Questions?

Please read these passages slowly and carefully and let them sink in. At the end I have posed some questions to think about.

³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” ³⁹ But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.  –Matthew 12:38-41

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¹⁸ So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰ Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But He was speaking of the temple of His body. ²² Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. –John 2:18-22

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⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. ⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” ⁴⁷ Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” ⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. ⁴⁹ The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
⁵¹ Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, ⁵² and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; ⁵³ and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
⁵⁴ So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”  -Matthew 27:45-54

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¹¹ Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. ¹² When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, ¹³ saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ ¹⁴ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” ¹⁵ So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. –Matthew 28:11-15

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Jesus spoke of His death numerous times and embraced it. What king or “wannabe” ruler does that?   

Jesus spoke often of His resurrection from the dead. If you want to lose followers quickly, try this. Would you continue to follow?

Is there any account from this time that disputes any of this?

We know that Rome tried to destroy off Christians and anything to do with Christ. As many ancient writings and documents as we have today, do any of them dispute these things?

Jews, even to this day reject Christ. In all of their historical records is there any documentation proving this all to be a lie?

- For the record, I support the Jews as they are God’s chosen people. I pray for their   salvation and I encourage you to do the same.

From a human perspective, does any of this make sense?

If you were to invent and design a religion, would you do it this way?  

If you knew this was all a lie, would you suffer a martyr’s death to defend it?

Is it possible that you truly believe but are not willing to accept and embrace it?

Final thoughts:  

Maybe God chose to do it this way so we would see His supernatural power (*).  

The Pharisees and religious leaders asked for a sign several times. Jesus answered their questions with past references from Scripture that they would know.                         

When He hung on the cross, what happened should have been enough to convince anyone; even a Roman centurion.                                                                                           

When He left the grave, why were the religious leaders so quick to lie to cover this up? Had they really thought His body was stolen, they would have run to the Roman authorities and demanded an investigation and the death of the soldiers.

They knew; beyond a shadow of a doubt they knew. They were so hard hearted they would not admit the truth, even when it was staring them in the face.                   

Let’s jump forward to today. Is there any evidence, in over two-thousand years to disprove any of this? In all of the years since Jesus earthly ministry, there has never ceased to be a day that someone was not working diligently to disprove the Bible.

If you can show me definitive proof that it is a lie, please do so. Maybe you could even produce His body?    

I don’t think so. The next time we see Jesus’ body, it will be in glory and majesty.

God bless~

* 1 Corinthians 1:18, 21, 23, 25; 2:14; 3:19

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