The Resurrection Debate: Examining the Evidence

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Right, that's hilarious, which just goes to show you that we don't take our those two serious. That's correct. So today we're going to do a segments at the beginning, like we always do who's most likely? And so Desireel has written five things, and we are supposed to just what just vote instinctively very fast? I think, So, who's most likely to do these things? I think? Should we say names out loud? Yes? Because what we used to do is we used to hold up the paddles, paddles with pictures, but you know two thirds of our crowd can't see paddles and pictures. Was just just say the first name that comes to mind, Yeah, that's right, okay, Chris or Jeff, which we always we always did the paddles and we said the names too. That's correct. So here we go. So who's most likely? I'll read the first one, all right, Who's most likely to cut their own hair and think it looks good? Chris or Jeff? Chris? Definitely Chris. Yes. So I've never cut my own hair. I have not cut my whole I've not cut my own hair in its entirety. Okay, but I feel as if if I could sit down and attempt to cut somebody else's hair, I could do it. So could I really do my own hair? You know? I think I could try? Okay, so you know my father was a barber. Yes, that's why I said, And my mother cuts her Oh wow, she has her own little beauty shop. There you go in her house. Yeah. So you're going to just by nature be more skilled genetically, you're predisposed to being better disposed. All right. You want to go to the second who's most likely to spend hours in a YouTube conspiracy theory hole? That's Jeff. I think it's me too, but I will but I will go ahead and say Jeff. Yeah, so I believe it or not? Uh. The reason why I said me instinctively, I'll say Jeff because I think I think you're the information gatherer as I think that I can actually believe some conspiracies. Buddy, you get sucked into him. I do, And in fact, did you hear I got I got involved in one where people are just thinking I'm ridiculous. I'm like, I think there's some merit to this, and and my my whole family is like, dude, you are ridiculous. So I really I've been known. I've been known. Yeah yeah, good for you, dude. Yeah. So one of my strengths you know in the strengths Finder test, Yes, one of mine is ideation. So ideas capture my attention, and so I rarely get sucked into a conspiracy theory. But I'm very curious about the ideas behind conspiracy theories. Why do people believe this or why do people think that this is true? Okay, right, And so I'll get sucked into one of those you know, conspiracy theory things, not believing any of it. But just watch you know, five hours with a video or read a whole book on see On the opposite, if I if I dive into conspiracy theory and I decide, if I decide that I don't believe it, it turn it off. Oh yeah, I don't care why people think. Yeah, I want to. I always want to figure out what's the cause or the root cause behind why. So ideation is a thing for me, the ideas of it is what's interesting to me. All right, three? Okay, Yeah, who's most likely to win a hot dog eating contest? I'm gonna say that's me. I'm gonna say that to you too. I can put down hot dogs, buddy. Yeah, I'm gonna say that you. Yep, all right, go ahead. Who's most likely to be mistaken for celebrity? It's gonna be Chris. I'm gonna say me, yes, I was. By the way, you were a local celebrity, not a not a real celebrity, right, a local celebrity. So you know the guy on the radio what's his name Jay? Oh yeah, I've heard people say that about you before. I don't I don't know, but yeah, yeah, there's a radio guy that you start like, yeah, well there's a radio guy that I look like too. In fact, I just went to The Chosen last night with my wife and I saw season four, episode seven and eight, and he was on the imagine Imagine it's a local theater for us, yes, there. It was like a local commercial and they interviewed like local celebrities, and he was on there. And Liz looks over and she goes, that's the guy that people say you look like. That's crazy. His name is Jay something. Yeah, I heard radio I think maybe is one of this. And then number five, number five, who's most likely to walk by a celebrity on the street? Oh that's me? Is that you? Oh yeah? Oh you mean and not acknowledged, just just walk past them, not even recognize them. Yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well that's me. Yeah, that's probably you. Although I'll be honest, I've had several stories where I've just just, you know, not acknowledged celebrities very much. Did you recognize them when you didn't acknowledge them? Like, okay, Jason Momoa, you know Aquay. So he walked by us literally at the airport, and as he walked by, I was like, hey, look, guys, Jason Mama, so I never see them. The only celebrities I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. Somebody else pointed out, hey, that's yeah. Yeah, and I'm standing right there. So I sat next to a rock star. I got bumped up the first class on the way home from from Saint Croix or from Dominican Republic. Yeah, I'm sitting next to a rock star. He comes and he sits down. I look at him just briefly, go I think I know that guy. He goes, sorry, mate, not big conversationalists. I'm like me, neither. I put my headphones on, never try to say another word. Didn't take a picture with him. He gets off the plane, said hey, Tauld, you stay at rockstar guy. I sit next to her. He goes, yeah, he said, no, why, I said, I don't know who it is. I can't remember who it is. He goes, he didn't ask you. I said, no, why would I ask you? That's hilarious? Yes, yeah, so it's I've seen him face before. He's a guitar player for like a famous rock band. I just couldn't remember who he is. Isn't that funny? And he said, sorry, mate, Yeah, yeah, yeah? So the uh uh? But I would say ninety nine percent of the celebrities I've ever seen, somebody else pointed them out to me. Oh that's hilarious, isn't it funny? I just I don't don't even see it. So I have real quick al squeeze the story. And I have a good friend, Kevin, who lives in Orlando, And he got on the plane and he sat first class and just started a conversation with this girl next to him, and he kept on saying, I tell you this. He said. She was super pretty, like unbelievably pretty, and he was talking to her. You know, of course, he's shy because he's he's a married pastor guy, so he's not gonna, you know, necessarily, like strike up a conversation with a really pretty girl. But she kept on talking to him. So he was just you know, talking pastorally to her and everything. So he brings up like spiritual things. They talk all about, like her faith and whether she believes, and he said he talks to her on this plane ride to California, I think it was. It was like a three to four hour trip. Right the entire trip, he's talking to her like openly, and they're having this incredible conversation. And then he says, oh, why are you going out to California? And she's while I'm going out to film a movie. And he goes, oh really, and she's like, yeah, it's starring and she names these other stars and he goes, what I know those other stars. She's like really, He's like wow. And then they get to talking a little bit more and she says, wow, I was married to I'm divorced. Because they're talking about her life and he says, oh really, and was it a something like what was his name? And she's like, well, it was Andrea Agassy and you know this famous tennis player. And then all of a sudden, he stops and he goes, wait a minute. He goes, I feel like I should know you. He goes, I'm so sorry. He goes, what is your name? They've talked for four hours, and she goes, it's Brook It's Brookshield and he goes. He goes, I am so sorry that I didn't recognize you. And she goes, it's okay, it's all right. She goes, I really enjoy talking to you at pastor Kevin, you know, he's like, okay, bye and he leaves and anyway, but we all make fun of him, right, like you talk from Bookshields for four hours. One of the prettiest women of the face of the planet, by the way, most recognizable, very recognizable friend, and you know, and it's so funny. That's funny, Like, how do you not recognize her? Right? That's me. I just I don't recognize famous people. Yeah, that's really great. Like I have a hard time recognizing you if I run into you outside the studio, right again. Yeah, well good looking guys. Yeah, you know, it's intimidating. Sometimes we blend into the background. Okay, Well today we have had a couple of episodes recently where as we're going through the two hundred and fifty events of Jesus and Jesus Life, we've had a couple of times recently where there were just a few verses. Yeah, one of those day. This is the least number of verses in any event we've read so far. Is that true? It's four verses, because then we have one just over four versus Chris. The last one was like six. Ok. Yes, so this is four verses. But there's a lot in this, so I'm looking forward to jumping into it. Are you ready? Yep? Here goes Matthew, Chapter twenty eight, verse eleven through fifteen. It's five verses. Oh, you can't count. I was wrong. I was doing the math. Eleven plus four is fifteen, but I forgot you had to count. Eleven is a verse? Correct, it's five verses. Okay, still five is less than six. As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. They told the soldiers, you must say, Jesus disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body. If the governor hears about it, we'll stand up for you so you won't get in trouble. So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say, and their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today. There you go, that's it. So the guards accepted the bribe and said that they were told to say, and they spread and their story is spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today. That is a sentence, there isn't it. Yes, So it's spread widely among the Jews. Now, keep in mind this is written two thousand years ago. And what's so interesting is is that it's no secret that if you were to visit, you know, Israel today, a person who is Jewish in their faith widely reject and adamantly reject that Jesus was the Messiah, right, right, So they believe in the Old Testament. And and if somebody is Jewish in their faith, they would say, hey, where we live in the spot where the Old Testament ends, and we just wait for we're still waiting for the Messiah. So and yet they believe one hundred percent of the Old Testament, right. And so it's interesting how this statement it describes the Jewish belief today, and yet it was written two thousand years ago, it's correct for almost two thousand, well actually probably over we're roughly around two thousand years ago. So it's amazing to me that they're not denying the body was gone. And even today, even today, I've never had a person say I don't believe the tomb wasn't empty. I've never never had I've haven't had atheists say it. I haven't had people from other religions say it, Muslim leaders, Jewish leaders, Buddhist leaders, Hindu leaders. I've never had another person say the tomb was not empty. I've only ever heard either he was resurrected or somebody stole the body. So we're going to take the idea off the table that the body was still there historically, so this is outside of Christianity, and this is outside the claims of the gospel. Historically, the Romans were concerned about the fact. And I'll explain to you why in this a moment, the Romans were concerned about the fact that the tomb was empty. These religious leaders, these Jewish reliegless leaders, were also concerned about the fact that the tomb was empty. Mary and the other Mary and Peter and John said the tomb was empty. So the Christians are saying the tomb is empty. The Jewish leaders are saying the tomb is empty. The secular leaders are saying the tomb is empty. We've got a problem because the tomb is empty is the way that both the Romans and the Jewish leaders saw it, which should be an indicator that we should lean into. Why is the toom empty? Right? Because if the tomb is empty because Jesus was resurrected, well, then everything he said and did was true. One of your favorite preachers says, Hey, the guy who says I'm going to rise from the dead in three days and then does it should listen to him. That's right. If you can pull that off, you anybody who predicts their own death resurrection pulls it off, have tendencies to believe that. Let's listen to that guy. So if that's true and and and he resurrected, then everything else he said and did we just have to lean into. It's absolute fact. It's the greatest single event in the human history. Right, this has never happened before. I don't know if you heard. Buddhists still in the grave, right, right, Mohammed's still in the grave, so's John Smith. That's right. John Smith's still in the grave, so but Jesus is not. And so in this situation, then I would say it's fair for us to say, let's lean into and try to either disprove or prove the resurrection. And historically we know that the Romans had a problem with this because here's what they say. So so the religious leaders go, hey, just here's some money. Just say that the disciples came and stole them, and if there's a problem with the government will protect you. The reason why that's such a big deal is if you lost if you allowed a seal that had been sealed by the by the uh you know, the governor, or a Roman seal. If you lost what was sealed, then as a Roman soldier, one of the things would be death. Yes, if you were assigned to guard a prisoner and the prisoner gets away, it's death. It's death for the Roman soldier. If you lose the thing you were supposed to hold, it's death for the Roman soldier. So this is why they had to say, hey, listen, here's some money. Just say that this and then we'll go ahead, and we've got some political clout, we'll protect you with the governor. That's it. But then there's a note, and this is one of the reason why you need to get a Life Application Study Bible. I always recommend the regular Life Application Study Bible instead of the chronological Life Application Study Bible, and that's one we're using because it's easier to navigate. But anyways, in there there's a note and it says a document comprising twenty lines of Greek inscribed on a slab of white marble was discovered in Nazareth in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The statement was a decree of Caesar assigning the death penalty to anyone breaking the seal of a tomb and stealing the body. The decree was issued by Claudius, he was the Caesar at the time in about eighty fifty. Because Claudius had issued some other decrees against those who followed Christ, it's believed that the Nazareth decree was aimed at early Christians who were proclaiming that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. The rabbis of the time claimed that jesus disciples came and they stole his body. Whatever his viewpoint on the matter, Claudius did not wish to encourage theories about the disappearance of bodies from tombs. The Nazareth decree thus becomes a pointer to the resurrection of Christ, which was at that time upsetting the Roman world. Claudius apparently took steps to curb the spread of these disturbing ideas. Is that fabulous? Yeah, so the caesar of the world, the emperor of the known world, went, well, this is a problem. Right, he's not saying, surely there's still a body there. So we have the Roman government has record that they executed a guy that was called the King of the Jews, right right. They have a centurion. This isn't some ding dong, you know, private who just got enlisted. A centurion, a leader of over a hundred soldiers. He's an expert at what he does. He's been around death all along. Pierces the side of this guy. Blood and water comes out of his heart area, and then they take him down. He's dead and they bury him. The Romans have multiple documented accounts of the fact that this guy's dead and was put in a tomb. Pilot in a documented way permitted the body to be taken down by one of the high It would be like a Supreme Court justice by two of the Supreme Court justices. So this again, this isn't some breadmaker on the corner. These are Supreme Court justices who take the body put him in a tomb. All these things are documented by the Romans. And then finally, in fifty a d another Roman, Caesar goes, yeah, this is a problem, So no more breaking seals people. If you do, you're gonna die. Right. So if for me this is one of the strongest evidences that the resurrection happened, is not the claim of Peter and Mary. The greatest, some of the greatest proofs to me that the resurrection actually happened is the cover up, and not only the cover up proclaimed in the Bible, but the cover up proclaimed by the Romans. Hey, we have to we have to stop people from stealing bodies. They're claiming the tomb was empty, right right, yeah, which, by the way, is uh, yeah, it really eliminates any skeptic trying to prove that Jesus, you know, this is just religious followers making up a story. Yeah, it takes the Romans we're concerned about this, yes, right and uh and by the way, the guards being bribed. It says, a large bribe, but it doesn't tell us how much. And I'm thinking this is everything was at stake for them, so literally everything was at stake. The you know again, I told you that the Chosen has this hypothetical that was all you know, a lot of hypothetical fill in the blanks. And there was an argument at the temple. We're at the place where season four ends and Jesus is about to march in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Okay, so anyway, but people are in the temple and they're arguing. There's a pharisee there and they're arguing back and forth, and he says, he says, one guy challenges the pharisee. It was it was the woman who they put the woman who is bleeding for twelve years. They put her there. She's healed now and she's in the temple and she says, the reason why you're you're saying these things against Jesus in the temple right now is because you're afraid and he has authority over you. Because he just rose laser from the dead. He has authority over you, and that one day you'll be under his authority. And he gets mad and he goes, you recant that statement right now, and she goes, why you're gonna stone her? Or two like and so it's just like, I mean, it was just it was just this argument that goes back and forth and again it's just another one of these things. Even though it's a radical hypothetical, it's another one of these things that reminds me that, you know, doesn't John say that that the books can't contain all the other things that Jesus the world could not contain all the books the world cannot contain written all the books Jesus that need to be written, which means that there are conversations. There's some hyperbole in that statement, but the idea of being yes, right, there's there's conversations, there's miracles, there's things that were not recorded, and surely people had these types of debates when it says they were arguing the question is what's the dialogue? Right and so and so as they were, you know, supposing this dialogue, I was thinking to myself that that's so true, like things like this would have happened because that was an outrageous statement, Right, you're going to be under his authority? What this guy just goes outrageous, he goes like nuclear right, right, And I'm thinking, of course things like this were said, right because it wasn't necessarily said by let's just say like Peter or you know things, you know, because those conversations are recorded. But but of course the people arguing in the temple are going to be saying these types of things, right, And so anyway, it just it was just great. You just to sort of sit there and soak it all in and it was just wonderful. But anyway, what else is in here? Is there anything else? I mean, I would say, you know, as we look at the historical proofs and the fact that people from outside of Christianity are claiming that the tomb is empty, I would encourage our people to lean into some of the proofs that. There's a really great book by Sean and Josh McDowell called The Unshakable Truth, and it goes it's it's one of my favorite books for this. It's easy to read, it's not hard, but it deals with how can you trust that the Bible is true? All these things? But there's an entire segment in that book about the proofs of the resurrection. For instance, of course, Lee Strobel wrote a whole bunch of books that he was an investigative reporter before he became a Christian, and he became a Christian because he was investigating the resurrection. So he wrote a couple books. He wrote a book called The Case for Christ, which is really great. He interviews all these experts from around the world, and then from there the Case for the Real Jesus, the Case for a Creator. You can go on down the line, but both Josh and Sean McDowell, Josh and Sean McDowell and Lee Strobel would be too that if you want to lean into the proofs of the resurrection from outside of just Creator, from outside the Christian world, those two guys that be worth their three guys to be worth looking at what they have to say. Great, I agree, and I've read several of the books that you just mentioned and they're phenomenal and they hold up. They're old, but they still hold up today. Yeah, this turns out, so's the resurrections like two thousand years old. So it's okay if you're reading old book. That's so funny. All right, Well, hey, that's our time, so we will see you next time on the Bible guys,