Powerful Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus - Feast of First Fruits

Why Yeshua? Why should I follow? Why should I think of following? Why you? Why your God? And. And why not any of the others? There's so many religions to choose from in this world. Why do you think you're right? Yes. You can say you grew up with him. You could say it's your tradition. You could say, but why is your God special? You see, brother, sisters, oftentimes it's been alluded to by the world that there is no real way to know that there is no real evidence. I want to submit to you that there is a way to know if we're willing to knock, if we're willing to listen and hear and face the evidence that has been left for us. Because, see, God has left evidence. And in this teaching, we're going to look at some of those things. Like any good judge, we could call up some witnesses to testify. Because when we're talking about an event that occurred 2000 plus years ago, what we have is the witnesses of people who were around in that day. And we can scrutinize every one of those witnesses. We can test them. We can see. We can look for holes and we'll see if they hold up. We'll see if they're liars or if they're telling the truth. In short, the story goes something like this. Jesus shows up and he starts gathering disciples to him, which would end up being twelve disciples. And these men are excited to follow him because he's a rabbi, he's a teacher, and they know that. And. And for them, as simple men, simple fishermen, amongst other things, they are delighted to follow him, to listen to him, because he's smart and he knows what he seems to know what he's talking about. But as time goes along and they're walking with him, they notice there's something different about him. They notice he's not like other men. They notice a certain type of perfection, a certain type of righteousness that's upon him that other men don't have. And one day, one of his disciples, this man called Peter Yeshua, asks him, right? Jesus asks him, Peter, tell me, who do you say I am? And Peter, for the first time, comes out and he says, you know what? I've been observing you. I've been looking at you, and there's something different. I believe you are the Messiah, the one who would come to save the world. He says, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father in heaven has. And in this moment, the disciples realize, and they agree that he is the Messiah. So they are in agreement, they are on this page, and they're getting more and more passionate about him and everything that he is saying. But then things start going wrong. At the later last days of Jesus ministry, he gets captured. And as he's being interrogated, as he's being taken away and possibly facing a death penalty, his disciples, they scatter. They're afraid. They start thinking things like, is he really who he say he was? Why is this happening to him? Peter, that one who actually said that he is the Messiah, the one who came to that conclusion first, he's the very one who ends up denying him three times when he's being questioned by others because he's scared and he's doubting. And eventually he does get crucified and he dies on a cross, and it's a public event, and everyone knows about. And his disciples hide. They scatter. They're afraid. They don't show their face because they're afraid that they're gonna face the same thing that the one they followed did. And on top of that, they're not at his grave. They're not there waiting for something to happen, some mystical, spiritual thing. They're hiding because they think it's game over. They think there's nothing left to do. Everything may have just been a lie. And they're scratching their head thinking, how do we fall for that? Because he said he's the messiah. We thought he's going to save us. But now he was hanged on a cross, killed. What are we going to do about that? You see, this is the dire situations. And these men find themselves and just put yourself in their shoes. See, their life was turned upside down when they met him because they had to leave everything they had to do. So this was not a small thing. They had to literally leave their jobs behind. They had to sometimes deny friends and family and the pleasures they had before. And now their life was turned around with them. And now he dies, and their life is turned upside down again. And then suddenly a woman barges into the door, and she says, guys, he did what he said he would do. He raised from the dead. And they say, what are you talking about, women? Who are you? You're just a woman. But eventually, Peter goes, and he checks it out for himself, and he finds the grave empty. And the messiah was found to have raised from the dead. He later appeared to them. He later appeared to up to 500 other people as well. Okay, so this is what the Bible tells us happened. But how do we know that he really raised? How do we know they didn't just lie and make that part of it up. Either he did raise or he didn't, and they actually went in and did something like steal his body, which is what some people say happened. But let's look at the facts first. We're gonna look at whether it was possible for them to have stolen his body, like some critics say. And what better place to start than to look at the place he was buried? We read a few things about it. One of the first was that there was a large stone that was pulled up in front of the grave. And we read in Matthew 27 60, and he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Furthermore, we read that this tomb, this gravesite, was heavily guarded as well as sealed by the Romans. For the Romans wanted to make sure that nothing could be done to fabricate anything, and they went the extra mile to make sure of that. We read in Matthew 27 65, Pilate said to them, you have a guard of soldiers. Go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. What you need to understand is that a roman guard was typically comprised of 16 soldiers. Okay, so we have 16 soldiers who were commanded to stand and guard this gravesite. And by the way, the roman punishment for falling asleep was a death penalty, not just to the soldier who fell asleep, but his entire guard. So no one is going to be falling asleep. These men are taking their duty very seriously. It also said that this place was sealed. This tomb was sealed with a roman seal. In other words, anyone who would break this seal, who would open this tomb, would face the death penalty. And like we read, this was a very heavy entrance, a very heavy door. This is not something that you just, you know, in the dark kind of open without anyone realizing. And so, as you can see, if the disciples were trying to figure out how to steal the body, this was going to be a difficult endeavor. They had to do this secretly without these men realizing it. And this is with a seal that's on the door. This is with 16 men guarding it. This is with a heavy rock in front of it. And even if they really wanted to do that, we must ask the question, like any good and fair judge will, who is going to question all the motives of every witness? Why would they want to steal the body? You have to put yourself in their position. If they will come up against this tomb to try and open it, they will be killed by these 16 men. If they broke the seal, they would be facing the death penalty themselves. Just like the man who was laying in that tomb died. They will die, okay? They are faced with this certain lifehood of persecution that would follow this crime in the eyes of the Romans. And so why would they do it? Especially if they have nothing to gain from it, and especially if it was all a lie anyway. They have nothing to gain from it because they're not gonna be become rich by lying about this. In fact, we know that they all eventually died. Lives, not in riches, but lives that were difficult. All of these men, would they put their life on the line, live a life of persecution, face almost certain death, all for a lie. You remember how they were. They started following this man. They realized that he's the messiah. And then their hopes and dreams fell into the gutter when they thought that something went wrong, and it's game over and he's dying. Now. They are not really motivated. They don't have a lot of morale right now when he's being put on the cross. They don't have morale. They don't have dreams to lie now even further, digging graves for themselves in this world. No, that doesn't make any sense. No person would do something like that, especially if they have nothing to gain from it. In reality, they all would have just wished that this would all just go away, that they can just all return to their jobs as fishermen, they can return to their jobs as tax collectors and whatever else they wanted to go do as they did before, pretending like it all never happened. But it's really hard to pretend like it all never happened. When you realized he did rise, when you realize there was something to what he said, you see the alternative to them having stolen the body, which, as you can see, seems like a very unlikely act and feat and motive. The alternative is that he actually raised. And what is there to say that he actually raised? One of the first things we can see as pointing to evidence for a resurrection in the disciples themselves is that there was this incredible instantaneous eruption of zeal, hope, and passion to get back on the horse, if you will, with everything they have, live lives of persecution, live lives which would ultimately all of them, except for one, would be killed for what they believed, for what they stood for. That is the fact that he did rise. Where does this come from, if not from a event that happened in their lives that was very real, because, remember, they had nothing to gain from this. Secondly, something happened, and all scholars agree, something happened in the first century that changed the world. You see, there was an eruption of faith, an eruption of Christianity that started occurring in the first century, which was unlike anything that the world has ever in its history faced. We have pagan temples that have stood for hundreds of years, almost overnight, being overthrown with Christianity. And the faith of the Christians is spreading so much that entire cities are being taken over and pledging allegiance to this christian God. They were pagans. And suddenly something so great happened that they could not deny, and they became believers. And we see the remnants of that effect even today in the western world and in all other parts of the world, where the christian faith has grown exponentially. The Bible, the book that came from, that is still the most printed, best selling book ever. Why did that happen? Was it just a lie brought up by men who had nothing to gain by doing so, but everything to further lose? Was there something more to it? Another proof pointing towards the event of a resurrection is prophecy. What if I told you that there is proof that there was an intelligence outside of time that foretold the events that would occur in the first century with the crucifixion? If that happened, that is a great proof we have to look at, because it did. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob spoke to prophets, men who wrote down and foretold what would happen hundreds and even thousands of years after they died. How could that pinpoint accuracy be possible? You see, if God existed, and if this God that exists is the God of Abram, Isaac and Jacob, and if the most important thing that he would come to do is die for the sins of the world, he would be telling men before, so that they can show, so that after it happens, we can see. Look back, look. God foretold this would happen. It did happen. He is God. There is an intelligence outside of time that foretold these things. One example of this is before the Romans invented crucifixion. Psalm 20 216 describes the piercing of Jesus hands and feet. This is at least a thousand years before it ever happened. That it was written down for dogs encompassed me. A company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet. Another example is Isaiah 53, a particularly important prophecy that lays out the story of Jesus and the meaning of the resurrection. Isaiah 50 213 50 312. This was spoken by Isaiah at least 600 years before it actually happened. A few signature attributes of this chapter in Isaiah describes exactly what happened within the New Testament. Chapter 53 explains that he would be despised and rejected by men. Verse five states that he would specifically be pierced for our transgressions and crushed, which he was. And verse seven states that in the midst of it all. He would not even open his mouth. And in verse nine, it describes that he would be buried in a rich man's tomb. At this point, any good judge would be asking the question, have witnesses fabricated this story? Have people lied about what happened? And he would try and think of, how could he poke a hole? How could he see and taste whether this story stands up to scrutiny? And one of the biggest things that we can see is that there's actually more evidence that it wasn't fabricated than evidence, if any, that it was. For example, this story does not fit expectations of a fabricated account. And the reason I say that is if anyone is going to make up a story about something like this resurrection, they are going to be saying things that would make a lot of sense in their culture, say things that would me, would be easy to believe and understand, and things that would even line up with how they see the world. Right? However, for example, we read in the Bible that women were of the first witnesses of the resurrection. Because if you remember what I told you, the disciples were hiding. They weren't waiting at the tomb. They weren't, like, trying to. No, they were hiding. They were ashamed. And if they fabricated this entire thing, they would not be pointing that out, and they would certainly not be pointing out how women had more trust and faith than they did and that women were the first witnesses. Because, see, in the first century, you think this is no big deal. But women, if they went to a court case, standing in court, their witness would not count because they would not be seen as trustworthy witnesses just because they're women, because of their gender. That's how it was in the first century, like it or not. And so would make no sense if you're trying to fabricate something, to have a woman be the first witness of a resurrection. But God did it because he was concerned with uplifting women and showing them their value, that they can be witnesses. And today we know they can be witnesses. But in that culture, they didn't. If this was a fabrication, this does not meet those expectations, because no one who fabricates a story would have a woman in the first century be that first witness. But enough with these disciples and what they had to say. What about other people? There's another historical figure that I want to talk about. Paul. He studied under Gamaliel. Gamaliel was a very prominent, very well known rabbi in the first century, a leader. And this. And this man called Paul was a disciple of Gamaliel. Paul was also one of the most fervent, persecutors of the church, of the people who are following this man called Jesus and who say they believe in this man Jesus, who was raised from the dead. Paul saw them as a threat. He attacked them, persecuted, and he even was responsible for murdering them. Stephen, amongst others, was under his judgment. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And so now we see this man Paul, suddenly have a shift in his life, where he said that he encountered this resurrected Yeshua in the flesh. He came to him, he saw him, and the earthquaked, and the messiah told him in acts nine four and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, soul Saul, why are you persecuting me? And suddenly, in an instant, overnight, just about, he shifts around from being the most fervent persecutor to arguably the greatest ambassador of the christian faith. You see, if you have someone who has everything to lose, he's not going to be studying under the most famous rabbi of his day anymore. He's going to lose his position, he's going to lose his income. He's going to lose everything. If he was going to become a Christian, and not to mention his pride, his passion to kill and persecute christians, that's his job. Why would you turn that around from that? That's just something crazy has to happen in your life to make such a decision. You see, Paul is the kind of witness that any lawyer would tell you is a dream to have. Because if you have someone who has everything to gain by being against something or someone, like, against the idea of a resurrection, okay, this is who Paul is. He has everything to gain from that prestige by. By continuing in this. And now, suddenly, he's confronted with new evidence. He's faced with the messiah who tells him he's on the wrong track. And now he has everything to lose. If he was going to go that way, if he was going to stop what he was doing, and he did a 180, he turned around and he said, I once persecuted these people. I once persecuted this messiah. I once spread lies about him, things that weren't true, which I thought were true. But then I realized that everything that I believed was wrong. And I'm not a dumb guy, by the way. I study under Gamliel, one of the smartest guys around, and suddenly, this witness is a dream witness, because no one does that for just any reason. They need a really good reason. And if we look at the life of Paul thereafter, he was not someone who had anything to gain. He had everything to lose by this, and he did. He lost his prestige among the rabbis, the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, he lost all that the world had for him, and he lived a life that had oftentimes, poverty, grace, suffering. For choosing the path he did. Why do that? Why give everything up he had for a lie? There was no lie. What he believed was what he believed. What he believed was the same that these disciples believed, who also had everything to lose but believed it anyway because they. We're gonna give it all up for a lie. You see, brothers and sisters, at this point, I would ask you a question. If what I have told you thus far is not sufficient evidence towards the fact that there was something that happened that was amazing in that first century, something like a resurrection, then I would ask you then, what would it take for you to believe that? What would it take? What evidence would you need to see? Because what we have, what has been left for us, and any true judge, any judge who's true in his heart with evidence, would tell you that if this was a case that was before him, he would have no choice, if he had no bias to rule something, that this evidence is overwhelming, that these witnesses aren't fabricated. These witnesses, there are no holes to poke within them because they truly believed what they saw. See, these weren't just people who were repeating some tradition they heard from their parents. These were people who said that, I saw the Messiah myself, and I'm willing to lose everything and even die for it. This is not people who are saying, we're willing to die for something we were taught or something we learned, like any, maybe some person today who's passionate about his religion, he would die for it because he feels like what he was taught was true. But this is not what we're talking about. This is something different. These men saw him, and that's what changed their mind. Do you see the overwhelming evidence? Because it's unavoidable, and we can only turn a blind eye to it. That's how crazily strong it is. But the resurrection isn't the only thing that points towards the fact that the christian God is the one true God, that Yahweh, the God of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, is the one true God. You see, there is no other religion in the world that can deal, that has a solution for man's sin problem. You see, if there is a God, whoever he is, I think we can all agree he would be holy, he would be smarter than us. He would be worthy of worship. He would be righteous, perfect, in fact, unattainable by human standards. And that's a dilemma. That's a problem. Because if you have a creator and it's in his creation is fallen, and that is how we are, you know, I know we are not perfect. We have issues, big issues. In fact, if I asked you, have you ever lied? Have you ever stolen something that was taken? Something that wasn't your. Have you ever done something wrong in your life? You would tell me, of course, I'm only human. And I would say, well, that's enough to have you not be able to come into that God's presence, because that's how holy a God would be if there was a God. And other religions would tell you that the way we deal with this is that if you do your best, just be a good person, have more good deeds than bad deeds. And if you can do that, surely that God won't have an issue and he'll just accept you for it. But see, if you think about that, that's a logical fallacy. It doesn't make sense. And no God would do that. No, no true God would do that and say that and think that. Because if you just think logically about this, if I come before a judge and I'm being accused of something, and this judge, he told me, you murdered someone and you're going to go to jail for a very long time, or you did, you lied about this thing, you swore, and you lie about this thing and you're going to go to jail for it. You committed fraud. And you go and you tell the judge, well, judge, I helped a lot of ladies across the street. Well, judge, I mean, I gave a lot of money to the poor. Well, judge, you know, I. I really love my mom and dad, and I took care of them in their old age. So since I did all these good things, I did a lot of good things. In fact, just. Let's just forget about that. That, oopsie, I had that, you know, that fraud or that murder or whatever, you know, it's not a big deal. That judge would say, what are you talking about? That's not how this works. You are standing here and you have judgments against you, and your good deeds can't nullify that. You see, brother sisters, that's the reality of how this is. There's no solution brought forth by other religions to this issue where you can't come near the holiness of that God. You see, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the only one who brought forth a solution by coming himself, taking on human form, living a perfect life and dying for our sins in our place so that we can be made clean and enter his presence eventually. In that way, you see, that's the only way this could work. There's no other way. There's no other solution. There's nothing else that could fix your sin problem unless the one who has total authority to kill you and throw you away comes and says, you know, I have a solution, I'm gonna pay your fine. That's the only way this is gonna happen. This is the only way it's gonna work out. And that's what God did. And this is why we know that if there is a God, and if how we figure out what that God is is we have to think, who would that God be? How would that God be? And we must come to the conclusion that he would be the type of God that's so great, gracious, and loving and wise that he would come up with a solution like that to get you back, even though you make mistakes and even though you've fallen into sins. And one of the last things I want to tell you is this fact about Yeshua. Yeshua humbled himself. See, God humbled himself coming into human form, taking on human flesh to be part of the. To experience the human experience, to say, I. I experienced what you did. I know what you're going through, because how can you connect with a God? And this is the issue of all other religions. They struggle to connect with their God on a personal level, because their God is so holy and far off and different than they are, and, and their God doesn't really understand what they are and going through and who they are and all that, because their God has. Can't say that I went through the same kind of things. For example, in Hebrews 217, we read, therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make perpetuation for the sins of the people. And Hebrews 415 says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. If there is a perfect and loving God, it would only make sense for him to act in this way, this way of love, to die for his own children, even though he has nothing to gain by that, to have the love and desire to connect with his children, that he would even take on human form and humble himself just so he could say that, I know what your weaknesses are and how you feel and what you went through. You see, brothers, sisters, if there's a God, would he not do such a thing? Or would he just be up there, far away, not really caring? You see, if some people think that's how a God would be, if there was a God, I want to submit to you. That's not how he would be. If he was truly perfect, loving, faithful, righteous, holy. He would be holy. He would be righteous. But he would also come down and desire to meet with man. And that brings us to who this God is and what makes him different. And that is that he desires a personal relationship with you. No other God desires that. In fact, if you told a Muslim that you have a personal relationship as a Christian with your God, they would tell you, that's weird. The God of Abram, Isaac and Jacob, the one true God, is the only one who has come down and who desires and opens up himself to have a personal relationship with me and you. That means that he can be discovered. That means that you can have a relationship. It means you can have a. You can speak to him. It means you can have him have influence in your life. I want you to think about all what I said in here and really consider and be intellectually honest with yourself about this. If there's a God, why would it not be this God? Why would it not be Jesus Christ as the messiah? Yeshua, I can't think of any reason. I can think of tons of reasons why other religions don't make sense. And I would like to, just as I end this off, I would just like to say a prayer for you, whether you believe in him already or not. Father, I just thank you, Lord, for just speaking to the hearts of men about who you are. And Lord, I pray that you would give us all the wisdom, the knowledge, the understanding of who you are and why you're different. Lord, I pray, God, that you would help us to not make you in our image, but to understand that you made us in yours. Father, I ask for the knowledge of you to sweep across the earth. And that everywhere we go, the knowledge of you would go forth. Because, Lord, that's why you want to work with us, labor side by side with us while you send us out, while you want this personal relationship where you give us duties, you're not disconnected and far away. God, we love you and we thank you. And I pray that anyone who's listening to this, who is unsure about whether you exist and who you might be, that you would reveal yourself in a majestic, glorious way in their life through the knowledge of you, and also supernaturally so they can have firsthand experience and knowledge and knowing that you are who you say you are. We pray all this in the name of Yeshua. Amen. I hope that this teaching has blessed you. Subscribe to this YouTube channel for more just like this one. And a special shout out and thank you to our partners who have made this video and every other video this month possible. Many blessings inshalom.