FBC Sunrise Service

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning.

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He has risen. Indeed, he has. So we welcome you to the sunrise service this morning, and I want to open with a reading in Matthew's account of that first day of the week early in the morning.

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Verse 6 verses of Matthew 28 says, Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn,

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Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the

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

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And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women,

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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 the Lord lay. Let's open this morning with number three in this

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Hymns for Resurrection Sunday book. We'll be using this through both services today, just to have everything nice and convenient together.

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Number three, O Breath of God. Let's stand, shall we, as we sing. In Jesus' name, let us reflect your sacrifice.

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Let us honor the spirit.

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As one in holiness, let us unite.

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He is not here. You know, this is the only place of which it could be considered good news to say

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Christ is not here. Christ is here was good news at Bethany, at Jericho, at Nain, at Capernaum, or on the

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Sea of Galilee, but Christ is not here. This is the good news from Joseph's tomb.

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Let's pray together. Our Father and our God, we are grateful today that we can assemble, and we can do so, and need to do so, because we serve a risen

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Savior whom we worship. How can we neglect to worship one who has so graciously given his life, and then so powerfully risen from the dead?

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Father, we pray you would bless this service this morning and the events of the day, and we commit it all to you.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. You may be seated. We come to worship our risen

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Savior. In the words of Revelation 1, verses 17 through 18, John says, when

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I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, do not be afraid.

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I am the first and the last. I am he who lives and was dead, and behold,

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I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of death.

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Number eight in our hymn book, number eight, Christ the Lord is risen today.

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Christ our cause and grave, our sinner and slave, the angel in the sky, he is king.

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Let us reflect on these words about the passion of the Lord Jesus. He is risen.

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He was laid down upon that rocky floor, but only to rest there for a day.

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For that tomb was his first earthly resting place. All before that was weariness.

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Having rested there for a short season, he rises, and with renewed strength, into which hereafter no element of weariness can enter, he resumes his work.

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He has not been carried off either by friend or enemy. He has been raised by the

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Father as the righteous one, the fulfiller of his purpose, the finisher of his work, the destroyer of death, the conqueror of him who has the power of death, the

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Father's beloved son in whom he is well pleased. This true temple has been destroyed only to be rebuilt in greater and more undecaying magnificence.

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This true Siloam has only for three days intermitted the flow of its mission waters, that it might gush forth in larger fullness.

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This true sun has only for three days been darkened, that it might be relighted in its incorruptible glory.

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Cross the page in your hymn book there, The Day of Resurrection. I know that my

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Redeemer lives, Job chapter 19, verse 25. The essence of Job's comfort lies in the little word, my, my

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Redeemer, and in the fact that the Redeemer lives. Oh, to get a hold of a living

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Christ. We must get a share in him before we can enjoy him.

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What is gold to me when it is still in the mine? It is gold in my possession that will satisfy my necessities by purchasing the things that I need.

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So a Redeemer who does not redeem me, an avenger who will never stand up for my blood, what benefit is there in that?

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Do not rest content until by faith you can say, yes, I cast myself upon my living

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Lord and he is mine. You may lay hold him with a feeble hand and half think it is presumption to say he lives as my

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Redeemer. But remember, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, that little faith entitles you to say it.

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But there is also another word here which expresses Job's strong confidence.

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I know, ifs, buts, and maybes are sure destroyers of peace and comfort.

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Doubts are dreary things in times of sorrow, like wasps that sting the soul.

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So, if I have any suspicion that Christ is not mine, then there is a vinegar mingled with the gall of death.

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But if I know that Jesus lives for me, then darkness is not dark, even in the night is light about me.

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Surely if Job in those ages before the coming of Christ could say,

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I know, we should not speak less positively. God forbid that our positiveness should be presumption.

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Let us make sure that our evidences are right in case we build upon an ungrounded hope.

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And then let us not be satisfied with the mere foundation, for it is from the upstairs rooms that we get the panoramic views.

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A living Redeemer, truly mine, is unspeakable joy.

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On page four in your hymn book there is the song, I Know My Redeemer Lives.

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And this is sung to the tune of Jesus Shall Reign.

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Yes, Jesus Shall Reign. He lives sweet sentence once again,

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He lives triumph lives all glorious in the sky.

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He lives exalted there,

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He lives to bless me with His love.

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He lives to plead for my hungry soul to be in time supply.

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He lives to comfort me when my soul's complex to silence.

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He lives all my lives to blessings to give.

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And the last on the eighth. He lives on His days us still the same.

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Most the sweet joy this sentence gives.

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I. And amen, he does.

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I trust you know that in the depths of your heart. Well, for us, the truth of the resurrection is probably rather clear and straightforward, isn't it?

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We have the privilege of hindsight, and hindsight with the further privilege of having ample record of that which took place a couple thousand years ago in that garden tomb.

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We have the record of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all four of the gospel writers record the events of the resurrection.

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And we also have the tight, logical argument of the Apostle Paul. You think of his argument for the resurrection in 1

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Corinthians 15, and he starts off with that gospel in a nutshell. And then he works down to the argument back and forth.

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If there is no resurrection, then this, then this, then this. But then finally he says, but now Christ has risen from the dead.

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Now, to be sure, we cannot fully comprehend all the dynamics of that resurrection, can we?

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The mechanics of a corpse lying on a slab in a garden tomb, in a cave, all of a sudden becoming fully alive again.

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And the resurrection body of that one who was dead is of such a nature that we can't comprehend either, right?

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He could eat the broiled fish with his disciples, but he could also pass through closed doors to be with them.

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We can't comprehend that. Difficult to comprehend, but that it happened is quite clear to us, to us.

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But just how clear was, just how clear was it on that resurrection morning?

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Think with me. The resurrection was prophesied. Think of this prophetic statement in the

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Psalms, Psalm 16, verse 10. The psalmist wrote prophetically of the Messiah, For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, in the grave, nor will you allow your

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Holy One to see corruption. Well, it was prophesied, but here are all these disciples, all these followers of Jesus who did not anticipate it at all.

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Listen to the record of Luke 24 and Jesus' interaction with the two men on the road to Emmaus.

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We'll look at that more in the morning service. But Jesus comes upon them. They don't recognize

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Him. He asks them, what are the things you've been talking about? What things have you been talking about?

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So they said to Him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who is a prophet, a mighty indeed, and word before our

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God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and crucified.

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We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, beside all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

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Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us when they did not find

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His body. They came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive.

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

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Jesus said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

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Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? Yeah, the resurrection was prophesied, but it wasn't anticipated.

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And then secondly, the resurrection was promised. Jesus Himself, in Mark chapter 9, and on multiple occasions thereafter, taught

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His disciples and said to them, The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill

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Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day. Now, that's pretty clear.

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That's pretty straightforward. That's a promise. This is what's going to happen, Jesus said.

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And it's not like it was a one -off statement and then, you know, He just said it in passing and then went on to something else.

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He repeated that promise multiple times, at least three different times.

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The resurrection was promised, but it wasn't perceived. The very next verse,

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Mark 9, after the Lord says, After He, the Son of Man, is killed, He will rise the third day.

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The next verse says, But they did not understand this saying and were afraid to ask

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Him. Now, you and I, we read that and we kind of scratch our heads a little bit, don't we?

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We say, How? How is it that you could not understand that? Isn't that rather clear? They're going to put

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Him to death and He's going to rise again the third day. But another passage of Scripture referring to that promise that the

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Lord gave tells us that they didn't perceive it because their eyes were restricted from being able to see.

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They could not understand. The Lord did not yet give them that understanding. Well, the resurrection was promised, but it was not perceived.

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And then thirdly, the resurrection was proclaimed. We read earlier in Luke 24, just before the account of the two on the road to Emmaus.

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It says, Then as the women were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, this is after they come to the garden tomb, the stone is rolled away.

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They're bewildered by that. They enter into the tomb. They look into the tomb and they just see angelic presence, an empty slab.

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There's no body. The angel says to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead?

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He is not here but is risen. Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee saying,

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The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again.

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Remember how He said that? Ah, oh yeah. He goes on to say they remembered

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His words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the 11 and to all the rest.

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The problem is that these were women and these men, they weren't going to put a whole lot of stock into what these women had to say.

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Could they really believe that? Well, shame on them. The resurrection was proclaimed.

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It was proclaimed by the angel to the women and it was proclaimed by the women to the disciples.

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But it was not believed. The passage goes on to say it was

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Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles and their words seemed to them like idle tales and they did not believe them.

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Further solidifying the fact that the prophecy was made but not anticipated, the promise was delivered but not perceived.

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Here the promise is proclaimed and not believed. But then the resurrection was proved.

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It was proved. Later in Luke 24, it came to pass that as Jesus sat at the table with these two men in Emmaus, that He took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them.

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Then, then their eyes were opened and they knew

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Him and He vanished from their sight. It was proved. This is

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He. What those women said was true. What the disciples saw when He got to the empty tomb, well, there's validation for that emptiness of the tomb.

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They understood. They received their sight and then He vanished from their sight.

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And a little later on, verses 36 to 39 of Luke 24, the disciples are talking back and forth among each other and it says, now as they said these things,

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Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them. Remember we said earlier the difficulty to comprehend the resurrection body.

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He could eat with them, physical food in His resurrected body, but then He could just pass through doors.

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Suddenly, He was in the midst of them and He said to them, peace to you. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed they'd seen a spirit or a ghost.

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And He said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?

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Behold, my hands and my feet, that is, I myself, handle me and see.

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For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And He said to them at the end of Luke 24, these are the words which

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I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all these things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the

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Psalms concerning me. Finally, Jesus standing in the midst of these disciples who heard the prophecies but didn't anticipate the fulfillment.

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They heard the promise, but they didn't perceive the promise. Well, they even heard the proclamation, but didn't believe the proclamation.

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Now Jesus comes before them presently, the resurrected, living Jesus, and says, here

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I am, look at me, it is I. And finally, finally, it's received.

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It says, when Jesus had so said, He showed them His hands and His side, then the disciples were glad.

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Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. And in the intervening verses between John 20, 20 and John 20, 28, oh, by the way, isn't that an interesting placement of that verse?

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Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord in John 20, 20.

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They finally got 20, 20 vision of the living Savior. But in the meantime,

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Thomas wasn't there. They told Thomas. Thomas says, I'm not going to believe that until I can stick my finger in the wounds in His hand.

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Jesus appears again. And finally, Thomas answered and said, my Lord and my

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God. And Jesus, in Luke 24, opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures.

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Then he said to them, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the

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Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And you are witnesses of these things.

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And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

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Is this you today coming here in this place on this Resurrection Sunday with great joy?

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Let's pray. So we pray with one of the ancient writers.

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Almighty and most merciful God, we render praise and thanksgiving to You that You gave

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Your dear Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification, to overcome for us all our enemies, death, sin, the world, and the devil, and to restore us to righteousness and life.

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We beseech You by the power of Your Holy Spirit to awaken us more and more from the death of sin to newness of life that we may rightly experience in our own souls the power of the resurrection of Christ Jesus and be each day more completely incorporated into Him until finally our mortal bodies shall be awakened up from the dust of the earth, reunited with our spirits, be made like His glorious body, and dwell forever with Him in eternal joy and glory.

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And this we beseech You through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord, our risen Savior. Amen and amen.

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Take your hymn book again. And number 12, the last page in the book,

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Christ Arose. And let's stand together as we sing, shall we? My Savior, Christ arose.

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And amen. So we'll have a word of prayer to give thanks for our food provided this morning.

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And I want to thank those who have helped prepare that, providing food for us today.

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After we have brunch together, we will have the men will meet, those who wish to, will meet in the library for a time of prayer about 9 .15

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or so. 9 .30 we'll have Sunday school back here in the adult Sunday school in the auditorium, other classes in your usual places.

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Keep your hymn book for the morning service. Leave it there on your pew if that's where you sit in the morning service, and we'll use that again later on.

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Father, we are grateful that Christ arose. Not only did that validate the truth that He is the

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God -man, but He also provided for us our justification.

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We can, by His death, be reconciled to You. By His life, be justified in Your sight.

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We praise You and thank You. In Jesus' name, amen. You are dismissed.