Today we begin a brand new series entitled Skeptics. Welcome. And the word skeptic can be defined as a person who questions someone or something's validity and authenticity. And if you find yourself even questioning that definition of skepticism, you might yourself be a skeptic. What's interesting about the word skepticism or being a skeptic is that it is most often connected to Christianity that when you search Google, when you search online and say someone is skeptic of usually it's connected to some question related to religion and it's easy for us to question the value of something and the validity of something because we've been asking questions from the day, from the day we were born. I mean, just traveling with our kiddos, right? And, and questions, it's little kids just ask questions nonstop all the time. Like we were even boarding the plane, we hadn't even buckled our seatbelts yet. My own goes. Are we there yet? I'm like we haven't even buckled the take off, you know, and it's just like, what's this? What's this? Why are we doing this? What's this? What's this? Why? Why, why I mean we just question, question, question but then as we get older, we still have questions. And what I wanna encourage you to do is rather than reject the question, I want you to actually lean into those questions and lean into those doubts because as a Christian, as Christians, as a church family, yes, we walk by faith, but we are walking on a firm foundation that you can have confidence and courage in what and why you believe what you believe. And so over the next couple of weeks, we wanna take a look at some good questions people ask about that. So I encourage you to invite friends or if you are curious about faith or if you wondered about the basics of Christianity or the evidence for Christianity, I encourage you to really engage and lean into this series because we want you to not only ask the questions, we wanna give you some practical answers to those questions so that you can go and walk in faith, but also walk in confidence in what you believe. You see the word apologetics. That's what we're gonna be doing. Over the next couple of weeks really comes from a Greek word apologia, which means the ability to give reason or defense. That's why our word apologize. Our apology also includes this idea of what you're doing is that you are giving reason for why you're sorry and hopefully not a reason or defense or excuse for why you're not sorry. And so either way there's a reason involved. And so we are wanna give a reason why we believe because we actually have a reasonable defense. That word is found several times in scripture. But let me share one of those with you. It's found in First Peter 315. It's a guiding verse for our series that says in your heart, honor Christ, the Lord as Holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and respect. And so I want you to notice a few things in this, in these verses first is that it starts with your heart and honoring Christ in your heart as holy. We're gonna really focus a little bit more on the intellect here these next couple of weeks to give you some facts and answers to questions you might be asking or might have been asked by other people. But I want you to know that at the core of it, there's still this idea of your attitude and your heart of how do you view God in your heart? Are you, are you approaching it in a humble manner to for the purpose of lifting him up? Notice also that he's saying in here that you have to give a defense for anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope. Well, if you have to give an answer before there's an answer, there's always a question. And so you have to ask yourself, does your life beg the question? In other words, are you living so differently? Are you living in such a way, a way of forgiveness and grace and joy and purpose that people actually stop you? Like, why do you do that? See, some of us are ready to argue when really our opportunity is to share hope and to do so with gentleness and respect. And so what we see here is that our faith is that it's faith, it's belief, but there's also reason and intellect and it's a reasonable faith that there is evidence is pointing to the truth. And so that when we do that, our, our goal is not to win an argument. Our goal is to share truth, to share hope and do so with gentleness and respect. And so this is where we have this idea of apologetics. And so today we're gonna ask the question, did Jesus actually rise from the dead? And what I wanna encourage you with today is this idea. If you're taking notes, you can write this down that our faith stands on the strength of the resurrection that unlike other religions, our, our faith really all our eggs is in the basket of the resurrection of Jesus. If there is no resurrection of Jesus, then everything that we talk about is in vain. But thankfully, there are truths, there are evidences, there are facts that support the belief of the resurrection of Jesus. And it is so strong that we can stand firmly on it today. And so what I want to present to you today is known as a minimal facts argument. It was made famous by a guy named the two guys, Doctor Gary Habermas and then Doctor William Lane Craig. And really the idea of ma minimal facts argument is that instead of making an overarching premise or argument, like take it or leave it all things instead of from the top down, it actually is a bottom up strategy and what it is that, hey, I know you might have questions about the Bible. I know you might have questions about this, that or this aspect. But let's start from the bottom and brick by brick. I wanna share with you a minimum number of facts that have been proven throughout society and history and culture. And that when combined requires an explanation. In other words, you have a story that is centered on the facts. And so what are those facts? And then what is the best or most reasonable explanation of those facts? Same thing. If you're building a case in a courtroom, here are the facts. And so what's the most reasonable story to that? OK. And so we're gonna take that approach. And today I wanna share with you five facts of the resurrection, five facts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The first fact here is what I would describe as termination. This is the fact that Jesus was crucified. Jesus is the most talked about figure in history. And that for the most part, no one's actually denying the existence of Jesus. It would be like trying to deny the existence of Abraham Lincoln or George Washington or a famous figure of our day. There is so much that has been written about so much talked about that that is within in the context of history and nations and kings and rulers and public record that it's not a myth from millions of years ago, thousands of years ago. This is something that happened in a real place that you can visit right now with real stories and written evidence behind it. And so Jesus not only existed, but Jesus was in fact crucified. So the Roman Empire had professional executioners who that was their job that if they didn't succeed in their job, they themselves would be killed. So you had a government that didn't want Jesus to succeed. He was being proclaimed as a king. And so well, a king is a threat. And so I don't want him to be around. And so they had the means and they had the motive and then they had professional killers do that. If they don't do their job, they themselves would be killed. And then the followers also scattered because Jesus was killed. And then not only is this recorded in the scriptures, but let me give you two names that if you want to search up and research later, you can go deeper into. But a Jewish historian known as Josephus and then a Roman historian, Tacitus also wrote about the execution of Jesus by the sentencing of Pontius Pilate because it was a government public record of what happened. And so you have Josephus, the Jewish historian, you have Tacitus, the Roman historian and then you have all the different counts about the execution of Jesus as well as all of his followers scattering and then the Roman Empire declaring victory. And so you can see here that it was a fact that Jesus was crucified. The second fact that we have around the resurrection is the, is the tomb of Jesus. And that is that the tomb of Jesus was found empty. The tomb of Jesus is found empty. Why is that important? Well, the tomb itself, his body was buried by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. So you have a political leader and a religious leader, but not a Christian leader of that time, not a quote unquote, they were secretly, but they were part of the ruling party. And so they buried the body of Jesus, not the disciples there. And then they sent a Roman army or a legion to guard the tomb because they didn't want anyone to take the body. And so you know that the body is there. Well, when the body is discovered missing and the tomb is rolled away. Actually, the guards who were sent, they go to their leaders, Matthew 2811 to 15. And they say, hey, tell the le tell our boss that the disciples stole the body. Well, why would you tell that story in the first place? Because the body is missing. Another account talks about a grave clothes of Jesus that the the tomb, the stone was rolled away and that they all they saw was grave clothes. And so multiple accounts and then you actually have five independent sources. So we usually take this as one written book, but you have five different accounts. Uh all pointing to the empty tomb. So you have Matthew 28 you have Luke 24 acts two. It's the same writer there. You have Mark and Mark 16, you have John 20 then you have Paul writing to the Corinthians and we're gonna get to the Corinthians in just a moment. But in here we see that the tomb was found empty and the leaders were scared. And then also it is practiced that when a religious leader dies, that they put a shrine on that tomb, whereas there was never a shrine placed on the tomb of Jesus because there was no body. And so it is a fact that Jesus was crucified, it was a fact that his tomb was found empty. And then fact number three is the number of sheer testimonies of people who proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus who by the way didn't proclaim that days before like this wasn't a teaching. They, the Jewish people believed in an end of day resurrection. But even though Jesus predicted his own death bearer and resurrection, the disciples didn't get it. The whole gospel story is filled with the disciples going. Huh? And Jesus said, no, I'm gonna die and then I'm gonna come back. What? Like, no, don't be afraid. I'm gonna die and I'm gonna come back and it's gonna be good, huh? Like the whole story. And so then when he does die, what did the disciples do? They hid. They they were terrified because the leader of their movement just died. And if you typically if you kill the leader, you kill the movement. But yet just days later, you have all these different accounts. And what's interesting about these testimonies is, is the fact that they are uniform. It's the same story. It was early. There were many of them, they admit embarrassing details and they include unnecessary details. Like the fact that John and Peter had a foot race to the tomb or that their ladies were the first ones to the tomb. When in that day, you would say like if you're gonna make it up, you would make yourself as the hero of the story. But it said like, no, we were terrified. I denied Jesus and like they're admitting embarrassing facts. And just days later talking about the resurrection of Jesus. And here's what's interesting. I'm about to read to you a letter in First Corinthians chapter 15 written by a guy who was, he was written by a guy who persecuted the church for teaching the resurrection of Jesus who now after his own interaction with God is preaching that same resurrection. And here's, here's what's interesting about Corinth. Corinth is 817 miles away from Jerusalem in a straight shot. If you're gonna go land and boat, if you had to walk, it's more about 1800 miles. But for simplicity's sake, let's just say straight shot. That's the same roughly as Phoenix to Denver. So if you were, it's, and what happens here is that he writes a letter to Corinth and that letter is written about 50 a 50 to 5480 which puts it only 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus. So for context, think about for a moment that if someone was writing a letter who was there in New York at 911, 911, if you are older than 20 is very real to you. 20 years later, I'm guessing most people in this room can remember exactly where they were when they saw this life defining moment for our nation. Well, Paul writes about this way. He's writing a letter to them and what he talks about here is so interesting because Jesus appeared to both men and women. He appeared to individuals groups, a large crowd inside, outside different locations. Different times of day, Jesus was physically touched. He was audibly heard he was visually seen and even ate food with others over a 40 day period. So this wasn't a hallucination. This wasn't a myth. And if people questioned, it looks like if someone said, 09 11 didn't happen. Oh, really? What about this person who was there? What about this story and this story and this person who lost a family member and this person who was in the building and all the people that surrounded. And because we're only talking 20 years later, and we have this, this letter that is 800 miles away, that the message of the resurrection of Jesus had already beat Paul to the punch and there were already believers in Corinth. And so he writes this in first Corinthians 15. He says, for I delivered to you as of first importance. What I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12. And then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. Most of whom are still alive. Hey, are you, are you, do you question me on this? Ask your neighbor read the paper like talk to someone like, well, this is within one generation here. The people are still alive that were there and they saw the before and they saw the after. So no one believed the resurrection before it happened. When it happens, everyone hides and is scattered, but Jesus comes back and appears to people for 40 days and now 50 days later, the people are completely different. So, so most of these people are so liable that some of them have fallen asleep. He says, and then he appeared to James then to the apostles last of all, as the one untimely born. He appeared also to me, the one who persecuted Christians. For I am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace toward me is not in vain. It is a fact that Jesus was crucified. It is a fact that his tomb was found empty and it is a fact that there are hundreds of testimonies recorded over different periods of time in different locations, different sections and different ways of the appearance of a resurrected Jesus. And in fact, number four is transformation and that is the disciples died preaching the resurrection that only 50 days later, what's known as Pentecost, the church launches not on the message of be a nice person, but on the message of the resurrection of Jesus that they themselves didn't even believe just 50 days later. And all of them died a horrific death, believing that the resurrection happened. It would be one thing to die for a lie that you believe that somebody else told you. It's another to die for a lie that you came up with. That. You also didn't believe just 50 days ago. But now we stake your entire existence and life on this truth. And the church with no political power, no money, no buildings, no authority in any way, shape or form. 50 days later, preaches the message of the resurrected Jesus. And they could say you killed him, but you also saw him afterwards. And that if Jesus rose from the dead and the Holy Spirit is real, then faith is possible. Hope is possible. Forgiveness is real and you can have eternal life through him. And boom, 3000 people joined the church that day. And within the 1st 300 years, the church grows from nothing to a million people. On what on the preaching of the resurrection of Jesus. So you might not believe in the resurrection. But how do you explain what happened? Then? The last thing we have is what I would say today's church that here we are 2000 years later and we hear story after story, after story, after story of transformation, we are gonna celebrate today at the end of the service with two people taking the step of baptism, celebrating their life and faith in Jesus. And what is baptism? The very act of being baptized is a symbol or belief of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. And that while political powers rise and fall, and our world seems darker. By the day, the reality is that as the world gets darker, the gospel shines brighter and that there is nothing that will stop the growth of his church because God promised that not even the gates of hell, hell will prevail against his church. And so we see that this message of resurrection which didn't exist prior is the message of Christianity that if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, we are to be pitied as fools. But if he did rise from the dead, which he did, that means that anything is possible, that transformation is possible that it is a fact that Jesus died. It is a fact that his tomb was found empty. It is a fact that hundreds of testimonies were given of a resurrected Jesus. It is a fact that those believers were transformed to launch the largest movement in world history. And that today it is the same gospel and story changing lives. My life has been changed by it. I've seen it in my family's life. I've seen it heal marriages and break addictions and allow forgiveness and grace. That same message is available to you. And to me, it is so strong that the scholar nt puts it this way. He says that is why as a historian, I cannot explain the rise of the early Christianity. Unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tone tomb behind him. Our faith stands on the strength of the resurrection that you have to believe. But the story here is not just how much you need to love God, but in the middle of your questions, in the middle of your skepticism, you know, who was skeptical, the disciples that of the people who walked with Jesus every single day for three years of the 12, 1 betrayed him, one denied him and one doubted him. Thomas himself who walked with him, who was there, who saw the miracles was skeptical and Jesus didn't rebuke his skepticism, but he said touch the scars. It's real. I want you to know that what we believe is real, that whatever trial you're facing, you can trust God in and through that. I've read the end of the book, God wins and that if Jesus conquered and defeated death, then anything is possible and we believe not in vain, but in victory, victory is possible. Faith is reasonable. You can trust him. Will you pray with me jerky pie? Thank you for rising again. God, thank you that we have some young people go in public with their faith, taking that step of baptism, a picture of what you did on the cross. 2000 years later, we're still celebrating and telling the same story and it's not just a story, it is real. Transformation is real. Our belief is real. Give us the confidence and the courage to walk and live and trust you that you are the truth that we don't have to try to be relevant. We just have to believe in the truth because truth is always relevant. Thank you for being true. We love you. We ask that you would build our lives now on that truth and your sons and we pray amen.