{"id":18719,"date":"2019-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/jesus-one-of-a-kind-2019\/"},"modified":"2019-04-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T05:00:00","slug":"jesus-one-of-a-kind-2019","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/jesus-one-of-a-kind-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus: One of a Kind – 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[439],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18719","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-easter-sermons","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Jesus: One of a Kind - 2019","sermon_date":"20190421","sermon_month":"4","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":6581,"sermon_slides":6582,"sermon_mp3":6584,"sermon_id":"4211912422808","series_or_event":439,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"2:18-22","sermon_transcript":"Dr. Andy Woods\n\nJesus Christ, One of a Kind\n\nEaster Sermon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a04-21-19\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John 2:18-22\n\nGood morning everybody; a very happy Resurrection Sunday to you.\u00a0 He is risen!\u00a0 [audience says He is risen indeed] That was so good let\u2019s just close in prayer.\u00a0 [Laughter] That\u2019s the most enthusiasm I\u2019ve had since I\u2019ve been here.\n\nLet\u2019s open our Bibles, if we could, to John 2, beginning around verse 18.\u00a0 It is, as you know, resurrection Sunday, taking a break from our typical verse by verse study through the Book of Revelation to bring a special message this morning on this special Sunday, entitled Jesus Christ, One of a Kind.\u00a0 Why in an age of enlightenment would anybody give any credence to this man, Jesus?\u00a0 Why would in an age of enlightenment and science and scientific and sophisticated thinking would anybody place their personal faith, in a man they\u2019ve never seen, for eternity?\n\nWhat I\u2019d like to share with you this morning as time permits are seven sign posts, if you will, seven reasons pointing to the uniqueness of Christ.\u00a0 I think any one of these would be impressive but when taken together cumulative, because it\u2019s obvious that this Man, Jesus Christ, is something that is completely\u2026 He is something that is completely unique.\u00a0 Of all of the people that have walked the face of this earth there have been none like Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So, let\u2019s start here.\u00a0 Number one, Jesus is a man of verifiable history.\u00a0 You know, today when you mention the name Jesus a lot of people think you\u2019re talking about a myth or a mythology, it\u2019s no different than Veggie Tales<\/em> or Jack and the Beanstalk<\/em>.\u00a0 In fact, this mindset is becoming more and more common place in our day.\n\nThe late atheist, Christopher Hitchens is quoted as follows: \u201cJesus of Nazareth is not a figure in history.\u00a0 There is no reason at all to believe that this so-called Jesus of Nazareth ever existed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And I think a lot of times we, as evangelical Christians and believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, do a dis-service by talking about Bible stories, stories of the Bible.\u00a0 We use that sort of vernacular. But the reality of the situation is these are not stories.\u00a0 These are not fables that we are reading.\u00a0 When we explore the pages of God\u2019s Word we are reading history.\n\nAnd so how do we really know that Jesus Christ ever really existed as a historical character and as a historical personage.\u00a0 Let me ask you a question?\u00a0 How do you know anybody existed?\u00a0 How do you know our Founding Fathers, who existed historically before the photographic era existed? How we know Benjamin Franklin existed, George Washington existed?\u00a0 We know they existed because we have eyewitnesses to their existence that wrote about this eyewitness testimony.\u00a0 And that, in essence, is what you have in Scripture.\u00a0\u00a0 You have in the New Testament 27 New Testament books.\n\nWhat are those books revealing?\u00a0 They are revealing the eyewitness testimony to the life and times and ministry of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Do you believe their testimonies?\u00a0 I happen to think that their testimony is highly valid.\u00a0 One of the reasons is devout Jews, who wrote the New Testament, one of the Ten Commandments the last time I checked was \u201cThou shalt not lie!\u201d\u00a0 Beyond that, when you study the lives of the writers of the New Testament what you\u2019ll discover is that many of them went to their graves for advocating the things they taught in the pages of the New Testament.\u00a0 We\u2019re not talking about just minor deaths, we\u2019re talking about some of the most horrific deaths a person could ever experience, brutal, torturous deaths.\u00a0 James, for example, the Lord\u2019s brother who wrote the Book of James was thrown off the Jerusalem wall.\u00a0 Peter was crucified upside down.\u00a0 John, as we\u2019ll see today, they attempted to take his life by boiling him to death.\u00a0 Why in the world would they go to their graves for something that would appear fabrication?\n\nAnd you say well, wait a minute, pastor, do we actually have the original writings of these 27 books and these eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ?\u00a0 And the answer to that is we do not have the originals; the originals no longer exist and so you say to yourself and you might be asking yourself well then how in the world can I believe what we\u2019re holding in our hand, the Bible.\u00a0 I mean, these are just copies (aren\u2019t they?) of something that masquerades as an original writing.\n\nWell, when you actually begin to look at this very carefully what you\u2019ll discover is that we, as evangelical Christians and Bible readers come out of this smelling like a rose.\u00a0\u00a0 You can look at the number of manuscripts that we have and the distance between the earliest manuscript and when the actually events transpired.\u00a0 Compare that to any other work of antiquity. Caesar, I notice people aren\u2019t running Easter specials against Caesar, ten manuscripts and a thousand-year time period.\u00a0 Plato, seven manuscripts and a twelve-hundred-year time period.\u00a0 Elucidates, eight manuscripts and a thirteen-hundred-time period.\u00a0\u00a0 Tacitus, twenty manuscripts and a thousand-year time period. \u00a0Suetonius, eight manuscripts and an 800-year time period.\u00a0 Homer\u2019s The Iliad<\/em>, 643 manuscripts and a 500 year time period.\n\nWhat do we have in the Bible?\u00a0 We have manuscripts that number up to 24,000.\u00a0 Compare that to the Iliad, the highest ranking one that we have and you see how far ahead we are at the game.\u00a0 Why do we have so many?\u00a0 Part of the reason is Christianity from its inception has always been an evangelistic message, get the gospel to the lost.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we have so many copies of the originals.\u00a0 And what is the distance between the earliest copy we have in the originals?\u00a0 A mere 25-50 years.\u00a0 Compare that to the other time spans mentioned on this chart.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Author\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Date Written\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Earliest MSS\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Time Span\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0No. MSS\n\nCaesar\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 100-44 BC\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A. D. 900\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1000 years\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a010\n\nPlato\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0427-347 BC\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A. D. 900\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1000 years\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a07\n\nThucydides\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a04460-400 B.C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A. D.900\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1200 years\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8\n\nTacitus\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A.D. 100\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A. D. 1100\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01300 years\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a020\n\nSuetonius\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A.D. 75-160\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A. D. 950\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0800 years\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8\n\nHomer (Iliad)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0900 B.C.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0400 B.C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 500 years\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0643\n\nNew Testament\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A.D. 400-100\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A.D. 1125\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 25-50 years\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 24,000!\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nYou start to question the historical reliability of the New Testament and you\u2019ve got to throw out Caesar, Plato, Thucydides, Tacitus, Suetonius, and no one wants to do that because what would all of our college departments teach?\u00a0 \u00a0Not only is the story of Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible, which is historically accurate, but it\u2019s also revealed in the writings of secular authors.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Cornelius Tacitus [AD 55\u2012120] talking about Christians who got their name from this man, Christus, another name for Christ.\n\n[Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians<\/u> by the populace. Christus<\/u>, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Cornelius Tacitus (AD 55\u2012120) Annals XV, 44<\/em>]\n\nTake for example the writings of Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus is his name.\u00a0 He was a Jew that sort of became a traitor and went to work for Rome and spent the waning years of his life, following the events of A.D. 70, writing history. Notice what he says in this quote.\u00a0 I\u2019ll read this whole quote to you because I\u2019ll be referring to it several times in this presentation.\n\nJosephus says this: \u201cAbout this time there lived Jesus<\/u>, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ<\/u>. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate\u201d that would be Pontius Pilate, \u201chad condemned him to a cross<\/u>, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life,\u201d isn\u2019t that what we\u2019re celebrating this morning, we\u2019re not even reading the Bible here, \u201cfor the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians<\/u>,\u201d that would be us, wouldn\u2019t it? \u201cso called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.\u201d \u00a0[Josephus, Antiquities<\/em> 18.3.3]\n\nI wish I had time to read all these quotes but you find statements like this in countless secular histor\u00ad\u00ad\u00adians.\u00a0 Look at the dates of these individuals, when they wrote and when they lived, right around the time of Christ, a bit after.\n\nSecular Historians Mentioning Christ\n\nTacitus\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A.D. 55-120\n\nLucian\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A.D. Second Century\n\nSuetonius\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A.D. 69-122\n\nPliny the\u00a0 Younger\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A.D. 112\n\nThallus\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A.D. 52\n\nMar Ben Serapion\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A.D. 70\n\nJosephus\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A.D. 78\n\nTacitus, Lucian, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, Thallus, Mar Bar Serapion and of course Josephus.\u00a0 Do not let people sell you on the idea that Jesus was not a historical figure. In fact, He split the very calendar that we use today, did He not, B.C., Before Christ, A.D. Latin meaning year of our Lord.\u00a0 And as I was researching this I was trying to pull up some quotes by the atheist, Christopher Hitchens and he starts to sort of go on and on about how Jesus was not a historical figure and then he starts quoting one of the people that he thinks were historical figured and he starts quoting Socrates and he actually gives the date of Socrates and he defines Socrates day with the acronym B.C.\u00a0 And I thought to myself, what a sense of humor God has, the very calendar that we use is dated because of the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, that\u2019s the first thing that really makes Him unique.\u00a0 He is, number one, a man of verifiable history.\n\nSomething else about Jesus, what else can we learn about Him.\u00a0 Number 2, He is a man of fulfilled prophecy.\u00a0 Jesus Christ is the only man in history that I know of where an entire script written about Him hundreds and thousands of years in advance that we call Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament.\u00a0 In fact, when you look at Luke 24:44 Jesus made this statement.\u00a0 \u201cNow He said to them, \u2018These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses\u201d that\u2019s what we call the Tanach, Torah, \u201cthe Prophets\u201d Nabiim \u201cand the Psalms\u201d another way of saying the writings, Ketuvim, \u201cmust be fulfilled.\u201d\n\nThe Law of Moses, Prophets, Psalms, Tanach, three major division of Hebrew Bible and He says the whole thing points towards Me.\u00a0 In other words, what He\u2019s saying is theirs is there\u2019s a script about Me even before I set foot on this planet.\u00a0 Jesus, in John 5:46 says this: \u201cFor if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he\u201d Moses, going all the way back to 1500 B.C., \u201che\u201d Moses, \u201cwrote about Me.\u201d\u00a0 And what a script this is.\u00a0 In fact, Josephus himself mentions this script. You\u2019ll notice in the quote I read earlier \u201cfor the prophets of God foretold these things.\u201d\n\nEven secular writers are acknowledging the fact that there was a script written about Jesus in detail before He existed.\u00a0 Now what a script that is when you think about it.\u00a0 The manner of His birth is predicted, Isaiah 7:14. [Isaiah 7:14, \u201c\"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.\u201d]\u00a0 Born of a virgin, given 700 years before He existed.\u00a0 The place of His birth, Bethlehem is given, Micah 5:2, another seven hundred years before He was born.\u00a0 [Micah 5:2, \u201cBut as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.\u201d]\n\nEven His nationality as a Hebrew or a Jew was given, Numbers 24:17, one thousand four hundred years before He was born.\u00a0 [Numbers 24:17, \u201c\"I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth.\u201d]\n\nWithin the nation of Israel and its many tribes His tribal identity is given, the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49:10, one thousand eight hundred years in advance.\u00a0 [Genesis 49:10, \u201cThe scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.\u201d]\n\nActually, the exact time that He would present His Messianic credentials to the nation of Israel is predicted as well, as well as the reaction of the nation to His proclamation that He is the Messiah.\u00a0 Their rejection of Him is predicted, that\u2019s in Daniel 9:25-26, six centuries in advance.\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 9:25, \u201cSo you are to know<\/a> and discern<\/a> that from the issuing<\/a> of a decree<\/a> to restore<\/a> and rebuild<\/a> Jerusalem<\/a> until<\/a> Messiah<\/a> the Prince<\/a> there will be seven<\/a> weeks<\/a> and sixty-two<\/a> weeks<\/a>; it will be built<\/a> again<\/a>, with plaza<\/a> and moat<\/a>, even in times<\/a> of distress<\/a>. [26] Then after<\/a> the sixty-two<\/a> weeks<\/a> the Messiah<\/a> will be cut<\/a> off<\/a> and have<\/a> nothing<\/a>, and the people<\/a> of the prince<\/a> who is to come<\/a> will destroy<\/a> the city<\/a> and the sanctuary<\/a>. And its end<\/a> will come with a flood<\/a>; even to the end<\/a> there will be war<\/a>; desolations<\/a> are determined<\/a>.\u201d]\n\nAnd think about how He would die.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been thinking about His death as we were thinking about this at Good Friday, crucified between thieves predicted, Isaiah 53:9, seven hundred years in advance.\u00a0 [Isaiah 53:9, \u201cHis grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.\u201d]\u00a0 Pierced, Isaiah 53:5, seven hundred years in advance.\u00a0 [\u201cBut He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.\u201d\n\nIn fact, His death would not break a single one of His bones, think about that for a prediction, a thousand years in advance, Psalm 22:17. [Psalm 22:17, \u201cI can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;]\n\nThat His persecutors would gamble for His clothing a thousand years in advance.\u00a0 Psalm 22:18, [\u201cThey divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.\u201d]\u00a0 That He be buried in the tomb of a rich man, Isaiah 53:9 roughly 700 years in advance. [\u201cHis grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.\u201d]\n\nI don\u2019t know how you look at these prophecies but to me they\u2019re so impressive because when you look at the writings of Jeanne Dixon or Nostradamus, to my way of thinking their prophecies are so ambiguous that you can read virtually anything into those prophecies you want. NOT the Bible, the Bible reveals a precise script. Did you know that there are probably about 109 of these prophecies? And I just gave you a handful.\n\nDr. Peter Stoner, a mathematician calculated the probability that any one man could fulfill just eight of these prophecies.\u00a0 He said it would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power, meaning a 1 with 17 zeroes after it.\u00a0 How likely is it that a human being could fulfill just 8 prophecies to illustrate how unlike a chance that would be Stoner gave this illustration---Cover the entire state of Texas\u2026 (now we know this guy is Spirit-filled because he\u2019s using Texas as an illustration). [laughter] Cover the entire state of Texas with silver dollars to a level of about two feet deep; now choose one silver dollar, mark it and put it back and then thoroughly stir all the silver dollars over the entire state.\u00a0 Now blindfold someone and tell them they can travel wherever they want in Texas but at some point, they must reach down and pick up one of the silver dollars.\u00a0 The chance of finding one silver dollar marked in the pile two feet deep covering the state of Texas would be the chance the prophets had for just eight of these prophecies coming true in one human being.\n\nI was working one time as a newspaper journalist, (believe it or not) a very liberal atmosphere.\u00a0\u00a0 I would sit at my desk doing my thing and right next to me was one of the most ardent liberals I can think of that I\u2019ve ever really encountered in my entire life.\u00a0 He was sitting at his desk doing his thing.\u00a0 And you can imagine all day long some of the conversations that we had.\u00a0 I started talking to him don\u2019t date Micah the way we do, or Isaiah, or the Book of Numbers, or the Book of Genesis?\u00a0 And I said, \u201cHere\u2019s the bottom line, we know for a fact, it\u2019s not even a matter of interpretation, this is fact, that 200 years minimum before Jesus lived all of these Old Testament books were in existence.\u00a0 How do we know that?\u00a0 Because we have something called the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it\u2019s a fact that that was created two centuries before Christ.\u00a0 And so at the very bottom, most minimal level, all of these prophecies were in existence at least two centuries before Jesus was born.\u00a0 And I could see that got his wheels turning a little bit.\n\nAnd he said to me this: Well how do you know Jesus didn\u2019t just walk around and deliberately fulfill these prophecies to convince people that He was the Messiah.\u00a0\u00a0 And I said to this individual, his name was Mark, I said Mark, how do you fake where you\u2019re going to be born?\u00a0 How do you fake your nationality?\u00a0\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that something that\u2019s sort of outside human control?\u00a0 How do you fake how you\u2019re going to be buried?\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice that so many of these prophecies deal with things that are outside of human manipulation and human control.\u00a0 And I can think of no other religious figure in world history that has a script written about him like the Lord Jesus Christ before Jesus was ever born.\u00a0 Not only was Jesus a man of verifiable history, now only was He a man of fulfilled prophecy, but He was also a man that made His own predictions.\n\nIn the Upper Room two times within the span of just a chapter Jesus made this statement.\u00a0 \u201cFrom now on I am telling you before it comes to pass so that when it does occur you may believe that I am He.\u201d\u00a0 John 13:19.\u00a0 \u00a0And then in John 14:29, the very next chapter Jesus says, \u201cNow I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.\u201d\u00a0 And what He\u2019s saying is this: I\u2019m putting my reputation on the line here.\u00a0 I want to give you (to His disciples) a series of short-term prophecies, most of which are going to come to pass hours, days and in some cases a few years later, but they will all come to pass.\n\nAnd you can imagine how they would have immediately rejected Jesus had the things He had prophesied not materialized. Under no circumstances would they have put their lives on the line for this man Jesus, being a testimony to Him to the point of death if the precise things He had spoken over their lives had never materialized.\u00a0 You say do you have some examples?\u00a0 Yes I do!\u00a0 He said in the Upper Room, I\u2019m going to betrayed by a friend, speaking of Judas.\u00a0 John 13:21, \u201cThen He turned to Peter and He said, Peter, you\u2019re going to deny Me three times, not two times, not four times, three, exactly 3.\u00a0 Matthew 26:34 and verse 75.\u00a0 [Matthew 26:34, \u201cJesus said to him, \u201cTruly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.\u201d]\n\nJohn 13:21, \u201cWhen Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, \u2018Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.\u201d\u00a0 He predicted how He was going to die just a few days later, Matthew 20:18-19.\u00a0 He said, \u201cBehold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, [19] and they\u00a0 will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 He says number one, I\u2019m going to Jerusalem to die.\u00a0 Number two, it\u2019s not the chief priests and the scribes that are going to kill me; they\u2019re going to turn Me over to the Gentiles.\u00a0 Number three, once I\u2019m in the hands of the Gentiles I\u2019m going to be scourged but not to the point of death.\u00a0 And then finally I will be crucified by the Gentiles.\n\nAnd wouldn\u2019t it be an interesting thing if what He said didn\u2019t materialize just a few days later.\u00a0 Why would these disciples do to their graves for this man?\u00a0 Because everything He said was like clockwork, in fact, He told them in the Upper Room I\u2019m giving you these prophecies as an intellectual basis for believing that I am He.\u00a0 He even started making predictions, I don\u2019t know how comfortable this made them, about how the disciples would die.\u00a0 How would you like that being spoken over your life?\n\nHe said in John 21:18-22 concerning Peter, you know, when you were young you clothed yourself and\u00a0 you went where you wanted but someone is going to take you somewhere when you\u2019re older against your own will.\u00a0 And what did Peter say?\u00a0 He looked at John and said well, tell me what happened to Him.\u00a0 And Jesus said concerning John, what business is that of yours, if I want him to remain alive until I come that\u2019s between me and John.\u00a0 You follow Me!\n\n[John 21:18-22, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go.<\/em>\u201d [19] Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, \u201cFollow Me!\u201d\u00a0 [20] Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them;<\/em> the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, \u201cLord, who is the one who betrays You?\u201d [21] So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, \u201cLord, and what about this man?\u201d [22] Jesus said to him, \u201cIf I want him to remain until I come, what is that<\/em> to you? You follow Me!\u201d]\n\nAnd isn\u2019t interesting that that\u2019s exactly what Jesus said to Peter materialized, three decades later.\u00a0 We know from tradition he was crucified upside down to glorify God.\u00a0 How was John, did he die?\u00a0 Well they tried to kill John, the guy wouldn\u2019t die.\u00a0 We learn from Tertullian in his Prescription Against Heretics that John was first plunged unhurt into boiling oil and he survived that.\u00a0 Why did God allow him to survive?\u00a0 Because God had another purpose for John, that he would be remitted to his island exile (a book that we\u2019re studying here on Sunday morning at Sugar Land Bible Church) Patmos where he would receive the apocalyptic vision of the future.\u00a0 What did Jesus just do there in John 21:18-22?\u00a0 He revealed two different destiny\u2019s that happened within the lifespan of the apostles.\n\nWhat else did He predict?\u00a0 He predicted something horrific that would come in A.D. 70 where the Romans would come and they would destroy the city and the sanctuary.\u00a0 He says, Luke 19:43, \u201cFor the days will come upon you when your enemies will build a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, [44] and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.\u201d\u2019\n\nNow you study the accounts of Josephus concerning A.D. 70 and that\u2019s exactly what happened.\u00a0 The Romans came against Jerusalem and built a barricade preventing people from getting out of the city.\u00a0 And the Romans actually tore open the wombs of the pregnant Jewish women and strangled to death the child that was inside of those wombs.\u00a0 And Jesus said of the temple, \u201cNot one stone will be left upon another.\u201d\u00a0 [Mark 13:2, \u201cAnd Jesus said to him, \u2018Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.\u2019\u201d]\n\nRead Josephus, that\u2019s exactly what happened, because the temple caught on fire and it caused the gold in the temple to melt and as that gold melted it oozed down between the stones of the temple and dried there.\u00a0 And what do you think the greedy Roman soldiers did to that temple to get their hands on the gold?\u00a0 They took it apart stone by stone, brick by brick, exactly like Jesus said.\u00a0 In fact today in the land of Israel there are archeological remnants of the temple stone being torn apart, the temple structure itself exactly like Jesus said would happen.\n\nAnd what if those prophecies had failed?\u00a0 How could the disciples have died for this man and lived for this man to the bitter end?\u00a0 And I don\u2019t know about you but there\u2019s a lot of prophesies in the Bible made that Jesus made that are still yet to come, I don\u2019t know how you look at those prophesies, I look at those prophesies with great respect because Jesus has a track record.\u00a0 His short term prophecies happen, therefore His long-term prophecies will happen as well.\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a person in history that is able to predict the future with such precision in mere time which can be validated the way this man, Jesus Christ was able to do.\n\nHe was a man of history, He was a man of fulfilled prophecy, He was a man of predicted prophecy, but there\u2019s something else about this man Jesus you need to understand.\u00a0\u00a0 He was a man of unimpeachable character, unimpeachable morality. In fact His personal life was at a level of morality that the ha had never seen.\u00a0 You say well how do I know that?\u00a0 Because of statement He made in John 8:46. \u201cFor he said to his enemies\u201d the people trying to kill Him, \u201cWhich of you convicts me of sin?\u201d You remember Gary Hart, [can't understand word] Presidential candidate, 1988, challenged the press, go ahead and follow me around, see if you can dig up any dirt.\u00a0 Well, that took a week and a half.\n\nThink about standing in front of people that hate your guts and are looking for an excuse to kill you and saying to them find some dirt on me, find a skeleton in my closet.\u00a0 In fact, all we have to do is read the testimonies of those that were closest to Jesus.\u00a0 Who was the inner circle?\u00a0 Peter, James, and John.\u00a0 What did Peter say about Jesus?\u00a0 Peter watched Jesus go through every circumstance you could imagine, good times, bad times, pressure, difficulties, adversity.\u00a0 Peter said I never saw this guy crack under the pressure; I never saw in Him a manifestation of what we might call the sin nature.\u00a0 I never found a sin in Him.\u00a0 What does Peter say of Jesus?\u00a0 Peter says this three decades later:\u00a0 [1 Peter 2:21] \u201cFor You have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you leaving an example for you to follow in His steps:\u201d \u00a0[22] \u00a0Who committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth..\u2026\u00a0 [23] and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.\u201d\n\nWhat about John, doesn\u2019t John refer to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved?\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t it John in John 13:23 that leaned against Christ\u2019s chest in the Upper Room.\u00a0 [John 13:23, \u201cThere was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.\u201d]\u00a0 What does John think about Jesus?\u00a0 He tells\u00a0 you in his little book, [1 John 2:1, he calls Him Jesus Christ the righteous.\u00a0 [1 John 2:1, \u201cMy little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous\u2019\u201d]\n\nWhat about His enemies?\u00a0 What about this man, Pontius Pilate?\u00a0 By the way, just as Jesus is a historical figure so is Pontius Pilate; he\u2019s mentioned in the writings of Tacitus, he\u2019s mentioned in the writings of Josephus as the one who condemned Jesus to the cross.\u00a0 In fact, there\u2019s an actual archeological discovery that\u2019s been found in the land of Israel in a place called Caesarea Maritima which reads as follows.\u00a0 \u201cPontius Pilate, the prefect of Judea, erected a building dedicated to the Emperor Tiberius.\u201d\u00a0 You mean Pontius Pilate, like Jesus, shows up in the records of secular history in archeology?\u00a0 You bet your bottom dollar.\u00a0 This is history that we\u2019re reading here and it survives any reasonable scrutiny.\n\nWhat about this man, Pontius Pilate, didn\u2019t he see Jesus abused, mistreated?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t he see Jesus rushed through the judicial system of the Jews to get this man dead?\u00a0 What did Pontius Pilate think about Jesus?\u00a0 Did he ever crack under the pressure that Pilate could observe?\u00a0 Not at all!\u00a0 They were saying \u201ccrucify Him,\u201d and Pilate said this, verse 23 of Matthew 27, \u201cAnd he said, \u2018Why, what evil has He done?\u2019 [But they kept shouting all the more, saying, \u2018Crucify Him]\u2019\u201d And then finally in verse 24, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd saying \u2018I\u2019m innocent of this man\u2019s blood.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 27:24, \u201cWhen Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, \u2018I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to that yourselves.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 He\u2019s innocent\u2026 he\u2019s perfect, he\u2019s without flaw, he\u2019s without sin.\n\nHow about the Roman soldier?\u00a0 Talk about a time when the sin nature would come out, the ordeal of the crucifixion itself, the horrors of that ordeal, the mistreatment that Jesus experienced through that ordeal\u2026 what did the Roman soldier standing there observing these events say about Jesus?\u00a0 Just one simple statement, it\u2019s in Mark 15:39.\u201c \u2026this man was the Son of God!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Mark 15:39, \u201cWhen the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, \u2018Truly this man was the Son of God!\u201d]\u00a0 No flaws, no defects, no anger, no bitterness, no retaliatory spirit, he didn\u2019t scream from the cross, I\u2019m going to get you guys when I come back a second time.\u00a0 He said what?\u00a0 \u201cforgive them Father, for the know not what they do.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s Jesus, Jesus is a man by eyewitness testimony of unimpeachable morality and character.\n\nCompare that standard to other world religious leaders.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that when you put the leaders of other religions, whether it be a world religion or even a cult under the scrutiny and the microscope how quickly their character flaws will rise to the surface?\u00a0 Would Mohammed survive this scrutiny?\u00a0 How about Jim Jones?\u00a0 Joseph Smith?\u00a0 Charles Taze Russell?\u00a0 I could give you countless people that started worldwide movements and yet they\u2019re all flawed.\u00a0 The sin nature is there.\u00a0 Not so Jesus Christ!\u00a0 I mean, would those closest to you, think about this realistically, your husband, your wife, your parents, your children, your friends, could they look at your life and say is flawless?\u00a0 What would the people who know you the best say about you?\u00a0 You\u2019d probably be afraid to get the answer.\u00a0 Don\u2019t talk to my wife, she\u2019ll give you the truth!\u00a0 I say to my wife man, these people think I\u2019m great, they like me teaching. She says to\u00a0 me well, they don\u2019t have to live with you.\u00a0 [Laughter] And it\u2019s interesting how fast people\u2019s character can be exposed for what it is and the people that loved Jesus, this new Jesus, follow Jesus, examine Jesus, were with Jesus couldn\u2019t find a single blemish in Him.\u00a0 He\u2019s a man of unimpeachable morality and character.\n\nBut there\u2019s something else you need to know about this man, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 He\u2019s a man of profound teaching.\u00a0 He is a man who has unleashed upon the world the greatest level of teaching or ethics the human race has ever seen.\u00a0 One anonymous writer in a poem called The Incomparable Christ<\/em> puts it this way:\u00a0 He never wrote a book, yet all the libraries of the country could not hold the books that have been written about Him.\u00a0 He never wrote a song, yet He has furnished the theme for more songs than all song writers combined.\u00a0 He never founded a college, but all the schools put together cannot boast of having as many students.\u00a0 He never marshalled an army, nor drafted a soldier, nor fired a gun, yet no leader ever had more volunteers who have under His order made more rebels, staff arms and surrender without even a shot being fired.\u00a0 \u00a0He never practiced psychiatry yet he\u2019s healed more broken hearts than all doctors near and far.\n\nJesus unleashed something upon this world that the world has never seen---His teaching, His ethics.\u00a0 Do you realize what we have in the Sermon on the Mount, with Jesus?\u00a0 Something that no philosopher or ethicists has ever come up with.\u00a0 He put morality into the human heart; it\u2019s not the actions that are important, it\u2019s what\u2019s transpiring in the heart.\n\nIn Matthew 5:21-22 He says, \u201cYou have heard that the ancients were told, \u2018YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER\u2019 and \u2018Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.\u2019 [22] \u201cBut I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, \u2018You good-for-nothing,\u2019 shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, \u2018You fool,\u2019 shall be guilty enough to go<\/em> into the fiery hell.\u201d\u00a0 He says just a few verses later, Matthew 4:27-28, \u201cYou have heard that it was said, \u2018YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY\u2019; [28] but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.\u201d\u00a0 Do you realize what He just did for morality and ethics?\u00a0 And how far ahead He put His new movement, Christianity, above and beyond anything that any philosopher or Ephesus had ever come up with.\n\nIn fact, what did they say when He finished the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 7:28-29, it says this:\u00a0 \u201cWhen Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; [29] for He was teaching them as one<\/em> having authority, and not as their scribes.\u201d\u00a0 And believe me, He had His detractors, people as adversaries, as opponents came after Him constantly to try to get Him to make a mistake, catch Him in a contradiction, catch Him in an error, and finally this goes on and on and on and finally you get to Matthew 22:46 where Jesus answers question after question after question with such eloquence and brilliance that it says this:\u00a0 \u201c\u2018No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 This is Jesus, this is the quality of the teaching that He brought to the world.\n\nYou may be familiar with the late Christianity theologian and philosopher, C. S. Lewis, it is this point that I\u2019m making here that convinced him to consider seriously the claims of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 You may have seen this, it\u2019s called The Lord, Lunatic, Liar, Trilemma<\/em>.\u00a0 It starts with the tope that Jesus claimed to be God.\u00a0 I hope you realize that\u2019s what Jesus claimed to be.\u00a0 Another was raised in a home where she was told over and over again that Jesus was a good moralist, a good philosopher, but He never claimed to be God.\u00a0 What Bible are people reading? Of course, He claimed to be God; He did it over and over again.\u00a0 In John 10:31-33 it says this: \u201cThe Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. [32] Jesus answered them, \u201cI showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?\u201d [33] The Jews answered Him, \u201cFor a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be<\/em> God.\u201d\n\nWhen Jesus said \u201cyour sins are forgiven\u201d isn\u2019t that a claim to be deity, since only God can forgive sins?\u00a0 His enemies knew exactly what He was saying.\u00a0 There\u2019s no ambiguity there; He made a direct appeal to deity.\u00a0 And C. S. Lewis said you\u2019ve only got two choices here, it\u2019s either true or false.\u00a0 Let\u2019s pretend it\u2019s false for a minute; if it\u2019s false you\u2019ve only got two choices, he knew it was false or he didn\u2019t know it was false.\u00a0 If He knew it was false that makes Him a liar and why would a man go to his grave for a lie?\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t make any sense, does it?\u00a0 But if He didn\u2019t know it was false that makes Him insane, a lunatic.\u00a0 Are you telling me that a lunatic, a crazed person gave us the Sermon on the Mount?\u00a0 Are you telling that a lunatic changed the course of human history through the quality of his teaching?\u00a0 It\u2019s unfathomable.\n\nSo, C. S. Lewis says the only other option we have is that He claimed to be God and it\u2019s true, which places the onus back on the listener; now the choice is yours.\u00a0 You can accept it or you can reject it.\u00a0 But it was this level of teaching that C. S. Lewis saw in this man Jesus Christ that pushed him in the direction of taking seriously the claims of Christ, a man of a verifiable history, a man of fulfilled prophecy, a man of predicted prophecy, a man of unimpeachable character and morality, a man of profound teaching. But there\u2019s something else Jesus did.\u00a0 He was a man of signs and wonders.\u00a0 He was a man of miracles.\u00a0 In fact, the miracles or the signs which He was performing was what initially attracted Nicodemus to Christ in John 3, a chapter that I like to call Nic at night.\u00a0\u00a0 He was secretly hanging around Jesus, investigating, don\u2019t let anybody know I\u2019m doing this.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t John 3:2, \u201cthis man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, \u2018Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.\u201d\u2019\n\nOver in Matthew 11:2-5, when John the Baptist was starting to have doubts about Jesus, it says this: \u201cNow when John while in prison heard of the works of Christ he sent word by his disciples, and said, [3] and said to Him, \u2018Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?\u2019 [4] Jesus answered and said to them, \u201cGo and report to John what you hear and see: [5] the<\/em> BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the<\/em> lame walk, the<\/em> lepers are cleansed and the<\/em> deaf hear, the<\/em> dead are raised up, and the<\/em> POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.\u201d\u00a0 He appealed to His signs as an authentication of His deity.\u00a0 In fact, there on the Sea of Galilee He calmed a storm in such a nanosecond that the disciples in the boat with Him didn\u2019t know what to do.\u00a0 Are we going to be afraid of the storm or are we now more afraid of Jesus who has authority over the storms?\n\nMark 4:41, it says, \u201cThen they became very much afraid,\u201d I mean the storm was easy, what we\u2019re dealing with now causes even greater fear---who is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, summed up the miraculous ministry of Jesus Christ as follows: Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested\u201d in other words proven, \u201ca man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know\u2014\u201c [Acts 2:22]\u00a0 You all know what He did, because it was common knowledge.\u00a0 In fact, if you read the Gospel of John what you\u2019ll see is the whole book is set up based on the signs that Jesus did.\u00a0 John, as an eyewitness having seen many of these signs, John says this: [John 20:30] \u201cTherefore many other signs Jesus performed in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this Book, [31] but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.\u201d\n\nIf you don\u2019t believe in Christ for any other reason believe on Him because of His miracles.\u00a0 His miracles aren\u2019t there to tantalize curiosity, they\u2019re there to communicate His identity.\u00a0 And once you clearly see His identity what can a person do other than to respond to His free offer of salvation?\u00a0 John is so thorough on this point that he goes through his gospel and he communicates seven signs Jesus did, beginning with water to wine at Cana of Galilee, John2, his first sign, concluding with the resuscitation or the raising of Lazarus from the grave, John 11.\n\nIn fact, these signs were so real that the enemies of Christ Himself were forced to acknowledge the reality of those signs.\u00a0 They were signs that could not be explained away so the only option they had left, having no ability to explain the sign away, is to say he\u2019s tapping into the power of the devil to do these signs.\u00a0 That\u2019s the whole turning point in Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Matthew 12:24, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \"This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, they couldn\u2019t dismiss what He just did in terms of miracles.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t explain it away so they just said it was done by another power source other than God.\u00a0 In that concession, in that admission, the enemies of Christ themselves are acknowledging the authenticity of His signs.\u00a0 Did you know His signs show up in secular literature, in the quote concerning Josephus which I read a little earlier?\u00a0 \u201c\n\n\u201cAbout this time there lived Jesus, a wise man [if indeed one ought to call him a man.<\/u>] For he was one who performed surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly.\u201d\u00a0 His teaching is wonderful.\u00a0 His teaching changed the world but it was accompanied with signs and wonders as Josephus talks about this man, Jesus, who was called the Christ.\u00a0 And tell me Josephus, what is the greatest sign He did.\u00a0 He tells us, \u201cHe appeared to them spending a third day restored to life.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s His greatest sign.\u00a0 I mean, many, many signs He brought forth that they were eyewitnesses to and attested to but there\u2019s a sign that is higher than all the signs and that\u2019s His bodily resurrection from the dead which we are celebrating today on resurrection Sunday.\n\nWhich takes me to a seventh and final thing that makes Jesus unique.\u00a0 He is not just a man of history, He is not just a man of fulfilled prophecy, He is not just a man of predicted prophecy.\u00a0 He is not just a man of unflinching character.\u00a0 He is not just a man of profound teaching.\u00a0 He is not just a man of miracles but He is a man of bodily resurrection.\u00a0 This is why we opened with John 2:18-22, \u201cThe Jews then said to Him, \u201cWhat sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?\u201d [19] Jesus answered them, \u201cDestroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.\u201d [20] The Jews then said, \u201cIt took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?\u201d [21] But He was speaking of the temple of His body. [22] So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered\u201d this is another short-term prediction, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 \u201cremembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.\u201d\n\nWhat did Jesus do?\u00a0 He said I\u2019m going to die and I\u2019m going to rise from the dead.\u00a0 Now countless people in human history have made that claim.\u00a0 But Jesus is different, don\u2019t you think, because He pulled it off. I believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most well attested facts of history.\u00a0 You say well how can you be so sure?\u00a0 A lot of reasons, not the least of which is it altered when these devout Jews started to worship.\u00a0 For 1,500 years they had worshiped and had their sabbath on the last day of the week; all of a sudden, this man Christ shows up and this little band that started, called Christians, started worshiping on the first day of the week.\u00a0 How do you get a Jew to do that, that\u2019s steeped in tradition for 1,500 years?\u00a0 How do you to get them to change the day of worship like that?\u00a0 Because something happened special on Sunday, only the bodily resurrection from the dead could pause a change of thinking that way.\n\nHave you read what Paul says about the resurrection of Jesus.\u00a0 I challenge you today to read the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, called the resurrection chapter.\u00a0 This is just a couple of verses here.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 15:6]\u00a0 \u201cAfter that He,\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, \u201cappeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time,\u201d watch this, \u201cmost of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; [7] then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.\u201d\n\n[1 Corinthians 15:and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. [9]<\/a> For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. [10] But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. [11] Whether then it was<\/em> I or they, so we preach and so you believed.\u00a0 [12] Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? [13] But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; [14] and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. [15] Moreover we are even found to be<\/em> false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. [16<\/a>]For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; [17] and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. [18] Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. [19] If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.\u201d]\n\nJesus came out of the grave and He appeared to 500 people.\u00a0 Now Paul makes a point here when he writes to the Corinthians from Ephesus, check out my story, most of them are still alive.\u00a0 What if Paul\u2019s story hadn\u2019t checked out? What would have happened to the Book of 1 Corinthians?\u00a0 Would it ever been embraced and revered and passed down to the generations?\u00a0 Absolutely not, it would have been discredited right out of the gate.\u00a0 Paul stakes his own authority as an apostle and his own writings in terms of their credibility on the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nWhat if I wrote a book and I said you know, J.F.K. died of natural causes.\u00a0 Well, some of you were there seeing that\u2019s how J.F.K. died, he died of unnatural causes, he was assassinated.\u00a0 Well, what would happen to my book?\u00a0 It would be discredited immediately because of existing eyewitnesses.\u00a0 Do you understand that that\u2019s what would have happened to 1 Corinthians?\u00a0 Do you understand what absolutely would have happened to Paul\u2019s whole anointing and mantle in ministry as an apostle?\u00a0 He\u2019s tying the whole thing to eyewitness testimony.\n\nAnd I\u2019m reminded of that great theological movie, Jerry McGuire\u2014have you seen that movie!\u00a0 What\u2019s the word that shows up over and over again in that movie?\u00a0 Show me the money!\u00a0 Can I change the words around a little bit.\u00a0 Show me the body!\u00a0 SHOW ME THE BODY!\u00a0 Because I think as Christianity spread like wild fire throughout the Greco Roman world it would have been a very easy thing for someone to go into the tomb and to get the body and bring it out in open display and say all of this resurrection stuff is a myth, here\u2019s the corpse, here\u2019s the body, and yet they never did that.\u00a0 The Romans never did it, the Jews never did it, those that hated Christianity from its inception could have done it and they never did it. Do you know why?\u00a0 Because the tomb was empty, that\u2019s why!\u00a0 That\u2019s why I think it\u2019s a historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead.\n\nOh and the crazy theories people have come up with to try to explain the obvious, try to explain away the empty tomb.\u00a0 You\u2019ve heard of the swoon theory, this is the idea that Jesus really didn\u2019t die, He just looked dead, everybody thought He was dead but they put him in the tomb and He really was alive and He kind of woke up from his swoon and He moved the rock and got out of there.\n\nWell, we have some problems with that, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 We have John 19:32-34 which says this, \u201cSo the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and those of the other.\u00a0 [33] But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. [34] Instead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Now I know some medical people they say the separation of blood and water is systematic of death, it\u2019s a ruptured heart.\u00a0 These soldiers had they been wrong on this it could have cost them their lives because that was their job, to make sure that the people on the cross dying that afternoon in Jerusalem are in fact dead!\n\nAnd how would Jesus, in His weakened state, I know He was God and all but there\u2019s a pretty big stone there that an angel had to move, and beyond that how was He supposed to stand in front of the disciples in this weakened condition and convince them that he\u2019s a conqueror over the grave to the point where they\u2019re willing to die for Him. It\u2019s ridiculous!\n\nAnd then some popular theories are the theft theory, somebody stole the body\u2026 well who stole it!\u00a0 Well, Rome stole it.\u00a0 Why would Rome steal it?\u00a0 They were against Christianity, why would they make it seem as if He had risen from the dead.\u00a0 Well, the Jews stole it?\u00a0 Same problem, unbelieving Jews hated the new group called Christians, why would they steal the body out of the tomb and make it look like all these things these crazy Christians are talking about is true?\u00a0 And then people say well, the disciples stole the body.\u00a0 Are you telling me that the disciples went to their graves for a fabrication?\u00a0 I mean, if you know something has been tampered with because you tampered with it and fabricated it, why would you go to your grave proclaiming a resurrected Christ.\u00a0\u00a0 Nobody goes to their grave for a fabrication.\n\nMy favorite is there was a hallucination, the five hundred eyewitnesses that Jesus appeared to all had a hallucination. Really, the exact same ones.\u00a0 I can\u2019t even get two of my dreams on the same night to correlate, I wake up in the middle of the night with one weird dream and I go to bed and I have another really weird dream, it has nothing like the first dream.\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, it takes more faith to believe something like that than going to the simple record of the Scripture.\n\nAnd this is one of my favorites, well, they all went to the wrong tomb.\u00a0 They went to a tomb they thought was Christs but it really wasn\u2019t and that\u2019s why they all thought it was empty.\u00a0\u00a0 ALL of them went to the wrong tomb?\u00a0 I mean, not a single one of them had it right.\u00a0 I mean, they loved Jesus, He was everything to them.\u00a0 They would certainly remember, someone would remember wouldn\u2019t they, the exact tomb He was laid in?\n\nNo, beloved, it takes far more faith to believe in these contraptions and we laugh at these things but this is real stuff.\u00a0 I\u2019m not giving you things that I just thought of; these are things that actual critics of the bodily resurrection of Christ have come up with.\u00a0 In my humble opinion I don\u2019t have enough faith to be an atheist.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have enough faith to believe something like this.\u00a0 Why not just believe what the Bible says?\u00a0 The bottom line is Confucius\u2019s tomb is occupied, Buddha\u2019s tomb is occupied, Mohammed\u2019s tomb is occupied, but Jesus\u2019 tomb is what?\u00a0 It\u2019s empty.\u00a0 That\u2019s a historical fact!\u00a0 This is not religious feelings and sentiments that I\u2019m describing to you; these are objective verifiable facts of history.\n\nAnd so, what can we conclude with all of this?\u00a0 We conclude something very simple, that Jesus Christ, whatever you believe about Him, whatever you think about Him stepped out of eternity into time to do things that no human being has ever done.\u00a0 No human being has had all seven of these arguments converge on one person, let alone one or two.\u00a0 He was a verifiable historical character who fulfilled prophecy and made many short-term predictions Himself.\u00a0 His character could not be questioned or impeached. \u00a0He unleashed upon the world the greatest teaching the world has ever seen.\u00a0 He performed authentic signs and wonders to the point where even His enemies themselves had to acknowledge the authenticity of the sign or wonder and the most powerful thing He did is He rose bodily from the dead on the third day.\n\nWell so what?\u00a0 Here\u2019s the \u201cso what!\u201d\u00a0 Jesus here is speaking to, I think it was Martha, [John 11:25] \u201cJesus said to her, \u201cI am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,\u201d will live.\u00a0 [26] \u201cand everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.\u201d\u00a0 Good theology lesson, right?\u00a0 Look at what He says there at the end of verse 26, \u201cDo you believe this?\u201d\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a more pertinent, relevant, significant question than that.\n\nWhat do you believe?\u00a0 We\u2019re not talking here about generic humanity, I\u2019m talking about you as a person.\u00a0 What do you believe about this?\u00a0 Because that determines heaven or hell.\u00a0 That determines a relationship with God or no relationship with God, right there, that statement, \u201cDo you believe this?\u201d\u00a0 Fortunately, she gets the right answer, [27 \u201cShe said to Him, \u201cYes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even<\/em> He who comes into the world.\u201d\u00a0 Right answer.\u00a0 She fulfilled the condition for justification through a simple childlike faith or confidence in Jesus Christ.\n\nHave\u00a0 you done that?\u00a0 Do you specifically believe this?\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be a tragedy to hear all this data and information and leave this place having never done this, gambling with your eternity?\u00a0 Foolishness!\u00a0 And yet the gospel is so simple it\u2019s so clear.\u00a0 We call it the \u201cgospel,\u201d that means good news; it\u2019s good news because Jesus did everything necessary to bridge the gap, through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension between fallen humanity and a holy God.\u00a0 In fact, what were His final words on the cross?\u00a0 \u201cTetelestai,\u201d PAID IN FULL!\u00a0 It\u2019s not a scenario where gosh, you know, I\u2019ve got to kick in about two percent because Jesus bought the lunch, I need to leave the tip.\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 It\u2019s done, Christianity is not a doing thing, it\u2019s a done thing, it\u2019s all been done, the evidence is in!\u00a0 The act of Christ and what He did has all been admitted as evidence.\u00a0 The only real issue is what do you do with it?\u00a0 And our exhortation to people at Sugar Land Bible Church, our exhortation to people that may be listening online, or listening to this sermon long after it\u2019s given, is to respond in the only way that God requires a response from us, from the human heart where we trust or believe in what He has done for us.\u00a0 We\u2019re not trusting in ourselves any more, our good works, what our parents believe, what church I attend, my resume, whatever the issue is is nonsense.\u00a0\u00a0 You trust in Christ by Himself, He\u2019s your ticket, He\u2019s your eternity, He is the one you trust in for the safe keeping of your soul.\u00a0 What a great time to make that kind of decision for Christ by way of faith on Easter Sunday, better said Resurrection Sunday where we commemorate the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for this man Jesus and what He did and what He accomplished.\u00a0 We\u2019re grateful for the proofs that validate and authenticate the message.\u00a0 Help us to tuck these things deep in our hearts as we share Christ with others this week.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t