3. “The crucifixion of Jesus is the greatest theme, not only of the Bible but of the human race.” ~ Gerald Coats

4. “The Cross is the surest, truest and deepest window on the very heart and character of the Living and loving God.” ~ N.T. Wright, First Century Historian

5. “Easter is the only festival that looks in two directions at the same time: back into history to fathom what happened in the week that changed the world, and forward into the future with the assurance that people who die will live again.” ~ Dr. Paul Maier, First Century Historian

6. “We see that it is not the task of Christianity to provide easy answers to every question, but to make us progressively aware of a mystery. God is not so much the object of our knowledge as the cause of our wonder.” ~ Cardinal Hume

7. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” ~ Helen Keller, Humanitarian (Blind and Deaf)

8. “Only the suffering God can help.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Executed in Germany for resisting Nazism during WW 2

9. “Jesus wasn’t just a talking head, spouting interesting ideas. He intended to accomplish something: to bring Israel’s story to the goal which God intended.” ~ N.T. Wright, First Century Historian

10. “Among the data available to us regarding Jesus of Nazareth, none is more incontrovertible than his execution on a Roman cross by order of Pontius Pilate.” ~ Markus Bockmuehl, Cambridge Scholar

11. “Who would ever have thought that a Galilean carpenter would come to be regarded by millions as the human being most like God ever to have walked this planet?” ~ Angela Tilby, BBC Documentary writer

12. “They say that our madness consists in the fact that we put a crucified man in second place after the unchangeable and eternal God, the creator of the world.” ~ Justin Martyr, 2 nd Century Christian

13. “Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.” ~ Watchman Nee

14. “What happened in Jerusalem on that Friday afternoon was what the temple was always pointing to. This was the place where the pain and the sin and the shame and the guilt of all the world, of all people, of all history, was concentrated – and was dealt with once and for all.” ~ N.T. Wright, First Century Historian

15. “Quite what transpired on that third day after the crucifixion is of course a complex problem. Nevertheless, it is a matter of historical record that something happened – and that this changed the course of world history like no other event before or since.” ~ Markus Bockmuehl, The Cambridge Companion To Jesus

16. “If the thing happened, it was the central event in the history of the earth.” ~ C.S. Lewis

17. “And when the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” ~ Mark 15:39, NASB

18. “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” ~ John 10:9, NASB

19. “And it came about, when the days were approaching for His ascension, that He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem.” ~ Luke 9:51, NASB

20. “Surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!” ~ Luke 13:33, NIV

21. "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." ~ Mark 10:45, NASB

22. WANTED: YESHUA HANNOZRI He shall be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf. Anyone who knows where he is, let him declare it to the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.

23. “POSITIVE EVIDENCE FROM A HOSTILE SOURCE”

24. “And when the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” ~ Mark 15:39, NASB

25. “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” ~ Colossians 1:13, NRSV

26. “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.” ~ Colossians 2:15, NRSV