Hunt, Dave: Week Of Meetings 02 ~ Matthew 1:22

Well, good evening. Uh, boy, we have a larger group tonight than in the morning. That's unusual. Most places you go, it's the other way around. I don't know the explanation, but anyway. Well, let's kind of recap a little bit of what we talked about this morning. Um, the organ began, uh, this morning with, um, Palm Sunday music. This is Palm Sunday. I don't know whether it's exactly Palm Sunday. Maybe it was last Sunday, maybe it's next Sunday. But anyway, uh, it's the day when our Lord rode into Jerusalem on that donkey, was hailed by the crowds, the mob lining the street as the Messiah. And we noticed this morning that it was a very special day. We noticed that in Matthew sixteen, for example, after Peter said, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus told his disciples, don't tell anyone who I am. A very strange statement, it would seem. And we noted that the reason was because he was not going to be known as the Messiah because fifty one percent of the Jews voted him in, or because his disciples had taken a salesmanship course and they were very persuasive and able to talk the Jews into believing it, but only provided he fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Testament. And we noted that the day that he wrote in was, uh, most amazing. I think it's the most amazing prophecy in scripture, uh, a fulfillment of, of this prophecy, because Daniel had said from the going forth of the command to rebuild Jerusalem, this is Daniel nine twenty five— until the coming of Messiah the Prince will be sixty nine weeks of years. And we went to Nehemiah, uh, sixty nine weeks of years, well, he said weeks, but we know it had to be weeks of years because nothing happened within sixty nine weeks, literal weeks. Uh, and we went to Nehemiah chapter two and we found the date of the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem. Nehemiah said it was in the month Nisan, and if you don't give the day of the month, then it means the first day of the month, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king. There were several Artaxerxes, but there was only one who ruled as long as twenty years. His name was Artaxerxes Longimanus, and the historians have very well established that he ruled from four sixty BC until twenty BC. Therefore, the twentieth year of his reign was four forty BC, so we have a date, Nisan first, four forty five BC. Don't say the Bible doesn't give dates, it does. Not the date of the rapture, I guarantee you that. From that date, Nisan first, four forty BC, four hundred and eighty years to the day, April seven. That's right. Thirty AD, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey. No wonder when the, the rabbis said, stop the crowd, the dis- your disciples, they're calling you the Messiah, this is blasphemy. No wonder Jesus said, listen, let me tell you something. If they don't say it, the stones will cry out, because today is day. The fulfillment, of course, of Zechariah nine verse nine, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Jerusalem, shout for joy, daughter of Zion, behold, your king cometh. He is just in having salvation. He is lowly in riding upon the colt of an ass. Well, we noted it was, uh, uh, a very special day for another reason. It was Nisan tenth, and that was the day that, well, why don't we turn quickly just to, uh, Exodus? I'm sure it's a scripture that you all know very well, but Exodus chapter twelve, Remember, verse two: This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers. And verse five, your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You will take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and you will keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. There's a lamb coming, and the Lamb of God, the one foretold when Abraham, uh, said to his son Isaac, God shall provide himself a lamb. The one whom John the Baptist hailed as, behold the Lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world. And this one would be killed by the congregation of Israel. He would come to his own, and his own would receive him not. They would cry away with him, crucify him. Amazing, the fulfillment of scripture. And he was to be kept, this lamb was to be kept for four days, from the tenth until the fourteenth. And we noticed that, that Jesus, uh, for example, uh, John eleven, I think ends, um, very close to the end, something like this. Jesus did no longer go into Jewry, into Judah, into Jerusalem, because the Jews sought to kill him, and they had, in fact, put a price on his head. The rabbis had said, if anybody knows where he is, tell us. And of course, it was in response to that, that Judas went to tell them where Jesus could be found. But he stayed away from Jerusalem, and then suddenly, on the tenth day of Nisan, the day that the lamb was to be taken out of the flock and presented to the people, Jesus comes, and he presents himself, and in fulfillment of the scriptures, they hail him as the Messiah. And now, instead of leaving and hiding out, uh, he stays around every day, day after day, he comes into Jerusalem, into the temple. And that was why I believe Judas, we noted that the rabbis said we're, we want to kill him, we want to take him, but not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people, uh, because there were thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of pilgrims there, very excitable, it was the Passover, and they had just hailed him as the Messiah. And the ra- this seemed to be the, the, the peak of his, of his popularity and his power, and the rabbis dare not touch him now. Wait till the pilgrims have been dispersed, wait till they go home, and then when it has quieted down, then we will take him. But the scripture said he must be crucified, he must be slain in on the fourteenth day of the month, at the very time that the Passover lambs are being slain. And so Judas comes to the rabbis, and he says, I don't know what's going on. He's been hiding out, he's been staying away, but suddenly here he comes to Jerusalem, and he's hanging around here, uh, uh, day after day, night after night, and I'll take you to the garden where there will be no one around, and you can take him in the absence of the mob, and you've got him. Now, I find it, let- let's go to Matthew. I find it so remarkable, and and I love the the word of God. It really excites me. There is no book like this. Man did not write it. It's inspired of God. And I find it so interesting that in spite of the rabbis, in spite of, for example, as we already mentioned, the fact that they said we won't take him on the feast day, he was taken on the feast day. And you remember what Peter said, uh, in his first sermon there on the day of Pentecost, him being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God. You have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain the Lord of glory. So it all had to happen according to the scriptures. I think of that pitiful, uh, figure of Judas. Uh, I don't know where the bidding began, whether they maybe offered him five pieces of silver, I don't know, ten, fifteen, and he bids it up, and finally he has his retirement nest egg, thirty pieces of silver. He has driven a hard bargain. He's so proud of himself, and he forgets, if he ever knew, and the rabbis have forgotten as well, that Zechariah said, God is speaking, and I said to them, if you think it well, count out my price. And God, I think, is speaking sarcastically. He says, and they counted out for me a goodly price that I was priced at, thirty pieces of silver for the Lord of glory. And I said, cast it down to the potter in the temple of the Lord. And so it happened, and Judas comes back and he casts it down, and they use it to buy a potter's field for bearing strangers. The fulfillment of scripture after scripture. We, we, uh, looked, well, I don't know that we looked at it. We quoted it very, very quickly from Romans chapter one, where Paul said that he is called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. The gospel of God, which he promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. The gospel is not an invention of Jesus or of the apostles. Christianity is not something new. And you talk to Buddhists or Hindus, and sometimes they will say that, well, Christianity is new, but our religion goes back, you know, far before the beginning, far before Christ ever came to this earth. Christianity goes back before Christ ever came to this earth. It was foretold by the prophets, and if Christianity is not the fulfillment of what the prophets said, then it is not the truth. It is not the gospel of God, because God laid out his gospel very clearly in the Old Testament, and through his prophets, he said who the Messiah would be, when he would come, and and all that would be accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection. And we have something very solid to stand upon. Now, notice, I just would just jump very quickly, uh, Matthew one twenty two, now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet. Uh, jump over to verse fifteen in chapter two, uh, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet. Verse 17, then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet. Verse twenty three, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. Uh, chapter four and verse fourteen, That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet. Uh, chapter eight, verse seventeen, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, and we could go on and on, and you know the the scriptures as well as I do. Turn to Luke chapter twenty four. We referred to this this morning, and these two on the road to Emmaus, you remember, they are so sad, um, and Jesus comes along and he asks them why, and they say, well, don't you know about Jesus of Nazareth? Prophet mighty indeed for God and all the people, and we thought that he was the Messiah, but he couldn't have been because they killed him. Amazing. They didn't know what the prophets had said, and Jesus rebukes them very sternly. I'm sometimes, uh, people say, you're very critical, you, uh, going around and saying this person doesn't teach sound doctrine and, and pointing out the errors of this person. I don't use language like Jesus did. He said, fools, fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Now, that's a very important statement. Uh, I sometimes have debates with Roman Catholic apologists, uh, and one of the things they try to tell us is that only the church, I mean, this is Vatican II, this is very clearly stated, only the church can interpret the Bible. You cannot interpret it for yourself. Even Augustine said, I wouldn't believe the gospel unless the church told me it was true. Incredible. But Psalm um one nineteen verse nine says, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word? You didn't have to be a rabbi, a young man, and the psalmist in Psalm one, he meditated in the word of God day and night, and the church, the Roman Catholic Church, certainly wasn't here to give us the Old Testament, yet they would claim that they gave us the Bible. Not true, not so. Now, unless the scriptures were readily available, were they readily available at this time? Of course they were. We read of Timothy, Paul says, from a child thou hast known the scriptures. So they must have been available, and who taught them to him? Some rabbi? No, he learned it from his mother and his grandmother. And unless the scriptures were readily available, Jesus would not have called them fools for not giving attendance to the scriptures, the Bereans, they searched the scriptures daily in, in, in Acts seventeen eleven to see whether what Paul said was true. What Paul said had to conform to the Old Testament scriptures, which they had. And notice what he says, fools and slow of heart to believe what? All, all that the prophets have spoken. We mentioned this morning John the Baptist. He even sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask, art thou he that should come, or look we for another? He asked the right question. He that should come. Well, someone has been promised. Well, how are you going to identify him when he comes? Well, you're going to have to know what was said, what the prophets have said. And John the Baptist, and Jesus says, no greater prophet has arisen born of women than John the Baptist. He didn't know the prophets. Isn't that amazing? It should speak to our hearts of the importance of knowing God's word. I give you one verse, which if John the Baptist had known it, it would have cleared the air for him. If the disciples had known it, if the rabbis had known it, it would have cleared the air for them. One simple verse. Daniel two forty four. You know, the ten toes are ten kings, and the scripture clearly says, you cannot misinterpret it. It says, in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven establish a kingdom that will never be moved. And there were not ten kings ruling the Roman Empire when Jesus was here. There never have been. It's one of the verses that tells us clearly that the Roman Empire must be revived under ten heads, under the Antichrist, of course. What was, what was John the Baptist's problem? Well, he basically, what he was saying was, I mean, I'm the man that introduced you to Israel, and when you rule on the throne of your father David, surely you're going to take the throne of your father David. That's what Gabriel said to Mary. That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God, and upon the throne of his father David I will establish his kingdom. Didn't it say in the Old Testament that of his kingdom and peace there will be no end? Surely, I- I mean, the promises in- in two Samuel seven, uh, the Psalms, uh, eighty nine and so forth. It says that David would have his son ruling on his throne. Now you're going to rule on the throne of your father David. I surely ought to be at least prime minister. I'm the man that introduced you to Israel, and look where I am. I'm in prison, and I'm about to get my head cut off. It doesn't compute. It doesn't make sense. And if you're going to rule on the throne of your father David, this man who has me in prison, Herod the King, you're going to have to displace him, and I don't think you have the power. He's got the armies, the soldiers, and you have nothing. He didn't understand. And when the rabbis put Christ on the cross, they mocked him, and they said, if you're the Messiah, what are you doing up there? Prove you're the Messiah by coming down. They didn't know the scriptures said that he must be crucified. Amazing. And every scripture was fulfilled, scripture after scripture after scripture. And notice what Jesus says, verse... Well, the first thing he says, verse twenty six, goes to the heart of their doubt. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? Don't you understand? He had to suffer, he had to die, he had to be rejected and rise again. When Jesus said in John fourteen, I'm going to go away and prepare a place for you. Now that brings great comfort to us. He's gone away, and we're looking for him to return. It didn't bring comfort to the disciples. It brought confusion. They didn't understand. What do you mean, Lord, you're going away? You know what they were continually arguing about, who would be on his right hand and who would be on his left, and and they would be on twelve thrones ruling the twelve tribes of Israel along with him, and who would be the greatest in the kingdom. This is what there's on their heart, what they're arguing about. And Lord, you're going to go away. We thought, I mean, they just hailed you as the Messiah. It's the peak of your popularity. Surely this is the time when you will take the throne. And they couldn't understand that he had to die. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter in his glory? And that was the heart of what Paul preached, remember? We referred to it this morning, Acts seventeen. He went into the synagogue and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening their own scriptures and proving to them from the scriptures that what? Christ must needs have suffered. That was what they couldn't understand. That's what the Jews c- can't understand today. You talk to Jewish people today, why don't you believe Jesus was the Messiah? Well, he didn't establish peace. He didn't establish his kingdom. He couldn't have been the Messiah. Ah, yes, he fulfilled the scriptures precisely. And notice when he comes, well, verse twenty seven, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures. So all the scriptures were available. They should have been known to these people. He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And then verse forty four, he appears to the eleven uh, after he's made himself known to the two on the, in Emmaus, and these are the words, and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. All things must be fulfilled. Now, we mentioned this morning that, uh, I think we did. I don't remember whether it was talking to someone at lunch or whether it was from the platform here. At my age, you can't remember things anymore, you know? Uh, but, um, here Jesus is hailed as the Messiah. The rabbis are afraid to take him. Who could have imagined standing among that crowd that day? Who could have imagined that the tide of opinion would swing so far that in four days the same people would be crying, away with him, away with him. Amazing. In fulfillment of scriptures. I said four days because the lamb was kept from the tenth until the fourteenth, and in the evening of the fourteenth. it had to be slain. That's Thursday. Many people are going to be celebrating Good Friday. Don't do it. He was not crucified on Friday. Look, I'm not, I want to open the scriptures. We want to look at the scriptures together, but I'm not saying this to try to bring you some new idea. I'm sure it's not new to most of you, or to split theological hairs, or to try to prove a point, but what did Jesus say? All things, all things that were written in the law, in the Moses, in the prophets concerning me must be fulfilled. And what was one of those things? Jesus said, as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so the Son of Man must be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And counting from a Friday afternoon crucifixion till a Sunday morning resurrection, you can't get three days and three nights. Now I'll tell you how they did it. Well, the day begins at sunset, and it ends at sunset, and you can take part of a day, so from Thursday sunset till Friday sunset is one day, and then from Friday sunset till Saturday sunset is day number two, and from Saturday sunset till whenever, when he arises in the morning, is a third day, but you don't have three nights. Not only does it say in the book of Jonah that he was in the whale's belly three days and three nights, but Jesus specifies precisely the same. And you've got one night Friday night, two nights Saturday night, and you don't have another night. In fact, you don't even have three days. Now, turn to John chapter thirteen. Jesus, and you don't have to agree with me on any of this, but Jesus did not eat the Passover, that Last Supper. Why? He's the Passover lamb. It was the evening before when he ate the Passover. Let me show you, chapter thirteen, verse one: Now, before the feast of the Passover, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, and so forth, the supper being ended. Uh, verse twenty seven: and after the sop, Satan entered into him, then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto them, for some of them thought because Judas had the bag, that Jesus said unto him, buy those things that we have need of against the feast. Now wait a minute. If this was the Passover, you see, in the evening, that is before sunset, the Passover lamb was slain. Then it had to be skinned and cleaned and roasted, and that night they ate it roast with fire. And that began a seven-day feast, the feast of the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread. And you remember it very clearly tells us, uh, several times in the scriptures that the first day and the seventh day were Sabbath, right? In which you did nothing. If this was the Passover, then Judas could not go out and buy anything because all the stores are closed. Go to Israel today, and you watch the Orthodox hustling, hurrying to get away from the, from the Western Wall when the sun begins to go down before the chauffeur sounds and getting in their taxis or their cars. And if you're staying in Israel and you're staying in a hotel, they have even a Shabbat elevator, so you don't even have to push the button. It stops at every floor, so you don't do anything. And Judas wouldn't be going out and buying anything if this was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, if you turn to John eighteen, Verse fourteen, Well, then why would people come up with, first of all, why would people come up with a Friday crucifixion? Because it says the next day is the Sabbath. Well, then it's got to be Friday. No, no, wait a minute. Verse thirty one, The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was an high day. Oh, it was a special Sabbath. Indeed it was, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and only once in every seven years would that day land on a Saturday. It could be a Thursday, it could be a Tuesday, uh, it could be a Wednesday, but this year it happened to be a Thursday. So you have the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is a Sabbath, then you have the Friday Sabbath, which follows through Saturday evening, so the women could not get, uh, to the grave until, uh, Sunday morning. Verse fourteen, It was the preparation. I read some writers, and they say, well, of course it was the preparation, and and each of the gospels say it was the preparation, and they say, well, they were preparing for the Sabbath. No, it tells us what they were preparing for here specifically. It was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. Verse, go back to verse thirty one again. I'm sorry, we want to go back to verse twenty eight of chapter eighteen. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment, and it was early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. They haven't eaten the Passover yet. This is the morning after the Last Supper. Jesus has been taken, and he's now brought before Pilate, and yet nobody has eaten the Passover yet. Well, then why did Jesus say, with desire, Luke uh twenty two, with desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer? Well, the... the day of preparation began the evening before, and that was when he said, go into the village, and you will follow a man bearing a pitcher of water, and he will show you an upper room there. There make ready. They began a full day's preparation. It was a long process preparing for the Passover. Nothing more natural than that they should eat supper that evening in the place that they already had. And when he's talking about eating the Passover, they think he means the one they're going to partake in that place the following evening. And Jesus is talking about something new. He is the Passover lamb. He is the fulfillment. He's not memorializing this Passover from the past that is for Jews only, but he is instituting a new feast, and we had this remembrance this morning, that he is the lamb of God who will bear away the sins of the world, that he will die, and that there will be a new remembrance, not once a year for those who have only been led out of Egypt, but every week, the day of his resurrection. Those who have come to be children of God through faith in him as the Lamb of God who died to bear away their sins. If you go to... just one other little piece of evidence here for you. If you go to, um, John twelve, then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany. Now, if you follow his footsteps, he was quite a long ways from Bethany, and he is coming back to Bethany. Now let's take a Friday crucifixion and count back six days. Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Monday, Sunday, Saturday. Wait a minute. He doesn't make a trip like that on the Sabbath. But counting back from a Thursday crucifixion, Wednesday, Tuesday, Monday, Sunday, uh, Saturday, and then, uh, Friday. six days before the feast, he, before the Passover, he makes this trip into Bethany, and he is there Fri- by Friday evening before the Passover, before the Sabbath begins. And then it proceeds from there. That Sunday, he rides into Jerusalem on that donkey. Why, why do I go into the details of this? Because Jesus said everything that has been written in the law of Moses, in the Psalms, in the prophets concerning me must be fulfilled. And he said he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, just as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly. The scripture had to be fulfilled, and I... may some of you remember, uh, some years ago, quite a few years ago now, um, someone wrote a book, uh, called The Passover Plot. Maybe you remember it, and they made a movie out of it. And the plot of The Passover Plot was that Jesus knew the prophecies, he knew what the prophets had said, and that he and Judas conspired to fulfill it. Well, we got some problems with that. First of all, how do you conspire to be born in Bethlehem? Uh, that's not gonna work. Uh, furthermore, how did Jesus know who would be on duty, what Roman soldiers would be on duty that day at his cross, so that he could get them to crucify him between two thieves, in fulfillment of the scripture that he made his grave with the wicked, so that he could pay them off ahead of time, so that they would part his garments among them, and they would gamble for his vesture. So that when he cried, I thirst, they would give him vinegar mingled with gall, exactly as it says in Psalm sixty nine verse twenty. So that instead of breaking his legs, as they always did to those who were crucified, they would pierce his side with a spear in fulfillment. Psalm twenty two, they pierced my hands and my feet. But Zechariah is speaking of the crucifixion, but Zechariah It's it's the same Hebrew word that is used when it says Saul fell upon his sword on Mount Gilboa. It's a piercing to the death. And Zechariah twelve ten says they will look on me whom they have pierced, a resurrected man who is God, who is Yahweh, whom they have crucified, will intervene in the midst of Armageddon, and they will recognize him at last and repent for all the centuries of rejection of their Messiah. And that scripture had to be fulfilled as well. And furthermore, you know that Exodus twelve says, a bone of him shall not be broken. And the Psalms said that as well. They couldn't break his legs. How could Jesus pay these people off ahead of time? And furthermore, are you going to get yourself crucified just to convince a rabble group of ex-fishermen and tax collectors and so forth you can't get anything through their head anyway? You tell them you're going to be crucified, you tell them you're going to rise from the dead, and they still don't get it. And they don't seem to understand what the scriptures have said, and you're going to get crucified just to convince them. And then how are you going to rise from the dead? Because that is the key prophecy that Peter referred to on the day of Pentecost, that he should not see corruption, but he has been raised. You know, we, we had the remembrance of the Lord this morning, and that is spoken of in, uh, First Corinthians chapter eleven. We have a very interesting proof there of the resurrection. Now, we could talk about the resurrection, we could prove the resurrection, and our, our clock has almost come to an end here. Uh, and you know the arguments. There is no doubt that Jesus rose from the dead. We have historic evidence for this. I think of Simon Greenleaf, for example, who was one of the founders of the Harvard School of Law, and in his day, Greenleaf on evidence was quoted by the Supreme Court, and if you study law today, you will study Greenleaf on evidence. What evidence do you introduce in court? How do you examine this to arrive at a just and a sound conclusion? And he was an agnostic, and one day he was challenged by some students in one of his classes. They said, Doctor Greenleaf, there's never been a man that walked the face of this earth that made such incredible claims as Jesus of Nazareth. Now, why don't you use your know-how? You're the greatest ex- authority on evidence. Why don't you use your know-how to examine the evidence to see whether what he said was true or false? And Simon Greenlee spent several months examining, and he reported back to his class something like this. He said, I've carefully examined the claims of Jesus of Nazareth, just as I would examine evidence introduced in court, sworn testimony introduced in court, and I can tell you, based upon the evidence, there is no question about it. He is who he claimed to be. He is God who became a man to die in our place, and furthermore, he rose from the dead. You can't deny his resurrection. But Simon Greenleaf said, we have empirical evidence right up to date today, because before, after he rose from the dead, he made a promise. He said, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. And Greenlee said, I took him at his word. He came in, he changed my life. He did for me what I couldn't do for myself. We have all kinds of arguments. The tomb was empty. Jesus, you remember, it's so, I love this book, the Bible, I tell you. It's exciting. Jesus didn't say, now let me tell you something, guys. I want you to go down to the tip of South Africa and way off to Siberia, and you tell them I rose from the dead because they can't check up on it over there. Jesus said, I want you to begin in Jerusalem, and you tell them that I'm alive in Jerusalem, and if they don't believe it, let them go to the grave, and they'll see that it's empty. And if the rabbis or or the Romans could have put the body of Jesus on display, they would have done it. And they couldn't because these people were starting a revolution, and the way to stop it would be to prove that he was dead. The grave is empty. Somebody said Buddha's grave occupied, Muhammad's grave occupied, Jesus' grave empty. Why follow a loser? The grave is empty. You can't deny it. And of course, the Apostle Paul has given us the great evidence. Here is a popular young rabbi. He is the chief enemy of the church. He hates Christians. He has them arrested, imprisoned, and slain. And he is going to Damascus with authority from the chief priests to do the same there, and suddenly something happens, and the next you see of him, he's a Christian, and the Christians are afraid of him. They think he's a spy. They can't believe it. It's so amazing. Paul, why would you give up everything you had and become one of these persecuted people, and you know you're going to be beaten and persecuted and imprisoned and stoned? You're going to be put to death like they are. Why? And Paul says, and you know his testimony, I met him. He's alive. On the road to him, to uh, Damascus, he arrested me. Well, most apologists end. That's not the end. That's not proof. That's not sufficient evidence. Paul could have been hallucinating. He was sincere. That proves he was sincere. That proves he really thought he saw Jesus, but it doesn't prove that he saw Jesus. Now, how can we prove that he really saw Jesus, that he met the resurrected Lord? We have the proof in one of the, your favorite verses as you meet, it's often read as you meet to remember the Lord, his death, a- a- and, and burial and resurrection. First Corinthians eleven twenty three, For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and so forth. Did you ever wonder, did you ever ask yourself, why didn't the Holy Spirit inspire Peter or James or John to tell us about this? They were there. Paul wasn't there. How did he know? And this one, you know, I'm a certified public accountant. I haven't practiced it for many years. I know what it means to certify something. And Paul in Galatians chapter one says, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel that I preach is not of man. I neither received it from man, neither was I taught it. He said, I didn't go up to those who were apostles before me. I didn't sit at the feet of Peter and say, now, what did Jesus teach you? I went into Arabia, and suddenly this man who didn't know Christ at that time, who was not with the disciples who were studying under Jesus, he becomes the chief enemy, becomes the chief authority, and he is able to rebuke Peter, and Peter has to acknowledge that he's right, and the apostles have to acknowledge that Paul knows even some things they didn't know, and he has had revealed to him from Christ himself. We have absolute evidence. No one can deny it. Jesus is. He died for our sins. He's who he claimed to be. I love this book. It's fantastic. Well, we haven't even had a chance to look into it yet. I, I love a song, and I would just like to end with this, and I wish I could sing it. I wish I were a soloist and I could sing it beautifully. But some of you would remember it just has two verses, and I think it expresses very well what we've been talking about tonight. Many years have come and gone, you remember that one? Since he walked upon this ground. They say lies don't last so long, so why is this story hanging around? And why do people stop and pray to a man who's dead and gone? When I ask them, they just say, he's coming back to take me home. And you know the chorus, anybody here want to live forever? Say, I do. And I remember one evening we were, we had a large group, and and I had sat down with a guru and some of his disciples in order to keep them under control and talk to them during the dinner. And then there was a gospel message by an ex-guru, uh, who came to Christ, and they sang this hymn, and one of these young men that had been sitting beside me, dressed in his robes and all, as they said, anybody here want to live forever, say I do. He said, I do, I do. And he came to Christ that night. Anybody here want to walk on streets of gold? Say I do. Anybody here that's tired of living like you do? Anybody here want a home with love forever? Say I do. And then the last, second and last verse, I think, and they say, you'll never know till you walk up to that man and you look into his eyes of love and touch those nail scars in his hand. And then if you can walk away knowing all he died to do, that's when I'll just have to say, I guess he didn't die for you, but he did. He died for all. I'm not a Calvinist. When it says he died for all, when it says he's not willing any should perish, when it says the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, I believe it. He died for all, but it's up to you to respond, to receive him or reject him. Anybody here want to live forever? Say I do. Anybody here want to walk on streets of gold? Say I do. Anybody here that's sick and tired of living like you do? Anybody here want a home with love forever? Say I do. It's that simple. Let's bow in prayer. And I don't know the audience tonight, and I'm going to pray a simple prayer. Some of you here, uh, remember Henry Peterson, my father in the faith. And many years ago, uh, over fifty-some some years ago, he led me to Christ. Through that verse, if you hear my voice, I'm knocking, open the door, and I'll come in. I want to just pray a simple prayer like I prayed that night, and you could pray this prayer if you've never met Christ. You don't have to pray it out loud, you don't have to raise your hand, you don't have to come forward, you're not praying to me, you're not doing business with me, you're doing business with God himself. And you could say in your heart to him, Lord Jesus, I believe that you are who you claim to be. I believe that you are God who became a man. You never cease to be God, you'll never cease to be man, you're the one and only God man. And you came to this earth, the Lamb of God, sinless, spotless, to die in my place, to pay the debt for my sins that I could never pay. Thank you, Lord Jesus. I confess I'm a sinner, and I thank you for dying in my place, and I believe that you rose from the dead. You are alive, seeking an entrance into my heart. And now, Lord, by an act of my will, as best I know how, Lord, in response to your promise, I open the door in my heart. Come in. I receive you as my savior. I receive you as my Lord and master. Cleanse me from sin, live your life through me, and make me the person you want me to be. I put myself in your hands as my savior now and for all eternity. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming into my heart. Lord, for anyone who prayed that prayer tonight, they may have felt you come in, they may have felt nothing. I ask that they would not rely upon feelings, but upon your promise. You made a promise, and if they responded sincerely to you, you fulfilled your promise to them. I pray that they will get to know you, that they will talk with you in prayer, that they will read your word, they will fellowship with those who know of you, and they will begin to witness for you. And for all of us, Lord, I pray that you will help us to be vibrant, living, loving testimonies and witnesses for Jesus Christ through your word, showing that he has fulfilled the scriptures, what the prophets have said. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.