Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday
For some this is about the kids, finding eggs, getting candy and baskets, seeing the Easter Bunny. For some it is about family, getting together with loved ones or ones we are obligated to see because they are in our families. For some it is about extra days off school and work, maybe going somewhere nice or just kicking back and relaxing at home.

There are a select few that Easter is a reminder 2000 or so years ago a “Man” named Jesus rose from the dead. This claim bothers them so they are known as the skeptic. Unfortunately this type of person is not always comfortable with the fact that many people do believe the claims of the Bible and they want to disprove that it happened and although they can’t they are many times successful in confusing people and casting doubt because they are educated people.

For example this past week The Discovery Channel, History Channel and CNN all ran programs that cast doubt about the Biblical records and dismiss or cast doubt on the resurrection. I want to share portions of a Testimony of a man named Lee Strobel who felt this way about Jesus and the Resurrection.

A journalist and an admitted atheist, his wife became a Christian. Listen to what he said about it.

And so she came to me in the fall of 1973 and said, "Lee, I've made a big decision. I've become a follower of Jesus Christ." I thought this was the worst possible thing that could happen to our marriage. I thought we were going to get divorced. I felt like I'd married one Leslie and now she's changed into something else. I wasn't ready for that. I didn't want that. And I said, "Look, if you can't face life on your own two feet, if you have to put your faith in a book of mythology and bad history and make-believe, then you go ahead and do that. But, number one, don't give them any of our money, because that's what they're after; and, number two, don't try to get me to go because I'm too smart for that."
His wife consistently invited him out to church and he finally went, he enjoyed it and this is what he thought after service.
“ I was twenty-eight years old. I had never heard the word grace explained before in my life. I thought grace was something Christians said before a meal. He explained it. I thought that, number one: I don't believe it, I'm still an atheist; but, number two: if this is true, this has huge implications for my life.”
So he decided to take his legal training and his journalism training and investigate: is there any credibility to Christianity? And especially the resurrection?
After almost two years of research he came to this conclusion
On November 8, 1981 I gave my life to Christ. I thought maybe my wife would be interested in the fact that I just did this; so I thought I'd tell her. So I came out and was walking down the hallway and turned into our kitchen, and my wife was standing there with our daughter who was almost five; and our daughter was standing in front of her reaching up and touching the faucet, for the first time...that's how tall she was. And she said, "Daddy, look I can touch it. I can reach it." And I said, "Oh wow you're getting so big." And I gave her a hug, and she ran off; and I said to my wife, "That's how I feel! I feel for a year and nine months I've been reaching out and reaching out, and I just touched Jesus Christ. It's real and it's true, and I just gave my life to him." She started crying and said, "You hardhearted son-of-a-*&#, I've been telling you this for two years." And it had turned out that she had met some women in her church, and she told them about her husband who is a hard-hearted, hard-headed journalist that she didn't have much hope for, and they said we will pray this verse Ezekiel 36:26 It says more over, "I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. I'll remove your heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh." And she said, "I've been praying that every day for two years."

Because the resurrection of Christ was a big hang up for Lee and other skeptics, based on the Scriptures Lee Strobel came up with The Five E’s to support the resurrection.

Execution - John 19:33 Specifically tells us that when the soldiers came to break Jesus’ legs He was “already dead” so they pierced his side to make sure was dead “blood and water flowed out” if He was alive only blood would have flowed out

Empty Tomb – John 20:1-3 Mary Magdelene and some other women went to the tomb and it was empty. They though someone took his body.

Early Accounts – 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 This is a creed that the early church used that is dated as early as 2 years after the actual resurrection.

Eye Witnesses - 1 Corithians15:5-8 states over 500 people saw Jesus after He rose.

Emergence of the church- Acts 2:32 Peter preached to the crowd and stated that Jesus rose from the dead. 3000 people trusted in Jesus for forgiveness of sins. When Peter stated this people did not say “no He did not rise” they realized it was truth because it just happened.

Now that we have the evidence of the resurrection what does the resurrection do for us?

It tells us that Jesus speaks the truth
In Matthew 16:21, Matt 17:22-23 & 20:19 3 x He predicts that He will rise again.
So you can trust whatever we learn from Him.

It illustrates that we can have eternal life Matt 22:32 Jesus tells the Sadducees that “God is the God of the Living” there is a resurrected life for all who believe.

There is power in the resurrection Romans 1:3-4 This passage shows that Jesus has divine power. Jesus was able to declare He was the Son of God

There is hope for the sinner 1 Peter 1:3-4
Jesus can change even the most hopeless case. Share the Gospel

Remember our friend Lee Strobel lets look at what happened in his life.

“everything began to change so much so that my little daughter Alison had only known in her first five years a dad that was angry. I remember...so frustrated from work one day and I kicked the wall and I put my foot right through it, anger over life and frustration...that's all she knew of her dad. I'd come home drunk or I would come home angry and that's all she had known. And then five or six months after I became a Christian, having seen how God changed my attitudes and my life, she came up to my wife and said, "Mommy, I want God to do for me what he did for daddy." She gave her life to Christ at age five and now has graduated from college and is now in the ministry, trying to reach this generation for Christ.

Lee Strobel is now a teaching Pastor at a large Church in California and an apologetic author (defends the faith) and has wrote, The case for Christ, Creator and Faith

If you trust in Christ He can change your life. He has the power to put to death bad attitudes, deceitfulness, anger, gossip, depression, anxiety, dishonesty.

As believers in Christ many of you know this message but sometimes we grow callous to the change that God wants to make in our lives, what does the Bible say about that?

Eph 5:8-13
Vrs 8 Don’t fall back into old patterns and sinful ways in which you used to live.
Vrs 9-10 As a believer you are to search and find out what God desires from your life. It starts with the fruit of the Spirit, which if you come out to “The Five” you may know about our Got Fruit challenge. More info on the web
Vrs 11-12 Maybe you have been spending a little too much time with people who do not encourage your walk with God. Maybe you have been spending too much time watching, thinking about and talking about things that are not pleasing to God.
Vrs 13 Test those things that you are doing by the light of Jesus and His Word, what would He do in the situations that you are in.
Vrs 14 The resurrection is a call to live a life pleasing to God