<TITLE>08. Par 28-31</TITLE>L-28 Now, but they had forgotten all of His Words, that what He said He would raise on the third day. And they were present when He said it, when He talked to His disciples. But they'd forgot all about it. Sorrow had come. They'd seen a Man that they'd--had raised the dead after being dead for four days, and seen that Man let soldiers spit in His face.
And seen a Man Who could stand, and by the power of God, tell people in the audience, of His audience, even can perceive their thoughts. He could foretell things that would happen perfect, the way He said it would be. Even sent an apostle down to catch a--the first fish and to take a coin from his mouth to pay tribute. They seen Him how great He was and accurate in His predictions. Never failed one time. When He told a person something, it was always perfect.

L-29 And we see that Man now with the--the Roman soldiers has wrapped a rag around His face so He couldn't see, and was hitting Him on the head with a stick and saying, "Now, you tell us, if you're a prophet... Prophesier, you tell us who hit you, we'll believe You." We seen a Man who was able to do all these things and then in weakness, seemingly, defeated.
It broke their faith, it should not have, but it did. And it does yet. "We seen a Man Who could call a dead man from the grave, Who could do all these wonderful miracles, and see Him hang on the cross with great spittle all over His face, with His beard and face bleeding, where the soldiers jerked out His beard, and spit in His face. And seen Him with His back beat to a pulp where thirty and nine stripes..." They couldn't put forty.

L-30 And did you know there's thirty and nine major diseases in the world today. Thirty and nine stripes across His back with a cat-of-nine-tails, leather sockets in it with lumps of lead, beating till His ribs showed through, "all My bones stare at Me," He said in the Psalms...
And to see the Jews and the religious men of that day, the high churches, the scholars, the educators, walk around saying, "Now, if You are Christ, come down from that cross and we will accept you, we'll believe You."
They wouldn't have. "And how could a Man that was that powerful one time, lose all of His power overnight?"
I wonder if we aren't thinking the same thing? Or the Pentecostal church nineteen hundred years ago, who went about preaching the Gospel and healing the sick, see visions and miracles taking place with a living resurrected Jesus in it, and all of a sudden lost its power. Did you ever think of it that way? That's right.

L-31 There was something--their hearts were heavy. Like many believers today. They still loved Him. And all the time, on this wonderful first Easter morning, Jesus was alive in a springtime of the world, and they didn't know it. And it's the same thing today: Jesus is alive. And many people who love Him don't recognize it yet. They're worshipping Him as a creed, or as Someone Who once lived, Someone Who was once powerful, Someone Who once could call God and have things done. They worship Him as a historical God.
But what good is a historical God today? If He isn't the same God today, what good is He to you? If the God of Elijah doesn't live today, then what good is the God of Elijah to you? It's like taking a bird and putting him in a cage and feeding him orthodox food to make him have strong wings, and then put a cage around him so he can't fly.
That's the way we do in our churches. We want to be so precise and so orthodox. But yet, keep the people caged up to a dead religion, a creed of a man that once lived. He's a Man that lives today. He isn't dead. But as it was then, those who loved Him, many of them didn't know it. And those who had brought a report of it, they didn't believe them. So is it today. Some are bringing the reports of the resurrection, God Omnipotent, All powerful, still lives. But many doesn't believe it.


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