71-TenApostles-A

And We Thought We Knew You:
Soul Journey With the Real Jesus

Ten Apostles
WHISPERING HOPE

9:00 AM
Sunday, about April 17, AD 30
Jerusalem, Judea

�� "He's back!" Joanna announces rushing in through the gate.

�� "Who's back?"

�� "Jesus!" Salome continues out of breath.� "He's back!� He came back to life!"

�� "Woman, what are you talking about?" James Jr. asks annoyed.

�� "We saw him ourselves!"� It's Susanna.� "We saw angels too!"

�� "Jesus said for everyone to go back up north and he'll meet you there," Mary adds. [1]

�� "That's a disgusting way to try cheering us up," Simon responds, throwing a towel at the wall.� "Just lay off!"

�� "But we're telling you the truth!"� It's Joanna again.

�� "Stop talking like you're deranged!" Thaddeus argues.� "He's dead and gone, and we all had a part in killing him."

�� "Listen to us!" Susanna is frustrated.� "We saw him ourselves!"

�� "You're sick," John responds disgustedly.� "Really sick."

�� "We talked with him, Alphaeus," Mary says to her husband.� "It was him.� We know it was." [2]

�� "Must have been someone in disguise," Philip rationalizes.� "Did anyone follow you?� They're trying to arrest us all."

�� "No!� Listen!� He's alive!� Please.� He's alive.� He's back....� We saw him....� we� saw� him...."

�� Then the silence.� The ladies stop and look at the men in disbelief.� The men look back at them in disbelief.

�� "Hey,"what's going on in here?"� It's Mary Magdalene coming in from the kitchen area.� She walks over to Salome and embraces her.� The tears are back, but they are tears of relief.

�� "Did you see him, Mary?� Did you see Jesus?" she whispers.

�� "Yes.� I saw him too."

�� They embrace once more.� Mary turns to her lady friends.

�� "I've tried to convince them.� It's no use.� They'll have to see Jesus for themselves before they believe."

�� "So, are they packing?"

�� "No.� Because they don't believe he'll be up in Galilee either.� They simply will not believe." [3]

�� "Well, we'll have to leave it up to Jesus to prove it to them himself."

�� "Ladies, we haven't slept in three nights, we don't know which way is up, and you come in with this prank.� How about just fixing us some breakfast?"

�� Off in the kitchen area the women pray, "Lord, make the men believe."� In the rest of the house the men pray, "Lord, make the women leave us alone."

�� "Peter," Salome whispers.� "Come into the hall with me for a minute."

�� Irritated at having his remorse interrupted, Peter follows her.�

�� "Peter, the angels told us to make a point to tell you that Jesus would see you as soon as you returned to Galilee." [4]

�� "Salome, I'm sorry.� I'm not going to stand here and listen to your ridicule.� He is not alive.� And if he were, he wouldn't want to see me.� I'm a miserable failure.� I betrayed him."

�� "Peter, we all did."

�� "You're not going to change my mind.� John tried, and it didn't work.� You and all the other women, just lay off."

�� "But, Peter...."

�� Peter's already gone back out to the courtyard to slump back down on the floor in self-disgust.� And a pain that refuses to go away.

�� She has given the message to him and all the men, Jesus' special emissaries.� She cannot force them to believe it.� But, if they don't believe, who can? [5]

10:00 AM

�� The men sit down before the breakfast table.� They will not eat much of it.� It is just an effort to return to some sort of normalcy to their lives.� A normalcy they know they can never have again.

�� Peter is called on to thank God for their food.�

�� "Oh, God!� You are so great and powerful!� You made all things.� You give us everything we need.� You watch over us....� You watch....� No, you don't!� You didn't watch over your own son!� How could you, God?� How could you desert and betray him like that?"

�� He breaks out into sobs and leaves the table.� He has been talking about himself. [6]� The others sit at the table not knowing what to say to him.� They feel the same way.� Except for the women and their sick joke.

�� Peter disappears, then comes back with his robe back on.

�� "Stop him, John!� He can't go out there in the daylight."

�� "Let him go.� He's searching.� God will watch over him."

�� Peter stumbles out the gate, leaving it wide open.� He does not care.� He does not care about anything.

11:00 AM

�� "Mary, I need to get out of here for awhile," Alphaeus tells his wife.�

�� "You don't believe me, do you?" she replies.

�� "I'd like to, Mary.� But it doesn't make sense.� If he came back to life, why hasn't he shown himself to more people?� Why would he hide like this?"

�� "Maybe he wants to give everyone time to get used to the idea."

�� "I just don't know.� The women are the only ones who believe you.� None of the men do but John.� Not even our own sons do."

�� "Give James Jr. and Matthew time.� They'll come around.� Just like you will, dear."� Mary smiles.� Her smile seems so out of place among the mourners. [7]

�� Alphaeus looks around for his sons.� "James Jr., Matthew, I'm going out for awhile, but I guess you'd better stay here.� It's too dangerous during the daylight." [8]

�� Matthew looks over at his father, then stands up.� "Yes," he says quietly, the way you're supposed to talk at funerals.� "I'd better stay put."

�� He halfway unrolls a scroll in his hands, stares at it a moment, then throws it on the floor.

�� "Why, Father?� What went wrong?"

�� "I don't know, Son.� I wish I had the answers."

�� "Going alone?"

�� "No, I thought I'd ask Matthias to go with me."� Alphaeus looks around and spots him.� "Matthias, I'm going for a walk just to get out awhile.� Want to go along?"

�� "Yes, I think I'd like that."� Matthias stands.�"Where did I put my robe?" [9]

�� "Hey, Father.� You going somewhere?"� It's James Jr..

�� "No where in particular.� But, yes, we're leaving for awhile.� We may be gone all day.� Besides, it will give the women a break from feeding so many of us."

�� "Father, do you think he really came back to life?"

�� "Son, seeing is believing.� That's all I can say."

�� James Jr. forces a smile.� "Man, wouldn't it be something if he suddenly showed up at the Temple after they went to all that trouble to kill him?"

�� "Matthias, are you ready?"

�� "Be cool, Father," James Jr. cautions.

�� Alphaeus and Matthias shut the gate to the house with all the shutters closed.� The dark house.� The house of gloom.� The house where death lives.

11:30 AM

�� Back at the hideout, Peter walks through the gate and stares at everyone as though he wants to say something but isn't sure how.� He decides to just blurt it out.

�� "I saw him." [10]

�� "Not that again!� Now Peter's hallucinating!" Thaddeus announces.

�� "I know it sounds impossible," he continues almost embarrassed.�

�� "Come on, Peter," urges his brother, Andrew.�

�� "We know you've taken more of the blame for this on yourself than you should have.� But hallucinating isn't going to help," Philip adds.

�� "We talked."

�� "Shut up, Peter.� We've had more than enough of this for one day," Matthew responds firmly.

�� "Don't you understand?� It's hopeless.� It's all over.� Poof like a cloud," James Jr. adds.

�� "If he's alive," Nathaniel questions, "then why don't we see him?� Where is he?"

�� "I don't know why he hasn't come here yet.� Maybe later."

�� "We're warning you!" Simon half shouts.� "Now lay off!"

12:30 PM

�� "Lunch, anyone?"

�� One by one, the men get up and wander into the room where a low table and sufficient cushions are set.� Some look at the food, then turn around and go back to wherever they were.� Their place of mourning.� How can they eat after what he went through?

�� Some stay out of politeness to the women who have worked hard to prepare a big meal.� They take some of the food on their plates and pick at it.� As though the food is only a shadow of the real thing.� Like their take-over plans with Jesus were.� Just a shadow.� Nothing real.� Nothing of substance.

�� Others pile their plates with twice as much food as they could possibly eat.� Then do everything in their power to eat it all.� Like the pain that's consuming their very souls.� Maybe they can bury their pain this way.� They hurt so much.

1:30 PM

�� Back to the mourning.�

�� The mourning that hangs on like a spider's web unexpectedly encountered and retreated from, but sadistically sticking to you like glue.�

�� Mourning that's like a leech attaching itself to you while trudging through swamps where you don't want to be.� Hanging on, and not letting go, and sucking the life blood out of you.

�� Mourning that's like a shark with its teeth sunk deep into you, shaking you amid the waters of death, then eating you alive.

�� Everything like slow motion amid shadows of death.� The shutters all closed in order to hide.� They can hide from the outside, but they cannot hide from the fact that their fearless leader has been executed.� Nor can they hide from the pain that is eating away at them savagely and unremittingly.

�� Sometimes someone stands and sneaks a forbidden look at the outside world.� He squints.� It's too bright out there.� Too much sun and happiness.� The world should be in agony over what it has done to its Deliverer.� He turns and sags down in place until he is sitting on the floor.�

�� Slow motion in a world standing still and submitting to a yawning, awful void.

�� Sometimes someone stands up and wanders over to stare at a small tapestry on a wall, a tapestry he does not really see.� For he is blind.� Blind to all but his personal torment.� He struggles in his own inner darkness.� And searches for a Jesus he can no longer see and shall never, never see again.

�� Shadows altering and mutating and shifting meaninglessly in a world falling into nothingness.

�� Sometimes someone wanders into the kitchen area, brings back a mug of something, then sits and holds it, staring into the depths that aren't really there, wishing to fathom a vision that cannot be.

�� Sighs of despair rising and falling within heaving chests longing for the breath of life that has been snatched from them and thrown into the hollowness of empty hope.

2:30 PM

� �� Peter and John once more wander to the kitchen where the women are.� The believers.

�� "If they would only try," Joanna says.

�� "They can't," John replies.�

�� "Their hopes were built up once.� Built up in all of us.� We all quit our jobs, left behind our families, and headed out on a dream.� He was our dream maker."

�� "Now he has become their dream breaker," Susanna adds.

�� "I'm sure he'll show up," Mary reassures.�

�� "Maybe he's waiting until they go back to Galilee like he told them to," says Joanna.

�� "Well, they won't be seeing him any time soon.� They're not budging.� They're scared of being detected."

�� "Do you guys realize what we were doing a week ago today?" Andrew asks broodingly.�

�� James shakes his head.� "We dared to believe he could pull it off."

�� "The whole city was eating out of his hands that day," Simon recalls.� "All he had to do is say the word, the people would have mobbed the Palace, executed Pilate, and made Jesus our king."

�� "They wouldn't have had to," Thaddeus interjects.� "He could have willed the procurator out of existence.� You know he could have."

�� "Thousands of them!" Philip continues.� "They were ready to make him king then and there!� Why didn't he let them?� Jesus, why didn't you let them do it?� You were our Deliverer.� Now you're dead." [11]

�� "Jesus, you betrayed us!" shouts Matthew.� "You betrayed us!� Jesus!� Why?� Why?� Why...."

�� The outpouring of anger and frustration and over.� Once more it is silent.� Silent except for the brooding and mulling, the sighing and moaning, the tears of love and grief that intermingle in utter hopelessness....

�� Oh, Jesus. �Why did you have to die?�

3:30 PM

�� "We have got to move, everyone.� It's too dangerous to stay in one place too long.� Any ideas?"� It's James.

�� John Mark speaks up.� "We can go to my mother's house.� It's plenty big." [12]

�� "Okay.� A couple of you go out the front gate and head south.� We'll wait a few minutes, then a couple more can go out and head north.� And so on...."

�� By twos and threes the house is gradually emptied.� The men head out into the sunshine.� They do not like it.� It does not seem fair to have a bright day like this amid such bleakness and blackness.�

4:30 PM

�� "After your message, I ran to the market for some groceries.� We should be able to eat in an hour."

�� "Thanks, Mother.� I knew you'd want to help."

�� "I just wish I could do more."

�� John Mark looks around.� "Everyone seems to be here but Thomas.� Does anyone know what happened to Thomas?"

�� "He thought we would need some extra food, and didn't want the women exposed to the public in case they were recognized," Matthew explains.� "I gave him some money.� I think he was going to pick some up outside of town where he didn't think he'd be recognized." [13]

�� "Is the gate bolted?� Are the windows all shuttered?"� He double checks in every room. [14]

�� "Well, everyone," John Mark announces, "just make yourselves at home.� I know you don't want to do anything.� Hey, someone draw those shutters shut over there."

�� Once more the sitting and staring and wandering aimlessly.� The thinking and brooding.� The sinking deeper and deeper into the mire of despair.

�� Melancholy slowly drifting and swirling aimlessly around the house in a foggy vapor until everyone in it is obscured in agony.� Thoughts hazy, blurry.� Nebulous contemplation with no meaning, no sense, no anticipation of anything beyond the moment's entombment.

5:30 PM

�� "Time to eat.� Anyone hungry?� We're having fish."

�� Reality takes over once again.� Reality means acknowledging the ache in the pit of their stomachs that food cannot heal.� Reality means washing hands that will never become clean again.� Reality means sitting up when all anyone wants to do is crawl into a hole and hide forever.

�� "Come on, now.� You need to eat.� It will be good for you."

�� John is the first to stand up.� "Sounds like a plan.� How about you, Peter?"

�� "Yep, I could eat a horse.� Come on, everyone, before I kick each one of you in there.� These women worked hard.� At least show your gratitude."

�� One by one the others file into the dining hall.�

�� Someone thanks God for their food.

�� "Hey, Andrew, if you're not going to eat, at least hand the fish over to your big brother!"� Peter is trying to cheer everyone up, but not pushing too hard.� They'll all get up and walk out if he does.

�� "Have you tasted the dip, James Jr.?" John chimes in.� "The women really outdid themselves."

�� "Wait till you see what's for desert," Salome adds.� I fixed Jesus' favorite."

�� Everyone looks over at her.� They wish she hadn't done that.� She really knows how to rub salt into a wound, doesn't she?� She doesn't back down.� "Now eat up.� Jesus would be proud of you."

�� "Hey, what if Jesus showed up and they were so thin he couldn't find them?" Suzanna interjects, trying to get the men to loosen up.

�� "Okay, spoil sports," Joanna adds.� "You've ruined most of the day for us with all your bleakness.� Is it our fault you won't believe us?� No!� And we're not going to let you get us down any more."

�� "Furthermore, everyone at this table is going to eat," Mary announces firmly, "even if we have to pry your mouths open and force some food down you.� Is that clear?� Now, start passing around the olives, Thaddeus."

6:00 PM

�� Someone bangs on the gate.

�� "Who's that?� Someone take a quick check!" Peter announces.

�� "Simon is the first to the peek hole in the gate."

�� "It's Alphaeus and Matthias. �They found us."

�� "Let us in!" they hear out on the street.� "It's us!� Let us in!� He's alive!"

�� James Jr. opens the gate for his father and Matthias.

�� "The women were right!� John was right!� Jesus came back to life!� We saw him with our own eyes!� We talked to him!� He's alive!"

�� "Man, not you, too, Father," James Jr. responds.� "We'd like to believe you.� But it's not possible.� A person can't raise himself from the dead.� Father, have you been drinking?"

�� "But it's true!" Matthias interjects excitedly.� "It's true.� And he's even appeared to Peter.� Is Peter here?� You saw him, didn't you, Peter?"

�� "Yeah, I've been trying to convince them.� It's been like talking to a stone wall.� Okay, guys.� Did you hear that?" he says turning back toward the table.� "I have witnesses!� The women saw him, I saw him and these men have seen him too.� You've got to believe me.� Jesus is back!� And more powerful than ever!" [15]

�� "Just sit down and eat.� We don't want to hear any more of this.� Just shut up."� It's Simon.

�� "But you must believe us.� His work is not through.� This was a demonstration that he'll do the same for you some day."

�� "It's all hypothetical."

�� "Didn't he raise other people back to life?"

�� "That was different."

6:30 PM

�� "Good evening, everyone!"

�� Andrew looks up, jumps on his cushion into a kneeling position, crawls backwards, knocks his drink over, and stares.

�� "Andrew?� What's wrong?"

�� Philip looks in the direction that Andrew is staring.� He, too, jumps to a kneeling position, pushing his cushion into the man next to him, and stares.

�� "What?"

�� Thaddeus drops his bread in his plate, the dip still on it.� His mouth still open.� But he cannot move.

�� Simon grabs his own cushion and raises it over his head.� "Get away from here!� I mean it!� Get out!� Go back to where you came from!"� He's in a standoff.

�� James, having just taken a drink but not swallowed it, spits it out in a jet spray across the table and hits Nathaniel in the face.� He drops his goblet and puts both hands on the table as though to push it away from it, then freezes in place.

�� Matthew, whose back is to whatever everyone is staring at, turns around, takes hold of the table, and in the process pushes his cushion out from under him.� He kneels in place and trembles.

�� Nathaniel, too, turns around, and in his panicked rush pushes the table into some of the others.� Half sitting and half standing, he cannot move farther.

�� James Jr., too, turns around, stands, backs up, then gets the nerve to speak.

�� "Woah!� Hey, wait a minute.� What are you?� What's going on here?� You're a ghost!� Get outa here!� Get outa here!"

�� "I said good evening."

�� "Thanks for coming, Jesus," Alphaeus says.� "We'd run out of ideas on how to explain that you were back."

�� "No one's back!� It's not him!� I'm hallucinating!" Philip objects.

�� "Me too!" It's Thaddeus.� "I'm hallucinating!"

�� Militant Simon follows through on his threat and throws a bench at the hallucination.� Jesus catches the bench instead, and sits it on the floor.

�� The women anxiously walk around the table with smiles and tears of joy, and kneel at his feet.

�� "Hey, what are you women doing?� Get away from it!" Matthew shouts half protectively.

�� Peter does not say anything.� Is the forgiveness still good?� Are they still friends?�� Jesus smiles at him.� Yes, they're still friends.

�� "Better back up, Peter.� You don't know what those things are capable of," Nathaniel warns.

�� John walks up to Jesus and looks in his eyes.� "Welcome back," he says.� His voice is barely audible to the others.� "Can I....� Can I...."

�� Jesus opens up his arms, and the two embrace.� Then John backs up.� There are others who need a chance to welcome Jesus back.

�� "Stay away from him, John," warns brother James.� "What if he grabs your soul and leaves with it?" [16]

�� Jesus looks around at the others.

�� Don't be afraid.� It's just me.

�� "No, it's not you.� It can't be you," James Jr. responds.

�� Then, who are you talking to?� Your imagination?

�� "You're a ghost.� Please go away.� Leave us in peace."� It's Andrew.

�� "But I've come to bring peace to you.� Don't be so upset.� Why are you doubting like this?� Didn't I tell you over and over as we headed for Jerusalem that I would be executed, then come back to life in three days?� It's been three days." [17]

�� "But that was figurative," Nathaniel says, trying to explain away what he cannot.� "You weren't talking literally.� What am I saying?� I'm talking to a ghost."

�� Relax.� Be happy for me.� Be happy for yourselves.� I came back to life.� God can do the same for you.

�� "But it's not possible," objects Philip.

�� "Come here.� All of you.� Touch me.� Go ahead.� Just reach out and touch me.� I'm not going anywhere.� And look here."

�� Jesus holds out his hands.

�� Dead silence.� Silence and staring and wanting to believe but not being able to.�

�� His wrists, just below his hands!� They have holes in them.� The size of spikes.� No, this cannot be.

�� Jesus takes off his sandals.�

�� "And down here.� The place where the spike went through my feet."

�� Andrew walks over and looks closer at Jesus.� Slowly, not sure that he should be doing it, he reaches out and touches Jesus' wrists.� The holes are deep and broad.� They are real.

�� "Don't stop there, Andrew.� Touch my arms and legs, my head and chest.� I'm full of things~- muscles, bones, stomach, lungs ~ just like you.� You can't touch ghosts.� You can me.� Come on, Andrew.� Shake hands with me.� Give me a big bear hug." [18]

�� "But....� But we all deserted you.� You were killed.� We saw them take you away.� During the darkness, we sneaked back and saw you hanging on that cross," explains Thaddeus.

�� "Cowards!� That's all we turned out to be."

�� Hey, come over here, Simon.� I want to shake hands with my old friend.

�� "But, it can't be!� It just can't be!� You can't raise yourself from the dead!" It's James.

�� It's always been my father's power.� He is the source of life.� The father creates life.� He did when you were born and he will when you are re-born into heaven.

�� "All this is too hard to believe," Matthew objects.� "They mutilated you too much.� It's too hard."

�� "Jesus, help us.� We want to believe it's really you.� Give us more proof.� Can you, Jesus?" James Jr. asks.� "We need more proof."

�� "Okay.� Set me a place at your table.� We'll eat together.� Just like we used to."

�� John Mark rushes into the kitchen to get a clean plate.� His mother has a piece of fish to put on it.� He sits it in front of Jesus as he sits on cushion.� Jesus tears a piece off then holds it up between two fingers for all to see.�

�� Grinning, he announces, "Now you see it...' puts the bite in his mouth, chews it, swallows it, drinks a gulp of someone's drink, then opens his mouth, "...now you don't." [19]

�� "Do that again," Nathaniel asks playfully.�

�� So everyone watches while Jesus goes on trial once more to prove he is the son of God.� Only this time, his eyes are twinkling and he's grinning.

�� One of the women giggles.� "See that, guys."

�� James Jr. pokes Alphaeus in the side.� "Hey, Father, you might be right after all."

�� A few laugh hesitatingly under their breaths.

�� "Look at that," announces Matthew.� "Hasn't eaten in three days.� He must be starved."

�� Several laugh together.

�� "Never saw him devour a piece of fish as fast as that," James adds.

�� Laughter escaping through portals of doubt.

�� "Hey," Thaddeus remembers, "didn't Salome say she fixed his favorite desert?"

�� More laughter.

�� "It's really him!" announces Simon bravely.� "You're alive!"

�� Free and uncontrolled laughter.� Laughter that bursts like sunshine into the house of gloom.� Laughter that shatters the doubts and qualms and fears with which Satan had hoped to keep them forever chained.� Laughter that darts and dashes from wall to floor to ceiling, then rises echoing still through the heavens to the throne of God.

�� The stars are laughing.�

�� The angels are laughing.��

�� God is laughing!�

�� At last they believe!� They believe!

�� All of a sudden everyone in the room converges on Jesus, reaching and straining and stretching in order to touch and embrace their friend and leader, the one they know without a doubt is from God.��

�� A few minutes later, Jesus instructs everyone to sit down.�

�� "We have a lot of things to talk about.� I'll explain some of them now, and some later.� But I want all of you to read and re-read the old books of scripture, the first five written by Moses, those written by David in the psalms, and those written by the old prophets.� Look for me in them.� I'm there.� You will recognize me. [20]

�� Look, for instance, in the very first book of the Bible, Moses explained that after Adam and Eve sinned, God said mankind would always fight Satan, one of their descendants would be seriously wounded in the heel by Satan, but that descendant would seriously wound Satan in the head.

�� The spikes.� They entered my heel and eventually killed me.� But I wounded Satan even greater because I overcame death.� Do you see that? [21]

�� Then there are David's psalms.� Look at the sixteenth one.� It's talking about me when it says God will not allow the one he loves to rot in the grave. [22]

�� Look in the twenty-second psalm where it says they would gamble away my clothes.� That happened while I was on the cross. [23]

�� And there in Psalm sixty-nine David predicted they'd give me vinegar to drink at my death, then it would turn dark, and they would look on the one they pierced. [24]

�� Then there's Jeremiah who prophesied so long ago that I, the descendant of David, would be raised from the dead to rule. [25]

�� Remember those two thieves who were executed with me?� That was predicted too.� It's right there in black and white. [26]

�� Now look at what Zechariah said.� He predicted the exact amount of money my enemies would pay for my betrayal.� Further, it said my betrayer would throw the money back into the Temple, and they'd use the money to buy a burial field.� That's where they buried Judas. [27]

�� Jesus looks around at ten of his original twelve emissaries.� Judas is dead.� Thomas is accidently not there.� That's okay.� He will be back.� But he cannot wait until then.� He needs to give them something to think about until he returns.

�� With a deep breath, Jesus explains, "I am now going to impart to you my own powers.� That which makes me alive and keeps me alive, that which is my very life's blood and life's breath.� It will be to you also. [28]

�� "I now bestow on you the Holy Spirit of God.� You know what his standards are.� You know what his will is.� Therefore, any time any of you forgive someone's sins, this is honored by God whose spirit you now have." [29]

�� The ten men sit and stare at Jesus soaking in his every word.� Things are back to normal.� Except they're not.� He's back explaining everything to them like he always did.� But they have a feeling it won't be for very long.

�� He is talking in finalized terms now.� He never did that before.� It's like he's handing the reins over to them.� What can they ask they haven't asked before?� What can they say they haven't said before?� A thousand things.� Time is so short.�

�� He is giving them their assignment.� The whole world?� It's too big, Jesus.� We're only human.

�� LIFE APPLICATION

1.�� Some wish they had been able to see Jesus for themselves, both before and after his death.� That, indeed, would be proof that he came back to life.� But there are other proofs.� Look again at the fulfillment of centuries-old prophecies that occurred with his death.� The Old Testament was copied and recopied many times.� Non-Jewish historians even refer to it.� The Old Testament scriptures were completed five centuries before Jesus.� Which of the fulfillments of propecy in this chapter could not have been faked by his believers?

2.�� Jesus was always patient with people who did not believe in him right away.� He does not want a naive, shallow belief.� His own apostles did not believe his returning-to-life story although he had been telling them about it for about a year.� What are some things you still have trouble believing about Jesus?� Do you believe Jesus will love you through all your doubts?

3.�� Jesus did down-to-earth things with his apostles to prove he was alive again; he ate with them.� What are some down-to-earth things churches could do to help prove to people their belief in Jesus?�

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