MESSAGE NOTES BIG IDEA: The resurrection of Jesus solves history's greatest mystery. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:17-19 (NLT) 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. TWO PROBLEMS W/JESUS' MESSAGE Never about liberation or . Always all about . He never asked his followers to trust in his . He instructed his followers to trust . To Lazarus’s sisters: John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live…“ To his apostles: John 14:9 “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father . . .” “Never once did Jesus, and never once did any of His followers indicate that Jesus came to leave us with a collection of insights, parables, and principles to pass on to the next generation… So, when Jesus died, their hopes died with Him. Turned out, there were no Christians at the cross.” When Jesus died . . . No one believed his or his . The movement with him. Messiahs don’t die. The Son of God can’t be killed. You can’t crucify “the resurrection and the life.” 3 WAYS THE RESURRECTION SOLVES THE MYSTERY OF HISTORY were first. John 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. Disciples were . John 20:2 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him! Luke 24:11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. John 20:3–8 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. Preachers were resurrection . Acts 2:38, 3:15 Jesus’ followers didn’t reengage because of something Jesus taught. Jesus’ followers reengaged because of someone they saw: Jesus.” Jesus’ resurrection solves history’s greatest mystery, but what does that mean? There is a resurrection and eternal life. “If a man can predict his own death and resurrection and pull it off, I just go with whatever that man says.” There is the forgiveness of sin.