Easter at Venture

Happy Easter, Happy Resurrection Day. Fun thing about Easter is every single one

of us. We all have our various different Easter traditions. Some of us

dress up. This is the first time I've worn a sport coat since my

daughter's wedding, so this is time for you. I'll here's my selfie post.

We also have our Easter brunches, our Easter dinners with family and friends,

and then all the Easter egg hunts. I was reflecting back on when

I was a kid. The first Easter that I ever remember ever in my

entire life, was my sophomore year of high school. I had just become

a follower of Jesus and I got baptized on Easter Sunday, and I thought,

surely I should remember an Easter before that, and I couldn't. And

so I called my mom this week and I was like, Mom, growing

up, we didn't go to church. What did we do on Easter?

And my mom said, Brandon, Easter was just like any other day,

she said. Occasionally I would go grocery shopping it Safeway and they would have

those pre made Easter baskets, and I would sometimes remember to buy one for

you and your sister so that is the way I grew up with no Easter

traditions. Fast forward to today, and my life revolves around Easter. My

entire church calendar revolves around Easter. I have five times that I will be

preaching because of Easter. We have over fifteen Easter gatherings across all of our

campuses. This weekend, we are expecting at venture five thousand people in person,

and probably another four or five thousand will be watching our Easter services online.

They are saying that this weekend they're estimating that two billion people around the

world are going to be doing what you're doing right here, participating in an

Easter service. So what is the fuss about Easter? Well, Easter is

where we remember what is the most important event in all of human history.

You see, we believe Jesus was God, that he died on the cross

for the sins of humanity, and that three days later he rose from the

grave. I want you to know that the resurrection of Jesus is the most

pivotal event in all of human history. Every person that lives or has lived

on this earth, their life is impacted by their belief or lack of belief

in the resurrection of Jesus. Some of you are thinking, Brandon, you

are being a bit dramatic. Why does the resurrection matter. There's many of

you here. You've never been to church before. You're like me growing up,

you can't remember Easter being significant outside of Easter baskets. There's some of

you. You haven't been to church in years. There's some of you this

is one of the two services at a church that you ever attend in a

year. Others of you you've been disconnected from church for a long time,

but you're kind of making your way back to church and to your faith that

you grew up with. Well, many of you are here today and you're

skeptical. Some of you are here and you're curious about faith. There's probably

a handful of you. You're here, but you are convinced that the resurrection

of Jesus is the greatest concocted lie in all of history. Well, you're

here today regardless of what brought you here. I want us to go on

this journey together, and I want us to look at the Resurrection of Jesus,

but look at it through the eyes of a skeptic, and not just

any skeptic, but arguably the greatest skeptic of the Resurrection that ever lived.

Eventually, he ended up becoming the author of over half of the New Testament.

I want to introduce you to a guy whose Jewish name was Saul,

but his Roman name is Paul. To the early Church, Paul was their

greatest adversary. He was enemy number one. Paul was raised a devout Jew.

He was highly educated by the best teachers that you could find anywhere.

Paul was trained as a rabbi. Interesting lately, there has been two studies

about religion and church attendance in America, and in both of these separate studies,

the Seattle area one be proud. We won. We are the least

churched area in America. If you really dig down into those statistics. Eighty

percent of people that live in the greater Seattle area don't share my faith,

don't view the world the way that I view the world, don't have the

same belief in the resurrection that I have. And there's also not only that,

but there is a lot of talk nationally and the narrative is Christians are

the problem. All the disunity we have in our country, it's because of

those Christians, all the wars because of the Christians. Christians are the problem.

Well, you're gonna see that in two thousand years nothing has changed,

because that is exactly the way that Paul felt. Paul was convinced Christians were

spreading heresy, the Christians were the problem, that they were the cause of

all the disunity that they were facing around Jerusalem. They were stirring up the

city, spreading this lie that Jesus was alive. Finally, Paul was fed

up. He'd had enough, and with the approval of not only the civic

leaders but also the religious leaders, he was determined to silence all of these

heretics. So Paul had them beaten. He had Christians arrested. He stood

approvingly while Christians were executed. In the minds of Paul, the ends justified

the means. But why does the resurrect matter. If you're here today and

you are a Christian, your future hinges on this event, because if you

were wrong, you are a fool who's wasted your life on a lie.

But if you're a skeptic, your future hinges on this event too, because

if you were wrong, you have made a grave mistake. In First Corinthians,

the author imagines what would be the consequences if the resurrection were not true.

And he starts off by saying this and one Corinthians fifteen fourteen. He

says, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless. What

is he saying? He's saying, if Jesus is not alive, I have

given my whole life and wasted my entire life a job that is useless.

And then he says, and so is your faith. In other words,

if the resurrection is not real, mine in your faith, it's pointless.

It is in vain. The author goes on and he says more than that,

we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we've been

testifying about God that Christ was raised from the dead. In other words,

if Jesus is not alive, I've been misrepresenting God. I have been deceiving

the masses. And then it gets worse. It says, if Christ has

not been raised, your faith is feutile. You are still in your sins.

Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. So not

only is mine in your face an utter waste of time. If Jesus is

not alive, every martyr throughout history that has given their life, believing Jesus

rose from the grave, perished and wasted their lives, and you and I

will do the same. Worst of all, if the resurrection did not happen,

we're still in our sins. We aren't forgiven, We're still under the

wrath of God. Paul makes it clear if the resurrection did not happen,

Christians are to be the most pitied people in all of history. Paul believes

that if you could find Jesus' bones in any tomb, Christianity would be dead.

Without the resurrection of Jesus, it would be no Christianity. Paul,

convinced of his mission to silence this lie, pursued it relentlessly. Christians are

lying and they have to be stopped. Over the last two thousand years,

there's been many arguments against the resurrection. Most of those arguments have been debunked,

but there are still today three prevalent arguments against the resurrection. The first

one is called the swoon theory. The swoon theory originated six hundred years after

Jesus' crucifixion in the Qur'an, but just about every reputable scholar believes Jesus died

on the cross but the swoon theory assumes Jesus survived the crucifixion, that he

only fainted on the cross. But this theory goes against all evidence. If

you were to stack on top of itself all the theory in all the evidence

in favor of the swoon theory, it'd be about an inch high. But

if you were to stack all the historical evidence on the person of Jesus who

died on a cross on top of itself, it would end up a mile

and a half high. It's just pretty much understood Jesus could not have survived

the crucifixion. Crucifixion is a well known Roman method of execution, and it

has been studied for centuries. There is no evidence of anyone ever escaping Roman

crucifixion. The Gospels and extra biblical texts. Extra biblical texts outside of the

Bible tell us the story of jesus crucifixion tells us that he was whipped thirty

nine times with a Roman cat of nine tails. See, the Romans had

these long whips that were nine leather strands that were wrapped inside of them pieces

of bone and glass, and at the end of these straps were metal balls.

So a Roman soldier would slap the whip down and he would tug in

esthence tearing the skin on someone's back. Jesus was whipped thirty nine times,

that is three hundred and fifty one slashes on his back. Eyusebius, who

was a famous Greek historian, said most people didn't survive the lashing, but

we know Jesus did, and that eventually went to the c and was nailed

to a cross. They would take these five to seven inch pieces of metal

that would be tapered into a point, and they would pierce their wrists and

their ankles. Archaeologists have uncovered many bones that still had these spikes in them

from crucifixion victims. Here's two of them that have been uncovered. These spikes

are meant to keep you hung on a piece of wood, but crucifixion you

didn't die from the experience. You died from suffocation. You see. They

couldn't breathe, so they would have to use all their strength press up on

those spikes to get an air to fill their lungs, and then they would

drop back down. But eventually they would lose all strength and they would die

by suffocation or asphyxiation. There is a word that was created for the English

language to describe how painful Roman crucifixion was. It is the word excruciating.

The word excruciating means out of the cross. In John chapter nineteen, it

describes what happened that day when Jesus hung on the cross. There were other

guilty men who'd hung on crosses that day too. If you were to walk

into a city that was a Roman occupied city, this would be a normal

thing you'd see. Outside of the city would be crucifixion victims lined up as

a warning to guests, don't break the law here or else. And what

the soldiers would do as evening came, they would see if the people hung

on the cross were still alive, and if they were, they would break

their legs, and they would break their legs so that they could no longer

press up, and they would immediately die. But when they came to Jesus

that day, they found that he was already dead. But to make sure,

they pierced aside with a sword. The Bible tells us that blood and

water flowed together. Remember, when John wrote this, he only described what

he witnessed. He didn't know the science behind it, But modern medicine now

tells us that blood and water mixed together is an example of dying by asphyxiation.

Then Jesus was taken off of that cross, and he was wrapped encased

in sheets, and he was placed in a tomb. And in front of

that tomb was a one to two ton boulder to keep people from going in

and to keep people from going out. So how could a swooning, half

dead man unwrap himself yet alone move a two ton stone? And if Jesus

did awake from his swooning and escaped, where did Jesus go? Where the

reports of him later on in life? Where's his tomb after he really died?

To this day, we know where Mohammed's tomb is, Buddhist tomb is

King David's tomb, We believe we know where moses Is tomb, But where

is the tomb of Jesus dying later in life? There is no question that

Jesus died on the cross that day. Well, honestly, Paul didn't doubt

it. Paul knew Jesus was a real person, and he knew he died

on the cross. There's another theory. It's called the hallucination theory, and

this is the idea that maybe people in seeing Jesus after he died. Psychologists

tell us that this is a phenomena that happens to about eight percent of people.

They believe they saw their loved one after their loved one passed away.

It's part of the grieving process. But remember, it wasn't just a rare

person that claims to have seen Jesus. This was all the apostles claim to

have seen Jesus. They said they ate with him, they talked to him,

they touched him. There was a time where five hundred people saw the

risen Jesus at the same time. There is no example in history of a

mass hallucination before or since. Well, Paul didn't believe the hallucination theory either.

What Paul believed is the third theory against the residen direction, which is

the disciples made it up. They lied. Paul believed they stole his body

and made up the story. Did you know that this theory originated since the

Resurrection. We read about it in Matthew chapter twenty eight, verse twelve.

From the very beginning, people have been saying this. It says, when

the chief priest had met with the elders. They devised a plan. They

gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, you are to

say his disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.

If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep

you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they

were instructed, and this story has been widely circul related among the Jews to

this very day. The disciples broke into the tomb, stole his body,

and said he rose from the grave. Remember, all the Apostles except John

were hiding during the cross and burial, and they hid out of fear.

Why would these guys go from hiding in fear to boldly proclaiming the resurrection of

Jesus to the world if it weren't true. In fact, if the apostles

lied, this would have taken the greatest coordinated effort to deceive in history.

They would have had to start this process while Jesus was still alive. Let's

just imagine this was Jesus' idea. Gathers his best friends together and says,

I got a crazy idea. Let's tell everybody, I'm God. Let me

gain a ton of followers, and then at just the right moment, let's

turn the government and the religious leaders against me and get me thrown into prison

and kill Martyred. Then you guys, break into my tomb, steal my

body, hide my body so that no one can ever find it, and

tell everyone I'm alive. I mean, imagine it, guys. If we

do this, we will corner the market on greeting cards someday. If the

Apostles had lied, it would have only taken one of them under torture to

admit that they made it up. But no one Martyred said this. The

case, John was thrown into a vat of boiling oil. Peter, the

same Peter that denied even knew who Jesus was when Jesus was arrested, was

crucified upside down. Andrew was crucified. Bartholomew was beaten and then crucified.

These men had no reason to live a life tortured, threatened, and martyred

over a lie. Not to mention, how would the Apostles steal his body.

It was guarded by Roman soldiers that were trained killers, that knew if

this body ends up missing It will likely cost us our lives. So how

did a group of teenage fishermen overcome these Roman soldiers? How did they move

the stone? Archaeologists have excavated throughout this region many two similar to this,

and the stone in front of the tomb weighs anywhere from one to two tons,

or the weight of a car. So how did they sneak by these

Roman soldiers move this boulder, unwrap the body in the tomb? Why weren't

they in a hurry to begin with and gently place his burial shroud back on

the place where he was laid and then steal is his body? And then

how did they get anyone else to go along with this? Common sense says

this is impossible. There is an empty tomb, there is no body.

There are multiple eyewitness accounts of this event seeing Jesus after his death, and

there's the reality that people will not give up their life for a lie.

Jesus is a lie. But Paul was convinced this wasn't true. In Paul's

mind, there had to be another plausible explanation. Why does the resurrection matter?

Paul's new assignment was to go to the city of Damascus. There were

rumors that people were believing this lie about the resurrection, and Christianity was gaining

followers there. Paul was tasked to round up those Christians and silence them by

any means necessary. If you're like Paul, and some of you are,

you were convinced. There has to be another explanation. If you're like Paul,

what would it take to change your mind? What would it take to

convince you otherwise? Well? Acts Chapter nine tells the story of what happened

to Paul. Paul was on his way to Damascus, ready to arrest Christians,

and a bright light appeared in front of him, and it knocked him

off of his horse, and he stood face to face with the risen Jesus,

and Jesus said to him, Paul, why are you persecuting me?

It is me, Jesus, whom you're persecuting, and probably the most radical

conversion in the history of our Christian faith, the greatest enemy of our faith,

a man convinced he was serving God, devoutly, honoring God, justified

in the sight of God by silencing Christians. In one life transforming moment,

discovers the answers to the three biggest questions in life? Is Jesus God?

Did Jesus die on the cross for our sins? And did Jesus rise from

the grave? Church? If you believe the resurrection of Jesus, all three

of those questions are answered, And in that moment, seeing the risen Jesus,

they were answered in the minds of the greatest skeptic that had ever lived.

Jesus is God. Jesus died for our sins, and Jesus conquered death,

hell, and the grave. He is alive, and Paul becomes the

greatest spokesman, an evangelist, and church planner in history. And Paul's the

one that wrote that narrative on what would happen if the resurrection wasn't real,

But he ends that entire discourse by announcing Christ has indeed been raised from the

dead. And Paul spends the rest of his life telling everyone, telling everyone,

Jesus is alive, Jesus is the hope of the world.