<TITLE>03. Par 8-21</TITLE>L-8 Now we're speaking, of course, of the resurrection, which is believed amongst all Christian believers today. It's the hope of the Church. If Christ did not rise, then we are lost. And Christianity is based upon resurrection, now, not replacement. Resurrection! For instance, this motel key here, if I drop that on the floor, and said, "Well, I dropped it, I'll place another one like it here," that isn't resurrection; that's replacement. See? Resurrection is "bring up the same thing that went down." And God raised Him up on the third day. And we believe that with all of our heart, and we believe the Bible story.

L-9   And notice, on this first Easter morning, Jesus is alive among them, from among the dead.

L-10 What a beautiful thing! How I'm so glad tonight to punctuate that with an "amen," that I believe He is still alive among us, in the springtime of the glorious Gospel of Christ. I believe He is still alive.

L-11 I believe that that's been a... Yeah. That was the springtime of the resurrection, also, of life, of man. Man always feared death; they had no assurance of ever coming back again after dying.

L-12 But seeing Him die at Calvary, then being raised up again and was with them, walking among them on this glorious day. After the heartaches and sorrows, and so forth, that they had went through, and them dark hours of seeing Him crucified and spit on, and made fun of, and all that He had went through in those three and half years, and them closing hours of darkness that made Him... Those Pharisees, they hated Him, anyhow, and they was rejoicing because they thought they had finished it, and here He appears among them! My, what a day! I'd...

L-13   Wouldn't you like to a-took a trip with Cleopas and them, on the road to Emmaus? I'd a-liked to a walked with them. And it's possible. I'm glad to be a living today, that I can still do the same thing, walk with Him today just the same as they did then.

L-14 The thought of it, was, how that Jesus had raised up from the dead. But the sad part of it, was, some of them who loved Him, didn't know it.

L-15 And that's certainly a picture of today. There is many people who love Him, who doesn't yet realize that He is alive. They, it's some kind of a history that they have learned in some school. It's some book of theology, some ethics, code of ethics, that they studied somewhere, and Jesus is a historical figure to them. And yet, in the history, they love Him, and don't realize that He is alive with us, walking right around with us, just as He always did. He is here just the same as--as He ever was.

L-16   Now, they, the reason (they) why didn't they believe it, is because the resurrection was too unusual. See, there was... That hadn't happened before, so it was an unusual thing for them to believe something like that.

L-17 And the unusualness is where God lays. See? Christ's birth was unusual, "a virgin shall conceive." God is always unusual. He does unusual thing, but it's always according to His Word. He never does nothing outside of His Word, so unusual; because, He promises it first, and then sends somebody to manifest that Word, to make It real to people.

L-18 When you Pentecostal people first receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, that was a unusual thing. But yet God promised It, "pour It out in the last days," and here It was. So no matter how unusual it was, it was a promise of God that had to be made manifest, 'cause God promised it.

L-19   Now the resurrection was unusual to many of His, the people that loved Him; yet it was a promised Word, but too unusual to believe.

L-20 Divine healing today, is--is so unusual to people till they don't want to believe it, and yet it's the promised Word.

L-21 This thing that we're seeing taking place today is a promise of God, but it's so unusual to the mind who has never thought of it in that way.


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