Classic Sermon Outlines
CLASSIC SERMON OUTLINES — Alexander Maclaren
2. Their work after Christ's ascension. Their characteristic work after His ascension was witness bearing.
I. THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE TESTIMONY.
A. The Method of Establishing a Historical Fact: The Personal _ Testimony of an Eyewitness.
-can say, "I know it, for I saw it."
B. The Character of the Testimony to the Resurrection.
1. The testimony of the Pauline epistles written not later than a quarter of a century after the resurrection. The dates assigned to the four epistles—Romans, First and Second Corinthians and Galatians—by anybody, believer or unbeliever bring them within twenty-five years of the alleged date of Christ's resurrection. We find in all of them reference to the resurrection.
Lilt ected Léadenccatal oe one ance rinthians 15:8) which carries us up within ten years of the alleged fact. So, then, by the evidence of admittedly genuine documents which are dealing with the state of uaes ten yea after the supposed resurrection there was a enc elief on the part of the whole primitive sh vaobupeoushhatuerrapilsubverheoteeelsidasaaceaiae <n eae their belief in Christ's resurrection.
C. The Implications of the Testimony of the Resurrection.
1. The statement of the implications. If the resurrection be not a fact, then that belief was either a delusion or a deceit. sion is altogether unexampled;and it is absurd to think of it as being shared by a multitude like the early church. This is not a fond imagination giving an apparent substance to its own creation, but sense recognizing first the fact, "He is dead," and then, in opposition to expectation and when hope