You have certainly done a great job. That will be used for my Sonrise Service this Sunday.

Blessings,
Tim

One thing that was helpful to me in presenting the case for the resurrection was the following information by John MacArthur:

Scripture describes at least 10 distinct appearances of Christ between the resurrection and ascension. He appeared to:

1. Mary Magdalene at the tomb (Mark 16:9, John 20: 11-18)

2. to the women on the road (Matt. 28:9-10)

3. to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-32)

4. to Peter (Luke 24:34)

5. to 10 of the 11 disciples, Thomas absent (Luke 24: 36-43; Mark 16:14; John 20:19-25)

6. to the 11 disciples with Thomas present 8 days later (John 20: 26-31)

7. to 7 disciples by the shore of the Sea of Galilee (John 21: 1-25)

8. to more than 500 disciples (1 Cor. 15:6)

9. to James (1 Cor. 15:7)

10. to the apostles when He ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:3-11)

He later appeared of course to Paul (1 Cor. 15:8)

That’s a lot of folks to get together to support a lie! There’s no way they had time to get that together. Matter of fact, you get 51% of your congregation to agree on an eating place after church this Sunday and you’ve accomplished something! I believe it because the Scripture teaches it but how can you argue a personal testimony and the eyewitness of this many people? They saw Him and knew it was the resurrected Christ. He is Risen indeed!

We get our revelation to the life of Christ from the NT.

But to help you with your Easter sermon I will give you some “sermon starter ideas.”
:-)

1. Jesus spoke of His resurrection as many times as He did His death.

2. He fulfilled all OT prophesies prior to and after the resurrection.

3. The new attitude of Peter toward the mission of Jesus on earth, His death and resurrection.

4. The change in Paul’s life when he became convinced of the resurrection of Jesus.

5. The evidences from the devoted loyalty of first century Christians even to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. They gave their lives by great numbers due to knowing the Lord has risen from the dead and had been seen by many non-refutable witnesses.

6. The theories which deny the resurrection have been well refuted.

If these “sermon starter ideas” do not help you to get ready for Sunday I will send you a sermon on CD and you can play it for your folks. You will need to agree to send me the Sunday morning offering.

One more thing; If you will take the time to read the NT it will tell you the following:

1. Jesus did rise from the dead.

2. Jesus affirmed openly as many as four times He was going to be killed by His enemies in Jerusalem. He also affirmed just as many times He would rise again.

3. The different gospels relate different incidents as taking place in connection with the resurrection. They agree in the following:

A. He did rise from the dead.

B. the resurrection did occur on the first day of the week.

C. The resurrection was on the third day after He was crucified.

D. Women went to the tomb and encountered angels there testifying to His resurrection.

E. After the resurrection He appeared to two or more groups of people.

F. The resurrection is asserted as fact in 13 of the Books of the NT.

The Book of Acts has no validity for existence other than being further evidence of the resurrection. Without the resurrection there is nothing of worth in the NT for it would all be baseless.

The salvic purpose of God is not just dependent upon the death of Christ, but also upon the burial, and resurrection of Christ, the perfect life of Christ, the virgin birth of Christ, the absolute deity of Christ, and the total fulfillment of the Law and all OT prophecy by Christ.

Colossians declares Christ to be the supreme revelation of God toward man in the fulfillment of the whole OT relating to the Sacrificial Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the earth to fulfill the first known prophecy of His divine decree to provide atonement for the sin of the federal head of the race in whom we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God making such an atonement necessary to save us and keep us from the ultimate wrath to come in that Great Day of the Lord (Gen. 3:15).

The salvation of whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord is totally dependent upon Him (Jesus) and the fulfillment of all things decreed by the Trinity in eternity past that He must experience to provide atonement for our sin.

Therefore, if the resurrection is not historical fact as He promised then the virgin birth, the perfect life, the miracles, the love, the death and the burial of Jesus is all in vain and we are of all men most helpless and damned to hell with out any hope in this life or in the one to come.

If you cannot get an Easter sermon from some of that you need to go join the French Foreign Legion or the circus so you can either protect us or make us laugh till we die for nothing else will matter if the resurrection did not occur.
:-)

cb

It speaks of His earthly life (vv.1-3)
It reveals His work of atonement (vv5-6)
It declares His death and burial (vv.8-9)
It proclaims His glorious resurrection (vv.10-11)

Don’t you just know that this passage exploded into life for the apostles that first Easter? Surely this was one of the many passages Jesus Himself taught from (Luke 24:25-32) while the disciples’ hearts burned within them.

Grace,
Wes

Let me change the direction of this comment thread somewhat.

Let’s say that we are like the apostles. (Before Brother CB comes in ragging on someone, I did not say we were the apostles.) Let us impose on ourselves the same restrictions that were imposed on the apostles just by their being born in their time. The only Scripture that we have is the Old Testament. However, we can use the New Testament events to argue for the veracity of the resurrection. Give me your best arguments to convince the unbeliever that Jesus actually did rise from the dead, using only the OT as your scriptural basis and also the life of Jesus.

Blessings,
Tim

God bless,
Sallie

You don’t bribe the guards to tell the truth.

Your second paragraph describes the four newly found heretics who operate this blog and let such posts as this one surface.

You need to spend more time with THE APOSTATE, THE JUDIZER, THE REPROBATE and especially THE GNOSTIC who is the one who first thought up this post.

Maybe you should get them a spot on TBN and we can get some other guys to run this blog. Hey, I know we can call it Scott&scott TODAY.
:-)

cb

I still got your number…and as the only unassigned manager here at SBCToday…let me assign myself the title of Scott THE HITMAN Gordon. Yes, I’ve been absent much lately…those reconnaissance missions have been killers.

You know fully well that there are those who claim a conservative label who couldn’t reason their way out of a wet paper bag. They believe what they believe because their Sunday School teacher, pastor, or Dr. MacArthur said it. They couldn’t find a scripture to support their position if their life depended on it. And they couldn’t explain the reason for using that scripture if they had to.

So, if you want to dance…bring both guns…I’m your huckleberry!

Sola Gratia!
SBC Today Conservative Hitman