One Fine Day

INTRO.- ILL.- One fine day. Hopefully, we all experience some fine days in life. Life at home. Mama’s love and good cooking. Daddy’s provision. Getting through school. Graduation. Getting our driver’s license. That first car. That first job. Better yet, that first paycheck. Our baptism into Christ. Marriage. The birth of our babies. Many fine days.

One fine day. That’s the name of a 1996 romantic comedy with Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney. These two are divorced, each with a child, afraid to commit to someone else, and living very hectic lives. One fine day, they accidentally meet at the school where their kids go to school and during the day they keep meeting, however they hate each other and don’t want to see the other ever again. But as the movie progresses, the relationship between the two changes from hating each other, to liking one another, and eventually to falling in love with one another.

Isn’t it wonderful when two people fall in love? Isn’t a great love story wonderful? I will tell you about another love story that is far more wonderful than any human can begin to imagine.

PROP. - Today, we’re considering the greatest love story ever told and two aspects of that one fine day.

1- Jesus rose

2- Satan died

I. JESUS ROSE

Matt. 28:5-6 “The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” Jesus rose. One fine day. Couldn’t have been better! Over the top!

ILL.- Remember in high school biology class when we would dissect frogs? Did you ever do that? We would cut them apart and examine the different parts, etc.

Well, when it comes to the resurrection there will be no dissection. There is no way a person can do it. There is no way a person can explain it, how it was done, etc. Physically or scientifically speaking, there is no way any person can understand or explain the resurrection.

ILL.- We know that there is a probe into baseball’s Barry Bonds’ past. Did he or did he not use steroid drugs to enhance his batting ability?

People can probe into the resurrection of Christ all they want. Did he or did he not rise from the dead? Did He have some kind of magic potion? The skeptics and unbelievers will always probe and ask questions. But when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead a person either believes it or they don’t.

ILL.- Twelve miles southwest of Joplin, Missouri, a roughly paved road runs through a narrow canyon. Nearby is the former border village of Hornet. The place is remote and far from civilization, so why do so many people come here?

They are searching for an unexplained puzzle that most of them actually seem to find. This puzzle has been seen along this road since 1866 and has created such a mystery that even the Army Corps of Engineers officially concluded that it was a "mysterious light of unknown origin". It has gone by many names but it’s most commonly known as the Hornet Spook Light.

This light has appeared seemingly as a ball of fire for about 140 years, varying in size from a basketball to even larger. It spins down the center of this gravel road at great speed, rises up high, bobs and weaves to the right and left. It appears to be a large lantern, but there is never anyone carrying it.

The light has appeared inside of vehicles, seems to retreat when it is pursued and never allows anyone to get to close to it. Does the light have some sort of intelligence? That remains just one of the many mysteries connected to this light.

People and scientists from all over the world have come to see it and try to figure out what it is and where it came from. AND THEY CAN’T DO IT. They haven’t yet and probably never will.

Do you believe in the “Spook Light”? Whether you do or not, I do. Why? Because I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I am a witness of the light! I am also a witness of a greater light.

How do we know the resurrection of Jesus is real, true? Because of the many witnesses as recorded in the scriptures. Many of these witnesses who saw Jesus after He rose from the dead gave their lives for Him.

I Cor. 15:3-8 “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. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”