Hello, friends, and welcome back
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to this program
"Books of the Book."
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My name is Deyvy
Rodriguez and we are so happy
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that you are taking this time
to join us in this Bible study.
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And we have been
studying the Gospel of John
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and today we are
picking up on Chapter 20.
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So, if you have a
Bible near you somewhere,
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I invite you to
grab it and open it again
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to Chapter 20 of
the Gospel of John.
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And with us is Dr. Jon
Paulien, he is a Bible scholar.
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He comes from
Loma Linda University.
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Dr. Jon Paulien, you know,
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we have been
studying the Gospel of John.
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Now we are on
Chapter 20 and definitely
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it has been a lot
of material to cover.
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In fact we have not been
able to read a verse by verse
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and no commentary on that.
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But if someone
is very interested
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in the Gospel of John.
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Someone is watching really wants
to know more about the material
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that we've been
covering or some of the material
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that we've
skipped because of time,
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how can they
attain that material?
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Well, the good
news is that because
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we've not been able to cover
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every details of
the Gospel of John.
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We are planning to put
the script on my website
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and people can access it there
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and there will be
lots of Bible texts
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and lots of features
that we haven't covered here.
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And that particular
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website is
www.thebattleofarmageddon.com.
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So we hope that people
will take advantage of that.
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And there will be no
charge or anything like that.
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No. It's just downloadable.
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No download fees.
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Okay so now we are in Chapter
20 of the Gospel of John.
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The last program we
talked about the crucifixion,
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the trial of
Jesus before Pilate.
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Give us a little bit of
review on the previous chapter,
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so that we can now
having to in context Chapter 20.
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Well, why don't I
take this opportunity
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maybe to quickly
summarize the whole book.
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First of all
there are 12 chapters.
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The first 12 chapters
are Jesus' public ministry
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where He is out ministering
to people in Jerusalem
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and in
surroundings around Jerusalem,
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in Galilee and He goes back
and forth between those two.
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Then in Chapter 13, Jesus
moves to a private ministry,
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just between Him
and His disciples.
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So from Chapters 13 through 17
you have this private ministry
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where He is
preparing the disciples
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for what life would be
like after Jesus leaves.
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Then in Chapters 18 and
19 you have the crucifixion,
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the trial, the crucifixion,
the burial and so on.
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And that sets the
stage for where we are now.
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In Chapter 20, we have moved
to the resurrection of Jesus.
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And it's really an important
turning point in the story
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because without
the resurrection,
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there would be
no Christian church.
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The cross by itself
would simply be a grave
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and the end of
the story but because
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of the resurrection of Jesus,
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it changes everything
with regard to who Jesus is,
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with regard to
how God looks at Him.
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It is the heavenly
court over turning,
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Pilate's court and the
religious leader's court
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and we begin to see that
Jesus is much, much more.
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If Jesus is raised
from the dead then we too
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can one day be
raised from the dead.
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If the
resurrection of Jesus happens,
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then no miracle is impossible
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and that's an
amazing kind of miracle.
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So that sets the tone for
what's happening in Chapter 20
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and there's four
parts in Chapter 20.
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First of all you have
the story of some woman
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who go to the tomb
and they find it empty
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and so they rush back
to the disciples to say,
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"Guess what, the tomb is empty."
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Peter and John
go into a foot race
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and it's one of the two or
three foot races in the Bible
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and Peter cheats, he
gets a head start but John
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is the steady
one and he picks up
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and passes Peter
and he gets there first.
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And John takes a look
inside the door of the tomb,
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doesn't see any thing.
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Peter rushes up,
he goes right in.
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you know, he's more
impetuous of the two.
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And then the second incident
is Mary evidently followed them.
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I don't know if
she was running too
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but she gets there eventually.
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As they leave, she
stays alone at the garden
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there where Jesus is
buried and then she runs into,
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she thinks the gardener
who probably moved Jesus' body
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somewhere else and
finds out it is Jesus Himself.
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Then the third story
is back in the upper room,
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Jesus and the
disciples meet together
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there and He ministers to
them but Thomas isn't there.
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And so the fourth
scene is His appearance
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to disciples and Thomas.
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So there's a
series of incidence here,
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three of which
Jesus actually appears
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and the first one only
the empty tomb appears.
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So there are three appearances
in the Gospel of John.
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How many total
appearances are in the Bible?
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Well, actually there's a
fourth one in Chapter 21.
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Okay. So there would
be four post-resurrection
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appearances of Jesus there
but the total actually is 11.
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When you go to the
entire New Testament
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and I thought it
would be good to share here
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so I wrote it down, make
sure it would be accurate.
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And what I have here is that
Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene.
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We saw that in the
middle of Chapter 20.
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He appears to Mary and
some other women in Matthew 28.
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He appears to Peter by Himself.
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Now we don't have an account
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of that but it's mentioned
by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15
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and it's also mentioned in
Luke 24 that Peter has seen Him,
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you know, one on one.
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So that we know
that, that occurred
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but it's only referred to.
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Then you have the road to Emmaus
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where there's two
disciples walking along the road
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and Jesus joins
them, that's in Luke 24.
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And then here in John,
Jesus meets with 10 disciples
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and Thomas is missing
and then He meets again
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with the ten plus
Thomas a week later.
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In Chapter 21, Jesus meets
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with seven fishing
disciples up in Galilee.
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Then according to Matthew 28,
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He met with the 11 on a mountain
and gave the great commission,
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so that's one I
think everybody knows.
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In the Book of Acts
there's the ascension appearance
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where Jesus goes up to
heaven and according to Paul
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at one point Jesus
met with 500 people
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at one time on a
hillside in Galilee.
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That's the biggest crowd
and then He meets with James
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who was the half
brother of Jesus.
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So that's 11
total and you wonder
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why are all of these mentioned.
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Why so many people.
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I suppose you could ask
why so few but the beauty
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of it is the resurrection
of Jesus is supported
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by many, many witnesses.
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If anybody chose to doubt
the resurrection of Jesus,
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there were so many
people who could say
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that they had
seen Him that it became
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very, very difficult to do.
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If only two or three or
five people had seen Jesus
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after the crucifixion,
it would be easy to say,
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well, you know, maybe they
had hallucinations but 500?
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I mean how many people
can share a hallucination?
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I've been with
people who are hallucinating
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and they are the
only ones that can see
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what they are seeing and hear
what they are hearing, you know.
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So to say that 500
people were all hallucinating
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at the same time, I think
that would be pretty unique.
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And 500 peoples
alive, if you think about it,
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they would have
a similar testimony
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of the resurrection of Jesus.
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And even if their
testimonies aren't identical,
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I mean that's normal.
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You get a group of people,
they are not going to tell
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the story exactly the
same way but the reality
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is they are not all going
to be hallucinating at once.
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Right. You know,
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that the simple weight
of that 500 to 600 people
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saw Jesus after His crucifixion.
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It tells you it's
not a made up story.
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Right. I think that's the part
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that comes through clearly here.
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But you know what?
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Even those witnesses
are maybe not the greatest
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evidence of the
resurrection of Jesus.
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Historically the
greatest evidence
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may well be the empty tomb
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because when you stop and think
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about it that is
pretty hard to explain.
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Why is Jesus' tomb empty?
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Everybody seems
to agree on that.
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The tomb was empty so
what are the possibilities?
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Well, one possibility is
maybe the Romans or the Jews
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came and stole
away His body, okay.
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But what motive
they have to do that?
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How would
stealing the body of Jesus
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help them in their case?
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Right. The
reality is if they had
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done that, all
they had to do to refute
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the story is
produce the body of Jesus.
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They never do.
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So they didn't have the body.
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The other option
is maybe the disciples
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stole the body of Jesus and
in stealing the body of Jesus
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then they made it appear that
He have been resurrected, right.
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So that's the most
plausible explanation here
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but is that really likely.
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I mean the disciples
before the cross were a mess.
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You know, they
were all over the map,
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they didn't really understand,
they didn't really believed,
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they couldn't believe
He was going to the cross.
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I mean, Peter
pulls the sword out,
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can't let this
happen, no way, you know.
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They didn't buy
the idea that Jesus
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was going to be crucified.
00:10:25.17\00:10:26.31
So the whole thing
was devastating to them.
00:10:26.34\00:10:29.89
Everything seemed lost and gone.
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Even after He returns,
they are slow to believe.
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You know, look at Thomas
but he is not the only one,
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all of the
disciples are slow to believe.
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The women come
back and they say,
00:10:42.87\00:10:45.27
"You know,
Jesus has appeared..."
00:10:45.30\00:10:47.45
I don't know about that.
00:10:47.48\00:10:49.79
Peter and John come
back, "Well the tomb is empty."
00:10:49.82\00:10:51.63
I don't know.
00:10:51.66\00:10:52.74
It's only when they see Jesus,
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when they touch Him,
00:10:54.90\00:10:56.26
when they get
that full five sense,
00:10:56.29\00:10:58.90
sense of it then they say,
00:10:58.93\00:11:00.94
"Wow, He must have been
raised from the dead afterward."
00:11:00.97\00:11:04.84
And by the way, while John
00:11:04.87\00:11:08.40
doesn't mention
it for the disciples
00:11:08.43\00:11:10.99
to steal the body
means to get passed
00:11:11.02\00:11:13.04
the detachment of Roman solders.
00:11:13.07\00:11:15.98
And no matter how
brave Peter might be,
00:11:16.01\00:11:19.16
he is not a trained
solder and these guys
00:11:19.19\00:11:22.80
were the Navy
Seals of their day.
00:11:22.83\00:11:25.17
I seriously don't
think that the disciples
00:11:25.20\00:11:27.78
had any shot of getting the body
00:11:27.81\00:11:29.68
even if they had wanted to.
00:11:29.71\00:11:31.59
Would they want to bad enough
00:11:31.62\00:11:32.82
to fight their
way through you know,
00:11:32.85\00:11:35.25
a whole squad of
Roman solders, probably not.
00:11:35.28\00:11:39.11
So, then comes
the final question.
00:11:39.14\00:11:45.03
Maybe the
disciples made it all up.
00:11:45.06\00:11:48.33
You know, the tomb is empty
and so they create this story
00:11:48.36\00:11:51.91
that Jesus was raised from dead.
00:11:51.94\00:11:53.58
They know that he wasn't
but they create the story
00:11:53.61\00:11:56.68
to keep the myth alive.
00:11:56.71\00:11:58.63
Is that really likely?
00:11:58.66\00:12:00.68
I don't think so because
who would hang on to a hoax
00:12:00.71\00:12:07.34
all the way through their lives,
00:12:07.37\00:12:09.29
go through all kinds
of torment and suffering,
00:12:09.32\00:12:11.92
go to martyrdom
and death for something
00:12:11.95\00:12:14.82
that they knew was a lie?
00:12:14.85\00:12:17.04
That just doesn't make
any sense historically.
00:12:17.07\00:12:19.86
So I think we can reasonably
assume that the body of Jesus
00:12:19.89\00:12:25.07
was in fact raised from the dead
00:12:25.10\00:12:27.06
and that's the only
historical explanation
00:12:27.09\00:12:29.98
that make sense of all
the details that we have.
00:12:30.01\00:12:32.83
And not only one disciple
to hold on to hoax like that
00:12:32.86\00:12:35.67
but as we were saying at least
00:12:35.70\00:12:37.70
just a little bit
more than 500 people.
00:12:37.73\00:12:40.44
Yeah. And we were
also talking about
00:12:40.47\00:12:42.56
the resurrection of
Lazarus and how they wanted to--
00:12:42.59\00:12:46.73
the Jews wanted to kill.
00:12:46.76\00:12:49.16
They were looking for an
opportunity to kill Lazarus
00:12:49.19\00:12:51.91
because it was also
convincing of the power of God.
00:12:51.94\00:12:57.01
And so I would suppose
00:12:57.04\00:12:58.46
they would have to
do a lot of planning,
00:12:58.49\00:13:02.35
you know, for
those 500 witnesses
00:13:02.38\00:13:04.85
as well and that
is very impossible.
00:13:04.88\00:13:07.87
And you know unless
one has the assumption
00:13:07.90\00:13:11.12
that a
resurrection is impossible
00:13:11.15\00:13:12.86
in the very face of it that
God doesn't exist and so on.
00:13:12.89\00:13:16.32
Then one would have
to come up with some idea
00:13:16.35\00:13:18.77
of how this story occurred
without a real resurrection.
00:13:18.80\00:13:23.19
But if you believe in God
and believe in the possibility,
00:13:23.22\00:13:26.65
the resurrection of Jesus
00:13:26.68\00:13:28.27
is a solid historically evidence
wise as anything else we know.
00:13:28.30\00:13:33.59
Why don't we get
into the story? Sure.
00:13:33.62\00:13:35.09
Take Chapter 20
and read verses 1-9
00:13:35.12\00:13:38.99
and when you're
done with that reading,
00:13:39.02\00:13:40.49
we should
probably go to a break.
00:13:40.52\00:13:41.96
Yes. "Now on the
first day of the week
00:13:41.99\00:13:44.91
Mary Magdalene
went to the tomb early,
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while it was still
dark, and saw that the stone
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had been taken
away from the tomb.
00:13:50.68\00:13:53.20
Then she ran and
came to Simon Peter,
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and to the other
disciple, whom Jesus loved,
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and said to them,
'They have taken away
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the Lord out of the
tomb, and we do not know
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where they have laid Him.'
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Peter therefore went
out, and the other disciple,
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and were going to the tomb.
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So they both ran together,
and the other disciple outran
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Peter and came
to the tomb first.
00:14:13.20\00:14:16.52
And he, stooping
down and looking in,
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saw the linen cloths lying
there yet he did not go in.
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Then Simon Peter
came, following him,
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and went into the tomb;
and he saw the linen cloths
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lying there,
and the handkerchief
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that had been around His head,
not lying with the linen cloths,
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but folded together
in a place by itself.
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Then the other disciple,
who came to the tomb first,
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went in also and
he saw and believed.
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For as yet they did
not know the Scripture,
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that He must rise
again from the dead."
00:14:51.67\00:14:55.89
Okay. Why don't we
take that moment here
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and move toward a break.
00:14:59.29\00:15:01.71