 Okay, welcome back to our second lecture, BC 212 on Christian Apologetics. We are talking about the resurrection of Jesus and we are trying to say how we can be convinced about the resurrection of Jesus just based on the evidence or the information that's given to us, that we can be convinced and if you look at it very critically, like a court, let's imagine ourselves being lawyers and looking at what happened, can we convince ourselves and others who question the validity of the resurrection of Jesus. So we mentioned four, we went through four quickly, we mentioned the broken Roman seal, the fact of the empty tomb, the large stone that was moved, the Roman gods who ran away and then they paid money to circulate, you know, a wrong story to explain the missing body of Jesus. So number five, look at it. Fifthly, grave clothes were left behind. So we have to imagine, even if the 12 disciples of Jesus came to steal the body, okay. So according to their tradition, the body is wrapped with a lot of cloth and embalm, they put some, you know, like something like an ointment that would over time become hard, right, it'll become, it'll make the the cloths make it firm, make it hard, like a case, like a shell. So they did that and they put the body of Jesus in the tomb. So this is three days later, so that the grave cloth must have become somewhat harder, like, I mean, not saying it would have fully become hard, but it is slowly, it becomes slowly, you know, the cloth then becomes really thick. So the disciples have come to steal the body. Imagine, somehow the gods was asked to sleep, the disciples came to steal the body, they moved the stone, do you think they will stand there and say, take the cloth out now? Let us only want the body, take the cloth out, and you can imagine them, you know, holding the body and they're trying to take out the cloths, remove the cloth, that too from, you know, the cloth must have been from head to toe and must have become a little sticky by now, they'd have put that, you know, whatever that embalming thing is, it must have become a little bit sticky, so it's not easy to take it out, it must have been. And so you can imagine, they come to steal the body and you think they'll be doing this, taking the cloth and then they fold it nicely and keep it there. Maybe somebody needs to use this. They fold the cloth and keep it nicely and then say, we only got the body, let us go. I don't think anybody will do that. Even if they have come there, they've managed to open the tomb, within two minutes, take the body, run, cloth and everything, run. We will take out everything later, but what we are seeing is something very different. We are seeing his cloth, the grave cloth, which wrapped his body, it is lying there, it is left there in the tomb and the cloth that was to wrap around his face was folded and kept. That means whoever is there, they're not worried about anything, hold and keep it, which we have to think, would somebody coming to steal the body have done this? If they've come to steal, they would have taken everything and gone. Why they've left the grave cloth behind? Why have they folded the face cloth and kept it nicely there and then gone? Why? So, this us again, one more thing to think about. Hey, was the body stolen or did he actually rise from the dead and that when he rose, the supernatural work of God just took off the cloth, just left it there. Number six, so now Jesus appearance is confirmed. So, the Bible tells us for 40 days, he showed himself alive. Immediately after his resurrection, 40 days, he showed himself alive and Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 that there were 500 people, at least 500 witnesses. Now, in any court, if you have three or four witnesses saying the same thing, that is good enough. Here you're having 500 witnesses, 500 people are saying, we saw Jesus. In those 40 days, we saw him, 500 people. So, this is important. Secondly, among the witnesses, you also have somebody who was a hostile witness. So now if you go, maybe 10 years, we're going 10 years after the resurrection. You come to about 80, 40 and you think about a man called Saul of Tarsus. He is against Jesus. He is actually persecuting the Christians and he is saying, I saw Jesus. I was on the way to Damascus. It was 12 o'clock in the afternoon, bright light. So I'm not imagining something, everything was fine. Suddenly there was a light that was even brighter that came and I heard the voice of Jesus. So we are saying 10 years later, somebody is having this kind of an experience and saying, I saw Jesus and he is a hostile witness. That means he is not one of the disciples or anything. He was actually an opponent of Jesus and he's saying, I saw this bright light. I heard the voice of Jesus and I'm following Jesus now. So that is 10 years later, so Jesus is still alive 10 years later and it is a light from heaven. And what is most amazing is his own family became believers. So why is that important? Because Jesus had some half brothers, meaning other brothers whom were natural born to Joseph and Mary. They all grew up in the same house. But these brothers, they did not believe in Jesus during his earthly ministry. He's our brother, he must be doing some trick, getting all these people to follow him. So in John chapter 7, we see this, right? His brothers said to him, that means Jesus own brothers. They said to you and your disciples, you go or it says there in John 7. Even his brothers did not believe in him, John 7.5. So that means during his ministry, while he was preaching and teaching, his own brothers didn't believe. No, no, no, he's doing something wrong, something, he's cheating all these people. We know he's our own brother, he was there. We grew up together. But in Acts chapter 1, the mother of Jesus and the brothers are all sitting in the upper room, waiting for the Holy Spirit. So say, hey, what happened? While he was alive, you didn't believe? You saw him killed on the cross, now you're quietly sitting in the upper room, waiting for the Holy Spirit. What happened? Only one thing could have happened, his resurrection, because they all saw him die. They saw how he was crucified on the cross. They must have been thinking, see our brother, he cheated all these people, this is what he got. Till that point, they must have been thinking like that. Then something changed. They're sitting quietly in the upper room, the same brothers. And one of those brothers, his name is James, he becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem. And he writes an episode of James. So they think, okay, something has changed. These brothers didn't believe. Till he was crucified, they didn't believe. Next, within the next 40 days, they have become believers. Why? Only reason can be his resurrection, because if we had not risen from the dead, they would have said, funeral over, we will carry on with life. But it didn't happen like that. So what we're saying is, see, there were 500 witnesses. His own brothers have become witnesses. And 10 years later, we have a man like Saul who also has changed. So this is enough proof that Jesus rose from the dead. Enough. Last two points. Number seven, the disciples own lives. That means, you know, see, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, you can think these 12 people followed Jesus, 12 apostles. One of them, of course, betrayed him. So we have 11. They could have said, maybe we all got cheated now. He died. He went off. We got cheated. Let us go back fishing, go back to our own work, continue with life. Three years wasted. It's okay. We will carry on. That's what would have happened if it was just the way things would have gone normally. Yeah, we got fooled for three years. Well, at least we were here. We heard what he said. He said, nice things. What finished his life is over. We will count. But 12, of course, they replaced Judas. These 12, all of them gave their life were martyred. All of them, right? They gave their life for what they believed. This Jesus rose from the dead. They were preaching from the beginning. They waited for the day of Pentecost. And that message from the beginning was he rose from the dead. And we will die for it. So these are the, we're not talking about just some, you know, strangers. These people who were with him, they had the choice. They could have quietly gone back, which has happened. Like if you read the book of Acts, you know, in Acts 4 and again other places, they mentioned other people who had followers. But when they died, those followers all dispersed. I mean, there were other people during, during, you know, Bible times who came preaching something, something and people followed them for some time. And when they died, everybody dispersed. But in the case of Jesus, it didn't happen that way. These 12 men stayed and from the beginning they preached his resurrection and they gave their life for that message. And lastly, number 12, we can say lives are transformed. And this will happen in his name that today, if Jesus was dead, there won't, lives won't be changed. Miracles won't happen. But Jesus is alive. Therefore, we can believe for lives to be transformed and miracles to happen. So eight facts that convince us that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead and he is alive today, right? Any questions on that? Any questions? Yes, go ahead. Pastor, so like I don't know if you heard of this archaeologist, but like he, he has found like some things like from the past, like David's time or Jesus' time. And about Jesus is like where I think he found the blood of Jesus. He found the blood of Jesus. I don't know, but it is like, yeah. So like he found his blood and then he gave to the scientists in Israel, in Israel and then they looked it up. They saw the blood and had only 23 chromosomes. So then they were like, what is this? How can it exist and who has this? Because we need to have 46 or something, right? So that guy said it is your Messiah or your Lord. They found the Ark of the Covenant. Yes. Two pairs. Take that as like one of the evidences of Jesus being alive also. So first of all, I don't know about this. I haven't read about it. So I mean, I remember this is mentioned some classes back. So, but I personally, you know, I haven't looked into this. So I don't know. Maybe I should go and look into it. So I don't know. I can't speak to it. What we wouldn't need to do is check if it's a reliable source. Like, has this been verified? Who's the one who's reporting it? Has it been verified by some independent scientists? You know, so like, is it authentic? Is this news authentic? Because there's nowadays a lot of things can go online. And, you know, so, so that's the first thing. If it is authentic, okay, it's good. But I don't, I wouldn't get necessarily so excited just about that. You know, like, okay, this, this, there's so much more to our Christian faith. So it's good to know if it's authentic and if it's genuine, it's good to know. But I wouldn't like highlight that so much simply because lots of people can say lots of things and they themselves can, you know, do lots of other, bring a lot of other information. So then it becomes a battle of information. I got this and you got that, you know, when you're fighting. So I think it's just best to stay with the truth and forgot TV. I'm got TV is it. Okay, let me go and check it. I don't know. Goli's head also. All right. I don't know too much about that. All right. Any other questions here? Prince has a question. Believers continuously living a sinful and godly life. Land up. Will you go to heaven or not? So Prince, I would point us to at least one passage of the scripture in Galatians 5. Paul is writing to believers in Galatians 5 and he says, it teaches us that very clearly that if we live according to the works of flesh, she says, you know, we will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. So based on that, and I'm just looking at Galatians 5, Paul clearly tells us we cannot or then we can also get Romans 8. He says, you know, if you live after the flesh, we will die, but we have to walk according to the spirit. So Romans 8 Galatians 5 clearly tells us that living continuously and sin is unacceptable. First John chapter 3, John writes, whoever is born of God does not continue in sin. Right. So the Bible is teaching us that we should not. So the answer to the question is we will, you know, if a person is living according to the flesh, she will die. The whole issue is, you know, when and how, you know, there's a person who begins who has accepted Christ, who may have had a genuine experience of salvation, but then goes away into living in sin, living ungodly. When does that shift take place? That is something only God can see and God can decide. Right. So we just follow the instruction of Scripture, live righteous. But what if a believer goes away living ungodly? Well, we know that kind of a life will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. But when does that change take place? That we will, you know, God can see and God will decide. Okay. Question? Question. We have been saved and we are living a very holy life. Fine. And because of our body, bodily things and all, I did a sin. I accepted Jesus. I'm living a holy life and I sinned and I sinned. So after instant of time only next, I've died. So if we, because we, the other thing is I didn't repent it for the sin what I did. Yes. And I died. So do we, are we going to heaven or? Yeah. That's what, but the thing is faith on Jesus. But there is a little doubt. Yeah. You can also think about it, right? Think of Jesus coming from heaven. The trumpet is sounded that moment. So many believers have just committed some sin, but the trumpet sounded. They didn't have time to repent. Will they get caught up in their rapture or not? You know, we can think about these scenarios, right? So whoops. So my answer to that is, yeah, we will be forgiven and taken into heaven because, you know, our sins are forgiven based on our faith in Jesus Christ. And God knows at that moment, okay, that instant, two seconds before, you know, either the person died or the price came. He got angry with his dog or he kicked his cat or that did something terrible. You know, so we might forgive. We don't have a chapter in verse on it, but my thought is that here we are saved by grace. You know, God will take us. But so that's a different scenario. Whereas in the description, what the question that Prince asked, this person is continuing to live ungodly, continuing in sin. So life's continuing in sin. Ignore willfully sinning without repenting and turning to God. That's a different scenario. Yeah. Awesome. So Pastor, I'm asking about the disciples. I mean, I already told you earlier that the Pharisees, the priests, like they, they believe what Jesus said that he will rise on the third day. That's what they did. All of that preparation. But then the disciples, I mean, they did not understand, did not get it. So, and the other thing is also like we see later on that Jesus actually not blocked their minds from understanding, but like later on, he finally opened up their minds to understand. I mean, like, I mean, why did God do that? I mean, yeah, it was true that during his ministry and the Lord Jesus was speaking to his disciples about his death and resurrection, they didn't understand. They didn't really get a grasp of what he was talking. But after his resurrection, he opened their understanding, looked at 24. And I think it's more of a revelation coming to them. That, oh, now all of those scriptures make sense. Maybe at that time they were looking at Jesus and their focus on Jesus was this man is going to be the Messiah and they probably were looking at him as the one who's going to become King. Right? They were looking at that part of him because you see, even after his resurrection at chapter one, the question they're asking is, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? That means are you going to give us back? Are you going to make us kings? Give us authority and overthrow these Romans. So that's been their mindset. Hey, this Jesus is going to be the Messiah who's going to establish the kingdom of heaven here on earth. So that was their expectation. But Jesus said, I'm going to die on the cross. I'm going to rise up. No, nobody will not let anybody touch you. He is responding. That his mind is, hey, you have to set up the kingdom. I will sit on your right hand. He will sit on your left hand. So they are thinking that way. But Jesus say, I'm going to go to the cross. I'm going to be crucified. I'll rise up the third day. What is he talking about? They didn't understand those things that was not highlighted. That was not, you know, but when that happened and then they saw in the scriptures that the scriptures all actually spoke of the Messiah as a suffering servant. They were only looking at Messiah as the king. Right? So the book of Isaiah. Yeah, Messiah will come as a king. The government will be on his shoulder. He will establish his reign and the lion will lie down with a lamb. You know, that will be his reign. So they're looking for that kind of a time. But as they also said, Messiah will come. He will die as a 53. He'll die on the cross. He will be crucified like this, but they didn't understand. So after Jesus explains them, explained it to them after his resurrection, then they receive the understanding. So that's the difference. Why would they think that because Jesus already explained to them that he did not come as they expected. He already explained to them so much. I mean, like, why do you think they would still think that? I think it had to do a lot with their expectation. That means you can imagine you're going to the synagogue and you're hearing talk that Messiah will come and he will set up his kingdom here on earth, which is true. It is in the scriptures. For example, today in our world today, there are what is called as ultra orthodox Jews. There are Jews. They are referred to as ultra orthodox. These Jews do not recognize Israel as it is today. They're Jews, but they will not recognize Israel as a nation, as it is today. Why? They're saying, no, no, no, no. For us, the Messiah has to come and he has to set up his throne. That is the real nation we are looking forward to. So that means they're still holding on to that tradition. So they're still today. They call ultra orthodox Jews. They do not recognize what is like Israel as a nation, the prime minister, all that. It's all man-made. We're not interested in this. We are waiting for the true Messiah to come and his kingdom to be set. So you can imagine from those times beyond 2000 years, that was the expectation. So when they said we have found the Messiah, what are they expecting? Messiah, you're going to get rid of the Romans and you're going to bring the Jews back into power in our region. That is their expectation. So it took a lot of change in thinking to embrace what the scriptures already spoke about the Messiah, which they overlooked. That's the problem. Okay. So let's quickly now, you know, talk about, you know, I'm looking at Jesus. Well, I just want to quickly do the two short chapters there. So one is lesson number 12, Salvation in Jesus Christ. So, you know, when we present Jesus to the world, we are talking about the uniqueness of Christ. We're talking about, you know, when we're questioned about the resurrection, we can explain. See, this is why if we think through very clearly, we can say with conferences, Rosa from the dead, even though we were not there, we can use the information we do have to be convinced. And the next thing is about salvation in Jesus. Why do you say there's salvation only in Jesus? So that's why that's another question. That's another area where, you know, people will ask us, why can't you just say there is salvation every religion? You all follow what you want. We'll all meet in heaven. I can't you speak that. Now, why do you insist salvation only in Jesus? So, well, we have to be very clear on that. Number one, because that is what the Word of God says. Nowhere the Bible says, follow any path you want, you will make it to heaven. There is no nothing like that in the Bible. The Bible is saying there is only one way. So if we are following the Bible, then that is the only thing we can say. Secondly, because Jesus is unique, and we went through all of these nine statements in the previous lesson. So we are convinced that Jesus is unique. There is no one else like Him. So we can say salvation is only in Jesus. Very unique. Nobody else comes near these things that we had spoken about. And number three, because Jesus provides a complete remedy for sin. And He brings us into a relationship with God. So there may be, yes, we recognize there are a lot of good ideas, good philosophies, good, maybe we could say, things that people can do, religions, there's that, a lot of good things are there. You're not saying they are bad. But in dealing with the issue of sin and bringing us a relationship with God, only Jesus presents us with that. Only the Bible is telling us, the Bible is telling us, this is possible only through Jesus Christ. Others can say, okay, live nice, live a good life, do a lot of good things, have a fulfilled life or whatever. But can you deal with sin? Can you bring us into a relationship with God? That's only promised through Jesus Christ. We receive salvation by grace through faith. It's a free gift. It's not something we have to work at. It's not something I have to do so many good works. It's not something that comes through a cycle of incarnation, reincarnation. It's not me depending on somebody else's good works. No, I can receive it. Each one of us can receive it by grace through faith. So this is why we say there's salvation only in Jesus. So we must be very clear on that. Okay, fine. Any questions? All right. So let me see. I think we'll pause here. What we want to do in the next two lessons, 13 and 14 years, how do we, I'll just introduce it and then we'll pause. How do we share Christ with a Hindu? How do we share Christ with a Muslim? Okay. So we're not going to go into one full study on Hinduism and full study on Islam. That's not the point. What we want to do is we want to understand briefly a little bit on Hinduism. Understand what they think because there are similarities, but very different meaning. When we say, in example, we mentioned already, when we say incarnation, that idea is also in Hinduism, but their meaning is very different. For us, we are saying this is God who came once, who became man. For them, it's like a lot of avatars keep coming. Ideas there. When you say, Triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, similar concept is there, the concept is there, but the meanings are very different. So when we are speaking and sharing the Christian faith, you must understand that we are saying something, they say they understand, but what they're understanding is actually something different. So we have to be very careful or very clear in what we are saying about Jesus. Why Jesus is different? Why believing in Jesus is different? So that is similarly in Islam, what is the difference? Islam, people, Muslims would have a lot of questions about Jesus because they consider him as a prophet, nothing more. So then they will question, why do you say he is God's son? How can God have a son? How can he prove his resurrection? So those are the things in the minds of Muslims. So the challenges with sharing Christ with the Hindu, the challenges with sharing Christ with the Muslim, they're two different and we need to know how to present the gospel, present the message of Jesus in a very clear way for them, each one. Are they talking to a Hindu or a Muslim presented in a very clear way? And then of course, we let them make the decision, right? So we will do this next week, lesson number 13, lesson number 14. With that, we will conclude this section on looking at the person of Jesus. So then we'll move into some other topics before we close. Alright, any questions? Okay, no questions. Can somebody please close in prayer? Soul into your hand, Father. Guide us, lead us through your Holy Spirit. We submit the whole day into your hand. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, thank you everyone for joining us today. Enjoy the rest of your day. See you again next week. Bye now.