Easter 2024

Again, that's my title. Not "Just Another Sunday." This isn't just another Sunday. This wasn't just another day at the beginning of the week for the people who experienced the resurrection. And I'm convinced there are many people in here who—you're here for a reason. I mean, maybe you came here 'cause family invited you today, and there's not like a deeper reason.

But some of you, you came today because it's your last straw. You're like, "I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna go on Easter, because maybe the Lord will speak to me and he'll pull me right out of the very things that I'm frustrated with or struggling with in my life." You came here for a reason. And if you came here just because it was Easter, I hope to convince you today that this is not just another Sunday morning that you chose to come into because it was Easter, but that if you lean in a little bit, the Lord can actually speak to you in ways that can change every aspect of your being, that can root you out of some of those deeply rooted struggles that you've had for year after year after year. God, by the power of His Son that we see in the resurrection from the grave, can break generational curses. But I get it, because many of you, including myself in a lot of ways, we've become disenchanted with church.

We become disenchanted with, you know, the people that say they go to church. We become disenchanted with all of these things that have to do with religion, because we had high hopes one time and one day they all came crashing down. And 2,000 years ago, the day that we see Jesus was resurrected, the way it began, it was a whole lot of crashed hopes for Jesus's disciples. Because I know a lot of us look back and we're like, "Oh yeah, Jesus is the only one who rose from the grave, " we agree with this. But Jesus wasn't the only would-be Messiah or savior that had come at that point.

There are a lot of examples in history who came to try to restore Israel—this is the nation that Jesus was brought up in, right, the Jewish nation of Israel. They had tried to bring it back up. There were a lot of those people. I'll give you a couple examples. You got this guy—and I'm going to step to the side here for a second.

I feel like it's helpful to talk about history. Like, the whole Bible is history, but I think it's helpful to talk about a little history. But I also know it's 9:30 in the morning, so don't let me lose you, but I'm going to talk about a couple things. There were a couple people way back in the day. It was a guy named Judas of Galilee.

This guy started what they call the fourth philosophy way back then, called the Zealots. Now, what the Zealots believed is that they were going to restore Israel to its proper place by rebelling against the Roman Empire. You heard of the Roman Empire? It was pretty big, right? And these Zealots, down up in Galilee—it's a very small sect of people—and they believed that they were going to restore Israel to its proper place.

And there was a guy named Judas of Galilee. He was a Zealot, and he started fighting back against the Romans. It was a small group, but they had heart. And what happened is he failed. He tried and he failed.

There's another guy named Simon of Perea. He was the slave king of King Herod. He—it was a Roman—he was tall. The text tells us that he was superior to all the other people around him. He had tons of responsibility, even as a slave.

And then, what he did—when he got real excited, he burned down royal palaces of the Romans. Frustrated him. And shortly after, he had his head cut off by the Roman legion and the leader Gratus during that time. He was cocky though—like, he even put a crown on his head. They called him "the slave king, " and a lot of people thought he would be the Messiah, but nope, got his head cut off.

Then there was a guy—it's a weird name—Athronges. He's very similar to Simon of Perea. He came under another leader and he met the same fate as these other guys that I talked about. He got killed. He died.

You might find it strange or interesting to know that all three of these people happened around the time that Jesus was growing up. So when Jesus comes in and he starts developing followers, and he's teaching and he's performing miracles, there are a lot of people who look at Jesus and they are pumped. They're like, "This is going to be the Messiah." Even Peter, Simon Peter, the guy most of us know about or have heard about, because he's the disciple we know most about, he's like, "You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, " early in Jesus's ministry. But then Jesus ticks off a bunch of Pharisees and Sadducees, but then the Romans flog him, and then the Romans crucify him, and he's dead. And here's what the text tells us at the beginning of this passage I want to read to you today.

If you have your Bibles, you can open to Luke chapter 24, and we're going to start in verse 1. And it says this: "On the first day of the week"—this is right after his resurrection, or his crucifixion—"very early in the morning, the women"—we find out in the other gospels, that, or later in this Gospel, that it was Mary, you know, mother of Jesus, it was Mary Magdalene, and a few other people—"took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb."

Luke 24 · chapter mention

For them, I'm going to be honest with you, like if I was one of them, I think I would be in the same boat. I think many of you might be in the same boat, where you think this morning is just another morning, that today is just another day, that this is just another text, that this is just another Easter. This is where these women were. They were in this place where they knew about Judas of Galilee, they knew about Simon of Perea, they knew about Athronges, they knew about all of these people.

And Jesus—he had risen into fame, but then he was crucified and he died. And it says early in the morning, at the beginning of the week, they brought spices. You know what spices signified? They brought spices—usually spices were utilized to kind of anoint the body, to prevent, because after day three you're starting to get a little, you know, stiff, if you're a dead body—you know what I'm saying? And so they brought spices, because they thought he was alive, or because they thought he was dead.

For them, their hopes—they had been lifted high, but they had come crashing down. And I think you can identify with this, because you went to church way—when you were younger, and you had high hopes about what it would provide for you, but then they came crashing down. You started hanging out with a group of people who believed in Jesus, but then one of them messed up one day or did something they never should have done, and your hopes—your high hopes for this faith—came crashing down. Maybe you were just bored too many years in a row at church, and your hopes, they came crashing down. This is where they are.

They think he's dead. He told them that he's going to rise from the grave, but they're seeing that he died. And who they thought would be the Messiah—to them, at this point, is just another dead would-be Messiah. But my first point is this: this is not just another morning. Not just another morning.

We know what happens in this text, kind of—even if you don't know what this text says, you know, you know what I mean, you kind of know what happens, right? Shake your head if you kind of know what happens. I've already told you, like, ten times today—you came here on purpose, for a reason. Today, you kind of know what happens. But they didn't know what happened.

And they said, on the first day of the week, very early, very early in the morning, the women took spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. For them, it was just another morning, just another would-be Messiah, and their hopes were all brought down low. But this Monday—or Sunday—for them, would be different. And this Sunday can be different for you. In fact, if you tell yourself right now—you might tell yourself that you might need to close your eyes so you're not looking at the person next to you, or seeing the person's back of their head—maybe they got perfect hair, maybe they have better hair than you, and you're insecure about how your hair is receding, kind of like mine up here, I don't know—but you might need to close your eyes and tell yourself this: this Easter is a game changer, because this is not just another morning.

God can speak directly to you and change everything about you. This is not just another morning. The Bible actually tells us that his mercies are made new every single morning. And so if you go to God right now and say, "God, change me from the inside out. God, show me something today"—I believe that if you ask God to reveal himself to you, he does it.

It might be through the word, it might be through one of the random things I say, it might be through the worship, it might be through what someone says to you. But if you ask the Lord to reveal himself to you today, this doesn't have to be just another morning. It can be something different than you've ever experienced before. Just ask him. Just ask him.

But the text continues. It says, in verse 2, Luke 24, it says: "They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And while they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen.'"

Now picture this moment.

Picture this moment. Can you imagine being these women, going to the tomb? I don't know what they were thinking. They brought spices, but they knew the stone was in front of it. Did they think these three women were going to move this heavy stone?

I don't know if they had fully thought through it. Maybe they were—maybe they were just mourning in grief. They had spent a long time in the Sabbath, which was the day before, hanging out. Maybe they stayed up too late, woke up, said, "We're going to bring spices today. We haven't really thought through this plan.

We're probably just going to set them outside the tomb." I don't know how they were going to anoint this body when there's a tomb. Maybe they're going to ask the Roman who stands there and guards the tomb to roll it away for them. I don't know how they were going to put the spices on Jesus's body, but they knew he was dead. But I want to tell you what I think is helpful for them today. We don't come to church just to celebrate another funeral.

In fact, my second point is: not just another funeral. And for them, they thought it was going to be a place where they continued to extend the funeral, where they brought spices, anointed his body, prayed, wept, spent the rest of the week in mourning, maybe fasting and simply lamenting someone who was dead. And I think, in church, a lot of times—you know what I'm talking about—a lot of times we treat church like a funeral. I made a joke with someone this morning, I said, "Man, why is everybody coming in with their Easter best dress, as if they're going to a funeral?" There was nobody—anyways, I'm not saying you—you dress nice today, that's great, I'm proud of you. I even dressed a little bit nice, my wife bought me a shirt with flowers on it, I guess graves into gardens, I don't know how it works, but I dressed up too.

But sometimes—and maybe this is how you grew up, it's kind of how I grew up—when we come to church, it's almost like we forgot that there's power that comes with the recognition that Jesus rose from the grave. It's like we're going to just another funeral. And I don't want you to raise your hand on this, because you're in church right now, and I don't want to bring that into the space. But some of you, if I were to ask you about church, all you're going to think is boring. You act like—and a lot of people come, they act like they're going to a funeral.

And I know you've got to revere your creator, there's got to be honor and reverence toward your Father in Heaven, right? You got to be respectful. I don't want to stand up here and just say a whole bunch of inappropriate things. I don't want you to say a bunch of inappropriate things. I get it, you have got to—you got to have the fear of God on you a little bit.

But you would think that if we serve a resurrected Messiah, that we would come in here with a little bit more excitement than we do. We come in here—I know we just woke up, and I know you haven't had your coffee yet—but if you serve a risen savior, you would think you would come in and you wouldn't act like it's just another funeral, but it would be more like a party, you know? Right? Like, yeah, see, that's how to get you to clap. Say, "You're boring, you're coming in here like it's a funeral." This is not just another funeral.

He's not dead. There's no body, there's no barrier, because there's nobody. This is a party, this is cool. That's why I'm standing up here, I'm pumped, I'm excited. I'm trying to lead the culture to where we don't come in here and, like, I know—men, I'm talking too fast, I know, I know, men, it's like music, it's not your thing for some of you, I get it.

It was my thing for years. I used to be tone deaf, but the Lord changed that in me, praise the Lord, because it used to be real bad. Maybe, maybe music's not your thing. I'm not saying you got to be shouting, raising your hands, jumping up and down, doing all that other stuff, but intellectually, mentally, you've got to come in here and recognize that we're not just serving and worshiping someone who is dead—that's for other religions to do. Us, we serve a risen Savior.

So when we come in here, we've got to recognize that it's what Paul says: we are being made alive in Christ Jesus if we have trusted in Him. We're not staying dead, we're not staying stagnant. In fact, we're supposed to—I don't know—we're supposed to get excited once in a while. I'm not saying to get buck wild and rowdy, but I'm saying if you did, I wouldn't complain about it, unless you like punched me or something like that. Like, y'all go to raves, so y'all, maybe y'all don't, I don't know—this is Buckeye, maybe people go to Phoenix and do that—but y'all go to football games.

I've seen how y'all act at football games. It's a whole day that you spend, you got a tailgate, and then you go to the football game, and some of y'all are crazy enough, or in shape enough, to take off your shirts and paint yourself up, and then you get super excited about the Cardinals. You know, like, I love them, I love them, Kyler Murray is great, he's the nicest guy ever, but you get excited, you get pumped, you make a whole day out of it. But church is like—I don't know—people, people getting up and throwing pigskin, who get paid a lot of money to do so, doesn't it pale in comparison to the idea of a Savior who beat the one thing that we all have to deal with in life, which is death? So that's why I like to get excited in here, because this isn't just another funeral.

And these women, they show up and they see that the stone's rolled away, and I bet they're slightly confused. I mean, wouldn't you be slightly confused? But you'd be logical, right? You wouldn't immediately think that, you know, someone in the sky just pulled them out. You wouldn't immediately think that.

So these women are like, "Oh, it says they're confused, what happened, how did this stone get rolled away?" In fact, no one ever talks about the centurion, or the Roman soldiers, that's standing there. So he must have been out on the dodge or hanging out or partying the night before and sleeping in late. I don't, I don't know where he is, but the stone's rolled away, and I would imagine that they thought something logical, like someone stole the body. It's like God almost knew that we fall into our logic rather than taking faith leaps. And so He sent two men robed in white—this is, this is how the text translates, I know we think that they're angels, but it just says two men robed in white—but their response would indicate to me that they're just not just normal men robed in white.

The women get scared and they start bowing down. Now, I don't know everything about history, but if these women saw two men robed in white and they got scared enough to bow down, maybe these men looked a little different than normal, maybe they were angelic, and God sent them on purpose because He knew their logic would get in the way of their faith leaps. And so the men tell the women, they say, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" And I have a question for you: if Jesus is living, why does that not change every aspect of your life? Why does it keep you the same? Why do you fall into the same habits and patterns?

They say, "Why are you looking for the living among the dead?" And I think the problem is, many people will go to church, but they continue this pursuit of looking for the things that would give them life among the things that only bring them death. I mean, how many of you—you're trying to redeem your marriage, but you're going to all the people who don't give good marriage advice. I'm trying to be nice here today. Or maybe you go to someone whose marriage didn't work out—I'm not saying they can't give good advice—I'm saying, wouldn't you think you will go to a place where you can find information that is helpful, rather than consistently to the place that, you know, never brings you good advice? Why would you go to the person who's hurt you ten times over?

I know it's comfortable, I know it's natural, I know they might be blood relatives, but wouldn't you think that if you want to have life abundantly, you go somewhere that's going to give you results that bring life to you? Why are you looking for the things that bring you life among the things that only brought death? And I could go into the crazy stuff, but you've been trying to feel better about the world, but you surrounded yourself with negative people. You've been trying to find peace, but you kept yourself so busy you can't even have time to think. You've been looking for purpose, but you're choosing the things that are pointless.

You're stuck in this scroll, whether it's Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, whatever it might be for you—it might be shopping on Amazon, whatever it is—you've been stuck in the scroll, but you need to open up God's Word, a holy scroll, and what you would find is that if you look for the living things among the things that bring people life, that you'll find life, abundant life, eternal life, and it will bless you. I—I know I still struggle. I go to all the wrong people to get advice, and it turns out to be wrong, and I'm like, "Why did I go to those people for that advice?" And then the Lord convicts me to go to Him for advice, but it's less tangible. I got to read God's Word, I got to spend time talking to God in heaven, rather than go call up that person that is just fun to talk to, that will let me vent and never make me better. I didn't know I was going to go there today, I really didn't.

But why are you looking for the living among the dead? This is what happened for the women, and I bet they were pretty frustrated with this response. He's like, "No, we saw Him die, dude—or dudes, I mean holy dudes, I mean dudes robed in white—we saw Him die, and He says He's not here, He is risen." Stop seeking life among the things that bring you death. And you might have come today thinking it was just going to be a boring, boring funeral dirge, but I hope that you leave here feeling like God's spirit spoke directly to you, and you can walk out and start moving away from the things that have made you discontent, frustrated, and depressed, or dysfunctional. And here's the second point—within that, I'm scared to say this, but can I have permission to say it?

Yes, yes, yes, okay. Some of y'all have been looking dead among the living, and I want to be clear about that, because one of the problems that I struggle with is, I know a lot of people have been going to church their whole life, their whole life, but it ain't changed anything about them. And I said, if you don't know me, I'm from Arkansas originally—you're going to hear y'all and ain't once in a while, it's going to be okay—, but you've been looking dead among the living. And if Jesus rose from the grave, if you trusted in Him with your life, and if you believe this stuff enough to show up at church week in, week out, then allow Him to shape you, allow Him to mold you and make you into His masterpiece, so that when you go out there, the people that look at you aren't like, "You're the same as everybody else, bro." Sis, you're the exact same—why, why would I believe in what you believe in, if it hadn't changed anything about you? I can promise you that these women, when they leave the tomb, they're going to go back and something is going to be different about them.

And if you believe this—it is, it is crazy for me to believe, 'cause, 'cause if Jesus didn't rise from the grave, I can promise you I will be standing right here—not just because, the occupation would be fairly, you know, limited, you know what I'm saying, not just because it would be limited, because, you know, we wouldn't follow Jesus anymore, but because logically it wouldn't make sense to me. If He didn't do anything like that, then why would I continue to follow for the rest of my life? Why would the disciples have given their lives for this faith? It's because—it's because all of them—it's because so many people in here believe that 2,000 years ago He died and didn't stay dead. So it changes the way that we operate.

So when I go out into the world, when I hang out with my family members, when I proclaim Jesus to the rest of the people in my life, I do my best, I fail, we're all going to fail. I'm not saying to be perfect, but man, I'm trying to allow God to shape me and change me, so that when other people look at me—well, so that I know God—but when other people look at me, they're going to say, "That, wouldn't you, bro, you didn't just get your habits straight, something happened that no one can really explain." And that was my friend, four, five, six, twenty—I don't know, it depends on the friend—years after I trusted in Jesus, they're like, "Whoa, something happened for you, you were walking around like a chicken with your head cut off, but now it looks like the Lord got a hold of you." I don't know how it happened, it just did. I allowed God to have every part of me, and I want to encourage you to allow God to have every part of you. So this is not just another funeral. Third point: this is not just any other miracle.

It's not just any other miracle, because Jesus performed a bunch of miracles, but I bet people could push back against those things. There were other people in the Bible even who had performed miracles, but Jesus beat death. Jesus rose from the grave. And if Jesus was raised, that puts a death blow into death itself. What does that mean?

It means that you are not limited at all to the things that are natural in your life. What does that mean? It means that you've got these addictions—we've all got addictions, it doesn't always have to be the drugs and alcohol addiction—you know, some of y'all got porn addictions, some of y'all have emotional affairs with people outside your marriage, some of you guys are stepping into continual gossip, some of you guys have, you know, have shopping addictions, you have any number of addictions—I don't want to leave anybody out right now, because I'm addicted to TikTok once in a while, it's terrible, I hate that about myself, I also like TikTok, so I got to figure this life out. We've all got things that we naturally gear toward in our lives, and what that is for you is different than another person, but here's how this applies to every single one in this room: if Jesus rose from the grave, and you have trusted in Jesus, what that means is you are not stuck or stationed in the thing that you feel stuck or stationed in. You do not have to stay—your natural is no longer necessary—for nothing is impossible with God, and that was proven and validated by the fact that He did not stay dead, that the stone was rolled away, that there were two men in white looking at these women saying, "He's not here, He's risen, why do you look for the living among the dead?" And if He is risen, then you can rise out of the miry pit that you've been stuck in.

It might be a pit of despair, it might be a pit of dysfunction, it might be a pit of negative headspace, a pit of limited mindsets—I don't know what it is for you—but if you can tell yourself right now and recognize it, because Jesus beat death, I can beat fill-in-the-blank, and you are no longer stuck. It means you can move beyond these things. It means today doesn't just have to be another day, because Jesus was not just another human that died, not just another would-be Messiah, but our Savior. I want to encourage you, start trying to understand and comprehend what Him rising from the grave means for you, because as a pastor—and, no, you know what, let's take out the pastor title, because I know a lot of people look at me like—someone came up to me, said, "Father Matt, " I'm like, "Oh, wow, this is weird." That's—I don't ever go by that, right, I'm just a dude who got called to communicate a little bit of this, to you all. I'm not any better, I'm not any higher, I am held to— A different standard by what God's word says.

But I'm just another guy, so let's take the pastor off the pedestal for a second, and let me talk to you like a human being. I'm tired of church—week in, week out—where people come in and say they believe that a guy 2,000 years ago rose from the grave, and it doesn't impact them. It's like it's just old news. How was that just like old news would be? Yeah, yeah, Julius Caesar died, you know, several years before Christ, and, you know, Shakespeare wrote a play about him, and that's where we get most of our historical data.

That is Shakespeare, you know, that's where we get most of our stuff about him. It's like that's another historical figure, that's just a dude, right? If I were to look back and we talk about George Washington, we got some folktales about him—he cut down, was it him who cut down the cherry tree, or was it Lincoln? I don't even know, I don't really care, because those are just historical figures. I want to get my history right.

But they didn't rise from the grave, so it's not stressing me out when I wake up in the morning. It doesn't pop in my mind on a regular basis. Him doing something 200 years ago means absolutely nothing, other than I get to sit in the country with freedom—praise the Lord for our country—but it doesn't mean that internally I get to walk into an eternity with God. That, like, it doesn't—it doesn't change anything about me. So when I look back at Jesus and say, hey, he—he—he came back up, I—I guess I can come back up out of whatever I'm stuck in.

Because there was no body, that means whatever barrier you've placed in front of yourself, or whatever you think Satan's put in front of you, or whatever you think the world has placed in front of you—maybe you don't have the resources you think you need, maybe you don't have the people you think you need—whatever barrier is in front of you, Jesus has already beaten death, so every other barrier is small change for him. So let's start breaking barriers in his name. If you believe that he died and he rose, you are crazy to stay stuck. You—you are crazy to stay stuck. And if I'm offending you, I am.

I don't want to offend anybody, I really don't. I'm a nice guy, I got flowers on my shirt, you know, like I'm wearing Chelsea boots. They make me super chill, you know, I'm super chill. We're just trying to start a church and help people know Jesus. I'm not trying to make you feel bad, I'm just trying to help you understand the logic that you've decided you're okay living in.

But there are many who don't believe this—they don't believe that Jesus rose from the grave, and you think I, or we, are crazy that we believe someone died and rose from the grave, because empirically, that is impossible, it doesn't make sense. And so I want to continue the Scripture, because I'm okay with being a little crazy. I think, I think to trust in this you got to be—look at your neighbor, say, "you're a little crazy." You—you're a little crazy. But praise God, the text is self-aware. Here's what it says in the second half of verse 6:

"Remember how he told you"—this is, this is the men in white—"remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee, the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again." Then they remembered his words.

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. Now hear this: "But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like"—y'all say the word with me—"nonsense." "Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb; bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away wondering to himself what had happened."

Now, before I jump in, let me give you my final point: this is not just another fairy tale. Not just another fairy tale. It is interesting how the text is so aware that people will not believe them, that it actually tells us that the first people who heard this piece of information did not believe the women.

And so I have a few things that I want to tell you that I think are really helpful, might add color to this conversation. First off, Jesus said it would happen. Jesus said it would happen. The two men in white tell the women that, because, like, this isn't supposed to be new information. Jesus said this while he was still alive, that he would die, be buried, and in three days rise from the grave.

So what happens when he is gone? Everyone is surprised and confused, because how can a dead person be gone unless they were stolen? Dead people don't rise from the grave. We can't play this game where, because we know a little bit more science than the rest of these people, we thought that they didn't get basic, you know, basic nature, right? Have you ever heard the phrase, "there's everything sure in life"?

Or, sorry, "the only things for sure in life are death and taxes, " right? So I think it's interesting, because Jesus kind of makes it to where, yeah, you're definitely paying taxes, but the death thing, it can be adjusted. And so what happens here is he says it, they forget it, and then they see something happen, and they are reminded of it. So the text tells you that they forgot. The very people who are telling the first followers of Jesus about this resurrection are telling those people, "hey, he said it, but we forgot." Like, they're putting themselves on blast a little bit.

Why would they talk mess about themselves if they weren't trying to tell the truth? And here's the second thing that happened: it was women. I want to be very careful here, I want to be very careful. Cars, where you at, Cars? Oh, he's probably back here getting ready to go up because my time's almost up.

Cars actually texted me this week, he said, "did you mean for that to be a small point?" 'Cause he didn't know the context to it. He said, "it just said it was women." He said, "you sure you want to put that up on screen?" Here's what happened: way back in the ancient world, women did not have the same level of status as the men. So if I'm trying to lie to you, or if they're trying to lie to you, why would the very first witnesses to this historical event be women? If they're trying to lie, why wouldn't they use, like, a Pharisee? You know, like, they got land from Joseph of Arimathea, why didn't—why didn't they just use him?

So, hey, he saw it, guys, he's super rich, he's powerful, all of you like him and respect him, let's utilize him—if we're making this stuff up. But here's what I think: I think that the text tells us, by showing something self-deprecating—like, he said it would happen and they forgot, like it was women, not just the most established men, who saw it. And then the third thing: they actually tell you that the first disciples said it felt like nonsense. I know, I know that the idea of a resurrection seems crazy. I mean, if I were to ask you, raise your hand, and you were honest, you would all raise your hand, because that's crazy to believe that some dude 2,000 years ago died, offered you forgiveness of sins, then came back from the grave, and all of a sudden you can have life abundantly and eternally because he did that—that, that's craziness.

It's crazy, it feels like nonsense, and the text is aware of it. And then there's a fourth thing that they did that I think is really helpful: that in an oral tradition culture, they decided to write it down. It was written. I mean, in an oral tradition, what they do is they tell story after story after story, they tell it to their kids, their family members, they tell it to everyone who will listen, and they hope that these stories will be passed down effectively. But when this event occurred, Matthew, Mark, and Luke said, "hey, we should probably write this stuff down, because if it keeps passing oral tradition, everybody a couple generations from now is going to think we're crazy"—and they would be right in thinking that we're crazy—"but we need to write this down so that people can remember what happened."

And it's interesting to me, and I want to give you an illustration to show it, for those of you in here who might be struggling to apprehend the reality of the resurrection of Jesus.

Anyone heard of Julius Caesar? Okay, I was scared about this, because I don't know how Arizona education is. Julius Caesar, he was one of the Caesars, you know, he was a Roman leader, he's actually one of the first Roman leaders that came in when Rome had its heyday. And so about 80 years before Jesus, he existed, he went and conquered a bunch of different places, and eventually, as we know through Shakespeare, right, and some other people, he was killed by his top leaders around him in the Senate. So this is what happened with Julius Caesar.

And I—I'm going to try to be intellectual with you for a second, but I want to make it simple. Did you know that we only have 10 Greek manuscripts that tell us about the things that happened with Julius Caesar, and those very manuscripts are over 800 years distance between—between when Julius Caesar lived and when we have these writings? Let me just make it clear: the thing that most of you guys who knew who Julius Caesar was believed to be automatically true, that he existed, that he did some stuff—800 years between when he lived and the first writings that we have to tell us about who he was. That's it. If I—if I were to tell you about Plato, you know who Plato is?

Plato—I have paper Plato. We only have seven Greek manuscripts to tell us about who Plato is, but ain't nobody questioning it, and those are within, I think it's 900-plus years that we have that data. And so I think this is about 10 sheets of paper to represent what we have for Julius Caesar. Can y'all see the 10 pieces of paper? Yes?

Okay, cool. Now, just Greek manuscripts—what we have of the New Testament, many of which were written within 60 to 80 years of the events occurring—the earliest manuscripts that we have are within 60 to 80 years of the events that happen in the New Testament, testifying to the resurrection, testifying to other events in Scripture. Well, this is one ream of paper, which is now 490—let me go get—that's just one. We—1,000, 2,000, 3,000, I need some more, here we go. This is five reams.

How many is that—five times 5, five—I, I don't know how to do it, it's—is math, it's, I'm not good—that's 2,500, I think, I could be wrong. If it is, no, it's 30, I don't know what it is. Point is, it's 5,800 Greek manuscripts—5,800, just Greek. If we were to go to Latin, Syriac, other languages, we'd get over 25,000 manuscripts that testify to what happened with Jesus, many of whom are within the first two centuries of it happening. Nobody questions Julius Caesar—he's got 10 manuscripts, 8 to 900 years after it happened.

But we have this—some of which is in the first several centuries—and that's not even 5,800. I, I'm not good at math, that's why I quit accounting. But here's what I know: they wrote it down. And for those of you who are questioning the validity of the resurrection, I know this doesn't solve every problem that you might be encountering in terms of your faith, but what it does help you understand is they knew that it was crazy bits of information, because initially they were like you and me, and they thought it was nonsense, but they were compelled to understand because they hung out with Jesus. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that there were 500 people who saw Jesus after he had risen from the grave.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

We have the data, and the data is so much better than any other piece of historical documentation we have for that time period. It is so helpful because it was written. And I say that because there are some people in here—you haven't trusted in Jesus because you need an abundance of historical data. There's an abundance of historical data, but what I think you really need is you need God to reveal himself to you, regardless of the historical data, because Jesus is not just another historical figure. In fact, what we have in God's word, it says that it'll help train us and move us forward into all areas of godliness and righteousness.

It'll help us understand who he is, and I believe that this is not just another book—it is supernatural in nature, and when you open it, you're seeing the words of God to you, about you, but also about him. And so if there's anyone in here who was ready right now, after seeing this information—or you were ready earlier, you wanted to come, you recognize this isn't just another Sunday, and it's time for you to put Jesus at the center of your life—I want to encourage you, you can make that decision right now. The Bible tells us very simply that if we Heard this message, and you're ready to trust in Jesus, I want to give you that opportunity right now. So if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, I want to give you kind of a prayer template that will help you move forward in your walk with God. You might say something like, "God, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

I believe he died on the cross and rose from the grave. Father, forgive me of my sin. Make me a new creation, and I will follow you for the rest of my life. Today is not just another day. It's the day that I have chosen to put you at the center of my life.

God, I love you, and I trust you." We pray these things in Jesus's name, and all God's people said, "Amen."