Without learning to trust the Lord, we are back to trusting false solutions.  But, notice in your Bible (most modern translations) that the word, “LORD,” is in all “capital” letters.  This means that the verse is referring to God’s personal name, or covenant name, YAHWEH.  When are families are in trouble, we don’t need a “good idea,” we need a Powerful Person.  All the doctrine in the world will not help us if we are not in “step with Almighty God.”  When you a drowning in the ocean you don’t need to learn the principle of buoyancy.  You need a “Lifeguard!” 

Our trust is not in an idea—our trust is in a Person—Yahweh.  Yahweh is the name God gave to Moses when Moses needed encouragement to speak to Pharaoh, telling Pharaoh to let the Jewish slaves go free. Moses did not go to Pharaoh with confidence in a clever idea, but with the full assurance that Yahweh, Almighty God, the Great “I Am,” was going to deliver Him.  God did not let Moses down, and God will not let you or your family down—not now, not ever! 

So, Getting In Step With God begins by realizing Who He is and what He is like.  Yahweh is our Deliverer.  Yahweh is our Provider.  Yahweh is our Healer.  Yahweh is All-Powerful.  Yahweh is All-Good.  Yahweh is All-knowing.  Yahweh is Everywhere All the Time.  In our darkness, Yahweh is the Light.  In our hunger, Yahweh is the Bread of Life.  In our thirst, Yahweh is the Living Water.  When difficulty has slammed closed the door of our progress, Yahweh is our Door.  When we Get In Step With Yahweh, we can never be overcome.  Getting in step with Yahweh means we become partners with Almighty God. 

Journalist and award-winning writer, Leo Strobel, wrote:  “Suffering is not an abstract idea. What is needed is not a tightly woven philosophical argument, but a person—The Person.  The answer must be someone not just something.”

But, how do we make trusting Yahweh more than just a nice Sunday School lesson?  The Psalmist gives us three additional steps to take beyond trusting Him as a person in order to get in step with Him as the solution to our situations.

Second, we must “take delight in the Lord” (v4).  This word is an interesting one.  It can mean, “be dainty,” as someone accustomed to living the “good life.”  The related Samaritan word means, “to enjoy oneself.” An Arabic word strongly related to this word means, “to make a fuss over.”  The idea of delight is hard to express in words, but we know it when we see it, or taste it.

Imagine your favorite desert.  Could you imagine just taking one bite, and then pushing it aside?  Of course not, there are some deserts, like at the Cheesecake Factory, that are almost a religious experience in themselves.  When we have our favorite desert, we “gorge ourselves” until we have had more than we needed. 

That’s what it means to “delight in the Lord.”  We gorge ourselves with His grace and love.  We just can’t get enough.  We make a “fuss about the Lord.”  Getting In Step With Almighty God means we must desire Him above anything or anybody else.

Third, Getting In Step With Almighty God means we “Commit our lives to Him.” Verse 5 tells us,  Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.   Commitment is an “all or nothing proposition:  if it ain’t all, it ain’t nothing.   We must give Yahweh everything we have—the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Commitment means we literally, “roll the full load of our lives onto the back of Jesus.”  The original word here for “commit” was used in reference to a camel kneeling down why Bedouin camel drivers would roll supplies onto the camel’s back.  If we are ever going to Get In Step With Almighty God, we must give the Lord “everything,” not just a little here and a little there.  Families are literally being destroyed because they have “just enough religion.”  Just enough is not enough to be “more than conquerors through Christ Jesus Our Lord.”  Real victory requires real commitment.

Fourth, Verse 7 tells us that to Get In Touch With Almighty God, especially during times of family troubles, we must “rest and wait for Him to act.”  Resting and waiting on the Lord is essential to building solid families in a shaky world.  If we do not rest and wait, we add full to the fire.  We create additional noise that makes it hard to hear God’s voice with all the clamor of the chaos of our circumstances.  Resting does not mean we do NOTHING, but it means we do nothing UNTIL we are confident God has heard our prayer and has a plan for our situation.  Resting and Waiting means we don’t add full to the fire or useless noise to the situation.

Building Solid Families In A Shaky world means we must first GUARD Against False Solutions.  This requires we respond first by prayer.  Second, we must GET In Touch With Almighty God, trusting Who He is, Delighting in His Presence, Committing Ourselves fully to Him, and then Resting and Waiting for Him to act.  Third, responding to God means

3.  GAINING Confidence Through Knowing His Promises (3-5)

Look back again at verses 3-5.  Each verse contains a promise.  Verse 3 says we will:  “Dwell in the land securely.” Verse 4 reminds us “He will give us our heart’s desires.”  Verse 5 adds, “He WILL act.”   The KJV translates this, “He will bring it to pass.” 

One of the hardest parts of going through a difficulty in a family, or our personal lives for that matter, is not knowing how the situation is going to end.  It is the “not knowing” that creates such a deep anxiety, at least that is how it has been for me.  These verses highlight the encouragement we get from knowing God’s promises.    In verse 3, God promises to give us “security.” The entire world may be in chaos, and it pretty much is at this time, but we do not trust in this world, but our security comes from our trust in the One Who Created This World.  In Verse 4 God promises to give us “joy” by fulfilling all our desires—not just our basic needs, but also our deepest desires. Our joy is not dependent upon our circumstances, but is guaranteed by God’s promise.  Finally, verse 5 promises us “hope.” Of all God’s promises, perhaps hope is the most important.  Hope reminds us that the end of the story has already been written by God—AND WE WIN.  Even in times of great turmoil we experience security, joy, and most of all hope, because we have confidence in the promises of God. 

I read the other day about sports fan who had an unusual habit when watching T.V.  He worked when most sporting events were played on T.V. so he recorded them to watch when he got home.  After work, he’d come home, turn on the recorder to watch his favorite team.  He didn’t start at the beginning, however.  He would fast forward to the end to see if his favorite team won or lost.  If his team lost, he’d usually watch something else.  But, if his team won, he would rewind the tape to the beginning, break out the snacks, and sit in his favorite chair to watch the entire game.  His friends would often comment that this couldn’t be much fun, knowing who was going to win the game ahead of time.  The man would reply, “I love it.  No matter how bad the game may get for my team, I don’t have to worry because I know the end of the story.”  This guy’s TV watching habits illustrate the essence of trusting the God Who makes promises.  No matter how bad things get in life, we can live with courage and confidence because we “know how the story is going to end.”  As Paul said, “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us”  (Rom. 8:37).  The full quote says,

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, ³⁹ height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are living in “shaky” times to be sure.  We can, however, build solid, Christ-honoring families if we learn how to “respond to Our Lord instead of reacting to our circumstances.”  GUARD Against False Solutions, Get In Step With Almighty God, and Gain Confidence Through Knowing His Promises and you can “build a solid family in a shaky world.”

Easter 2019: Disproving Christianity

Easter. April 21, 2019           NOTES NOT EDITED

Disproving Christianity

1Cor. 15:12-19

SIS:  The resurrection is a verified historical event with eternal consequences.

According to one source, there are at least 4300 religions in the world!  There are many organizations that study these kinds of things, and I have confidence this number is at the very least, not too large.  There may be more, but there is certainly no less.

I very startling fact emerges when a person considers the study of Comparative Religion—which does exactly like the name suggests, compare and contrast these 4300 different religions.  All of these religions can be divided into only two groups—those which are completely dependent upon a single historical event in the life of the religion’s founder, and those that are not.  You might say that all religions can be divided into “subjective ideologies” and “objective theology.” 

Now, here’s something that is even more startling:  of the 4300 identified religions, 4,299 are in the subjective group, and only one is in the “objective” group.  Only Christianity is totally dependent upon one event in the life of its Founder, Jesus Christ.  That event is the resurrection of Jesus Christ which is what we celebrate every Sunday, and especially on what we call Easter Sunday.  Here’s what Paul says about the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Would you stand and read this together with me?  1Cor. 15:12-19 (NLT).

¹² But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. ¹⁵ And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. ¹⁶ And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. ¹⁸ In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! ¹⁹ And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

That is a remarkable statement, perhaps the most remarkable statement in the entire N.T.  What Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is saying is that the very truth or falsity of Christianity is dependent upon whether, at a point in time in history, Jesus died and then came back to life—the resurrection.  Paul concludes that if anyone could prove that this historical event did not happen, Christianity would be utterly false and useless, collapsing under the weight of historical evidence.

I’ve heard many criticisms of Christianity.  I’ve heard people criticize Christianity, for example, because Christianity teaches that homosexual behavior is wrong.  Society doesn’t like that idea.  I’ve heard people criticize Christianity because Christianity teaches that abortion is murder.  Society doesn’t like that idea either.  In fact, most of what Christianity teaches rubs the world the wrong way.  The bottom line is this:  the teaching of the Bible that calls people to live holy lives in full and sacrificial devotion to God, is offensive to man who wants to live his or her life according to personal desires not millennia old teachings of an Unseen God.

The bottom-line is not, however, does the teachings of the Bible offend me with Its call for righteous living.  The bottom-line in regard to Christianity is simply this:  is it true?  If it is not true, then a person would be a full to live within the constraints of an ancient book of myths.  Paul even agrees with this conclusion.  However, if Christianity is “true,” then the consequences of rejecting Its teachings is eternal—the difference between living in heaven or suffering in hell.

I’m not very concerned about how Christianity makes me “feel.”  Frankly, sometimes—oftentimes—what the Bible calls upon me to do makes me feel “bad,” not “good.”  I don’t particularly like “sacrifice,” and that is a major theme of the Bible.

What I am concerned with, as both a philosopher and a theologian, is:  is Christianity true or not?  This is something that can be easily proven, or disproven.  As we read earlier, if anyone can prove that the historical event of the resurrection did NOT happen, Christianity is proven false.  Whether the teachings are nice or naughty simply does not matter.  So, what would be the arguments one could make to show that the resurrection did NOT happen as an historical event?

Here is a fact that simply cannot be denied by any honest historian.  There is more evidence for the birth, life, death, and empty tomb of Jesus Christ than any other event in the ancient world.  There is more evidence in support of the accounts of the life of Jesus Christ in the gospels than there is that Julius Caesar ever ruled Rome.  No historian makes the claim against the historicity of Julius Caesar, and the evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has hundreds of times more evidence—perhaps thousands of times more evidence than that of the life of Julius Caesar.

So, it is not possible to make the claim that the tomb of Jesus was not indeed “empty” on that Sunday morning following His crucifixion.  In order to disprove the resurrection, one must come up with an alternative explanation for that empty tomb.  In fact, that’s exactly what the Jews did when the Tomb Guards gave the Jewish leaders the news that the “body of Jesus was missing.” 

1.  The “Stolen Body” Theory  Matthew tells us,

Mat. 28  ¹¹ As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. ¹² A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. ¹³ They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ ¹⁴ If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” ¹⁵ So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.

Notice a very important piece of evidence that day.  The Jews hated Jesus.  They hated the movement He had started.  They thought they had taken care of the problem with the help of the Romans.  Yet, notice what these Jews did NOT do.  They did not dispute that the tomb was empty.  If the Jews wanted to crush the Christian movement before it got started all it would have required is:  the dead body of Jesus!  Simply take people to the tomb and show them the body.  But, the Jews could not do that because the body was missing.  The tomb was indeed empty.  So, they made up a story.

The story of the stolen body has persisted even though it is impossible.  If the Roman guards had been “sleeping,” how would they have known the disciples stole the body?  Second, the penalty for a Roman guard falling asleep on watch was very severe, even including the possibility of being put to death.  Third, how can someone sleep through the moving of a two-ton stone that had been rolled across the entrance of the cave?  Fourth, the tomb had the seal of the Roman Emperor.  To break that seal would have been a death sentence for anyone.  It is impossible that the body could have been stolen.  Disproving the resurrection requires a better explanation for the historical fact of the empty tomb.

2.  The Swoon Theory. 

Another attempt to explain the empty tomb without a resurrection is referred to as the “Swoon Theory.”  Briefly summarized this theory states that Jesus did not really die on the cross but only “swooned” or “fainted.”  This theory for the empty tomb is as equally unbelievable as the Stolen Body Theory.  The disciples only thought Jesus died but in fact buried Him alive.  You wonder how any sensible person could put forth such a ridiculous theory—and beyond that, any sensible, reasonable person would believe it.  But, many do believe in the Swoon Theory.  For this theory to work, a man—Jesus—would have to survive Roman crucifixion.  This, after being whipped nearly to death the night before, after being nailed to the cross and hung in the hot sun all day, and then being laid in a cold, damp tomb.  He would then, wake up, go to the entrance and push away the two ton stone and walk out.  Preposterous!  Nobody—and I mean, nobody—survived Roman execution.  Romans were good at torture and killing—some of the best in history.  Also, recall that the legs of Jesus were not broken, in order to hasten death, but it says this of Jesus:

John 19   ³¹ It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was Passover week). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. ³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. ³³ But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. ³⁴ One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. 
Jesus did not “swoon or faint.”  Jesus was dead as dead could be.

3.  The “Wrong Tomb” Theory

This explanation says that the women and the disciples all went to the “wrong tomb.”  Do you really believe that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, did not remember three days later where her beloved first-born son was buried?  Also, this was the borrowed tomb of a very wealthy leader of the Jews, Joseph of Arimathea.  It would likely have been in a very prominent, memorable place.  Plus, if this were really the case, why wouldn’t the Jews have squashed all talk of a resurrection by simply taking people to the “right tomb” and show the decaying body of Jesus Christ?  The Wrong Tomb Theory just does not adequately explain the Empty Tomb.

These are just three of several attempted explanations of how the tomb of Jesus came to be empty without a “resurrection.”  These and others,  all fail as have all attempts to “Disprove Christianity” for nearly 2000 years. 

One piece of evidence could be given that would have crushed Christianity before it started—that would have aborted Christianity before it every drew a single breath.  That one piece of evidence that the enemies of Jesus could have produced would have been the decaying body of Jesus Christ.  Such evidence has never been offered, and never will be offered.  The only evidence that stands the scientific and historical scrutiny of investigators is the one given by the angels to the women that first Easter (Mat. 28:5-6): 

⁵ Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.

Christianity, unlike all other religions, is absolutely dependent upon a single, historical event in the life of Jesus Christ—the resurrection.  Disprove the resurrection, as Paul said, and “our faith is useless!”

But, even with evil potentates and powerful kings, and God-hating scholars and skeptics, and philosophers with big words and small hearts, trying to disprove Christianity for nearly 2000 years, Christ is saving souls on every continent even to this day. 
The important point of the matter, as I said before, isn’t what we “feel” about the teachings of Christianity, or whether we think Christians are good models of the life of Jesus, but the only really important question for you today is this:  is Christianity true, and will you surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord and let him become your Savior?

Jesus emptied the tomb so that He could fill your life.  The Bible says (2Cor. 5:21),  ²¹ He made the One who did not know sin to be sin  for us,  so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

I want to be very honest with you, the teachings of the Bible are hard, and they do not always bring warm, fuzzy feelings.  Many people—millions in fact—have died for their faith.  Even today, all around the world, Christians are being killed simply for being followers of Jesus Christ.

Becoming a Christian will cost you dearly in this life.  Christianity is a cross to bear.  But, Jesus emptied the tomb so that He could fill our lives with His righteousness and secure for us a place in His eternal kingdom.  Jesus died once for all of us, so we can live forever.

Death is called in the Bible, “our last enemy” (1Cor. 15:25).  Men have been looking for a way to “live forever” for as long as we have written records.  The Egyptians, for example, went through elaborate procedures to embalm, or mummify, their loved ones so that they could make save passage to the “After Life.”  Most common Egyptians were buried in the desert with such necessities as food, water, and other items to live well in the afterlife.  Rich or powerful Egyptians were buried in elaborate tombs with all kinds supplies beyond the basics, sometimes even including their favorite horse.

Modern man also seeks a pathway to eternal life through technology. Alchor Life Extension Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona, will freeze your body in liquid nitrogen at 320 degrees below zero, for somewhere around $120,000.  For $50,000 they will freeze your head only hoping to be able to build a new body in the future when you are thawed out.

What man has been seeking for millennia and has not found—and will not find on our own—Jesus has provided with an Empty Tomb.  That’s what Easter is all about:  an exchange.  Jesus took our sins upon Himself and in return God offers us eternal life.

Either Christianity is true and the promise of eternal life is true, or it is false.  All the weight of the evidence shows that the tomb was empty that first Easter because Jesus was resurrected, and through His resurrection has gained the power over death.

So, do you believe Christianity is true?  Or do you believe it is false.  What you believe, and what you do with that belief, has consequences—eternal consequences.  Don’t gamble with your eternal life.  Examine the evidence.  Only one explanation for that empty tomb has stood the test of time—“Jesus is alive!”

Many people don’t buy insurance.  I’m not talking about people who can’t afford insurance, but people who “gamble” on never having an accident or serious illness.  This reminds me of an insurance agent trying to sell insurance to a cowboy.  The agent asked, “Sir, have you had any accidents in your life?”  The cowboy replied, “Well, naw, I ain’t had no accidents.”  Then the cowboy continued, “Well, I was laid up once for a couple of weeks when a rattlesnake bit me.  And, one time my horse kicked me in the ribs and I was laid up for ‘bout two weeks.”  But, I ain’t had no accidents.  The agent replied, “Well what would call getting bit by a rattlesnake or kicked by a horse.  Aren’t those accidents?”  The cowboy smiled and said, “Why, heck no.  ‘Dem weren’t no accidents.  The snake and horse done ‘dat on purpose!”

Many people gamble in different ways with their lives.  Many people gamble with the idea that Christianity is at worst, a lie, and at best just a fairy tale.  Yet, the resurrection is a verified, historical fact.  It is the truth and that means everything Jesus taught was the truth, including the punishment for dying without accepting the free gift of eternal life He provided on the cross.

Christianity is either true, or it is false.  All the weight of the evidence for the resurrection proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Christianity is true.  Don’t gamble with where you will spend eternity.  Accept the free gift of salvation that Jesus paid for when He died on the cross.