Resurrection: Meat and 'Taters

They tell us that Christianity hinges on one single thing: the resurrection. And they're right, because if the resurrection didn't happen, then everything that we believe crumbles. All of it. There's nothing left. Every hope that we cling to, every song that we sing, every act of worship, meaningless if Jesus is still in the grave.

If He is still in the grave, then all of this is nothing more than a well-crafted delusion. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then we're not just wrong, it's worse than that. We're delusional, believing in something so far-fetched, so detached from reality that it borders on madness.

What do we think of the man who thinks that he can fly simply because he believes it? It's crazy, right? Well, why do we still get to consider ourselves sane, believing that somehow we are immortal? Which is crazier: the man who thinks he can fly because he believes it, or the one who thinks he will live forever because of some other set of beliefs?

The question is fair. Now, because of this reality, the reality that our religion is basically hogwash, if the resurrection didn't actually happen, when I was younger, I spent a considerable amount of time studying the evidence for the resurrection when I was in my late teens, early twenties.

And all of us have heard this. We're familiar with it. Well, let's just look at briefly a couple pieces of evidence. Number one, the apostles would never have chosen to die for a lie that they fabricated themselves. If somebody gets duped into believing a lie, that's one thing.

But to die for a lie that you know that you made up, people don't do that. Number two, the transformation of the apostles. Where did their willingness to suffer and die come from? Three, the first eyewitness claims. Four, the radical conversion of Paul. Then there's the expansion of Christianity in the face of the most heinous persecution and the empty tomb. And then the testimony of the women who were the first eyewitnesses, which apparently is something people wouldn't make up back then.

That's what they say, right? Something about the status of women was low back there. They didn't have credibility. It took two or three women to equal a man. And no one would make that up and put that in the story unless that part was actually true.

We've all heard these things. A few months ago, I looked at the preaching schedule to see that I was going to be preaching on Easter. And the good thing about being scheduled to preach on Easter is that your topic is pretty much figured out for you.

It's predetermined. Can you imagine how upset people would be to show up for a sunrise Easter service? The speaker gets up and says, "He has risen," which the congregation in excited unisons, "Christ, He has risen indeed." Everyone is so excited to celebrate the resurrection. This is our day. And next thing you know, the preacher says, "Happy Easter, everybody. Good morning.

Today we are going to be doing an exhaustive study of the handling of the entrails of the sacrificed goat."

Oh, he'd be booed off stage in a heartbeat. That would never fly. You cannot speak on Easter without talking about the resurrection. And so when I saw that I was scheduled for Easter, I knew what my topic had been delivered to me on a silver platter. And knowing that this is the linchpin, this topic is the linchpin that in so many ways props our entire religion up, I wanted to do it justice.

And so I wanted to refresh my memory. It had been a long, many years since I studied it. And so I went down a long, deep YouTube rabbit hole, watching all sorts of videos about the evidence of the resurrection. And I wasn't expecting to find any new revelation, and I didn't.

The arguments were the same ones that I had heard 20 years ago. And it's not that the arguments are weak or anything, but to be honest, I didn't like the way that I began to feel. After hearing these same arguments repeated so many times, over and over for all of these years, some of them to me had begun to seem cliché, which is very unfortunate considering the importance of the resurrection. It was like not only did I know what the arguments were going to be, I knew exactly how they were going to be presented, almost word for word verbatim.

But as I was doing this preliminary research for the sermon, there was this one video that mentioned the foolishness of the cross. And it triggered something inside of me. It was a memory, a memory of a time about six months earlier than that, when I had been studying for a sermon about the head covering. And I remember I was reading Chrysostom, and he was talking about this passage about the foolishness of God and how the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And I couldn't remember exactly what it said. I just had this vague, itching memory of it being somehow interweaved with the resurrection. And I remember thinking to myself how encouraged I was reading it.

Just at the time, I was in the middle of a different study, so I just moved on to what I was after. And so I went back and I started listening to it again.

One of the projects that we have at the Historic Faith is taking the early church writings and getting them converted into modern English and then into audio. And for me personally, I'm a listener. I have the spelling and grammar capabilities of an eighth grader at best.

So I went back and I started listening to this work of Chrysostom over and over. I must have listened to it 10 times, 20. I don't know how many times I listened to it. And I was just amazed.

It was so refreshing. It was so clear. Chrysostom just had this way of bringing ideas to life with his words. And for those of you who may not know who John Chrysostom was, he was the archbishop of Constantinople back in the year 398, a long time ago.

And when he was alive, his name was just John. But then after his death, in honor of him, he became known as John Chrysostom. Chrysostom means golden mouth or golden tongue because he had become known for his ability to speak with such power and such conviction and such eloquence and with a persuasive clarity that would move the hearts of the minds of the people who listened to him. And I just loved listening to it again. It was like I'd never heard these things said like this before.

And even though here's the thing, even though he was presenting many of the same arguments for evidence that I've heard all this time, many of those that I listed, his approach was just profound. It was digestible. It was something that I felt like I could sink my teeth into. It was like he was infusing new meaning into these same old arguments, new life. And so I decided to title that Easter message, "Resurrection Meat and Taters," which, upon retrospect, wasn't the most reverent title for the Easter message.

But it was fitting because that's the thing about steak and potatoes. You can quite literally sink your teeth into them. When you bite into a ribeye steak or a twice-baked potato swimming in its own pool of butter and bacon bits and chives, it's like you can feel it. You know in your core this is about to satisfy my hunger.

You don't get that with a carrot. You want to sink your teeth into a carrot? Sucker snaps right in two. As I studied the way that Chrysostom defended the resurrection with such power and such conviction, that's what I felt like just satisfied.

It was refreshing to hear it in a way that I felt like I could sink my teeth into. I felt like YouTube had handed me a bag of carrots while Chrysostom delivered a wagyu ribeye. And so my hope today is to deliver his message to you, or at least the framework. It's been built out quite a bit by now.

My hope is that all of us are able to walk away with a little deeper, a little more profound understanding of the absolute raw and magnificent power of the resurrection. The text for the day comes from First Corinthians 18 through 25.

Don't worry about turning to it. I'm already going to be pushing the borders of our time limits today, so I'll just read it for us. "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.' Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. The Jews request a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, it was a stumbling block. To the Greeks, it was foolishness. But to those of us who are called, both Jews and Greek, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because here it is, the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For you see, your calling brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of this world to put to shame the things that are mighty."

About a year ago, David gave a sermon at our church where he walked us through six of the greatest prophecies in the Bible that had already come to pass. And I was really surprised about one of them. It was one of the most powerful ones.

But somehow, it was something that I had never even thought of or viewed as a prophecy. And I had never heard anyone call it a prophecy before. David said something like, "Jesus once said something so bold, so outrageous, that if anyone else had said it, he would have been laughed off as delusional." In Matthew 24:14, he said, "The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all of the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come."

Just let that sink in. A Jewish carpenter from a poor family in an obscure village, Nazareth, not even Jerusalem, Galilee, the backwoods, no palace, no throne, no military, no political sway, no bestsellers, no armies, no campaigns, no followers of any influence. He had nothing but a message and a few unknown men to carry it. And yet, he said the whole world was going to hear it.

That is a prophecy so absurd on face value. It borders on madness. Maybe, just maybe if Caesar Augustus had said it, people would have nodded politely, "Oh, yeah, Caesar, that will come to pass." Yeah, right. They would have doubted it in their hearts.

If Alexander the Great had proclaimed it, maybe historians would have entertained the possibility. But Jesus? I mean, this man didn't even leave his homeland. And yet, he declared his kingdom message would be echoed through every corner of the earth.

And here we are, 2,000-something years later, 8 o'clock at night, Chippingsburg, Pennsylvania. And we're here to talk about the resurrection. It happened. It's still happening. The gospel has spread to every continent, every nation, every language group, even in places where they try to silence it, persecute it, ban it. It simply cannot be stopped. In the underground churches in China, in North Korea prison camps, in secret meetings in Middle Eastern homes, the kingdom is still being preached. The words of Jesus' words weren't just bold. They were true. And they came true in the most miraculous way.

With that kind of accuracy doesn't come from a guess. It doesn't come from a man just trying to inspire people. It comes from God. And it proves exactly who Jesus was. And so as we unpack this passage today, I want you to pay close attention to something about how it was the power of the resurrection that was behind it. The power of the resurrection is what fueled this seemingly impossible prophecy of Jesus coming true that his kingdom would be preached in every corner.

So with all of that said, the stage has been set. Now let's see what Chrysostom had to say about it.

He starts off by telling a story. "I once saw a Christian and a Greek debating. Only it was all backwards. The Christian was arguing what the Greek should have been arguing, and the Greek was arguing what the Christian should have been arguing. If one side would have just shut their mouth and stopped talking, the other their opponent would have defeated themselves. But no, they just kept jabbering along. The Greek tried to belittle Paul, calling him uneducated and ignorant.

The Christian, well-minded, eager to defend, argued, saying, 'No, no, no. Paul was more eloquent than Plato.' But in doing so, he missed the entire point. If Paul had been more eloquent than Plato, if he had dazzled people with rhetoric and won the world with intellect, then the credit would have not gone to God. It would have gone to himself.

But Paul, he wasn't a scholar of scholars. He wasn't trained in the elite schools of Greek philosophy. And yet, somehow, the people who worshiped at the feet of Plato left everything to follow Paul's message. But why? Because it wasn't Paul that they were following. It was the gospel. And the power behind the gospel wasn't Paul's eloquence. It was the resurrection. It was grace.

The Greek, he walked away thinking that he won the debate. But in his argument that Paul was nothing compared to Plato, he accidentally proved our case because Paul was nothing. And that's exactly the point. God uses the nobody. He used the nobody, the weak, the simple, the overlooked. He conquered the world not with generals, but with the fishermen, not with philosophers, but with tent makers, not with empires, but with the crucified king.

So when the gospel triumphed, when it had victory over the wisdom of the Greek and the power of the Rome, it was not a win for mankind. It was proof of God. So when Jesus said that his kingdom would be preached in all the world, it wasn't just a bold claim. It was a divine declaration, a prophecy that we see powerfully being fulfilled in our very lifetime. And it is a reminder that the resurrection wasn't just an event. It was an explosion that is still sending shockwaves through history. And we are living in its afterglow.

So when the Greeks scoff, accusing the disciples of being uneducated, let us be even more assertive in the accusation than them. This will cause a more significant defeat. And therefore, the victory will be truly outstanding. Just think of it this way.

Imagine 12 men, not warriors, completely untrained in battle, frail in body, without a single weapon. You get the picture. 12 guys, weak, soft arms like this, sit behind a desk all day long. Weak, untrained, frail, no weapons. Just imagine these 12 men charging into the heart of a massively, heavily armed army.

They're attacked from every side, surrounded by swords. Yet all of them walk away unharmed. Not only unharmed, but victorious. With nothing but their bare hands, they rout their enemies. They slay some of them. They capture others. And they walk away without no much of a scratch.

What human explanation could account for this? There isn't any. And yet, the apostles did something even more amazing than that. 12 ordinary men without status or strength or influence marched straight into the blazing fire of history's most powerful resistance against kings, against rulers, against nations, against death itself. And the world could not stop them.

That is what happened with the apostles. They did not just survive. They triumphed, not because they were strong, but because God was with them. Not because they were brilliant, but because the power of the resurrection burned inside of them.

Their weakness became the stage for God's strength. "Watch these 12 men," God proclaims, "unarmed, uneducated, unknown. Watch these men conquer everything." Their weakness was the stage for his strength. Their foolishness made room for divine wisdom. And their victory is a declaration not of man's greatness, but of God's glory. So when the world mocks the apostles being nobodies, just let them because it makes the triumph an impossibility by human standards, which makes the victory taste that much more delicious. And it makes it unmistakably divine.

The fisherman, the tax collector, the tent maker, they didn't need swords. Why not? Because they had the risen Christ. And the kingdoms of this world crumbled beneath their feet like little dry leaves on a windy day. That is the power of God. And that is the power of the resurrection. And what makes this triumph so breathtaking isn't that it was achieved through superior logic or brilliant debate. It wasn't a masterstroke of philosophy. No, no, no, not at all. It came through what the world saw as utter foolishness.

God didn't defeat the philosophers of this age by raising up some new Socrates. He did not silence Plato with a more polished thinker. Instead, he sent a fisherman, a tax collector, a tent maker, crude, unleader, uneducated, unknown. That is what makes it so glorious. The world expected eloquence. God sent them simplicity. The world expected power. God sent them meekness.

The world expected reason. God sent them a bloody cross.

When the Jews asked for a sign, for miracles, for wonders, they were met with the crude image of a crucified man. This message didn't just fail to meet their expectations. It didn't even come close. It seemed like a recipe for rejection. And yet, it draws the heart in. It awakens faith. Somehow, the message wins.

The Greeks, for their part, they demanded intellect, eloquent debate. But we did not offer them a polished debate. Once again, we offer them the cross, a message that seemed to them not only foolish, but offensive.

Tell me, what could appear weaker than a man nailed to wood?

So you're telling me that man nailed on the wood, that's the power of God? Is that really what you're telling me? That's your message? The Greeks questioned. Yes, precisely. We preach Christ crucified. And then we magnify it by saying, not only is that man nailed to the wood, the power of God, it is also the source of salvation.

To the Greeks, it was foolishness. What could seem more absurd than claiming that it was not only the power of God, but it was also the source of salvation? And yet, here's the miracle. When those who came seeking signs and wisdom, when they were actually persuaded, not by receiving what they asked for, but by being shown the very opposite, and yet still believing. What? How is that possible? It is like a man who's lost at sea crying out for safe harbor. And he turns to you. But instead of you pointing him to calmer waters, you point him to the fiercest, most dangerous part of the ocean. And you say, "That is the way to safety."

And somehow, he follows your directions with joy. Or like a doctor offering to heal a patient, not with medicine, though, but by setting him on fire. And yet, the patient comes eager for the flames. Christ did the same thing with a blind man, healing him not by wiping away the darkness, but by pressing mud into his eyes.

The very thing that should have made his blindness worse brought him sight. Christ brought light into one man's eyes through clays. And in the same way, he brought salvation into the world through a cross. Through the bloody wood of a Roman cross, God poured out life. Through the shame of crucifixion, he revealed eternal glory. Through the weakness of dying, he conquered death itself. The cross did not defeat Christ. It enthroned him.

And so what appeared to be offensive is actually irresistible. What looks like weakness is strength beyond measure. What seems like folly is wisdom from above. Paul, seeing all of this unfold before his eyes, the message converting. And he was absolutely awestruck. And as he declared, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men.

And the weakness of God is stronger than men."

And understand, Paul was not saying that God was foolish or weak. He was responding to the opposition. He was saying that what looks like foolishness to man is actually the brilliance of heaven. What seems like weak by human standards is thunderous strength by divine design. Just think of it. Plato and his followers spent a lifetime trying to prove the immortality of the soul.

Yet Plato died unable he died unsure, unable to offer certainty to even his closest disciples. However, the cross through uneducated man convinced the world not only about ordinary things, but of the things that are most profoundly philosophical. We're talking about the immortality of the soul, the reality of the resurrection, the truth about godliness, the evangelical lifestyle, and the judgment of the afterlife. And the message turned everybody, even the uneducated, into philosophers.

The sages were taken by surprise when they found that the common men they came across in the marketplace had somehow become more philosophical than them. The cross turned the timid into the bold, skeptics into the martyr. And tell me, what has the world ever offered that rivals this?

That's how God's foolishness is wiser than men. And God's weakness is stronger. How is it stronger, you ask? Well, because it spread across the entire world. And everybody was completely taken by it. While thousands were trying to obliterate the name of Jesus, the opposite happened. His name prospered and grew stronger. While at the same time, the sages and philosophers just wasted away and perished, the cross brought everything to the world that matters.

What didn't it bring? It revealed the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, a holy contempt for the fleeting things of this life, and a deep longing for things that are eternal. It turned ordinary men into angels, calling men everywhere into self-denial, embracing suffering, sacrifice, and unmatched courage.

If ever there was proof that the gospel is divine, this must be it. Ask yourself, how? How could 12 obscure, uneducated men even imagine confronting the might of the Roman Empire or the wisdom of the Athens? They weren't scholars or statement. They weren't raised in palaces or trained in rhetoric. These were men of the wilderness living in marshes, rivers, and deserts. And yet, from their obscurity, they rose to confront the entire world. These men didn't even have confidence in themselves.

The scriptures don't whitewash their failures and their fears and their cowardice. Look at what happened when Christ was arrested. Even after witnessing countless miracles, raising the dead, walking on water, making blind people see, even after all of that, he was arrested. And they ran.

Not one stayed by his side, not even Peter, the leader. Yes, he was slower to run. But in the end, he still ran. There's Peter in the crowd. Jesus has been arrested. He's trying his best to be a fly on the wall. And the young cervical says to him, "You were with him." "Look," Peter says, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Suddenly, another voice in the crowd speaks up, a different woman this time. But she's not speaking to Peter directly. She's talking about him loudly to other people close enough for him to also hear. She calls out, stirring up tension in the air, "I recognize him," she declares. "That man, he was with Jesus. He's one of them." Peter felt the piercing look of the crowd, his instincts take over. "Woman, I don't know this man."

Jesus had warned Peter before the rooster crows, "You will deny me three times." He had already denied him twice. But the night was thick with fear. Chaos swirled all around them, torches blazing, soldiers shouting. The scent of violence was thick in the air. Peter's mind was clouded with panic. And now we arrive at that heartbreaking moment where Peter is about to reject Jesus a third time. But this time, it happens with an earshot of him close enough for their eyes to meet. Another voice raises from the crowd, someone who clearly has been listening to earlier accusations. They step forward, pointing Peter out with certainty, "You, you are definitely one of them. Don't you think you're fooling anybody?

Your accent gives you away. The pressure is unbearable. I don't know him." Scripture says he began to call down curses upon himself. "I swear on my mother's grave that God strike me dead. I don't know that man."

The memory of what the Lord had said pierced him into his soul. Being confronted with the reality of what he just did, with the Lord standing right there in this midst, the scripture says it like this: "The Lord turned and looked at Peter."

The scriptures do not whitewash the fears and failures of the apostles.

So tell me, how? How, after his death, after seeing him humiliated, beaten, crucified, buried, how did these same men suddenly rise up fearless, unstoppable, declaring his name before kings and empires? It doesn't even make sense. It doesn't make sense.

Wouldn't they have said to themselves, "He couldn't even save himself. How will he save us? He died without resisting. How could he help us now? While he was alive, he did not conquer one single nation. Are we really supposed to convince the whole world in his name?"

Logically, it doesn't make sense. It's not just improbable. It's unthinkable. The mind of humanity would never imagine something like that for itself, much less dare to attempt it unless something changed. And something did change. They saw him alive, resurrected. They saw him alive. They touched the risen Christ. They heard his voice. They saw his wounds. They felt the fire of his spirit. That alone explains the transformation of the apostles. Without the resurrection, nothing makes sense. The cross wasn't the end.

The cross was not the end. It was the beginning of the greatest revolution that the world has ever known. I challenge you.

Show me one man. You bring me just one man who suffers nobly for the sake of truth. And I will show you 10,000 more scattered across the centuries who endured horrors beyond imagination for the name of Christ, men who did not waver as their nails were torn out, as their joints were ripped apart, as their limbs were dismembered piece by piece, men who stayed faithful as their bones were pried loose with levers, as their tongues were cut out, as they were roasted in red-hot frying pans and plunged screaming into boiling cauldrons.

And yet, they would not deny the one who was crucified for them. That isn't natural. Men do not embrace suffering like that. That is not explainable by willpower. It is not explainable by ideology. The only explanation that does not crumble under its own weight is the power of the resurrection.

Nothing in this world comes close. For example, compare those martyrs to the execution of the philosophers like Socrates, calmly sipping hemlock for being found guilty of impiety and corrupting the youth of the Athens. Sipping hemlock? That's not even courage. That's barely discomfort.

And even those philosophers who did suffer, maybe for even a good cause, where are they now? What did they die for? Does anyone know? Is there anyone on the earth even thinking about them? Where are they now? They're nowhere. Their names have faded. And their stories gather dust. But the names of the martyrs, not the names of the martyrs.

Their courage never dies. It multiplies. The demonic powers of this world tried. They unleashed every heinous act that they could imagine to eradicate Christ from this earth, to discourage anyone from ever speaking in his name. They would hold nothing back. They produced the weakest forms of humans that they could imagine. They cut skin. They took out tongues and eyes. They beheaded with dull blades. They buried alive. They burned with hot irons. They drowned people in cages. They killed their children in front of them. They did everything that they could imagine to rid Christ from this earth, to produce the weakest specimens possible, to discourage anyone from speaking in his name.

From the viewpoint of the world, they were the weakest of all.

But when the blood of those martyrs hit the earth like fresh rain on desperate seed, Christ's kingdom springs forth, consuming the earth, absolutely unstoppable. That is what Paul meant when he said, "The weakness of God is stronger than men."

Compare for just a moment Plato to the apostles again. Plato wanted to formulate a new system of governance. He was not trying to alter any religious customs. He simply proposed a different approach to behavior. For that alone, he was expelled from Sicily and narrowly escaped death.

Make no mistake, messing with governance is far less disruptive than meddling with people's religious beliefs. You want your head on a chopping block? Meddle with religious beliefs. Plato nearly lost his life for proposing a different approach to behavior. Now compare this to the apostles, who didn't merely suggest regulatory change.

They didn't just reject customs. They uprooted century-old traditions. They didn't just preach new ideas. Their declaration was bold and in the faces of everyone as they proclaimed, "The gods you worship are demons. Your idols are lies. Your temples are built on smoke. And the one who died on the Roman cross, he alone is Lord over all."

This unquestionably sparked an immense outcry, leading to grave repercussions and igniting a war. The apostles didn't mess with politics. They set fire to the entire religious order of the earth. They didn't whisper reforms. They roared the truth. They didn't revise behavior. They tore down idols. They didn't politely question the pantheon. They declared every god false and every idol a deception of demons.

Peragamus was threatened for just questioning God in one city. Socrates was killed simply for asking different questions about divinity. But the apostles, they didn't just question. They dismantled. They dismantled the gods of every nation. They proclaimed that Jesus Christ, the crucified one, is the one true God.

Who could do that? Where did this courage come from? What president did they have? There was no template. There was no success story. There was no path to follow. The world was cloaked in idolatry. Darkness covered every land, every throne, every altar. Every star in the sky was worshipped. And these men stood up and said, "All of your gods you worship are demons.

Christ alone is Lord." And they did all of this without swords.

They did it without silver or armies or influence. They were carried by truth and truth alone. They were few, and the world was vast. But they had seen the risen one. And that made all the difference. In fact, it would have been far less impressive if they had waged war with swords and banners.

If they had come with weapons and won a war, perhaps we'd understand it. If they had taken a city with force and set up governance and held power, at least we could explain it. But they didn't. How did they pull it off? This is amazing. You ready for this? They lived amongst their enemies.

They were outnumbered, unarmed, and outcast. And they still prevailed. In doing this, they fulfilled another ancient prophecy found in Psalms 1:10-10 that says, "You shall rule in the midst of your enemies." And even when they were arrested, chained, or beaten and imprisoned, they did not falter. Instead, they triumphed. The captors became converts. The persecutors bowed their knees. The whippers became whipped. The jailers became free. The world tried to crush them but ended up being changed by them.

And then comes the most staggering claim. We say, "Not only was he crucified, but he has also risen."

The Greek's mind recoils at this. How? How could this be? He didn't even save himself. He bled. He cried. He died like a criminal. If he truly had power, they said, wouldn't he have shown it before his death?

The Jews said the exact same thing. He saves others. Himself, he cannot save.

Well, you're right, old man. It defies logic because it doesn't come from man. It comes from God. Because no, he didn't save himself, not because he couldn't, but because he wouldn't. This was not failure. This was strategy. He was running towards the grave like a warrior charging into battle. He chose the cross. He embraced the suffering. And by entering death, he shattered it from the inside out.

He stayed on the cross not because he was weak, but because he was strong enough to stay there. Don't you realize that the nails were a choice? He chose the nails. How do we know? Because if death couldn't hold him, if the grave wasn't able to keep him, those iron spikes had zero power over him.

They were a choice.

That is not weakness. It is unmeasurable strength. And we see the same pattern all through Scripture. The fire did not consume Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The great fish did not destroy Jonah. And death could not hold Christ. He did not avoid suffering. He conquered it from within.

And either way, you're asking the wrong question. Do not ask why he didn't come down from the cross. Instead, you should be asking, what enemy was he chasing down when he stayed on it?

That is the wisdom of God, Scripture saying, "My strength is my perfect and weakness." So I ask again, where did this fire come from? Who planted this vision in their hearts? Could the apostles have been out of their minds? Were they madmen?

If so, how did these madmen somehow accomplish what the sages and philosophers through all of these centuries never could? No, it was not a delusion. Their sanity is confirmed by history. It is written in the blood of the martyrs and the ink of the Scripture. And their courage defies every law of logic. They had no money, no military, no alliances, no public favor, just 12 ordinary men out to change the entire world.

And what was their promise? What did they offer people? What did they offer their listeners? Not power, not safety, not riches, not comfort, but heaven, eternal rewards. And here's the kicker. For these men who hear this message, for them to lay a hold of these promised treasures, they still have to pass through the grave to get there.

And yet, somehow, the message wins.

See how this weak foolishness turned men into saints and cowards into martyrs. And if that weren't enough, the apostles had every reason to give up. Right before their eyes, others had tried and failed. Theodus gathered a following. Judas of Galilee started up a revolt. Both were crushed. Their movements disappeared. Their names became footnotes. If the apostles had only been guessing, if Christ had not truly risen, those very examples would have silenced them. If they were only bold while Christ was alive, his death would have ended everything because no one follows dead leaders into battle, armies scatters when generals fall. If Christ stayed buried, so would their hopes.

And even if they had hope for success, why would they risk everything? Torture, exile, death for a lie? What reward did they expect by persuading the world to follow a crucified, buried man? Would they have endured beatings and flames for something they knew was false? Would they not have been terrified of the wrath of God for spreading such deception? The only explanation is that it really happened. Christ truly rose. And they were so utterly convinced, so consumed with the reality of the risen Lord that they were willing to lose everything in this life because their eyes were on the next.

Their message was not polished. Their method wasn't strategic. But the mission was unstoppable because it came from heaven. And through them, the entire world was turned upside down. If they had been madmen, as some still dare to suggest, they would have failed before they began because no one listens to insane people. But they succeeded.

And indeed, they did. As the undeniable outcome shows, there is no one ever wiser than them. And if they are the wisest of all, then surely they did not take this mission on a whim.

Would they dare to have waged war against the entire world unless they had seen him risen from the dead?

Just simmer on that for a moment. Jesus had told them, "Hey, after three days, guys, I'll rise again." He promised them the Holy Spirit. He spoke of the kingdom, not of this world. He said they would be witnesses to the end of the earth. Just think about that. If none of it happened, if the tomb stayed sealed, if the Spirit never came, they would have walked away defeated. They would have said, "He promised to rise, but he's still dead." He spoke of power. But we feel nothing. If his promises for this life failed, how can we trust him about what he said about the next?

Their faith would have died with them. But it didn't. Their faith rose with him. They preach boldly. They live fearlessly. They die triumphantly because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And that is what I like to call resurrection meat and taters.

I hope you all heard something tonight that you feel like you can sink your teeth into. Thank you very much for having me out.