Dead Reckoning

The fact that it was is not disputed. Fact. So Peter makes a public evidence based claim in a hostile city. One the one city in the world where an empty tomb could have been easily proven or disproven. Don't don't you think that it would be very simple for those that would that were very inconvenienced by this claim that Jesus rose from the dead to go, alright, everybody. Come on. Let's go to the tomb. Roll it away. Roll it away. Do we all see Jesus' body now? Alright. Let's can we can we put to death the the the resurrection stuff? Okay. You know, they did not do that. Why? Because they couldn't. [00:17:38] (45 seconds)  #EmptyTombEvidence

Here's what you can say with complete honesty today going forward. The resurrection isn't just something that I believe. It's something I can defend. Do all feel that? Do you feel that confidence? It's something that I can defend. Historians who don't share my faith still wrestle with the empty tomb. And if you wanna talk about that, you can talk about that. There's power there. It's not arrogance. It's confidence grounded in something that has actually happened. And when you're confident you know the truth, it shapes how you live today. Let's go there. [00:20:49] (35 seconds)  #DefendTheResurrection

The resurrection is that fixed point. It's not just about religion and feel good and vibes and hope. No. Everything that we say, everything that we do is navigated from it. Scripture itself says that if this event didn't happen, we are all wasting our times here today. That's scripture. You don't have to have a theology degree to make the claim. Don't need to have all the answers. You can speak with more confidence about this than you probably do though because this isn't blind faith. It's not just wishful thinking. [00:20:18] (31 seconds)  #ResurrectionFixedPoint

James, the brother of Jesus and a skeptic during Jesus ministry became a leader of the Jerusalem church after claiming once again a resurrection appearance. These are facts. Okay? This is who they were. Then something happened and everything changed for them. The tomb was empty. Fact. That's not religious belief. Facts. Habermas's point is that you don't need to presuppose Christianity to you don't have to attach meaning to these things. They're simply historical fact. Every serious theory, including skeptical ones, have to account for these facts. [00:15:13] (37 seconds)  #HistoricalEmptyTomb

The disciples didn't borrow this idea from their culture. Something happened that forced them into a category they didn't have. This came out of nowhere. Alright. Call this one the bare minimum. Gary Habermas, another one. He spent decades studying what he calls the minimal facts of the resurrection. What what that means is the facts accepted by the broad consensus of critical scholarship. Facts, including skeptical scholars. He identifies five that are nearly universally agreed upon. Okay? One, Jesus died by crucifixions. His disciples genuinely believed that they saw him risen. Okay? Hear hear what I'm saying. Jesus did die. His disciples genuinely believed they saw him. That's all I'm saying. [00:14:21] (43 seconds)  #MinimalFactsResurrection

Final one. It's called the missing piece. The earliest critics of Christianity, the Jerusalem religious establishment, Roman authorities, get this, they never said the resurrection was invented. They never said this whole thing is just made up, guys. They said, the disciples must have stole the body. Do do you hear what's implied in that? They're admitting and saying, though the disciples just stole the body, the body wasn't there. They admitted that that that Jews admitted. The religious establishment admitted. The Romans who had people on guard all admit, yeah, we don't know what's crazy. There's there was nobody there on Sunday. K? Historical fact. [00:16:38] (48 seconds)  #BodyWasMissing

Many times when it comes to faith and belief and all this stuff, we treat it like it's head knowledge. Like you just say, hey, let me tell you about my faith. But maybe you wanna believe. That's not what Peter does. He doesn't go feelings on this stuff. He goes facts. I know that that faith and facts, it seems like an oxymoron to put those things in the same sentence. But this is exactly what Peter's doing. He's saying, this is fact. You saw it. You witnessed it. We saw it. Everybody knows there was a Jesus. He did these things. He was killed, and we all saw him alive. Facts. Facts. [00:11:52] (41 seconds)  #FaithAndFacts

And Peter says that trials are real, grief is real. And actually, here's where the hope comes in, they're even necessary. They're necessary because if if if our hope is based on what's happening to us and what we see and our feelings about it, we won't have it. But when we have an anchor for the soul in hope, in a real factual event, some of these things are actually necessary for something. Why? Because not because suffering is good in itself, but because it does something. It does something. It refines faith the way that fire refines gold. It it when you put gold in fire, it doesn't become less gold. [00:26:14] (37 seconds)  #TrialsRefineFaith