Wiregrass Church
Following Jesus’s crucifixion, his followers expected what anyone expects after someone dies—that they would remain that way. But one of Jesus’s followers, John, gave an eyewitness account that summarized the main event surrounding Christianity: Jesus rose from the dead. In this seventh and final sign, John documents, he makes the case that Jesus is exactly who he claimed to be.
The Resurrection of Jesus
Easter points to the answer to the question that everybody should ask:
Who is Jesus?
The resurrection is what convinced his first-century followers that He was the Jewish Messiah, that He was the Son of God, that He was God in a body.
It wasn't his teaching, that convinced them.
We don't believe Jesus rose from the dead because the Bible tells us so.
Long before there was the B-I-B-L-E, there were men who were witnesses of and friends of witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus.
The story of Jesus wasn't even worth telling or documenting apart from the resurrection.
Nobody expected no body.
The problem with Jesus was not what he taught.
The problem with Jesus was not what he did.
The problem with Jesus was what he claimed about himself.
Many believed in Him
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Too many!
While they're having that meal Jesus announces that he's establishing a:
New Covenant
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New Command
"You are to love the world the way I have loved you."
John 19:16-17 NIV
John 19:18 NIV
John 19:30 NIV
John pauses, reflects, and then makes this statement not for his immediate audience, but for future generations.
John 19:35 NIV
John 19:38 NIV
John 19:39 NIV
John 19:40 NIV
John 19:41 NIV
John 19:42 NIV
John 20:2 NIV
John 20:3-4 NIV
John 20:5 NIV
John 20:6 NIV
John 20:7 NIV
John 20:8 NIV
He saw and he believed!
Who can imagine so great a mercy?
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What heart could fathom such boundless grace?
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The God of ages had stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame.
John 20:24-25 NIV
John 20:26 NIV
John 20:27 NIV
John 20:27 NASB1995
John 20:28 NASB1995
John 20:29 NIV
"Blessed are those future generations that hear and believe, but have not seen"
John 20:30 NIV
John 20:31 NIV
It is our hope this Easter season this would become personal for you, and that based on John's account, you would believe that and then you would trust in.
