The Resurrection of the Son of God

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Well, good morning. Are you guys ready for a conversation about the miracle of the resurrection?

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There's a lot of white hair in here. You guys are supposed to be skilled at this. Amen? There you go.

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Teach the young people how to do it, guys. All right. Well, I'm Pastor Jeff, and we're here to talk about the miracle of the resurrection.

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In the midst of that, two more miracles to mention is one. I was away all week in Florida preaching at a conference and almost didn't make it back.

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And so this pulpit was actually almost empty. Empty tomb. Empty pulpit.

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Okay? And miracle. I'm here, so praise God for that. Another miracle to mention is

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I was told to talk about the resurrection of the Son of God, the history of God's faithfulness regarding it.

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And I was told to do it in about 35 minutes. And if you know me and my sins in this area, there's another miracle.

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So pray for that. Many of you guys might have discovered a little late getting started in here, and that was my fault.

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So all the hating can come this direction, not to your staff. All right. If you would, open your

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Bible to 1 Corinthians 15. Let's go to New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

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It's a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. And as you get there, if you're new to your

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Bibles, it's to the right of your Bible. It's after the Gospels. And as you get there, I'll sort of explain to you a bit. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth.

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And to understand really the miracle of the resurrection and the uniqueness of this message, you really need to consider the person who wrote this message.

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In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul addresses the eyewitness testimony to the resurrection of Jesus in history.

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But who wrote it is actually what makes it so compelling. The Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 1 tells you about his pre -conversion when he was outside of Christ as an unbeliever.

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It says that he persecuted the church, that he actually tried to destroy it. So think about that as you read this letter of Paul to the church in Corinth about the eyewitnesses to the resurrection.

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You're reading about it from a guy who was hostile to the Christian faith.

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If you look in Acts chapter 9 at the Apostle Paul's conversion, the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 9 is on his way to throw

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Christians in jail. We know the Apostle Paul was responsible for at least the death of one

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Christian. The first martyrdom we have recorded in our New Testament is Stephen.

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And Stephen is killed. Paul is there holding the coats. He sanctioned the murder. And that's what it was.

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It was the murder of Stephen because of his faith in Jesus. And in Acts chapter 9, it's really cool.

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As the Apostle Paul turns to faith in Christ, he gets saved. His eyes are open to Jesus.

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He goes to Damascus, starts preaching Christ, proving from the Scriptures. That's your Old Testament, by the way.

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That Jesus is, in fact, Mashiach. That Jesus is the Messiah. The Christians, they didn't want to have anything to do with him.

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I mean, think about it. This guy has got a reputation for throwing Christians like you and like me into jail.

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And now he shows up at church service, right? That'd be like Richard Dawkins who wrote The God Delusion, showing up like, you know,

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I will rise. You'd be like, something's up. He's an undercover guy or something.

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He's got sort of something up his sleeve. Well, that's Paul. He's that guy. But to a very strange high level.

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He hates the church, and he tried to destroy it. And he's the guy who wrote this.

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So let's read what he says to the church in Corinth, and then let's pray. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1.

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Now, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word

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

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I also received, that Christ died for our sins. Listen, in accordance with the

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Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day. Ready? In accordance with the

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Scriptures. And that he appeared to, and that's Peter there, he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

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Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all as to one untimely born.

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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.

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

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

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I or they, so we preached and so you believed. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

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But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.

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We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he has raised

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Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised.

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For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.

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And those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless God, please, this time. I pray that you'd open the eyes of the blind that are in this room, those who cannot hear, those who have hearts of stone, that you would convict by your

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Spirit, that you would challenge, that you would bring life into death. And I pray for those of us who belong to you, that you would please ignite within us a passion,

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God, for this truth, that we would revel in the truth of the resurrection. Jesus, you died, you were raised, you are ascended and seated.

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We trust in you. I pray, God, that you would teach today by your Spirit. Get me out of the way. I pray that I would decrease and that you would increase.

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In Jesus' name, amen. It's a really powerful thing. The resurrection of the

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Son of God is at the centerpiece of the Gospel story. And you have to consider something about what the context is that Paul speaks in.

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He is speaking in a time where hostile witnesses could have been brought forth to contradict what he was saying about the resurrection.

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The Apostle Paul here recites what is essentially an early tradition. When he said,

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I deliver to you what I also received, many scholars believe, and it's something that's clearly accepted, that he is reciting what was probably one of the earliest traditions in the

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Christian church. Imagine this. If you were a Christian during the time of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, not long after, you would have been reciting this tradition in church and to others about what

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Christ had actually accomplished. And so what's interesting here is the Apostle Paul is speaking in a context, again, where hostile witnesses could have been brought forth against his testimony.

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Not only is Paul, interestingly, the man who was trying to kill Christians and now is living a life of poverty, brokenness, shame, and all the rest, but he says in a context where people could come against this story, look, if you don't believe me, go and ask them.

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Jesus appeared to this guy, this guy, this guy, and then to me, and actually more than 500 eyewitnesses at one time.

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He says, you don't believe me? Go ask them. I mean, what drives a person to go from a persecutor of the

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Christian church, trying to actually stamp it out, seeing it as a heretical cult, to now laying his life down and actually ending up dying for his faith in Jesus.

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We know that Paul was killed in the 60s of the first century by beheading by Nero during the

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Neronic persecution of Christians. What drives a person to die for their faith like that?

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It's that he saw Jesus alive from the dead and it transformed his life. You can say amen to that.

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Come on, guys, let's go. You have to outdo the militant 830 crew, okay? All right, so what's amazing, though, if you think about the fact that the

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Apostle Paul says in Corinthians that he says, I've been beaten times without number, stoned, shipwrecked,

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I'm in danger every day, danger from my own countrymen, danger from robbers, and he says it's a light momentary affliction.

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Yeah, right. I mean, think about this for a moment. I asked this question in the last service.

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How many of you guys have been beaten for your faith in Jesus? Raise your hands. Raise your hands. Raise your hands.

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Nobody. The Apostle Paul says, I've been beaten times without number. I got to ask the question, at what point do you stop counting?

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Was it five? Was it 10, 20, 30? How many times? And the Apostle Paul lays his life down, lives a life of poverty.

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He says at one point, even to this very hour, we are hungry and are in rags. And he says to people in his context, listen, if Jesus isn't alive from the dead, then we are, our hope is in vain, everything's in vain, and we are liars because we're saying

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God raised Jesus from the dead when in fact he didn't raise Jesus from the dead. Listen, the

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Christian faith is a faith that is rooted in fact, objective truth, the objective testimony of history.

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Jesus is alive from the dead, and that's a historical fact. Jesus says,

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John 14, 6, I am the way and the what? I am the what? And the truth and the life.

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No man comes to the Father but by me. Jesus is the truth. Those who follow

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Jesus are the ones that are committed to truth. We love truth. We embrace truth because we follow and love and trust in the one who is the very embodiment of truth.

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The Christian faith is a faith that is rooted in truth and facts and evidence and the historical testimony of God and what he did in the world.

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The world today is hostile towards our faith. It always has been. We're all just a bunch of rebels anyways.

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Amen? Like someone says, one of my favorites, if you can't say amen, say ouch, okay?

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We're all a bunch of rebels, but we live in a hostile context where people will say things about Christians, about our faith, like, well, to be a

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Christian, you sort of have to leave your brain at the door. You have to be a person of blind faith commitments. People will say things like, well, it's just faith.

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Listen, that's not Christianity. Our faith is rooted in truth and facts. We are the ones that are supposed to have a rigorous commitment to truth, and on the issue of the resurrection, the apostle

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Paul actually says this. Look, if Jesus isn't raised from the dead, don't believe him.

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If he's not raised from the dead, then we are most to be pitied. We're still in our sins, and we're making

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God out to be a liar, saying that God raised him from the dead. Our faith is rooted in the fact of history of the resurrection.

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Jesus split history with his coming, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension.

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The world has never been the same, and it will never be the same, because of what God has done in Jesus to save sinners.

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And amazingly, the resurrection is the very centerpiece of the gospel story. Think about it for a moment.

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Jesus, in John 2, he says, destroy this temple, and in three days,

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I will raise it up. He's telling his disciples, he's saying, I'm going to go to Jerusalem.

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They're going to kill me, and after three days, I will rise from the dead. Death and resurrection is all over, all over Jesus' life and mission.

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He comes into a little girl's room who's been dead. People are mourning and weeping, and he says, little girl, arise.

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And this little girl who's dead rises from the dead. Jesus displays that he's the same

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God who created the universe. When he spoke, the universe leapt into existence.

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Jesus spoke at the very beginning into darkness, and he said, let there be light, and there was light.

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He called into lifeless matter, and he says, live, and he creates man in his image.

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And Jesus goes to this little girl's bedside, and he says, little girl, arise, and she's alive from the dead.

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Jesus, in John chapter 11, go there, is the story of Jesus and Lazarus, and it's amazing to show the center point of the resurrection story all throughout the

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Gospels. In John chapter 11, it's a famous scene of Lazarus, right?

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Jesus has a buddy named Lazarus, and it's interesting. Jesus purposefully waits.

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He waits four days to go and do what he was going to do with Lazarus.

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He was going to do it anyways. He waits to the point where when he tells the disciples to roll away the stone, in the

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King James Version, they say, but he stinks. He's a rotting, dead, stinking corpse, and Jesus purposefully waited four days to get there because there was a superstition hanging around that time that your spirit sort of hangs out around the body for a period of days, and only after a certain period, then there's no hope.

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Well, Jesus waits until there's no hope in their minds, and then he goes now into the story,

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John 11, 17. Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

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Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.

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So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

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Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died, but even now

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

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Martha said to him, I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

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Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

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Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.

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The resurrection story is part of the whole gospel message that Jesus was going to die and rise again, conquer death as the

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Son of God, the Messiah. Genesis chapter 3, the very first thing the Bible tells us about Jesus, the fall enters and then

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God promises Jesus, he says, the woman's seed. Get that.

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The woman's seed will crush the head of the serpent, but will be wounded in the process and be bruised on his heel.

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This simultaneous act in history is going to bring the death blow to Satan's work, but there will be a wounding of the

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Messiah in the process. The Messiah is coming to save. And the Bible teaches very clearly this constant theme of the resurrection.

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Jesus says, arise from the dead. Rise from the dead. I will rise from the dead.

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And Jesus tells us, whoever lives and believes in him will never die because you have already gone from death to life.

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Amen? The resurrection is the centerpiece of the story of the gospels, but more importantly, listen closely, the resurrection story is part of God's story in history.

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Now here's where I need you to join me now, okay? Kind of hang with me now. Wake up. Okay, here we go. Ready? All right. This is awesome.

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We have as Christians something that the world does not have. We have the testimony of the

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God who condescended to reveal himself to us. The all -powerful, sovereign, mighty

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God has stepped into history, and he has spoken to us. He's told us what he's like, and he's told us what he's doing.

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Listen closely to this. We live in a culture, a time, where our children are being taught that they are nothing more than bipedal meat -bone protoplasm bobbing on the surface of the cosmos.

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Our kids are being taught that the universe is nothing more than time and chance acting on matter.

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There is no God who governs it. There is no purpose. They are merely stardust in a universe that does not care about them.

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All that is above us is sky. No justice ahead of us. It's all sound and fury signifying nothing.

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It's just stuff moving around. There's no meaning. There's no purpose. Richard Dawkins says in his book

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River Out of Eden, famous militant atheist, he says, there is no good. There is no evil.

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There is only blind and pitiless indifference. Dr. Will Provine, the professor of biology at Cornell University, a neo -Darwinian, micro -mutation, macro -evolutionist, says this, there is no imminent morality.

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What's that mean? It's an illusion. There's no morality. There's no ought. He says you live, you die, and you are gone.

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You are absolutely gone when you die. That's what our children are being taught today, and we know the real story.

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Amen? God in the scriptures says this about himself. He says, I declare the end from the beginning, that God in Daniel does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

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No one can stay his hand and say, what have you done? We know the text.

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I hope you know it. I hope you know it and you share it with each other. Romans 8, verse 28,

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God causes what? All things to work together for good to those who love

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God, those who are the called according to his purpose. God is sovereign. There is no maverick molecule in the entire universe.

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God is absolutely sovereign, and what you need to know is what the apostle Paul highlighted in 1

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Corinthians 15. Do you remember when he was saying this? He said, according to the scriptures, in accordance with the scriptures, in accordance with the scriptures.

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Why am I saying this? Listen, you need to understand that the resurrection of the son of God was not a plan

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B in God's story. Why, when we were singing this song up here a little bit ago,

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Hosanna, Hosanna, why on Palm Sunday were the

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Jews laying down those palms as Jesus came into Jerusalem lowly riding on a donkey, which was, by the way, the fulfillment of prophecy, why were they so excited?

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Hosanna, Hosanna. Here's why. Because God had spoken to them about his control of history, his story, what he was going to accomplish.

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Listen, the entire story of Jesus' life and ministry, death and resurrection is

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God's plan in history. He sovereignly wields the universe.

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He controls every detail in the story of Jesus and, brothers and sisters, in your life and mine.

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You sit in here today, we are in this room today, as trophies of God's covenant faithfulness of what he was going to do in history.

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He promised to send Messiah to save. God's story, listen, God's story told us every detail about Jesus necessary to know him.

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Isaiah 9, verses 6 -7, a monotheistic Jew, 700 years before Jesus walks the earth in his earthly ministry, says that, watch this, a son is coming, a child is going to be given to us, and his name will be wonderful, wonderful counselor,

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El Gibor, the mighty God, the father of eternity.

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Well, brothers and sisters, who's the only eternal being in existence? Are you whispering or are we talking to each other today?

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Okay, I will not hurt you, okay? Who's the only, this is like theology 101, this is the first thing you learn, there's only one

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God, let's try it again, okay. We'll pretend like that didn't happen. Okay, we'll cut that out of the video so that you don't look bad, alright?

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Alright, who is the only eternal being in existence? There you go, only

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God, and watch, a monotheistic Jew who recites in his morning and evening prayers,

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Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, there is only one

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God. He says 700 years before Jesus, that there's a son coming, a child coming, who is the mighty

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God. God's coming to save, God's coming to save.

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The Bible clearly teaches that Abraham was gonna have offspring as numerous as the stars, that's you, by the way, through faith.

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The Bible says in Genesis 49, 10, that one is coming who will have the obedience of the nations.

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The Bible says in Psalm chapter two, the father says to the son, a long time before Jesus, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance.

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Daniel seven, 13 through 14, Daniel says he's looking in the night visions and one like a son of man was coming in the clouds of heaven, and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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Brothers and sisters, quick question. How many of you guys, and this, by the way, just raise your hand, don't feel embarrassed, okay?

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How many of you guys would, you would identify as someone that is ethnically

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Jewish in descent? Raise your hand. Okay, so go ahead, so keep your hand up, sir.

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Okay, two, three, four, four people in this room who identify as ethnically

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Jewish and an entire room, you put your hand down now, thank you, sir, okay, and an entire room full of people who are descendants of Abraham by faith in Jesus, who love and worship the

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Lord God of Israel because of Jesus. That was part of God's story. God promised to send

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Messiah who would bring redemption to the ends of the earth. The knowledge of God would cover the earth like the waters cover the sea.

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Salvation, forgiveness because of this Messiah. That was God's story. So when we talk about the resurrection of Jesus, we have to talk about it in terms of, watch,

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God promised Messiah dying, rising, forgiving, salvation.

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If you come against God's word, Bible says, you're reduced to a fool. The fool says in his heart there is no

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God. The Bible doesn't say the great intellect, an erudite philosopher says in his heart there is no

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God. It says this, you say there's no God, you're reduced to foolishness.

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And by the way, that's not name calling. That's a moral indictment of a fool. We gotta address though the unbelievers' challenge to the miracle of the resurrection.

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Are you ready for this? Let's do it, okay? All right, here we go. The unbelievers' challenge to the resurrection of Jesus, they'll say, that's not possible.

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It's a miracle. Miracles don't happen. And we have to address what the Bible says about the unbeliever first.

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Romans 1, verse 18 and on, clearly describes that, watch.

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Unbelievers are only pretending. It says that we know God. Romans 1, 18, it says very clearly, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

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For that which is known about God is evident within them, for God has made it evident to them.

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God has shown it to them. So what's that say? Listen closely. Listen, in Romans 1, 18, it says that we suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness.

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And that word suppression is very much like the game of whack -a -mole. You know whack -a -mole?

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I hate whack -a -mole. I always cheat. Because it's so frustrating.

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And it's the thing my kids want to play. But whack -a -mole is interesting because the one thing pops up and you have to smash it down.

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But when you smash this one down, this one comes up and you smash this one. And then two more pop up over here and you're smashing them down.

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What do you have to do to keep those moles down? You have to keep suppressing them actively.

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They don't go down on their own without you pushing them down. Suppression of truth. And what the

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Bible says is that we all know God, but we're such rebels that what we do is we suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness.

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Our problem, listen, listen. Our problem with God's Word, with His existence, is not, is not a lack of evidence for God.

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It's not a lack of light. It's a suppression of truth. And the Bible says that the creation itself in Romans 1, even the creation itself is preaching to us about God to the degree that every single one of us is left before God without a defense, without an excuse.

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And the word is, ready? Unapologetus. Unapologetus.

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Sound kind of familiar? Christian apologetics. A reasoned defense.

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1 Peter 3 .15, Peter says this. Every Christian, set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to give an apologia, a reasoned defense, to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that's within you.

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Do it with gentleness and reverence. And watch this. Peter says this to you. Christian, be ready with an apologia.

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Be ready with a reasoned defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that's within you.

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And God says in Romans 1, the unbeliever who rejects Him, the unbeliever who switches

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Him for an idol will stand before God knowing God, suppressing the truth about Him without an apologetic, without a defense.

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What's the problem with unbelievers who don't know God? Ultimately, they're rebels. But we have to think about something for a moment.

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The Christian is supposed to be standing on God's word, amen? The unbeliever is supposed to be standing on their unbelieving worldview.

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And you think about something just for a moment about the miracle of the resurrection. Christians believe in a sovereign God who carries the universe along to its intended destination.

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So as Christians, we believe that human beings are more than protoplasm, amen? Not many of you said amen to that, so I'm worried about this room.

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So we believe that everyone's in the image of God. You're in the image of God. I'm in the image of God. We have inherent value and dignity and worth because we're made in the image of God.

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The universe is not time and chance acting on matter. God sovereignly wields the stars.

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He controls everything in the universe and the history is what he makes it to be for his glory.

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We live in a universe that can be clocked because God sovereignly controls it. That's our position, amen?

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Jesus said there's two kinds of people. One, a fool. One, a wise person.

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There are two kinds of foundations, a rock and sands. There are two destinations.

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One is desolation and one actually makes it through the storm. Jesus said you have to build your life upon the rock of his words.

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If you don't, you're on sinking sands. As Christians, we stand on the rock.

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God has spoken. We stand on his word, his testimony, his revelation of history. Amazingly, the unbeliever says miracles are stupid and you're dumb for believing them.

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They stand on a world view, interestingly, that says this. All there is is time and chance acting on matter.

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We're just bipedal protoplasm in a meaningless universe. We don't know that tomorrow will be like today.

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Things can switch around instantly because we're just stardust in a cosmically purposeless universe.

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You following me? Then the unbeliever says, hey, that can't happen.

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A man can't rise from the dead because this universe can be clocked. There's laws in this universe and that miracle violates the laws of the universe.

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Wait a minute. It displays something, doesn't it? The unbeliever is in a game of whack -a -mole.

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He just exposed something and that is that in order to argue against the resurrection as a miracle, he has to sneak off of his world view over into yours, borrow things that work only in the

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Christian worldview in order to argue against the Christian worldview. Think about that.

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The unbeliever is suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. He can't help being the image of God that he is living in God's universe because how does he live?

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Does he live like he's only stardust in a purposeless universe that's time and chance acting on matter?

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No. He lives as though the universe is law -like, can be dependent upon, and that he can actually engage in science and he looks at the miracle of the resurrection.

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He says, impossible. Miracles don't happen. And amazingly, he just displayed his suppression of truth because as a

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Christian, we're supposed to look at the resurrection of Jesus and say, that's crazy. Miracles like that don't happen, do they?

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That's nuts. This universe is carried along. It's law -like. It's uniform. Christians are the ones, because we stand on God's word, that are supposed to look at the miracle of the resurrection and say, what?

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That's crazy. This universe doesn't work like that. It's law -like. God's sovereign over it.

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Men don't rise from the dead. God's doing something. God's doing something to save.

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This doesn't make sense. Listen, if atheism were true, naturalism were true, then we shouldn't be surprised at all that men are rising from the dead because crazy things happen in this universe.

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I mean, think about it. The atheist who criticizes the miracle of the resurrection is the same guy that believes that fish became philosophers.

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They believe that non -moral matter became moral and all of a sudden started being morally indignant when people steal their car stereo.

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The unbeliever says, oh, there's no good. There's no evil. It's only blind and pitiless indifference in a universe that doesn't care.

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And then they say, hey, what'd you say to me? And they get morally indignant when someone offends them.

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Unbelievers get upset and shed tears over tragedies and school shootings. Brothers and sisters, that's a suppression of truth.

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They're not supposed to really be upset about it because all we are is stardust. It's sound and fury signifying nothing.

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In order for the unbeliever to argue against the resurrection, he has to leave his worldview, borrow from the

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Christian one in order to make sense of it. Van Til, one of my favorite apologists ever, said that the unbeliever is very much like a small child who smacks his father in the face.

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He's dependent upon his father to hold him in his lap to smack him or he couldn't reach.

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The unbeliever, in order to argue against the resurrection, has to leave his worldview, borrow from ours to make sense of it.

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Let's talk. The messianic prophecies you need to know about the resurrection.

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God promised us everything about Jesus' life, his death, his resurrection, his ministry, his person long before Jesus comes.

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The who is in your Bible. Who is coming? Isaiah 9, 6 through 7. It's God himself that's coming to save us from our sins.

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Where he's coming from, Micah 5, O little town of?

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The Messiah is coming from Bethlehem. They knew it so well that when

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Jesus comes in his ministry, they think he's from Nazareth because that's where he was raised. And they say, no, he can't be the

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Messiah because the Messiah comes from Bethlehem. You should have asked him. Where were you born, right?

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He's born in Bethlehem. But interestingly, Micah 5 also says the Messiah coming from Bethlehem, watch, his goings forth are from old, yea, even from eternity.

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Again, who is the only eternal being in the universe? There you go.

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Much better that time, okay? God's coming from Bethlehem long before he comes. Daniel chapter 9 tells you when the

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Messiah is coming. Daniel 9 says the Messiah's gonna come. Listen, he's going to be cut off, which is to die a violent death, and then the second temple's gonna be destroyed.

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Brothers and sisters, the second temple in history we know as a fact was destroyed in 70

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AD. The Roman armies, after a three and a half year war, set fire to the temple, took the temple apart, one stone off of another.

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It was destroyed. But brothers and sisters, long before Jesus came, the Bible said Messiah had to die, and then the second temple would be destroyed.

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If Jesus isn't the Messiah, there is no Messiah. He is the

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Messiah. He died and he rose again according to the Scriptures. And next, what would take place is identified clearly in our

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Bibles, and there's so much to say, and I'm already out of time, but I don't care.

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Is that okay with you guys? Okay. Because I know I have to just go over there anyways, and I have time.

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So I got you for as long as I want you. Okay? Until they shut me down, and then we'll just, we'll talk outside.

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Okay. So the what is described in our Bible, I want you to see it. Isaiah 53. That's in your

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Old Testament. Go there quickly. We're just gonna read off of this passage to show you what that in accordance with the

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Scriptures part means. Isaiah 53. Get there quickly. Isaiah 53. This is a text that's written about 700 years before Jesus comes, and this is amazing.

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As you get there, I'll tell you something in a little background here. Isaiah 53 is so clearly identifying

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Jesus, his life, his ministry, what he's gonna accomplish, that people used to say that this passage was squeezed into the text after the time of Jesus because it so clearly identifies

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Jesus until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls where a little shepherd boy named

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Mohammed was throwing down rocks into some caves. He heard something crash. He goes into there. He finds the pots with scrolls.

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Pretty awesome finds in the late 1940s, and in those pots was a scroll of Isaiah that is dated to 200 years before Jesus' life and ministry.

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And guess what was in Isaiah? Isaiah 53. How do you like them apples?

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Isaiah 53. Now go to the text. I want you to see it. Before you do, go above a little bit to Isaiah 52, verse 13.

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Listen closely. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.

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As many as were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

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So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

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Look what it says. It says this one who's coming is going to be high and exalted, lifted up, and yet his appearance is marred beyond human semblance.

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Isn't that weird? He's going to be exalted, high and lifted up, but his appearance is going to be marred beyond human resemblance.

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Kings will shut their mouths because of him. But look where it goes next. Isaiah 53.

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One. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

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For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no former majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

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Isn't that interesting? Think about it. That's weird. He's high and lifted up, but there's nothing about him that would draw you to him.

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And you see that in Jesus' earthly ministry. Again, he comes from Nazareth and when he comes in, one of his disciples says, hey, we found the

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Messiah. We found the Messiah. And they say, he's from Nazareth. And the guy goes, can any good thing come from Nazareth?

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It'd be like today in our context to understand what was going on here. It'd be like saying, the

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President of the United States was born, raised, and educated in Apache Junction.

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Relax. I'm not dissing Apache Junction. We all know what

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I mean. You're talking about the outskirts. It's not in the middle of the center, right? It's not where the highest level of educational facility is.

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It's on the outside. How do you go from a place that's there to this place of high exaltation?

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It doesn't make sense. And Jesus' ministry is like that. He says, foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

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That's a very eloquent way of saying, I'm homeless. You still want to follow me? Jesus, in his life, there was nothing about him that would have drawn you to him like, oh yeah, that's clearly the

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Messiah because of what he had, riches or whatever. But watch this. He was despised, verse three, and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

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And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.

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Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

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But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. You notice that?

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It says that we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God. What's that mean? That they thought he'd be suffering for his own sins.

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And brothers and sisters, what do you think that the Jews at the foot of the cross, what do you think that they were thinking when they looked up to Jesus as a crucified criminal?

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What were they thinking? They were thinking he was being crucified because he was a sinner, because he was a rebel, because he was a criminal.

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And it says this, we esteemed him smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions.

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He was crushed for our iniquities and upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed.

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All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

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Remember Jesus going from trial to trial. Jesus goes from trial to trial and he never tries to get out of it.

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He never tries to stop it. And Pilate gets really frustrated at one point. He says to Jesus, he says, Jesus, don't you know that I have the power to let you go?

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And Jesus says, you don't have any power except that which is given to you by God. He knew what he was doing.

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He went like a lamb led to the slaughter for me and for you, if you know him. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away.

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You need to see this. You need to see this. Verse eight. And as for his generation, who considered that, watch, he was cut off out of the land of the living.

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What does it mean to be cut off out of the land of the living? You die.

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So Messiah is going to die. But why? Stricken for the transgression of my people.

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And they made his grave with the wicked. Who did Jesus die with? Thieves.

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And with a rich man in his death. Whose tomb was he buried in? Joseph of Arimathea.

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Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Brothers and sisters, listen very closely.

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That is something that could never be said of you. Or me. This Messiah who's coming,

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Isaiah, the one who saw God's holiness and said, whoa, it's me. I'm a man of unclean lips.

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I'm coming apart at the seams. He says of the one who is coming, no violence, no deceit.

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Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt.

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Watch this. This is amazing. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.

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What does it mean if you're cut off out of the land of living? You die. What does it mean that you see your offspring and you prolong your days?

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You're raised from the dead. Listen to the rest of the text.

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Verse 11. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see it and be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.

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Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.

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Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. There's the story.

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God promised in history he was sending the Messiah to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

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He was going to die and rise from the dead, be seated, putting his enemies under his feet.

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This is Jesus the Messiah who was counted among the rebels. And watch this. This story is meaningless.

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Meaningless to you. If you don't turn from sin to come and be joined to this

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Messiah through faith, you have to come to him. Abandoning self -righteousness, you're not righteous.

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Abandoning sin, coming to Jesus and trusting in him. Jesus calls us to turn from sin, to put our faith in him, to be forgiven, to be reconciled to God.

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Listen, the meaning of the resurrection is that because he lives, we will live also.

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He died and rose again so that he could redeem his people from their sins.

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And the call of the Gospel is that Jesus is God in the flesh. He's the Messiah who lived the righteous and sinless life that you and I have not.

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He died in the place of sinners, taking the condemnation that you deserve, that I deserve.

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He was buried and he rose again. He is seated, ascended, and he says this, repent and believe the

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Gospel. Turn from sin. Be reconciled to God through faith. Jesus says in John 5, 24,

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Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my voice and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life.

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Jesus bid you to come and die and rise again today.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless the message that went out for your glory. I pray that your words,

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Lord God, would penetrate the hearts and minds of those that are here. I pray that, God, what you do through this message is bring glory to your