Apr 22, 2022
Two years ago I was able to travel to Israel and visit a number
of significant places we read about in the Bible. On my last
day in Jerusalem, our group visited the Garden Tomb site (pictured
below). It's the place which best matches the description
given to us in John's gospel as to where the body of Jesus was
buried.
When we first arrived, I was surprised by two things; the number of
people in attendance, and secondly, the diversity of those
people. There were people from every continent on earth
gathered as one group near the Garden Tomb. At one point I
was able to hear multiple languages singing worship songs to Jesus,
it was truly a small glimpse of Heaven!
Why were we all there? We wanted to see the empty tomb of
Jesus (and I can verify, it was empty)! My brothers and
sisters from every corner of the planet and myself know this simple
truth: Our faith in Jesus is built entirely upon his resurrection
from the dead. I could walk away from the Garden Tomb with
added boldness, courage and devotion because my savior lives!
Why does this matter? There continues to be a growing wave
of skepticism regarding the resurrection of Jesus from the
dead. Smart, intelligent, and sophisticated influencers
continue to share their skepticism as to why it's silly to believe
that dead people rise from the dead. This then raises a very
relevant question, which many people, maybe even you, wrestles
with: Can a reasonable, rationale person believe that
Jesus rose from the dead?
In this sermon we will talk about how history provides us with
ample evidence to believe that Jesus of Nazareth not only died on a
cross, but rose from the dead! And because of these facts,
our lives can be transformed forever.