Sunday, February 4, 2024 AM

It's just a really quick announcement. Did we make any arrangements for Children's Church? I don't think we're having it today, but we do have children on the loose. As a shepherd, I notice these things.

Got lambs busting out through the door here. Here they come back. We appreciate Lisa and Jay so much, and when they're gone, you notice. So, all right, well, let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for bringing us together today and giving us yet again a morning full of your new mercies.

We thank you for every reminder in the night that your faithfulness is great and that your compassions never fail. And I pray now this morning as we turn our attention to your Word that you would strengthen our hearts, build us up upon this most holy faith, that you would accord to us joy as you present to us the glories of your Son, Jesus Christ, that you would bring all of these things into a permanent home in our lives to transform us by the grace and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I pray for all these mercies for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, in whom you are well pleased. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13, and we're going to be reading verses 30 through 41.

The Resurrection Proclaimed in Acts 13

And we're going to spend some degree of time looking through this passage as we consider the glad tidings of the resurrection of Jesus. Paul and Barnabas have been commissioned by the church to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the islands, to the coastlands, to the cities, and to the hills of the nations.

They have arrived at Antioch of Pisidia on the Sabbath, and they have entered into the synagogue. Moses has been read. The prophets have been read. Various prayers have been offered. The Shema has been quoted.

And Paul, as a visiting teacher, has been invited by the locals to share any word of exhortation for the people there. And rather than that, he preaches to them the gospel of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

He gives them the glad tidings of His resurrection. If you would stand with me, if you're able, we're going to be reading verses 30 through 41 from God's holy word. But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.

And we declare to you glad tidings, that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us, their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

And that He raised Him from the dead no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Therefore, He also says in another psalm, you will not allow your holy one to see corruption.

For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins.

And by Him, everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you. Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish.

For I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Recently, I had the joy of taking five of my children to a college basketball game, and it was fun and made a lot of memories.

And I was instructed by my wife to take plenty of pictures. And so I did. And I also took a picture of the scoreboard at one point because of an advertisement banner that said, Jesus takes timeouts too.

Hegetsus .com. Jesus took timeouts too. Hegetsus .com. Now, maybe you have heard of that advertisement campaign. It made a lot of waves last year as it was an ad blitz during the football season. And I went last year and I surveyed their material and their ministry, and I'm sure the folks there desire to do good things.

But when you compare these types of sentiments with the gospel, it's like comparing Cheez Whiz to aged cheddar. There's something about it that's kind of similar. It's the best we can say. But is it really good news?

We have to consider. Is it really good news that Jesus empathizes? Merely that Jesus was fully human, and as such, even in His sinlessness that He effectively relates to us? Is that good news in and of itself?

Half a chapter, a book does not make. One paragraph, a news report does not make. It is indeed true that Jesus was made like His brethren in all ways, and tempted in all ways as we are yet without sin.

Is that important? Yes and amen. But merely showing that Jesus is relatable and relates is not good news. And in fact, if this is the way in which we're to think, we may end up dimming the gospel with applications of empathy.

We may even give advice to a grandmother to go to her trans grandchild's wedding and give a gift. Because after all, Jesus went to weddings. He gets us. Paul brings good news, good news that matters, glad tidings to His audience.

And it was not that Jesus of Nazareth knew what it was like to go to synagogue. Jesus went to synagogue too. He gets us. It wasn't that He heard the Old Testament scriptures being read as a child. Jesus had to listen too.

He gets us. It wasn't that He lived in a mountainous region like those who did in Antioch of Pisidia. Jesus liked mountains too. He gets us. This is not the good news. This is not the glad tidings that has spurred Paul and Barnabas hundreds of miles on to come to this people and to this place.

This is not the message that they bring. What were the glad tidings that they came so far and through so much to declare? That God raised Jesus from the dead to no more return to corruption. That's what he says in his sermon.

He preaches a real-world resurrection that brings about a real-world recreation. Paul's sermon, as we're going to see over the course of however many weeks the Lord desires, Paul's sermon sets before us the resurrection in all of its mandate upon mankind.

He touches upon the doctrinal particularities. He touches upon the apologetic evidence. He refers to its biblical foundations, but his main thrust is what it means to and demands from his audience. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not some mere interesting tidbit of historical data.

It is not a mere inspiring thought that warms the heart. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important fact in all of history. It is the fundamental driving force of creation. It is the anchor point for all that lies ahead.

It is not a neutral observation. It is not an inert reality. In fact, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is most divisive, most demanding, most determining, most defining. To say this is to say that we must not remain and cannot remain ambivalent, ignorant, or casual toward the risen Christ.

The resurrection declares a hope that turns the world upside down and to give courage to grandmothers to make courageous, sacrificial, and loving stands which show the supremacy and authority of Christ to those in need of repentance and every other application to each of us.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most vital, happy, and serious news. If there's anything, if there's anything to be certain about, concerned about, or captivated by, it is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We must believe upon the risen Lord Jesus Christ, lest we perish in the fallen Adam. That's the baseline. That's where you have to begin. Sons and daughters of Adam, we have all tasted the fruit of the first death, and so we must drink the cup of the last Adam's resurrection that we may live.

Now, alongside of that eternal, vital truth, Paul sets before his audience other truths. These truths matter for our every day, and they matter for our ever after. We ignore them at our peril. We're going to begin by thinking once again about verse 30 and think about the power of the resurrection.

What goes on here? What goes on here is something that should have an effect upon our attention, upon our affections, upon our attitudes. We must not remain the same in the light of the power of the resurrection.

This morning, I want to give something of a survey of the key themes, but begin to consider why is it vital that Paul says this? Why is it vital that the Holy Spirit has come upon Paul to preach this, that the Holy Spirit has moved Luke to record this in the middle of this sermon?

Verse 30 again, "...but God raised him from the dead.". This displays the power of God in the resurrection. It is essential, absolutely essential. We looked last week at this succinct yet vital declaration.

I mean, how else can the word of salvation be true other than by the power of God? How can it be declared? How can it be believed or applied except this, that Jesus was raised from the dead by God? It is the power of God that makes the gospel effectual.

But I think this verse deserves an additional look, a further meditation. I'm convinced that its Selah is surely our Shalom. How vitally do we value the resurrection of Jesus? Let's think about that. How vitally do we value the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

We may major upon the cross and, indeed, what glories of grace there we behold. We may be swept along in suppositions concerning the return of Jesus and His judgment of all mankind, and that is a sure and steadying hope.

But consider, brothers and sisters, that the cross of Christ has no efficacy and the coming of Christ no victory unless Jesus was raised from the dead. Thus the preaching of the apostles concentrated here.

This was their theme again and again as we see their preaching throughout the book of Acts. I commend to you this theme, the risen Lord Jesus Christ. We live in the light of the risen Lord Jesus. These are the acts of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

We pray to, follow after, are represented by, ruled over, and look for the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection is not merely our annual meditation on Easter. It is our weekly and our daily. We gather on the first day of the week, every week, not because this day is the Sabbath, but because our Sabbath, Jesus Christ, was raised from the dead on the first day of the week.

So that every day we live, we live in the light of the new creation. Every day, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David live. They recall that God worked six days and rested the seventh, and every day we live, we also remember God raised Jesus Christ up from the dead on the first day of the new creation, and thus all His works are established, and thus our labor is not in vain.

We have to consider the resurrection because it is the work of works. We see the power of God and how effectual it is, first of all, in its determination, its determination. We thought about this a little bit last week, but I want to consider in more detail how the power of God is put on display here in this phrase, but God, because there were many men who desired one thing, and they used many different powerful means to achieve it, and they had something to say, a message that they wanted to get across, but God determined something else.

Let's think about that. Those who dwelt in Jerusalem murdered Jesus by manipulating Pilate. Jesus was crucified as an expression of hatred. It was an outcome of injustice, a resounding exclamation point on the real power and influence of the ruling Jews.

Consider the men who were involved, the chief priest, the Sanhedrin, Herod, Pilate, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Jewish crowds, the soldiers, all working together. By what means? By the tyranny of compromised magistrates, by the yelling of a frenetic mob, by the pounding of Roman nails, and the posting of temple guards, by illegal arrest and unlawful trial, illegitimate charges, blasphemous reviling, torturous abuse, and a cruel death.

This is the way in which man made his will known. And consider that they were all given the evidence of a righteous life and a miraculous ministry, and signs and wonders galore littered the countryside by the testimony of thousands of witnesses, the reality of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the Son of the living God had been established, and yet for all of that evidence, when man is presented with the irrefutable, outside the grace of God, his unbelief is irreversible.

And man spoke in unison and said, this is our determination, that he is not the Christ, that he is evil, and he must die, and no one must ever believe what he says ever again. Man made his determination.

They decided to kill him in such a cruel and shameful way that no one would ever approve of him or his message ever again. They did everything they could so that their message would triumph over his. All of the experts, all of the governing authorities, all of the religious leaders, and a sizable passionate crowd came together to declare this person, Jesus, and his preaching of the gospel of the kingdom to be illegitimate and indeed illegal.

With so many agreeing with these credentials of authority, how could there be any doubt as to the truth of the matter? Jesus must be wrong. His gospel must be wrong. His followers must be wrong. It was all a massive farce that only the most stupid and base kinds of people could believe.

But God, but God did not respect man's feelings. He had made his feelings known, and God did not respect it. God did not accept men's decision. They had made their decision, and they killed Jesus, but God did not accept it.

But God did not allow for man to have his way. But God was no respecter of the system, no idolizer of the expert, no gentleman loathed to assert himself into the settled affairs of others. Praise God.

Thanks be to God. This is the word time and again throughout all of the Bible. Man determined rebellion in the garden, but God determined redemption. Man determined violence in the world, but God determined shalom.

Man determined to make a name for himself in the plains of Shinar, but God determined to make a people from all peoples for himself in the halls of heaven. Man determined to carve idols for himself in the wilderness and in the Canaan, but God determined to cut a covenant to his own glory by a greater mediator.

Men and their sons determined to reign oppressively at the cost of innocent blood, but God determined to send his only begotten son to reign redemptively by the cost of his righteous blood. Man murdered the Christ, but God raised him from the dead.

This is the story again and again. And the climax of the story that we're given is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ shows us the power of God and how effectual he is in determining his own will. Man could not have made his will clearer.

He could not have exercised it more freely and fully than in the crucifixion of Jesus, but God's hand would not be stained. Nothing can keep him from bringing about that which he has determined. So this brings us to why it matters in our world.

One of the reasons why it matters is this, the central fact of the central glory of the universe, the resurrection of the incarnate Christ declares to us that God overrides the self-determining, self-destructiveness of mankind.

Do you go the way of the first Adam? Do you determine for yourself good and evil? Do you make a mockery of your created nature and decide to design yourself in your own image until you finally perish in a miserable rebellion against God?

Or will you embrace the last Adam and find in him the power of God unto salvation? Christians, I know you are anxious. I know that you doubt. I know that you're often disappointed. You can be confused.

I'm right there with you. See that what God determines is far better than whatever expectations we shape for ourselves. Be confirmed in that when you look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. May the Father redirect our affections to the Son by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

And further, when we see in the resurrection how God determines His will over and against the will of men who have conspired together to bring about evil atrocity, brothers and sisters, let us not fear men and what they may do to us.

Consider the resurrection. Consider that they made their most dark conspiracy, their most demon-infested attempt working the worst evil that could ever possibly be contrived. And God said, no. In light of that, why would we fear men given the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?

Not only do we see in the resurrection that God's power is effectual in determination, but it is also effectual as divine. This determination of raising Jesus up from the dead is nothing less than the yea, the verily, and the amen of the triune God.

When Paul preaches, God raised Him, raised Jesus Christ from the dead, God raised Him from the dead, you see that, you say, well, I thought Jesus Christ is God. You think, well, Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He is God of very God and man of very man. He indeed is the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. It is in the mystery of the incarnation that we are confronted with the mystery of the Trinity.

It was not God the Father who humbled Himself and took upon the form of a bondservant. God the Son did. God the Son was not sent as another comforter. God the Spirit came at Pentecost. God the Spirit did not say to God the Son, sit at my right hand until all your enemies are made a footstool for your feet.

God the Father did. And yet we do not have three gods. God the Father is God. God the Son is God. God the Spirit is God. God is one in the mystery of the Trinity. Paul says God raised up Jesus from the dead.

Well, who does he mean? Exactly who he says. God did. We read John 1 and Genesis 1, we find out that all three persons of the Trinity were involved in the creation of the world. And so it is accurate to say in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

So also the beginning of the new creation, the resurrection. Galatians 1 .1 states that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. 1 Peter 3 .18 says the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. And Jesus Himself in John 10, 17 through 18 says, therefore my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it again, this command I have received from my Father. So we see that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in the resurrection.

It is accurate to say indeed, God raised Jesus from the dead. And given that our salvation is utterly dependent upon the resurrection, who do we give praise to? We give praise to God, praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, the three and yet one.

This mystery is good. This mystery is good. It brings us into a posture of worship. We are not the masters of our salvation. We are the sinners who have been saved by so great a God. It puts us into the posture of worship to consider the great God in His plurality and in His unity and what He has done to save us who are made in His image, saved us who rebels against His name, saved us who don't deserve His grace, but saved us for His glory.

And this resurrection, the power of God is seen in this resurrection in that it is effectual over death. And that may seem a little too obvious to state. Of course, the power of God in the resurrection is effectual over death, but we meditate, don't we, on the death of Christ?

We meditate on its mediatorial, sacrificial, prophetic, and propitiating nature. So what about His resurrection? In what manner was He raised up from the dead? Truly dead, He was raised to life. Raised to life, He was truly alive.

Truly alive, He dies no more. Truly dead, He was raised to life. If anybody knew what death was, the Romans did. That was their business. The Pax Romana was secured by how well they could kill. They knew what death was.

And so how sure were the Romans that Jesus was dead? They were doubly sure. When Joseph of Arimathea came before Pilate to request the body of Jesus, Pilate sent word, let's make sure, and the death of Jesus was certified by the Romans.

How sure were the Jews that Jesus died? They were extremely sure, and thus they posted guards outside the tomb in order to keep the disciples from stealing the body. How sure were Jesus' followers? They were broken and grieved.

They were mournfully sure that Christ was dead. They took His body down from the cross and lovingly prepared it for burial and laid Him in the tomb. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the living God, truly died at the hands of sinful men, but God raised Him to life.

Raised to life, He was truly alive. Truly alive. He was no ghost, no apparition, no imposter. This was no confidence game run by disenchanted but opportunistic followers. The most certain fact in all of history is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead the third day.

He appeared to many witnesses. He walked with them and He taught them. He ate with them. He taught them. He was recognized by them and He was received by His own. He rebuked them and gave them promises and He instructed them and He loved them.

He showed them His scars and reminded the disciples of the things that had happened before His death. He was the same Lord, the same Jesus, the same Christ with the same body, though glorified. Truly alive, He dies no more.

Throughout the history of the prophets and in the ministry of Jesus and even through the ministries of the apostles, God has seen fit to bring the dead back to life, but all of these perished once more.

Jesus Christ alone is the first of the resurrection. In other words, He was raised so as to never die again. Paul makes this point in verse 34 of our passage when he writes that God raised Him from the dead no more to return to corruption.

That's crucial. Jesus offered Himself up once for all time. He dies no more. He is not offered again and again by priests. He is alive forevermore, our glorious King. We need to know that. We need to know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.

Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, us, we also must reckon ourselves as dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

We can't even conceive of what life means as those who are born again without thinking in terms of being dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. It's the whole category. His being the first fruits of the resurrection means that all those who are in Him by faith are raised from the dead both now spiritually and in the not yet we will be raised physically.

So we should have confidence in this power, confidence in the power of God in raising Christ up from the dead. When we think of Jesus, what comes to mind? When we think of Jesus, what comes to mind? Perhaps we think of Him in the manger, carefully tended to, cared for by parents, worshiped by the shepherds, a toddler visited by the magi from the east to bow before Him and give Him gifts before He's whisked away from the sword of Herod.

Perhaps we think of Him as the 12-year-old boy traveling with his parents to Jerusalem, where he gets caught up in asking questions of the teachers. Perhaps we think of Him as He walks down the rock-strewn path to the Jordan River, approaching John the Baptist, where He is welcomed and He is baptized and anointed by the Holy Spirit and the Father proclaims His approval of Him.

Perhaps we think of Him as He calls His disciples to Him and begins to instruct them. Perhaps we think of Him in His temptation in the wilderness, quoting Scripture, fighting against the wiles of the devil.

Perhaps we think of Him with the crowd surging around Him as He heals them and feeds them and cares for them and teaches them about His kingdom. Perhaps we think of Him on the road to Jerusalem, parading in as the crowds cry, Hosanna, Hosanna to the Son of David.

And there He is again in the temple, turning over the tables and cleansing it and telling the folks there what God truly intends with the temple. And again, we can find Jesus with His disciples in the upper room, feasting together as He reveals to them the true meaning of the Passover.

And then Jesus with His disciples in the garden, praying. We think of Jesus being arrested. We think of Him on trial. We think of Him suffering. We think of Him crucified and laid in the tomb. But He raised from the dead the third day to die no more.

Being with His disciples for a short time, He then ascended to heaven, taken out of their view by the Shekinah glory cloud, and to this day, in the year of our Lord, 2024, Jesus Christ is reigning at the right hand of the Father.

When we think of Jesus, where do we think of Him now? Who is He now in the fullness of who He is as God's person, accomplished God's work for us and for our salvation? How do we think of Christ? Jesus Christ in His own glorified body ever lives to make intercession for us.

The dust of earth in the Son of Mary sits glorious at the right hand of heaven, the Son of God. These are glad tidings. These are glad tidings that shout down every doubt in my troubled heart that whispers.

Christ's Finished Work and Present Intercession

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11 and following. This is why the doctrine of the resurrection, the power of God revealed, is so important. Verse 11 says, every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.

That was happening at the time that Hebrews was written. There they are in the temple still doing the jobs of the old covenant. But, verse 12, but this man, Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God.

The priests are standing. The priests are working. Jesus is sitting down. He said it is finished. He meant it is finished. It's done. From that time, waiting, how long will He sit? Waiting till His enemies are made His footstool and then He's coming back.

For by one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. How does that even work? How am I perfect forever and I'm still being sanctified? Praise God. It's His righteousness clothing me while it's His righteousness being imparted to me progressively so that ultimately I will be saying salvation belongs to God and to the Lamb on the throne.

But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us for after He had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days. This is Jeremiah. This thus says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds.

I will write them. Then He adds their sins and their lawless deeds. I'll remember it no more. This is how we are perfected forever by the one offering. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

We don't need any other offerings for sin. Christ is sufficient and supreme. Verse 19, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, notice, through the veil that is His flesh.

When Jesus rose from the dead and then ascended to heaven, He's the one who brings us into the holy of holies by this veil that is His flesh. How can we come to God and know that our prayers are heard?

How can we stand before God in His presence and worship Him and be welcomed by Him and rejoice in Him because our risen Lord Jesus Christ has consecrated for us a new way through the veil which is indeed His flesh?

And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Verse 23, let us hold fast. Let us hold fast. Why? We have a risen Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful.

I want you to see that every grace of the cross depends upon Christ having been raised and now ministering before God on our behalf. This is the grace of God to give us eyes to see, eyes of faith. Do you see Him?

How do we see Christ? Do you see Him raised in whom your standing rests? Do you see Him raised by whose suffering you are saved? Do you see Him raised by whose blood your sins are forgiven? Do you see Him raised by whose death your creator is satisfied?

Do you see Him raised by whose burial your trespasses are carried away? Do you see Him raised by whose name you are adopted? Do you see Him raised by whose spirit you are made holy? Do you see Him raised by whose life you live?

If we do, we behold the power of God. We have been shown the glad tidings of the resurrection of Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this Word that unfailingly, inerrantly brings to us the glories You have revealed of Your Son by Your Spirit.

We thank You that You are an over-specter of persons and that You are fully committed to Your own glory and to Your own name, so that even though man would turn aside the Savior You have sent, You insist.

You insist on declaring Your good news. You insist on saving rebels. You insist on recreating this world. We thank You for Your grace. Thank You for Your power. We pray that You would help us to rejoice in You accordingly as we think about our risen Lord Jesus.

It's in His name that we pray. Amen.