PUDDING PROOF

You know what's a heart-stopper?  For a worship leader, it has to be Easter Sunday without sound.  But this Easter, our Ken just took it in stride as we crowded closer to the front and sang with gusto.

By the end of the first service, the sound was fixed and spared our teacher Clark's vocal chords for the next two services.  We were grateful because his teaching made me see the resurrection miracle as couched in a new framework.

You know a new phrase that already has become tiresome?  Fake news.  Clark asked us to consider that fake news can be something reported that is really fake...or it could be satire (which seems often lost on people)...or it could be selectively-chosen facts chosen to buttress a particular agenda.

Imagine, for instance, that you are reading the paper and saw an article about the Red Sea parting, the sun standing still, Jonah's ride inside a giant fish, the raising of Lazarus, or the resurrection of Jesus.  Would you think that was fake news?

We have to consider the source, don't we?

But if you have no "file" for the supernatural, here's the proof in the pudding.  The proof of the resurrection is that THE BELIEVER HAS NO FEAR IN DEATH.

God raised Christ and He will raise His people.  Fear is dissolved for believers because they are sure they will not experience the judgment for their sin because Christ has already paid.  That's GOOD NEWS (as Clark says) in a bad news world.

JESUS IS A TRUSTWORTHY NEWS SOURCE.

And when Jesus stood before Pilate, Pilate's question "Are you a King?" was so important. Jesus' response pressed Pilate ("Is this from you or from what you've heard?").  Jesus knew Pilate's heart so He wasn't asking for Himself.  Rather, Jesus was pressing Pilate so that the Roman had one more chance to reconsider.  Jesus is generous and stands ready to respond to a true seeker.

Here is a short clip from The Passion of the Christ where Jesus is reasoning with Pilate.  The clip has no violence that makes watching that film so hard, but is a vignette that shows a real person wrestling with truth.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJffBsSg1kU 

In addition to what Pilate's conscience was telling him was right, Pilate had the witness of his wife who was begging him not to harm Jesus, AND he had the very Son of God standing before him, explaining salvation.  1Timothy 6:13 says "I charge you before God, who gives life to all things and Christ Jesus, who made His good confession before Pontius Pilate." 

Still, Pilate blew off Truth and sinned against his own conscience.  There could be no washing of his hands of that matter.

Pilate COULD have gone down through history as one of the good guys like Joseph of Aramathea or Nicodemus, who both took a stand in the face of great personal risk.

Instead, Pilate was included in the crowd who hollered "let Jesus' blood be on us and on our children".  Pilate thought he was the judge, but one day he will stand unclothed before the Judge of all men because he WOULD NOT be clothed in the Savior's righteousness.  That will earn Pilate a place in the Lake of Fire which burns for eternity.

We come to a place in our lives when we have to come down on one side or the other as to what we believe.  Jesus says if you are not for Him, you are against Him.  And when Jesus said He was TRUTH, is that fake news or do you say Christ is your trusted Source?

The proof's in that pudding.