The Meaning of the Resurrection

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Hey, everybody. I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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Though I'd love to be, I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. You can open your Bibles to John, the gospel according to John chapter 20.

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I am so excited about this. So very excited. I have so much to say, so I hope you didn't make plans for dinner.

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No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. All right. John chapter 20, the beloved disciple my very favorite gospel.

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As you get there, this, when I heard the gospel for the first time, this was my first gospel that I read.

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I hung out here. This was where I got to know Jesus. I read it over and over and over again.

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It is my favorite of the gospels. Probably my favorite book in all of the

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Bible. But this particular portion is significant and I'm gonna do my best today to weave together the story of the resurrection, the beginning of the new creation.

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I want you to remember that, the beginning of the new creation. There's so much packed here into John and little things that we miss at times if we don't understand the complexities, the glory, the majesty of God's revelation.

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Every word counts. Every word is meaningful. And this story is truly the greatest story ever told.

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Let's start with this. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Hear now the words of the living and the true

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God. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

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So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom

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Jesus loved and said to them, they've taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him.

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So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going to toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran

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Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

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Then Simon Peter came, following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.

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Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and believed.

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For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead.

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Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting there where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

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They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they've taken away my

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Lord and I do not know where they've laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw

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Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

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Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener? She said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.

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Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher.

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Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brothers and say to them,

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I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your

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God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I've seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.

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As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray. Lord Jesus, you're alive.

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You conquered death as promised. Thank you so much that we have your word, your revelation, this history, this historic account of what you accomplished in the world as you promised.

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Thank you, Lord, that you've saved us, that you've taken us out of death into life, that you promise,

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Lord, that death is conquered and that, Lord, you will raise us up together on the last day.

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We thank you, Lord, that you are the victorious one. We thank you that salvation is through you and only you and that it's a gift,

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Lord, that you provide. We pray, God, today as I teach your people, Lord, you get me out of the way. We pray that you would,

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Lord, speak through your word by your spirit, that you would, Lord, challenge us, change us, encourage us, empower us by your spirit through the proclamation of your good news and the news of your resurrection.

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We pray that you, Lord, would bless and get me out of the way. May I decrease and Christ increase in Jesus' name.

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Amen. He is risen. That's a big deal, you know that?

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That's a huge deal. And it's amazing is oftentimes as Christians we tell this story and I think it has a lot to do with evangelical culture today in terms of where we say history is going or the purpose of the cross and the resurrection and salvation.

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We have a particular view today, popular view, that Jesus came so that you get to escape this life and go to heaven one day.

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Now, is it true that if you trust in Christ, you're reconciled to God, you have peace with God and you're going to heaven one day?

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Yes, that is true. Absolutely true. But is that the sum of the whole story?

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Is that what God was doing? Was the story of the gospel and all of God's promises of the Messiah? Was it just that God was going to come into the world to remove us from this life and this world to get us to that better place one day of heaven?

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Or was God doing something more grand, more spectacular? You see, when the fall happens and sin and corruption enters into the world,

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God immediately, immediately makes promises about what He's going to do to correct what came into the world, to bring salvation, to send the

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Messiah, to bring into the world His rule. Heaven and earth become, in a way, divided because of our sin.

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But God promises to bring heaven and earth back together again through this

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Messiah, to begin the process of reconciliation and peace, reconciling the world to Himself.

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Paul even mentions this. You know it in Romans. People call Romans the gospel according to Paul, and it's a good name for the book of Romans.

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But Paul mentions this in Romans. He talks about the whole creation itself is groaning.

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It's waiting for that moment, that moment where the revelation takes place.

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God has come into the world Himself, this corrupt and broken, fallen, unjust place, this place of pain and suffering and death and evil and decay.

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He's come into the world to bring His victory, and He does it through how?

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Armies. Right? Tanks, missiles, bullets, guns.

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Authoritarian rules smashing down, right? No. How? As the humble, meek

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Messiah, breaking heaven back into the world with what? Love.

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Love. Love for the fallen. Love for the rebel. Love for people like you and me.

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This is a grand, beautiful story. There isn't anything that touches this story.

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Nothing. Human beings have written some great stories in history. But nothing comes close to the epic nature, the powerful nature of this story, of the one and only true and living

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God who spoke and the universe comes into existence. He splits the night sky open with the sun.

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This God who is so majestic and so powerful we can't even begin to comprehend

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Him. The God that we've offended and run away from. The God that we are hostile to most of our lives before redemption.

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He steps down into the womb of a young woman.

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To do what? To live the life that we have utterly failed. To die a death that He did not deserve.

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We deserve. And to conquer that death and our death in resurrection power and victory.

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This is the greatest story ever told. Nothing will ever touch this. Because this is the only

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God and the fallen creation. This is truly a powerful story. But what we do as Christians, we tend to, is we tell this story like this is the climax and sort of end to it all, right?

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So we start on Palm Sunday. People call it Holy Week and we say

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Palm Sunday. Moving into the Passover, the glory of the Passover, to Good Friday and Jesus' death.

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And then we get to Sunday, Resurrection Sunday. And the preacher comes up and says, He is risen.

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And everyone says, And we go, there's the climax. That's the the culmination of all the promises.

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The end of the story. But if we know our Bibles and the true story of the resurrection, it's not as though that this is the climactic end of the story.

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It is the dramatic beginning. The dramatic beginning. It is the fulfillment of promises that spread from the beginning of the creation of God's image to the

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Messiah. Everything God said He was going to do, He did. And here's the crazy thing. Did you read it in John there?

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Do you see it? They didn't understand. I mean, think about how many times in Jesus' ministry

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He says to them. He just says it and they're like, I don't know what that means. All I know is you're the

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Messiah and you're bringing in your rule. I know about the kingdom. I mean, what what do we do?

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Genesis 49 10. Shiloh is coming. To him shall be the obedience of the nations.

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The nations are going to obey this Messiah. The Father says to the Son, ask of me. I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession.

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He shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

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They're Jews. They know this. They're singing these psalms in worship at synagogue.

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They're singing. He shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

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And now Jesus comes in. This is God in the flesh. They're seeing the miracles. They're seeing his perfect life.

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They're seeing who he is and they're like, wait, what's this business about going to Jerusalem and they're going to kill you and you're going to rise again?

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They still don't get it. She's sad. She's weeping.

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She's at the tomb and it's empty. Just as he said and she still doesn't understand.

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They don't get it. They had the scriptures that prophesied the resurrection of the Messiah. His life, his death, his resurrection is written over and over and over again in their

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Torah, in their Tanakh, in their Old Testament scriptures. They could have unrolled the scrolls and pointed to where it says it, but they couldn't see it.

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They didn't understand it. It was too grand. It was too big. And now the moment is here.

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The resurrection of the Son of God. This is God coming into the world to save his people from their sins.

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The most important thing. Just consider this for a moment. I see a lot of new faces in here today.

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So I don't know you and I don't know your story yet. I'm looking forward to getting to know you and your story, but I don't know what you're struggling with right now.

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I don't. There could be so many things. This is a fallen world. We have all kinds of things coming against us and all kinds of difficulties we have to wade through.

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Difficulties with children, difficulties with family, difficulty with weird protesters outside. We have difficulties with sickness, disease, difficulties with death, difficulties with businesses and jobs and futures and careers and schooling and all these, all these challenges, all these difficulties.

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Difficulties and conflicts in relationships and marriages. All those things are things that we all face and I wanted to say this to you right now.

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Whatever difficulty you're facing out there, the most important thing to address the single most important enemy that you and I have is death.

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You're going to die and I'm going to die. And it's the greatest enemy.

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Now, here's the thing. I don't want to dwell on this too much, but we have to talk about it because we're talking about the resurrection and death and the fact that Jesus literally rose from the dead, really conquered death in history.

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He rose again from the dead. Nobody's ever done that except the people that Jesus raised from the dead and then guess what?

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They died again. Jesus rose again in victory from the dead, never to die again.

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He's the only one who has ever done that yet. Because if you're his, you're next.

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You're next. But the greatest enemy, and it's interesting because the first funeral

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I ever went to, I have to ask my wife to be accurate about this, but I think,

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I think I was 28. Which is kind of weird, right?

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28 years old, first time you go to a funeral. I guess that's pretty good, right? I must be good luck or something to everyone around me.

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I don't know. I know there's no such thing as luck. Chill out. Okay, we're Calvinists.

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But it's at 28 years old and it was my good friend from Bible college. His name was

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Eric Burton. He was so, so good. He was such a good man. He loved the

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Lord. Eric and I became so close in Bible college. He was this really short guy and it was, it was interesting because we'd go hang out together all the time.

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I'm this taller white guy and he's this shorter sort of black guy and he was actually dealing with a pretty debilitating disease.

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He had this very aggressive form of arthritis where his hands were crippled and his body was disfigured.

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But the thing about Eric that was so glorious is he was so vibrant and so full of joy. It was weird.

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He's crippled. His hands, he can't even extend his fingers. When he ate food, he had to eat it in a really interesting way to get the food in his mouth because his body was broken.

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But it was amazing because Eric inspired me. No matter where we went, we were at school together,

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Bible college. We would leave for lunch. We would sit down and he always, we'd be in the middle of a conversation, a deep theological conversation.

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We'd be talking and a waitress would come over and he would stop. Hold on. And he would look at her and he would just ask her, do you know

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Jesus? He would start preaching the gospel to some stranger. No matter where we went, here's crippled

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Eric walking up to strangers no matter where we were and preaching the gospel. He always had a backpack full of tracks.

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He always had tracks in his pocket. He would hand to people to give him the gospel. He was such a good man.

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And he ended up getting married to a Christian woman and then they had these two precious kids.

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And I was with Eric the last three months of his life where he started to get worse and worse and worse.

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He came with me as I was teaching Bible studies and one time he was with me. I had to pull the car over I think twice so that he could throw up on the side of the road.

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He got worse and worse and one day I got a call from his wife and she said, Jeff, Eric died tonight.

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And I remember that the first time I went to his funeral or the first time I've been to a funeral, I go to my friend's funeral and the place is packed with people.

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Eric's body is laying there in front of me and it was such a surreal experience to experience that.

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And many of you know what I'm talking about the first time. Someone you love that you know so well and there's their dead body laying right there.

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And it was such a traumatic experience for me because this was new to me to experience death in this way.

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And I watched this little girl walk up to the casket trying to talk to her dad who wouldn't respond.

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It was such a traumatic experience that woke me up from my slumber. We're not going to live forever.

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This is somebody that was right next to me that I knew so well and there's his dead body. He's not moving.

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He's dead. And it felt so final. It felt so hopeless. And I remember that as time goes on we end up together attending many funerals.

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We've done that together at Apologia Church. We've grieved together over our loved ones who have died together as a church.

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When I was a pastor at a drug rehab in a hospital, I had to do some funerals. It was interesting.

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One time there was this girl. She was in front of me one day preaching the gospel to her one day. I'm counseling her one day and then that two days later

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I'm standing over her dead body at a funeral preaching to a room of strangers about the hope in Jesus Christ and the gospel.

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Over the dead body of a girl that I was just talking to in my office two days before. I got a phone call one day after a young man who had come to talk to me but was very opposed to the gospel but just liked me for some reason.

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He wanted to sit with me, but he was an atheist. I got a call from his mom that he had got out of the rehab and he went back to using heroin and they found him dead in their garage.

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And she said he spoke so highly of you and we don't know of any other churches. We don't go to church.

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I'm sure he would have loved it if you did his funeral for him. And so I agreed to do the funeral and I got to tell you this.

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This was one of the moments of my life I will never ever forget. Truly I will never forget this moment because you could cut the air with a knife.

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I walked into this funeral home and it was shoulder to shoulder people and they were weeping and they were wailing.

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I could barely get through to the front. His casket was almost touching my knees.

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I could have put my finger down onto his dead body. That's how little room there was in here.

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He was well liked and he had so many friends and this room was horrified.

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I could barely even get the words out because people were just broken and wailing. And this room full of unbelievers that didn't know

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God, the majority of them now are dealing with their greatest enemy on display right in front of them.

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It's coming for all of us. And I preached the gospel that day to a room of broken and hurting people who felt entirely hopeless and that's what death does.

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It does that doesn't it? Right, we can live in this bliss and we can pretend all we want like we're not going to the grave, but you are.

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Maybe tonight and I'm not trying to scare you. Maybe tomorrow, maybe a week from now, maybe 55 years from now, but you and I are going to the grave.

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That's your greatest enemy. And it's something that you ought to actually face. We hide it today, don't we?

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And we do a good job of it. It didn't used to always be like that in culture and society. You would keep the graves kind of around.

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They were visible. And if you go to Europe actually, in Ireland, it's everywhere. There's a lot of the remnants of old culture in society still hanging around there like all the churches.

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They're just filled with dead bodies. It's like let's go worship. Oh, this is awkward, right?

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Graves all over the churches, everywhere. Graves reminding us of this is where we're going.

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After I started doing so many funerals as a pastor, I started actually appreciating what reminding yourself of death does to your life.

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You might think that I'm weird for this, but there are times where I've actually taken time to just go and stop at a graveyard.

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I'll pull into a graveyard and I'll just sit there and I'll look and I'll pray and I'll meditate. Reminding myself of my own mortality, reminding myself of my greatest enemy, that this is coming.

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Who am I? What am I for? What's my purpose? What is all of this?

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Because you see, it's an illusion if we pretend that this is not coming. And the glory of the gospel in the message of Jesus is

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Jesus, this savior, God who became a man, he defeated that, our greatest enemy.

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He gives hope at funerals. Not like, hey, motivational speech, you know, we can get through this, but true hope, guaranteed assurance.

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This will be ultimately undone one day in the life of God's people.

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This is not the end at all. We wait patiently for that moment where Jesus returns in victory and we receive our resurrected glorified bodies.

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Jesus did this in his ministry by showing his power. One of my favorite scenes in the bible is the story of the little girl that was raised from the dead.

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There's something about that story that gets me. There are stories in the new testament of resurrections.

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But that story gets me and I think it's just something that's intimate about it. All these professional wailers are there weeping and wailing at this funeral and Jesus is like, she's sleeping.

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They're like, what? Sleeping? You never attended a funeral before, Jesus? And Jesus goes to this little girl.

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They feel entirely hopeless. I've been at the funerals of dead children.

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It hurts. It hurts a lot. And Jesus says to this little girl with all this pain, little girl, arise.

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He just speaks it and it happens. Little girl, arise.

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Listen, I don't know, your faces right now aren't showing what they ought to show. He said little girl arise to a dead girl.

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And she came to life again. She really rose again from the dead in front of witnesses and everybody.

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She wasn't simply sick. She was dead and Jesus says little girl arise and his power fills this little girl's life and she comes to life again.

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And this is what I love, Jesus' response. He goes, give her something to eat. She's been dead a while.

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She's probably hungry. I just love that the first thing that Jesus does, he's like, you probably want to feed her, right?

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Because she's been dead. I just think that that's beautiful. And it's one of those little historical things about the bible that just gets, it just sort of gets tossed in there and we just look it over at times like, and give her something to eat.

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We're like, and on to the next verse. It's like, wait. Because that really happened because it's real life.

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This is, you can touch this. You could touch her face. You could hug her parents. You could wipe the tears from the eyes of everybody that was there that was crying.

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And he says, little girl arise. And of course, you know the story of Lazarus. Oh, it's a big one, right?

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Let's go to it. The story of Lazarus. You can see Jesus doing this, touching people's lives with the resurrection power that he has.

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John chapter 11. John chapter 11.

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Now, this is so powerful. Go read it later in full. If you don't know the story,

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Jesus is told that Lazarus is sick. And what Jesus does is something interesting.

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He decides to wait longer. Like he's really ill. And so Jesus ends up staying several other days.

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Why? Because the plan was that God would be glorified. You can see it in John 11 .4.

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But when Jesus heard it, he said the illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God so that the son of God may be glorified through it.

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He is sovereign. This whole thing is planned out and I absolutely love it.

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We don't see it. We don't know the future. When these things come, Jesus takes it as God in the flesh as I got this.

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I've got this. And when you and I bring our complaints to God and our fears to God and our freak out moments to God, that's essentially what we get from Jesus.

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I've got this. This is for the glory of God. This is for the glory of God.

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Even on the boat. Same thing on the boat, right? Waves are crashing. They're freaking out. And they're like, Jesus, don't you care we're perishing?

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And where's Jesus? Oh, he's asleep. He's sleeping through the storm, right?

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And what's he call him when he calms the storm? I love it. Calms the storm. And he says, little faiths.

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Doesn't exist anywhere else, by the way. That little statement there in that passage.

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Little faiths. It was Jesus' pet name for his followers. That's us. Little faiths.

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He's asleep and we're freaking out. And in this moment, Lazarus is ill and Jesus is the sovereign.

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He knows where this is going so that he would be glorified. Now, as you read the story in verse 11, it says after saying these things, he said to them, our friend

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Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. Don't you love it how

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Jesus talks about you are my death? You're only sleeping. It's only sleeping.

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We say, no, that's it. That's over. It's finished. I saw the body. I see it.

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It's death. He says, you're sleeping. I'll awaken you. The disciples said to him,

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Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now, Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he had meant taking rest and sleep.

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Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died. That's awesome, right?

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He's asleep. I'll awaken him. We should be like, oh, that's so powerful. And they're like, no, you don't understand. Like he's he's actually like, what's, what do you mean?

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Like, and Jesus is like, he's dead. And for your sake,

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I'm glad that I was not there so that you may believe, but let us go to him. So Thomas called the twins, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him.

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Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

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Four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles off, and many of the

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Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

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Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died. But even now

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I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.

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Martha said to him, I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her,

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I am the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection and the life.

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Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

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Do you believe this? Brothers and sisters, do you believe this?

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Let's try that again. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes,

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Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God who is coming into the world.

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When she said this, when she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, the teacher is here and is calling for you.

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And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now, Jesus did not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.

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When the Jews who were with her in the house, when the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw

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Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

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Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him,

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Lord, if he had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the

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Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

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And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. And here it is.

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Jesus wept. See that? We can't miss this. This is important for today.

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We talk about death and Christ's victory over it. We talk about a fallen world and pain and suffering and sin and Jesus' total victory over death.

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You can't miss the majesty of this moment. That even though he's the sovereign, even though he's declared the end from the beginning, even though, as the book of Hebrews says, he upholds all things by the word of his power.

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You know what that means? It's a very beautiful way of saying he carries the universe along to its intended destination.

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He controls every molecule in the entire universe, billions of galaxies.

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We get a picture of a black hole. We're like, that's crazy, really far away.

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Yeah, Jesus is sustaining that black hole right now that none of us can even possibly comprehend.

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And there are how many of them? We don't know. What's it really like to go over the lip of a black hole and get sucked across the universe?

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We don't know. But he is sustaining it. And that God who controls the black holes and the sun and the moon and the stars and the ocean, the waves and everything in the deep, that God, when he enters into our experience, knowing what he's going to do, your brother will live again.

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He's going to rise. I'm going to raise him from the dead. When he sees this pain and this brokenness, the fallenness of creation,

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God weeps with us. He weeps with us, even though he knows he's about to have victory over it.

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He meets his people in their pain. And there's just something incomprehensible about that, something majestic about it.

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Because I'm thinking as a human being, if I knew the end of the story and where it was absolutely going,

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I'd probably be like, hey, calm down, chill, right? He meets them in it.

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He feels with us all this hurt. And that's something I just, I have to confess,

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I don't comprehend. I don't. And that's because he's God. And I'm not.

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And here it is. So the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?

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Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone.

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Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.

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There's another one of those historical things just thrown in there. Oh, by the way, common human reaction,

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Jesus, this is going to smell real bad. Right? Dead body, four days.

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It's one of those historical parts of the narratives that you just see thrown in there for good measure because it's true.

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This isn't mythology. It's not merely poetry. This is not just simply some story. This is history, took place, real people, dirt, air, heartbeats, flesh and blood, tears.

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And they're like, but wait, he's been dead for four days. This is really going to be uncomfortable,

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Jesus. And Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?

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So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you've heard me.

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I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me.

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When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

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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. Jesus calls into the tomb of a dead man who stinketh, according to the

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King James. And he comes out wrapped up alive from the dead and Jesus sends his church to go and unwrap the one that he has raised from the dead.

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Jesus has that kind of power. You see, this is an amazing story of history.

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It's history, correct? It's history, but it's more than history. And listen, it's God's story of love and victory,

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God's story of love and victory. And I just want to give you a sampling of this. You guys ready for this?

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I told you John's my favorite, right? And here's one of those reasons why. John's story is really deeply the story of a new creation, the beginning of the new creation.

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You see echoes of it all throughout John, and I want to just show you those two parts. One finger in John 20 and one finger in John chapter 1.

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So just quickly, I'd love to spend all day on this, but I just want you to get a little taste of this so you can see it and go read it later.

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This is not merely history. It's God's story of his glory, of his love, his victory, his redemption.

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The story of a new creation. Quick thing, ready? Finish this for me. Don't look down at your

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Bibles, ready? Just think about the Bible itself. I want you to finish this, ready? In the beginning...

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Okay, good, that's because you're in John, right? But where else? Is that used?

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Genesis chapter 1. And in Genesis chapter 1, you know how it begins. It's Genesis, the beginning, the book of the beginnings.

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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John's a Jew. He knows that story. He knows it. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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That's the story of creation, the Genesis, the creation of all things. God did that.

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And John, a Jew, says this to other Jews in the first century. In the beginning, and every

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Jew goes, oh, I know. I know. I was in Jewish Awanus. I got the patches and the badges.

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I know what I... The heavens and the earth, right? And John goes, no. In the beginning was the

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Word. He was already there. He was proston theon. He was face to face toward the

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Father. He was God. He created all things. They were all made through him.

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And without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life. And the life was the light of men.

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The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Sound familiar? About light shining in darkness.

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Where else is that story? Genesis. In the beginning, heavens and the earth, light and darkness, creation.

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John says, um, yeah, that's Jesus. He was already there. He made all of that.

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He is the true light. He's the true light that scatters darkness.

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And God became flesh and dwelt among us. So John's story, watch, isn't just history.

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It's his story of a new creation. And I want you to see it in the text.

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John 20, go there now. Just those little things thrown in that we often miss.

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In John 20, what do you have now? Death enters the world at the beginning of the creation, right?

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Heavens and earth, light and darkness, image of God, fall, all of that.

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You've got death. You're going to die now. Here is now Jesus, the one who was there from the very beginning, who was the true light that scatters darkness.

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God becomes flesh and he comes in to be the resurrection and the life. And now he dies and rises from the dead and they come to the tomb and they're like, wait, where's

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Jesus? Where'd you take him? Here's what you need to see in terms of John's narrative. This is the beginning of a new creation.

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The resurrection isn't the climactic end. It's the dramatic and climactic beginning of the story,

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God's story of a new creation, the resurrection, what God is doing in the world.

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I want you to see it. In John 20, verse 14, having said this, she turned around and saw

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Jesus standing. But she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

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Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be what? The gardener.

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She said to him, Sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him. I will take him away.

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I think oftentimes, admit it, right? Are you like me? You just read that a hundred times and you were like, so?

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She thought he was the gardener. Like, just sort of a toss out. Like, okay, he's there. She thought he was the gardener.

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She's like, just tell me where you put him. But wait, stop. John's telling a story. You've got, in the beginning was the word,

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Genesis, light, scattering darkness, Jesus, resurrection, death, life, overcoming our greatest enemy.

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And here it is in front of us. Jesus is there outside of this garden tomb.

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Hmm. Where else do we hear a story about a garden in the Bible? Genesis.

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John's taking us back to the beginning. And what's amazing is here's this garden tomb on the first day of the week.

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There's another, there's another cue, right? It's not the end of the week.

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It's the beginning of the week. It's a new creation, a new beginning. It's a new

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Genesis. And it just so happens that Jesus alive now from the dead, the second

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Adam, what we were supposed to be, the beginning of the new creation, the first resurrected one.

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What's he doing to confuse her into thinking that he's the gardener? He's working the ground.

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Like if I walk through this church right now and someone said, who's that guy? You guys wouldn't go, I guess he's the gardener.

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Right? You've got to be doing something for people to think you're a gardener. Garden tomb,

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Jesus is doing something that makes her think he's the gardener.

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What is the second Adam doing, defeating death at a garden tomb? Now, he's working the ground.

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He's the beginning of the new creation. Are you getting it? Do you see it? This is glorious.

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Jesus overcomes what came at the beginning of creation, the fall. He's the victorious one.

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This was what was expected. Fulfillment, and we'll just do this quickly because I hope most of you know these things.

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Remember the road to Emmaus? Two disciples, Jesus walking alongside them, and he's like, what's up?

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What's wrong? I'm paraphrasing, by the way. Jeff Durbin translation.

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What's going on? And they're like, what, you don't know? Where have you been? Where have you been? You don't know what's going on here?

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You haven't heard about Jesus? We thought he was the Messiah, and now he's crucified, and he's dead, and our hopes are all gone.

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And Jesus tells them, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written, and the greatest

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Bible study in all of history. Truly, the greatest Bible study in all of history.

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Jonathan Edwards, sinners in the hands of an angry God, has got nothing on this

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Bible study. I promise you. Jesus took them from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end, and he showed them everywhere the

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Old Testament talked about him. The prophecies of the Old Testament. Messianic prophecies.

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God controls history. He declares the end from the beginning. This story was wrapped all the way up in the

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Old Testament scriptures. Even in the symbols. I had a great time this

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Good Friday talking about this, this Passover. Did you get to talk to your kids about? At Passover, what happened?

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I hope you did. The symbols, even in history, pointed towards Jesus.

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Remember Egypt? How many plagues were in Egypt? Ten total plagues.

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The tenth plague was the taking of the firstborn. Ten plagues in Egypt. The tenth one is the taking of the firstborn.

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Now watch this. I have to confess something. I told my kids this this week. When I first heard the gospel and read the

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Bible, I remember opening the Bible, and this is where the story came up. On my shelf this week,

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I found my very first Bible. It is a raggedy, beat -up, ugly -looking thing. I need to get it rebound for sure.

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And I was flipping through it, and I was like, I probably shouldn't let my kids read my notes in here. There were a lot of confessions in there.

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I'm like, we'll keep this, you know, quiet. But I remembered when

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I saw that Bible, when I first bought it, I was like smelling it, and like so excited.

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I owned a Bible now, and I'm reading it. I remember being like 2 in the morning, reading Exodus, and I had to confess something to my kids.

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The first time I read the Exodus story, I was like, this seems pretty cold -blooded, to be honest.

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Right? Moses says, you're gonna go, you're gonna tell Pharaoh, let my people go, and he's,

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I'm gonna harden his heart. So he won't do it. And I thought, hmm, that's peculiar. I mean, you understand the

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Bible, you understand what that means. Pharaoh's a sinner. He hates God. He's a rebel against God. God hardening his heart is

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God allowing him to be what he wants to be, a rebellious sinner. Let his heart be hard.

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And what's God doing it for? To display his power, his glory in Egypt. But I still thought, it seems pretty hardcore that God would send in these plagues.

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Like what? Bloody water? Right? Turning the water to blood.

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That's pretty cold blood. That seems hardcore, right? Locusts all over the land. Cattle dying.

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Boils, right? It's some serious plagues coming into Egypt. And you read it for the first time, not knowing the story of the

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Bible or history. And you might say, that seems pretty cold -blooded. But when you learn history, and you learn his story, you learn that in Egypt, we know that the

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Egyptians were pagans. And as a matter of historic record, the Egyptians worshipped the

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God of the waters. They worshipped the God of the frogs. They worshipped the

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God of the locusts. They worshipped the God of the cows. Are you getting this?

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So when God, the only God, the true God, sends his people to the pagans, who oppose him and enslave his people, he says,

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I'll show my power. Over what? Their gods. Because when the true

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God sends frogs into Egypt, here's the Egyptians going, please frog God. Get these disgusting frogs out of Egypt.

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And what's happening? Nothing. Or when the water turns to blood, they pray to the

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God of the waters. And what happens? Nothing. Why? Because those are false gods.

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And God is demonstrating, as a matter of record in history, that he's the only God. He's the true and living

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God. And so God says, let my people go. Pharaoh says, no. Plague.

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Go ahead, cry out to your God. And nothing happens. And we get to the final plague, where he takes the firstborn.

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And this is where that story is buried. It's there. And this is what I told my kids. I said, and this is the crazy thing.

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They don't have a clue. They don't have a clue. The Jews are enslaved.

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They know there's only one God, and there is people, and there's promises of redemption and deliverance and all that.

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But they don't know the story of Jesus. Can we be honest? They don't know. They don't know about the triune nature of God.

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One God, three persons. They don't fully understand that and grasp that yet. God hasn't fully given that revelation to disclose these glories of the

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Trinity. All they know, one God, where his people, slavery, he's getting us out.

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And so God says, I'm gonna take the firstborn as judgment.

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But here's how you escape it. He says, take a lamb with no spot and no blemish.

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And he goes, side note, don't break its bones. And take the blood of the lamb and put it over your door.

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And he says, when my judgment comes, it's gonna pass over that house on account of the blood of the lamb.

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And you'll be redeemed from your bondage, your slavery to Egypt. You'll enter into the promised land of a relationship with me.

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Here's the thing, can we be honest? They don't have a clue what they're doing. All they know is

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God says, do when they do. I'm a slave. There's only one God. He's gonna redeem us. The frog thing was pretty cool.

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You guys admit that? That was pretty cool, right? Right, the blood in the water is pretty cool. I take him seriously.

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He says, a what? A lamb? Okay, no spot, no blemish. Okay, what else? Don't break its bones.

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Okay, got it. Blood over the door. You got it. Okay, all of a sudden they wake up, all the firstborn dead.

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Egypt is wailing and now they're redeemed from their bondage and their slavery. They cross through the

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Red Sea. God destroys their enemies. They are entering that promised land as promised. What they don't know is that about 1 ,500 years later

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John the Baptist is going to see Jesus and say, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

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He is the Lamb with no sin, no spot, no blemish. And at Passover Jesus dies for the sins of his people and isn't it interesting that the

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Roman soldiers, not Jews, they're not doing a lot of Torah reading, break the legs of the criminals next to Jesus, but when they come to him, he's already dead and they don't break his bones.

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And the blood of this Passover Lamb, the true Lamb, is over your house.

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And God's judgment passes over you. You're redeemed from your bondage, your slavery, to enter into that promised land of a relationship with God.

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Do you see it? Is that awesome or what? Atheism is stupid.

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It's so dumb. So dumb. But there's so much more and I'm not gonna read them all today.

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Just I'm gonna point you to them. Virgin birth, Genesis 3. It's right there in the beginning.

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First thing, fall, sin, enters. First thing God says, Messiah is coming.

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Through who? The woman seed. Isaiah 7, 4, it's gonna be

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God with us that's in the virgin. God himself is coming. Isaiah 9, 6 through 7,

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El Gibor, the mighty God, the everlasting God, the eternal God, is coming to bring his kingdom as a son and as a child.

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Micah 5, 2, the eternal one, is coming to Bethlehem. Psalm 22, he'd be pierced, hands and feet pierced.

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They would be like dogs surrounding him. They would divide his garments among them and cast lots for his clothing.

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His heart would be like wax melted within him. The passion of the Messiah is in Psalm 22, about a thousand years before crucifixion is even a thing.

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Isaiah 53, just go read it. It's the full story of Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection.

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But here's the glory of it, and this is what I need you to hear. Please hear this today. Come back if you're checking out. Come back, because you need to hear this.

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If you came to hear about Jesus today, and why it matters, you need to listen to this. It says in Isaiah 53, long before Jesus comes, he's pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.

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The chastening for our well -being fell upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

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You want to know what Good Friday was about? You want to know what Passover was about? It's that. That's the story.

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He justified the many as he would bear their iniquities. He becomes our

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Passover. The judgment of God passes over me and is fully absorbed in my

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Savior, and it shouldn't be that way. Not from a human perspective.

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I'm the guilty one. Why does he love me? Why would he pay that penalty for me?

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Why? It's something that I do not grasp. I cannot grasp. It says that he was going to die, and yet he would see his offspring.

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He would prolong his days. How is that possible when you're dead? There's the resurrection in Isaiah 53, but it also says more.

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Here it is. Genesis 49 10. All the nations were going to obey him.

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Psalm 2. God the Father says to the kings of the earth, obey the Son or you're going to perish. He says to the

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Son, ask of me. I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession. He was going to take rulership and dominion over the entire world, and in Isaiah 42, he was going to bring forth justice.

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Final word here. Pointing to what? So what? So what's the point?

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What's this all about? Well, I already pointed you to Romans chapter 8 verses 18 through 24.

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Paul talks about the creation itself is groaning, it's longing and waiting for that moment of that full and final revelation where Jesus wraps all of history up.

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Watch this. This is controversial today. It is. The story of the Scriptures is not that God's going to throw away this creation.

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Did you hear that? The story of the Scriptures is not that God is going to throw away the creation and create something brand new ex nihilo, like in the beginning.

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That's not the story. Proof? How about Romans 8? Jesus isn't creating something brand new.

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Jesus says, I'm making all things new. Not making all new things.

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He is in the process of the new creation, the recreating. He is reconciling all things to himself in heaven and on earth.

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Did you hear that? The resurrection of the Son of God is the beginning of the new creation.

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This is the story of Jesus reconciling the world to himself through his atonement and the power of his resurrection.

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I'm going to read it to you. So go there with me. Colossians chapter 1, so you see it for yourself.

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Colossians chapter 1 verse 15. This is what it says. It's about Jesus. He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible

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God. Colossians 1 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

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That means he is the preeminent one. He is the heir of all of creation.

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That's what firstborn means in this culture. For by him, this is Jesus now, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

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And he is before all things. And in him all things hold together.

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And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

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For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

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That's the meaning. Firstborn over all creation,

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Jesus making peace by the blood of his cross, reconciling all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven.

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And here's where it is. Question is this, what is the life and death and resurrection of Jesus mean now?

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Well, we know what he's told us. His last words in Matthew, Matthew 28, 18 through 20 is what?

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All what? Authority. Where? In heaven and where?

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Now watch this. I got to say that again, especially with new faces in here. Welcome to Apologia. All authority in heaven.

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Every Christian goes, yay and amen. Jesus is King in heaven. But the text says and where?

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On earth. Has been, not will be, has been given to me.

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Go therefore, because it's all mine. And he says make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

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And he says in law I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age. You see, here's where we're at now. Jesus is

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God in the flesh. He lived righteously and sinlessly. He died a death that his people deserved and he rose again from the dead in victory.

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He is the beginning of the new creation. He is reconciling all things to himself and this you need to hear, the word of reconciliation.

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The good news is there is life in him. The good news is that you can go from death to life now and through peace with him at the end of history, you will be raised again.

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The call of the good news is this. This is who Jesus is. This is what he's done.

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Repent and believe the good news. That's the call. That's the command that goes out.

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He is the ruler of the world. He is the Savior. In him is life.

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You want it? You want life abundantly? You want peace and forgiveness with God?

01:00:01

Repent and believe the gospel. Turn from sin to Christ and put your faith in him and what he's done.

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Christ, our Passover. The judgment of God passes over his people and is fully absorbed in his

01:00:16

Son. All of our guilt, all of our shame, in him. The call of the gospel is to believe on the

01:00:24

Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. The orders we have as his people is we now come as new creations, reconciled and at peace with God, into the world that Jesus is redeeming to proclaim his good news.

01:00:45

The promises are fulfilled. He is ruling the world. He is reconciling the world to himself.

01:00:52

He has conquered death and victory and he will conquer death finally at the end of history.

01:00:59

What's it say in 1st Corinthians 15? He died. He was raised. He was witnessed and it says what?

01:01:05

Sit in my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for his feet. And he says what about Jesus?

01:01:11

He must reign. Until what? He makes all his enemies a footstool for his feet and the last enemy to be defeated is death.

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If you ask me, Pastor Jeff, what's it gonna be like? My answer is I have no earthly idea, but it's gonna be awesome.

01:01:32

If you believe in Jesus now you're alive from the dead. Did you catch that?

01:01:38

You're alive now and some of you who've been redeemed in Christ out of pure darkness, you were almost dead, you were on a path that was fully destructive and Jesus met you there and you've been walking with him.

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You know what it means now to be alive. Alive in Jesus, but that's not all there is to this

01:02:00

Christian story. Jesus is actually reconciling all things so that at the end of history there's a final day of judgment and there's a day where Jesus raises us all and there is no more death.

01:02:13

There is no more brokenness. There is no more disease. There is no more decay.

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There is no more conflict. There is no more heartache. There is no more pain.

01:02:25

There are no more tears. Jesus is in the process now of reconciling all things to himself and he is the resurrection and the life.

01:02:36

If you want that life, if you want salvation, the free gift of eternal life, come to Christ and live.

01:02:43

Repent and believe the gospel. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we praise you.

01:02:49

Thank you so much for this message of life. Thank you for the message of the resurrection. Jesus, I cannot,

01:02:57

I cannot do justice to your resurrection. I can't. And so all

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I'm asking Lord is that you please impress upon everyone under the hearing of this message your glory, the glory of your resurrection, the power of your resurrection.

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I pray Lord for anyone in this room that doesn't know you, that you'd grant them repentance and faith. Draw them to yourself by your grace.

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And for those of us who do know you, who have been reconciled to you as a gift through faith, please allow your words today to change us and more important, allow us to be your image in the world that you call us to be.

01:03:38

To preach your good news and to be a part of that process of reconciliation and new creation.