TOP 10 REASONS WHY NOT TO FOLLOW JESUS

“The Resurrection”

Pastor Duane Cross |  09.18.2011

“As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him.  ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law.  They will sentence him to die.  Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified.  But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.’”                                        Matthew 20:17-19(NLT)

“Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before.  You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it.  It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you-unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.  I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me.  Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.  He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.  He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.  After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.  And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins,  In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost.”  I Corinthians 15:1-6, 17-18(NLT)

Is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ history or a hoax?

EXHITIT A:  THE GRAVE IS EMPTY!

2 OBJECTIONS:

1st, some claim that Jesus never died.

2nd, theory or objection:

EXHITIT B:  THE EYEWITNESSES…OVER 500 STRONG!

“So Jesus is the One whom God raised from the dead.  And we are all witnesses to this.”                 (Acts 2:32)

3 FACTS ABOUT EYEWITNESSES

            1. He’s appealing to common knowledge.

            2.  Disciples stayed in Jerusalem.

            3.  What happens in Acts 2?  Did Peter get booed off the stage?

EXHITIT C:  THE DISCIPLES…WHO WERE READICALLY CHANGED!

“Then all of Jesus’ followers left him and ran away.”  (Mark 14:50)

EXHITIT D:  THE CONVINCED…OVER 1 BILLION AND COUNTING.

WHAT’S YOUR VERDICT?