Stop Looking for the Living Among the Dead

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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Welcome to Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service.

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You are listening to an Easter message by Lead Pastor Don Filsick. If you would like more information about Recast Church, check us out at recastchurch .com

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or you can find us on Facebook. Here's Pastor Don. You can go ahead and find your seats.

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I'm Don Filsick, I'm the Lead Pastor here, and I just want to start off by saying Happy Resurrection Day to all of you. Welcome to Recast Church.

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I'm glad that you're here and you've gathered together on this Lord's Day to remember together with us his resurrection.

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Be sure to fill out the connection card you received when you walked in. You can turn those in in the black box over here. And if it's your first time filling out one of those connection cards and sharing your information with us, we just ask that you please take a free coffee mug over there.

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Just our way of saying thanks for joining with us. And I know that sometimes visiting a place for the first time can be a little bit, you know, like, what am

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I getting myself into? So we just wanted to welcome you and thank you for coming. And then any offerings you would choose to give also go in that black box over there.

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And we don't pass an offering plate. We don't want anybody to feel the pressure of that plate going by, going, oh no, what do

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I have to give? Do I have to give something? What's this all about? So if you choose to give, you can use the envelope that was provided for you and give in that.

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And then anything that's marked Expansion Fund is going to go towards our eventual hopes of building a building on the property that we purchased over on East McGillan.

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So if it's marked Expansion Fund, it goes that direction. If you don't use that envelope, there's a place to recycle that over there.

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That just kind of helps us to be able to use those envelopes again next week if they're not going to be used this week. And that would be great.

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Of course, today is Easter. How many of you knew that? Everybody? Nobody surprised? Oh no, oh my goodness, it's

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Easter. It does have a tendency to sneak up on us. Does anybody recognize, does that happen to you?

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It's like all of a sudden, I'm like, this is Easter. And sometimes that happens. But I want to just tell you, as all of you know that it's

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Easter, there was also a big significant thing that happened yesterday as well. And yesterday marked five years, five years since Recast Church held its first services in a basement in the

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Trestle Creek neighborhood. So I wanted to say Happy Easter to you, but I also want to say

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Happy Birthday to you as well. Happy fifth birthday, Recast Church. An amazing thing. Today we celebrate

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Easter, but I find it ironic that English is one of the only languages, English is one of the only languages that does not use a clearly

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Christian word for this celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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The majority of languages around the world have overtly religious tones to the word that's used for this celebration, for this day.

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Most cultures in Eastern Europe, throughout Russia and throughout all of those former countries call it

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Resurrection Day. Some places refer to it according to the

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Passover, so more of a Jewish flavor to it. And English is the only language, one of the only languages that refers to it by the name of a

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Germanic goddess, Aoster. English is somewhat of a silly language,

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I would say. But this morning we're going to take time to focus on the reason for celebrating this. By the way, that doesn't mean that you have to, you can no longer call it

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Easter or whatever. I know that that's what our culture does. I do, however, like to say Happy Resurrection Day to all of you.

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What is the reason for this day? We're going to look into the text and be reminded, I hope that this is encouraging to you, many of you know the story of Easter, you know the story of resurrection, you know the story of the empty tomb.

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And so you know that that's where we're going this morning. You know that this day has little to do with eggs, little to do with bunnies or baskets or candy.

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Now I know that Cadbury cream eggs are a pretty big deal. At least they are in my household. Anybody else relate to that?

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Is that a pretty big deal? You get them once a year. Anybody notice that they're getting smaller every year? Pretty soon it's just going to be like a little nugget, a little bit of cream in there.

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But what we're going to be talking about this morning is so much more, ought to be so much more important than chocolate and presents and Easter baskets and all of that,

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Easter egg hunts and all of that stuff. Yes, I did say more important than chocolate. I know some of you, that's like I just pushed a button.

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The fact of resurrection should be stark to us. It should grab our attention. There's nothing that should be routine as we come to celebrate another resurrection day together.

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It should not at all be routine. It should just kind of be like a bombshell in the middle of life.

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To consider the physical, bodily resurrection of the dead to many seems to be the stuff of myths, the stuff of fairy tales, the stuff of blind faith, the stuff of the ever popular in our culture zombie type stuff.

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The reality is, and as painful as it is, we've all buried someone that we love or we will bury somebody that we love.

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And the fact resides over every human life that sometime our own bodies will one day be physically lowered into a grave or disposed of in some manner that our culture sees as fit.

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And in our text we see that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ himself had been laid out in a tomb, lifeless and cold.

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But in our text this morning, we are going to see an incredible claim, an incredible claim that should boggle our minds, that should move us to wonder, should move us to amazement.

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A claim that initially likely evokes skepticism in those who hear it.

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It does in our text. Those who first experience these things were moved to skepticism first.

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A claim that initially causes curiosity. A claim that once substantiated causes great wonder and amazement.

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And this claim is the very heart and soul of the Christian faith to the degree that the

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Apostle Paul said, we are fools, we are to be pitied above all humanity if Jesus Christ indeed was not raised.

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What a pitiful thing that you're sitting here this morning. You could have slept in. If Jesus Christ is not raised, go out and make some money today.

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Go out and get ahead in this life. Get a little bit more for yourself, right? And what about this business of giving back to the

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Lord anything if he has not been raised? So let's give up the pretending that this is not the center of everything.

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This is the centerpiece. This is what we're talking about here is the reason that we are in the faith or not.

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It has to do with this resurrection. The claim is simply this.

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He is not in the tomb. But he has been raised just as he said he would.

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This claim, if true, changes everything. If death could not defeat

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Jesus, then that means that Jesus has won. He is the victor.

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If Jesus came forth from the grave as the victor over death, then those who place their trust in Jesus are turning to the one who has conquered our ultimate enemy.

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What is our ultimate enemy? But death itself. And that is exactly where my hope is placed.

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I believe in the historical. I believe in the literal. I believe in the physical.

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I believe in the amazing. I believe in the glorious, victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ from death.

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He was the son of God. Slaughtered for us. Buried.

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Truly dead. And now raised physically and is alive forevermore.

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Let's open our Bibles to Luke chapter 24. We'll read the first 12 verses in this text.

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You can check that out for yourself. If you're using one of the Bibles that's available back on the back table, it's page 756.

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If you have one of those, paperbacks. Otherwise, navigate on your own to Luke 24, 1 through 12.

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And we'll read this together. This accounting. This narrative of the center of our faith.

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But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.

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And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the

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Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

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And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead?

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He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee, that the

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Son of Man must be delivered in the hands of sinful men and be crucified. And on the third day, rise.

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And they remembered his words. And returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

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Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles.

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But these words seemed to them an idle tale. And they did not believe them.

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But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in.

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He saw the linen cloths by themselves. And he went home marveling at what had happened.

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Let's pray. As the band comes to lead us this morning in joy. Father, what a glorious account.

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We are reading here in a historical account, Father, that which seems incredible to our scientific minds.

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That which presses hard against what we perceive to be the reality of the way that we see things in real life.

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Father, I pray that you would produce in us a wonder this morning, an amazement. That you would renew within us a faith that believes in the resurrection.

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This is not metaphor. This is not just, well, like the leaves come back every spring and this is just a new life.

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This is Jesus Christ raised from real literal death and his body physically no longer in the tomb.

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And the implications for us are astonishing. Father, I pray that you would convict us of the reality and the truth of this.

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Father, a variety of us have been kicking around churches for a long time and some of us maybe have not really wrestled with the reality of this.

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Some of us, our hope is placed firmly and squarely on this. And then others are here just checking out a church.

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Father, I pray that you would move in our hearts to all recognize the wonder and the amazement of this resurrection.

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And put our faith and trust in the one who has conquered sin and death. And it's his name that we want to lift up high this morning.

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It's his name that we want to delight and rejoice in as we sing these songs. Father, move in our hearts to genuinely be motivated by your great love for us that we would reflect that back to you in these songs.

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I ask this in Jesus' name. Thank you to the band for leading us in worship this morning.

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I'm grateful for the time and energy they put in every week and glad for that. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable.

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Remember to keep your Bibles open in front of you to Luke chapter 24. I know some of you have come in since we read that.

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And so Luke 24, 1 through 12, that is the text. That's the outline. That's where we're going.

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And then remember that if at any time you need to get more coffee or juice, use the restrooms that are out the hallway, out the door, in the hallway, clear to the end.

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Men's upstairs, women's downstairs if you need to use those. Use those ones on that end down there. It would be valuable for us,

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I think, to start off by setting a little bit of the stage here. Obviously, we're jumping right in here on Easter with the resurrection.

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But to set the stage for Good Friday, I think, is beneficial, even though many of us could probably rehearse some of the events of Good Friday.

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And maybe on Good Friday you went to a Good Friday service somewhere or you did some things with your family to remember the crucifixion of Christ.

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But I don't want to just start off with Jesus in the tomb without any context. And so let's put a little context there.

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Scripture clearly communicates that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. He came to earth on purpose.

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He lived a sinless life and willingly submitted to the Father by going to the cross.

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We know about the Garden of Gethsemane and in that point of travail and praying and saying,

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Lord, if there's any other way to redeem them, let me go that way. And his answer was given.

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And in the end, he said, but not my will, but yours be done. He was unfairly tried. He was found guilty of blasphemy according to the

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Jews, meaning that he made himself out to be God, which he indeed was. He was turned over to the

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Romans and was crucified as one falsely accused according to their law of sedition, of basically leading a rebellion against Rome.

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And that was their main cause for crucifying him and also to try to put down the rebellion that they knew was going to ensue if he was let go.

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One of the last things Jesus said before he died on the cross was the phrase, and most of us know it and it means a lot to us, and that is the phrase, it is finished.

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He had completed on the cross what he came to do. And so in one sense, it could be said,

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Good Friday summarizes a lot for us, doesn't it? Does the cross take care of a lot for us? Raise your hand if the cross means something to you personally.

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The cross has significant impact on our lives. It's significant to each and every one of us here to some degree or another.

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But there was still something left to do. There was one more piece of the puzzle that needed to happen in the bringing about of salvation for his followers.

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His work was indeed done when he said, It is finished.

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He was laid in the tomb. But the father was not finished with the son.

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After the crucifixion, we see, according to the Gospel of Luke, a dude named Joseph, Joseph of Arimathea, who had seen the life of Jesus.

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He went to Pontius Pilate and requested the body of Jesus. Joseph and some friends took the body down off the cross and laid that body in a freshly cut tomb for interment, a tomb that had not yet been used.

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Now the tomb is the primary location of the text and you can see an example of a tomb like that one and I think that that picture speaks more words than I can.

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But you see the round stone cut in a channel, a slope channel across the mouth there.

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Another stone had to be put in place to hold that rock up. Otherwise it would naturally roll back down to cover that grave entrance.

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When you step into that cave, there would be a small area, maybe six foot by six foot, with on all three sides, the doors behind you, on all three sides there would be a small shelf.

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And then off of each shelf was a lengthwise cut niche in which a full -sized human body could fit.

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And so a good -sized tomb of a wealthy individual would be able to bury about six people in there, about three this way and a couple this way and a couple more this way and you'd get about roughly six in there.

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Now a body that was being prepared would be laid out on that shelf lengthwise, prepared, and then turned sideways and put back in the niche.

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That's the way that the body was then interred. The tombs would be used more than once, which to us is kind of gross, but after the body had decomposed and it was just bones, those bones would be taken and put in a box called an ossuary and then that niche would be used again.

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So it would be a family tomb where family members would be buried over the centuries and that was the way that they would do this.

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So again you see a good example. And that's the primary location of our text this morning. That's the primary location, so it's good to have that in our mind.

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The reason I even go through any of those details is not just to give you some kind of a historical context or just that's cool facts, but when it comes down to it that gives us an image of what was this place like.

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A linen burial cloth had been used to cover the body of Jesus. According to Luke 23, 55, some of the women who were there during the crucifixion followed

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Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb to make note of his location. And so some people have said, well maybe the women got the wrong tomb or maybe something happened.

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We're going to see that here in just a moment. Some things that really speak against those kinds of notions. But Luke 23, 55, if you're taking notes, that just says in and of itself that the women went with Joseph on the night that he put the body in the tomb and followed him.

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These ladies went and prepared spices and ointments to prepare the body for burial. But it was the evening before the

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Sabbath, that is Saturday, and the Jews are not allowed to work on the Sabbath. And so they did not get the entire preparations of the body done for burial before the

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Sabbath fell. So they decided to resume it all at the first opportunity and that brings us right to our text here in Luke 24, verse 1.

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Early in the morning is probably around six o 'clock. Anybody relate to that? Six o 'clock seemed pretty early in the morning.

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Some of you are like, I've already got an hour and a half of work in by then. Or two hours or whatever.

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Then you've got to question what your job is at that point. Some of you moms are like, yeah, that's the way

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I roll. What do you mean four o 'clock? I was up at three. At least five ladies, early in the morning, five ladies took off for the tomb with the spices to anoint the body of Jesus and finish the final preparations, the burial preparations for the body.

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Now I say five, at least five. Three of them are named and then the plural and the other women are going to be mentioned here later in the text.

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So we know that there were at least five, maybe more had taken off on the road to go back to the tomb to finish that business.

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I cannot imagine what the conversation must have been like on that early morning walking to the tomb. Have you put yourself in the shoes of those ladies?

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Have you ever contemplated and considered how heavy each one of those footfalls was on the way to prepare their

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Lord for burial? Have you ever considered what that must have felt like, what that must have been like for them at this point?

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Their hearts were heavy. They had a gruesome task ahead of them, right? I mean, preparing a body for burial is one thing, but this body was emaciated.

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This body had been torn apart by the Romans. So they had a task in front of them. I don't know if you ever thought about what their job was as they get there.

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I don't want to get too graphic, but it's not an easy job that lays ahead of them. And not only that, it would be difficult to prepare the body of a stranger.

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Would you agree with me on that? Somebody you didn't know. This was somebody they loved.

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This was their rabbi, their teacher. They had observed this man heal people of things that couldn't be healed, blind people who could see, lame people who could walk.

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And they had even seen this one raise the dead. He was their teacher.

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But more than a teacher, He healed people and spoke of an eternal kingdom. And now they're going to prepare

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His body. Certainly some of these women had hoped beyond hope that this

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Jesus was indeed the Messiah. He was the chosen one, the usher in His kingdom, and it would reign forever and ever.

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And He spoke in those kinds of terms. And now on this morning, all of that hope was gone.

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It was dashed. Do you ever feel the hopelessness of that early

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Sunday morning? In the followers of Jesus. Can you imagine how heavy their hearts were as the one that they were sure was the chosen one has failed them.

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That's their perspective. That's what they think. He's done. Where do we turn now?

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Where do we go? Where can we find hope? If not in this one. He healed.

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He did all these things. Are you getting this in your mind? Are you grasping how they must have felt? Immediately upon arrival at the cave, however, something is amiss.

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Something is awry. They notice it right away. The stone. This is how they find it.

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The stone already rolled away. Other gospel accounts tell us that the women, that we know at least part of the conversation on the way, with their heavy hearts, they've got their minds and their hearts are set on the task ahead of them.

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And we know that part of the conversation from some of the other gospel writers say, how are we going to move this stone?

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There are at least five of them and they were obviously concerned and thought it was going to be difficult for even five of them to get this stone rolled back from the grave.

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And so they arrive and the stone is already rolled away. Part of the problem solved.

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And so what would you do in that situation? You'd duck in and take a look. Can you imagine their surprise and shock to find that the body was not there?

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Anybody that would be surprised by that? You walk in. They had just been there preparing. Just the night before last, they had stood there taking a mental note of where the body was.

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Getting as far as they could in the preparations before the Sabbath began. Going back, getting more ointment, getting more spices, and then they had to cease their work for the

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Sabbath. But they had been there. They had already been to this tomb. But I want to point out, by the end of verse 3, we are left without any understanding of what has happened.

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At this point, these women, they duck in, they see the body is missing. Do they know that he's raised?

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They are perplexed. They are confused. What has happened?

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Maybe somebody has stolen the body. Would you think that? Maybe somebody stole the body.

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Maybe they came to the wrong tomb. They're looking around like, is this the right place? His body's not there.

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It was sitting right there. What's going on here? He's not here. Maybe aliens abducted the body.

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Maybe some of our modern, if you watch the X -Files or something, you'd be tempted to think that, right?

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The women were perplexed. And the word perplexed is one of uncertainty. It seems by the use of this

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Greek word and the nuances of that word that these women had a direction in their minds. A direction had begun to unform, but that direction had yielded uncertainty.

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They have something that they're thinking has happened, but they don't know for sure.

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I wonder if at this early stage they began to think and contemplate. Has He raised?

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But while they stood there considering the options, which I think any one of us would, right? You'd be sitting there going, what has happened here?

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You'd be talking. I'm sure the five women were chattering, like, what's going on? What do you think? What do you think is going on?

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When suddenly, shazam! The word behold in the Greek language means shazam.

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Okay, I'm taking some liberty with that, but it means check this out. It's a word of interruption, okay?

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Behold, in the midst of what is normally mundane, normally going on, behold, two men appeared next to the women.

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Now, just to clarify, these men are directly identified verbally as angels of God in verse 23.

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So, where often we see when an angel appears to a human, they appear as a man.

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They appear in human form, and then only eventually are they revealed, does it become clear that they indeed were angels?

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But one of the indicators is that they have got dazzling apparel. I don't know, were they wearing sequined shirts?

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I don't know what's going on here. Who knows? A little bit creepy. I think most of us would be pretty scared if some guys in sequined shirts were suddenly standing close to us in a cemetery.

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Early dawn, kind of dark. Some of us are just creeped out by cemeteries to begin with, and then all of a sudden, boom, and there's these two guys, all disco'd up.

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So, you guys are tracking with me. Freaky. These women were frightened, but there's something about the appearance of these angels that causes them respect, like they bow immediately.

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They recognize something is unique about them probably by the dazzling apparel. By the way, I'm taking some liberty with the sequined shirts.

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Something about their apparel was indeed dazzling to them. Was this bright, shone with the glory of God? I don't know.

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But if these were angels that had just come from the presence of God, they probably shone with His glory. They have some understanding of the authority of these angels in bowing before them.

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But now the angels give a sarcastic reveal. I think there's something intentionally sarcastic about the way that the angels speak here.

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The first thing they say, why do you seek the living among the dead?

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Silly humans. You crazy people. You humans confuse us, angels.

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Why would you be looking for Jesus here? Give me a break. Do you not know who

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He is? Do you not remember what He promised to you? He said

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He was coming back. He said He was going to raise from the dead. What are you doing here? Do you see how they're incredulous?

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What? Why are you here? Have you ever considered what kind of question is that?

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These poor ladies. Okay? I mean, they had just started the preparations of a dead body a couple days ago.

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Now the dead body is no longer there. And the angels are like, duh. He's alive.

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I wonder, it makes me, this text makes me wonder a little bit about angels. Just a little bit.

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I wonder if the angels are not a bit intrigued by the things that humans don't know. It seems like they're in the loop on quite a bit.

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They obviously already were aware that Jesus has risen and their expectation is that humans should make that connection.

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You should make that connection. He's not going to be in the grave. He said on the third day.

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Isn't this the third day? But in verse 5, we see the angels hinting at it by questioning, by drawing out this question.

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But in verse 6, they make the comment explicit. They're a messenger sent from God with something to say and they say it.

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And the message punches a wallop. It's definitive. He is not here.

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He is not here. But has risen. He's not here, but he has risen.

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Notice the necessity of the words. The women are perplexed. The women are confused.

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The women cannot make sense of what they can take in with their five senses. They can hear, see, taste, touch, feel.

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But it doesn't communicate to them what they need. And so God, in His grace and in His mercy, sends a messenger to them to declare what they can't figure out on their own.

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He does not leave them perplexed. But He openly declares to them, He is not here, but He has risen.

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This truth is not merely left on their shoulders. Often we need words to make sense of what we see.

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Right? Is that truth? We need words to make sense. We can observe things. But how many of you have ever gotten it wrong just by watching it?

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A few of us. You can tell by the laughter. You see it. You look at the outside. How many of you have ever gotten that wrong on the face of your spouse?

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You thought you knew what was going on inside by the look and you were off. You needed some words to figure out what was going on in the heart.

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Guys, sometimes we need to use words. Sometimes we need to listen to words. Right, Linda?

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I ran into that this week. I needed to listen, not just assume. We've been there.

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But think about it in these terms. There's another way. Just like the call on us is to proclaim the gospel, to proclaim these words of life, to proclaim the crucified and risen

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Lord. And many, there's been a big movement to say just do it with actions and use words if necessary.

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And words are necessary to convey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Actions, your actions are not sufficient.

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I've said this many times. But if you act to your unsaved friends really cool and really good and treat them well and great business dealings, do you know what they think?

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They think you're a really good person. That's what you've communicated to them. You're a good person. What's that got to do with the gospel again?

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If you're not careful, they'll just be singing your praises. And what's the goal of the gospel? To turn them to the praises of Jesus Christ.

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You have to have words to do that. This is a message of words. And even from the very beginning, the message of the resurrection was brought to the ladies at words.

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Was it an alien abduction? Did we get the wrong tomb? Was the body stolen? The words clarify everything.

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You're in the right place, but he's not here. You're in the right place. Aliens didn't take the body.

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Nobody stole it. But he has been raised. Without this meeting of the angels, without the angels showing up in this text, all that the women have to go back to the disciples and report is the body isn't there.

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That's all they would know. Let's take a moment to consider what is indeed missing in this scenario.

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What's missing in the setting? His body is missing. It's not that Jesus came back in some ethereal spirit form to show that his life force goes on and on and is watching over his people.

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Is resurrection a metaphor? It is a metaphor. I've seen marriages resurrected from the dead.

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Any of you ever observe that? So far gone that you thought that there was no hope and reconciliation happens.

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Is that a resurrection of sorts? Yeah. How many of you have seen that in your own life where you felt hopeless and helpless and all of a sudden

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God gives you a fresh wind and a fresh desire and reignites you and it's a resurrection of sorts?

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But is that what we mean when we look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ historically? No. It's so much more than metaphor.

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Is there a metaphor in it? Absolutely. But not just a metaphor. The body of Jesus Christ was no longer there.

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We are talking about physical flesh and blood resurrection. His body missing from the tomb.

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And that is our hope if you are in Christ. Our hope is not just some ethereal floating in the clouds strumming in...

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How do you strum a harp if you're just a spirit anyways? I mean we get our... Even our mix our metaphors and stuff like that but there's this image that heaven is just this ethereal floating kind of thing but that sounds kind of boring and some of you have dealt with that.

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These bodies being raised again. It's a radical thing that we're talking about here.

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It's not merely just a metaphor. Our hope is not merely that our soul would be redeemed but that these physical bodies will be raised.

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Raised to new life. Raised without pain. Raised without sin.

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Raised without defect. But indeed physically raised. The angels are incredulous in all different kinds of levels.

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They're incredulous at the forgetfulness of these women. If these women could only remember what Jesus had told them they would have been able to connect the dots themselves.

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The command from the angels is to remember. Remember what he told you?

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And the solution to that remembering is found in verse 8 which actually says the women did indeed remember.

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Jesus had told them multiple times in pretty clear language once you kind of get past how he was such a cryptic speaker in clear language he told them he's going to Jerusalem he's going to be flogged he's going to be killed and then he's going to raise again on the third day and he said that to them multiple, multiple times.

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Very clear language. But I think we can cut the women some slack as much as Jesus used metaphor and parable and all different kinds of analogies in his teaching

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I'd cut them just a smidgen of slack because if we were sitting there listening to Jesus and he said I'm going down to Jerusalem I'm going to be flogged

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I'm going to be killed and I'm going to be raised again on the third day I think we'd be pretty like raised what? What's going to happen here?

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You're going to go up to the heaven? You're going to go to the father? What does it mean raised? And then Peter even outright denies no that can't be you're the

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Messiah you're the chosen one you won't be killed Peter rebuking his

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Lord and his Lord turns around and says get thee behind me Satan don't tempt me in this way because I would love to not go to the cross but this is the will of my father this is what he desires of me the command to remember is a pretty big deal and the remembering is the content of scripture if you look at by the way if you're looking for those references if you're looking for I'll just give you a couple of them a couple places where where Jesus actually very very very clearly spoke to his followers

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Luke 9 21 -22 he outright declares that he will be killed and raised again on the third day

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Luke 18 33 -34 two within the same gospel that we're looking at two places where Jesus predicted his own death and resurrection and at the end of the

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Luke 18 passage it actually states this this is interesting because remember these women don't remember any of this they were there when he they should remember it they were there when he taught this how many of you think that that might stand out to you if your leader said

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I'm going to die and I'm going to be raised again three days later you'd think that it would stand out to you especially if he just died but it says this at the end of the

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Luke 18 passage but they understood none of these things he's just said I'm going to be flogged crucified raised again they understood none of these things this saying was hidden from them and they did not grasp what was said they didn't get it when he said it but now they are remembering like I said the command to remember is a pretty big deal in this context the women remembered that the resurrection was a fulfillment of a prophecy that Jesus Christ himself had uttered he told his followers that he would rise from the dead if he did not rise from the grave he would prove himself to be a liar but here stand these angels testifying to the women that he is alive the ladies returned from the tomb and immediately went to the remaining 11 disciples why 11?

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Judas is already gone so there's only 11 of them and then the others that are gathered together with them

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I wonder if in part have you ever wondered why there were women going out and not the men why are the men kind of hiding out in the upper room and kind of on their own and they send the women out

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I wonder if there wasn't some sense in which the men were so well recognized out in the society and out in the community as having been with Jesus that the

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Romans they were less fearful that the Romans would give the women a hard time as much as the men I don't know what the actual reason is

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I just have been curious about that but they come back and they report maybe the guys were just chicken

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I don't know but immediately the text tells us the men were skeptical these guys who had followed

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Jesus everywhere that he went they had learned they were his life followers his life disciples disciple is more than just teacher more than just a student of a person but it's somebody who wants to emulate the life of another that's what it means to be a disciple you are seeking to emulate the life of Christ and these 11 had been trying to follow his life and now they're skeptical

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I love the way that the disciples record their own disbelief they actually record that for us in the gospels if they wanted to only paint themselves in a good light or if they were making this story up and you consider how heavily patriarchal this society was they would have had men be the first one to find the tomb if they were just inventing the story you get what

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I'm saying they would have just said yeah well we were like super tough we were like ladies you stay back we got this one they would have just trucked out there and been like yeah it's all empty and they would have had heroic and epic faith would have been their response can you imagine yourself writing a story that you wanted to just invent about yourself yeah it was super awesome

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I was pretty much the superhero you know that's not the way the story goes they're honest about the way that they were scared they're honest about the way that they didn't believe the author of the gospel the author of this book that we're looking at right now was a medical doctor

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Dr. Luke and he is identified as a medical doctor and he uses medical terms often known from the ancient world this is a medical term for the words that we have translated idle tale we translated that because we want to get down to the basic gist of it but it's a medical term that's technically used throughout the

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Roman world for delirium okay it's delirious it's a babble or a talking that happens as a result of a high fever so somebody who is completely hallucinating and talking and babbling during a high fever that's the word that's used here it's like it was like nonsense to them the women come back say we got there and the stone was already rolled away and then we were in there and there's no body there and Jesus was gone and then these two angels bright light sequence it was disco and they're like what are you talking about?

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you're crazy you're crazy how would that have felt to the women?

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how would you have felt to come back excited they came the angels I mean maybe they had a hard time even articulating they're just like stammering he's alive he's alive we saw the angels and they're like make some sense women stop it speak plain

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English or Hebrew or whatever can you and verse 11 concludes with an outright rejection of the resurrection by the 11 men standing in that room they did not believe they were skeptical they didn't believe what the women said that'd be a rough place to end

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Peter arose and ran to the tomb to see for himself can you picture

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Peter? can you relate to Peter? how many of you would want to go you're the type of person that wants to verify a fact right away you're like on Google like somebody said something some of you have already been on Google checking my facts this morning you know who you are you've already been like connecting like is that right?

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did it really happen that way? Peter's that dude he's like I'm going to check this out right away

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I really think that Peter wants to believe but he cannot yet and the only way he can process the situation is to run and check it out for himself he runs he doesn't walk showing his eagerness

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Peter this guy the guy who walked on water with Jesus that kind of faith

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Peter who had the guts to rebuke Jesus for saying that he would go to the cross and be killed

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Peter who recently denied Jesus three times that actual guy is the guy who runs to the tomb to check it out and stooping in he sees the empty space where the body had been laying he took in the linen burial cloths that had been set aside not stolen just sitting there laid aside and he departed the text ends with he departed marveling at what had happened marveling at these things now the word marveling is not quite yet to faith this is not saying that Peter at this point became a follower of Jesus Christ and became a believer and gave his life over and was like I recognize

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I understand the full implications of the resurrection and boy I'm just on fire and I'm going to go win the world for the cause of this risen

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Lord and Savior it is a step above being perplexed there is an optimistic flavor to this word that shows that his mind is moving in the direction of belief he is marveling he is amazed by these things of course the text we're looking at ends there but the story does not the text goes on to explain that Jesus met with many including these twelve, these eleven followers and he put to rest all of their doubts about resurrection even allowing them to see the nail holes in his hands and where the spear had been put in his side obviously those are scars we're intended to believe from the pages of scripture that are scars that are left there as a testimony of what he has done for us

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I believe one day you and I will get to gaze on those holes in his hand and in his side God has seen fit to leave them as a reminder to us but the story goes on as a matter of fact after Peter is restored by the risen

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Christ he meets with Peter and talks with him and restores him after his denial Peter goes on to have an amazing ministry proclaiming the resurrection and eventually

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Peter will give up his own life and have his life taken from him because he will not denounce the resurrection of his

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Lord and Savior what moves him from disbelief in the upper room to giving his life for that which he didn't believe at first to giving his life for that which he was skeptical of at first some of us in the room can relate to what skepticism is maybe some of you are processing that right now even in my words even as I'm talking to you you're like come on really do you really believe that it's body raised can you just can you make that a figure of speech can you just keep it as a metaphor that I can buy that some of you used to be there and you know exactly what it means to move through these stages of skepticism to perplexed to marveling to faith that would be willing to sacrifice your life for this one who raised on your behalf you've been moved through those phases but in this text we find the birth of our hope as Christians those ladies walking to the tomb two thousand years ago had little to no hope their dreams of an eternal kingdom had been dashed on Friday their inability to connect the dots and remember what

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Jesus had predicted prevented them from hoping and so as we go to apply this passage this morning the first place

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I want to turn is the hope given to us by the angels the hope given to all of us this is my first application if you're taking notes the statement that he is not here but has risen is a bombshell right in the middle of our everyday lives should be a bombshell in the middle of our everyday life the grave could not hold him this is the foundation of the entire

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Christian faith this is the point where true hope was born where our hope came alive in the resurrection of Jesus we find the hope that death is not the winner and the grave is not the grave is not the grave is not our final destination sin and Satan will not win

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Jesus is not in the grave he has risen as the victorious conqueror over sin and death as long as death stands in the way though as long as death stands in the way hope is futile we live in a culture where it is popular to suggest that those who died are watching over us ever heard that?

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everybody wants to say that is that kind of a nice sentiment? is that kind of a nice thought? oh you know they're watching down on us

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I've even heard people say you know well I think they kept me from they steered the car clear when I was almost in a car accident or you know

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I knew that they were watching down on me because something good happened and I just thought I just winked up to the sky and thought oh it's so good that you're still here with me

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I understand that sentiment I get that but that is merely wishful thinking unless we have some objective historical event to base that hope on any world view that doesn't deal with the problem of death and still pretends to have hope for something after this life is being completely inconsistent and that's a lot of our culture today how have you dealt with the problem of death?

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how has your world view and the way that you perceive things to be in reality in our lives how has death been dealt with for you?

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do you believe that Jesus is the solution? and that leads to my second application and that is remember remember although we were not physically present with Jesus and his disciples he has given us a rock solid record for us to go back to and study and read and to know this word the holy word of God the scriptures remembering for us

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I believe looks like studying the word that he has given to us now remembering for them looked like recalling the actual words of Jesus delivered to them verbally right?

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they were there they were there during the sermon on the mount they heard him talk they were there physically so to them it was a verbal message but what is that message to us now?

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is it a verbal message we're looking for? or is it a recorded written message that he has now given to us that we can dig in and remember this throughout our day?

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I would dare suggest to you that one of the biggest enemies of the Christian faith is forgetfulness how often can we sit in a message like this and then leave and five minutes later it's gone or we can have a quiet time in the morning and take in some of God's words and by 1030 in the morning that's all gone and we're living for ourselves and doing what we want to do and we're forgetting that God even walks through with us throughout the day can you relate to am

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I the only one that experiences that or is forgetfulness your problem too? do you guys some of you can relate to that? and so remember it looks like recalling the actual words of God delivered to us in writing regardless of how long you've been searching or how deeply you are connected with Jesus Christ you need to constantly come back to his word and remember and my last application may seem strange may seem strange to some of you that have been around the kingdom for a while you've been in churches for a long time and so this sounds kind of like is that an

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Easter message? but let me encourage you to give people in your life time to process and come along with you now isn't everything supposed to wait

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Don isn't everything supposed to be urgent? isn't it supposed to be pushing people into the kingdom? isn't it supposed to be just going and taking the world for Christ?

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should you be sharing your faith with others in reasonable ways and talking with them and reasoning with them about your world view and about what

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Christ has done and about resurrection and the penalty for our sins and that was covered on the cross we should be doing that right?

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but often in our urgency for the gospel we've had the expectation that we can shove people into the kingdom but if the disciples took some time to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and they physically stood in the empty tomb do you think maybe we could cut some people in our lives a little bit of slack?

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do you think maybe we could give other people a little bit of room to process as we tell them Jesus raised from the dead?

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how many of you think in our modern scientific culture that that takes a little bit of processing? does that take a little bit of wrestling?

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does that take a little bit of marveling? by the power of the spirit of God can he make that alive in somebody right away?

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absolutely absolutely by his power salvation is his work it's what he does but I'm suggesting that from our standpoint of evangelism the way that we go out from this place give people some room tell them the truth

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I'm not even for a second suggesting to you that you just give them room doesn't mean step out of the conversation giving them room

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I'm not giving you a license some of you are like oh good I don't ever have to share my faith again I'm not letting you off the hook on that I'm talking about the method the way the expectation the ramrodding that often is the evangelical church in America the disciples took some time and they stood there they were there in the empty tomb they saw with their eyes we need to lovingly and carefully explain the truth we should give biblical answers when people are asking them but also give room for people to process the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ just like it took the disciples some time to process as we come to communion this morning

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I'm going to ask you a few questions have you dealt with the evidence of the empty tomb? have you wrestled with that in your heart?

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have you wrestled with that and wrestled away and wrestled with the doubts in your mind about that? some of you here may consider it to be just so much babbling of crazy people like idle talk or a good fable or wishful thinking many still believe in this world that the resurrection is just a myth but let me encourage everyone to run and check it for yourself like Peter did come to the scriptures with an open heart check these things out to see that they indeed are so let me challenge those who doubt to at least allow your mind to move to wonder at least allow your mind to move to marvel if you can't marvel about anything else you can at least marvel that I believe it

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I believe it's true to the core of my essence I believe that resurrection is indeed true

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Peter doesn't walk away and immediately proclaim the resurrection he doesn't immediately come back and just he's immediately on fire he has to see

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Jesus first some of you here have already put your faith and trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ by faith and you have hope for your own physical resurrection in the future because of what

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Jesus Christ did and if you're here in that situation and you believe that Jesus died on the cross and was raised again to new life and you have asked him to be your king and your savior those are two really important components that I don't really emphasize very often but it's both believe and ask it's not just believe or it's not just ask but it's believe and ask believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and was raised again to new life and ask him to be your king and your savior and if you're there then please feel free to go to one of the tables this table is set up in the corners of the room for communion and you can take the cracker and the cup of juice that reminds us of his body that was broken for us and the juice that reminds us of his blood that was shed for us we do this because Jesus commanded us again to remember one of my application points to us this morning remember and in taking this we remember his death but we are those who cannot leave the remembering there we cannot leave the remembering with his burial but we get the opportunity to remember with rejoicing that victory was indeed given to him there for certainly as scripture declares that Jesus died scripture clearly declares that he rose again on the third day and he didn't just raise to life again on the third day but he did it just as he said he would and Jesus is not a liar

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Father I thank you so much for resurrection this is the hope and I think every day that ticks by and every year that ticks by and it just seems like there's an accelerator on this thing called life and it would be only the fool in the room who would not have processed to some degree that there is a demise in our future there is a actual day in which this body will cease to operate as it was designed to do

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Father we don't look forward to that there's nothing exciting about thinking about death there's something that's morbid about it and it's not something that our minds in America turn to very often and yet it is a reality for each and every one of us and I thank you for the hope that this will be put back together again even after my demise that there will come a time when you by the by the command by your command will send your son again and the dead in Christ will rise and we look forward to an eternal kingdom set on a brand new earth everything operating as it was intended to be without sin and that is our hope

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Father thank you for Jesus Christ his death on the cross and even as we get a chance to remember that in the the juice and remember that in the cracker