Classic Friday: Why Jesus Had To Rise From The Grave - [Acts 2:24-36]

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Classic Friday: Why Jesus Had To Rise From The Grave - [Acts 2:24-36]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, this week, you know, as has been mentioned a few times,
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I couldn't stop thinking about praying for Evan and Isaiah and Elijah.
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Just imagine, you know, their mom, 38 years old, and in glory, many things in the future for them.
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But I just thought, you know, one thing I know for sure, Romans 8, 28 is still true, right?
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All things for their good and for God's glory. Well, let me ask you a question, do prophecies come true?
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And of course, you're going to say, what? Yes. And then you're going to say, well, Steve's probably going to dig out some
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Y2K thing and all the things that went wrong, right? No, absolutely not. That would be trivial.
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So I found some secular prophecies that did come true. Yes. I just took, like, the ones that really interested me, the rest of them, you know, not so much.
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Number 10, in 1898, an American author named Morgan Robertson, never heard of him, published a novella, a novella, titled
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Futility or the Wreck of the Titan. The novella told a fictional story of an ocean liner named the
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SS Titan, which sinks in the North Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg. Fourteen years later, the
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Titanic. How about this one, Wi -Fi? Somebody predicted Wi -Fi.
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His name was Nikola Tesla. He was known as the man who invented the 20th century.
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He said, or he's best known for his contributions towards our modern electrical supply system. But another amazing thing he did was predicting
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Wi -Fi. In 1901, he said, it will soon be possible to transmit wireless messages over all the world so simply that any individual can carry and operate his own apparatus.
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Crazy. Wi -Fi was invented 90 years later. Number five, the
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Internet. Would you believe Mark Twain? In 1898, he wrote a short science fiction story called
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From the London Times in 1904, in which, of course, he was wrong by, you know, 80 years, but says, in which he described a device named the
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Telectroscope, which was connected with the telephonic systems of the world and made the daily doings of the world visible to everybody.
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Number three, the Cold War. Who would have predicted the Cold War? Well, as many, his name was
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Alexis de Tocqueville. And if you've studied American history, you've probably heard of him. He was a
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Frenchman who happened to like the United States. And in 1840, he said this democracy or in his book,
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Democracy in America, he said, there are two great nations in the world which, starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal.
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Russians and Americans each seem called by some secret desire of providence to one day hold in their hands the destinies of half the world.
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Not bad. Even uninspired human beings can make, can get some predictions right.
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Okay, open up your Bibles to Acts chapter two. And today we're going to see the inspired predictions of a man come to fruition.
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Let me read our text. I'm going to start in the verse that we started with last week,
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Acts chapter two, verses 22. And I'm going to read all the way to 36. This part of Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, men of Israel, hear these words.
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Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.
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As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
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God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
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For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken.
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Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your holy one see corruption.
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You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.
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Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch, David, that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.
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Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the
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Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
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This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are, we all are witnesses.
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Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the father the promise of the
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Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
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For David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my
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Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
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Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both
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Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
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Now, just to quickly review, last week I entitled the message, The Man and the
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Plan, which I liked a lot better than this week's title, but that's for another time. But if you recall,
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Peter goes into some detail about Jesus being a man, it's right there in verse 22, a man, and then attested to you by God.
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How did he vindicate, how did he display, how did he show that Jesus was who he said he was?
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By works, by miracles, wonders and signs that could only be done by the power of God.
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And it's right there in your midst as you yourselves know. They knew these things.
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If they hadn't seen them personally, they'd heard about them from credible people, people that they knew, relatives.
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Then he went on to say, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
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So here's this man who should have been worshipped because he was the
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Messiah. And he says that here, but he says, this was the plan of God from before the foundations of the world to turn him over to the
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Roman authorities, to have him crucified at the hands of lawless men.
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Nevertheless, he says, it's God's sovereignty, as we said last week, and the responsibility of the
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Jews. He says, you crucified him. And how did you do it? You did it through the Romans. So the Romans are also guilty.
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God is sovereign. Man is responsible. We talked about that at length last week and this morning.
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And before I go into the outline, I have to say this. There's a denomination called
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Pentecostalism. Some of you might have even been Pentecostals. If you look, if you read, and I would encourage you to read through the
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Sermon at Pentecost, if you read through that, you think to yourself, the most important thing here is that people spoke in tongues.
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You are really, really, you know, missing it. The most important thing here is what we're going to talk about this morning, and that's the resurrection of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. But this morning I have four why questions, why something, drawn from Peter's sermon, which underscore the centrality of the resurrection to the gospel.
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No resurrection, no good news. If Jesus remains in the tomb, we're all of all men to be what?
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Most pitied. Preaching a non -risen
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Jesus, to paraphrase Paul, is a complete waste of time. And today we'll see ample evidence of the greatest truth in history,
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Jesus conquered death. Why question number one, why was it impossible for death to hold
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Jesus? Why was it impossible for death to hold Jesus? It's interesting, by the way, just as a side note, that when he talks about death here, what is it?
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It's an anthropomorphic kind of death. It's the death that we can almost envisage, you know, this ghastly creature, you know, trying to hold on to Jesus.
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And that's not an inept idea, to have that. Look at verse 24.
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God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
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Why is that not possible? Well, first of all, because Jesus is God.
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Last week we focused on the humanity of Jesus. This week we're going to focus on the deity of Jesus.
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It says God raised him up. Well, God indeed. Who was it? Was it the
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Father? Was it the Spirit? Was it the Son who raised Jesus from the dead? And if you ever sat in one of my fundamentals of the faith class, you already know the answer.
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Yes. Let me read a couple passages.
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The Father. Did the Father raise him up? It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead
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Jesus our Lord. That refers to the Father. Romans 1 .4. He, Jesus, was declared to be the
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Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness. By his resurrection from the dead,
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Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Jesus himself was involved in his resurrection.
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For this reason, the Father loves me, John 10, 17 and 18. For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
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No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.
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And twice he says, to take it up again. Well, what did he mean? If he's going to lay down his life, in other words, he's going to die.
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To take it up again is to come back from the dead. Now when we read the pangs of death, we think what?
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I mean, if you think of birth pangs, what does that mean? It means birth is painful.
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Death is painful. And ultimately, if we think of death before Christ as a place where people wind up and it's a place where they're not in heaven, well then, that's painful.
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We think of it as a place with kind of being constrained, being imprisoned, being ensnared so that we're unable to get to heaven.
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And we're close to being right here. First Corinthians 15, 20 says, but in fact,
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Christ has been raised from the dead. And it says then, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
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In other words, this idea of death or falling asleep. The first fruits, the first one to be,
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I hate to say it this way, to be harvested, the first one to be released from death,
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I guess is better, is whom? It's Jesus Christ. And as I was thinking about it,
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I thought, this is not completely wrong. If we just, because I automatically go into like SWAT team mode.
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If we just think about Jesus kicking in the door of death, that's not completely wrong, right?
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He kicked open the door so that all who die in Christ could follow him and in fact would follow him.
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So back to our issue, why was it impossible for death to hold Jesus? We just think about it this way.
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Death had never lost its hold over anybody. Well, you say, well, wait a second, except for Lazarus.
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Okay, let's talk about Lazarus for a minute because I think Lazarus helps us.
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How was it that Lazarus was able to come back from the dead? We're going to go to a lot of places this morning in the
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Bible. This morning, John 11 verses 39 to 44. We know the story.
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We know, you know, Lazarus is sick. Here comes the message quick. We need you, Jesus. Martha and Mary say
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Jesus arrives several days later after delaying his response.
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And in John 11 verse 39, Jesus said, as he's at the tomb, he said, take away the stone.
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Martha, the sister of the dead man, Lazarus said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor or as King James says, he stinketh for he has been dead four days.
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Now that four days is significant. The decay is significant because unlike Jesus, Lazarus was decayed.
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We have to presume he was healed. Verse 40, Jesus said to her, did
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I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, father,
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I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around.
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In other words, I don't want them to make any mistake about how this is going to happen. That they may believe that you sent me.
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This is a wonder. This is a miracle. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, simply
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Lazarus come out. He didn't prepare
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Lazarus to come out. He didn't ask Lazarus to come out. He commanded him to come out.
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Verse 44, the man who had died came out. His hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth.
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Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. Boom. Done.
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But how? How is it that Lazarus came back? By the power of God, the power of Christ Jesus.
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He commanded, the creator commanded, and the creation responded appropriately.
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Lazarus had no choice. And the same God who summoned
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Lazarus from the grave lay in the grave for parts of three days. Could death, a part of God's creation, keep
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Jesus? Could it hold him? Could it succeed as it had millions and billions of times before?
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Absolutely not. Having come to earth to take on a human body, to do everything the law of God commanded and to go to the cross voluntarily, thus fulfilling the plan of the triune
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God to redeem fallen sinners. After he'd done all that, Christ arose.
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And when he arose, he in his glorified humanity received all authority and power.
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We could read the Great Commission. We could read other places where this is spoken of.
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But I'm going to read Revelation 1 verses 17 and 18 because it's right on point.
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John records, When I saw him, Jesus, I fell at his feet as though dead.
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But he laid his right hand on me saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one.
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I died and behold, I am alive forevermore. And listen, and I have the keys of death and Hades.
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I have control over death and Hades. Death seems so formidable to us, but to the
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God of the universe, death is insignificant. It's a mist. It's a vapor.
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It's something just easily pushed aside. And in defeating sin,
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Christ defeated death. 1
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Corinthians 15 verses 56 and 57 familiar. The sting of death is sin.
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Why is death so painful? Because of sin and the power of sin is the law, right?
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But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ by obeying perfectly the law of God.
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By paying for our sins, Jesus defeated death.
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So firstly, because he's God, he's deity. Death could not hold him.
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But also secondly, because scripture prophesied the resurrection. Scripture prophesied the resurrection.
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We've already seen that Jesus predicted it, that Jesus said he was going to raise or rise from the dead.
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But so did his earthly forebear David. Verse 25 of back to Acts 2,
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Acts 2 verse 25 for David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken.
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Peter's working from the Septuagint version, the Greek version of the
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Old Testament. And that's Psalm 16, I think it's verses 8 through 11 is what overall what we're going to look at.
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One commentator, a man named Paul Hill said this, originally the psalm seems to have been a plea of the psalmist of David that God would vindicate him and that he might escape death and shield.
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And if you just read through Psalm 16, you might think, well, this is David referring to himself and he doesn't want to die in this situation that he's in and he doesn't want to wind up in the grave.
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However, as Peter will make plain in a couple of verses, verse 29, David was dead and remains dead.
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I mean, it reminds me of the old routine about Generalissimo Franco, but I'm not going to go there because it's too old.
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Sorry. The David was dead. He would remain dead that he was still in his tomb.
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But David is speaking of Jesus, he tells us in verses 30 and 31. So back where we are, how can that be?
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First thing is, you know, we have to understand as we, you know, again, getting back to this whole Pentecostal idea of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection,
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Peter is speaking with the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, what does that mean? It doesn't mean speaking in tongues, it means that he's empowered by the
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Holy Spirit to look at the word of God and interpret it accurately in ways that maybe we wouldn't understand on an initial glance, glimpse.
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But even as we look at Pentecost, how did this all happen? The loud sound that drew these unbelievers and the believers together, and then the believers speaking in known languages, not babbling, but speaking in known languages, extolling the excellencies of Christ.
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And so now the unbelievers were perplexed and they tried to explain it away. They're drinking, they're doing this and they're doing that.
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And Peter says, no, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. He was speaking by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. Also, Jesus himself taught such a thing about Old Testament, speaking about himself.
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He did that on the road to Emmaus when he was speaking with a couple of believers, Luke 24 verse 27, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.
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So again, it's not always obvious to us as we're reading through the Old Testament that these things apply to Jesus, but they often do.
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The scriptures pointed to him. So if it's not David who escaped death and Sheol in Psalm 16, who did?
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It's a good question. We're going to see the answer, but let's go back to the text. Verse 26, therefore, again, this is
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Peter quoting David, therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced.
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My flesh also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your holy one see corruption.
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You have made me made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.
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Now, much of this is reflective of David's faith. He was a believer. He was imperfect, obviously.
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I mean, nobody could write Psalm 51, Psalm 32 and be perfect.
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But here in this song, we see that he did. He trusted the Lord. He trusted
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Yahweh no matter what. But it's interesting that to think about David describing himself as the holy one.
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I mean, you ever think about walking around telling people, I'm the holy one? Was he?
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Was David the holy one? It's possible, technically, to say yes and you say, well, how's that?
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Because it would have to do with the fact that he was anointed by God, that he was chosen by God to be the king of Israel.
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But we wouldn't think of him as the holy one. So, you know, it's kind of a mixed bag there, maybe.
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But I think it's clear even looking ahead a little bit that he was pointing toward Jesus Christ.
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Now, let's get to his prophecy per se. In verse 30, being therefore a prophet.
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That's interesting. Only time in the New Testament where David's called a prophet. And it is interesting because we don't often think of him as prophet.
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And knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, to David, that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the
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Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
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Peter says, this is what he wrote. Now let me tell you what he meant. And what he meant was not talking about himself.
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He saw the Christ. He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the
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Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, and his flesh did not see corruption.
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So we'll get more into that in a moment. But I'm just going to end this first question, and it's a long question.
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Why was it impossible for death to hold Jesus? Two reasons.
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Because he was God. And because the scriptures promised that he would not remain in the grave. Who he is and what was promised.
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Okay, second question. Why should the listeners believe that this audience that he was talking to, all these unbelievers, why should the listeners believe that Jesus is raised from the dead?
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It's a good question. I mean, don't people love to dispute that today?
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I mean, they'll say that's preposterous. Well, the first reason, again, is because David prophesied it.
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David's dead. And he did not fulfill the prophecies. Again, going back to verse 29.
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Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
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I mean, like any good preacher, he engages with them, right? He says brothers.
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He wants to identify with them. He wants them to know that he's with them, identifying with them.
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But he says about David, who was revered, loved, honored, because he was a great king of Israel.
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He's dead. He's still dead. And guess what? We know where his tomb is.
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You can go visit it. See if he's still there. Not that they would dig him up, although some people allegedly, it's interesting, some people tried.
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There's a whole legend about that, but that's a rabbit trail. But in contrast, think about this.
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David's grave, great David's tomb, we can go and visit. Can we go and visit
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Jesus's tomb? Can we go see where Jesus is buried? And the answer is, well, you can go there, but guess what?
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The body's not there. It's gone. And again, about David the prophet, back to verses 30 and 31, being therefore a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him, to David, that he would set one of his descendants on the throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the
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Christ that he was not abandoned of Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This really is the heart of Peter's message.
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What David wrote in Psalm 16 was not about David. It was about his one day successor, his, what is it?
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Not his ancestor. It's the opposite of that anyway. The opposite of his ancestor, that's good enough for right now.
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The one who would fulfill the covenant with, that God made with David, look, let's turn to 2
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Samuel, 2 Samuel verses seven or chapter seven, verses 12 to 19.
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We've been reading through 2 Samuel and there's a lot of, you know, intrigue, a lot of interesting things going on in 2
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Samuel, but here's the heart of it. What's called the Davidic covenants. What is a covenant?
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We've talked about this quite a bit. A covenant is when God and man come to an arrangement.
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Sometimes it's just God, like in the Abrahamic covenant. I mean, you know, who's, man doesn't really ever negotiate these things.
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You read these, these covenants and they're usually God doing, God doing, God doing.
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The Davidic covenant, 2 Samuel chapter seven, verses 12 to 19, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, when you die,
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I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.
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He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom.
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Listen, forever, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.
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Now, here's a section that I'm not going to explain this one because I don't have time. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the son of men.
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Well, I'll just say this. It's not about Jesus committing iniquity. It's about him taking on iniquity.
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Verse 15, but my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it away from Saul, whom
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I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.
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Your throne shall be established forever. The throne of David established forever in accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision,
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Nathan spoke to David. This is Nathan, the prophet, the same one who's going to rebuke him prompt making these promises from God to David.
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Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, who am I? O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far?
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And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God, you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come.
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And this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God. So who was this offspring who would fulfill this?
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Who is it who would establish this forever kingdom? Was it Amnon, the first son? Was it
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Absalom who named himself King? Absolutely not.
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Solomon, Solomon would appear. Right, but in so many ways, he fell short.
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One of the other sons, no. No, because each and every one of those sons was what?
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Dead and remained dead and therefore did not have a forever kingdom. Some of them never even became king.
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Says your throne shall be established forever. God made that promise to David.
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He has to fulfill it. God cannot lie. God cannot change his mind and his will cannot be thwarted.
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He affirmed it in a couple of places. Psalm 132, also Psalm 89, not written by David.
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Listen to this. God says, I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
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Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness, by an integral part of me, something that can't be separated out of me.
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I will not lie to David. His offspring, this is after he's fallen. His offspring shall endure forever.
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His throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon, it shall be established forevermore.
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A faithful witness in the skies. Now, this promise, do you think that gave
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David comfort even as he's dying, as he's seen all the havoc that his sin causes, right?
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When Nathan curses him from the Lord, some of the things he said to him, the sword shall never depart from your house.
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Well, what did he mean? He meant as long as you're alive, David, you will never have peace. Lord also said,
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I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. So how did this help
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David, this Davidic covenant? And as I thought about that, I thought, you know what? In many ways, as we reflect on our own lives as we get older, and we think, you know, what am
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I going to be thinking about when I die? And I think this is a promise that David could rest on, knowing that whatever happened, whatever he saw, this promise of God was real.
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And one day, his throne was going to be established, certainly not for David, not for any of his sons, but one of his descendants of the flesh.
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So to think, you know, and with us, you know, to just think, in spite of my sin, the
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Lord will put one of my descendants on the throne and he will rule forever. I think that was great consolation.
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When I think about my own grandchildren being raised in the nurture and admonition of the
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Lord, can I die in peace? Absolutely. In light of Peter's God -given insight in Psalm 16, it's clear that David knew this future king was going to be much more than an earthly king.
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Scholar Marshall said, if what happened to Jesus fits what David prophesied in the
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Psalm, then Jesus must be the Messiah. And that's right.
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And that's Peter's argument to this crowd. If these things that David said were true, and they didn't happen to David, but God promised with an oath that they were going to happen, then guess what?
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Then this Jesus is the Messiah. So there's the prophecy.
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That's one reason they should believe. But secondly, there are eyewitnesses present. Eyewitnesses present.
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Verse 32. This Jesus, God raised up.
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And of that, Peter says, we are all witnesses. Now again, given the context, this is powerful.
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It's not like the Old Testament said two or three witnesses. This is probably about 120 witnesses.
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Here they are. They've just seen this wonderful sign where these, from their perspective, these foolish, idiotic
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Galileans are speaking all these languages. These godly men who've come into Jerusalem to celebrate this day of Pentecost, they hear these uneducated rubes from Galilee speaking to them in their sophisticated languages and proclaiming the excellencies of Christ.
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Are they drunk? No, Peter says, this is a fulfillment of prophecy. So he's told them that the power of the
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Holy Spirit is at work. Now Peter tells them that Jesus, the son of, or the descendant of David, the one that David saw would take
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God's throne forever, was raised from the dead. After all, as David said, he could not undergo decay and the grave could not hold him.
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God raised him. And by the way, if any of you doubt that, there are 120 witnesses to that.
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The fulfillment of prophecy was clear. Jesus was the Messiah. So question number one, why was it impossible for death to hold
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Jesus? Number two, why should the listeners believe that Jesus is raised from the dead? Question number three, why is the
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Holy Spirit's presence evidence of the resurrection? Why is the Holy Spirit's presence evidence of the resurrection?
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Verse 33, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the
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Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
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I have to pause there for just a moment. This is really quite a claim. First of all, Jesus is exalted at the right hand of the
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Father. I mean, this is a crowd that's not steeped in Trinitarian theology, if I could just throw that out there.
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Why? Because what was their kind of coda? Also known as the Shema of Israel.
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Deuteronomy 6, 4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
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They knew of the Spirit of God. Did they have a full -orbed understanding of it?
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No. But they knew what they'd seen. They knew what they'd heard on that day.
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This outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Why is this such great evidence? Because it's the fulfillment of Joel 2.
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And it's also the fulfillment of the words of Jesus himself, John 15, 26.
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Listen, but when the helper comes, he's talking about the Holy Spirit, whom I will send you, send to you from the
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Father, the Spirit of truth, again, talking about the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the
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Father, he will bear witness about me. From the Father, via the
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Son, to testify of the Son. So the Holy Spirit's there that day, in a profound way, to testify of Jesus Christ.
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Then on to verse 34, For David did not ascend into the heavens. Who did?
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Jesus did. The resurrected Messiah, the one who couldn't undergo decay. He ascended into the heavens.
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Jesus was not David. Jesus was the great
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David, I guess you could say, the second, the final David, just as he's the final Adam.
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Again, back to verse 34, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
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That's a quote from Psalm 110, verse 1. Paul Hill says this, he says
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Psalm 110, verse 1, was a favorite text for the early church, first used of the Messiah, in other words, to identify the
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Messiah by Jesus himself. So what's the point? That the Holy Spirit has been sent to make the enemies of Christ his footstool.
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What does that mean? Where he lifts his feet up and just kind of scoffs at them? No, no, the
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Holy Spirit utterly transforms the enemies of Christ into his brothers and sisters.
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That's exactly what we're going to see on the day of Pentecost. I'm skipping ahead a little bit. But out of this crowd that hears this that day, that witnesses the miracle of the
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Holy Spirit, what's going to happen to them? A lot of them are going to be saved. The Holy Spirit is going to take these enemies of Jesus, those who called for his crucifixion, and make them his brothers and sisters.
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Make them believers. Jesus had to ascend so that the
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Holy Spirit could descend. Again, John chapter 16, verse seven, nevertheless,
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I tell you the truth. He's talking to his disciples, trying to comfort them. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.
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But if I go, I will send him to you. Okay, question number one, why was it impossible for death to hold
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Jesus? Number two, why should the listeners believe Jesus was raised from the dead? Number three, why is the
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Holy Spirit's presence evidence of the resurrection? And number four, why does
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Peter leave those listening to ponder their guilt? Verse 36, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both
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Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, it's interesting because you read that, that God has made him
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Lord and Christ, and you think to yourself, well, wait a minute, he wasn't Lord and Christ before? He wasn't Lord? That somehow he got promoted?
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And I think a better way to look at it is, I mean, this is still too earthly. But if you have a child who's designated to be the king, but by law, he's not allowed to be king yet, and then he grows up and is old enough, and then he's made the king.
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I think that's a better picture. Before the creation began, he was still the designated
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Messiah. He was Lord, right? He was Lord of all creation, the second person of the
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Trinity. But once he finished his work, was raised from the dead, was exalted, sat at the right hand of the
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Father, then he fully assumed the offices which had been his, had been designated for him.
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In the Greek, just to close out here, in the Greek, the last word of Peter's sermon is a verb translated into English words, you crucified.
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There's no effort made to kind of lessen the sting. Peter doesn't say, okay, now,
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I know I just accused you of killing the Messiah, but here are three takeaways.
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If you'll just repeat after me, just repeat this prayer, then you'll have faith in Jesus and you'll be forgiven. He doesn't do any of that.
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Doesn't do any of the things that we see in many churches. What does he do? He just says, this
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Jesus whom you crucified, and then basically it's, let's close in prayer. And I think there's something in that for us, and I would just say as a practical matter, if you give somebody the gospel, and he's done that here, he's talked about the man
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Christ Jesus, he's talked about their sin, he's talked about the resurrection, he's talked about the exaltation of Christ.
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He's told them who Jesus is, that's the gospel. He doesn't even ask for a response. Why? Because the
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Holy Spirit is present and Peter trusts the Holy Spirit.
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When we preach, we can trust the Holy Spirit. Scholar Derek Thomas says this, he says, the
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New Testament sometimes speaks of our experience of salvation as a spiritual resurrection. As believers,
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God has raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places.
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That's Ephesians 2 .6. And this is something we enjoy now. The resurrection of Jesus means that we who are believers already experience resurrection life.
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We have a fixed hope. We know where we're going.
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If we have trusted in Christ, we know what our end is. Now, there are many so -called prophecies that have come true.
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I mentioned a few of them. Tesla, Twain, de Tocqueville, these were brilliant men.
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But their prophecies, their predictions have no eternal consequences. David's prediction,
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David's prophecy, David's foresight, his God -given ability to see the
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Christ, that has eternal consequences. And when we think about Jesus Christ, we know the guilt of our sin.
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We've been called, we've been benefactors of, we've received the grace of God.
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And therefore, we live in gratitude to him. Let's pray.
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Father, we thank you for this amazing sermon by Peter.
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We thank you for just even being able to look at the
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Old Testament to see how Peter applies this word from David to Jesus Christ.
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How he recognizes that your word cannot be broken. These things were not fulfilled in David, for David, and even
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David knew that. David looked forward to the day of Christ, not knowing who
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Jesus would be, just knowing that he was coming, that he would be the
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Messiah, that he would be the forever King of God. Father, we ask that you would strengthen and bless us, each one of us, that we might be transfixed by the resurrected
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Jesus, trusting in him, no matter what our circumstances may be, that we might lean on him entirely.
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And that when we evangelize, when we preach the gospel, when we share about Jesus, even if we don't feel capable, if we're faithful, your spirit can apply whatever we say through your word to reach even the hardest soul.
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Father, we thank you for that truth. In Jesus' name, amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.