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Pastor Wade continues his sermon series on the Gospel According to John with sermon titled, "Christ Is Risen" going over John 19:31-20:10.
All right, here we are. We're gonna start in chapter 19 and end in chapter 20. Gospel according to John. We're gonna be in 19 verse 31 through to 20 verse 10. The title today is simply Christ is risen.
Christ is risen. So starting in verse 31 of the gospel according to John chapter 19. Hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God Church. Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with him. But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out.
And he who has seen has testified and his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass to fulfill the scripture, not a bone of him shall be broken.
And again, another scripture says they shall look on him who they pierced. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.
And Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus, who had first come to him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.
Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him.
So Peter and the other disciple went forth and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. And stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
And so Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb and he saw the linen wrappings lying there. And the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.
And the face cloth, which had been on his head, I'm sorry. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.
So the disciples went away again to their own homes. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word. Let's pray once more as a church. God, we thank you for this account. We thank you, Lord, for this history, this moment in time that has changed everything for so many.
God, we thank you that it has been recorded supernaturally in scripture, that we may see it and read it and believe it by your spirit. God, we're accustomed to hearing this account so often. We talk about it so often, and yet remind us today, Lord, how important it is that Jesus rose again.
Show us, Lord, the resurrection in a new way, in a way that we would praise you even greater. Let us marvel today at the Lord Jesus Christ and your grace toward sinners. We praise you and we thank you.
Please be with us. Let our every focus be on you now. In Jesus name.
Amen.
So last week we ended the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus Christ with the Son of God fully satisfying the wrath of God intended for sinners such as ourselves. Jesus was the lamb offering. His perfect blood was given for the atonement of sin.
And we saw that he was the scapegoat on whom all our sins were placed and confessed and taken out of the city and into the wilderness, removed from the people and taken to Golgotha. And so they are gone.
The sins were taken out, they were placed on him, he went out of the city, he went out from the people for us. And we talked about the forsakenness that the son would have felt in his humanity, but losing not a single connection to the father in his divinity.
His father was pleased to crush him, as Isaiah 53 reported, rendering him a guilt offering. He was a guilt offering, the one on whom all our iniquity fell. And so as Jesus drank down the last dregs of the cup of the wrath of God, he cried out in anguish.
And then he said what? He said, Tetelestai, it is finished. And I had told you that he delivered the death blow to the serpent, to sin and to death in this moment. So much was finished that day. You have the substitution, you have the atonement, you have an offering of the Lord Jesus, you have sacrifice for sins.
The redemption of cursed mankind, payment was made. Jesus made payment. Sin, debt, forgiveness has been given to many. You know, it's like it's like in a movie where, you know, someone is about to to go and they know they're going to die with whatever heroic act they're about to do.
It's like, I'll go. And then someone comes up and this is the hero. And he's like, no, I'll go, I'll go instead. And we all cheer for that moment. That hero goes in place of other people and he gives his life in that moment.
Except in this situation, it's that someone who didn't deserve to die took the place of another and the person who actually deserved to die didn't. It's like, OK, you go. And Jesus went. The hero who didn't deserve to die, died.
He went for us. Jesus was our ransom is another word for it. And so although Jesus said out loud, it is finished, things weren't over, technically, things aren't over. When many present the good news of Christ, they often focus solely on the crucifixion.
You ever done that before? You're trying to remember the gospel and you're trying to tell someone and you just keep going on about the cross and the cross. And you might even forget to mention the resurrection.
The cross is crucial. But the resurrection is equally important. Because what attests to the miracle that took place on the cross? What validates or confirms what Jesus said he would achieve in his death?
How do we know that Jesus stood up, died on a cross and actually paid for the sins of mankind? What tells us that that actually occurred? Or maybe he's just a dying man in a tomb. What validates that?
What proves that we will indeed be raised? He said that. He said, you'll be raised too. You're going to enjoy eternal life. How do we know that? We're going to take a look at the answer right here in our Bibles.
And so you might have noticed when I was reading the text, we're covering quite the span today. But we're going to divide it in three digestible blocks. Okay. Verses 31 through 37 are going to be on the piercing of Jesus's side.
All right. His unbroken body. Verses 38 through 42 will be on the burial of Jesus. And chapter 20, verses 1 through 10 today will be on the blessed resurrection. So I even have it broken up in your scripture list there, the John portion.
You have his piercing of his side, his burial and his resurrection. That's how today will be split up. Okay. So first block, first block. Go to our text. Go to verse 31. Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath.
For that Sabbath was a high day, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So I told you, I explained crucifixion to you all and crucifixion for Jesus took place on Friday.
It is often called what? Good Friday. That was two days ago. And I think it should be called Great Friday because it's more than good. And so Jesus's verdict came in by the sixth hour, according to the text.
The sixth hour in that time would have been noon. The verdict came out, crucifixion, 12 noon, Friday, you're going to die, you're going to be crucified. That was when the verdict came at noon. And so Jesus was crucified in the afternoon, the early afternoon on that Friday.
And Mark reports that that sunny afternoon Friday turned darkened. The sky turned dark. Darkness swept over the entire land when Christ gave up his spirit. And now it is late afternoon. The approaching evening is coming.
But there's a problem. There's an issue. The Sabbath begins Friday at sundown and ends Saturday at sundown. That's the Sabbath every week, Friday at sundown. And so the Sabbath was about to occur. And not only that, but it was a high Sabbath.
It was during Passover week. So this is a high Sabbath. This is an important day. And what do they have? All these pilgrims are in from other places. They're visiting during Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
And they've got men hanging on crosses, dying. And you could see them from the city. You could see Calvary or Golgotha, the place of the skull. You could see them hanging there. And so they have to deal with it.
Evening is coming. Sabbath is about to start in a few hours. You see, the Jewish leaders don't want their sin on display. They don't want the execution, the murder, their desire for him to die to be on display on this special day.
And not only that, it was the Paschal day. It was the second Paschal day. And if you look in Leviticus 23, it details what happens on this day during the Passover. On the second Paschal day, it says in Leviticus 23, The priest shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted.
And on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. Now, here it is. Now, on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb, one year old, without defect for a burnt offering to the Lord.
A lamb without defect as an offering to God. That was that was this moment. OK, and so what what Jesus did fulfills this impeccably.
Perfect. Perfect.
As the author of Hebrews says, Jesus accomplished what the blood of bulls and goats and sheep could never do. Animals and their sacrifice could never once for all take away sin, as the author of Hebrews says.
OK. And so normally the Romans would leave men and women who were crucified, they would leave them on the cross. And they would leave them on the cross sometimes for days until they died. And even after they died, their bodies would start rotting on the cross and birds would come and devour the criminal's flesh.
It was very intense. And so to speed up the process, the Romans are like, all right, we'll go with what you Jews say. OK, we'll break their legs. And that's what they would do. They would speed up the process by breaking their legs with a iron mallet.
They would go up to their knees with an iron mallet and crush and break their kneecaps and other parts of their legs. And at this moment is when they would completely asphyxiate. I know if you remember what I told you last week, last week, crucifixion isn't simply being nailed through on a cross and hanging there.
Crucifixion is a death in which gravity is taking place and you're hanging there and your chest cavity empties and your lungs can't refill the way that you're hanging on the cross. And so to be able to breathe, Jesus would drive up his body, take a breath, and then he would lose energy and come back down.
And then he wouldn't be able to breathe. He'd have to drive up. And I told you about that little seat that sometimes it would give people hope, but it would only prolong their death. It would prolong suffering because they would take a barely a rest.
Then he'd slip off because of the blood and the nails would drive through him. And it was just a horrible, horrible treatment here. And so what they did to be able to kill these people faster was they would take the iron mallet, they would break the knees, and then there would be no strength left in the legs to drive your body up.
And after not even five, ten minutes, because you're pierced through or you've been hanging for hours or days, your arm strength would finally give out. You'd have muscle spasms. And so your legs are broken and everything in you is crying out, stay alive, stay alive.
And so you would use your arms even and you would get a breath. And then finally, you would have nothing left and your lungs would never refill and you would die. And so this is called a crurifragium, crurifragium, to break the knees in crucifixion.
And this is what the Jews want. This is what they want done according to verse 31. And I hope you see the irony here, the hypocrisy. The Jews and Romans are responsible for this treatment of Jesus. They cried, crucify him, crucify him.
And the Gentile torturers and soldiers gladly obliged. They enjoyed every minute of it. They mocked him. They spit in his face. But now the Jewish leaders are concerned about a special day to God. This is a special day devoted to God.
We better get what these guys are, this defect on the land, this tainting of the land. We better get their bodies down because we care about what God thinks on this special day. You see the false piety?
Do you see the hypocrisy? Get them down. They're a blight on the land. We care how God is, whether God's offended or not in this moment. No, they don't. No, they don't. They want their evil deed removed from their sights, this desecration.
You know, this is much like those who are murderers. When they've interviewed murderers, often after they've lost the drive, they've completed the act. They've committed murder. They've lost all drive.
And then they kind of look around and they want to wash their hands. They want everything off of them. They want all evidence gone. And this is what's happening here. They want the evidence of what they've done to Jesus away.
Hide it.
Put it away.
So they asked Pilate if the three men on the cross can have their legs broken and taken away. Verses 32 and 33. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who were crucified with him.
But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. So the two criminals that are on the side of Jesus, you have three crosses in this picture. You have a criminal on each side of Jesus, Jesus in the center.
They go and they break the legs of the one man. They walk over around Jesus. Isn't that interesting? Is they walked past Jesus. Check the other one. Then they went to the center after. Very interesting.
And so they break their legs. And one of them went to Hades, according to scripture, as far as we know. One went to hell and one, according to Luke and other scriptures, says that one man confessed Jesus.
In the end, he said, remember me when you come into your place with your father. Right. I'm paraphrasing. Remember me when you enter into your kingdom. And Jesus says today you'll be with me in paradise.
So one, one is going to Hades. One in that moment gets his knees crushed and the best day of his life happens right there. And so he goes to be with the Lord. And Jesus was right. These men died the same day he did.
And he was with him in paradise that day. Now, when they came to Jesus with their iron mallet, they found that he was already dead, or at least they suspected so. And we could say that because of the scourging that we went over two weeks ago when he was whipped.
And the leather cords that had bones and metal in it, and it exposed his muscle. We could say that, oh, that makes sense. He probably died because of blood loss that we went over that two weeks ago. Or we could think about our sermon from last week, the crucifixion and being hung up on the cross and barely breathing.
That's what killed Jesus. We could definitely say that. But what really makes sense is when verse 28 said, Jesus knew, it said, Jesus knew that all things were finally fulfilled. And so verse 30 said that when he knew everything was fulfilled, he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit.
He gave it. He died at his and his father's own determination. It wasn't the scourging. It wasn't the crucifixion. It wasn't asphyxiation. It was when Jesus gave himself over.
Okay.
And so finding him already dead, they did not break his legs. Verse 34, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out. We have to ask ourselves, why would John include this?
Is it simply historical, a record of fact? I think that's part of it.
So the executioners had to be certain that Jesus was not simply unconscious. He looked dead on that cross. They heard him scream in agony. And so they take a Roman lance. A Roman lance has an iron tip three and a half feet long with a wooden shaft.
And they would have taken this spear and they went up and into the side of Jesus.
According to one commentator, medically speaking, some tried to deduce whether this was a test. A piercing of the heart. And the heart with so much trauma had filled with water. Or some medically have tried to determine if this was a piercing of the pericardial sack.
Or maybe due to the brutal flogging and whipping that he had received earlier that day. He produced a hemorrhage in his chest that had the pleural cavity filled up with water between the ribs and the lungs.
So many scientists and doctors have tried to determine how could blood and water come out at the same moment. I think what happened was if Jesus is, you know, feet up in the air hanging on that horizontal cross beam in the vertical slot as well, that they were below him.
And the Roman centurion would have taken the spear and gone up and in. Therefore, piercing possibly everything that I just mentioned. The pleural cavity, hemorrhaging, the heart, all of it. And when he pulled his spear out, blood and water came out.
That's my belief medically. We don't know for certain how that all went down. But what I believe John is trying to do is not simply mention this for a record of fact. There is a theological reality to this.
He's articulated this in the prologue in John chapter 1. He's shown symbols of this in chapters 1, 3, 7 and more. And what's interesting is in this gospel, John has tried to emphasize the deity of Christ.
That Jesus is God. He shares in the uncreated divine essence of the one true God. He's the second person of the Trinity. But all at the same time, he is man. John 1 said, The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
God the Son assumed a second nature. He's totally and fully God, totally and fully man, the God-man. And so what's interesting is later in John's epistles, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, John will make arguments and make an apologetic against groups that were called the Gnostics and the Docetists.
What did the Gnostics and the Docetists believe? They believed that flesh and nature was evil, right? Spirit is good. But flesh and all the things that make someone flesh and bone, that's always evil and only spirit is good.
And so the Gnostics and Docetists argued that Jesus didn't ever become material. Jesus was only spirit. He was an apparition. He was simply like a filled out ghost or something like that. Jesus was spirit only.
He was visible to us, but he wasn't material in any way. And so John is trying to say, I've seen this. Blood and water came out. He's not just spirit, Gnostics. Jesus was also man. He was also man. And this is key.
Many of the Docetists and Gnostics said that Jesus never died. People would go around and said, yeah, he rose again because he never actually died. And John's like, I was there. We saw that last week.
He stood near the cross. John saw it. The beloved disciple, he witnessed the whole thing. He saw the reason why it's written down is because John saw it. He said it is finished. He yielded up his spirit and he died.
And John's like, I've seen it. I've even seen it. They took a spear and they went through his side all the way to his heart. He was man and he died. You are liars. And that's what he argues in a lot of his letters.
John. So that's the first thing is, why is that important, right? Why is it important that Jesus is not only a spirit? Why is it important that he's also man as much as he is God or divine? And I've talked about this before.
But Jesus truly represented humanity on that cross. It was necessary for Jesus to become incarnate, to be born of the Virgin Mary, that he would be man or human, just like you and me. In every way that you are human, Jesus assumed that.
He took on that. And when you think about it, the blood of bulls and goats and sheep, they don't represent us. They're not human. They're just animals. But Jesus became our complete representative. And he was only able to withstand the cross because he's equally divine.
You see, a regular man, even if he lived a holy life, couldn't die on the cross for a multitude of people. Jesus is both. It's not an either-or situation. And so that's the first thing to consider. The second thing with the blood and water to consider is that these might symbolize something.
And that's why John really wanted to talk about them as well. Because when you think about blood, what do you think about? You think about, in the Bible, you think about sacrifice, offering, sacrifice, blood, Passover.
And that's what came out of Jesus. Then the other thing you think about is the water. What does the water symbolize in Scripture? Often, water symbolizes cleansing. You have John chapter 3, when Nicodemus came to him, and Nicodemus said, how can I enter the kingdom of God?
And Jesus said, you must be born of water and spirit. And we talked about how that wasn't, as some have theorized, that water meant a natural birth and spirit was a regenerate birth. I told you, rewatch it if you have to.
In John 3, the water and the spirit are coordinated together. Those both point to regeneration. And so that's what we see with the water coming out, blood coming out because he was our sacrifice, water because we were cleansed.
And we see that especially in Ezekiel 36. It says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. So there is the promise of the new covenant, that water and cleansing and the spirit will come.
And so that's what we see here, especially with the blood. When you think about Leviticus chapter 17, Leviticus 17, 11 says, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.
For it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. Jesus's blood makes atonement. Jesus's water or spiritual water is what cleanses. One removes our sin, one cleanses us from it. That's what we see in the image of the blood and the water, okay?
You see, blessings of eternal life flow from the sacrificial and redemptive death in Jesus. And think about that. Think about the way it comes out. Blood and water come forth from Jesus. How does it come to you?
It comes forth from Jesus. That's what we see.
It's given.
It comes out. It comes from him. And the great hymn highlights this well. Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Then it says, Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.
And that's not a separate line there. The hymn writer is saying, that wounded side from where blood and water flowed, let that be the place where that be the double cure for my sin. Save me from wrath and make me pure.
And that's what the author or the writer of that hymn talks about there. The wounded side of Jesus. Verse 35. And he who has testified, he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth so that you also may believe.
John's saying, I was there. I saw all of this. He was the disciple whom Jesus loved, standing near the four mourning women at the cross. In chapter one, John said, we saw his glory. Glory as of the one and only Son of God of the Father.
Nowhere else is the glory of the Son seen as high as it is here in this brutal and shameful cross. Do you get that? What humiliates Jesus is what equally glorifies Jesus. This cross. John reveals why he recorded this 2000 years ago.
He says, I've seen it. He says, I'm telling you the truth so that you may believe. That's the word, so that you may believe. You've got to believe that this is real. You've got to believe that this is not just about historical accuracy, although that's true.
John doesn't simply want you to believe that this is a record, a moment in time that really happened. That's true. He wants that for you. But he's also got a theology that he's developed for 19 chapters for you to look at this and go, God has performed the unthinkable for humanity.
He'll say this again in another way in chapter 21. After the resurrection, he says, I've seen it. I saw the blood and water came out. I saw the promise. I saw Jesus risen. He says, I've seen it, and I wrote this down so that you may believe.
This is something John was eyewitness to. And this is our only hope. This is our only hope. That's why he writes it. And as we finish up block one, go to verses 36 and 37. Block one is almost over. For these things came to pass to fulfill the scripture.
Not a bone of him shall be broken. And again, another scripture says they shall look on him whom they pierced. So what is chiefly in mind here with this quotation of scripture is Exodus 1246. It's in your list.
Exodus 1246 and numbers 912, which indicate what? That no bone of the Passover lamb may be fragmented. God commanded that. God commanded that the Passover lamb stay intact and remain unbroken. You see, thousands of years before this in Egypt, before they made their Exodus, God commanded when you get the Passover lamb and you slaughter it and you take its blood and you put it on the doorpost that the destroyer, the angel of death will pass over you when you are to take that lamb and you are to not break it.
You may not break a single bone. And so John records this moment that when they came up with the iron mallet about to break his knees, they looked and saw he was dead. Not a bone of him shall be broken.
Paul tells the Corinthians that Christ is our Passover. Peter says that he is the spotless lamb given for his perfect blood. Jesus was never broken. His bones were never broken. Psalm 3420 says he keeps all his bones.
Not one of them is broken. And so all this shows Jesus really performed what he said he would. He actually did what he said he would. And not only that, this shows that the father had care for the son and even for his dead body after the atonement was complete.
And John finishes right here with Zechariah 1210, a wonderful messianic prophecy. It says in Zechariah 1210, I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look on me whom they have pierced.
You see that? This is God speaking. And God says, I will, I will pour out the spirit of grace and supplication and they will look on me whom they have pierced.
Wow.
You see, the subject of Zechariah 12 was the Lord, the one true God. And the one true God says, I will pour out a spirit of grace and they will look on me whom they have pierced. What does that say about Jesus?
It's remarkable. So that was block one. Now block two, the burial of Christ verses 38 through 42. Look at 38. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate granted permission.
So he came and took away his body. So what do you know about Joseph of Arimathea? He was a rich man, right? We all pretty much know that. He was a rich man. Joseph is spoken about in all four gospels in this moment, Joseph of Arimathea.
And he is known as the one who took the Lord's body off the cross and gave him his tomb. In fact, the Bible doesn't exactly indicate it was his own tomb in each gospel, but we believe it was his tomb that he purchased.
And Joseph of Arimathea was likely a member of the Sanhedrin, that group that literally just condemned Jesus to death. Something that not all of them got to participate in. If you remember, the Sanhedrin were called in the middle of night and not all of them were able to be there.
And in fact, it's recorded that some of them were like, this is a breach of justice. Some of them even cried out, but the majority of them, including the chief priest, are like, shut up, be quiet. And so Joseph of Arimathea was part of that.
He was high up in Jewish society, okay? In Mark chapter 15, it says that Joseph of Arimathea was waiting for the kingdom of God. He was waiting. He is considered a disciple of Christ, but John tells us that he was a secret one for fear of the Jews.
Now you might think, how is that possible? When Jesus says that those who deny me, I will deny before my father in heaven. Or what about the moments that we even saw in John, where Jesus condemned the Jewish leaders for desiring the approval of man over God's approval.
And you'd be right to think that way. You're not wrong. Wait, what? A disciple of Jesus, but secret? For he feared the Jews more? Well, honestly, we often move right past this real quickly, but this was Joseph's moment of redemption.
This is where Joseph of Arimathea came out. This is where he was honest. This is where he was saved. You see, everyone, and I mean everyone in this city, would have heard that Joseph of Arimathea asked for Jesus's body.
Everyone, Jews and Gentiles. And so he asked Pilate for Jesus's body, and he gave Jesus the best garden tomb. Typically, as I told you, those accused of sedition would sit on the cross, and the vultures would come after they die and pick apart their body.
But here, that's not the case. They wanted Jesus down off the cross. And even so, the Jews would not want criminals to be buried with their families. They would say that the burial of the families was more sacred, and they wanted the burial of criminals to be outside the city.
Okay, so they wouldn't desecrate the other graves. And when you think about it, Jesus's brothers aren't coming for him. Jesus is hanging there, his body is dead, his head down. And his mother, and Salome, and Mary, Mary Magdalene, they're all there, and they're weeping, and John's looking, and then all of a sudden, a Jewish leader says, break their legs, and Mary's looking for her other sons.
Like, we should ask for his body, that it not be desecrated. And Jesus's brothers aren't coming, his family isn't coming, because they don't want to be associated with what Jesus was accused of. Okay, so who do you have come up?
You have a man that everyone knows, a high figure in society, Joseph of Arimathea, and he goes to Pilate, and he uses that power, he uses that influence. He says, I'd like to take Jesus's body. I'd like to take him off the cross.
He pulls rank. And in doing so, again, we pass over this so quickly, right? Joseph of Arimathea came out of hiding. He was no longer a secret disciple. He redeems himself. You see, asking Pilate for the body of a criminal who was accused of sedition, then puts Joseph of Arimathea in a place where it's like, well, maybe he's also a rebel too.
What Joseph did, asking for his body, would have put him at risk as well. And so, at least in this moment, the lesson for us is, it doesn't matter if you've feared man before. It doesn't matter today if you've hid yourself before, and you've acted like you don't know Jesus.
What matters is what you do now. It's what you do today. It's what you do tomorrow. So, Joseph of Arimathea shows us that we can confess today and repent, and that our words and our actions will follow and show that Jesus matters most.
Show that Jesus matters most. Follow Joseph of Arimathea. Then we have another man. Pilate gave Joseph Jesus's body. Verse 39, another prominent man comes in. Nicodemus, verse 39, who had first come to him by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight.
Now, out of all the four gospel writers, John is the only one who mentions Nicodemus at the burial of Jesus. If you remember chapter three, Nicodemus was a, quote, teacher of Israel. He was also likely a member of the Sanhedrin, like Joseph of Arimathea.
And in John chapter three, he came to Jesus by darkness of night. And he questioned the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus said, you must be born again. And we've seen Nicodemus one other time stand up for Jesus.
I think it was chapter seven. And so we've been talking about every time we've seen Nicodemus, it's like, oh, I hope this is a brother. And you guys, I'm happy to report to you that I believe this shows Nicodemus is our brother.
Absolutely. Nicodemus doesn't come by night. He doesn't come when no one can see him. You have here two rich men, two powerful men by the world's standards, who they themselves have determined that they are actually spiritually bankrupt.
They said, there's nothing inside of me. This man on that cross in the middle has what I need. And that's what Joseph and Nicodemus have understood. And so they want to be spiritually rich in Christ. That's what they want now.
And so they use their power. They use their influence. They get the Lord's body off the cross. Then Nicodemus uses his money. And he gives Jesus a kingly burial with aloes, myrrh, and spices. And this is not turning out to be a criminal's burial.
Not at all. Not at all.
And so we saw Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, had anointed Jesus with spikenard perfume. Do you remember that when I brought the spikenard? And we were all smelling what that was like. And everyone had different takes on what it was.
Some loved it. Some didn't. And we smelled the spikenard that would have been given to Lazarus.
I'm sorry.
That was a separate story when she anointed Jesus's feet with the spikenard. And we talked about that that was likely her inheritance. That was likely Mary's inheritance. That was that spikenard, that alabaster vial would have been worth one whole year's salary.
And that was just one pound. It was just one pound.
What was a hundred pounds of all this worth except for 100 years of work? This is a lifetime of money that Nicodemus is spending. Jesus once said that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
But then he says, with man, it's impossible. With God, all things are possible. And I think we're seeing the possible right here. We're seeing what seemed impossible become possible with Nicodemus. He spent a hundred years worth of salary for Jesus's burial.
I mean, this stuff is going in the grave. No one's going to smell it through the tomb door. But Nicodemus gave him a kingly burial. He spent everything, a hundred pounds of this stuff. And so when faced with power and money and influence or Jesus on the other side, and not even a resurrected Jesus yet, these men choose Jesus Christ.
I don't know about you. I can't wait to see Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for that. Can't wait to see these brothers. Verse 40. So they took the body of Jesus and they bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, the myrrh, the aloes, as is the custom of the Jews.
So they laid out the linen cloth, clean linen cloth, and they would have taken these aloes and the myrrh and the spices, and they would have prepared them. They would have rubbed it all over. In fact, I wanted you to, you know me, I just love when you guys get to check this stuff out from Israel and different places.
Myrrh was made from the gum resin of a specific tree. And it's very fragrant. This was often the smell of death. People would, at least for those who had money. And so I want you to smell this. This is raw myrrh, gum resin from a tree.
And this is, it smells amazing. This is what would have been rubbed all over Jesus's body through the linen wrapping. So I'll put that down here at the end. You should smell this myrrh. But that's what they would have done.
And then at that point, when they rubbed it all over the wrappings, they would have taken his body, and they would have put these wrappings around Jesus very tightly, very tightly around his body.
Verses 41 and 42. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
So he's at this garden tomb. They've prepared the wrappings with myrrh and aloes and spices. It's smelling incredible. And they wrapped his body tightly, and they laid him in this new tomb in a garden.
I have more to say on the significance of a garden, but I'm going to wait till next week. Well, actually, next week is when the elders from Arizona are coming out. I think Pastor Jeff Durbin is going to preach, and we're going to lay hands on Andrew to become a pastor.
So that's next weekend, by the way. It's going to be wonderful. But two weeks from now, we'll go over the fact that Jesus appears, and he's mistaken as a gardener, right? We're going to go over that later on.
We'll talk about that. But this new tomb had no one else in it. There were no other bodies in this tomb. No one would assume, like, because there were additional bodies, maybe his body is still there, and they just marred it or something like that.
There was no mistaking it. Jesus was the only one in this tomb. The only one, and the stone door was rolled over. He was the only occupant. And when you think about it, when you think about death and burial for the last thousands of years, this is the first and only tomb where its occupant was only in it for three days, never to go back in it.
The only one. Every other tomb, every other casket stays filled forever, but this is the only one that only had its occupant in it for a few days. So anyways, Jesus is laid there in this garden tomb, a new tomb in which no one has ever laid.
He's alone. He's laid there, and the fragrance is filling this place, aromas that are fit for a king, very kingly. So we've gone over the first block of texts with the piercing of Jesus's side, the blood and water coming out.
We've gone over just now the second block of texts, which is the burial of Jesus, and then even what was amazing was the transformation of Joseph and Nicodemus. And now finally, we come to our last block of today, church, our third block to wrap up this morning, okay?
So Jesus had cried out, it is finished on the cross, but as I said in my introduction, that finished context was absorbing and satisfying the wrath of God for sinners. The story isn't over yet. It's not over yet.
And so we've seen Jesus fulfilling scripture in his birth. We've seen Jesus fulfilling scripture in his life and in his ministry. We've seen him fulfilling it in his crucifixion. And then we even saw scripture that was fulfilled even in his burial and death, not a leg was broken.
So Jesus has fulfilled scriptures, and now we are at the climax of God's plans for humanity, okay? This is where we see the realization of all revelation, right here. This is the capstone of Jesus's promises.
It holds it all together. Nothing else matters if this didn't happen. You heard Eric read it in 1 Corinthians 15. If Jesus didn't rise, then what we're believing is in vain. It wouldn't matter. This is crucial.
In chapter 2, at the first cleansing of the temple, the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us as to your authority for doing these things? This is when he overturned the money changers tables. He cleansed the temples.
He drove out the animals. And Jesus answered them, what sign do I do? I'll destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And John told us what? That he was speaking of his own body. And they mocked him and they're like, this temple took this long to build.
You think you're going to destroy it and raise it up in three days? Sure, buddy. And he was speaking of his own body. Of all the signs that Jesus gave, this is the greatest. Of all the signs that Jesus gave, this is the greatest.
The one who is the light and life of all men. The uncreated creator by which not anything was made apart from him making it. He possesses incredible power. Power that we can't quantify or calculate. Power that creates and power that recreates.
Genesis and re-genesis, new genesis. And maybe that's why if you've ever looked at this, if you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, if you go to the resurrection chapter for each of the gospels, the gospel writers don't start out saying, and on the third day, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I'm telling you, all four gospel writers start out, and on the first day of the week. And that's interesting. And I think what they all, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were trying to demonstrate there was that something new has begun.
On the first day of the week, something new has happened. This is a new beginning. Verse one, now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.
So it's Sunday. It's the first day of the week. It's still dark, but the darkness was slowly retreating. Light was coming. Matthew chapter 28, verse one says it was dawn. Mark 16 says the sun had started to rise.
Luke chapter 24 says early dawn. Some of you might have seen I was doing some research and I was expressing the research online in social media. And I was talking about the word Easter. Where did the word Easter come from?
When I got saved over 12 years ago, for some reason I never wanted to use the word Easter. Happy Easter. I would say happy resurrection, happy resurrection Sunday because I just didn't understand that word's not in the Bible.
Where did that word come from? And so recently I decided to do some investigation. Where does Easter come from? And so I did some digging and you have these moments in all four of the gospels where it talks about dawn, early dawn, light rising, all those things.
And so you have to ask yourself, where does the light rise? It rises in the East. And so specifically in Latin and in German, Easter, which is an English word, means dawn or light rising from the East.
And that makes sense, right? Easter, that would be the sun rising in the East. And so this word Easter in the English has nothing to do with the Babylonian Ishtar, which was, it's laughable that people even say Ishtar because that was thousands of years before that English was even made.
And then it was also on different continents completely. And so that has no connection. And then it only sounds similar to people, people are like Ishtar Easter, but it's completely different in so many ways.
And there is only one reference to the pagan Aoster as Easter by a man named Saint Bede, only one, only one. So you have all these guys with these YouTube videos and you have all these Jehovah's Witness fueled articles online that it's like the word Easter or even celebrating today in any special way is pagan.
That's not true. It's not true in any way. It simply means light from the East. And that's how every resurrection account starts, light from the East. And it's much like, you ever heard people use the word passion for Jesus's crucifixion?
No, it's passion week or Jesus's passion on the cross. That word also is not in the Bible, but we see that it's a good word to characterize all that Jesus went through, Jesus's passion. And in the same way, that's a word Easter that we can freely use.
And that surprised me. And I was glad because I was always that weirdo and people were like, happy Easter. Wait, I'm like, happy resurrection Sunday. You know, I'm more holy than you, you know. But now I'll tell you guys freely, happy Easter.
Praise the Lord. Okay, a little information for you there. All right, I thought you might be interested in that. So anyhow, no pagan connections that we really know of. When you think about it, this is the best sunrise that has ever occurred since God said, let there be light.
This is the best sunrise that has ever occurred since God said, let there be light. And as the sun rose in the East, the sun rose out of the grave. That's what happened. And so we see Mary Magdalene come early to Jesus's tomb and the stone door was rolled away from the cave, verse two.
So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. One historian states that robbing graves was a crime sufficiently common that the emperor Claudius eventually ordered capital punishment.
You would be put to death if you were to rob a grave. If you were to destroy a tomb, rob a grave, desecrate the bodies or even seek to remove the seal over the grave, you could be put to death. And so Mary Magdalene comes here.
She sees the stone door rolled away and she assumes the worse. She concludes that something nefarious has happened to Jesus, okay? She suspects that a group has taken away the Lord out of his tomb and his whereabouts are unknown.
We don't know where they've taken him. Simon, Peter, where have they taken him? And she relays that to them, Peter and John. John had likely filled Peter in on the events that he saw, the eyewitness that he saw.
He came to Peter. Peter was weeping from betraying Jesus. Peter was weeping bitterly in the city of Jerusalem and John finally saw that Jesus died on the cross and Joseph of Arimathea tended to his body and everyone helped rub the spices and aloes and myrrh and they put the cloth around Jesus and they laid him and they put the stone door over the tomb and John saw it all and John went back to find where they were staying and he saw Peter, his eyes still red, still weeping bitterly and Peter recalls all that had happened.
I'm sorry, John recalls to Peter all that had happened and so now they've been waiting and it's been Saturday has gone by. Boy, that was a terrible Saturday for these men and these women, terrible Saturday.
Horrific to consider that this was the Messiah but then Sunday rolls around, Mary comes to the tomb. She runs, she runs back into the city, into Jerusalem. She comes to the house where the apostles were and tells John and Peter and Peter's like, what?
And maybe Peter's like, how dare they touch his body? That's our Lord, that's our rabbi. How dare they? And so all that they can think to do is John and Peter start running. They start running to the garden where the grave, the garden tomb was and they run out, okay.
Verses three through five, so Peter and the other disciple went forth and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together. The other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there but he did not go in, that's John.
We often, we laugh about this moment. John records that they were running together then at some point, John outruns him. He runs faster, he records, he gets to the tomb first and some have wrongly posited that since John is the disciple whom Jesus loved, John ran faster because he loved Jesus.
No, that's not the truth, that's not what it is. You wanna know why John ran faster than Peter? Because we know, what we believe is Peter was older, John was much younger, okay. There's not something where John's trying to show that he's better than Peter or he loved Jesus more.
We're talking like, you know, if me and Andrew started running somewhere, I'd probably be where Peter is, I'm just gonna be honest with you. Andrew would take those Gumby legs and he'd just like, he'd go for it, you know, and be like, wait, you know.
And so that's the explanation, there's nothing beyond that, okay. He would have never, John would have never wanted to communicate his devotion as more, never. We would think wrongly of John if we thought that.
So he's simply relaying the eyewitness account and notice that John specifically says the word together, don't forget that part. People say, look, he ran faster, he got there faster. John says, we ran together, together is the word.
And so here they go out, they wanna see with their own eyes, John gets there first and he gets to the door and he's blown away and he doesn't go in, he simply, he comes down and he looks in and he stoops a little bit and he sees the linen wrappings, he can't see very well, it's dark in there.
The light's just starting to come, the dawn is rising and so he sees those Friday wrappings and they're there where Jesus used to lay. He likely saw it, he saw exactly where Jesus's body was laid and they're perfectly there where Jesus was laid.
Okay, go to verses six and seven, hang on with me, we're almost through. And so Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.
So Peter finally catches up, he's breathing hard, he puts his hand on the stone, they're in the garden grave, this garden tomb and they come up to the hole and just like Peter, Peter rushes into everything, John's like, well, I don't know if I wanna go in there and Peter's like, no, I'm going in there and it says he goes straight in.
Peter wants to investigate, where's my Lord? Because as much as Peter has made many mistakes, he loves Jesus. So Peter runs in there and he sees these things, he saw the linen wrappings and now at this new angle, he's right in front of them, he sees in this new angle that they're piled there neatly.
Even the facial cloth that was on Jesus was rolled up in place separate from the rest, okay? So why is this significant? Let me mention a few things, okay? First, as I said, grave linens were wrapped so tightly around Jesus's body along with the aloes and the spices and the myrrh and those things would have stuck to his body, they would have stuck to him and in that moment, they would have gone in and if someone, as Mary said, someone took his body, we don't know where it is, if someone really took his body, they would have seen those wrappings ripped apart, okay?
There's no way to get them off neatly like that. And the fact is too, if grave robbers came to take Jesus's body, why would they leave the wrap, let's take the wrappings off first, you know, they would want to keep him wrapped, they want to keep his body contained so if someone came to steal Jesus's body, they're not like, let's remove the wrappings, they would have kept them on and so immediately, and this is why John doesn't mention it, they don't think someone stole his body, that's what the silence is here, that's what the astonishment is here, it's like they don't think anyone stole his body, they're seeing something else happen, something they never thought possible, stories that they've heard of old but in a new way and in a different way, okay?
This also greatly contrasts the account of Lazarus rising from the dead in chapter 11, do you remember? When Jesus rose Lazarus from the grave and told him, Lazarus, come forth, what happened? A man, it says, was bound head to foot in grave wrappings and he like hobbled out and Jesus even has to order several people, he speaks in the plural and he says, go, unbind him and let him go, Lazarus is so bound up, he can't even barely move, he's hobbling out so you think about the contrast here that Jesus's grave clothes, his linen wrappings along with the myrrh and the spices and the aloes, they're perfect, they're perfect, they're lying there in that garden tomb, okay?
And so Jesus didn't rise from the dead, if you've been picturing this in your mind, Jesus didn't rise from the dead in the wrappings and like somehow like with power, like break an arm out and unwrap himself, that's not what happened, that's not what happened, okay?
Later, we're gonna see in verses 19 and 26 that Jesus simply appears in a room without entering through doors or windows, we're gonna see in chapter 20 verses 19 and 26, it says that all of a sudden Jesus wasn't in a room then it says he appears in their midst, just boom, there, appears suddenly and so think about that in your mind, that's similar to what's happening here, it's not that he walks through walls, although he probably can walk through walls, it's that Jesus appears wherever he desires and so the image that we are to have right here with the perfect linen wrappings and the facial cloth rolled to the side, this is the image we have along with verses 19 and 26 where he suddenly appears somewhere as this, Jesus's body was there, it was wrapped tightly and he was bound and he was dead and when Jesus resurrected, he came through with perfection through the wrappings, he suddenly appeared, it's that image where he didn't have to rip anything open there was no struggle, Jesus rose again through the wrappings and they, you could just imagine, they just kind of fell where they were, perfect, he rose again, that's the details, everything was perfect.
John says, he doesn't even need to touch what was associated with his death, he doesn't need to touch that, he's so far from death now, he's alive, he's alive, he has risen, in his power he even had the facial cloth rolled up on its own, he doesn't need to touch it, Lazarus couldn't unbind himself but nothing holds Jesus back in the grave and lastly one symbol that we may find in this in the facial cloth which in the Hebrew can also mean the word veil, facial veil and when you think about that, you think about Moses, do you remember?
Moses had been exposed to the Shekinah glory of God and his face was shining, you remember that account? Moses's face was shining and the people were like, oh my goodness, there's so much holiness and glory shining off of your face, will you put a veil over?
And so Moses when he got to see God, which we understand to be the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, a theophany, when he got to see that Shekinah glory, his face was shining and he wore a veil but with Jesus Christ you're going to get to see the glory of God, the veil is gone, the veil's rolled up, you're going to get to see God's glory, Jesus is the better Moses, he's God incarnate, we're going to get to see the face of our God, for all eternity the glory of God is not off limits to us, we have full access to God, well it's possible at this point Peter relays what he sees to John, John's still standing outside of the tomb and Peter's like, John come in here, come in here, and they see it perfect, John finally he finds the courage to come in, he steps in, he loved Jesus, he doesn't want to see Jesus's body desecrated and he's relieved, he's risen, everything was perfect, Jesus's body wasn't stolen, verse 8, so the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and he believed, the master is gone, the one whom they loved,.
The rabbi who taught them,.
The messiah who worked greater miracles than that of the stories of old, who could manipulate nature, who could multiply fish and bread, who could part waters and make a storm calm, make the sea and the waves that are crashing around him still, he even rose people from the dead, their lord who died on a cross, multiple witnesses, credible ones say this, he was even pierced deeply by a spear gushing blood and water, in other words Jesus died, the one whom they loved was dead, but now something happened and Jesus told them this would happen.
Church, he said in multiple areas, in multiple places that he would rise again on the third day, he told them what to expect and John, this is amazing, John simply sees the linen wrappings and he, it says here he believed,.
He believed,.
You see most of the disciples will believe only when they finally see Jesus alive, walking in the flesh, but John has some level of belief at the empty tomb, later on Jesus will say, blessed are those who believe and don't see, blessed are those who believe and don't see, that's you and I, we have a different record, and so we aren't given anything as to what Peter believed, what did Peter think in this moment, John says he saw and he believed, Peter seeing inside the tomb in another gospel, it says he simply wondered, Peter wondered what happened, however, whatever level of belief either of them had, John confesses in verse 9, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead, John's like I had a level of belief, but even I in that moment didn't understand that according to the scriptures he had to rise again, and it says here that he must rise again, this was non-negotiable, he must rise again from the dead, you know what this shows us too, that with the Holy Spirit scripture alone is sufficient to believe in this account of Jesus Christ and his resurrection, we can have faith in this even though we are only reading of the eyewitnesses and their accounts, word of God tells us to believe on this, and that will happen to all disciples, all of the disciples will see and they'll believe, verse 10, our last verse, so the disciples went away again to their own homes, and so the crucifixion was dramatic, the burial was kingly, and the resurrection was powerful, but here are the followers of Christ closest to him, and they're making their way back to their own homes, Jesus predicted this in chapter 16, all of you will be scattered each to your own home, so church as I conclude,.
What does this all mean?
We're almost done here, this is my conclusion, this is the answer to our questions from the very beginning, the crucifixion of the son of God was the atonement of sin, it was the appeasing of God's wrath, he was our substitute, he was in our place taking the punishment for sin, that's all those things, he's all those things, and in doing so, he promised us eternal life along the way, but what use are those promises if death can overtake the one who gave the promises?
What use are the promises if death can overtake him, and that's the thing, the eyewitnesses of that day, and the word of God in your hands, and even I appear testifying to you today, I tell you as all these tell you, Jesus is alive today, Jesus is alive, he is risen, and he lives forever more, the apostle tells the Corinthians, death is swallowed up in victory, oh death, where is your victory?
Oh grave,.
Where is your sting? Death doesn't hurt us anymore, the wages of sin was death, death became yours and I's biggest enemy, but Christ conquered death, we had every reason to believe Jesus before, I'm not saying we didn't, we had every reason, Jesus had every authority to lay out the truth, and we should believe him, but now even more so, he has risen, and you see he doesn't simply have the power to raise others while alive, we saw that already, there are three people in the gospels who are raised from the dead by Jesus when he is alive, but this is the first time in all of history, and it's the only time that it has ever happened where a dead man rose himself, that's the kind of power that Jesus has, the resurrection is the guarantee that we have eternal life, I'll say that again, the resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee that we will have eternal life, that he will raise us up on the last day, that when this old body dies, we will continue to live, and we'll be in heaven with God, what can keep us from God?
Will death or life or principalities or angels, or life or death, things present, things to come, height or depth, nothing will be able to separate us from God, nothing, not a thing, not even death can keep you from Jesus, because Christ died and lives forevermore, you will live forevermore, every promise of Christ culminates here, he says, I will never lose you, I'll never let anyone snatch you out of my hands, and I'll never let you perish, he said that in John 10, you remember John 11?
He told Martha, I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even if he dies, I'm the resurrection and the life, he will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die, you see, Christ's ability to raise you again is so sure, it's so powerful, it's so strong, that he can phrase this in such a way that you'll never die, it's like he's not trying to deny the fact that this body will die, but his ability to take you home with him, to raise you again is so strong, he can act like as if and say, you'll never die, it's gonna be a fleeting moment, is death the biggest thing you've ever been afraid of?
Well, now in Christ, it doesn't need to be, it's the smallest thing in your life now because of Christ, death is a passageway now in your life, because of what Christ has done, his own resurrection proves he can keep his promises, you see, the dark day at Calvary dawned at the first light of an empty tomb, and Peter calls this moment our living hope because he is the living savior, and so I want you to think about just a few more things in regards to this, first, our Lord's resurrection is the seal of authenticity and power, in Romans 1 ,4 Paul says Jesus Christ was our Lord, our Lord was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead, Jesus rising again declared his divine sonship, this proves he is who he is, and since God cannot lie and he will never break a promise, all this will come to pass, and the resurrection shows that his earthly ministry was a success, okay, if he stayed dead, we may doubt, but now we never need doubt that he has the power to raise us, the second thing is this, the second thing about the resurrection is that although Jesus took all our sin upon him, and the wrath due for us was poured out on him, and he died, the punishment doesn't remain on him in perpetuity, this has been questioned before, is Jesus still being punished for you right now?
Is Jesus in torment for you right now? No, the resurrection shows that that was completed, well, Pastor Wade, what if I commit a sin tonight? What if I commit a sin tomorrow? Will Jesus need to be repunished for me?
No, it was efficacious that day, the resurrection shows that he swallowed up all of our sin and death in victory in the resurrection, he doesn't need to be punished again, he rose to life in perfect righteousness, that we will rise to life in that imputed righteousness, thirdly, because Christ rose again, we rise again spiritually now, we have become regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we are born again, you see, you aren't just waiting a new life later, because Jesus lives, we live a new life now, we are new creatures in Christ, the old has passed away, the new has come, it says that we've been buried with him in his death, and we've been raised with him in his life, and the fact is, Paul says, you can now walk in the newness of life, it's the now and not yet principle, you say, I can't wait for the resurrection, and it's like practice for it then, go on, what you're going to get to do there, you can start practicing now, you can enjoy that righteousness now, and lastly, Christ's resurrection is a comfort to us, the Bible says he's the first fruits from the dead, we will go in like manner, and he will raise us, and this is our consolation, first Thessalonians 4 says, so we shall always be with the Lord after that, we need never believe that we will remain in blackness, you're not going to blackness, you're not going to darkness, you're not going to remain alone, when you lie into the grave, you're not alone, because the grave is not your home, the casket is not our residence, the worms are not my companions, decay is not our clothing, and so it's my prayer today, that if you do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, you will not simply return home after hearing all this, as if things are normal, just like the unsuspecting disciples, it says that they went to their homes, don't just go home after hearing this, believe on it, have faith on it, Christ rose again, he really did what he said he did, what he said he would do through that, and for those of us who have believed in Christ, how could we ever despair, how could we remain in discontentment, how could we as believers, act like our death will be so horrible, when Christ minimizes them so much, why do we need to be afraid anymore?
You don't, you really don't, Paul was able to say as he faced down the end of his life, he said, I can either live on, to live as Christ, to live for Christ, and then he was able to say, to die is gain, but it's beneficial, and I would say that that's not just like a super apostle power, that's something that you and I can have, to die will be gain, to die will be gain, so may God give you an incredible sense of that power of Jesus's resurrection today church, he is risen, praise the Lord, let's pray, Heavenly Father, thank you today for your word, thank you God that we even see outside, the sun came out, how providential Lord, that as we talked about the sun rising, it's your son, that big star in the sky is shining even now, what a testimony that Jesus rose again, Lord, we thank you for this, we thank you that Jesus was able to show us, that he's able to do all that he said he would do, by his own resurrection, that this guarantees our rising again, that because Jesus lives forevermore, and he loves us, he won't let us stay in the grave, so Lord, that is our biggest comfort, and let that be our biggest comfort, as we face death, and loved ones around us face it Lord, and God let it be the thing, that makes it all the more urgent, to get the truth out, that people would believe on this, and receive this, and so Lord, we thank you for this day, we thank you God, that after this over year and a half, in the gospel of John, we were brought to this moment, the pinnacle of the gospel Lord, we thank you for all that you've done, and all that you've taught us, and all that you will continue to, let us never lose the wonder of the resurrection, and when we give the gospel, and put it on our lips, let us mention the resurrection, just as we much as we mentioned the cross, we love you Lord, we praise you, you are alive today, in your name we pray,.
