Summary: 100 Days of Preaching the Gospel #54 | with Daniel Whyte III <br><br> SCRIPTURE -- Matthew 28:1-9: "...And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you..." <br><br> Peter Larson once said, "The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: 'a virgin's womb and an empty tomb.' Jesus entered our world through a door marked, 'No Entrance' and left through a door marked 'No Exit.'" <br><br> On yesterday, we looked at the reality of the virgin birth and saw how that it was essential for our salvation and for God's plan of redemption. The virgin birth was indeed a miraculous event. And the event that we will talk about today is equally miraculous. We are talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. <br><br> The resurrection is also one of the foundation stones of Christianity. Without the resurrection, as Christians, we have no real hope of life after death. If Jesus is not alive, then He is not preparing a home for us in Heaven. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:19: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." What Paul is saying is that if we only benefit from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in this life, and have no hope beyond the grave, then we are just as good as dead. If Jesus was not resurrected, then we have no hope of being resurrected after death ourselves. So, for each of us, the stakes are high when it comes to the resurrection -- eternity rests on whether or not the resurrection really happened. <br><br> I believe that God knew there would be many people who would refuse to believe that the resurrection happened, and that is why God left so much evidence behind to show that the resurrection of Jesus Christ did indeed take place. In fact, there is so much evidence surrounding the resurrection that we will not be able to cover all of it in this message, so we will deal with three evidences for the resurrection today and then look at more evidence on tomorrow. <br><br> 1. The evidence of the empty tomb. <br><br> 2. The evidence that the Bible records women as the first ones to learn that Jesus had been resurrected and the newsbearers of that fact. <br><br> 3. The radical change in the lives of Jesus' disciples is proof that Jesus rose from the dead <br><br> + Plus, listen to Fred Hammond singing "Celebrate (He Lives)" and Deitrick Haddon singing "Sinner's Prayer"
