Resurrection Sunday 2020

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April 12, 2020

This service was filmed outside on the property of Sovereign Grace Family Church. It was a "drive-up" style worship service.

00:05: I'll be reading from Luke, chapter 24, verses 1 through 12.
00:16: But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.
00:24: And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
00:31: While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing, and the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.
00:41: The men said to them, Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is risen.
00:46: He is not here.
00:48: Remember how he spoke to you while he was in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day he would rise again.
00:58: And they remembered his words, and they returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven, to all the rest.
01:07: Now, there were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James, also the other women that were with them telling these things, but these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.
01:20: But Peter got up, and he ran to the tomb, stooping, and he looked in, and he saw the linen wrappings only, and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.
01:31: Ladies and gentlemen, Confucius is dead.
01:35: Buddha is dead.
01:38: Mohammed is dead.
01:40: No pope has ever rose from the grave.
01:43: Jesus Christ is alive, and he's alive forevermore.
01:48: All right, we're going to sing, Oh, Glorious Day.
01:51: We're doing it without accompaniment.
01:53: We're just going to use our voices to sing to the Lord.
01:56: Sing with us now as we begin.
02:01: One day when heaven was filled with his praises, one day when sin was as black as could be, Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin, dwelt among men.
02:19: My example is he.
02:22: The Word became flesh, and the light shined among us.
02:28: His glory revealed.
02:31: Living, he loved me.
02:34: Dying, he saved me.
02:37: Buried, he carried my sins far away.
02:42: Rising, he justified freely forever.
02:47: One day he's coming, oh, glorious day, oh, glorious day.
02:56: One day they led him up Calvary's mountain.
03:02: One day they nailed him to die on a tree.
03:07: Suffering, anguish, despised and rejected, bearing our sins, my redeemer is he.
03:17: Hands that healed nations stretched out on a tree and took the nails for me.
03:26: Living, he loved me.
03:29: Dying, he saved me.
03:32: Buried, he carried my sins far away.
03:37: Rising, he justified freely forever.
03:42: One day he's coming, oh, glorious day, oh, glorious day.
03:51: One day the grave could conceal him no longer.
03:57: One day the stone rolled away from the door.
04:02: Then he arose over death he had conquered.
04:07: Now is ascended my lord evermore.
04:13: Death could not hold him.
04:15: The grave could not keep him from rising again.
04:21: Living, he loved me.
04:24: Dying, he saved me.
04:27: Buried, he carried my sins far away.
04:32: Rising, he justified freely forever.
04:37: One day he's coming, oh, glorious day, oh, glorious day.
04:46: One day the trumpet will sound for his coming.
04:52: One day the skies with his glories will shine.
04:57: Wonderful day my beloved one bringing.
05:02: My savior Jesus is mine.
05:06: Living, he loved me.
05:09: Dying, he saved me.
05:12: Buried, he carried my sins far away.
05:17: Rising, he justified freely forever.
05:23: One day he's coming, oh, glorious day, oh, glorious day.
05:32: Amen and amen.
05:34: We're now going to sing There is Power in the Blood.
05:37: Now, this is an old hymn.
05:38: I want to hear your voices loud.
05:40: I think most of you know this one pretty well, especially those who have been in the church for a while.
05:47: Would you be free from the burden of sin? There's power in the blood, power in the blood.
05:56: Would you or evil a victory win? There's wonderful power in the blood.
06:04: There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the lamb.
06:12: There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the lamb.
06:21: Would you be free from your passion and pride? There's power in the blood, power in the blood.
06:30: Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide.
06:34: There's wonderful power in the blood.
06:38: There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the lamb.
06:47: There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the lamb.
06:57: All right, at this time, if you have an offering that you would like to bring, again, we're going to ask that we maintain our distance as well.
07:05: But if anyone would like to come drop their offering into the bucket, you may do that while we sing Blessed Assurance.
07:11: Now, we're going to start with the chorus, and we're going to sing through two verses of Blessed Assurance.
07:21: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
07:31: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
07:43: Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.
07:48: Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
07:54: Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
08:04: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
08:14: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
08:25: Perfect submission, all is at rest.
08:30: I in my Savior am happy and blessed, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love.
08:45: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
08:55: This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
09:06: Amen, and I'll invite Brother Andy to come, and he's going to lead us in our time of elder-led prayer.
09:21: Let's pray.
09:26: Father and God, we gather this morning because the tomb is empty, because the Son is risen, because He is on His throne, because one day He shall return.
09:42: And so as we worship You this morning, we praise You, we thank You, we bow before You for the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
09:56: We ask You, Lord, this morning that Your Word would go out to the ends of the earth, that many who worship a false god, a god of wood, a god of stone, a god of man's imagination, would come to know the risen Savior this morning, would come to find life, not just life in this world, but eternal life, which can be and is only found in You.
10:27: We thank You, our Father, that You have watched over us to this day.
10:32: We thank You that You have appointed for each one of us a life to live in this world, and then the glorious promise that You will one day receive us to Yourself, and that we will be with You forever and ever, and there will be no fever, and no virus, and no suffering, and no confusion, and no misunderstanding, and no rules to bind us, but we will walk freely in the things of Christ.
11:00: We thank You, Father, that we can gather this morning, that we can lift up our voices, lift up our hearts, and sing praise to You.
11:12: Be with us, Father, we pray.
11:15: Be with us in our lives that we might demonstrate a changed life, a redeemed life, that the blood of Christ would so work in us to cause us to grow in His grace and in His knowledge, and that we would bear witness and be living epistles known and read of all men.
11:37: Be with us at this time, Lord, as we seek to worship and honor You.
11:42: And again, may many today rise from the grave, rise from the tomb of sin, and find resurrection life in the Savior of sinners.
11:54: Be with Brother Keith, be with us all, Lord.
11:57: May Your Word nourish us, teach us, instruct us, correct us, and give us peace.
12:04: Again and again, we thank You in the name of the only begotten Son of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ, who so loved us that He gave Himself for us.
12:17: Amen.
12:19: Amen.
12:20: Am I coming through? Is this going to sound okay? This is our half-mile hailer that Brother Mike uses for outdoor preaching, so we're hoping it reaches at least a half a mile this morning.
12:34: I want to invite you to open up your Bibles with me, if you have them, and turn to Matthew chapter 28, and we are going to read verse 6.
12:43: Matthew chapter 28 and verse 6.
12:54: This is in the midst of the story of the resurrection, and this is the angel speaking to the women who had come to anoint the body of Jesus.
13:07: In verse 6, he says, He is not here, for He has risen.
13:15: As He said, come, see the place where He lay.
13:21: May God add His blessing to the reading and to the hearing of His Word.
13:25: May God watch over us as we study.
13:28: May God keep me from error as I preach.
13:31: And may God be glorified in the proclamation of His Word.
13:36: Amen.
13:39: Many years ago, off the coast of Massachusetts, a submarine sank into the ocean.
13:48: As soon as was possible, rescue divers began to go down into the dark waters to look for the ship to see if they could find any survivors.
14:02: As the divers were circling the submarine, they heard a tapping from within the hull.
14:11: It was the tapping of Morse code, the dots and dashes of Morse code.
14:18: The question that was being asked, Is there hope? Is there hope? That is the constant cry of a broken and fallen humanity.
14:34: Is there hope? That is the question that is on the lips of every person who has ever received a bleak medical diagnosis.
14:41: Is there hope? That is the sentiment of every parent who has ever watched a child go down a path of destruction.
14:48: Is there hope? That is the internal struggle that all deal with at one time or another when they begin to contemplate the reality of their own mortality.
14:57: Is there any hope? Just a few short weeks ago, our world began to change in ways that none of us could foresee.
15:08: Because of the threat of an unseen biological danger, some people have in fact lost their lives and many other people have lost their livelihoods.
15:20: Store shelves have become battlegrounds for the most basic of essential items.
15:26: Businesses have been forced to close.
15:28: Employees have been laid off.
15:30: Schools and colleges have shut their doors.
15:33: Teachers have been forced to work online.
15:35: And even the church has had to manage itself differently.
15:39: Pastors preaching to empty rooms, which I can honestly tell you is not something that I ever felt I would want to do and never something I want to do ever again.
15:52: And this has had a profound impact on the hearts and lives of many people.
15:59: Because of the combined effects of unemployment, loss of income, grief, isolation and death, it is expected that cases of suicide will be on the rise and in fact they are already on the rise in certain areas.
16:17: K.
16:18: Balakrishna, a 50-year-old father of three in India, was probably the first victim of suicide since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic.
16:31: Panic is suspected to have precipitated his death.
16:34: He convinced himself that he had the disease, that he was a danger to others and to his family and so he took his own life.
16:42: Emily Olin, a British 19-year-old, is likely the youngest to have committed suicide.
16:52: She had no signs of the virus.
16:56: She had not been diagnosed.
16:58: But because of the fear of the lockdown and the impending isolation that would come, she was petrified with fear and she took her own life.
17:11: Even the President of the United States has said very candidly that because of the decrease in the economy, the fall of the stock market and all of the economic distress that will come as a result of the things that have happened over the last few weeks, that thousands will likely fall into a suicidal depression.
17:34: Words like epidemic, pandemic, plague cause fear, anxiety, grief, hopelessness and despair to set in and it causes people to ask the question, is there any hope? 2,000 years ago, on a hill outside of Jerusalem, the men and women who followed Jesus asked themselves the same question, is there any hope? Their Lord had been taken captive in the middle of the night while he was at prayer.
18:20: He had been dragged from one unlawful court to another being mocked and spat upon.
18:27: He had been beaten mercilessly with a scourge, an instrument of Roman torture.
18:32: He had a rough wooden cross beam laid across his back, its splinters embedding themselves in his already open wounds.
18:40: He was forced to carry this beam to the point of absolute exhaustion until he fell under the weight.
18:48: He was stretched out on the cross, his arms being jerked in both directions and stapled to the beam.
18:55: In his feet, a single nail was driven, fastening him to the post upon which the beam was now secured.
19:05: The post was then hoisted into the air and dropped in a hole in the ground.
19:12: His body weight, now a tremendous burden, pulled at the spikes in his hands and he was suspended between heaven and earth with every breath he took more excruciating than the last.
19:30: Then, after several hours of agony, he bowed his head and died.
19:42: And at that moment, from the disciples' perspective, it would seem that all hope was lost.
19:55: The Bible doesn't tell us what the disciples did on Saturday, but I've often wondered what that Saturday was like.
20:06: Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, so we know they didn't just return to work.
20:11: It was also in the midst of the festival of Passover, but it's likely that they didn't go into any type of celebrations.
20:20: We can assume they were hiding away in a state of unimaginable grief and brokenness.
20:31: They were filled with all kinds of unanswered questions.
20:34: They were functioning on little to no sleep.
20:37: The doubts that they had were now magnified and flowing through their minds.
20:44: They had no internet.
20:46: They had no television to distract them from the pain of the previous day's events.
20:54: And Peter, probably above all, was heart sick and broken, having done the very thing that he said he would never do, deny the Lord Jesus Christ three times.
21:11: Saturday is a reminder to us that Jesus did not rise immediately.
21:19: There was a time span between His death and His resurrection.
21:25: Only a portion of three days, but it was still three days, not minutes, not hours.
21:33: Often we think of it as Good Friday to Easter Sunday.
21:37: From good to better.
21:40: But there's an interim time of worse.
21:44: There's an interim time of brokenness.
21:47: There's an interim time of hopelessness.
21:50: And there's one thing I can tell you that they did not do on Saturday.
21:55: I don't know what they did, but I know what they didn't do.
21:59: They did not expect that Jesus would rise.
22:03: Even though He said He would.
22:05: Even though He promised He would.
22:08: They did not expect that He would.
22:11: And therefore, whatever hope they had in Jesus, died with Him on the cross.
22:20: Beloved, I want to ask, have you ever been there? Have you ever been in a place where you felt like all hope was lost? Can you imagine or at least sympathize with the brokenness that the disciples felt? They were past asking, is there any hope? They were at the point where they were stating, all hope is lost.
22:47: He's dead.
22:48: He's gone.
22:50: He's buried.
22:51: It's over.
22:53: Everything that we've hoped for, everything we've planned for, everything we've prepared for, is gone.
23:04: But then, on Sunday morning, everything changed.
23:12: And I don't mean everything for them, I mean everything for everybody who would ever live.
23:19: The one who was beaten, the one who was bloodied, the one who was buried, was now no longer in the tomb.
23:29: The clothes which once were used to wrap His lifeless body were laying deserted in their place.
23:35: The vault that was once closed was now open so that the faithful women could come in and see.
23:41: The guards set to ensure His body would not be removed were laying outside the tomb as dead men.
23:48: And the angel messenger asked the now famous question, why do you seek the living among the dead? On Saturday, hope was lost.
24:01: But on Sunday, hope lived! But realize this, the disciples were not ready to hope again.
24:18: When the women came to them and told them that Jesus was alive, Luke 24 verse 11 says, they did not believe them.
24:31: When the women who had seen Jesus alive came and said, we've seen Him and He's alive, they said, this is but an idle tale.
24:42: Why? Why were they unwilling to believe the very thing that Jesus promised? Because they were afraid to hope again.
24:54: Their hope had become so destroyed in the death of their Savior, they were afraid to open their hearts and hope again.
25:07: The last three days had been a nightmare.
25:12: And it was almost as if they were saying, don't give me hope.
25:17: But by grace, Jesus did not leave them in their hopeless condition.
25:23: He came to them.
25:24: He showed Himself to them.
25:26: And He gave them a newfound foundation for their hope.
25:30: Even the most obstinate of them, Thomas, who said, I will not believe unless I see the marks in His hand and put my hand in His side.
25:38: Even he was given grace.
25:41: Even he was given mercy.
25:44: Where Jesus said, Thomas, put your hand here and touch my side and know that it is I.
25:51: And Thomas fell to the ground and said, my Lord and my God.
25:57: Their collective hopes, which days before had been dashed to pieces, were now restored by looking into the face of Jesus Christ.
26:10: Beloved, this hope that invigorated the apostles is the very same hope that our world needs today.
26:19: Many people hope in their investments and then the stock market crashes.
26:24: Many people hope in their health and then the doctor walks in the room.
26:29: Many people hope in their career and then the pink slip comes.
26:34: Beloved, the Bible tells us not to put our hope in the things of this world, but to put our hope into the things that are above.
26:45: Where is your hope today, church? We have seen structures fall.
26:53: We have seen fortunes ruined.
26:57: Where is your hope? We have seen lives lost.
27:01: We have seen disease stricken.
27:04: We have seen these things.
27:05: Where is your hope today? I want to tell a story of a woman as I draw to a close.
27:19: Her hands were full of rings.
27:24: Her wrists were covered in bracelets.
27:28: Her neck was laid with chains and precious stones.
27:40: Torrents of lava fell from the sky.
27:47: In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the city of Pompeii.
27:55: Not too long ago, as those ruins were unearthed, this woman's petrified body was found clutching her jewels under the ashes of the volcano.
28:14: In the midst of a world crumbling around her, this poor woman chose to hold tightly to the one thing in the world she felt like she could hope in, her treasure.
28:28: In her treasure, she found comfort.
28:32: In her treasure, she found security.
28:34: In her treasure, she found joy and pleasure.
28:39: In her treasure, she set her hope.
28:43: And when her time came, her treasure fell short.
28:50: It could not save her.
28:52: It could not protect her.
28:55: That to which she clutched became her undoing.
29:00: To what are you clutching today? Are you holding on to something that this world has promised you and cannot deliver? Were you holding on to something that's now been taken from you? What are you holding on to and to what are you clutching to set your hope? Beloved, my encouragement today is that you would hold only to one thing and that is the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
29:33: The one and the only one whose promises cannot fail.
29:39: To what are you holding? To what are you clutching? Church, where is your hope? We are sinners.
29:50: We deserve God's punishment.
29:53: Christ came.
29:54: He died on the cross to take our punishment from us and now He says to everyone who believes on Him, He will give them eternal life.
30:03: If you will repent of your sins and trust in the Son, you will never suffer the wrath of God but you will be in His presence and enjoy Him forever.
30:13: That is the hope that is promised on the cross.
30:17: That is the hope that is delivered in the resurrection.
30:20: And that is the hope to which we must hold.
30:24: For it is the only hope that will not and cannot fail to God alone be the glory.
30:35: Let us pray.
30:38: Father, I thank You for the opportunity this morning to preach Your Word.
30:45: Oh God, how I appreciate the candor of Your Word and the reminder that our heroes of the faith, the apostles, were not perfect men but they had doubts and they had struggles and yet, Lord, You still use them.
31:01: You still love them and You have promised to still use and love us if we will come to You by faith and repentance.
31:10: Lord, I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice, for everyone who is hearing me with their ears this morning and who will later hear this by recording, Lord, that they would come to the end of themselves, that they would realize the necessity of repentance, that they would realize the requirement that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that You would give them the gift of the Holy Spirit whereby they will be able to believe in You.
31:35: Father, please, give us hope and set our hope firmly in the Lord Jesus Christ.
31:44: And it's in His name we pray.
31:47: Amen.
31:58: God sent His Son They called Him Jesus He came to love, heal and forgive He bled and died to buy my pardon An empty grave is there to prove My Savior lives Because He lives I can face tomorrow Because He lives All fear is gone Because I know He holds the future And life is worth the living Just because He lives And then one day I'll cross the river I'll fight life's final war with pain And then as death Gives way to victory I'll see the lights of glory And I'll know He lives Because He lives I can face tomorrow Because He lives All fear is gone Because I know He holds the future And life is worth the living Just because He lives I want to pray for you.
34:09: As I pray, we're going to close the service with He is Lord.
34:14: As we're closing, I know how tempting it is to go around and give everyone a hug.
34:18: I know how tempting it is to go around and shake hands because I know that I want to do that.
34:25: But I want to encourage you, as we have said today, we're going to honor the requests of the authority set above us and not do that.
34:31: Wave goodbye.
34:34: Say you love each other, and I know you do.
34:37: And I pray that you are encouraged to enjoy this Lord's Day, this Easter Day, with your family.
34:44: May God bless you as we celebrate the Resurrection.
34:47: Father in Heaven, may You keep us safe, and may You keep us locked, steadfast in the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ's Resurrection.
34:59: For it is in that Resurrection that we have our hope.
35:03: Lord, give us that hope if we have lost it.
35:05: Give us that confidence if it has begun to wane.
35:09: Lord, lift our spirits if we have fallen into any type of sadness or depression.
35:14: God, give us the hope that the apostles had, who after Jesus ascended, they were willing to wait in that room, in the upper room.
35:27: They were willing to wait on You, Lord, because they trusted in You.
35:35: Lord, may we find our hope through trust in You.
35:40: In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
36:14: He is Lord.
36:18: He is Lord.
36:19: He is Lord.
36:21: He has risen from the dead and He is Lord.
36:29: Every knee shall bow.
36:33: Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
36:44: Amen.
36:45: May God continue to be with us.