0:00:00 - 0:00:25 What is the significance of the Lord's resurrection? A principal component is the evidence it provides that he exists in the certification. It provides of what the scriptures record about him. His resurrection proved that his claims of knowing the way to life were true and that those who live what he 0:00:24 - 0:00:47 taught will receive the same. While these statements are hopefully unsurprising and uncontroversial with professed Christians, they are an example of an all too common problem with modern Christianity. The tendency to hold beliefs that contradict each other without seeming to notice or care. I'll explain 0:00:46 - 0:01:11 what I mean. In this particular case, the common definition of faith is something like when you believe without evidence. But if evidence is not necessary, why would Christ go through all the trouble he did to die and rise again? Yes, there were other things that he came to do. But you probably didn't 0:01:10 - 0:01:36 take issue with my claim that a principal component of the resurrection was the evidence for the gospel he preached. So if that wasn't such a big deal, why do you proclaim he has risen? Faith is a term freely used but infrequently understood Paul called it the substance of things hoped for, the evidence 0:01:35 - 0:02:05 of things not seen. Hebrews 11 1, Paul did not call it an alternative to evidence rather. He said it describes the evidence we have of what we hope for that we expect to occur in the future. Faith isn't an alternative to evidence. It's a description of how to seek and react to evidence. Honestly, it's 0:02:05 - 0:02:34 not an alternative to rational thought. It's how to use rational thought. Honestly, it's not a topic exclusive to religious ideas when practiced properly. It applies to all things throughout life. But it's no surprise that this distortion of the definition has occurred. There are billions of professed 0:02:34 - 0:02:57 Christians. But how many have actually seen in their own lives? The kinds of miracles recorded in scripture? How many are living through faith and how many are merely hoping without evidence? And why is there so little evidence? The answer is simple but sad. How many of the billions of people who claim 0:02:56 - 0:03:23 to believe in Jesus actually believe what is written? You see to believe Jesus, you have to obey Jesus. This obviously requires reading what he said. And right there, most Christians don't actually read what they say they believe, but it also requires doing what he said. And when you combine these two 0:03:23 - 0:03:50 constraints, who are you left with? Let me ask you if you're a believer, do you live up to the example he provided? If not, do you know anyone who does. If your answer to both questions is no, you need look no further for your lack of evidence, failure to produce the results of a recipe does not indicate 0:03:50 - 0:04:16 a lack in the recipe. If the recipe was not followed, so many people in this world who are not professed Christians have not had an adequate example of what a real Christian looks like. We talk of following recipes and we all understand that when the recipe says bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, and 0:04:15 - 0:04:36 you decide you have a better idea. So you try 400 degrees for two minutes or maybe you just don't feel like waiting. And so you pull it out early, you're not going to get what the recipe is intended to make and that's not the fault of the recipe. It's the fault of the baker. And yet when we speak of 0:04:36 - 0:05:03 following Jesus, we all of a sudden invent a new definition of the word follow that allows us to freely deviate from what Jesus would do in our place, or at least we freely deviate from it when we find it difficult or unpleasant. And then we wonder why we end up with a different product. It differs from 0:05:03 - 0:05:28 what the recipe says. Apparently, even billions of professed Christians do not find the written evidence compelling enough to actually live it. But in that written evidence, we find a very important scripture that provides the recipe for turning written evidence into living examples. Jesus said in John 0:05:27 - 0:05:57 717, if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. The message here is clear and simple, live it and you'll find out if it's true, live it and you will become the evidence. The conclusion of the gospel of Mark reads as follows. And he said 0:05:56 - 0:06:19 , unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not, shall be damned and these signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues, they shall 0:06:19 - 0:06:41 take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working 0:06:40 - 0:07:04 with them and confirming the word with signs following amen. So we see that after the resurrection, the Lord continued working with his disciples. And even after he was received up into heaven, they continued preaching and he continued quote, working with them and confirming the word with signs following 0:07:03 - 0:07:28 it. Is these living witnesses that are required for the vast majority. Of people who are not convinced by the written evidence. The entire world has access to Bibles. Now, even in places where it's illegal to have them, they still have them. So what's the missing ingredient to the recipe? What's required 0:07:27 - 0:07:54 for people to believe? What it actually says? The missing ingredient is the living witness in Romans 1014 and 15, we read how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how 0:07:54 - 0:08:21 shall they preach? Except they be sent we have on the earth today. Billions of professed Christians out of all of these people. Where are those who have fulfilled these charges? Where are those who have become living testimonies of the glory and power of God? Where are any of those doing what the disciples 0:08:21 - 0:08:48 did 2000 years ago? And in every age past, whenever the living God was known and followed by men, there are countless preachers, pastors, ministers, priests, apostles and prophets. Where are any who do what God described? Do you know anyone who demonstrates that they live the religion of Paul through 0:08:48 - 0:00:00 emulating the works of Paul? He said in a place follow me as I follow Christ. If the link is broken, that's a problem in Galatians one he wrote. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you? Than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed. And we said before, 0:00:00 - 0:09:39 as we said before, so say, I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed for. Do I now persuade men or God or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ, but I certify you brethren that the gospel 0:09:38 - 0:10:02 which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, why won't you find evidence for the gospel Paul preached in today's churches because there are three kinds of gospel evidence. And today's churches will tell you 0:10:01 - 0:10:27 that each of them cannot happen today. The first class of evidence of the gospel of Jesus Christ is firsthand visitation. Those alive during the Lord's ministry saw him and the events of his life first hand they were there, they were eyewitnesses churches today preach that God doesn't do this anymore 0:10:26 - 0:10:49 , that he doesn't visit people, that angels don't visit people. They are wrong. He is the God of the living, not the God of the dead. He has not ceased to interact with mankind. He's operating under the same principles he always has because he doesn't change just as he visited people before his mortal 0:10:48 - 0:11:19 advent. He continues to visit them after I have seen him and I am not alone. The second class of evidence of the gospel of Jesus Christ is this principle that we read about in John 717. Try it. And you will see if you live what the Lord taught, you will experience the promised fruits. If you follow the 0:11:19 - 0:11:49 recipe, you will get the thing that's promised churches today preach that it's impossible to actually keep God's commandments. They are wrong. Jesus was without sin. He proved it's possible. All of us have sinned, but that doesn't mean that we have to keep doing it. He came to free us from our sin. Peter 0:11:48 - 0:12:12 tells us the Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptations. Second Peter 29, Paul wrote there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. But with the temptation also make a way to escape that 0:12:12 - 0:12:46 you may be able to bear it. First Corinthians 1013, I know it's possible to stop sinning because I have done it. I do everything I believe Jesus would in my place and nothing. He wouldn't. That's not because I'm good. It's because He is good and because he is good, you can do this too. The third class 0:12:46 - 0:13:14 of evidence that the Gospel provides is personal revelation that builds on what is written. It's one thing to read the word of God in the Bible. It's another thing to receive the word of God in your own mind and heart to hear Him speak to you in James 15. It says if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask 0:13:14 - 0:13:39 of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraids not and it shall be given Him. If you ask God questions, he will give you answers as He does, that information rolls back into the prior type of evidence, try it and you will see. And so step by step, you can develop your ability to hear the voice 0:13:39 - 0:14:07 of God and further aggregate more and more information that you receive from Him to get to know Him better and better churches today teach that God's voice ceased after the last verse in the book of Revelation, some of them teach that God only speaks on certain topics and to certain people, these ideas 0:14:06 - 0:14:32 are clearly refuted by countless examples of contrary evidence in the Bible. For example, there's no verse that says that he's done speaking to mankind. God has not ceased speaking. He speaks to me every day and he has for years. He wants to speak to you every day. But first, you have to obey the things 0:14:32 - 0:14:57 that He's already taught you because that's how it works. Once you freed yourself from these traditions and you begin to follow the Lord's example, you will find yourself accruing gospel evidence in your own life. You will experience all the same things as the people in the scriptures. I know this from 0:14:57 - 0:15:26 my own experience, you can use this to triangulate how close you are to the faith of those people, meaning how you understand God to be and your understanding of His will for your life. The closer you get, the more similar your life will be to the stories that you read in the scriptures. Now, as an example 0:15:26 - 0:15:52 of this, if you go through the book of Acts, you'll see something like 20 miracles described. Um that's including the post resurrection ministry of Christ to the disciples, their experience at the Pentecost and all of the others I have personally either seen or performed nearly every class of miracle 0:15:51 - 0:16:20 mentioned there. The dead being brought back to life, the healing of the terminally ill, the permanently crippled, the sick have seen the sudden death of those who oppose God, the casting out of devils, all of these things. What are the examples that I have not seen? There are three examples that I have 0:16:20 - 0:16:45 not seen literally but I have seen in a symbolic fulfillment. And I wanna explain that because these three things are not exceptions to me. In in this case, in all three cases, what I have experienced, that's like that I believe is even greater than the literal type would be. So what are these one? Paul 0:16:45 - 0:17:11 was bitten by a poisonous snake and he lived, I have never been bitten by a snake. But I have had many people attempt to harm me in ways much worse than a snake bite. And God has foiled them every time two Peter was freed from a literal prison by an angel. And I have not yet been literally imprisoned 0:17:10 - 0:17:36 , but I was freed from the prison of my false traditions and sin through the visitation of Jesus Christ, who came to me and taught me in a vision. The first time I saw him, I have subsequently acted in the role of an angel to provide the sufficient actions, example and persuasion required to free countless 0:17:36 - 0:00:00 others from their own prisons of doubt, tradition, addiction, sin and so on into greater light and truth. To me. These are much greater evidences of God's power than an angel opening the gates of a physical prison. Three Paul and Lymus, we're each smitten with blindness. I've been seen ex excuse me. 0:00:00 - 0:18:26 I've been sent on countless occasions to provide an argument strong enough that the hearers turning from it absolutely resulted in a dampening of their ability to exercise the same amount of reason in the future. Now, that's a slightly sophisticated gospel principle. Paul talks all about it. It's outside 0:18:25 - 0:18:52 the scope of this talk. But the point is in many cases, those arguments required the the specific things that God had uniquely shown me or led me to experience in my life in ways that the value of them of sharing those lessons with others of making those arguments to others. It seems much more difficult 0:18:51 - 0:19:27 to me than physically smiling someone with blindness. That would be an easier thing in my mind. Now, whether you hear this today, Easter 2024 or at any other time, please take these words as a clarion call. Stop pretending you have more than you do. Stop pretending that you are more than you are. Turn 0:19:27 - 0:19:53 away from your satiation with so much less than what God intended. Turn toward him and hunger and thirst to learn more about him, turn to him and live up to everything he has already taught you about himself. Now, if you're religious, you got a whole pile of teachings about Him that you've already become 0:19:52 - 0:20:18 familiar with. If you're not, you have the voice of your conscience and the religious people need to learn that too. It's God's voice to you individually, your conscience as you obey it, it will grow stronger. The light will get brighter and brighter and you'll learn more about His will in your life 0:20:17 - 0:20:47 . You'll learn more about how he is and why he is that way. Stop siloing the instructions of the creator of heaven and earth into wrote rituals that you practice part time while neglecting his example and everything else in your life. Jesus didn't come to give you something to do on Sundays. He came 0:20:47 - 0:21:13 to do everything required so that you could be more like him because that is the way live. What you have sufficient reason to believe is best in all things and keep doing it as you learn what is better than what you presently know as you do. The value of what you find will keep increasing as will your 0:21:13 - 0:21:45 personal experience of everything recorded in scripture? You're not done. You don't have all the answers yet and you won't. It's a never ending path. I am a living witness of the living God. I certify to you from my own experience that you can know Him today and have the same relationship with him as 0:21:45 - 0:22:16 any of the ancients, including those who live with him daily. He wants you to be one with him as he is one with the father. He talks about that in John 17. That desire is the reason that he left glory that can't be described to come here and suffer a life of torment. He did it because he loves you. Look 0:22:16 - 0:22:39 towards his example and fulfill his desire for you to have greater joy in John 10. He said I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.