Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Our God and our Father, we come now to your word, and we ask that the words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts, would be acceptable in your sight, for we ask it in Jesus’s name. Amen. It’s the 19th century, and you’re in one of the greatest theaters to hear the world’s greatest violinist. His name, Nicole Paganini. And as Paganini stands before that great audience, taking under his chin the violin that he is known around the world for the beauty of the sound that only he could get from that instrument. There’s a full orchestra and everyone waiting with great expectation as the fanfare plays. And then Paganini begins to play his violin. And as the concert reaches its height and Paganini is playing with all of his power, all of his ability, suddenly, a string breaks on the violin of Paganini.

But undaunted, he continues. And then a second string breaks. And now the beads of perspiration can be seen by those in the front row as Paganini continues, and much to the horror of the conductor, a third-string breaks as Paganini, with one string, continues to play the closing overture. And the crowd, at the conclusion of the concert is so amazed that they leap to their feet crying, bravo. Bravo. And Paganini stands looking at that audience, the audience who knew that there would be no encore for Paganini. But instead, Paganini took the violin with three strings hanging and only one string remaining. And he looks to the conductor and he says, prepares for the encore, for it is Paganini and one string.

And he plays his encore with a single string, considered by violinists to be one of the most amazing performances of the violin as Christians. Let me ask you this question. What, in fact, are the strings that you’re playing in your life? If one of them were to break, could you go on to the next? But what if the second broke or the third? And you were to choose but one string to play in your life, what string would you play? The Bible is full of chapters and verses, and there, in fact, are many strings that are played throughout the church. But let me ask the question. What single string must remain in order to play the Christian message? I believe there is one string that must be played, and it is Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

For in that one statement is to be found the essence of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For until Jesus was raised from the dead, we find that his followers were simply fearful men who always were concerned that they might be arrested, who were filled with fear. And when Christ finally was placed on that cross, they ran away in fear. But it was when Jesus was raised from the dead that suddenly those men who were frightened to death. Were suddenly filled with a power that was not their own. I believe that the essential teaching of God’s word is the single string of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For if Christ is not raised from the dead, then our faith is foolish. You see, it’s always been the teaching of the Christian church that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead.

Jesus himself claimed that he would be raised from the dead. In Matthew, chapter 17, Jesus says, the son of man will be delivered up to the chief priests and pharisees, and they will condemn him to death and will mock and scourge and crucify him. And on the third day, said Jesus, he will be raised up. Why, even some of the greatest legal minds who have looked at the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Have come to the conclusion, simply from historical facts, that the resurrection of Christ is one of the most powerful evidences. And has surrounding it the evidence to say Christ truly was raised from the dead. Lord Lyndhurst, who himself was the attorney general of Great Britain. Three times he was the high chancellor Great Britain. When he died, there was a document found in his desk.

And he said, I know pretty well what evidence is. And I tell you, such evidence that exists for the resurrection of Jesus Christ has never been broken. I believe that anyone who will look fairly at the evidence will come to the inevitable conclusion that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead. For how else can we explain men who died for a lie? Those men who were full of fear, his disciples suddenly find themselves able to stand all of the slurs of the crowd. And we are told in the traditions of the church that Peter himself was crucified, that Andrew was crucified, Matthew was killed with a sword, that James was crucified. Philip was crucified. Simon was crucified, Thaddeus was killed by arrows. James was stoned to death. Thomas was speared to death. Bartholomew, crucified. James died by the sword.

And in every one of those traditions, if they had simply said, we did not see Jesus Christ risen from the dead, that their lives would have been spared. And I know of no man who would be willing to give his life for a lie. And yet, all of the disciples of Jesus Christ, except one, John, who died quietly on the island of Patmos, all of them died violent deaths. And then also we have the historical fact that for centuries the Jewish people worshiped on the Sabbath on Saturday. But when Jesus was raised from the dead, there was a change in the worship. And those Jews who became Christians no longer celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday, but rather they celebrated it three days from the Passover, when Jesus was risen from the dead.

And on Sunday, those Jewish Christians came to worship the living God in Jesus Christ. But also, we find that the message of this resurrected Christ produced tremendous consequence. Hg Wells, who himself was no friend to Christianity, spent in his outline of history, 26 pages on Jesus Christ. We find today, by a recent world count, that 33% of the world claims to be Christian, making Christianity the largest religion in the world. How did that happen? It cannot be explained other than the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There have been many attempts to explain the resurrection of Jesus, but basically, they fall into three categories. One is that the body of Jesus was simply stolen. There are those who say what happened was the guards said that while they were sleeping, the disciples came and stole the body of Jesus Christ.

And there are many today who believe that is exactly what happened. But there is not a single case in the history of jurisprudence where a witness has been able to take the witness stand and to tell what happened while he was sleeping. And yet the claims were that the guards, while we slept, the body was stolen by the apostles. There’s another attempt to answer the resurrection of Jesus, and that is the attempt to say that, in fact, Jesus produced a hallucination and that those disciples simply were hallucinating. They were on a psychedelic trip. And not only they, but 500 others were on the same trip. But a doctor, Thornburg, who has spent many years studying hallucinations, says the problem with that is that there is no example of two people hallucinating with the same hallucination at the same time.

And so we are pressed to believe that not only a handful of disciples had the same hallucination, but 500 others had the same hallucination. And it is the conclusion of Thornburg that is not possible. But then the third and final attempt to explain the resurrection in earthly terms is the attempt called the swoon theory. The swoon theory just simply says Jesus really didn’t die when he was on the cross. What he did was swoon. He looked like he was dead, but he really didn’t die.

And they say that when they placed him in the tomb, this dark, damp, foul aired tomb, that was such a wonderful setting for him for three days, that he was able to recover from a thrust in his side, from the nails in his hands, and that those three days he recovered and he slipped by the guards, and then he walked 14 miles to Emmaus. And then he was able to persuade his disciples that he was fit and that they never saw upon him the slightest weakness. Well, that is quite a story. But that is, in fact, in the 1960s, the attempt that was written by Schoenfeld, the Passover plot to explain the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it was hailed as the greatest explanation of how Jesus was raised from the dead.

We read in the book of Matthew that Jesus was risen from the dead. And the fact that he was risen from the dead is the greatest truth that has ever been given to man. And it’s great for many reasons. One of them we read in verse five, the angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who is crucified. The natural inclination is to fear. I don’t know about you, but in this life, there are many things to fear. The fear of losing your job, the fear of breaking health, the fear of losing loved ones. All around us, there seems to be an assortment of things to fear.

And yet the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that as I put my trust in him, I need not fear anything, that whatever comes across my path, God’s hand is in it, as I’ve trusted in Christ, and that he will guide me. And to know that because he kept that word, he will keep all of his words. For Jesus said, your sins are forgiven because he was raised from the dead. I believe him. And Jesus says that you can be a son, a daughter of the living God. Because he was raised from the dead, I believe him. Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you.

If it were not so, would I tell you that I go to prepare a place because he was raised from the dead, I believe that all who trust in Christ will be in heaven and be with him. He tells us, fear not whatever we face, fear not, as I trust in that risen Christ. In verse seven, we are told that the angel said, go quickly. Tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you, these men who were frightened are suddenly filled with a hope. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ produces a hope in mankind that cannot be compared to any other hope that is known in any other circumstance.

Because the hope of Christ is that wherever we are, there is the possibility for change. The things that frighten us most in Christ, we can be forgiven, and we can experience new life, perhaps you read this week about Kathleen Crowell from New Hampshire. On July 1977, she falsely accused a man by the name of Gary Dotson. She said that she had been raped by this man. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He claimed that he did not know the woman. He claimed he had never seen her. But by inflicting bruises on herself, she persuaded the court that her story was true. And why? Because she knew that she was pregnant and was frightened that if her parents found out, that they would not let her live in their homes. So she made up this story.

Just this week, in a court affidavit, she writes, Gary Dotson is a person unknown to me and completely innocent and a man who has never assaulted me in any way at any time. You say, what happened? Why would she make such a story? She tells us, I am now a Christian, fully understanding of the evil I have committed and that I must undo it to all extents possible. If you look in your paper this week, there is a picture of Kathleen Crowell telling about the change that Jesus Christ brought into her life. But not only does the resurrection of Jesus Christ fill me with hope that we can change, but it also reminds me that as Jesus was never at home in this world, neither should you or I be too comfortable in this world.

We should not hold tightly to this world as though this were the only place that we will be. A missionary, after spending a lifetime in Africa, returned on an ocean liner. And at New York City, there was a marching band, banners, confetti, the crowd cheering. He looked in for a moment, thought that they had come to greet him. But Teddy Roosevelt was aboard the same ship. And as president Roosevelt came down the gangplank, the crowd swept, swelled around him, the bands played, and he was ushered off into a great caravan of excitement. The missionary simply realized, I’m not home yet. And sometimes we think that this life is all that there is, and we hold it so tightly and we forget that we’re not home yet. And the greatest lie of Satan is that this life is the only life.

And so many live their life foolishly, like the prodigal, squandering their inheritance, thinking that they can do all manner of evil, when in fact they forget that someday they will stand before God, and then he will say, you are now home. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ also gives us a purpose for living. In verses 19 and 20, we’re told that the purpose of Christ, those disciples, go, therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. That God has a purpose for every one of us as we have trusted in the living Christ.

That purpose, to make disciples, to go out into the streets and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to tell others what Christ has done, a wonderful purpose for living. And finally, we are told that Jesus will be with us. Lo, I am with you always, even till the end of the age, that Jesus is with us not only in this life, but also in the next. The reaction to the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the scriptures was threefold. There were some who simply looked, and they were silent. They had nothing to say. But then there were others who mocked, like Robert Ingersoll, a name from the last century. Ingersoll was known as the world’s greatest atheist. He would conduct large seminars to teach people about atheism. And before one large meeting, Ingersoll stood before them.

And he said, the Bible says that he who blasphemes the name of God will be struck dead. And so Ingersoll, in that setting, blasphemed the name of God. And then he said, if there is a God, I will give him five minutes to strike me dead. And he laid his watch out for all to see. And the first minute ticked by. There was silence as the second and the third and the fourth minutes passed. And then as that fifth minute closed with the striking of that last second, Ingersoll reached down and grabbed defiantly his watch. And he said, I told you there is no God. He did not strike me dead.

But there have always been those who have mocked the truth of Jesus Christ, and they don’t realize that the reason that God does not strike them dead at that very moment is because God is showing his compassion on them and longing that they would repent of their sins and trust in Christ. Last Easter, a man by the name of Bill Murray, who himself was responsible, along with his mother in the early 1960s, for doing away with prayer and Bible reading in the school systems of America. Bill Murray was the youngster, the son of Madeleine Murray O’Hare, who, as a youngster, stood before the Supreme Court and told how prayer and bible reading had affected him. And it was by his testimony that the laws of the land were overturned.

Madeleine Murray O’Hara, who, incidentally, has a bumper sticker that does not say Jesus saves, it, says Jesus slaves. And in 1977, the son who was number two in the world of atheism, who was himself to take over the chair from his mother in that year, the wind and spirit of God blew mysteriously, and Bill Murray became a Christian. And today, when Madeleine Murray O’Hara conducts a campaign in any city, she is there, she says, to make atheists. And who is outside? Her son, Bill Murray. And he says, I’m there to make Christians. The change that can occur in a life through Jesus Christ is amazing. Jesus Christ wants to change us. He’ll not force himself on us, but by the power of his resurrection. He says, see my hands, see my brow.

He says, I love you not this much, nor this much, but I love you this much. And he died, and he rose from the dead, that we might know him and love him and serve him. May his name be ever praised. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 21 71, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 21 71, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you, and Doctor Smith looks forward to hearing from you.