Sermon: He Is Risen!

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The Lord be with you.

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Amen. You may be seated.

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If you would open your Bibles to the New Testament, Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 27.

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We're right near the end there. Starting in verse 62.

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Matthew 27, 62. Hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. The next day, that is after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the

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Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive, after three days

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I will arise. Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day.

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Lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead and the last fraud will be worse than the first.

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

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Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other

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Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the

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

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And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men.

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But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek

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Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.

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Come see the place where he lay. Thus far is the reading of God's Holy and Inspired Word.

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Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you are glorious and powerful, and we love you and we worship you.

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You kept your promises always. You were the righteous one, the true servant,

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Lord, the Holy One of Israel. And Lord, your Word is sure and fixed and true.

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It will never pass away. And Lord, we thank you for your revelation in history to us of this moment.

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Thank you for this witness. Thank you for that glorious truth of your love that put you on that cross.

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And thank you for the glorious truth that death has been defeated. Lord, you destroyed our greatest enemy.

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And your promise is that you are the firstfruits. And that, Lord, you will return to raise the dead, the just and the unjust.

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And God, we thank you, Lord, that though our sin has been great, you are a much greater

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Savior. And we pray that today you would bless the proclamation of your Word, that you would,

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Lord, renew our minds, that you would challenge us, that you would inspire us, that you would put your

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Word boldly on our lips. And we ask that you would teach by your Spirit today. In Jesus' name.

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Amen. So here we are. Matthew 27.

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We've completed the story of the passion of the Messiah, that is his death on behalf of his people.

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We've talked a lot about this moment of his death, this prophesied moment of his death.

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And that's, I think, the main thing that I've wanted to emphasize and I want you to hear why

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I want to emphasize it. When I keep talking about this was expected, this was God's story,

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I want to be honest, that's not novelty for me. It's not something special in terms of,

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I think this would be a unique way of getting to this story. I keep emphasizing that this is God's story and it was promised and then here's the fulfillment because that's precisely what the inspired revelation of God in the

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New Testament does. It constantly goes back to the fact that it's just as he said.

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It's like the scriptures foretold. It's all back and this is God's story. This is not a surprise.

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So this entire moment in history is real history, but it's ultimately

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God's story. It's his story of redemption. This is God in history stepping down to redeem his people.

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Now I've tried to emphasize that when we read this, I did this last week when we talked about this, when we read this text, we can't as Christians just get weighted to one side and not the other in terms of the justice of God and the love of God.

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This is so important because when you think about this moment, we're reading about the death of the Messiah, the death of the

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Son of God and the resurrection of the Son of God and it's not just something that happened in history.

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It has meaning in it. It has purpose in it and it is intensely, here it is, personal.

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It is intensely personal. When Jesus is dying on this cross, when we reflect on this moment, all prophesied,

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God said it exactly as it was going to happen and there it is. I mean, literally they're singing about this for centuries and now they must have just completely missed the point of course of the

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Messiah. They were waiting for some military conqueror, someone who was going to put the Romans under their feet and now we have this dying, suffering servant and they're shocked by it but if they would have just read the

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Bible and believed it, they would have seen Jesus all over it. It was right in front of them the whole time.

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And that's exactly what the angel says here too to the disciples as well.

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He's risen just as he said. Just as he said.

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Now, I want to emphasize this before we ever get out of Matthew. We can't fall off a cliff on either side, like I said, in terms of the justice of God, thinking about the brutality of Jesus, the suffering of Jesus and say things like, well,

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God is holy and we're sinners and that's what put Jesus on that cross. We can't neglect saying that.

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We must say that but we can't become, in our experience as children of God, so weighted just to the one side of the story that this is just a story about an angry just God who must punish sin.

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That's part of the story. But there's a balance you have to take in this and the balance is that Jesus did it because he loved you.

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If you belong to Christ, you are loved by God. It says that he did it for the joy set before him.

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The joy set before him contains you. You. This is intensely personal.

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It says in Scripture that our names are written in the book of life before the foundation of the world that Christ was slain before the foundation of the world.

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What's that mean? It means that it was a confident sure thing. Nothing was going to change it.

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God declares the end from the beginning. This is God's plan. But it's God's plan to make himself famous, to bring glory to his name through the redemption of people who don't deserve him.

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And I've tried to emphasize that we can't think about the atonement of Christ, the passion of Christ, as glorious as it is, as much fulfillment as there is, we can't think about it in terms of this nebulous, blank -faced group and community, right?

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That Jesus is just dying somehow for these blank faces to make something possible. No, Jesus is dying very personally for very personal people.

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Names. Your name. If you know him, if you trust him, your name was on his heart and on his mind.

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It was your sins that he was dying for. This is intensely personal. And yet here we go now.

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We're moving from the passion of the Messiah and we move out of this intense moment of justice and love all mingled together in an incomprehensible way, and now

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Jesus is buried in this tomb. And what's interesting is the honesty in the text about the characters of the story.

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And I just think it's interesting that when you look at the witnesses in the New Testament, you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You have differences between them in terms of one emphasizes something else more than the other.

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One might give you language that makes more sense for a Gentile. One just totally disregards certain things the other story tells in terms of it's not important for my story.

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I want to emphasize this. You have all of this amazing witness before you that tells you the honest truth.

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For example, this is important. Peter. Peter is an apostle of Christ. Peter has written books in the

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New Testament. We've got Peter's revelation from God. God speaks to his Holy Spirit through his prophets.

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We've got revelation from Peter. He's used by God to give us inspired revelation. And he also has a huge case of stick -your -foot -in -your -mouth itis.

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He's constantly in trouble for doing stuff that you're like, that was dumb. Like, why'd you do that?

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And you see a lot of yourself in Peter, because it's usually you too, right? Like, oh, that's probably what

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I would have done there too. But Peter's, you know, he's a hero in the New Testament, but his sins are on the page.

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The Bible does that throughout. It never whitewashes the sin of the heroes. Moses, not in the promised land because he's disobedient.

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David, man of God's own heart. He does some pretty wicked stuff. I mean, the heroes, their sins on the page.

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The problem is the Bible's not interested in whitewashing sin or telling tales. It tells you history.

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And it's God's revelation. And so you'll have things in the New Testament that sometimes boggle your mind, doesn't it?

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I mean, we talked about this, didn't we? We talked about Lazarus. Lazarus, raising of Lazarus. This guy's dead for days.

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Jesus raises him from the dead with his own voice, says, Lazarus, come out. And it says in the text, some believed, some didn't.

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What? What? I mean, even, we're gonna get to it soon. Matthew 28.

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Jesus died. He rose again. He's appearing before people. And it says that at the Ascension, before the

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Ascension, it says that he's there with the disciples, with disciples. And it says that some doubted.

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He's standing right in front of them. And they're like, eh, I'm not sure about this. And why?

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Because the Bible has no concern with whitewashing anything or telling tales.

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It just tells you the truth. And in this moment, you've got a very truthful story.

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These are the circumstances. You should know that they tried this. They said this. The leadership in Jerusalem, the treachery of the

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Jewish leadership in Jesus' day. Now, all of Jesus' first followers are all

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Jews. Of course. Except you have the clear indication in Scripture that there was a corruption of the

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Jewish leadership in the first century. There was treachery. Serious treachery. Think about this. The next day, after the day of preparation, the chief priest and the

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Pharisees, very important, it's Pharisees, gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that imposter said, while he was still alive, after three days

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

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Now, that was a lie from the beginning. They were trying to preserve it. And then you see later on, look here, move down to 28.

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Verse 11. While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priest all that had taken place.

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Jesus is raised. The guard now comes and is like, uh, earthquake, angel, dead guy, back alive.

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Right? That's the Roman guard securing the tomb itself. They come back now to the leadership and tell them, uh, this guy was raised from the dead.

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Right? We saw some stuff. And it says this. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.

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And if this comes to the governor's ears, we'll satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were directed.

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And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. In Matthew's day, when he records this witness and this inspired revelation, he's telling you this story's still going around today.

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There's a problem with that story. Is it obvious? On the face of it, these

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Roman guards were called by Pilate to do what? To secure the tomb.

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That means that tomb was secured, heavy, heavy stone, and it had a big wax seal over it, right, stamped.

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And you mess with it, you die. Also, Roman guards, Roman soldiers, are paid to do a job and to do it right.

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And if you fail in your duty to Caesar, what do you think happens to you? You know, you get a separation discharge paperwork, right?

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What's that, DD 214 or whatever, you know. Not like, no, no, no, no. This is totally different.

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You die. If they had said, oh, you know, they took his body away, we were sleeping. What do you think

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Pilate would have done to them? What do you think? So it's a lame excuse from these treacherous leaders.

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I just say the disciples stole the body away. It's a terrible excuse. Wouldn't have worked, shouldn't have made sense to anybody, and yet they used it.

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Why? Because they hated Jesus. It's treacherous. You can see that, you can see from the

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Old Testament, get this, we talk about this a lot, we talk about eschatology, and Matthew 24, the

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Great Tribulation, we've talked a lot about this. You can't understand the eschatological statements happening in the

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New Testament without first understanding what the Old Testament said was going to happen, and what did it say was going to happen?

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We showed this over and over again. The Old Testament promised that when Mashiach came, when the Messiah came, there was going to be judgment upon the covenant breaking

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Jews, and there was going to be redemption. Two things were going to take place in His coming. Salvation, redemption, and judgment.

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And you can see why there was judgment in that first century generation upon the corrupt covenant breaking

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Jews because they will not obey the Word of God. They refuse to believe in Christ, and they actually work to have

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Him condemned. An innocent man condemned, and then the story tells you here what?

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They're so corrupt that when they hear the tomb is empty, from the guards that were sent to preserve it, what do they say?

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Oh, I need to rethink my position about Jesus. I mean, it's the guards, for goodness sake, that are telling you, hey, earthquake, angel, freak this out, like dead men, empty tomb, and they're like, alright, here's the deal.

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Who's got cash? Give them some money, and look, we'll protect you.

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Just say you were sleeping on the job. What a terrible idea. You're sleeping on the job, like Epstein's guards or something, right?

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I don't know. First time I snuck down in a sermon. But, you know what

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I'm saying? Something's weird. Something's weird here, but they're so lost, and so sinful, and so violate

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God's law that they deliver an innocent man to death, and then they lie and say, okay, look, tomb's empty, crazy stuff happened.

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We'll pay you to simply say that the disciples stole the body away. It's an amazing thing.

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You see from the beginning of Matthew, we're getting to the end now, Matthew chapter 3, Matthew chapter 3.

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I know Drew's putting that on his thing. Drew pulls out random quotes from the sermon that make no sense without context, and I know that one's going to go in there.

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It just dawned on me. Matthew chapter 3, when John the Baptist, the promised forerunner, comes in and he starts preaching, who does he go after first?

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I mean, Matthew chapter 3, John the Baptist knows where the corruption is, he knows where the treachery is, he knows where the sin is, and what does he do?

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He calls the Jewish leadership names. He calls them names.

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He says, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees, his winnowing fork is in his hand, he says, bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

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He's calling the leadership to repentance for their sin. He's the forerunner that was promised, and then

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Messiah comes and arrives. But Matthew opens up with this clear indication, there is something wrong in Israel.

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There is something wrong in the leadership of Israel in this generation, and it starts with that story, repent, leadership, repent.

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I mean, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 23, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

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How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her children under the wings, but you, the

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Jewish leadership, were not willing. You weren't willing. It's corruption, it's treachery.

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They're constantly trying to attempt to tie Jesus up. I mean, you really see it throughout the

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Gospels, but one of my favorite scenes in terms of Jesus giving them his identity, his identity, he says in John chapter 8, he says, unless you believe, ego eimi, he uses the name of Yahweh, God himself,

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God's unique name. Jesus says, unless you believe, ego eimi, you will die in your sins.

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Unless you believe that I'm Yahweh, unless you believe I'm the eternal God, you're going to die in your sins.

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Unless the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed. You need the Son to set you free. And when he sets you free, you'll be free indeed.

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You're a slave to sin. And then Jesus tells them, before Abraham was, ego eimi,

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I am. And what's it say? They picked up stones to kill him.

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And in John chapter 10, two chapters later, he says to the Jewish leadership, he says, many good works have

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I shown you from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? Why are you going to stone me?

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It's because he just said to them, I and my Father are one. And they said, for your good works we stone you not, but for blasphemy.

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And that you being a man, make yourself God. They knew exactly what he was saying. Exactly what he was saying.

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He's raising dead little girls from the dead. He's healing sick people. He's giving the lame back their legs again.

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He's giving sight to blind people. And he's saying to people something that only God can say.

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He's saying what? Boy, and it's going to be the greatest thing to hear his voice saying that to us.

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Your sins are forgiven you. Only God can forgive sins.

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And they said it! They said, who can forgive sins but God alone? Uh, yeah! Yeah! It's God in the flesh.

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But they're treacherous, and they reject him, and they try to kill him. He slips out of their hands so many times because it wasn't his time yet.

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He said that. He said, no man has authority over me. No one has authority over him. He has the power to take up his life and to lay it down.

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That's the Jesus that we worship. Matthew 23, Jesus tells the Jewish leadership of his day, seven woes.

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Woe to you! Woe to you! Woe to you! He confronts them over their hypocrisy.

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They're faking it. Putting on a costume. Acting like they're religious. Acting like they're so spiritual.

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And he says, woe to you! Woe to you! Woe to you! If you don't know what that means, it's a pretty heavy way of saying,

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God curse you. God condemn you. That's what it's saying.

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God condemn you. God curse you. He says it to the Jewish leadership.

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So yeah, they hate him. They're constantly conspiring. And it gets worse. It's not just this conspiracy to destroy

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Jesus in his life. Constantly trying to trip him up. Constantly trying to get him in trouble with Caesar.

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But even at the cross itself while they're on the death watch. As if it's not enough that this man is suffering after being so brutalized.

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It says that they're at the foot of the cross reviling him. Reviling him to the degree that they actually get the other thieves with Jesus to start joining in.

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I mean, what? What? They're dying too. And they had enough energy to start actually participating in the reviling.

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This is Satan. And this is demonic. As far as you can see it.

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There is so much here for the Jewish leadership. They actually work to say, hmm.

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He said he was going to rise again. So let's make it to where nobody believes it. And Matthew says that story is being told to this day.

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And so let's work through it. 62 through 66. It says that they actually worked.

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They worked to actually guard the tomb so that his body wouldn't be stolen away.

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Because they heard Jesus say what? After three days I will rise.

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Okay, quick note on this. Isn't it amusing? Isn't it interesting? Amusing?

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Peculiar? That the Jewish leadership of Jerusalem seemed to understand

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Jesus better than his own disciples. Isn't that weird? Right?

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And I emphasize the word Pharisee there because it says in the text here it says that there were chief priests and Pharisees.

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The Pharisees were the conservative crew. They believed in the law of God. They actually added a lot to the law of God in terms of like we believe in so much we want some more.

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So we'll make some stuff up along the way, right? But they actually believed in a physical resurrection. They believed in a physical resurrection.

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Isn't it interesting? The Pharisees heard Jesus talking about dying and rising again. They heard physical resurrection.

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They're like, hey, you better guard the tomb because this guy said that he's coming out of it. He said he's coming out of it.

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He said he's going to rise again. So guard the tomb. But Jesus' disciples are walking around like a bunch of sad saps like they don't even know what's going on.

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So it's the enemies of Christ that go, yeah, he says he's going to rise again from the dead. And the disciples are like, oh, he's dead.

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We thought he was the Messiah. I guess it's all over now. What's going on? And by the way, isn't that the most interesting indication that the disciples did not steal the body away?

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Because they were actually depressed and sad and thought that the whole thing was over. They just couldn't see it. And I always say this.

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Can we give the disciples some grace? Can we give them some grace and have some humility in ourselves?

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If you saw the brutalization of Jesus as they did, if you just saw how much blood there was and how much suffering, and if you saw him gasping for air, and you saw them pierce through his heart sack with a spear, and you saw his dead, mangled body, you probably would also be doubting whether that man can conquer that.

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But that's probably what it was, is they keep hearing Jesus say,

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I'm going to go to Jerusalem, they're going to crucify me, and after three days, I'll rise again. And then they see him killed, and they can't believe it.

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So much for the disciples trying to steal his body away. These people aren't powerful. They got nothing. They have to get a borrowed tomb from a rich guy.

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That's how little Jesus has. That's how little the disciples have. And so Joseph of Arimathea gives them that rich man's tomb, which is, by the way, prophesied, and here we are.

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They can't believe it. The disciples were told in this very gospel,

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Matthew 20, 17 through 19, before Jesus comes into Jerusalem, he tells them, okay, now it's time.

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I mean, they were trying to trip Jesus up before. They're trying to get him twisted up and get him in trouble with Caesar. They're trying to stone him, kill him, all the rest, but it was when it was his time, he says, okay, now

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I'm going. I'm going to Jerusalem now. They're going to kill me. Three days later, I'll rise again from the dead.

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He told them before they went into Jerusalem that this is precisely the way things were going to go, and that they couldn't see it.

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In Luke 24, go there. Luke 24, you know it's one of my favorites, and it's perfect in this moment.

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Luke 24, starting in verse 13, you read the story about the two disciples going to a village named

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Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. Verse 14, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened, and while they were talking and discussing together,

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Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him, and he said to them, what is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk?

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And they stood still, looking sad. You know what

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I always say, a bunch of sad saps. There it is, okay? That's where I got it.

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Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened here in these days?

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And he said to them, what things? And they said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, and our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem

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Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.

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They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

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Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women who had said, but him they did not see.

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And he said to them, and I love this, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the

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Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the

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Scriptures the things concerning himself. Best Bible study in the history of humanity right there. Jesus taking you through the

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Old Testament, Moses all the way through, and he's showing you everywhere that talks about him. That had to be epic.

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I'm going to ask God to replay that. Please, in heaven one day, can you just play that scene for all of us?

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We'll get popcorn and all the rest and just sit and watch. It's going to be amazing. It really will be.

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But did you notice the problem? The problem is the disciples are just totally confused.

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They heard Jesus say it, they saw his dead -mangled body, and they just could not comprehend how is this actually possible?

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I mean, I saw Jesus raise somebody else from the dead, but how does he die and then raise himself from the dead?

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Because he's dead. I mean, I could see the power coming out of a prophet to raise somebody from the dead, but himself,

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I mean, he was murdered on that tree. And so the disciples are totally confused by this, but isn't it strange that the

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Jewish leadership seems to understand exactly what his claim was? He's going to rise again from the dead.

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Now, an interesting point here to make, and I think it's important because it really has to be foundational for us as Christians, is this point of prophecy.

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You have two points of prophecy to connect to in terms of the resurrection of Jesus. One is the prophecy that existed before his coming.

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There is prophecy after prophecy after prophecy about the Messiah, who the Messiah is, when the

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Messiah is going to arrive in history, where he's going to be from, what he's going to accomplish, why he's coming.

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All that's in the Old Testament long before Jesus comes. And I often say this, to the degree that you can show somebody

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Jesus' entire life, person, ministry, everything, without even touching the New Testament itself.

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All from books written hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus arrived on the scene. So that's prophecy laid down about Jesus, about his death, about his resurrection before he comes on the scene.

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The second is Jesus' own ministry of prophecy, where he spoke to his disciples about what was to come in the future.

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Now why is this important? It's important because it's entirely unique in the history of religion.

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It's entirely unique. Now I don't mean in the history of religion that religious people and charlatans and false prophets haven't made prophecy about the future.

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They absolutely have. The distinction is in biblical revelation it is perfect, prophetic, fulfillment, or you are a what?

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False prophet. And God laid down the story of what history would be long before it took place.

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A thousand years, fifteen hundred years before it took place, and it happened on time, exactly as God said it, and in ways that will blow your mind, because there was even degrees of symbolism that were there that nobody could have possibly understood fifteen hundred years in advance.

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Prophecy. Notice what the angel says. He is risen just as he said.

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So it was prophecy before, and Jesus tells his people, he says foolish, slow of heart to believe all the prophets have written.

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So what's amazing here is this, is that Jesus actually anchors listen, this is huge, because it goes actually into a bunch of philosophical areas as well.

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Jesus anchors the certainty about his resurrection, the certainty, and what they should have understood, not in the fact that he was standing in front of them alive.

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Like he doesn't say, hey, foolish, look, look, he doesn't do that.

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When he confronts them, and he chastises them, why, on what basis does he chastise them?

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Not the fact that he's alive standing in front of them. He chastises them because they were supposed to believe all the prophets had written.

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The Messiah had to do this. You should have trusted God's word. That was your certainty.

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But God had prophesied all this, but not only that, the angel says, he's risen just as he said.

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He told you he was going to rise again from the dead. This is the unique characteristic of true religion.

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We have a sovereign God. He controls everything. He's in charge of everything.

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He yields to nobody. He declares the end from the beginning.

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He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay as he and say, what are you doing?

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God's in sovereign control of all things. And that's what makes us so glorious. This week, we were out of the temple, and like I said,

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I'm so proud of all of you for being so gracious and so loving and so respectful and gentle and yet bold with our

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Mormon friends and neighbors. It was truly just such a blessing to be able to sit back and just watch God use all of you.

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But this week, I got to go twice. Twice. And I was standing by Eric once, and Eric saw that I had my

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Where Does It Say That? It's photocopies of Mormon documents like History of the Church, Journal of Discourse, all their stuff, because you want to show them that this is what your organization has put out.

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This is what your prophets have said. So I got this book called Where Does It Say That? It's got teachings of Mormon prophets and apostles, and it's got false prophecies.

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So Eric saw that I had it open on a bunch of false prophecies, and I like to go to the

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Mormon missionaries because they're on their mission, and I like to say to them, Elder, have you ever seen any of Joseph Smith's false prophecies?

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Now generally speaking, they pretend like I do not actually physically exist in space, and they just walk past me, right?

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But I had it out, and Eric started talking to some missionaries, and so I was like, okay, he's got that.

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So I moved away, but Eric was trying to tag team with me, and he was like, Elders, have you ever seen any of Joseph Smith's false prophecies?

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And like, I come around, like, okay, I'm back. And so I walk up to the missionaries, and I ask them, have you ever seen any of Joseph Smith's false prophecies?

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And you will see it. Actually, Carmen, you recorded this, right? Yeah? Okay, you'll see this.

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They were just shining me on. They were like, hey, you're doing a great job out here, fella. I mean, it wasn't like that.

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It was like, hey, we love you, fella. You're doing good out here, right? And I was trying to challenge them on, if you have even one false prophecy, and this includes

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Jesus, if Jesus had a false prophecy, he is a false prophet. No mercy on false prophecies.

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God says so in Deuteronomy 18, 20 through 22. If you have a single false prophecy, you are not from God.

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If Jesus had a false prophecy, he's not the Messiah. If Peter had a false prophecy, he's a false prophet.

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You cannot have any failed prophecies. And so I go to these Mormon missionaries and I try to show them these false prophecies.

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I think I even explained a few of them. And their response was like, ah, that's kind of cool. You're doing great.

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We love you. We love you. Didn't care, because honestly it's irrelevant. I've had members of cults confronted with their leaders' false prophecies and they'll even admit, they'll even say, yeah, yeah, he got that one wrong.

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He's just a man. He's only human. You see, that's the distinction between true religion and man -made religion, false religion, is that God is the one who's in control of all of history, and what you need to see at this point of history of the resurrection of the

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Son of God, is that this was not only prophesied in the Old Testament, but it was prophesied by Jesus himself.

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I wonder how the angels said it. You know what I mean? Because sometimes you just read this text on the page, and you've done it a thousand times, and you're like, okay,

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I know this story, I know this story. But, like, I wonder, like, what kind of expressions do angels have?

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Like, in this moment, you know what I mean? So, like, in the moment, you can see there's a lot taking place here. Like, for example, earthquake, appearance like lightning, clothes white as snow, and don't you think it's funny that these guard, the guard, is there at a tomb of a dead man, right?

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He's the dead man, they're the living guard, the angel shows up, and they become like dead men, right?

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They're there to guard the dead guy, and they become like dead men, right? And I also want to point out, I think it's awesome,

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I can't imagine, I can't wait for the day when you get to see an angel, angel for the first time, right?

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Because then, I think, you know, you won't be in this experience, and so when you see it for the first time, maybe you're not going to be completely freaked out like everybody else is in the

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Bible when they get confronted by an angel. What's the first thing an angel always has to say when they appear?

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What do they have to always say? Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.

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Don't be Every time, it's like, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, calm down, take some breaths, calm down. And angels must be so spectacular, because not only do you have this constant thing in scripture, like it's a theme, it's like an angel shows up, and they're like freaked out, and the angel's like, hey, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, everything's alright, right?

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But you also have in John, in the book of Revelation, you have John confronted with an angel, and what's he do to the angel?

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What's he do? He's so in awe of the angel, he actually falls down, John, right?

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He falls down to worship the angel, and the angel's like, get up! I'm a fellow servant like you, worship

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God, like what do you think you're doing? But there's something about angels that must be so spectacular, and these

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Roman guards, they saw it, right? Earthquake, lightning, white as snow, and something about the angel to a pagan gentile made them like, okay, die,

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I'm dead, I'm dead, don't move, shh, like, you know. But I wonder,

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I do wonder things like this, you know, I think it's good to ask questions because the Bible doesn't tell you everything that goes on, you can't necessarily be certain about it, but, you know,

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I told you that I've always wondered, like, when these miracles happened in the New Testament, like, what was the response of the crowd?

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Like, what did they talk about over dinner? What did it feel like when, like, their loved one was raised from the dead, or were like, they were blind their whole life, and all of a sudden they get their eyes back?

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Like, what are those conversations like? Like, how do they talk about it? How many tears were there? You know?

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And in a moment like this, where it says, that the angel says, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek

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Jesus who is crucified, he is not here, for he is risen, as he said.

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But the, that part right there, I wonder if there was, like, some side -eye. He's not here, he's risen, like he said.

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You know what I'm saying? Like, like angels are just obedient, you know what I'm saying?

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Like, they don't have a problem we have of, like, original sin and everything else, so for them it's like, what's wrong with you?

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Right, you know what I'm saying? Like, don't you get it? He said, he, of course he's alive. He said he was in the rise from the dead.

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I just wonder if there was side -eye. It's just what I'm thinking about, is that on that point, he's risen, like he said.

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Like he said. You're getting a moment, a glimpse into my own mind as to how I read this. But I think it's important when you look at this text and you see those points of contact surrounding the resurrection, the scripture is always doing that.

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It's saying, you should have known this, you should have believed this, you're foolish, slow of heart to believe, the scripture said this, you were supposed to believe this.

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In other words, watch. It's a certainty of God's word. He said it, it's gonna happen. Period. That's it.

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It's over. Jesus said that. God said this, it was in your scriptures, you should have known this, you're slow of heart to believe, that's what was promised.

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The Messiah had to go through this. You should have known. And the angel says, he's risen as he said.

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And I want to just emphasize something as you move past this whole gospel that we've been in for so long, that point.

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I'm gonna step to the side for a second here, because this is where application comes in. You can read it as narrative and say, okay, that was the problem, here's what they should have understood.

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Great. Now how does it change you? Because, you know, here's some challenges for you, anxious people.

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Or lonely people. Or people who are constantly in this practice of shame and self -condemnation, like God is so far away, he wants nothing to do with me.

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What was the problem constantly for the people of God? God said it, and they wouldn't obey it. God said it, and they wouldn't believe it.

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And the point here, of contact, in both places, is that the Old Testament, God said this was gonna happen.

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And so it was a sure thing. It was confidence. It was gonna happen. Guaranteed. And Jesus said he was gonna rise from the dead.

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So here's the point. If God says it, it's the truth.

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Nothing's gonna change it. Nothing. And so when you struggle with your loneliness, or your anxiety, or all those things you deal with, your answer for solace, for peace, for hope, for comfort, and joy, is not gonna be in your might, and you're trying to fight it off, and trying to just become a better person, and just work on the disciplines to not believe like that anymore, or think like that anymore.

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No. Your answer for surety, for confidence, for certainty, is the word of God.

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That's what they should have believed. When he was murdered on that tree, they should have understood exactly what was happening, and for the next couple of days where they were waiting for him to conquer death, they should have, of course, been solemn, but also prepping.

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Prepping for this moment of rejoicing. Moment of rejoicing. There should have been no sad saps walking on that road to Emmaus at all.

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Now, we've dealt with some of the parts of the text here, and tried to emphasize some important aspects.

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I'm gonna just deal with a couple things quickly in terms of well, I think they're honestly really silly arguments against the resurrection of Jesus.

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Here's what you need to know. It's an historical fact that the tomb of Jesus was empty on that Sunday morning.

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The tomb of Jesus was empty. That is from the eyewitness accounts themselves.

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You can actually look at extra -biblical or outside -of -scripture historical text to confirm the fact that Jesus' tomb was empty.

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But there's some arguments against the resurrection. Again, I think they're silly, but the first one, you see in the text itself, the witnesses just admit to you, yeah, this is what they came up with.

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And that was that the disciples stole the body. Now I wanna just direct your attention to some points of contact when they say the disciples stole the body.

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Number one, the guard was set in place. The tomb was sealed in place.

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Wax seal. Question, who set the guard in place according to the text? Pilate did.

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So a Roman authority and ruler is the one who was in charge ultimately of setting the guard in place.

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This was not just a random person killed and put in some random grave. This was a spectacular moment in Jerusalem, so much so that when the disciples on the road to Emmaus, they're like, what, you don't know what's been going on here the last couple of days?

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You don't know what's happening? It was a big deal. It was a huge deal. Pilate was worried a riot was gonna break out over Jesus.

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So Pilate says, set a guard, seal the tomb. So when someone says the disciples stole the body away, it goes against all logical reasoning.

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This is the governing authorities of the day making sure that that tomb is sealed with a guard.

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There was the wax seal, and then there's some more important points here in terms of the disciples stole the body.

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The disciples all died gruesome deaths to seal their testimony that they saw

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Jesus alive from the dead. I've often asked the question like this.

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Think about it very personally. Think about it personally. People may be willing to die for what they hope is true, right?

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People do that. People crash planes into buildings. People do awful, awful things in history for what they hope is true, right?

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But nobody's willing to die for what they know is a lie.

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For what they know is a lie. So, when you think about the disciples,

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I want to ask the question, what would it take for you to be flayed to death?

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Being flayed is where they would slice your skin off your body. They would peel all the skin off your body while you were alive.

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And think about this. As a disciple of Jesus in that century and that generation, while the

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Roman guards are preparing their knives to flay you, to peel the skin off of your face, arms, chest, and legs, while they're waiting to peel the skin off your body, you have some moments ahead of time to simply go along.

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To say, I didn't really see him alive from the dead. Yeah, Caesar is Lord, not

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Jesus. I'm really sorry about all this. All you had to say was Caesar is Lord, and you're good to go.

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A little pinch of incense? Sure. They died being flayed. Or what would it take for you to be tied to a stake, wrapped in pitch, and lit on fire so that Nero could ride his chariot through you while he lights his garden parties up with your burning body?

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These are the kind of deaths that the disciples died. Or what would it take for you to be burned in an oven? Or pulled apart by horses?

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Or speared to death? What would it take? You know, I've told you the story of Nero.

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When the Neronic persecution of the Christians happened, you had the Jews and the Romans now collectively working together to persecute the early

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Christians. These were the apostles as well. You know, Nero tried to execute all the apostles, find them all, round them up.

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Paul dies under his reign, has his head cut off. Peter dies under his reign. He's crucified, maybe upside down.

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We don't really know. Conflicting traditions, but he was crucified. He's trying to wipe out the

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Christian church, but he would have people rounded up, Christians, who would not confess

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Caesar Curios, Caesar's lord. He would have them tied naked to a stake. He would get naked.

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He would cover himself in the skin of an animal, like a bear or a lion. And then for entertainment, he would attack the

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Christian, tied naked to the stake, and he would eat their body, including...

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right out of the mouth of babes, including their private areas.

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Now let me ask you a question. It's important. When someone says, yeah, the disciples just stole the body away, no one really saw

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Jesus alive from the dead. These were literal eyewitnesses to the resurrection, and with those who were eyewitnesses to the resurrection themselves, they were not telling tales, and they spilled their blood to prove it.

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I'm pretty sure that liars, being tied to a stake, being attacked by a madman, might have a change of mind if they were just creating a fiction, telling a tale.

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That is not how the Christian faith broke into history. It was with very confused disciples who actually doubted, didn't believe, and they were themselves shocked to their core that he was actually alive from the dead.

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And what is Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15? What's his argument? His argument is, here's the gospel, here's who

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Jesus appeared to, he appears to Peter, he appears to James, his own brother, he appeared to me, and he even says this, that Jesus appeared at one time to more than 500 eyewitnesses at once, and his argument in the first century, in the first century, his argument is this, if you don't believe me, go ask them.

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Some of them are still alive to this day. You don't believe us? All these independent witnesses, all these different locations it happened at, go ask the more than 500 eyewitnesses who saw him alive from the dead.

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You don't believe me? Go ask them. So, I think that the arguments the disciples stole the body away is actually pretty lame.

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There's also something called the swoon theory. I think this one is especially lame. The swoon theory is that, well,

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Jesus didn't really die on the cross. No one else is laughing at that.

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I think it's hilarious. The swoon theory is just such a lame argument, because when you look at the witness itself, and you talk about the historical nature of crucifixion, you know that crucifixion is something that the

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Romans invented, and they did right. And you also know that, again, the

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Romans, who are called to secure the death watch, are there to secure the death of the one they're watching.

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And when you think about the historical witnesses and the accounts of what happened to Jesus, when someone says, he wasn't really dead, he just swooned, or he was just wounded a bit, and then he came out of the tomb.

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Let me ask you a question. Would it make sense to you to worship somebody as God in the flesh, who comes like, for like weeks, they're recovering, right?

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And you're like, oh, look, it's the resurrected Lord! Silly arguments against the resurrection.

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When you describe the brutality of the crucifixion of Jesus, you have to remember, I was just talking to my family, good

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Friday, we were, we went through the story of Christ's crucifixion together, and I think

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Candy brought it up, about the film, The Passion of the Christ. Again, this isn't a debate over second commandment violations, anything like that, okay.

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But just in terms of the brutality that everyone knows about that film, it's very brutal, it's horrible, right?

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But you think about the fact that they whipped Jesus with rods, they softened up his back, the muscles in his back, the skin on his back, they used a cat -of -nine -tails, it's this whip, with sharp instruments connected to it, and when it would have gone into his back, that was already softened from the blows, it would have pulled out skin and muscle, and people have said, medical examiners, people who are experts in all this stuff have said, you know, it's highly likely that, considering the brutality the text says that was given to Jesus, that you would have been able to see bone,

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Christ's spine, you would have certainly been able to see parts of his ribcage showing through, or even organs coming out of his body.

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He was beaten and brutalized, his face punched in, his beard pulled from his face, crown of thorns smashed in his head, they had a lot of Roman soldiers just taking turns brutalizing

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Jesus, aside from the whipping and the cat -of -nine -tails, and then he is crucified, remember, he could not even make it to the cross without assistance.

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So they have Simon commandeer him from the audience watching this publicly, by the way, this is a public execution, it's a public execution, it wasn't a private execution where you could sneak somebody that was not really dead off, it's a public execution.

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Simon carries the cross for Jesus the rest of the way, because he wasn't able to do it himself, and then he's nailed to that cross, bleeding profusely, and then of course, what's the story say?

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Pilate was actually shocked himself, they report back, he was surprised that Jesus had died so quickly, because he needed time to suffocate on that cross, but, what happened?

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They go to break the legs of the criminals next to Jesus to speed along the process of death so they can't gasp for air anymore, and they suffocate, they come to Jesus, and what's the text say?

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They don't break his legs, because he was already dead, but watch, just to make sure that he was really really dead, they take a spear, and they shove it through his rib cage, they clearly pierce his heart sack, because it says blood and water flowed out.

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So, you have the brutalization of Jesus, the fact that these professional killers don't break his legs because he's already dead, but just to make sure.

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They take a spear, and they pierce his heart. He was dead. He was dead.

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Next, people will say, well, maybe it was myth, or vision, or hypnosis, or legend.

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Let's just talk about the facts for a minute. When you look at the testimony of the eyewitnesses themselves, they constantly point to the fact that we were eyewitnesses to his majesty.

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We didn't follow cleverly devised tales and fables. We saw him, we touched him, and Paul's whole argument in the first century, when hostile witnesses could have been brought forward to the resurrection, his entire argument was, he appeared to him, he appeared to him, he appeared to him, he appeared to me, and if you don't believe me, ask the over 500 eyewitnesses that saw him alive at one time.

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He's alive from the dead, and they all died to seal that testimony.

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Did you know that John the Apostle was the only one of the apostles that actually died of old age?

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He was the only one. All the rest were all martyred for their testimony, are you ready, that Jesus died,

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Jesus rose again from the dead, physically. They all died. John Nero tried to kill

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John, boiled him in a pot of oil, one tradition says, boiled him in a pot of oil, he didn't die,

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Nero sends him to Patmos, because he was so freaked out and superstitious, he sends him to Patmos. That's one of the traditions that came up through history about John.

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But John died of old age, John actually buried Jesus' mom at Ephesus, I think keeping the commitments that he had, but there are multiple eyewitnesses to the resurrection, these were independent, think about this, they were different locations at times, and here's a key issue, ready, this is through and through, they didn't believe it at first, many of them.

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Who's the most famous one that always comes up? Doubting what? Doubting Thomas.

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How'd you like to go down in history as that guy, right? It's your name with a doubting in front of it, you're like, please, like when you get to heaven and you see him, oh it's

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Doubting Thomas, he's like, enough! Enough! It's over, that's behind us now. Doubting Thomas.

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But you'll remember that the way that they were about the resurrection of Jesus is they couldn't believe it actually happened and when he started appearing to people at different times, they start coming back to report and the other ones are like, you're telling tales out of the school yard, there's no way, so Thomas says what?

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When they're like, we saw him alive, he's actually alive, just like he said, Thomas says, unless I stick my finger in the prince of the nail,

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I will not believe it. And all of a sudden, Jesus shows up and what's

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Thomas' response after he says, I will not believe it unless I physically touch him.

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Jesus says, handle me and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bone, it's a physical resurrection, not some weird spiritual resurrection, it's a physical resurrection.

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He says, spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see that I have. And what's

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Thomas' response to seeing the resurrected Lord after just saying, there's no way I'm going to believe this unless I touch him.

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He says, my

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Lord and my God. Who's Jesus to Thomas?

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My Lord and my God. He knew what he was confronted with. So, next somebody might say the supernatural is not possible.

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I'd love to spend a sermon refuting atheism right now. I did do a little bit of discussing this with the tombs being opened and the resurrected saints coming out.

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I'll just say this quickly, when someone says the supernatural isn't possible, remind them if they're an atheist, materialist, they believe that life came from non -life, that fish became philosophers, and that information came from non -information.

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Thank you very much. Next, let's go back to Matthew 28 now.

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I want to end on this. Just as he said.

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Two points. The Messiah had to die. That's clear.

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He had to die. In Daniel chapter 9, there's a prophecy of 70 weeks, and it says that Mashiach, an anointed one, is going to come, and he's going to make an end of sin.

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He's going to make atonement for iniquity. He's going to bring in everlasting righteousness. He's going to seal up vision and prophecy.

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And the most holy will be anointed. Some big stuff is going to happen. You ever wonder, if you're new here, you've probably never heard me say this.

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If you're older here, you've heard me say it a lot. How come there was this intense messianic fervor in Jesus' day?

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Answer? Daniel 9. Daniel 9 told them to count down the days to the time of the

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Messiah. So they knew they were in this general time frame of the Messiah. There were always disputes over exactly when you start counting and all that stuff.

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But long back in Daniel, during around the time of Babylonian captivity, the angel

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Gabriel tells them, this is when Messiah's coming. So they knew they were in this time frame of the

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Messiah. So did you know for a hundred years before Christ and about a hundred years after Christ, there were multiple multiple messianic movements in that time period.

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You had literal false messiahs popping up all the time, dragging people out into the wilderness.

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Do you know what happened every single time with those false messiahs? Every time, what happened? They died and they stayed dead.

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And the movement fell apart. How come you don't have people following those false messiahs today? How come?

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Because they all died and they stayed dead. Jesus died and he rose again because he came on time and as planned.

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The Messiah, it was prophesied that he would die for the sins of God's people.

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Daniel chapter 9 says atonement for iniquity was to take place. He was to make an end of sin, bring an everlasting righteousness and he was going to be cut off.

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That word there means to die a violent death before the second temple was destroyed.

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I've said this often, if Jesus isn't Mashiach there isn't one. Because the

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Messiah had to come and do all those things and die a violent death before the destruction of the second

59:44

Jewish temple. It's in the text. Second temple's gone brothers and sisters. It's gone. It's over.

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So who brought in everlasting righteousness? Who made atonement for iniquity? Who made an end of sin?

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Who sealed up vision and prophecy? And who was cut off, died a violent death before the second

01:00:05

Jewish temple? Jesus. It was prophesied that he would. Psalm 22 gives you the depiction of his passion.

01:00:13

That he was going to die. That he be laid in the dust of death. Isaiah 53 doesn't just say that he would justify the many as he bare their iniquities.

01:00:23

That God was going to lay on him the iniquity of us all. About 700 years before Christ it says that.

01:00:29

But it says that he'd be cut off out of the land of the living. It was prophesied that the

01:00:35

Messiah would die for the sins of God's people. But it also says that he would rise.

01:00:43

Read Isaiah 53. The very same text that says that he'd be cut off says that he would see his offspring.

01:00:50

That he would prolong his days. He wasn't going to stay dead. The text of the Old Testament clearly says even in the narrative or that portrayal of the passion in Psalm 22 it says this is all going to happen.

01:01:02

He's going to be laid in the dust of death. They're going to pierce his hands and his feet. And then it says that he was going to tell of God's name to his brethren and that all the families of the earth were going to return to worship

01:01:14

Yahweh. So he dies and yet he's able to tell of God's name to God's brothers and that all of the nations are going to come to God.

01:01:23

You see the Messiah had to die. The Messiah had to rise again from the dead. And I want to just say that that is the summary of the whole story.

01:01:32

Jesus was the one foretold from the beginning of the Bible that he was going to come and crush the head of the serpents.

01:01:39

We'd be covered in a foreign righteousness. This one who was coming was going to rule the world and draw all the nations to God.

01:01:47

He was going to deal with our sin and he was going to deal with death. Our ultimate enemy.

01:01:53

And so enter Jesus. The righteous one. The law keeping one. The just one. The one who is love.

01:02:01

He dies for the sins of his people. He conquers death. And the promise is this. He is ascended.

01:02:07

He is seated on his throne. And history's going to look like this. God putting all of Christ's enemies under his feet as a footstool for his feet.

01:02:14

And then the last enemy to finally be defeated is going to be death. So yeah.

01:02:19

When you and I die now, you shouldn't be listening. And I don't have any question that Google doesn't understand anything

01:02:33

I just said. Because I know who runs Google. Just kidding. That was weird.

01:02:41

Always listening. The story ends with death being ultimately defeated.

01:02:55

And we live as much as possible in the West today trying to be oblivious to death.

01:03:01

Trying to push it out of our minds to get it distant from us. But most of us in this room have probably come into contact with death.

01:03:09

At some point in our lives. And here's the point. You are on your way. And so am I. At any moment.

01:03:15

It's coming. I had a... Some of you guys may have seen it this week.

01:03:23

I had a conversation this week at the temple with someone that I have been talking to for over 20 years.

01:03:30

I have talked to this man a Latter -day Saint more than I have talked to any

01:03:38

Mormon in my entire life. I'm talking like some nights we would sit and talk for 6 hours, 4 hours, hours upon hours upon hours.

01:03:47

It's over 20 years of time I've had ministering to this man. Now when I met him first,

01:03:53

I've been like talking to this guy over half my life. When I met him first,

01:03:58

I was like a young man on the West side of the temple. And then Jerry and I have had so much contact with him preaching to him.

01:04:05

He came up to me the other night. And this is on video. You can look at it live video. You can see it.

01:04:12

I think it's somewhere around 29 minutes in. He comes up to me. He says, Jeff, I need to ask for your forgiveness.

01:04:19

I said, well, of course. Why? And he said, because I was angry with you.

01:04:24

He said, for 20 years you've kicked my Mormon butt, but I've been angry with you at times and I shouldn't have been angry with you.

01:04:32

I was so grateful because I was never even mad at him. Never hurt my feelings. Always loved him.

01:04:38

Just wanted to give him the truth. And so we had this long conversation. You can see it. I think it was a very sweet conversation where in my mind the whole time, all

01:04:45

I was thinking that day when I was like, I hope Stephan shows up tonight. I was thinking to myself, what can

01:04:50

I say to him, God? What should I say to him? And the main thing I want to emphasize with him after countless hours talking to this guy was that you're about to die.

01:05:00

I didn't mean that offensively. I meant like I'm 44 years old now. When I first met you,

01:05:05

I was a young man. I'm 44 years old now. I said, you're getting older now. We're both getting closer to actually facing our creator.

01:05:12

And he said something funny. He's like, yeah. He's like, I'm just getting ready to slip on a banana peel and it's over for me. Because he's like 75.

01:05:18

But I was just, I was reflecting on the fact that as this young man, I started this conversation with Stephan and it wasn't in my mind even then.

01:05:29

We have like so little time. Right? That's when it hit me. This week talking to him.

01:05:36

That we're on our way. I'm 44 years old. It feels like I was 20 years old yesterday.

01:05:42

Am I right, old people? You guys, you're like,

01:05:49

I know I love my kids now. My kids are like 23, they're in their early 20s now. I love the fact they're like, wow, life is going by fast.

01:05:56

I'm like, yeah, you're going to be 30 before you know it, then 40 before you know it. And then it's like, you're on to heaven. It gets fast.

01:06:03

It's fast. Life is quick. I'm 44 now and I'm talking to a guy that is getting so close.

01:06:11

He's so old now. He's so close and I'm thinking, we never stop with the fact that it's just this vapor and it's over and then dead.

01:06:22

And that's what makes this so incredible. Because that's not the end for us.

01:06:27

It's not over. How does the Bible describe Christians when they die? Sleep.

01:06:34

Just resting a little. You're resting for the big day. It's a big day where there's an awakening coming.

01:06:40

There's a resurrection coming. That's what makes this the greatest story ever told. There's nothing like it. There's no

01:06:46

God like this comparable to this. There's no story of love like this. There's no story of justice like this.

01:06:52

And there's no story of victory like this. And the amazing thing about this story is that, yes, it's about Jesus.

01:06:59

That's the ultimate thing. It's about Christ. It's not just about you. It's Christ. It's His glory.

01:07:05

It's His kingdom. It's about worshiping Him. It's about making Him famous. This is His. It's not about you.

01:07:12

But because of His love and because of what it actually accomplishes, you and I join together with Him in this victory.

01:07:20

Now, through faith in Him, you have already been raised from the dead and you are seated with Christ.

01:07:27

You are new. You are a new creation. You are alive from the dead. But there is a day, brothers and sisters, because He's alive when you will live also.

01:07:36

Every person that you walk past their casket, every loved one, every friend, every brother or sister in Christ, you walk past their casket, you can look at that and say, they're coming back.

01:07:50

They're going to walk this earth again. Why? Because that tomb is empty. Jesus is alive.

01:07:57

He's alive. And if you trust Him, you will join Him in resurrection.

01:08:03

You will be raised to everlasting life. This body will no longer see corruption.

01:08:11

You will be alive. No more sickness. No more sorrow. No more decay. No more cancer.

01:08:17

No more disease. No more gout. No more Crohn's disease. No more bad eyesight.

01:08:23

No more painful backs. No more fake hips. Dennis, right?

01:08:30

None of it. It's resurrection. Alive from the dead. There is no greater story than this.

01:08:38

And so the call of the Gospel is repent and believe the Gospel. Here's who

01:08:43

Jesus is. God in the flesh. Lived perfectly. Died for sinners and rose again from the dead. He's ascended and He is seated.

01:08:48

He is the King of the world. He is Lord of Lords. King of Kings. And the command of the

01:08:54

Gospel is that you repent of your sin and you believe in Christ. You trust in Him as your

01:09:00

Savior and as your Lord. You come to Him for life. Everlasting. Peace with God.

01:09:05

I pray that for you today if you don't know Him. Let's pray. Father, please bless the word that went out today.

01:09:12

I pray that Christ was glorified. I pray that, Lord, You put Your Gospel on our lips and that we would tell it to the world with boldness and love.

01:09:19

In Jesus' name, Amen. Jesus said, God tells us in His word, as often as you come together, do this in remembrance of Me.

01:09:27

We come to the Lord's table every Lord's day at Apologia Church. Jesus said,

01:09:33

This is My body broken for you. This is His blood. The new covenant in His blood poured out for many for their remission of sins.