There Is Hope For You In The Resurrection Series

I. THE RESURRECTION MADE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIFE OF THE APOSTLES.

They had been with Him for 3 years as He helped them develop their ministerial instincts. They doubted like normal men. They question the Son of God on many things He taught. These men were very common, but they each had a heart of gold.

They were divided, down, discouraged, deflated and even depressed when they saw what happened to Him in the garden when He was arrested, then tried, then murdered. Their hope was in the pre-resurrected Christ. When they saw Him on the cross. When they saw Him take His last breath, all that they had been working for was gone. They were out of business in this reform of religion. They had no leader anymore. As many would say, they were wiped out.

What good are all the abilities of making miracles happen if there was no purpose in living anymore? What good is all of the sermons, or Sunday school lessons, or giving, and sharing if the leader of this religion is dead and in fact buried.

The resurrection of Jesus the Christ changed their lives. All of them. It is one thing to see Lazarus raised from the dead first hand. It is one thing to see a dead boy raised from his cot and given back to his mother. It is one thing for a daughter, who was already dead, was brought back to life with just a word and the faith of her father, BUT it is another thing to be the person who comes back to life on their own.

Christ is Risen. There is hope for the disciples.

You could not keep their excitement down. When they may have been a chicken to spread the news of Jesus the Christ the Son of the Living God before His death, not a one of them were timid about their testimony after His Resurrection. They were eye witnesses of the event. They saw it happened. They fellowshipped with Him. They ate supper with Him, prayed with Him and listened much more intently to His instructions than ever before. They were contagious in their message.

This stuff really works! Oh, yes, they believed in it. They believed in Him, but were never tested on it until the first Good Friday. Then He rose from the Dead. It is true! Every word is true. They preached it with new lightning skills and convictions.

These Twelve men were like the rest of us: they were selected from the unworthy and the unqualified. They became discouraged and disheartened in their spiritual life just like you and I get, but they were eye witnesses to the fact that these words are really true. “I was there, I saw Him die, I saw Him get put to death, I saw Him be placed in a tomb, and I was there when He rose from the Dead. I went into the tomb where He was laying. He got up and walked out and I tell you the man----I mean the MAN---no I really mean The Son of the Living God is alive” They could not stop talking about this moving experience in their life.

You probably already know that they died all of them as martyrs one way or the other. They paid with their life what they preached with excitement and enthusiasm.

II. THE RESURRECTION MADE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD!