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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Anil Kanda

Quarantine Gospel

I'm really excited because the name of this message is called Quarantine Gospel.

We're going to be taking a good look at a very interesting story in scripture.

And I think you'll be challenged, you'll be inspired, and hopefully we'll all just be able to come closer to Jesus.

You know, this weekend, many people all over the world are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I've studied out the resurrection of Christ and seen the amazing evidences for the resurrection of Christ growing up.

Prior to becoming a Christian, I understood a little bit about, you know, the resurrection, we call it Easter.

Some people call it a different name, but you know, my understanding was, you know, this was a time that people celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The more I have become a Christian and more I've studied the truths of God's word, it's incredible when you begin to see the evidences for the resurrection.

I came across this amazing quote by a scholar.

I had it on my computer and I thought, man, this is going to be a great sermon to share that very quote.

Take a good look at what this says right here.

This was written by a very interesting individual.

He is a reader for the New Testament Studies, also a professor, assistant professor.

He talks about translations and he says this, this is something interesting.

He says, it's hard for historians to regard this material as serious archaeological data.

However, the documents produced by Christian, Jewish, Roman, and writers on the most significant evidence.

In other words, what he is saying, look, it's not just biblical evidence for Jesus's life.

There is Jewish evidence, there is Greek evidence, pagan evidence, you name it.

In extra biblical material, we can see that Jesus really did live and die.

He says, these abundant historical references leave us with reasonable doubt that Jesus lived and died.

But the more interesting question, which goes beyond history and objective fact is whether Jesus died and lived.

And today we're going to be talking about resurrection power.

We're going to talk about various things.

We're going to take a journey into scripture.

I'm going to come out the other end, out of the tomb of Jesus.

A few years ago, I did an apologetic seminar on the resurrection of Christ.

I talked about how the feet proves the fact.

F-E-A-T, F-E-A-T, that acronym proves the fact of the resurrection.

F stands for fatal torment, E stands for empty tomb, A stands for appearances, and T stands for transformation.

And when you take this sort of fourfold argument you begin to see a powerful compelling reason to believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Let's start with the first 1 real quickly.

If the Bible talks about Jesus being crucified, there's actually medical literature that has examined what crucifixion looks like.

And when you look at what the gospel writers write about Jesus when he's on the cross, it very much coincides with what the literature actually talks about.

Another thing is that centurions, Roman guards, they were trained to kill people.

And so when you look at the gospel story, it's really incredible to see the interaction between the Romans and Jesus.

I think this is a very interesting argument for the resurrection.

And the reason why is because the Bible tells us that even the Sanhedrin recognized the tomb was empty.

Do you know if you go to Israel, there are actually 3 reported sites of where the tomb of Jesus is.

It's also remarkable that Jesus would use women as the very first witness of the empty tomb.

Now we would think, wait a minute, in back then that would be not the greatest argument considering how women were viewed back then for an event like that.

You see, Jesus doesn't need to hide anything.

And the fact that he used women showed that this was something so incredible that regardless who the witness was, it could not be hidden.

The Bible tells us over 500 people actually saw the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And that's incredible when you think about the amount of witnesses that were part of that.

You know, when you look at the individuals that saw the death of Jesus, that saw the resurrection, people like Peter, James, John, it's 1 thing for people to believe something and be willing to die for it.

But if this whole thing was a complete lie, they completely fabricated it.

It wouldn't explain why many of the disciples who are witnesses of this very thing were willing to die and be a martyr for that cause.

You know, people are willing to die for many causes, but not very many people are willing to die for a lie they know about.

And if This whole thing was a complete fabrication by the disciples.

They wouldn't be willing to give their lives.

The feat of the resurrection proves the fact of the resurrection.

So many strands of evidence regarding the resurrection.

Let's bow our heads for another word of prayer and let's get started with this message right away.

Father in heaven, we just thank you so much again for the word of God.

We pray that you would speak to us, that you would communicate your will to us and you would encourage, inspire us.

When you study out the book of Acts, the Bible tells us just the incredible dynamic energy that was part of the Book of Acts.

When you read the power verbs that are in the Book of Acts, baptizing, evangelizing, praying, you read about tongues of fire, you read about miracles, you read about so many incredible things about the Book of Acts.

The Bible tells us that the Book of Acts was essentially a spirit-led church and it's the model for our church today.

But what's really incredible when you study out the Book of Acts, you read about these power words, multitudes, baptism, healing, fire, the church, providences, thousands, miracles, the spirit talking, praying.

The disciples were fired up because when they understood what the death of Jesus meant, they wanted to tell the whole world.

So when you're reading the book of Acts, it's really incredible to just experience the energy that's part of the book of Acts.

It's just in this handsome forward momentum.

But what's incredible, when you finally get to the end of the book of Acts, you want to know how it ends?

Acts 28 verse 30-31, then Paul dwelt 2 whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, nobody forbidding him.

What's really interesting is that the book of Acts, this book about the spirit, this book about miracles and healings and preaching and evangelism, It ends with the man who is under house arrest for 2 years.

It ends with the most active individual in the Book of Acts, stuck in this experience of isolation, in this experience of whatever we wanna call it, we're gonna call it quarantine, but house arrest.

The Bible tells us for 2 whole years, Paul was stuck in his house awaiting trial before he was to go before the Caesars.

It teaches us something so powerful, especially concerning the situations that we're in.

The same spirit that worked when the disciples were praying together, the same spirit that was working when miracles were taking place, and preaching was happening, and evangelism, and the church exploding, and growing, and providences that were happening.

The same spirit that was part of all those experiences is the same spirit that was part of Paul's experience when he was under house arrest for 2 years.

The book of Acts ends with a man that is under this kind of containment during this time.

And I think the reason why it's so relevant for you and me is because many of us are going through a variety of these shelter-in-home experiences where we're stuck within our house.

We're not able to go to the gym like we used to.

We're not able to go to many of the places like we used to.

To have that kind of socializing that we used to.

And many of us are worshiping, you know, from our living room or our bedroom right now.

But it's so encouraging when you understand that the same spirit that was working in All the previous chapters in the Book of Acts was the same spirit that was part of Paul's experience when he was under house arrest for those years.

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Quarantine Gospel

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