The Resurrection of the Son of God

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Oh, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

00:11

Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.

00:22

Oh, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

00:35

Amen. You may be seated. If you would open your

00:52

Bibles to John, chapter 20. John, chapter 20.

01:18

John, chapter 20, starting in verse 1. Hear now the word of the living and the true

01:24

God. Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

01:37

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the

01:45

Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they've laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.

01:53

Both of them were running together. But the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

02:00

And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

02:05

Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.

02:18

Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.

02:26

For as yet, they did not understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

02:33

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. And as she stood, as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting there, where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

02:48

They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they've taken away my

02:53

Lord, and I do not know where they've laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing.

02:59

But she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?

03:06

Supposing him to be the gardener. She said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

03:15

Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher.

03:23

Jesus said to her, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them,

03:29

I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your

03:35

God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I've seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.

03:42

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the

03:47

Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you.

03:54

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the

04:01

Lord. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

04:10

Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as God's people. Father, we ask

04:15

Lord that as we hear from your word today, that you would bless us, open the eyes of the blind, turn hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.

04:25

We pray God that you would move by your spirit today through the proclamation of your word to accomplish your will and your purposes.

04:33

We pray that you would shatter rebellion and unbelief. We pray that you would embolden your church, that you would,

04:42

Lord, encourage us, lift up our hearts, cause us to look up. We praise you for this gift of your word.

04:49

We pray that you would get the teacher out of the way and be glorified, in Jesus' name, amen. This is a powerful thing.

04:57

This is the ancient record of the church. It is, of course, holy and inspired scripture. It is the anastasis

05:03

God breathed, but it's the ancient record from the church. This is what took place in history.

05:09

As a matter of historic record, in history, with the resurrection of the son of God, and you'll notice something, and that is that the resurrection is a miracle that took them by surprise, in a sense.

05:21

It shouldn't have, because Jesus told them it was gonna take place. The scriptures taught that it was gonna take place, but it did take their breath away.

05:29

And miracles, they do tend to do that. That's the thing about miracles. They take your breath away, because we live in a world where God imposes uniformity upon the world.

05:38

Things sort of go along the way that they're supposed to go. We don't anticipate, necessarily, the order of the world to be disrupted.

05:47

I mean, it's a shocking thing, right? I mean, you watch somebody brutalized, beaten, tortured, have their back ripped apart, punched, and then nailed to the cross, gasping for air, bleeding, and dying.

06:01

You tend to think this is the end. No matter what you've seen in the past, a moment like that has to do something to your heart, to your mind, to your soul.

06:10

It's a soul -crushing thing. I mean, death is the final thing, right? I mean, we have all kinds of enemies we have to face throughout our lives.

06:17

Seasons, of course, maybe financial seasons that are difficult, relational seasons that are difficult.

06:23

You can have seasons like we're in right now that are really difficult, since last

06:29

March, 2020. Difficult moments, we have seasons, and sometimes we come out of those, and sometimes in life there are things that are unexplainable, but death seems to do it for us.

06:41

I mean, I've preached across dead bodies more times at this point than I can really remember.

06:47

I've had people alive in front of me one day, and then that Friday, I'm doing their funeral. I've preached across dead bodies to rooms of grieving people.

06:56

I've preached across the dead bodies of believers. I've preached across the dead bodies of unbelievers, and death has a tendency to close the door, to end it all, to bring the greatest sense of hopelessness, and so this moment here for these eyewitnesses was a big moment.

07:16

Again, Jesus told them, he tells them this is gonna happen, but there were times, I imagine, when I look at it,

07:21

I think, well, how come they were so shocked, right? I mean, Jesus does chastise the disciples on the road to Emmaus for not believing all the scriptures taught.

07:30

In other words, it wasn't just Jesus who gave them the revelation of the resurrection. It was what the scriptures had taught, but you have to think, well, how come they didn't quite grasp it and understand?

07:42

I think it's because Jesus said, at least this is, of course, my guess, Jesus said such deeply spiritual things to them on a regular basis.

07:50

He told them parables and stories and deep spiritual truths. Maybe at times, like, for example, when he calls himself the temple, you know, destroy this temple, and in three days,

07:59

I'll raise it up again. Well, that's a very deep spiritual truth. It was expected from the Old Testament that a new temple was coming, and Jesus is telling them,

08:07

I'm that promised new temple, but there's depth to that, there's spiritual depth to that that maybe they couldn't quite grasp.

08:14

What did Jesus mean, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem, they're gonna crucify me, and after three days, I'll rise again?

08:20

Something wasn't connecting, and I think the other thing that would've probably stopped them from believing in what had taken place was the fact that they watched him die.

08:30

And again, if you've been to a funeral, you know there's a sense of sadness and brokenness, even in the death of a believer, while we rejoice in hope and know that this is not the end, and Jesus is gonna raise this body, and all this will be resurrected and renewed.

08:45

In that moment, there is grieving, and there is brokenness, and there is darkness. Miracles tend to shock you.

08:51

I've often wondered in the past when you see a miracle like this, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or any number of Jesus' miraculous events that he actually performed for his glory and for redemptive purposes, whether it's the raising of a little dead girl, little girl arise, and she rises again from the dead, or if it was

09:12

Lazarus, Lazarus come forth, and he comes out of that tomb. You know, what did it feel like?

09:19

When they've got thousands of people now with Jesus, and Jesus has them multiply bread and fish, and all of a sudden now everyone's fed, like what's that feel like?

09:30

And in a moment like this, it takes your breath away. You're stunned by it. Just by way of example in terms of just experience,

09:38

I've always wondered that. What did it feel like? What were the conversations like? And I can tell you in witnessing miracles, you're stunned.

09:46

You're sort of at a loss for words. You don't really know what to say. In my own life in the last year,

09:53

I got to witness a miracle with my adopted son. He had spina bifida. We have the ultrasounds.

09:58

It was done since he was diagnosed at five months in the womb. He had spina bifida. You could see the hole in the spine.

10:05

We were expected to be at the hospital between two to six weeks. There was gonna be neurological surgery, possibly a brain shunt to drain fluid.

10:14

They said there's some problems with his brain. We're gonna have to deal with that when we get him. We weren't supposed to handle him when he came out.

10:20

He was gonna go right to his belly. As soon as he came out, and then there was gonna be surgery. There was a surgical team on standby waiting.

10:27

I mean, this was like months and months of ultrasounds and diagnoses. We have all the documents.

10:33

It's a legit situation where his spine was open. It was spina bifida.

10:38

And it wasn't just a mild case of it. It was on the end of the spectrum where it's the worst case, but he was supposed to be on the best side of the worst case of spina bifida.

10:47

And then the day of his birth, when he came out, we were all shocked to see that he was completely and totally healed.

10:55

Everything, totally healed, back healed. It shocked us. We walked into post -op. We thought we were supposed to be able to go to just the

11:02

NICU, the newborn intensive care unit, where we're gonna watch him on his belly and not touch him, but just sort of pray for him and get to see him through glass.

11:10

And now we're walking into a post -op room where he's lying on the chest of his biological mother.

11:17

And it wasn't computing. Nothing was connecting. You're sort of thinking to yourself, this can't be happening.

11:23

It almost feels like it's an out -of -body experience. And when we walked into that room, anticipating to not really see him, but through glass, all of a sudden shouts break out into the post -op room and he's healed.

11:38

He's perfectly fine. And the nurse is unraveling him and flipping him over and showing that his back is totally whole.

11:45

And at first, it's sort of a shock, right? All I remember was screaming. I think

11:50

Candy was speaking in tongues. It was, I mean, it was not really, relax.

11:59

It was just shouts and screaming. And then all of a sudden it's just silence.

12:05

And I remember falling on my knees and I couldn't speak. I felt like I couldn't breathe. It was just, I don't know what to say.

12:11

And then when I announced it to our church body in a private group, you can watch that video. I don't have words to express.

12:16

You sort of lose the ability to get two sentences together. You're just stunned. It's unexpected.

12:22

You're at a loss and you almost kind of live for a couple of days in disbelief. Like, is this really happening?

12:29

It can't be the case. It can't happen. That's a miracle in healing.

12:35

That's not a resurrection from the dead. I mean, the death thing is the final thing, right?

12:41

That's the great enemy. How do you overcome the death? It was a famous story. Go watch it later, a pastor named

12:48

Dwayne Miller. It's really, it's fascinating to watch. He was a pastor, a good pastor for a long time.

12:57

And he got sick one Sunday. He had to preach three services and he got sick. And he got, after the second service, he had to call the other pastors and say,

13:05

I can't preach the third service. I don't know what's going on with my throat. He got some kind of virus and it attacked his throat and it did nerve damage to his throat.

13:13

And he wasn't able to speak, progressively getting worse and worse. And he saw 200 doctors, over 60 specialists.

13:22

And what they told him was, is that whatever happened to your throat, it caused irreparable damage.

13:29

It can't be fixed. It's over. And so he had to eventually sort of say,

13:35

I can't be a pastor anymore. And he essentially told his church, you're gonna have to find a new minister because I can't shepherd you.

13:41

I can't really talk. It was so difficult to hear him speak. And he had to fight. And he had this tightness around his throat. And this lasted for,

13:48

I believe, a couple of years. And he had basically given up the ministry. His wife had to get a job so they could survive because he was trained as a minister and that's all he really could do.

13:57

And he lost his voice. And so they were in this space of like a couple of years, wondering like what is happening?

14:03

And they told him that you're eventually gonna lose this completely. And he was barely able to get words out.

14:08

And then he was at a church that had a Bible study class, a Sunday school.

14:13

And it was the one Sunday school class that they recorded because it was a larger class. And he was asked to teach.

14:20

And he said, I can't teach. He couldn't barely speak. And they said, no, we'll put a microphone really close to your mouth.

14:26

And we wanna hear you teach on this passage. It just so happened that that Sunday, there was the message on a

14:33

Psalm that was about God healing and delivering your life from the pit. And so while he is preaching on this passage in the

14:41

Psalms, you can barely hear what he's saying. It's very difficult for him to get words out. He's teaching on this

14:46

Psalm and he's basically saying, I believe that God heals, but we can't demand of God that he heals.

14:52

He heals in his sovereign will. We shouldn't necessarily say we'll call you down and just anticipate it all the time.

14:59

However, God can perform miracles. And as this pastor who can barely speak, who's lost it and is told that this is irreparable, it can't be fixed, and it's only gonna go away completely.

15:11

As he starts to preach on that Psalm and it says, and he delivers my life from the pit. As he says pit, he says later that it was like he felt all the pressure from his throat release.

15:22

And all of a sudden, mid -sermon preaching on the God who heals, this pastor all of a sudden gets his voice back.

15:29

Now I'm gonna encourage you to go watch it because you get to see what it's like when you experience a real miracle.

15:35

He didn't know what to do. All of a sudden, his voice comes back and he's just sort of stunned.

15:42

And he eventually says, I hate to say it, but I'm kind of at a loss for words. Because God heals in his sovereign will.

15:51

And when you see a miracle like that, you can even witness it as you watch that. There's just this sort of stunned disbelief.

15:59

This can't really be happening, can it? That's not how life works.

16:05

But with the death of Jesus, these are humans. They're not, these are, we often think of like the apostles and those who are hearing these stories as people who are sort of like floating on air, these highly spiritual beings.

16:16

And reality, these are people that like ran away from Jesus when he needed them, right?

16:22

I mean, they're humans, they're frail, they're just mortal. And so when they see Jesus murdered on that tree, their response is,

16:29

I guess this is over. I mean, they're grieving over this. They're not expecting this glorious bursting forth.

16:36

It shocked them, and that's what miracles tend to do. And you can see it in the lives of those who were the witnesses.

16:42

For example, we know, of course, and how'd you like to go down in history as doubting such and such?

16:49

Well, we know doubting Thomas, right? And Thomas, in John 20, 25, he says that, he's not gonna believe it, it's 24, verse 24.

16:58

I'll start there. Now, Thomas, one of the 12 called the twin was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we've seen the

17:06

Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side,

17:15

I will never believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them.

17:22

Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. I love that that's what he keeps saying, peace be with you.

17:30

Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side.

17:36

Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me?

17:46

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. You see, this is a story filled with real humanity, not people just ready to believe that somebody rose again from the dead.

17:58

I mean, think about the story of Lazarus. Even in that story, it doesn't make any sense when you know the truth that Jesus raises a dead guy who's been dead for days.

18:06

He stinketh. He comes out and it says that some people believed and some people didn't.

18:14

He was dead and he comes out of that grave. Jesus says, Lazarus, at his own voice,

18:19

Lazarus, come forth. He commands them and he comes forth out of the dead, raised from the dead and it says some people didn't believe.

18:26

Thomas, he's not buying it. He says, y 'all tell him tales out of the schoolyard. Until I see him with my own eyes and put my hand in there,

18:35

I'm not gonna believe. And then Jesus shows up, my Lord and my God. You see the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, 13 through 35, same situation.

18:45

Jesus is raised again from the dead and these disciples are a bunch of sad saps walking down this road and Jesus starts walking with them and they're like, oh, we thought he was the one and you know, where have you been?

18:56

And you know, he died and we thought he was gonna be the Messiah. And Jesus calls them slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written.

19:06

In other words, you should have known this. This is God's story. Not only did Jesus tell them, the scriptures laid it down.

19:14

The Messiah, the Son of God was gonna be raised again from the dead. He was gonna conquer the greatest enemy that we have and these sad saps couldn't see it.

19:24

They were in total disbelief. You see, this story is filled with real humanity, real humanity, people that just can't believe that this would happen, a miracle on this level and they'd seen all kinds but the death of Jesus seemed like something that could not be surmounted.

19:40

You see, these disciples of course died gruesome deaths to testify to the resurrection's historic nature and divine power, just consider that.

19:51

It's often said as people talk about this, what would it take for you to die for something that you say is true?

19:58

What would it take? I mean, if you are making the story up, of course when someone puts hot pokers into your side or rips the flesh off your body while you're breathing, that'll tend to wake somebody up and stop them from telling lies.

20:11

You see it in history of course, even in the last couple of hundred years, a story of the witnesses to the

20:16

Book of Mormon as time goes on, people are changing their story, saying, well, I didn't really see it.

20:22

I saw it with spiritual eyes, you know, that sort of a thing. Story starts to change when pressure is applied but just consider that all the apostles died gruesome martyrs' deaths to testify that Jesus Christ is

20:35

God in the flesh, he is the way, the truth, and the life, there is salvation in no other but Jesus and he is alive from the dead.

20:43

I saw him, I ate with him, I touched him and they died martyrs' deaths.

20:49

I often ask this question when we have this moment, every year, what would it take for you to be flayed and not deny

20:56

Jesus? That's where they cut your skin off your body while you're alive. What would it take for you to be crucified and to hang on to that belief that Jesus Christ is the only answer, that he is

21:06

Lord and Savior? What would it take for you to have your head cut from your body, severed from your body or be burned in an oven?

21:13

They experienced these things because they knew it was true. Miracles on this level tend to change you permanently.

21:23

The apostle Paul, of course, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, go there, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, this is a very important section of scripture.

21:31

I encourage you to get to know it because it tells so much of the whole story in a burst. In 1

21:37

Corinthians chapter 15, here's the apostle Paul. If you're new to the faith and you don't know, the apostle Paul was first, of course, an antagonist towards the

21:44

Christian faith. He's in the record as somebody who persecutes Christians, he tried by his own testimony to destroy the church, he was so zealous that he was a part of trying to dismantle this messianic movement in the first century.

21:59

Of course, when he sees Jesus alive from the dead, his life is completely transformed. He wrote much of the

22:05

New Testament and in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, by the way, he was killed for his faith in Jesus, the risen

22:10

Savior. He says in verse one, now I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you which you received and which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word

22:22

I preached to you unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what

22:27

I also received, and here it is, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

22:40

See, this isn't a novelty, this isn't a novel story, this is what was anticipated. And that he appeared to, and that's

22:48

Peter, of course, then to the 12, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

23:00

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

23:16

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.

23:22

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

23:28

Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. So here's a section where the apostle

23:34

Paul says in the first century, when hostile witnesses could have been brought forth, that the resurrection is an historic event.

23:42

Jesus was really raised from the dead. He appeared to people who knew him best, and he actually says he appeared actually to 500 eyewitnesses at one time, and he says, look, most of these people are still alive today.

23:56

If you don't believe me, go ask them. This isn't something like the apostles were put into a trance, or they had some spiritual eyes experienced sort of out there in the gassy spiritual existence.

24:09

This is people who, in real flesh and blood, felt real flesh and blood, and Paul says again, when hostile witnesses could have been brought forth to contradict this story, you don't believe me?

24:21

Go ask them. They saw him alive from the dead. That's where this story comes from, the story of God.

24:29

God's the master storyteller. He weaves together all human history, all of our stories, and the whole big picture.

24:35

This is God's story of redemption, and the resurrection is at the center of it, because the resurrection answers our greatest enemies.

24:45

The resurrection of the Son of God answers two of our ultimate enemies. Here it is, sin and death.

24:53

It speaks to the problem of sin. Jesus died because you deserve to die.

25:02

Jesus died because we are rebels against the king. Jesus died because we are not good.

25:08

We are not kind of good. I saw somebody the other day wearing a shirt. It was for a restaurant, and it said, be a good person, sort of thing, and of course, in my mind,

25:18

I'm going, there is none good, not even one, okay? But the story is wrapped up in an ultimate enemy, and that's sin.

25:29

Jesus lived a perfect life. God condescended. We talked about today the humiliation of Christ, condescending and taking on the form of a servant, being humble and actually being obedient, even to the point of death, but why?

25:45

Well, Paul says it right here, for our sins. He died for our sins. The resurrection is that story, that Jesus died for our sins.

25:54

We deserve to die. We deserve to go to hell. We deserve to be separated from God because we're not kind of sinful.

26:03

We are rebels, enemies, by nature, children of wrath, and so the resurrection is

26:09

God's answer to our problem of sin because Jesus was righteous. He's our substitute.

26:15

He takes the death we deserve. He receives in himself and exhausts the wrath of God in the place of his people, and then coming out of that grave, bursting forth in victory, he has victory over our greatest enemy, death.

26:31

The Christian faith has the answer to our greatest enemy, sin and death, but we need to understand that this whole thing together is

26:42

God's story of redemption. You get that, and you'll get the beauty and the glory of this story. This is God's story of redemption.

26:49

It's not a mishmash of different stories contradicting one another in history. This Bible that we hold in our laps or is on your phones and is right here on this pulpit, this is the revelation of the one true living

27:03

God, the sovereign God who declares the end from the beginning, the one who does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay his hand and say, what have you done?

27:15

This is his world. He created it. He sustains it, and he carries it along to its ultimate destination and goal.

27:23

Everything is in his hands, and this revelation is him speaking to us about his glory and his plan, and this is

27:32

God's story of redemption and new creation. This is his masterpiece, brothers and sisters.

27:38

It's his masterpiece, and you need to think about it, and it's my favorite thing to go to in this discussion, the road to Emmaus.

27:46

These disciples were so broken and sad because they thought that final enemy none of us can overcome, it happened to the one we thought was the

27:55

Messiah, so that's it, that's it. This story's over. Maybe he's just another, and it didn't seem like he was.

28:02

He was righteous, and there was miracles. There's things that are unexplained, but he got taken by death.

28:07

There's no way to overcome that, and there's Jesus walking alongside them, right with them, and the thing that he says to them is that they should have believed what the scriptures had taught about him.

28:18

This isn't novelty. This was anticipation. This was expected, and by the way, if you look to the passage in 1

28:26

Corinthians 15, when the apostle Paul is telling the story of the gospel, note that the early church was memorizing the gospel with what?

28:39

That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

28:51

You see, this truth, this story of redemption, this masterpiece is a masterpiece that flows throughout human history that can't be controlled by anybody.

29:03

The story of Jesus couldn't have been controlled by anybody. Jesus is a part of that story of redemption, and it's

29:09

God's masterpiece, but it's a story that begins in the beginning of creation in humanity.

29:15

God, the only God, the triune God, in perfect fellowship and harmony,

29:21

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, created all of this, this insane, vast universe that none of us can possibly comprehend.

29:34

We can't. We just figured out Pluto wasn't a planet, right?

29:40

And that's just near us. We don't have all the answers. How's it work? This is crazy. How do we breach this, and how do we get there, and what's going on out there?

29:48

Black holes, can they suck one another into one another? I mean, this universe is being balanced in a way that is just, and it's insane.

29:56

It's incomprehensible, but the only God created all of that, and he calls it good, and then he creates in the garden his image.

30:05

Male and female, he created them. In the image of God, he created them, and God says to his image in the garden, he says to his image, he says this but not that.

30:16

You can do this but not that. Here is blessing, here is curse, and then he says to his image in the garden that he wants his image to be fruitful, to multiply, to subdue the earth, to take dominion.

30:29

God called his image to cultivate his garden, his world, but something we need to know about this beautiful story as it starts is that heaven and earth are intertwined.

30:41

They're together. The physical image of God, of course there's spiritual there too, is completely intertwined with the spiritual.

30:51

Heaven and earth are together in the garden, and we know the story that our first parents fell into sin.

30:58

All of us die in Adam. There's rebellion against God, and of course then is the moment where heaven and earth break apart in a sense.

31:06

There is now a brokenness in our relationship, human beings, image bearers of God, who are called to know

31:13

God, to enjoy God forever, to bring him glory, to enjoy his world, and be delighted in his things, take pleasure in God, and take pleasure in his pleasure of us.

31:25

It's supposed to be this harmonious, beautiful place of holiness and righteousness and justice and love and beauty and truth and goodness, and we sin against God.

31:37

We rebel, and then our relationship with God is fallen, and God says, of course, here's the consequences.

31:44

Now, there's death there that day, spiritual death, and then there is, of course, physical death and dying, but God even says even the ground itself is gonna testify to the curse and to the fall.

31:56

You're gonna have to fight for it to yield fruit. You're gonna have to deal with the consequences of the curse itself on creation itself.

32:04

You see, when man fell in the garden, he was the representative of the pinnacle of God's creation, and as man fell, all creation falls with him, and boy, do we feel it.

32:15

We feel it in Arizona at 122 degrees, I'll tell you that. We do, but you see, that's where the story starts, the beginning of creation.

32:22

All of human history begins there. We all have the same parents. We go back to the same guy, and we all have the same problems, sin and rebellion.

32:31

You see, this is where our estrangement from God begins, and we're all gonna be in the same place, but there is something about that garden we need to think about.

32:41

Heaven and earth were together, the physical and the spiritual together, harmoniously together.

32:47

Adam is in God's image. He was called to cultivate God's garden, to subdue the earth, to take dominion, but death enters our experience there, our greatest enemy, sin and death.

33:01

That's where the human story begins. But God promised so much.

33:08

God promised so much. I'm gonna talk about how that story begins to get pulled together throughout the story of redemption.

33:16

And so to do that, let's go to the scriptures. What takes place? Well, God, this is really important.

33:21

I wanna do something today on the resurrection that would highlight something that we miss a lot. Please come with me here, because this is very important.

33:27

It's so critical today to get this right, not just for eschatological reasons, and are you all meal, post meal, pre meal, this be meal, are you paying meal?

33:36

Like what kind of meal are you? It's not that discussion. This is really a discussion of like the heart of the Christian faith.

33:42

What does God do when the Son of God is resurrected? What's it mean that He's the first fruits?

33:48

What's it mean that because He lives, we will live also? What's that mean? We gotta address this.

33:53

We think today so much in terms of like we need to escape and get to the spiritual, right? We think about almost leaving our humanity behind.

34:01

This is a very important discussion to have. We often think as Christians, when somebody dies, well, the glory of that moment in the death is that, well, they've now gone to be with Jesus.

34:12

They're home with the Lord, that sort of thing. And there's truth in that, yes. They're with Jesus.

34:20

But that's not the end of the story. That's not really the glorious hope of the Christian faith is that like, well, they're dead now and they're with Jesus. No, the glorious hope actually, skip to beat over that, the glorious hope is that there's actually gonna be a day when this dead body

34:32

I'm preaching across is raised again from the dead. This isn't the finality of it.

34:38

This isn't the, it's over and they're just with Jesus now. That's just a moment in history.

34:44

The glorious hope of the Christian faith is not only is there forgiveness of sin, so our enemy of sin is dealt with, but our enemy death is dealt with and Jesus is gonna raise us again from the dead.

34:56

He did it with a little girl. He did it with Lazarus. He did it of himself. He's gonna do it for you.

35:03

That's the glorious hope of the resurrection of Jesus is not just that we are gonna be taken out of this physical world and go to this gassy spiritual existence, but that Jesus is heaven coming to earth, heaven incarnating, taking on flesh, walking among us, heaven and earth intertwined, and Jesus having victory over our greatest enemy, showing us his intention to make all things new, to raise this all again.

35:33

There's one person that said it well. This is important. The resurrection is such a glorious, amazing truth because it speaks to a new creation and this new creation isn't like the old one.

35:45

It's not God creating ex nihilo out of nothing.

35:51

It's God now creating out of the old, making all things new, raising the dead, having victory over sin and death.

36:03

But God promised this. They should have known it, right? I mean, think about it. Jesus said, why are you so foolish?

36:08

You should have known this. This was in the scriptures. So I'm gonna show you one that doesn't often get talked about.

36:14

It's 2 Samuel chapter seven. 2

36:22

Samuel chapter seven, verses 12 through 13.

36:40

This is God making a promise to David. This is God's covenant with David. He says, verse 12, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers,

36:53

I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.

37:03

He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

37:12

You see, the early church, you see it in the book of Acts and you see it in the early history of the church, they were speaking to these particular passages that sort of like zoomed past God's people.

37:25

And what exactly does that mean? I'm gonna raise up your offspring after you. They were saying, look,

37:30

David, he's decaying and he's in a grave over here. He's decaying, he's dead. And this Jesus, he's not decaying.

37:37

He's the offspring of David. He is raised again from the dead. He's on his throne. He's that promised king.

37:43

He has that promised kingdom where he is now bringing the nations to God. You see, it was there all along.

37:50

Another passage I wanna show you is actually something that was just read to you. It's in Psalm chapter 22.

37:57

I like this particular passage as we talk about resurrection Sunday and the resurrection of the son of God because it has, of course, the passion of the

38:07

Messiah there, but there's something often missed. As a result of the death or passion of the

38:13

Messiah, there is actually a glorious end to it. Now, if you're new to this, I wanna just highlight something

38:19

I like to highlight and many people at Apologia know this well, but when you come into church, oftentimes somebody can give you a verse from a song and you're like, where are we at?

38:31

Where's my hymnal or where's my song sheet for today? And all of a sudden, you hear the song starts and that's all you needed because now, oh,

38:41

I know what song, I got this song. I have it memorized, like Amazing Grace. That saved a.

38:48

There you go, see? Now, remember this, that as we look at the Psalms, this is the song book for the early

38:55

Jews. Think about it as the hymnal for the Jews. That's what it was. Jesus sang these songs in synagogue.

39:04

This is their hymnal. Oftentimes, I think a lot of people don't realize that this is the hymnal of the church.

39:10

This is the church's war songs in many ways, but they sang this song in church.

39:15

Jews knew it. If you're a faithful Jew, you probably knew it by heart. Maybe you sang it around dinner table at family worship or you went to synagogue.

39:24

And in Psalm 22, watch this. It says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

39:32

Sound familiar? Who said that? Jesus on the cross.

39:39

I love to highlight this. This is such a powerful thing. When you think about it, Jesus is there on that cross being crucified, bleeding and suffocating.

39:47

And he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And around that cross are people mocking

39:52

Jesus. Jews who know their Bibles. They sing these psalms and they're there reviling

40:01

Jesus. And Peter says, he did not revile in return, but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

40:08

But there are people now around the cross reviling Jesus. And Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

40:16

They should have done the amazing grace thing and finished the song for Jesus.

40:22

Because if they had started singing after Jesus gave them the verse, they would have literally been singing about what was taking place right in front of them.

40:33

This particular song, maybe 1 ,000 years before the time of Jesus.

40:39

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? From the words of my groaning.

40:45

Oh my God, I cry by day, but you did not answer. And by night, but I find no rest yet.

40:50

You are holy. Enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted.

40:57

They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued.

41:02

In you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I'm a worm and not a man.

41:08

Scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me.

41:14

They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him.

41:21

Let him rescue him for he delights in him. That is taking place at the cross. All the mockery of Jesus while he is suffering and he's in agony receiving in himself the penalty due to us.

41:33

And they are at the cross and they are playing this out right in front of the cross.

41:42

And Jesus, he gave them the verses to start with. And it goes on.

41:47

Yet you, verse nine, are he who took me from the womb. You made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

41:54

On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me for trouble is near and there is none to help.

42:03

Many bulls encompass me. Strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.

42:12

I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax.

42:19

It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue sticks to my jaws.

42:25

You lay me in the dust of death. Jesus on that cross certainly would have even had the possibility of having his bones out of joint.

42:38

That was common for people to suffocate on the cross. I think people oftentimes think, well, you know, it seems natural that if somebody's on that cross and they're bleeding to death, that's how they die.

42:49

They bleed to death, but in reality, you died typically in that fashion from suffocation.

42:55

The body weight hanging would have caused you to sort of slunk down and gasp for air so it was an all -day process of grinding your back against that wood to pull up on the nails going through your wrist to gasp for air and then fall back down again.

43:10

And so you would lose the ability to breathe and your bones would come out of joint. My heart is like wax.

43:15

It is melted within my breasts. I think it would be appropriate to talk about the fact that the Roman soldiers went to the crosses that day to make sure they could take these bodies down and these people would really die.

43:27

So they went and they broke the bones, the legs of the thieves next to Jesus, the criminals next to Jesus.

43:34

And they come to Jesus and realize he's already dead. They don't need to break his bones.

43:40

And so they of course thrust that spear through and blood and water flow out. Many medical people have looked at this and said, well, that would have meant that his heart sack was pierced.

43:48

And so very much sounds appropriate to talk about. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.

43:54

Jesus was on the cross and as he was being laid in the dust of death, he said very few things, but he did say,

44:00

I thirst. He was thirsty. It says, for dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me.

44:06

They have pierced my hands and feet. They have pierced my hands and feet.

44:12

This of course is unusual because here now is being recorded for us something that didn't exist as a method of torture in the time that it was written.

44:22

The Romans created the crucifixion in the way that they did it with Jesus. And so here now in scripture, we have

44:28

God telling a story of the passion of the Messiah and his hands and his feet pierced.

44:36

It says, I can count all my bones. I can count all my bones. It is interesting by the way, that when

44:43

Jesus, all this is taking place at Passover, when you see that God is the master storyteller, you can see, hey, isn't it interesting that John the

44:50

Baptist says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Okay, so this is the lamb. I know the lamb and the temple and the lambs.

44:56

I know about the lamb and the Exodus. It is interesting as God tells a story of history as he walks his people through these moments.

45:03

In the Exodus, God of course has the moment where he's gonna pour out his wrath and take the firstborn in Egypt, but he says, take a lamb.

45:11

And they don't know why. God says, and they say, okay, take a lamb and it's gotta have no spot and no blemish, okay?

45:19

Lamb, no spot, no blemish. Check, we got any of those? And then God says, don't break its bones.

45:25

Okay, lamb, no spot, no blemish. Don't break its bones. Just be real with that.

45:31

They don't know why. They don't understand. This is long before the time of Jesus. They're getting bits of revelation as they go along.

45:39

God is communing with his people. He's coming into covenant with them and he's giving them bits of revelation at a time, but there are moments where the people of God are literally walking through this symbolism, not understanding the glorious moment it's fulfilled in Jesus.

45:54

But in the Passover, they take the lamb with no spot and no blemish and its bones were not to be broken.

46:01

And the blood of that lamb was to cover their house so that the wrath of God would pass over that house.

46:08

And they were gonna be released from their bondage, their slavery, to enter into that promised land, that relationship with God.

46:16

And here we have Jesus at Passover, the lamb of God, no spot, no blemish, who takes away the sin of the world.

46:25

And when he is killed in the place of his people, that perfect spotless lamb didn't have his bones broken like the criminals next to him.

46:35

This story has so many layers. It is not something a human being can control. The Bible is so many different books and letters written by so many authors over so many hundreds and hundreds of years.

46:48

This is only a divine masterpiece. And here the text says, I can count on my bones.

46:54

They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them.

47:00

And for my clothing, they cast lots. Psalm 22, the passion of the

47:07

Messiah. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For our sin, because of our enemy, because of death, because of God's love for sinners, the children that he adopts.

47:22

But if they would have just finished the song, they would have been singing about what they were doing in that moment, what was presented right before them.

47:30

But I want to show you this because it's interesting in scripture as you see this, you'll see this a number of times. You'll have the story of like Christ and his redemption and us being justified and him being our substitute.

47:40

It's in the Old Testament. All that you need to know about Jesus, details to his person, who is he?

47:45

He's God, he's coming, he's the king, how he's gonna die, when he's coming, all that's there in the

47:50

Old Testament. You'll have moments where there's portraits where it's like, that's clearly not good.

47:57

And then there's like victorious. He's gonna bring the nations to God. He's gonna bring justice to the earth.

48:02

He is gonna put his enemies under his feet. So there's these portraits of the Messiah. And sometimes they don't look like they match.

48:10

Like we've got the victorious king over the world that's gonna bring justice and salvation and he's gonna resurrect all this, all that.

48:17

And yet he's also in the suffering servants who he justifies the many as he bears their iniquities.

48:23

The Lord is pleased to crush him, laying on him the iniquity of us all Isaiah 53, it doesn't look like it goes together, but oftentimes you'll have even a moment like this where it is the passion of Jesus, it's his death for sinners, and then the glorious end to it.

48:41

First, the passion, how he dies. And then verse 22 of Psalm 22.

48:49

After the description of what takes place, it says, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation,

48:57

I will praise you, you who fear the Lord, praise him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him and stand in awe of him.

49:06

All you offspring of Israel, for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted and he has not hidden his face from him, but he has heard when he cried to him.

49:18

From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him.

49:24

The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever.

49:32

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship before you, for kingship belongs to the

49:42

Lord and he rules over the nations. Oftentimes, does this ever happen to you?

49:49

You have maybe a pastor, a good pastor teach you, this is the passion of the Messiah. You read the first part of the Psalm, you're like, oh, that's that passion

49:55

Psalm. That's the passion where he dies and it's awful and everything else. Did you finish? Because all of a sudden he goes from his passion and death to I will tell of your name to my brothers.

50:06

All the ends of the earth will return to worship the Lord. So you have in that one

50:11

Psalm, the passion of the Messiah and then the resultant resurrection and redemption of the world.

50:20

Not just death, resurrection. Death for sin and the conquering of death itself.

50:28

The nation's coming to God. By the way, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.

50:36

That's where the world's going. Get ready for it. So we can look again.

50:42

I have a problem with time and telling time. Isaiah 53, go read that later.

50:55

I won't do it. I'm tempted to, I won't do it. Read the Psalm of the suffering servant of God.

51:02

Israel is supposed to be the servant of God. Says so in Isaiah. Israel is called the servant of God.

51:08

And then there's this unusual servant of God who's introduced, who actually takes upon himself the punishment due to God's people.

51:17

The one who justifies the many as he bears their iniquities. Listen, Israel can't bear anyone's iniquities.

51:25

They can't die for anybody. Israel is filled with sinners. They're unrighteous.

51:31

I mean, it's testified to in scripture, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We're religious people, but we are sinners.

51:37

We are broken. Israel can take no one's sins. And in a really unusual way,

51:44

God introduces the suffering servants who actually takes upon himself the sins of God's people.

51:50

And he justifies the many as he bears their iniquities. See, there's our sin being dealt with.

51:57

I want to end with this. The resurrection of the Son of God. We're thinking about it wrongly. We're thinking about it wrongly.

52:05

When we think that it's about, oh, I get to go there one day.

52:12

See, the gospel is the gospel of peace. The gospel is about peace with God, reconciliation.

52:20

But brothers and sisters, can I say this? It's not just about our own individual stories.

52:27

We're so arrogant as 21st century Western Christians, right? It's just about me. It's about me.

52:33

No, it's about him. It's about his victory over death. It's about him winning the world, him raising all this, him renewing all things.

52:42

This is Jesus' story. We participate in it. And when we turn from sin to trust in Jesus for salvation and forgiveness, we have eternal life.

52:51

We've been raised from death to life. All of that is true, yay and amen. But we're thinking about the resurrection wrong if we're thinking that the climax to that story is

53:00

I get to go there one day. That's not the climax. It's not about going there.

53:08

You see, dying now is, of course, gonna lead to being with God and going to heaven, but that is only a temporary experience.

53:22

And here's what kind of might be jolting to some Christians. The Bible actually says so very little in detail about what happens to you and I now as believers when we die to go be with Jesus.

53:36

We know that it's instant. We know, like Paul says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the

53:42

Lord. To depart and be with Christ is far better. All of that we know, yes and amen to all of it.

53:48

But details about what that experience is like, what does it look like? I mean, how is that gonna play out?

53:56

Not much is said. However, there is a lot said about our resurrection and what

54:01

Jesus is gonna do to raise the just and the unjust. You see, the ultimate part of this story,

54:07

I believe the climax to it, isn't us escaping to go there to the spiritual existence, but the resurrection is truly a majestic story and a masterpiece because it is about God bringing heaven to earth and redeeming this whole thing and raising us from the dead.

54:25

Isn't it an amazing thing that when we go to Christian funerals, what we can say is this is temporary.

54:32

They're good, yes. They're good. They're doing better than us, true.

54:40

But this is just a moment. It's just a moment because death has lost its sting.

54:51

The resurrection means that Jesus is the firstfruits, the firstfruits of a harvester.

54:56

When they start popping out, you realize, oh, there's gonna be a big harvest. You see, his physical resurrection is the anchor for your physical resurrection.

55:06

He raised himself from the dead and he will raise you from the dead. This is all gonna be redeemed and fixed and resurrected.

55:15

We will be raised like him here. There is gonna be a full and final victory.

55:24

You see, the story goes like this. There was a garden where heaven and earth were together in unison and harmony.

55:32

And then there was a fall in that garden. So garden, fall. Then throughout the

55:38

Old Testament, God actually portrays his temple he has them build like a garden in many ways.

55:46

It's testifying to heaven and earth and there's a garden aspect to it. All of that is there as well.

55:52

So there's a garden temple theme in Scripture. And then, of course, we know that the resurrection of the

55:57

Son of God took place in a garden tomb. Where sin and death entered in a garden, the

56:05

Son of God defeated sin and death in a garden. And I love that Jesus was mistaken as the gardener.

56:13

You know that I love that theme. You see, there is a glorious and eternal garden future for God's people.

56:21

Oh, death, where is your sting? Now listen, this has a lot of meaning.

56:29

It does. It has a lot of meaning for the believers in this room right now who are repentant and trusting in Jesus.

56:35

You've been redeemed. You're declared righteous. There is no condemnation. You have peace with God. It has a lot of meaning.

56:41

You have hope. You have hope today. You have hope forever. There is no hopelessness for God's people, none.

56:48

You can rejoice always and in everything give thanks because you can rejoice in the Lord. Always, He's unchanging.

56:55

And His promises are sure. They doubted the ability for the Messiah to conquer that death, but God had already told them, this is what

57:01

I'm gonna do. And that's what Jesus said to them. Foolish to believe all that the scriptures have written.

57:07

You should have believed it because when God says it, He's gonna do it. And He says He's gonna raise you. There's your hope.

57:12

You will be raised from the dead. It's not over. However, there are people

57:18

I'm sure in this room who are false professors of faith. You are somebody who thinks you're a believer and you're not.

57:25

There are people in this room who aren't believers and you've been, you were drug here by a believer and you need to be saved.

57:33

You need to be forgiven. You need peace with God. So how will you respond to this story of the resurrection of the

57:40

Son of God? Because final word here, Jesus says in John 11 after raising

57:46

Lazarus or in the midst of raising Lazarus from the dead, here's the story. I want you to hear Jesus' words.

57:53

In verse 20 of chapter 11 of John, it says, so when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met

57:59

Him. Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.

58:07

But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.

58:15

Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

58:21

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

58:31

And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

58:39

She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who is coming into the world. Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

58:49

Do you believe this? That's the call. This is good news of peace with God.

58:54

It's good news of a king. It's good news of salvation. The call is going out from across this pulpit, not from a mere man.

59:03

The gospel call is a divine call of God. It's actually a command.

59:09

Repent and believe the gospel. Turn from your sin. Turn from your sin to the living

59:16

God. Put your faith in the Messiah, the Son of God, the only one who is worthy of our hope and trust, the one who is blameless, spotless, righteous, just, who is a substitute for sinners, died on that cross, a real death, was buried and really rose again from the dead in a physical body.

59:41

He is ascended and seated on his throne and he calls you to repent and to believe.

59:49

There is no altar call and no magic prayer. But if you have not turned from sin to trust in Christ as Lord and Savior, if you've not received the gift of life,

01:00:01

I wouldn't move a muscle until I did. Let's pray. Thank you,

01:00:09

Lord Jesus. You are the resurrected Son of God. We confess you as Lord.

01:00:17

We trust in you and only in you. You are the only way to peace.

01:00:23

You had victory over our sin, over our death. And we trust in your promise that you are the resurrection and the life, that you will raise us from the dead.

01:00:38

And that if we live and believe in you, we will never die. So we rejoice in you. In Jesus' name, amen.