Everything in the world hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the most fantastic event in the history of creation. Fact – He has risen from the dead! All 4 gospels testify to this fact.
Matt. 28:11-15. Jesus body is now missing. How will this problem in the eyes of the authorities be handled?
If you believe in the resurrection you are, in theory, a conspiracy theorist. Maybe you don’t see yourself as such but people in the world see us in that light. A small group of people who believe in something they haven’t seen.
Observations :
1. Authorities can often create their own reality for a desired agenda (gaslighting). The stone has been rolled away, the body is missing and so we, the authorities, are going to make this all go away by telling a lie. News media and social networking sites disseminate their propaganda today in our country. The message being disseminated is not always about truth but about pushing their agenda. This happens in marriages sometimes. We deflect to get off of dealing with the real problem. This happened to Paul in 2 Corinthians.
2. No other NT text addresses this lie. Paul, Peter and John simply affirm the truth about the resurrection of Jesus.
3. Be a truth-seeker. Be a listener. Pray for wisdom. Believing lies can have damaging consequences. Paul talks about this in 2 Thess. 2. “With all the deception of wickedness…..because they did not receive the love of the truth…. God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false “
4. Your enemy, the devil, is the source of all lies. He loves it when churches are divided, it loves it when we hate…. He was behind what happened in Matt. 28.
Despite the story that was spread in Matthew 28, we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. It is why we live for the King. It is why we worship with zest and all of our being. It is why we endure.
Sermon by Tony Mauck
