Hey, we're glad you're here. This is Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren. Well, we're going to begin a special Easter series called He Is Risen. Now, today, Rick is going to start sharing six major benefits that the resurrection of Jesus brings to people who follow him. Okay, here's part one of a message called

How the Resurrection Changed Everything. You know, in 33 AD, when Jesus was still walking

around on the planet, there were about 120 followers of Jesus Christ. Not that many. Less than 200.

Jesus started with the original 12.

He called them his disciples.

Disciple just means learner.

That's all it means, follower or learner.

And Jesus chose 12, and they multiplied during his three and a half year ministry in about

120 people.

Not that many people were following Christ while he was here

on the planet Earth. Today, 2,000 years later, 2.3 billion followers of Jesus Christ. 2.3 billion people

say, I believe Jesus Christ is who he said he was. He was the son of God.

He died for my sins. He rose three days later on Easter. He's coming back one day.

2.3 billion Christians. That's one out of every three people on the planet.

What happened? How did something grow from a little small group of 12

backwoods, peasant, Jewish fishermen to the largest organization on the planet Earth?

Now let me just put this perspective. With 2.3 billion members of the Christian church, the church is larger than China.

The church is larger than Europe and China put together.

The church is larger than Europe and China and the United States put together. Nothing on this planet comes

close to the size of the Christian church. It is the biggest organization on the planet.

It speaks more languages than the United Nations. It's in far more nations than the United

Nations. It is the biggest thing on the planet.

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