Classic Monday: Joy And The Resurrection - [Luke 24]

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Pastor Mike preaches Joy And The Resurrection - [Luke 24]

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Well, I love Resurrection Sundays, this one and the other 51 of them,
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I'm sure with you as we celebrate the Lord's Resurrection every Sunday, but particularly this Sunday.
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I'm sure if you boil down religions into two religions, take every religion in the world and boil them down, you'd probably find the religion of naturalism and the religion of supernaturalism.
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You could probably put everything into those two categories. I mean, you could probably say divine accomplishment is one category and human achievement is another.
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But I also want you to think that Christianity is a religion of supernaturalism. Supernatural things happen.
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They don't happen very often, and so we're going to look at a passage today in the Bible that helps us prepare for the most supernatural event in all the world.
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And that is the Lord Jesus, after he bore the sins of all those who would believe, rose himself from the dead.
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And again, since it's not something that's so normal for all of us, supernatural things, the writer that we're going to look at today has kind of greased the skids a little bit for us, has set it up so we would say to ourselves, this is obvious.
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We see so many things happening, the resurrection is obvious. So I'd like you to take your
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Bibles today and turn to Matthew, the Gospel of Jesus according to Matthew, chapter 27, and our outline is super simple.
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We're going to look at five events surrounding the death of Jesus that are all supernatural.
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Five supernatural occurrences that help you, that pave the way for you to easily understand the resurrection had to be.
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So we'll see the final resurrection as the supernatural event of all time, but there are going to be five other supernatural things around the death of Christ that you'll say, that is amazing.
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And so we're going to look at Matthew chapter 27 as the culmination of everything, the event of all events with chapter 28.
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My desire for you today, my prayer for you today is that you would say, I have a wonderful Savior.
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He's not just the Savior, but He's my Savior. He's not just the Lord, but He's my
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Lord. That you would say with Martin Luther, learn to sing to Jesus and say, Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness,
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I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what
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I was not. And so if you're a Christian, I want to strengthen your faith as we learn about the
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Lord Jesus. If you're not a Christian, I want you to see who Jesus is, what He's done, and that you might respond with saving faith and belief.
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Before we get into these five supernatural signs that lead to the final supernatural sign, the resurrection,
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I want to just walk us through Matthew 27. I won't read every verse, but many of the verses, so you can get the context.
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Because really the death and the resurrection of Jesus go together. Jesus is dying for sinners, and He's vindicated by the resurrection.
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We see that the it is finished of Jesus is given the, as John would say, the amen of the
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Father. They're tied together. You have one, and then you have the other. And so if you turn to Matthew 27, in this gospel that records
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Jesus as King, remember every gospel has a different slant. This one, Jesus as King.
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You see flashes of His priesthood. You see occurrences of His prophetic office.
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But this is Jesus the King. From anywhere, from His genealogy, to treachery, with Herod trying to take over Jesus the
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King, to the credentials of the King in chapters 8 and 9, etc. This is about Jesus the King.
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And in chapter 27, it starts off with Jesus being delivered to Pilate.
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Remember, they wanted to put Him to death, chapter 27, verse 1.
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So they delivered Him to Pilate, the governor. Right after that, Judas hangs himself.
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In verse 11, now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked Him, Are You the
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King of the Jews? Jesus said, You have said so. But when He was accused by the chief priests and the elders,
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He gave no answer. Then Pilate said to Him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against You?
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But He gave Him no answer, not even a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
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And then, of course, you know the next section, you have a man named Barabbas. And there's a custom around that time of year that the governor,
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Pilate, would release someone. Who do you want me to release? And I think Pilate first thought, it's not going to be
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Barabbas, this vigilante, this murderer, this bad guy, and by the way, Barabbas bar
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Abba means son of the Father. Which son of the Father do you want me to give freely?
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Barabbas or Jesus? And, of course, we know what happened. Verse 21 of the same chapter, the governor said to them,
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Again, which of the two do you want me to release to you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them,
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Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said,
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Let Him be crucified. Why? What evil has this done? But they shouted all the more, Let Him be crucified.
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And so, Pilate tries to wash his hands, and it says in verse 26, He's delivered, that is
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Jesus, to be crucified. They scourge Him, and they deliver Him over to be crucified.
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And, of course, on the way, the mockings, and the beatings, and the pummelings, and the spitting, and the striking, and the stripping of the clothes.
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And at the end of verse 31, they led Him away to crucify Him. I mean, instead of hail
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Emperor Caesar, here we have phony Messiah. What do you get when you cross a phony with the king, this potential
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Lord Jesus? And Mark says they just kept beating Him over, and over, and over.
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They kept kneeling down before Him, playing this game to them. Crucify this man, here's a warning for all those who don't obey
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Rome. And that's what they did, they're going to crucify Him. Verse 35, And when they had crucified
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Him, they divided His garments among them by casting lots. They sat down and kept watch over Him there.
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Nothing about medial nerves, nothing about the pain of the nails, nothing about the side getting pierced, nothing about anything here physically.
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It's like what one commentator said, incredible restraint. And they just crucified Him. They take
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His clothing, probably all the clothing, and then they put the rap sheet over His head. Probably a piece of wood with chalk, they write on that piece of wood,
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This is Jesus, King of the Jews. Behold your King. And remember, the leaders didn't like that.
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They didn't believe that, and so the Jewish leaders were saying things like, Why don't you put on there, He said He was
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King of the Jews, and remember Pilate said, What I've written, I've written. Verses 38 and following, there are two crucified with Jesus.
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They were mocking, hey, verse 40, Come down from the cross if you're the Son of God. Chief priests, scribes, elders, they mocked
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Him too, saying the exact same thing. He saved others, He can't save Himself. He's the King of Israel, let
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Him come down now from the cross and we will believe Him. And isn't that the cry of all these folks?
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Save yourself, save yourself, save yourself, but of course we know, and are we not thankful for, the
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Lord Jesus came to give Himself. He saved others, He can't save Himself.
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That's kind of an interesting thought, even right there. Could He have saved Himself? Did He have the power to do it, the authority to do it?
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Obviously, but He was sent by the Father to die. To die for all those who would ever believe.
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Verse 43, He trusts in God, let God deliver Him now. We come to the first supernatural sign.
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Five supernatural signs that will pave the way for you to say, Oh, it's obvious, so much supernatural stuff is going on.
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The resurrection is the exclamation point. I expect it. You expect something at the end of a sentence, a period, or an explanation.
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Here's the exclamation. I almost said explanation, but that would work too. The explanation exclamation.
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We're going to look at five of them, then we'll see the resurrection. The first supernatural sign, designed for you to say,
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Wow, this is amazing, God is involved, and God does supernatural things, He injects Himself into nature, is darkness of judgment.
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The darkness of judgment found in verse 45. Matthew 27, verse 45.
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Now, from the sixth hour, you started counting the hours at 6 a .m. So, 6 a .m.
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plus 6 hours, the 6 hours is noon. There was darkness all over the land until the ninth hour.
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6 a .m. plus 9 hours is 3 p .m. There's darkness. Now, Jesus is on the cross, and all of a sudden, at noon, it becomes dark.
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Now, normally it doesn't become dark, and some people, though, would say, there are explanations for this. There's a
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Sirocco. There's a dust storm. It seems to me that in the next week or two, there's going to be a lot of people watching the what?
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The eclipse. You know, I went to Home Depot, excuse me, sorry, my wife works at Lowe's. I went to Home Cheapo, I went to Lowe's, and, you know, they have the eclipse glasses there.
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But it's a trick, because they have the paper ones for $2, and they have the good ones for $20.
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I'm like, what am I going to do? Save $18 and be blinded? I'm forced to buy the expensive ones.
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You say, this is just a natural occurrence. You know, at noon, just once in a while, it becomes dark. Is that what is happening here?
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Pretty soon we're going to realize that when Jesus breathes his last, perfect timing, it becomes light again.
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Is that what's happening here? Verse 46, And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is, my
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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Think about darkness in the
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Bible. One of the best ways to interpret the Bible is to know the Bible. And all of a sudden you should be thinking,
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Oh, regularly and often, darkness is judgment. Remember back in Exodus with the plagues, the darkness and the judgment?
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How about Joel 2 .31? Regarding judgment and darkness, the sun will be turned into darkness, the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the
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Lord. Darkness and judgment. Amos 5, it's the same thing.
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For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you? It will be darkness and no light.
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Amos 8, the same thing. Darkness and judgment. I will make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in the broad daylight, declares the
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Lord. Regularly, darkness is judgment. Now, what you should be saying is, if God is judging, now, who is
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He judging? And the answer is, He's judging the Lord Jesus, not because Jesus was the sinner,
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He was perfect, obviously, but He's bearing our sins. The darkness showed
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God was judging our sin on the Lord Jesus Christ. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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It was the sentence of Pilate, crucify Him, but it was also the sentence of the Father's divine plan.
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The judgment is happening now at the cross. God is publicly displaying
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Jesus as a propitiation in His blood, Romans chapter 3. My God, my
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God, why have you forsaken me? And one of the reasons why He says that is so we might ask the question, well,
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I'm glad that Jesus was forsaken because now I might not be forsaken. This is penalty substitution.
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This is Jesus taking away the sin of the world. This is He Himself bearing our sins, 1 Peter 2.
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This is Jesus, the just for the unjust, dying, 1 Peter chapter 3.
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This is Galatians 3, having become a curse for us. Every one of your sins, dear
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Christian, was paid for by Jesus on the cross, and God was judging that sin then with darkness, and there's no double jeopardy.
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You don't pay for that sin ever again. It's been paid in full. Down in verse 50,
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Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit. Six hours on the cross and the three hours of the darkness, and Jesus yields up His Spirit.
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Now, in the epistles it says Jesus died, but you know what in the gospels it never said
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Jesus died? Like somehow it happened to Him, like, oh, He died.
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In the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, making sure that you never think
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Jesus was a prisoner of circumstances, that somehow death was inflicted upon Him, and He couldn't stop it, or He didn't allow it,
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He didn't permit it, He didn't ordain it. The text says He yielded up His Spirit.
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He's the one that had control. John chapter 10, I have the authority to lay it down, I have the authority to take it up again.
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This was all the plan of God. Did Jesus die? Yes, but the point of the passage is Jesus is in control of His death, not the centurions, not the scribes, not the
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Pharisees, not Herod. At three o 'clock, guess what was happening around town?
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At three o 'clock on that very day was the day you started slaying the Passover lambs for Passover.
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What a coincidence, what luck, what serendipitous fortune. I'm trying to think of other words that would go along with that.
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It's the providence of God, the precise time, the supernatural darkness at noon.
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It wasn't a Sirocco, it wasn't an eclipse, it was the judgment of God. Jesus paying for our sins in full.
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Do you see it? Well, not only that, number two, the second supernatural sign, because there's a whole flurry of them, five before we get to the resurrection, which is one as well, we can say six, but I want you to see that they're just one after another after another, and that it makes sense for the resurrection.
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Number two, the curtain is torn in two, verse 51. The curtain is torn in two.
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Now, if you know anything about temple worship, back in those days, the Jewish temple, and maybe you can look at the back of your
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Bible or the front, they probably have pictures of different temples or tabernacles. Generally, you have a holy place, and then you have the
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Holy of Holies. And in that Holy of Holies, you would have the Ark of the Covenant, with the
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Mercy Seat of the Cherubim, and inside that box, that Ark of the Covenant, you would have things like manna and Aaron's rod, and the
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Ten Commandments. And no one was allowed to go into that room, except the high priest, once a year.
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And you hope after all the sacrifices and prayer and everything else, that you, the high priest, would make it out alive, because you wouldn't want to die in there, and you certainly could.
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No one goes in, no one comes out, except once a year. And the curtain prevented you from going in.
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Verse 51, and behold. Behold! Look, the curtain. That 60 foot tall curtain.
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That 30, 35 foot wide curtain. That really wide, thick curtain.
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With all the twisted plates of everything. It was torn into, not just a little rip, but it was torn into, from top to bottom.
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Obviously, you're supposed to make the connection. If it was torn, and it was 60 feet tall, there's nobody up there climbing up the ladder, and then trying to cut this really thick thing.
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No, no, it's torn from top to bottom, and you should be saying, God tore that curtain in the temple.
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Why? Because now there's access to the Father. Because Jesus has paid for sins, the death has happened, and right at the exact same time, the temple curtain is torn, and that means you can go in.
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The presence of God is available for all. Not just the high priests, not just for priests, not just for men, not just for women, but for Gentiles too.
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Open presence for everyone. The curtain temple, torn from top to bottom.
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Able to walk into the Holy of Holies now. The Lord Jesus Christ has made us have access to the
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Father. Listen to Hebrews 10 describe this. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by new and living way, which
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He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say His flesh, having a high priest over the house of God, now let us draw near with the true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
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I'm so glad I get to be a pastor now, because if I was a leader back in the time of the Jews, and I was a priest, basically
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I would be a butcher. Right? And you'd bring me the animal, and we'd slay the animal, and I'd arrange the pieces, etc.
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over and over and over. Killing, killing, killing, killing, killing, because we keep sinning, so we have to keep killing.
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And I'd also hate it if I was the high priest, and it was my job to go in to the Holy of Holies.
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Now it doesn't say it in the Bible, but church history says sometimes they would tie a rope around the guy's leg, and put little bells on his leg, so that if somehow the bells stopped tinkling, that they would then know the guy was dead, and they would pull him out, because you can't go in and get the guy, because then you're dead too.
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If I had to do that, how afraid might I be? I would certainly delegate that to Scott Brown to go in.
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Then after he was dead, I'd send Pradeep, then he would die, then Steve would die, then I'd die. Deacons, you're next.
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Alphabetical order. The privilege of access to God.
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Anytime you want to pray. Anytime you want to say, Lord help. Anytime you want to praise Him. Anytime you want to say,
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I need help and mercy from the throne of grace. Access. You don't have to go to a priest.
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You don't have to go to a high priest. This is divine accomplishment from top to bottom. As Lewis Johnson said,
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I want you to know that if there was a Jewish believer sitting in the audience, who didn't know anything about this, and came to the understanding of what it meant, that they would have to stand off outside and see
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Aaron go in year after year. No one ever saw the inside of the holiest of all.
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They would jump three feet out of their chairs and shout a lot of hallelujahs.
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This doesn't mean the temple is no longer needed, although that's true. This is the opening of the way into God's presence.
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Torn in two from top to bottom. Supernatural.
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Sacrificial system is over. Jesus paid it all. Hebrews 9,
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How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living
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God? Clean, holy, saint, able to come near and draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance.
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You think, well, that's not that big a deal. Well, when we think that way, it's because we think our sin isn't that big a deal.
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God's not really that holy. He's this holy. We're not really this sinful. We're this sinful. And the gap to be bridged can be done with being good, religiosity, civil things, etc.
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But if God is thrice holy, and he is, and we're sinful, and even somebody like Abraham said,
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I'm but dust and ashes in God's presence, Job in God's presence, I abhor myself. Isaiah in God's presence, he's on his face.
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Daniel in God's presence, there's no strength in me. No wonder criminals hide their faces when they get booked into court.
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They try to put the jacket over their head when they've got their handcuffs on. We're so sinful, we need a mediator and a savior, and Jesus pays for those sins, and now, ripped curtain access.
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Thirdly, not just the darkness, not just the curtain torn, but the third supernatural sign, paving the way for you to think, something's going on here, pay attention, is the earthquake in verse 51.
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And behold, after the curtain was torn, the earth shook and the rocks were split.
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So Jesus dies, he yields up his spirit, and we have the temple curtain torn, and also now when he dies, there's an earthquake.
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Now I don't know if I've felt an earthquake here in the last 27 years, but I've felt them in California before.
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The big one I want to say was 93ish or something, maybe 94, Haley was little, and we lived in North Hollywood, and it was
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I think 4 .30 in the morning, and all of a sudden there was this jar, and then it started going like this back and forth, and I don't know what
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I'm doing. I'm looking around, I'm just, I have no idea because it was so weird and so unusual, and so I then said to myself, where's
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Kim? And then I said to myself, I better go get Haley, this little infant, and then neither of them to be found, and I finally go outside, and there's
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Kim and Haley standing in the middle of the street. She's already rescued her, and she's already taken care of her, and I'm wandering around the kitchen, wondering where my coffee is.
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You say earthquakes, we have earthquakes, I mean Palestine is built on a ledge, on a rift, not that big a deal.
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The timing seems pretty interesting to me. And if you know your Bible, like knowing darkness is regularly judgment, you will also know earthquakes are regularly judgment of God.
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That they're judgment. They're symbols of God's judgment, and they're symbols of God's presence.
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Well you can go into the presence of God now, because of the mediator, the Lord Jesus. Here we have the presence of God, the earth is shaking, at the precise moment when
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Jesus dies. Remember on top of Sinai, shaking, God's there, giving
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His law. Here, there's shaking, Jeremiah 10, but the Lord is a true
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God. He's the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath, the earth quakes, and nations cannot endure
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His indignation. Psalm 114, the mountains skip like rams, tremble,
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O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. Nahum 1, the mountains quake before Him.
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Who can stand before His indignation? Supernatural timing, supernatural earthquake, supernatural presence of God.
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Supernaturally, God is angry. Of course it's the plan, but these people have put
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Him to death. But now we come to something, that maybe many of you have never thought about in your life, and if it wasn't in the
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Bible, you wouldn't believe it. The fourth supernatural sign, the graves were open.
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The graves were open. There's the darkness of judgment. Jesus is paying for our sins. He's the
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Lamb. The curse is on Him, even though He's sinless. The curtain torn in two, access to God because of the
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Lord Jesus. The earthquake, and now the graves open. This is wild.
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This is maybe weird in the real sense, but it's the rest of the word. Verse 52 and three.
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The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
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And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
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What in the world? We have the earthquake. We have the tombs open.
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Now remember, when we think of burials, now we regularly think of somebody underneath the ground, six foot under.
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You would typically have a tomb, and it would be like a cave, and if someone died, you would put that person in the cave, and you'd put aloes and everything and dress the body, and then when everything decayed, all the flesh decayed, you'd pick up the bones and put them in a little bone box, just about a little bigger than the femur, the largest bone in the body, and then you would set it up on a little shelf.
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And of course, remember like with the Lord Jesus, there's the big stone that's in front of that, and you want to make sure jackals can't get in, or other people, so don't be thinking underground, be thinking tombs, caves.
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And the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep, that means dead, were raised, and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went to the holy city and appeared to many.
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Now, some of you know, in my study here, I have a skull, and it's a ceramic human skull, and I did that because some of the
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Puritans used to say to themselves, I have a skull on my desk because it reminds me that one day I'll die, so preach
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Christ, and one day everybody I preach to will die, so preach Christ. It was all kind of fun and interesting for a while until you get cancer and other things, and it wasn't quite as funny, but not meant to be funny.
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I remember one time a little Elliot Smith came in, and he kind of just, it was a little enough, he just waddled in during the women's
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Bible study, and he goes, I'm like, what kind of show does
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Andrew and Anitra let you watch? It's a zombie. Matter of fact, what
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TV shows do you watch, young man? But these aren't like dead people walking, these are saints, believers in the
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Messiah to come, believers in Yahweh, the great God, and they're walking around.
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But they don't start walking around until the Sabbath is over. Notice the text. They came out of the tombs, stayed there, don't travel on the
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Sabbath is my guess, and after the resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
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They're raised on the Lord's death, but they don't go into the city to talk to people until Sunday.
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And that's not a whole lot of time to wait, because remember, in the Jewish way of accounting, Jesus died on Friday, was raised on Sunday, and we say on the third day he rose from the dead, because if you're a
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Jew, you count any part of one day as a day, whether it's one second, one minute, or 23 and a half hours.
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Then we have all day Saturday, 24 total hours, and then you could say three days even if Jesus rose on 1201
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AM. So we're looking at something not really 48 hours even there, and so they're waiting.
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Now I wonder who these saints were. Do you think it maybe was Moses? David? Noah?
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The question is, could you even recognize them if you were in Israel, if you were in Jerusalem, and all of a sudden
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Moses started walking around? Most likely, it's people that just had died recently.
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Think about it. Jesus is the Messiah. He's the true Messiah, and we believe in him.
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Other people say, no, that's not true. We don't believe in him. We believe in someone else. He doesn't have the right pedigree.
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He doesn't do the right things. He does things by Satan. And they're saying those things. Your family members, they're not saved.
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You're saved, and you're trying to evangelize them, and something happens to you, and you die. Jesus dies.
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You wait outside the tomb. Resurrection Sunday happens, and now you go back. They just buried you, by the way, a week ago, a month ago, three weeks ago.
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You go back and say, by the way, Jesus is alive. He's been raised from the dead.
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He's the true one. Now, if I was Moses, or Elijah, or Noah, or David, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah, or any of these other ones, they're not going to know who they are, but they must know who they are, if I'm reading the text rightly.
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That seems to be the best option. They're not ghosts. They're not apparitions. They're not specters.
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The text is very, very clear. They were raised. The bodies, do you see what it says in verse 52?
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The bodies of the saints, that's a believer, who had fallen asleep, that's a sweet way to say somebody died.
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It's only used of believers. They've fallen asleep. It looks like they're sleeping. They'll wake up again one day in the resurrection.
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They came out of the tomb, and they appeared to many. That's all it says. Whether they used their mouth, or whether they didn't, they testified that Jesus was alive.
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That'd be pretty interesting to me. You say, well, what kind of bodies did they have?
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I don't think they had Jesus' glorified body yet, because Jesus was the first fruits of the resurrection, but they had their body back, like Lazarus.
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And poor Lazarus, he had to die twice, right? What happened to these people? Well, they could have got translated like Elijah, maybe that's the case, but I think they just had to die again.
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You say, well, it's appointed for man once to die, and then judgment. Well, that's true, unless God makes an exception.
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Elijah didn't die. He was assumed. Who else didn't die in the Bible? Enoch? Does that make
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Hebrews 9 not true? Of course not. Some have to die twice. By the way, they missed out an incredible opportunity because they could have written books like Heaven is for Real and other stuff and made a killing on this.
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A lot of shackles would be made. Matthew doesn't tell us why there's a delay.
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He doesn't give us any insight. But this is a supernatural event. The death of Jesus causes these people's bodies to be raised.
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God does things for a purpose, and that purpose was to go back into the city and certainly tell the good news of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. He is risen, just as He said. He is risen. He is risen indeed. And by the way, 1
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Corinthians 15, when Jesus is raised from the dead, it guarantees our resurrection from the dead. If Jesus isn't raised, we're not raised.
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And by the way, if we're raised, Jesus can also be raised. Wouldn't that have been amazing? Wow! That's fascinating.
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I'm sure they just preached away. One day they died. I love it when
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Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. John chapter 14, because I live, you will also live also.
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Dead men walking because of the power of the death of Christ and the goodness of God as a testimony.
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You might say to yourself, well, who is the guy, who is the woman, who is the young person that led you to the
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Lord and preached the gospel to you? Oh, it was my dad. He died.
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He came back and then he preached the gospel to me and I got saved. Wow! This is not natural.
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This is supernatural. How many people, for the first time ever, have heard that?
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Come on, don't be shy. Okay, thank you for being honest. The rest of you, I don't believe. Fifth supernatural sign, then the resurrection is easy because we just see
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God working. God's working. He's working. He's working. There's earthquakes. There's darkness. There's curtains.
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There's dead bodies getting up. This one maybe is a little more subtle, but I think it's supernatural nonetheless.
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Verse 54, it's the opening of a sinner's heart. As great as some other supernatural events are, on the human side, this is right up there.
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When the centurion, Gentile, soldier, is used to seeing people die.
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By the way, when you were crucified, what you'd usually do is you would spit out blasphemies against the soldiers and everybody else that walked by.
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And most of the time, the centurion said, enough of that, and they'd cut your tongue out. I wonder if the centurion is watching
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Jesus, they crucified Jesus, and I wonder if he noticed anything different about Jesus.
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When the centurion and those who were with him, witnesses, two or three witnesses, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake, that is its effects, and what took place,
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I don't know what else they saw there, darkness, obviously, they were filled with awe and said, truly this was the
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Son of God. The veils ripped open. Even Gentiles can go in.
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Even soldiers can come in. Yes, they can. How many people did this guy see die on the cross?
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A lot. How many people did he see die the way Jesus did? Saying to his mother,
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Jesus, behold your son, and to John, behold your mother. To say on the cross, to the thief, today you'll be with me in paradise.
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To hear him say to his father, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. It is finished.
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I thirst. I don't think that centurion and those other men saw one person like that ever. And so he responds, truly this was the
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Son of God. And of course the writer, Matthew, he's wanting you to say the same thing. Yes, that's true. I see it all with the eyes of faith.
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The poem goes, Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee? Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee.
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T 'was I, Lord Jesus, it was I denied thee. I crucified thee. And now we have the centurion who says,
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I'm the one in charge of your crucifixion with the nails and the hammer, but I'm the one in charge of your crucifixion because it was my sin that held you there.
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This is supernatural salvation. Every time somebody gets saved, it's the greatest miracle on earth.
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That God would open up a heart like Lydia's in Acts 16. That God would regenerate a man like Nicodemus.
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That He would save one of us. And by the way, you know this to be true because every time you pray for one of your loved ones, don't you say,
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God, do a mighty work in their heart that only you could do. And open up their heart. Here's a supernatural sign.
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A centurion that killed Jesus, was in charge of killing Jesus, comes to faith.
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Comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of Matthew, God the
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Father has said, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Demons have said, this is surely the Holy One of God.
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Jesus Himself called Himself the Messiah. And now we have the centurion face to face with Jesus.
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Supernatural? One, two, three, four, five. I'm not going to be shocked if something else happens in a supernatural way.
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And therefore we see, verse 57 and following, the burial of Jesus.
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That means He's really dead. It's important to remember the burial of Jesus. We see the guard at the tomb in verses 62 and following.
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And then with anticipation, with, of course that should happen. With God involved.
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Primed and ready we are as readers for another supernatural thing. Matthew chapter 28.
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Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
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The disciples are all cowards at this point. And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the
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Lord descended from heaven and came back and rolled the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning.
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His clothing white as snow. 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 Jesus who was crucified. He is not here for He is risen, as He said.
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Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly tell His disciples that He's risen from the dead.
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And behold He's going before you to Galilee. You will see Him there. See, I've told you.
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So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell the disciples. And behold Jesus met them and said,
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Greetings. They came up and took hold of His feet and worshipped Him. And Jesus said,
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Don't be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. And there they will see Me.
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Isn't that wonderful? Can't you just see it in your mind's eye? He's been raised from the dead.
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Truly dead. Truly buried. And truly raised. That's the most supernatural thing in the
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Bible. Pilate thought water could cleanse his hands. Dear visitor, dear
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BBC member who might not be a Christian, if you're not a Christian, can't you see that it's not water that cleanses a hand, a heart, a soul?
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It's the Lord Jesus who does. And you don't have to be ignorant any longer. Who can wash away your sin?
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We sing a song. There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
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And sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their what? Guilty stain.
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It doesn't take long for us to go back in our mind and in our history to think about some of those guilty stains we've had and what we've done.
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And how if it could only be washed by the blood of the Lamb. And the answer is, you can.
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Simply by faith. I know everything in you wants to say, what can I do? And how much money do
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I have to give? And how far do I have to go to Mecca? The answer is, the veil's been rent from top to bottom.
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You don't have to do anything except take God at His word and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
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Christ has died for sinners like you and the message is, believe. He's been raised to prove His word,
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His works. Colossians says, in whom
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Jesus we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I regularly say from this pulpit, wouldn't you like to have your sins forgiven?
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I can't stand it for one day, if I sin against Kim and there's a break in our relationship and something's wrong and I just so desperately want to make up and so desperately want to go and ask for forgiveness.
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When I ask for forgiveness and she says, of course I forgive you, I love you. The feeling, the communion, the unity.
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That's a person. I love her, but she's still a sinful person. How about sin against God?
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To have that fellowship restored. The Edenic communion reestablished.
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It's because of the Lord Jesus. Because He breaks the power of canceled sin and He sets the prisoner free.
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Wouldn't you like to be free? Wouldn't you like to be forgiven? The Bible says, well you don't have to pay anything.
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Come without price. You come to the Lord Jesus. You say, I come as a sinful person. That's the only way to come.
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I come with sins that I don't know if they'd ever be forgiven. That's the way you come. I come that if anybody else knows about the sins, they'll never talk to me in my life.
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That's why the Lord says come. Because He already knows it all anyway. And for us as Christians, it's good to just look back and say, this was planned.
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This had to be. Look at who God is. No wonder this is the most important thing in all the
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Bible. I deliver to you as a first importance, Jesus' life, death, burial, resurrection, and appearance.
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There's nothing more important than that. And of course if it's that important, then you would see the Father involved and the
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Spirit involved in a supernatural way. I love
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Resurrection Sundays. I love all 52 of them. Because we need to be reminded again one more time about how great the
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Lord is. And then after you see that, I hope you say, dear Christian, I'm thankful. Thank you for saving me.
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Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for not tossing me out like a piece of trash, even though that's what my life was.
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And Father, I'd like to live now a life commensurate with my calling. And I'd like to walk in a manner worthy.
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And like a holy, obedient man or woman, I want to walk to say thank you.
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Happy Resurrection Sunday. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Seal it to the hearts of these dear people in Jesus' name.