Resurrected Savior

Welcome to No Compromised Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroth. It's another Wednesday. We're dropping the show on Wednesday.

It seems like somehow though, I've done three shows today because I have.

I just bring in different shirts, change the shirts. Mario and I chatted up a little bit and then off to the next.

And so we try to, because of the setup and it takes time to set up, we try to record four shows on Tuesday and four shows on Wednesday or four on Thursday, four on Friday.

And so we're gonna try to get ahead a little bit. Hey, Mario, if we do this once a month, we're gonna be ahead of the game now.

If you wanna write me, mikeatnocompromisedradio .com, working on the website. Hopefully that will be done soon.

The new website for Bethlehem Bible Church is bbchurch .org. If you wanna pull up things for the sermons, that would be great.

Try to just figure out different ways to talk to you about the Lord Jesus. And what

I'd like to do today is talk about the resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus.

But I wanna do it in maybe a different way. While we love Resurrection Sunday called

Easter, there are 51 other Sundays that we celebrate the resurrection. And I think if we go to Matthew chapter 27 and 28 today,

I'm going to help you understand the resurrection as a supernatural event in this manner.

Lots of supernatural things were happening before the resurrection. And it's almost like the author is greasing the wheels, supernatural, supernatural, supernatural, supernatural, things were happening.

So then once the ultimate supernatural thing happened, the resurrection of Jesus, you'd go, oh, I could see that happening.

It wasn't just living life and then here's something supernatural that happened. Well, that'd be fine, but there are lots of supernatural things that were happening surrounding the resurrection of Jesus that if you understand, you'll say, oh, that was neat.

That was wonderful. I appreciate that. I see what the author's trying to do. The culmination of all the supernatural events was the resurrection.

So today, Matthew 27 and 28 to prepare you for the resurrection of Jesus, there are supernatural events that are happening and that you would go upon the resurrection of Jesus.

Of course, God is not just a God of nature, but He stepped into nature, supernatural, above nature, and He does wonderful things.

So today on the radio show, I desire and pray that you would understand

Jesus, the resurrected Savior, as we look at several supernatural,

I almost said five, because I have five, but I don't know if I can get them all in, several supernatural signs that lead up to the resurrection designed for you to believe and to keep believing.

Super simple. Lots of supernatural things going on towards the end of the life of Christ.

And then the resurrection is the exclamation point. So we'll start off by me reading some of Matthew 27 to get us caught up into the context, because if you just parachute into certain verses, you don't know the context.

And you, good listeners, know, good viewers know, that there's an immediate context to passages and a little broader context to passages.

And so context is king. Context is important. Real estate, three things that are important, location, location, location.

And context, context, context is good for us when it comes to Bible interpretation. Matthew 27,

Jesus is delivered to Pilate. The morning came, verse one, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put

Him to death. And they bound Him and they led Him away and they delivered Him to Pilate.

Verse 11, Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked Him, are you the

King of the Jews? Jesus said, you have said so. Pilate, do you not hear how many things they testify against you?

And Jesus, of course, gives no answer. And the crowd begins to shout for Barabbas.

Pilate's gonna basically let Jesus off the hook. And there's this custom that he has for the Jews that he would let one person go.

And do you want me to let go Barabbas or do you want me to let go Jesus? And it's kind of interesting, some of the wordplay,

Barabbas, son of the father. Do you want me to give you son of the father, Barabbas? You want me to let him go, the murderer, the insurrectionist?

Or do you want me to let the son of the father, Jesus, go? Who do you want me to let go?

And of course, they all said, Barabbas. And Pilate said, what do you want me to do with Christ?

And they said, together, crucify Him. Let Him be crucified.

Yes, but what evil has He done? They shouted all the more, let Him be crucified. Then He released, verse 26, for them

Barabbas and having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to be crucified.

Soldiers take Jesus into the governor's headquarters. They twist the crown of thorns on His head.

They put a reed in His right hand. They kneel before Him, hail, King of the Jews. They spit on Him.

They strike Him with the reed. They strike Him on the head. They mock Him. They strip Him of His robe, put on His own clothes and led

Him away to crucify Him. Phony King, they think, phony

Messiah, they think. Hail, King of the Jews. Instead of hail, Emperor Caesar, hail,

King of the Jews. And over and over and over, pummeling Jesus, hitting Jesus. Hey, you mess with the wrong people when you mess with Rome.

This is what happens to people when they come around and say they're a king, when there's only one King, Caesar.

They take Him out to a place called Golgotha, the place of the skull. And they offered

Him wine to drink, but He did not drink it. And when they had crucified Him, they divided

His garments. I mean, all this talk, and then it's just like with restraint, with an economy of words, they crucified

Him. And over His head, they put the charge which read, this is Jesus, King of the

Jews. He's on the cross. There's two thieves, one on each side.

Hey, if you're the Son of God, come down from the cross. Come down from the cross and we'll know you're the

King and we'll believe you. That's the context.

A sobering context, but that's the context. Now what's going to happen, there's a lot of supernatural stuff going on, and it's there to help you say, oh, the resurrection is the final, most wonderful supernatural thing.

Supernatural sign number one, found in verse 45. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour.

Oh, how do they count hours? This is from noon to three. So 6 a .m. is ground zero for the number.

So noon is the sixth hour and the ninth hour is 3 p .m. So from noon to three, it's dark.

Well, usually at noon, it's what? It's light. At noon, it becomes dark.

What's going on? Is there some kind of windstorm, sandstorm, dust storm? What is happening?

God brings the darkness. He wants you to be thinking, why would it be dark at noon?

What's going on? It was the means by which God desired to aid the observers of the interpretation of what was happening there, said

S. Lewis Johnson. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, that is at three.

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Oh, what's the darkness all about?

The cry of Jesus explains the darkness. Darkness, judgment.

Jesus is getting judged, not for his own sins, but for others. That's what's going on, a supernatural sign that we're having interpreted here in verse 46.

Would it help you if I told you that the Old Testament linked darkness with judgment very often?

The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the

Lord. That's Joel 2. How about Amos 5, excuse me, Amos 8.

And it will come about in that day, declares the Lord, that I'll make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark and broad daylight.

Judgment. Darkness represents God's judgment. Who's getting judged?

Jesus in our place, on our behalf. Just like darkness spreads over all of Egypt at the

Exodus, God is judging sin on his son. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Depths of suffering, judgment, substitution.

Some of the bystanders hearing said, this man's calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it him to drink.

But others said, we'll wait and see whether Elijah has come to save him. But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yield up his spirit.

Jesus dies voluntarily. No one takes his life. You see that supernatural sign?

Darkness. That's the first sign. Second supernatural sign is the curtain is torn in two.

Remember what we're doing today. Supernatural, supernatural, supernatural, supernatural, supernatural. Oh, the resurrection, of course, the pinnacle of supernatural things.

Here's the curtain torn in two, verse 51. Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, interestingly, from top to bottom.

This curtain was about 60 feet high. It was about 30 feet wide.

And it says it was torn in two. It was the place that kept people out of the holy place, the most holy place.

It's torn in two. What's that mean? Who torn it? Who torn it?

Public school, Omaha, Nebraska. I went to Masters Elementary School. Had nothing to do with master's seminary or college or university.

Omaha, Nebraska, suburbs out in the middle of nowhere, dirt roads, and they built a new school.

I used to go to Lord Dodge Elementary School and they built a new school called Masters. And we had a nickname.

You know, some people have nicknamed panthers, huskies, devils.

We were the master's monarchs. I can tell you that no man who taught gym class came up with that, the master's monarchs.

I also remember we would try to catch monarch butterflies, and then we would put them in kind of a formaldehyde deal and kill them and then open up their wings and then take the pins and put it on the styrofoam thing so we could do a show and tell with all the butterflies we caught and killed.

You wanna know why I have psych problems? This a lot has to do with Nebraska. Oh, where are we going for a field trip today?

To the art museum? No, the stockyards. Chicago stockyards, number one,

Omaha stockyards, number two. And here we go. I don't think they probably took us to go see the cows getting killed, but maybe they did.

Torn in two, it was from the bottom up. Well, that would be manmade. How can you get up 60 feet in the most holy place?

Nobody's even allowed to go in there, except the high priest once a year. And now it's torn from the top to the bottom.

Who did the tearing? Answer, it's supernatural. God, in fact, did that because now access to everyone in the presence of God through the mediator

Christ Jesus, not just the high priest once a year into the most holy place. You'd have to go in there afraid.

If he hadn't repented enough, if he wasn't holy enough, he's gonna get killed. Tradition said they'd put a rope around his legs.

So if he died, they could pull him out because you don't wanna go in there. You're gonna die too. Tradition said they put little bells on his ankles so you could hear him.

As long as you can hear the bells, you would know the animal, you would know he was alive rather. The temple curtain is torn from top to bottom.

Supernatural sign. Entrance into heaven. Anytime, by the way,

Christian, you wanna pray, enter the presence of God, you can, all because of Jesus.

You don't have to go through a bunch of rigmarole or anything else, top to bottom. This wasn't humanly done.

Human achievement didn't happen. It was divine accomplishment, opening the way to God's presence once and for all.

Also, what would happen because this curtain was torn? Hey, the

Old Testament system of sacrifices, done. Jesus's offering, final.

Jesus's sacrifice, perfect. Nothing else needs to be done to reconcile God and man.

80 foot tall curtain, 60 foot tall curtain, heavy curtain, ripped.

No more sacrifices. Supernatural sign number three. First, there's darkness.

Then there's the curtain torn from top to bottom. And now, oh, an earthquake.

You say earthquakes aren't supernatural, but the timing of this one certainly is. Verse 51, the earth shook and the rocks were split.

Now, I've been in earthquakes before, quite a few of them. The biggest one, I was in North Hollywood and it was 19,

I don't know, between 89 and 94 probably. And I remember our daughter

Haley was little. And by the time I woke up to figure out what was going on,

Kim, my wife, had already gotten up, gotten Haley and gotten out of the house. And I'm still fumbling around, trying to figure things out.

I make it outside and we're standing in the street and we look at the house and there's an after shaking.

And I could just see the house going like that. The house made it, my bookshelves didn't, but the house made it.

It's interesting when you study the Bible, many times, most times earthquakes are from God.

Symbols of the presence of God. Think about Mount Sinai, the law, trembling.

The presence of God is there, smoke, fire, shaking. And so you think, okay, while an earthquake in and of itself might not be miraculous, oftentimes it is miraculous, the presence of God.

And here, the timing, the exact moment Jesus dies, what a coincidence, what a quinking ink that when

Jesus dies, there's this earthquake. The earth is shaking and the rocks were split.

Is there any doubt of what's going on here? Jeremiah 10, but the

Lord is the true God. He's the living God, the everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth quakes and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

God is intervening supernaturally. Darkness, curtain torn in two, earthquake.

And now verse 52 and 53, graves are open. Wow, when you first read this, you're like, this is wild.

Graves are open. It says in verse 52, tombs were opened. Could it get even wilder?

Many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

Dead people coming out of the tombs, waiting around there in the crypt area until Sunday, the resurrection.

And then they go in and talk to people in Jerusalem. Supernatural, all of these things are happening.

Who were they? I don't know. Some people said, what if it was Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David?

They get up, Noah walking around. I don't know who it was. Jesus dies on Friday, he's raised on Sunday and they're waiting around on the

Sabbath and off they go. Very interesting.

Their bodies restored. How does a dead person get up out of the grave? Now we think of graves, you know, underneath the ground and putting earth on top.

Probably back in those days, the rock tombs were above the surface. Earthquake happens, opens up, but the people who were dead start walking around.

It's like Jesus's death triggers this whole thing. Yes, that's exactly right. That's the way you could think about it.

Why they waited until Sunday to go into the city? I have no idea, but they died.

I think, by the way, these are people that weren't Moses and Elijah and these folks. I think there were people that had died recently.

And so if I'm in Jerusalem and it's Sunday and I know somebody's died a year ago or six months ago and now they're up walking around,

I'm sure testifying to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, that his death is real and his resurrection is real.

And by the way, you should know it's real because I'm resurrected. I also think to myself,

Mario, what if you die in the Lord, you're in heaven, experiencing the presence of God.

And now God says, by the way, Jesus is gonna die and I'm gonna send you back for a while and give you your old body back.

And you walk around and preach the gospel and hear all that Jesus is alive. I'm sure you would say, sure, Lord, anything you want.

Dead men walking. Some people are like, see, there are zombies in the Bible. No, the only zombies in the

Bible are spiritual zombies, dead men walking, right? Ephesians chapter two. Is this the day of the living dead?

I guess, but it's supernatural, that's my point. And now number five, supernatural. Darkness, curtain torn in two.

Earthquake, graves open and dead people up and around and walking and talking and preaching. Supernatural number five, the opening of a sinner's heart.

I see what you did there, Mike. Verse 54, when the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place.

Oh, it's just another day, another dollar, another earthquake. No, they were filled with awe and said, truly, this was the son of God.

They knew, the centurion knew. This is not just a coincidence. This is not just a random earthquake that happens to be exactly when

Jesus died. No, no, the timing of everything, the veil, even the

Gentile centurion figured this out. Truly, this was the son of God, the centurion, he knew.

I'm sure he saw lots of people die on crosses. I'm sure he saw a lot of death.

He is there by Jesus. Darkness at noon, curtain torn at 3 p .m.

Earthquake, people walking around. He hadn't seen them yet, but the graves are certainly open.

He heard Jesus on the cross. Talk to those two other thieves. Today, you'll be with me in paradise.

I've read that some Roman soldiers would cut the tongues out of the people who were being crucified because they just didn't want them to run their mouths anymore.

Here, it was different. Instead of not wanting to listen to this man, the centurion did listen to this man, the

Lord Jesus. And he would hear the Lord Jesus on the cross say things like, father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

He'd hear them say things like, he'd hear Jesus say things like, this is my mom, John. Take care of her.

Behold your mother. Behold, today you'll be with me in paradise.

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. It is finished.

And that man, the centurion, not by his own doing, not by his own mental powers, not by making himself believe

God. We know theologically, just like with Lydia in Acts 16, he opens her heart to believe and he opens the centurion's heart and hear the centurion.

Says this guy was a son of man. This man is truly the son of man.

To be saved is something supernatural. You just don't do this on your own. And so all this is leading somewhere.

Where is it leading? It's leading to the resurrection of Jesus. The writer

Matthew, supernatural, supernatural, supernatural, supernatural, supernatural, five supernatural things happening.

So once we see Jesus raised from the dead, we think, of course, this is the pinnacle of supernatural things.

And so Matthew 27, it goes on to say that women were there, following from a distance.

Jesus is buried because remember, Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate and asks for the body.

They're preparing the body. And interestingly, they knew, hey, something's going to happen.

So we better have a good game plan. Remember how that imposter said while he was still alive after three days,

I will raise, I will rise. Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and say, he's risen from the dead.

Pilate said to them, you have a guard of soldiers, go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made a tomb secure by sealing a stone and setting a guard.

What should you be thinking if you're reading that? Jesus is not going to make it. No, you're thinking

God's in charge, supernatural things happening all the time. This is going to happen again. And so exactly that happened.

Chapter 28, after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

Behold, there was a great earthquake. Oh, that was a coincidence again. For an angel of the

Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. Wow, his appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.

And fear of him, the guards trembled, it became like dead men. And the angel said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek

Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, he is what? Is it going to be any shock that there's a supernatural thing happening in the middle of all these supernatural things?

He is risen. Supernatural things happening everywhere, including the resurrected

Savior. I think that's pretty amazing. When people say to me, oh, the

Bible is kind of boring. I don't know what to tell you.

I remember I was in Maine at York Beach and we were staying at a hotel and the hotel had a pool and a jacuzzi.

And it was Labor Day and it was maybe kind of a little chilly. And so I get into the jacuzzi and there's a young man, he's probably 13, he's sitting in there.

And you could tell he was bothered that I got in there. And I said, hi, how are you?

And he said, well, my dad's a police officer here in town. I thought, he's just trying to say he's a big shot and why am

I in his jacuzzi? I mean, he's 13, little pipsqueak. And I said, your dad's a policeman in this town?

That's unbelievable, I'm the mayor of this town. And I said, no, I'm not,

I'm just kidding. I said, I'm a pastor. I said, you ever read your Bible? He goes, the

Bible's boring. I knew I had him. I said,

God, make fire come down from heaven and consume him like second King. Oh, that was last show, sorry, that was last

Wednesday. I said,

I just read in the Bible the other day, there was this bad King and he's trying to get away from the

Israelites and he knows he's gonna get killed. So he goes into this tent of this lady named

Jael. And she's a Jewish lady and she said, oh, just lay down, here's a little blanket, here's some milk, you'll be safe here.

And this man Sisera, the general, lays down and she picks up a hammer and a tent peg and quietly goes over and puts it on his temple as he's laying there and pounds the tent peg through his temple to kill this man who is killing

Jewish people. I go, that's the boring part, right? And he goes,

I didn't read that part. And I said, that's not too late. And I look at passages like this and I think it's amazing that we get to know this, that we get to understand this, that God has put it in his word.

Oh, there's some things in the Bible where you're looking at genealogies and you need to think through, okay, why is this here?

And why is it important? And I'll submit to this. You read other places though. It is so captivating, the drama of redemption.

And you think, okay, this whole book is about Jesus. And you think, well, yes, but it doesn't talk about Jesus every little place.

I have a friend and he says, well, if you go watch a movie like Batman, this is not how the movie goes.

Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman. No, no, there's characters and development and issues and things that have to be solved.

But the whole movie is about Batman. We're just trying to see, oh, the bad Joker. How do we get rid of him?

How does God rescue? I mean, how does Batman, Batman? I just conflated Batman and God.

Maybe Superman's more like God, I don't know. My point is the drama of redemption.

It's exciting, isn't it? Aren't you happy and glad that you're the recipient of God's grace?

Only because of the resurrection of Jesus. I love that song. There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.

It's all because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We can be forgiven. You Christian didn't have to bear your own judgment.

Jesus bore it. You Christian, along with me, are not condemned because Jesus was condemned.

You Christian, even though guilty for all your sins, and me too, Jesus has died for you.

And the message is you're free. The message is you're forgiven. The message is by grace and by grace alone, not by works of the law, but by grace alone, you are free.

In him, Ephesians one, you have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.

Aren't you glad to be forgiven? Aren't you glad that you don't have to stand before God and pay for your own sins?

You can always write me, mike at nocompromisedradio .com. Thanks for watching. Hit like, hit subscribe, tell your friends.