Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 808 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: I'll tell you, when you've got that kind of body He came out from the tomb with, you don't need keys to get through doors. The same Jesus that had disappeared when the two disciples...the two people were talking to him at the table there, was able to suddenly appear in their midst and He was there. And they were terrified!

You know their natural reaction is what most of us would have been. The same thing they had on the lake. Oh we're seeing a ghost! They were scared to death. And Jesus immediately said, don't be afraid. How many times in the Scriptures does the Lord say to us, don't be afraid? Praise God! Oh, all of our natural reactions are to be fearful when it comes to things of God, but don't be afraid.

And so 'course, He knew that they were having a hard time believing this and so He said, look, take a look at My hands and My feet. And, you know one...His body was amazing. It was brimming with life, the kind of life that can never die. He could appear and disappear. It was a body beyond anything you and I have ever known in this world. But there was one thing that God preserved in that body as a record of what he had had before and that was the nail scars. He still had the wounds in his hands. God was...you see here's the thing, before the disciples could convince the world of the gospel message, they had to be convinced!

( congregational amens ).

Boy, all of this evidence tells me they weren't the perpetrators of some fraud. Peter wrote near his deathbed...near the time when he himself was crucified...he wrote a letter and said, we have not followed cunningly devised fables. We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. Praise God!

So there they are and Jesus gives them every opportunity to prove that He was not a ghost, He was not some figment of their imagination. They came up and they looked, they touched, and it says they still were struggling to believe. I mean, you know, this is...this is amazing when you think about it. Praise God! I should be looking up some of these things, but...anyway. Praise the Lord. Well the first...yeah there's two different occasions.

Anyway, the Lord continued to just open up to them what He had done and the reality of what He had done. He gave them every opportunity to believe, to see, to touch and you know even so, there were others who didn't believe. What about Thomas? Here's Thomas. I mean you've got a bunch of doubting folks. These were people who had been thoroughly traumatized. The power structures of the day, all the leaders of the Jews, the leaders of the Roman Empire had conspired together and brutally killed their Lord. They thought they were next.

I'll tell you God had a job on His hands to convince them that the message was true, to take a bunch of ordinary people and to set them on fire. That's what we need here. We need to have the reality be so real to us that we know that it's worth living and dying for.

( congregational amens ).

That's what God was in the process of making real to his people on that first Easter Sunday, if you want to call it that. It became...that's what it became in the process of time. Actually, the Bible doesn't tell us anywhere to celebrate a particular day to commemorate the resurrection. But, the fact of the matter is, the tradition of doing it does go back to the first century.

It wasn't very long before they started doing it and they did start meeting when? The first day of the week. And all...all of these people were Jews. They were used to their Holy day being on the Sabbath, but when Christians began to meet, they met on the first day of the week and it was because it was a testament to the reality of the resurrection that they stood upon.

And so, Thomas wasn't there and so, they're all telling him...I mean, here's Thomas surrounded by his friends who are telling him, yes, the Lord is alive. We've been with Him. We touched Him. And now I just remember what I had forgotten that happened that first time. The disciples were still not convinced. They're standing there touching Him, looking at His wounds and still just so in shock they couldn't quite believe it.

And, Jesus said, you got something to eat? And so they gave Him a piece of broiled fish and He ate it in front of 'em. I mean this was no ghost. This was a real living Savior, and I mean they're still just trying to take all this in. But a week later, there's Thomas. He's come and he said I won't believe unless I put my fingers in the nail prints in his hands and so forth. And all of a sudden Jesus is standing there and, of course, He knows all about it. He said, Thomas, go ahead stick your finger in the nail prints in my hands. Be not faithless but believing. Praise God!

I'll tell you what...Jesus told him. He says, because you have...verse 29, this is of John 20 if you want to look this story up, this account up, I should say. "Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (NIV).

I'll tell you, we're in that position today. We are looking back into the historical account and there are facts that are facts of history even acknowledged by unbelievers. I was reading the other day an account of a debate that took place and on one side of the debate was an atheist who didn't believe any of this stuff. The other side was a Christian scholar, professor, somebody who was taking up for this.

And they had a debate before five university philosophy professors from different universities. And, after the Christian went right down a list of facts that were universally acknowledged as history, the change that took place in the disciples, the tremendous impetus of the gospel and how it suddenly....spread across the known world and people were willing to give their lives for it. There was just a long list of facts that even unbelievers acknowledge. The other guy just got up there and was pontificating about his...a whole lot of philosophical stuff and not dealing with the evidence. And, the end result was four of these professors voted for the Christian. They said, you won the debate. The other one said it's a draw. Not one of them went for the unbeliever.

I'll tell you, I remember reading about somebody, oh, it was probably a century ago now, who set out to disprove Christianity. I mean he was just going to really put the nail in the coffin and prove that it wasn't so. And so one of the things he looked into...fortunately he had an honest mind...but he looked into the resurrection. Did the resurrection happen? and the more he studied it, the more he became convinced that it did and he wound up being a strong Christian as a result. I'll tell you there is evidence for anybody who wants to look into it that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, literally, physically. Praise God!

So, anyway, Thomas is now convinced and yet they're still...you know they still don't quite know what to do with themselves so they go to Galilee. Jesus had said go to Galilee. I'm gonna meet with you there. One day one says, I'm going fishing, and the other one says I'm going with you...we're going with you. They just were kind of restless and not knowing what to do and so they got out in the boat and they fish all night. They catch nothing.

Somebody on the shore they didn't recognize calls out, have you got any fish? And they say, no, we haven't caught anything. He said, cast your net on the right side, and they did. All of a sudden they couldn't even pull the fish in, and Peter realized it's the Lord. So he grabs his fisherman's coat. He jumps in the water and swims ahead of the boat and they bring it in. They finally drag the net...all of 'em drag the net up on the shore. There were 153 huge fish.

But Jesus didn't need their fish. He already had fish cooking. He said, come on, let's have some breakfast and then He talks to them. Over and over again, you will find that the Lord spent time meeting with his people over a period of weeks.

And, the Scripture tells us there was one occasion when he met with over 500 brethren at once in Galilee. Praise God! Praise the Lord. Look at 1st Corinthians chapter 15. Yes, 1st Corinthians chapter 15. I mean that would be a great chapter just to go ahead and preach on, but we don't really have time this morning. But that's all right. This is a huge subject.

( pages turning ).

Now listen to what Paul says. Now Paul, of all people, was the enemy of the church. Nothing would have convinced Paul to follow Jesus if it had not been that he was convinced that Jesus was alive. This was not simply a dead prophet who left us a bunch of rules to live by. This was somebody who was alive who appeared to Paul. He said, Paul you're persecuting Me. Why are you persecuting Me? He said who are You? I'm Jesus whom you persecuted. The worst enemy that Christians had in that day became its greatest exponent.

I'll tell you there is nothing--there is nothing that can account for what happened in the early...in the foundation of the church except the reality...these men were completely, completely convinced that Jesus was alive. And they were convinced 'cause they had been with Him, talked to Him, seen Him, touched Him, had meals together with Him after He was risen from the dead. Praise God! I'll tell you I believe the testimony of the eyewitnesses. I believe the fact that they went from these cowards hiding in a room to people who could stand there in the councils and say there is no salvation in any other except Jesus Christ. You can beat us. You can do what you want. We're gonna proclaim the name of Jesus.

( congregational amens ).

They went forth in the city and began to do the same kind of miracles that Jesus had done. And there wasn't a thing the religious leaders could do to stop it. You can't account for any of that except the reality that Jesus did, in fact, rise from the dead.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! Paul says, "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain." This is somebody who's got a very superficial faith and they're not really...they're not really convinced and are not following through.

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep." Some have died. "Then he appeared to James."

Now here's another bit of evidence. You remember on one occasion when Jesus had some kind of contact with his brothers? Now what does it say about them? Did they believe who he was? It said no, neither did his brothers believe in him. And yet later on we find James, his half brother, becoming the head of the Jerusalem Church, giving his life for the Lord.

What happened? What convinced him to change his mind? Here's what it is. The Lord appeared to James. That's the only reference we have in the Scriptures to this. But the Lord took particular interest in his own half brother and appeared to him after he had been crucified, in bodily form and I'll tell you, it turned James completely around and he was willing later on to stand fast and to give his life. Praise God!

That's the only way...you can't account for this any other way than these people were convinced. They didn't go to some distant city and say, let me tell you about all this stuff that happened in Jerusalem and Jesus was raised from the dead. They did it right there. Right under the noses...just a few weeks after all this had happened, they stood up boldly and proclaimed His resurrection. All the religious leaders had to do was produce His body.

You know, how many of you saw or heard about, at least, that ridiculous television special they had recently where they supposedly found the tomb of Jesus and his family? You know, even the unbelieving archeologists pooh-poohed that as just a big publicity stunt. There's absolutely no validity from any standpoint to that. But I'll tell you, we have eyewitnesses whose lives were transformed because they met the risen Jesus. And I'll tell you that's good enough for me.

It says, "After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers." All right, I've read that. "Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born."

Praise God! We do not serve a Savior who was crucified and gone and that's the end of it. What a message that would have been, because there was no worse way to die in their culture of that day except to be crucified. You were the off-scouring of the earth. It was the cruelest, most inhuman, most degrading way that a man could die. And anybody that died that way would have been despised.

But to take and to preach a message about such a man and then to see that message spread over the known world. I'll tell you it took something more than just nice doctrines, and nice ideas, and a whole bunch of enthusiasm. Oh, can you imagine something like that being built on a fraud or being built on anything less than the reality that Jesus rose from the dead.

I'll tell you the Gospel did spread a whole lot more than we realize. Thomas, doubting Thomas, took the Gospel to India. Isn't that amazing. It spread through Paul to Spain, as far as Spain. It went through Thomas all the way to India. There were others that went to other parts of the world.

You know, we think about some of these places as never having the Gospel until modern times. Well, I'll tell you, China had the Gospel in about the seventh century. There was a branch of the Church that was not part of Rome that actually took the Gospel there. In the days of Genghis Khan, there was a church with significant size in China. The Gospel has been to the ends of the world and, of course, we're seeing now a final harvest, I believe.

But folks, this is not based upon fables. This is based upon the living reality. And, I'll tell you what, God has promised you and me that he is going to save us completely. That before it's over we will have a body just like the body that Jesus had. Look at Philippians chapter 3, verse 21.

( pages turning ).

I apologize. I've done a lot of referring and quoting, but I haven't opened up too many of these Scriptures. But, praise God! This is what Ron was talking about. I'm gonna go back, verse 17. "Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ."

That's the path they're on. By the way they live, they are Christ's enemy. And there are only two positions you can have. You can't be Christ's friend and not follow Him completely. He is either who He says He is or He is not. If He is not who He says He is, if He did not rise from the dead, then we have no reason to claim to be Christians. We are walking in a fraud. But, if He is who He says He is, then every man, woman, boy, and girl on this planet is responsible to Him.

( congregational amens ).

He is Lord of heaven. Praise God! But, listen to what it says, "Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven." That's where our eyes are at. "And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." Folks, have you got aches and pains today?

( laughter ).

Praise God! It won't always be that way. The very...and I started out by saying God gives proof, doesn't He? He gives evidence. He doesn't ask us to believe without evidence. But the evidence that Jesus is who He says He was, was that God raised Him from the dead.

You listen to what Paul said in Acts chapter 17. I'll just look there real quickly. I'll refer to how he preached the Gospel. This is a good example of how God anointed him to preach the Gospel in a heathen culture, people who did not know anything about God. There were...he went among a people who...they spent all their time debating about philosophical ideas.

And so Paul takes the opportunity to step into their midst and to tell the...to preach the Gospel of Jesus and he preaches about a God who made everything, a God who gave life to everybody in the world, and yet men live...he says have lived in ignorance. They've worshipped gods of wood and stone. It says "In the past..." verse 30, "...God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed."

Okay, so now Paul has declared an uncompromising Gospel to heathen people. So what evidence is he going to give them to say, well, what I'm saying is the truth. He says, "He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." That is how central the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to genuine faith.

And folks, I'll tell you, the further you dig into it, if there's anybody here who's unsure about any of this...I'll tell you, you look into it. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. That is all the evidence I need to know that He is worthy of praise. He is worthy of following. He is worth of giving our lives to Him to follow Him for all eternity. He was deemed worthy by the apostles; virtually every one of them gave their lives for the Gospel.

I'll tell you, they didn't do that based on a lie. There was a burning conviction that absolutely gripped their souls. They knew that the message was right. They just didn't hear a convincing preacher and say, well he sounds pretty good. He was very...he believed in it so I'll guess I'll believe it. I'll tell you, they believed it because they had touched and seen and talked with the Lord after He had been raised from the dead. They knew that He was...it was proven by God to them that He was who He said He was.

And I'll tell you, there's a blessing that God has pronounced, as He said to Thomas, upon those who have not seen in the same sense, but yet have believed. And I believe that God wants to make Himself so real to every one here that you will know in your heart of hearts that this message is true. And you will absolutely know that there is no other way to go except to give your life completely to Jesus, to follow Him with all that you've got and to know that you stand upon solid ground.

( congregational amens ).

I'll tell you there's a God who sent His Son into the world to die for your sins and for mine and He did. But, how do we know that? Because He rose again. There's only one man in all of history who has conquered death. I'm going to read one Scripture. Its in Revelation chapter 1, I think.

( pages turning ).

Yes. Revelation chapter 1, verse 17. John is seeing a vision of the risen Christ in this case. It says, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead." Powerful experience that he had. "Then he placed his right hand on me and said: do not be afraid." There it is again. Don't be afraid. "I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!" And He doesn't stop there. He says, "And I hold the keys of death and Hades."

( congregational praise ).

The one enemy that no man has ever been able to conquer...no philosopher, no religious teacher has ever been able to conquer death. Jesus did it for you and for me! And because He lives, we live also.

( congregational amens ).

And He is the first fruits of those that God raises from the dead. That what it says in 1st Corinthians 15. That's the proof that you and I will one day possess the same life. He's already done it. He did it right before their eyes. They could touch Him. I'll tell you what, I'm so thankful for the solid ground that we stand upon, today.

( congregational amens ).

We don't have to just give out a whole lot of religious ideas and try to convince people. We need to pray and just ask God to make His Word real to people. But, I'll tell you, there is evidence...there's enough evidence in the record of what happened with respect to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That evidence demands a verdict.

And, I would say to every one here this morning, what is your verdict? Did this happen or didn't it? I didn't...there's plenty more that could have been gotten into but that's all right. There's evidence that demands a verdict. What is your verdict? If Jesus Christ is alive, then He is the Lord of heaven and you and I will one day stand before Him. And, I'll tell you, what will you do with Jesus who is called Christ? He is worthy to be served. I praise God that we have a risen Savior this morning. Praise God!

( congregational amens ).

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