Just as the Old Testament prophecies said, He died, was
buried and arose again on the third day. He appeared
many times to His disciples and to as many as 500 people at
once. (Matt. 28, 1 Cor. 15)
He taught that He was the
Son of God. (Matt. 11:27, Luke 10:22, Matt.21:33-46)
Jesus repeatedly spoke of
God as His Father. Matt. 7, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20,
etc.)
Jesus
claimed deity and to have all authority on Heaven and earth.
(Matt. 28:18)
Jesus
claimed to have power to forgive sins. (Matt. 9:6)
Jesus
allowed Himself to be worshipped as God. (Matt. 14:33
and John 20:25-28)
Jesus
said that He was from Heaven. (John 5:17-18)
Jesus
claimed that He should have the same reverence that God has.
(John 5:23)
He said He would raise
all humans from the grave and judge them. (John 5:27-28)
He promised to give
eternal life to all who would trust in Him. (John 6:47)
Jesus alone never failed
to please Father God and never sinned. (john 8:46)
He said He would also
come to earth a second time. (John 14:1-3)
Many witnesses verified
that Jesus actually claimed to be the Christ the Son of God,
such as John the Baptist, Peter, Thomas, Philip, Nathaniel,
Martha and the Centurion.
There are many proofs
that Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead.
He foretold His own
resurrection, that on the third day He would be raised.
(Matt. 16:21)
His enemies guarded His
body with 16 armed guards so that no one could say that
a "swooned Christ" moved the stone and so that the disciples
could not steal His body.
Jesus appeared to many
witnesses after His resurrection, over a period of six
weeks: to certain women, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Cleopas
and another disciple, to the ten disciples assembled
together, to the eleven a week later, to several disciples
at the Sea of Galilee, to the disciples and 500 witnesses at
once on an appointed mountain in Galilee, to James, and to
the Apostles in Jerusalem immediately before His ascension
from the Mount of Olives.
His resurrection is the
only reasonable explanation of the beginning of the
Christian Church. Half of Peter's sermon in Acts 2:14-36
dealt with proofs of the resurrection.
The resurrection is the
only explanation of the complete transformation of the
disciples and their willingness to not only live for Him but
to give their lives rather than to deny Jesus Christ.
Finally, the witness of
the Apostle Paul and the radical transformation of his
life, from persecutor to preacher of the Gospel, can only be
explained by a vision of the resurrected Christ.
Only Jesus Christ offers
to forgive us, to give us His righteousness, eternal life,
a new past, a new present and a new future. He alone
replaces our old degenerate nature with a divine new nature.
God is not willing for any one of us to perish, but has come
to take our punishment onto Himself and to offer us eternal
life through Jesus Christ.
To accept Jesus, as
Savior and Lord, is not just giving mental assent to His
claims. John 1:12 says that we must believe and also
receive Him in order to become the children of God. Jesus
promised that He is standing of the door of your heart and
knocking and if you would invite Him in, He would actually
come into you to live and abide forever. (Rev. 3:20, John
15) We must not only believe on Him with our minds but also
with our hearts, confessing Him as our own Savior and Lord.
Would you like to have a more intimate personal relationship
with Jesus Christ?
If you could
know for sure that you could have a more personal
relationship with the God of the universe, would you be
interested?
See
Know
Jesus Christ.
Hear more about
the claims of Christ and what He is doing
in people's lives today on our live call-in radio show,
Cross Walk Talk.
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