Miracles of Christ at the Cross

[0:00] Well, what we are doing is a little bit, I guess you would say these are kind of resurrection leftovers, because there's so much that occurred around the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that I frankly consider of a miraculous nature.

[0:15] Just impossible for us to deal with it all in just one session, so we're just going to spread it out a little bit, because there are some important items that need to be covered that have not really been dealt with, and that's the reason that I gave you this little printed sheet that's got some illustrations on it that I thought were very helpful.

[0:35] And the first thing we want to do is turn to our text, because the one we're going to be utilizing is in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 27, and we'll be looking beginning with verse 45.

[0:50] There are a number of truly extraordinary things that happened in conjunction with our Lord's death, and we'll be talking about those as we move along, and beginning in verse 45 of Matthew's Gospel, chapter 27, we read that now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

[1:16] As best we can determine, Jesus was on the cross for a rather short period of time, short in comparison to many who were crucified, because there were some who would actually last a couple of days under those circumstances.

[1:37] But Jesus was dead within six hours. It appears that he was placed on the cross, hoisted up, approximately nine o'clock in the morning, and by three o'clock in the afternoon he was dead.

[1:55] But you also have to remember that our Lord underwent a great deal of physical punishment and treatment and whipping and scourging and everything else before he even got to the cross.

[2:07] So he'd already suffered a significant amount of blood before he was actually placed on that cross. And you recall that when death occurred, in accordance with the prophecies that were given hundreds of years earlier, we are told that not a bone of him was to be broken, and it wasn't.

[2:29] But the bones of the thieves on the right and on the left of him were broken. And that was simply to hasten the process of death, because as these men were hanging on the cross, there was a, I guess you would call it, it would have the effect of a projection down further on the cross.

[2:51] You would almost kind of call it like a footstool or a board that was attached further down on the cross upon which the feet rested. And when the body was hanging there, drooping like that, became extremely difficult to breathe.

[3:08] And that item there that their feet rested on allowed them to just kind of push themselves up and gasp air while they're up, and then they would slump back down again into that state.

[3:23] And when the guards smashed the legs, they would take a wooden mallet and go along and just whack the kneecap, if you can imagine that, of each person hanging there.

[3:36] And that eliminated their ability to push themselves up and gain more air, because they just didn't have the ability with their kneecaps broken like that.

[3:48] And then that meant, of course, that suffocation would occur very quickly because they could no longer get their breath. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was dead already.

[3:59] A Roman soldier who was an expert at this because this was a special execution squad. This is all these guys did, was just crucify people and put people to death like that.

[4:11] And he strategically placed that spear point exactly where he knew it would be, there by the ribcage, and lunged with that spear right into the heart of our Lord.

[4:25] And the text tells us that forthwith there came out blood and water. And the separation of those elements was a proof positive that death, actual death, had occurred.

[4:39] None of this nonsense about him being almost dead and they took him down and put him in the cool tomb where he resuscitated and came back to life. So he never really was dead.

[4:50] That's stuff of nonsense that you can attribute to the liberals who simply don't want there to be a resurrection of Christ. And they come up with all kinds of ridiculous schemes to try to get around it.

[5:03] So that's the event that took place with the death. And while he was there, on the cross we are told in verse 45 that from the sixth hour, and that sixth hour would be approximately noon, until the ninth hour, that would be 3 p.m. in the afternoon, there was darkness over all the land.

[5:29] And again, the liberals come back and say, well, that was just coincidental, it was just a, what do you call it? What's the word I'm looking for? Pardon?

[5:41] Yeah, it was just an eclipse. It just happened a bit at that time. But eclipses last 18 minutes at the longest. And this went on for three hours.

[5:52] This was three hours of darkness. And you almost get the impression that even nature, created by His hands, was revulsed and recoiling and rebelling at what was happening on that cross.

[6:16] One of the hymn writers said, well, might the sun in darkness hide and shut His glories in when Christ, the mighty Maker, died for man, the creature's sin.

[6:34] Darkness for three hours. Not only that. But the earth rebelled itself. There was an earthquake that took place.

[6:45] I just cannot imagine that kind of setting, the eeriness of it. And Jesus, in the midst of all of that, crying out, Lama sabachthanai. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

[6:58] And telestai, it is finished. He bowed His head and gave up, King James says, gave up the ghost. He gave up His spirit.

[7:10] And we've talked a little bit about that because that's what happens when the physical body dies. You see, in a very real sense, fellas, in a very real sense, our human spirit is kind of captivated by our physical body.

[7:29] And when the physical body dies, that immaterial human spirit that nobody has ever seen leaves the body.

[7:41] That is the life principle of the body. It isn't the physical. It is the spiritual. It is the non-physical. This goes all the way back to Genesis 2 where the Lord breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life.

[8:04] We still don't know and understand exactly what that was. But it enlivened this body of flesh to become alive. And James tells us in chapter 2 back in the New Testament, for the body without the spirit is dead.

[8:25] And when you became a believer in Jesus Christ, it was that immaterial part of your being, your spirit, that was regenerated.

[8:37] That's what was changed. That's what was made new in Christ. That's the part of you that was born again. Your body wasn't. Your body is still awaiting redemption.

[8:50] And the cost of redemption that Christ paid has been applied but only to your immaterial part. It has not been applied to your physical part.

[9:01] And this is the Romans chapter 8 thing. And when it is, then these physical bodies will be changed into a glorified body same kind of body that Jesus had when he came out of that tomb.

[9:18] And it's a glorious thing. So we're going to trade in this model for a new one and it will be absolutely wonderful. More than what we can imagine. That took place during this period that Jesus was on the cross and I'm sure it had different kinds of effects upon people who were witnessing this.

[9:41] One of the Roman soldiers said surely this was a man of God and he did not mean man of God or one of God in the sense that we do because Romans were, Romans had many gods and many lords and all kinds as did the Greeks and all this guy was saying is that this was the son of the gods plural as it were but he didn't have any comprehension that he was the son of the God and that made all the difference in the world.

[10:14] So this is a situation that was taking place and I want you to notice in particular something that is recorded in all three of the synoptics and I'm looking now at Matthew 27 and verse 51 in connection with the death of Christ right after right after he said Tetelestai it is finished hung his head gave up the ghost died not only was there darkness not only was there earthquake but verse 51 says behold the veil of the temple was rent or torn in two and the scriptures are very specific here from the top to the bottom and somebody who knows a lot more about this than I do said that if this was a result of the earthquake the veil would have been torn from the bottom to the top but the scripture is very specific doesn't just doesn't just say the veil was torn says it was torn from the top to the bottom and it's almost as if if you can envision a great big pair of hands coming down and taking that thing and just ripping it off so and what we're talking about guys is not a flimsy little curtain this was a thickly woven veil that weighed a great deal and it was heavy hung if you will look at the picture of the tabernacle that we've got here this gives you a picture of the tabernacle and actually the the temple is pretty much of the same kind of dimensions the only difference is the tabernacle was temporary and when

[12:13] Solomon built the actual physical temple then they no longer needed the tabernacle the tabernacle was designed to be like a tent broken down put together and carried away and then set up again you think in terms of a circus tent how they're always doing that well that's the way this was but of course the temple was a very permanent thing and once they got situated in the land of Israel there on Mount Moriah then they built the temple and this is what the temple must have looked like in connection with the time that our Lord was here and you see this is a hundred cubits long and a cubit is approximately eighteen inches it was generally considered to be from the elbow to the tip of the finger of the reigning king and it was generally considered to be about a foot and a half about eighteen inches long so with this being a hundred cubits that would make it about a hundred and fifty feet in length which is about half as long as a football field if you think in terms of that so this was a pretty good sized thing and then inside of course was the areas that we're looking at here the holy place and the most holy place now if you look at the most holy place that's ten cubits that's about fifteen feet and it's about thirty feet long and you can see it's divided into like two thirds and one third and the one third the ten cubits is the smallest area that is the most holy place that's where the ark of the covenant was kept that's where the high priest went into once a year not without blood there he made atonement for the sins of the people and it was for one more year it was

[14:03] Yom Kippur the day of atonement and the veil that you see there is that inner curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place and in the holy place was the altar of incense that's where that's where Zacharias was when the angel appeared to him and told him that he was going to be the father of the forerunner of the Messiah and he announced to Zacharias that he was going to be the father of who turned out to be John the Baptist and that's where he had fulfilled his responsibility there at the altar of incense and that was a one time during the lifetime then there's the table of showbread and the lampstand and so on and you see the laver the laver is simply a basin it was filled with water and that was for the purification of the priests and the washing and the cleansings and so on and they had to go through that process before they could enter into the holy place and I think the rest of it is pretty much self explanatory and you can see how the tribes of

[15:10] Israel are situated around the tabernacle this is a picture of the tabernacle as opposed to the temple but the innards is pretty much the same and you can see how the tribes are all situated and this of course was while they were en route to the land but the inside of it gives you pretty much the same scene that we have with the tabernacle and the temple and the innards is pretty much the same in the layout and so on.

[15:38] Any questions about that before we move on? Is that where they tied the rope to the high priest that went in there? I'm sorry? The high priest that went in to the most holy of holies Yes.

[15:51] They tied a rope on him didn't they? So if he died in there they would pull him out? Well that was that's one of the traditions I'm not sure how verified that was but some have suggested that a rope was tied around the ankle of the high priest because if for any reason the sacrifice that he made or the blood that he applied in there was not accepted by God and the high priest would of course be struck dead because nobody else was allowed to go in there ever.

[16:25] I mean it was the high priest only and only one day a year and that was the day of atonement and if he was not accepted then he would die he would be smitten and that was the law that was laid down and who's going to go in and get him?

[16:45] Nobody would be able to go in and get him. So the thinking was they'd be able to pull him out if he was in there and unaccepted. But we have no occasion or any record that the offering that the priest made was not accepted but something really tremendously significant happened when Jesus died.

[17:08] And the text tells us and I think it's significant also that it's in all three of the gospels that the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the rocks were rent and the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep.

[17:30] Now these are people that died. The fallen asleep wasn't eight hours of variety at night it's talking about. They were dead. That's the word that is used as a euphemism. They were dead.

[17:42] They were raised and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many. I have never been able to put a handle on that and I've checked with numerous commentaries and none of them have any real answers as to exactly what's taking place here and the significance of it.

[18:04] But what we're talking about and what we're studying is miracles. And this was one more supernatural event that man had absolutely nothing to do with.

[18:16] This is all from above. This is all from headquarters stuff. And it is absolutely stunning. We just cannot fathom. You talk about a once in a lifetime situation and fellas I want you to keep this in mind too because I'm not exaggerating when I say what happened on that cross between Jesus and his father is the centerpiece of the universe.

[18:50] don't ever forget that. Insofar as humanity is concerned this is the ultimate issue.

[19:01] This is when he who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

[19:14] This was the event of the universe for all humanity for all time. This is that which we know it split the calendar between B.C.

[19:28] and A.D. and this was the ultimate event. This is well we spoke on this Sunday at Grace from 1 Corinthians 15.

[19:41] Paul said for I delivered unto you that which is of first importance. Yeah what was that?

[19:53] Christ died for our sin. Was buried raised again the third day. Paul says this issue this fact is the top of the list.

[20:06] This is job one. nothing transcends this. This is the item death burial and resurrection of Christ without which Christianity is invalid.

[20:20] This is where our faith is. If Christ be not risen from the dead we are of all men most miserable. And Paul said there and not only that but we've been proven to be liars because we testified that God raised Christ from the dead.

[20:35] Whom he raised not if the dead not be raised. These events death burial and resurrection that's the whole nine yards and apart from that nothing else matters.

[20:48] And if you miss that you miss everything. And if you get that you got everything. Isn't that amazing? I tell you that's absolutely stunning.

[21:01] So yes Dave verse 52 you said you didn't have a handle on it yet. The tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints that fall asleep were raised.

[21:12] Were these bodies partially I mean how long have they been dead? Were they bodies partially decomposed? And what did you?

[21:25] I told you I don't have a handle on them. I really don't. I really don't. I suspect I suspect with a lot of things that are just so profound or so far over our head I think many of them have a very logical reasonable explanation when once you know it and get the significance of it.

[21:53] But when you don't you're just kind of shooting in the dark. There's a lot of speculation and I've read I don't know probably over a hundred commentaries in my library and nobody most of them have answers but none of them are satisfactory.

[22:08] None of them say none of them leave these things. That's it. That's it. And I've told you before so say I know again. There's a whole lot of things that I don't know about heaven.

[22:22] Two things I'm sure of. One is there's going to be a lot of surprises and two is there's going to be no disappointments and those are two big ones and we just can't imagine but this this world and this earth in its fallen nature beautiful as it is in a lot of places and in a lot of ways still leave so very much to be desired and when you just think in terms that heaven or and the kingdom of heaven on earth and heaven where God dwells is going to be such it will be as great and as wonderful as God is able to make it and how great is that I mean he's going to pull out all the stops and it's just going to be I think the streets of gold is child's play compared to what the whole thing is going to be just going to be absolutely amazing so in connection with this this veil that we're talking about here and it being torn from top to bottom

[23:31] I attach great significance to this and this is a wise opinion opinion and a wise conclusion so you can take it or leave it because the text doesn't actually say this but one of the reasons that I base my position on is that all three of the synoptics Matthew Mark and Luke John's John's got a different agenda and he tells a lot of the things about the same story but he focuses on different things and he does it in a different way but the synoptics Matthew Mark and Luke all specifically mention the rending the tearing of that veil from the top to the bottom which might be looked at as a minor detail but I'm confident in my own self that that that was God's way of saying that the process that had been used and the methodology that had been used and the ritual that had been followed before for hundreds of years is over it's ended that's over and done with and no more is the way and access to

[24:54] God closed off except for these people and this man one time a year and Hebrews tells us that Jesus Christ has become his flesh has become the veil he is the new and living way and it is as it were his flesh his body that he gave for us that has become the veil and it has replaced that veil so we can come to God through Christ without the Judaism and the ritual and the animal sacrifices because it was not possible anyway that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins but this man after he had entered into the holy place wants to attain eternal redemption for us wow that that that that that that that everything so it is as if God is saying I'm finished with this it's over it served its purpose it was right it was instituted and all of that was designed to depict the final ultimate sacrifice that would come and there he was on the cross and when he said it is finished the veil was torn

[26:12] God says he's finished with that too Larry the law which set aside the veil has access to the Ark of the Covenant any significance there and whatever happened I mean was the Ark of the Covenant destroyed by the Romans well there's a lot of speculation about that we don't really know what happened to the Ark there there there is there is really a good case for that the Ark of the Covenant is situated in a special place in Ethiopia and that the Jews had it spirited away when they saw the risk and the danger that was involved with the Babylonians coming and that they hiked the thing out and transported it down to

[27:13] Ethiopia and it is situated in a building there and I don't know how valid it is because there is one person who is assigned the caretaker and he never leaves that building when he dies there he's carried out and another one takes his place and all he does is babysit that Ark they claim that it is the real Ark and we don't know because we're not able to verify visitors can't come in it's not a tourist attraction nobody can go in there and see it nobody has given entrance to it on the other hand if it isn't the Ark it doesn't make any sense for their pretending that it is and carrying on like that so we don't know we just don't know and it's not that big it's only about four or five feet long and a couple feet wide a couple feet high and the lid that goes on it is called the mercy seat and

[28:18] God said that he would meet there on the mercy seat between the overarching cherubim with their wings cast over that and that's where the priest would go in once a year and sprinkle the top of that with blood and it was the blood of an animal but we know the blood of bulls and goats can't take away sin but this man with his own blood entered into that holy place as it were just all the difference in the world so in essence what that amounted to is that Judaism which was officially established by God through Moses has come to an end Judaism is kaput as a worship system and as a way of approaching and access to God it's over and done with and God is only operating now through that new and living way now it's important to understand

[29:20] Judaism as a religion is defunct it is non functioning that doesn't mean that Jews are defunct big difference huge difference so you've got to understand that God has a future plan and program for the Jewish people and for the state of Israel but it isn't by Judaism as a religion or as a system of worship that is defunct and by the way the very heartbeat the very heartbeat of Judaism was what sacrifice sacrifice that was everything that was everything and there was only one place where sacrifice was acceptable and that's here in this ark at this temple that's the only place once a year and once that was done away with once the ark was no longer available once the temple was destroyed what happens to

[30:31] Judaism where can they sacrifice the animals well they can't there isn't any place that they could do it the officialness of it is gone and when we were in Israel in 1990 I had an opportunity to ask one of the Jewish rabbis there I said since sacrifice was such an important part of Judaism and you no longer have the temple what what do you do what what takes the place of it and he kind of bowed his head he said well we pray and I said you pray he said yes he said that's all we can do we pray and I often thought and I didn't want to be unkind or say anything but I just thought to myself boy can you imagine can you imagine the high priest on the day of atonement telling people I'm not going to go in there and offer that blood let's just pray it would not have flown would it would not have worked but that's that's the difference you know and it's it's it's quite remarkable so

[31:37] Judea for all practical purposes guys Judaism is dead now the Jews still practice it they still keep the Sabbath they still have a kosher diet and all the rest of it but they are not doing it for the reason they think they're doing it they think they're doing it to be obedient and pleasing to God but in essence they're doing it more out of tradition than they are anything because God isn't requiring that any longer and yet you're you're not going to be able to tell that to most of our Jewish friends yes what all was kept in the ark of the covenant I mean I know the stone tablets Moses manna and the walkie or the stick what what all is that was the golden we know what all was kept in that well it was just the golden pot of manna Aaron's rod that budded and the tables the tablets of the law were kept in the ark of the covenant and it would be interesting to know whether those items or what's left of them is in that ark there in

[32:42] Ethiopia we don't know nobody can go in there they will not allow entrance to anyone and this man whoever he is is assigned that responsibility and he never leaves that place and he stays there until he dies and when he dies he's replaced by somebody else and this has gone on for a long time now the Roman Catholics have priests they still feel that you need priests in order to intercede for us to God you can't go directly to God you've got to go through a priest right yeah well it is very obvious it's very obvious that that what we call Christianity whether it is Protestantism that actually came from Roman Catholicism or Roman Catholicism that actually came from and was based upon Judaism there is an unmistakable connection between the priest the sacrifice the whole nine yards and you can see how

[33:50] Roman Catholics have tried to perpetuate this and Christianize the Judaism and continue on with it but it really has no validity at all and yet you dare not try to tell that to Roman Catholics but what Christ accomplished is to make a reality what we call the priesthood of the believer and this means that as an individual approach to God and this is so important guys approach to God is on a personal basis not on an institutional basis we do not come to God through an institution not Catholic not Protestant not Jewish not anything we come to God personally as an individual through

[34:51] Jesus Christ and that becomes our way of salvation this is what Jesus meant when he said I am the door by me if any man enter in he shall go in and out and find pastors and so on so it makes all the difference in the world and yet Roman Catholics have been very zealous in trying to perpetuate and include so much from Judaism that they can because there is a transition there and we don't know exactly how long that took book of acts records transitional periods and what would become the Roman Catholic Church as organized as it was going to be in the very early stages probably didn't develop until the second third century and historical records are very scanty about this so the Roman Catholic Church way back when was nothing like it is today it too has materialized and grown and expanded and so on a lot so there are some really significant issues involved there that eventually will come out yes

[36:03] Christ had to live by the Ten Commandments to be a perfect person so the Jews added a lot of extra things to the law and he didn't have to live by those but he just lived by the Ten Commandments basically and by living by Ten Commandments he became our Savior because he had no sin right he demonstrated he demonstrated his impeccability that's just a big theological word but it means it means incapable of corruption and he was incapable of corruption from the get go and when Christ was tempted for those 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness by Satan most people think that he was tempted to see whether or not he would be able to hold out but

[37:05] I think the scriptures make it a lot more clear that he was tempted to prove that he was who he was he was incapable of sending he was impeccable and all that did was demonstrate it because the adversary threw at him everything he had and Christ came out of that unscathed and I can assure you fellas he wasn't almost to the point where he gave in but was able to hold out that's nonsense he was impeccable and he remains impeccable and that proved that what that did was it demonstrated his credentials and his qualifications for being who he claimed to be the sinless son of God he who knew no sin was made sin for us beautiful thing yes Joe it's interesting that he was tempted by

[38:06] Satan with the three main categories three main categories of sin that we succumb to many times there was there we won't go into it now but there are three main categories of sin you know satisfying the body food wise price glory getting glory for yourself wanting to be the top shot and then power and then having power over just like a president or a king like we're seeing in Putin right now he's glory once you get that power it's just something else but it's a sin and Jesus was tempted with all three of those categories like as we yet without sin and we just can't imagine what it was that he underwent at that time alright if you flip the page let's look quickly at the tomb of

[39:08] Jesus because this too is very significant you can see why and how it was that the women on the way to the tomb were concerned it was still dark and all of a sudden they were carrying with them all of these additional spices they had just done a halfway job placed the body in the tomb now they were coming back after the Sabbath was over and they were able to engage in what would be considered work they were on their way to the tomb it was still dark and all of a sudden one of them thinks and says to the other uh-oh what are we going to do about how are we going to roll away the stone and you can be sure that these two women knew that that would be a formidable task and they wouldn't be able to do it but when they got there the stone was already rolled away and an angel was sitting on it saying who are you looking for he's not here he's risen and you can see the stone how it was rolled you see the stone the small stone that is behind it that chocks it and it's just designed to keep it in place and all you have to do is remove that stone on the bottom and then that's on an incline and it's about this this one here is about 48 inches and that's that's the approximate size that most of them were and if you see you read the instruction here at the bottom

[40:32] I'm sorry at the top the third paragraph it says tombs such as these were carved out of solid rock and this was limestone and it was easily worked with hammer and chisel and there was a huge huge number of Jews that were working in the rock quarries and they were stonemasons and they were always chiseling things and this limestone is pretty susceptible to being shaped and they were doing that and of course that's the basis for the rock you can see the entrance is about 36 inches high which means you had to stoop down to get inside and the reason that they made the entrance so small was the bigger the entrance was the bigger the stone had to be that you were going to roll down there in front of it and this one was generally about four feet in diameter and they said the body of the deceased was placed on the bench for preparation later slid into a niche at a later time when nature transformed the body into a skeleton the bones were placed into small stone boxes called ossuaries and all that was was a small chest that itself was made out of stone chiseled out and hollowed out and it had a stone lid that was attached or not attached but laid on top of it and they would literally disassemble the skeleton after everything had decomposed and put it in the bone box and whole families could be incorporated in these bone boxes and it gives a new meaning to the expression found in the old testament especially that when someone died he was gathered unto his fathers and that simply means that your bones were put in the same box where your father's bones were and your grandfather's bones were and it was a family thing and they have found a number over the years a number of these bone boxes with the family name chiseled on top of the lid so that they knew who the family was that was buried there so it's pretty much self-explanatory as you look at the diagram the pictures and I think it's pretty accurate the way it's laid here so the body would be put on the bench here on the side when they finished applying the aloes and the burrs and so on then they would put it in one of those niches there and after a year or a couple of years the body would decompose there'd be nothing remaining but skeletons the flesh had turned into dust and so on then they would take the skeleton and disassemble it and put it into the bone box and that would make the niche available for someone else this was

[43:14] Joseph of Arimathea's tomb we are told that he was a wealthy man and that this was a new tomb and a body had never yet been placed in it Jesus was the first one but as one brother put it out even even the tomb that he had he didn't own it was borrowed but he wasn't going to need it for long and thank God he is risen he is not here why seek you the living among the dead he is not here he is risen yes Joe and it fulfilled another prophecy which is predicted which makes the Bible so believable all the prophecy that came about to be true yeah Josh McDowell has written a book and I just cannot believe this I took a bunch of high school kids through Josh McDowell's first book an evidence that man's a verdict and just a couple of years ago he came out with a revision and a 50th anniversary edition of that book expanded and enlarged and his son Sean contributed some things to it too and it is remarkable and in it he contacts he's talking with Dr. Peter

[44:36] Stoner who is a professor of mathematics he's a mathematician and they worked out the mathematical probability probability of the prophecies regarding the Messiah being fulfilled in one person as they were Jesus and this goes back to Bethlehem the place where he was born the whole nine yards Isaiah 9 6 and 7 14 born of a virgin and he computed the mathematical probability of Jesus fulfilling those prophecies coincidentally and the number is 1 in 10 to the I don't remember what power but it produced the number that you could not pronounce a number that even our congress couldn't pronounce with the millions and trillions that they worked with so there is simply no way no way in the world that Jesus could have been the result of just a wonderful coincidence that he showed up where he did and when he did and what he did and all the rest of it stuff and nonsense okay guys well thank you for your kind attention we'll be moving on with other miracles

[45:51] I want you to get some thought to what we're going to be studying next and I do want to inject this too by the way I think in order for us to do a complete or as complete study as we can of the miracles we need to look at the miracles in the book of Acts because there are some there that need explanation and I think you'll find them very exciting very interesting so we'll continue on but Dan where do you think you can find research about the people from the tomb walking around after the risen from the dead do you know any reference where that is in Babylon I'm sorry I'm not getting your question what okay you talked about the people raising from the dead yeah yeah where is there any scripture it's only here it's only mentioned in that yeah yeah well there are there are literally hundreds of commentaries on Matthew's gospel that are available you know and there's a lot available online

[46:59] I don't know how many commentaries I've got on Matthew's gospel in my library probably probably at least 50 some are individuals just on Matthew alone and then I've got commentaries that include several of the books of the bible Matthew is just one of them so there's a tremendous amount of material is available but but none is none explains this event to my satisfaction at least so I can say oh okay well that's you know but I'm sure there is there is an adequate explanation Larry I just didn't want to disappoint anybody so I had a couple of questions from the marquee at the church in Florida okay the first one is do you think that Adam and Eve were upset when they got kicked out of the garden of Eden okay here it comes here it comes okay they raised

[48:07] Cain they raised Cain and they didn't do a very good job of it either well I have one more okay let us have it brace yourselves guys brace yourselves well how about Joseph not Mary but Joseph the old do you think he played tennis did Joseph play tennis yeah well I have no idea I would think not yes he did he served in the parolus court oh let's have a collective broom oh okay Larry's made his contribution now we can get breakfast underway what you did always yeah so you