There are many ways to approach the truth of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, so many aspects and elements regarding it that
we can commemorate and reaffirm. But as I meditating on this
message and what to say on this Sunday, I trust that will be
most beneficial to consider the deep and the rich roots of this
precious truth. In other words, I want us to see
together in the Word of God how what we just sang about this
past 45 minutes, what we hold dear to, what everything really
hinges on. Pertaining our faith is not a
novel idea introduced in the New Testament.
It is something that God has consistently conveyed to the
world from the beginning of time.
It is a hope that has been woven throughout redemptive history,
culminating 2000 years ago, and something that we still hold to
today. And this is something that Paul,
the great apostle, always alluded to, always affirmed,
especially in his defense of his faith in the person of Jesus
Christ. This great man of God known as
Paul was charged for many things after he became a follower of
the Messiah. But one of the main things that
he was accused of is that he was some kind of a ringleader of
this new sect that supposedly contradicted the truths of the
Hebrew Scriptures. But I want you to see and I hope
you have your Bible with you. I want you to see what Paul says
in a particular place that confirms this glorious truth is
something that's always been meet me in your Bibles in Acts
24, verse 14, as we look at Paul standing on trial before Felix,
the governor at Caesarea. And I want to encourage you.
This is where we're headed today for this Easter service.
There's going to be a lot of Bible because more than
anything, I want all of our hearts to leave here more
assured regarding the historicity of our faith, the
validity, the consistent message that we hold to.
And so we're going to start here and we're going to continue make
note of these verses. I trust that they will help you
in your worship and also your defense of what we believe.
Acts 24, verse 14 Paul says. But this I confess to you, that
according to the way which they call a sect, I worship the God
of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law
and written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these
men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of
both the just and the unjust. There are three major statements
that Paul makes here in his defense #1HE affirms that he
worships the God of his father's, the God of the
patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the 12 tribes
of Israel. He's not introducing a new God.
He is confirming I believe in the one true God, the Lord
Yahweh. Second, he also says that he
holds to the entirety of the scriptures.
Is that what he says, believing everything laid down by the law
and written in the prophets, what you and I call the Old
Testament, the Hebrew Bible, is what Paul says he wholeheartedly
believes. And combining these things, he
says his final thing, that the message of the resurrection that
Paul preached, that Paul promotes, was something that he
came to because of his faith in the true God and because of his
belief in the sacred Scriptures. So in essence, what he is saying
to his accusers, these Pharisees and these Jews who were standing
there hoping to condemn him, is I'm more orthodox than you are.
I'm more scripturally sound than you.
I'm no heretic. This comes from what God had
said from the beginning. This was transmitted down
throughout the ages from these prophets and these men of God
that God set apart to speak His oracles.
This is a wonderful claim, but only begins here.
Go to Acts 26. Now here we find Paul standing
on trial before King Agrippa, and look what he says in Acts 26
verse 6. And now I stand here on trial
because of my hope and the promise made by God to our
fathers, to which our 12 tribes hope to attain, as they
earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused
by Jews. O King, why is it thought
incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?
I love this man of God. What hope is he speaking about?
What? What is he trying to explain?
Primarily, the hope of Israel's redemption, which includes the
reality of the resurrection. And again, he's reminding his
opponents that God is the one who promised this glorious
future. This didn't begin with him.
It didn't start with Jesus. The Messiah didn't come from
these apostles. No, it's something that stirred
the nation of Israel to a continually adorn worship day
and night. Which leads Paul again to
challenge his hearers. Is not my proclamation of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth raising from the dead a validation of this
long standing truth that God raises the dead?
Why are you so shocked? Why does that stun you?
Why does it sound like blasphemy to you?
It is something that was always there, and I'm here to tell you
it happened in the person of Jesus Christ.
He is the first born of many, and we see here that there's so
much we can say, But I want to highlight one main thing.
Paul, who's defending the central theme of his message,
the resurrection, is proving to us that we can actually go to
the law and to the prophets and discover it there.
That is so crucial for us if we are people of the book.
That is so important for us if we really want substance to our
faith. Because when you consider the
supernatural element of this book, it's not just one piece of
literature. It's 66 books that span over
thousands of years and multiple different authors and even
different languages. And yet there is this golden
thread. There is one voice.
So here's my aim. I'm not really interested in
hyping up anybody emotionally. I want all of our minds to be
opened and I want our hearts as a result to burn as we see the
beauty and the wisdom of God in His Word.
So here's what we're going to do.
Because the benefit of recognizing this is that it
strengthens our faith. And also it also brings more
weight to the gospel message in that if anyone were to deny it,
you're not just rejecting what Jesus said.
You're not just swatting away what his apostle died for,
you're also denying what God has said from the beginning of time.
That's significant, and I want to prove that to you.
In Jesus's day, the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christians
again called the Old Testament, was divided into two main
sections, the law and the prophets.
But if you wanted to be more precise, there was actually
three different categories. And Jesus in that chapter that
we read during the announcements actually points to that
threefold division of the Old Testament.
He says it there when he says it was written about me in the law,
the prophets. And what's the last one?
The Psalms. The Psalms.
Here's what's interesting, that the Hebrew Bible today, the one
that Jews uphold even now, is similar, is similar in the fact
that, again, what we call the Old Testament is identified
perfectly in terms of the amount of books and the same content,
but they call it something different.
I remember being in a room filled with Jews, and there were
Christians there as well. And one Christian asked a Jewish
teacher something about the Old Testament.
And that person, the Jewish man interrupting right away, says
what's old about it? It's their Bible, and it's in
our Bible as well, But they call that Tanakh, and the Tanakh is
really an acronym for the threefold division of the Old
Testament. We have the first part, which is
the Torah, and that deals with the first five books of the
Bible. We call that the Pentateuch, and
from there we have the Nevaeum, which is comprised of the
oracles of the prophets. And lastly, we have the Ketuvim,
which speaks of the writings. That's what it means, and it
contains things like the wisdom literature and the poetic books,
as well as some historical records.
Now, it's important to note that though we have the same books as
our Jewish neighbors, they're organized quite differently.
But that's not the main point that I want to make.
What I want to bring to your attention is how we can prove
the resurrection. And what I mean by resurrection
is the glorification of these bodies.
We can find that in each section of the Tanakh.
It's everywhere and I want us to see it together.
And though this may seem like a daunting task, I want to assure
you that the Lord has been gracious to us because he guides
us through the New Testament of what to look for and how to find
it. Are we ready?
We're going to begin and seeing the resurrection in the law in
the first five books of the Bible, and this isn't going to
be exhausted. This is just a sample for you to
be stirred that this book is indeed God's book.
You know, this trust and this belief and this faith in the
resurrection is denied by many as you sing about it this
afternoon. There are people who mock it
just around us at your workplace.
Maybe as you gather with your families, they don't see the
beauty and the truth in it. But it's not something this
disbelief then spring out of the Enlightenment period or
postmodernism or any kind of humanistic ideology.
No, it's also ancient. And there's a particular group
in Jesus Day that vehemently despised it and denied it.
They were a liberal theological camp known as the Sadducees,
very prominent individuals, very influential, but they did not
hold to anything really supernatural.
And on one day, they approached Jesus hoping to trap him, hoping
to have him confused and not be able to answer this hypothetical
situation that they come up with.
So they present this case that here's this woman whose husband
died. And according to the law, that
means the husband's brother had to marry her to continue his
legacy. And they imagine that she had 7
husbands. And they approach Jesus and ask,
whose wife will she be at the resurrection?
And the Lord is brilliant. I mean, you're talking about the
word, who's become flesh, and you're going to try to stump him
with the word. And so now he's going to show
them how they overlooked a very important detail and what they
call the Scripture. Because again, the Sadducees
only held to the Torah the first five books.
They didn't acknowledge any of the other ones.
So what does the Lord do? He meets them at their level and
he says the following. Turn with me to Matthew 22.
Let's look at verse 31. And As for the resurrection of
the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God?
Pause. I'm sorry I cannot get by this
passage without always making this comment.
Jesus is going to quote the Old Testament to these Sadducees,
but notice how He presents it. He says here in verse 31, Have
you not read what was said to you?
You know what that teaches me? That every part of God's word is
meant to speak to you, even Exodus 3, which he's about to
quote. Let's continue verse 32.
I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacob. He's not God of the dead, but of
the living. And when the crowd heard it,
they were astonished at his teaching.
Jesus brilliantly references the Lord's appearance to Moses at
the burning Bush, and in that encounter, Jesus wants to show
that the Sadducees missed a detail.
When the Lord introduces himself to Moses in this spectacular
fashion, he does not say I was the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, the God of Jacob. He deliberately uses the present
tense, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And why that's important to note is because these patriarchs were
long dead before the Lord appeared to Moses, and yet God
declares that he relates to them as though they were alive,
actually more alive than ever. I am their God.
I do recognize them. I do relate to them.
And he would never say this about anything or anyone that no
longer exists. So what we find here is that
though these patriarchs have been buried in the Promised land
long before this, the only conclusion that we can make is
that they're alive. They're alive.
They're this, they're in this intermediate state, they're in
the presence of God. They're again more vibrant than
ever, awaiting the resurrection bodies.
And we know that this is true because when the Sadducees heard
it, they didn't rebut, They didn't, they didn't challenge
him further. They understood exactly what God
was saying in that place and they couldn't deny it.
He is their God, meaning they are alive.
And if that's not what Jesus is saying, then what did he mean
when he said in another place? You don't have to turn there.
But when he's talking about the Kingdom of heaven and the
culmination of the age, He tells these Jews that they're going to
be people from the East and the West that will gather and
recline at table with who? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Matthew 811 So how are these Gentiles who are going to be now
grafted in, how are they able to fellowship and have supper with
the patriarchs, unless of course, they are alive?
So this is just the beginning, but can we trace it further
back? Is there anything before Exodus
in Genesis, for example, where we can find this belief, this,
this truth vibrating in the hearts of these Saints, giving
them the hope, understanding what's to come, that this life,
this is not the end of it. Absolutely.
And again, the New Testament is our guide.
Turn with me now to Hebrews Chapter 11, beginning in verse
17. This chapter is famously
identified as a chapter that describes what faith looks like.
And what's being highlighted here is the depth of Abraham's
faith. This man had rich trust in God.
It's no wonder that he is consistently portrayed as a
model of faith in God. Here's how we see it in Hebrews
11/17. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the
promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of
whom it was said, through Isaac. Shall your offspring be named?
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead,
from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him
back. So we know this very well, that
there came a critical point in Abraham's relationship with God
where he was told to give up the promised son Isaac, surrender
him. I wanted to become a burnt
offering. And we're being reminded here
that Abraham obeyed, but that wasn't where his fat faith
rested. Solely What's being underscored
here is that he believed that God, though asking him to do
this, was not going to let Isaac remain dead.
And why did he believe that? Because God told him earlier in
Genesis and in chapter 17 more specifically, that through Isaac
and his offspring, what Abraham's seed continue and
flourish. Abraham understood the
unconditional covenant that God made with him and his
descendants, and so he firmly understood that though this
seems like a strange request, there's something on the other
side of it. Because God does not break his
promise. What kind of faith is that?
Most of us have got asked to do something like this.
Would blame God for being contradicting, for being
inconsistent. I thought you said that through
Isaac my seed would continue. And now you're asking me to
eliminate Isaac and therefore eliminating the promise.
He doesn't accuse. He is now forced to believe in
something called the resurrection.
OK, I don't make sense of this really in its entirety.
So the only logical outcome is that, yes, I will sacrifice
Isaac, but then God's going to raise him from the dead.
And I believe there is a measure of Abraham's own experience that
lended him, the faith to believe this about his son.
What do I mean by that? Scroll back to Hebrews 11, verse
12. Notice what it says.
Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, this is Abraham
we're speaking about, and him as good as dead.
We're born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven, and as
many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
Look at that description of Abraham's condition in his old
age. As good as dead.
This is me and my sanctified imagination.
Now I like to imagine that when Abraham heard the call to
sacrifice his son and he woke up very early to obey, as he was
making his way to that mountain that God consecrated for that
sacrifice to take place, he thought the following.
I have to believe that the same power that birthed Isaac, that I
was as good as dead, will also bring Isaac back to life.
It has to be. And so he boldly approached that
mountain, not wavering in faith, anticipating A resurrection.
This is mind blowing. Now I can hear the critics.
I hear you. I can hear the critics because
I've talked to them. Oh, here's yet another example
of you New Testament Christians forcing your interpretation in
these Hebrew texts, taking your Christ and shoving him into
these stories and trying to make him to be the central theme and
trying to find types and shadows.
And my response would be, Are you sure about that?
Are you sure that there is nothing in the original account
of Abraham ready to sacrifice his son Isaac, believing in his
resurrection? Well, let's be certain.
Turn to Genesis 22 and let's look at it together.
I told you there would be a lot of Bible today, Genesis 22.
Let's start in verse 3. So Abraham rose early in the
morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with
him and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt
offering, and a rose, and went to the place of which God had
told him. On the third day Abraham lifted
up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
Then Abraham said to his young man, Stay here with the donkey,
I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to
you. Now if you hold the New King
James Version in your hand, this critical observation will be
more clear, because in verse 5 it would read in your
translation, Stay here with the donkey, the lad and I will go
Yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.
The same can be said in the NASB.
Either way, the honest reader will acknowledge that the same
point is being made with any faithful translation.
What is Abraham saying? He's planning to go through with
God's decree, but he wholeheartedly believes that
both he and Isaac are coming back down that mountain.
We're coming back to you. How do you believe that if this
son is going to be slain, how is that possible if he's going to
be a complete sacrifice? Well, Hebrews clarifies the
same. Holy Spirit tells us it's
because he believed that God would raise him from the dead.
What are you going to do about this?
Now, the resurrection didn't begin with the Christian
movement. It's found all the way here in
the heart of the Father of the faith.
He believed it. Do you?
He understood God's characters, ways, the extent of his power.
Do you? By the way, when did Abraham say
to his servants that he and Isaac would go and worship and
come back together? Look again at verse 4 on the
third day. Did you see it?
That coincidence couldn't have been the second day, the 7th
day, the 12th day. No, on the third day my son will
come back. I love the Bible.
I'm trying to contain myself here.
This is this is no ordinary book.
When you consider again that Genesis was written way before,
centuries before Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.
One voice, resurrection found even there.
This is the law. But that's not the complete
Tanakh. So we now come to the prophets.
Where can we go in the prophets? How many places can we go in the
prophets? Why don't we go to Isaiah
together? Let's travel now.
Isaiah 26, a very well known passage, but it's more rich than
people believe. Isaiah 26, verse 19.
And I will wait for you. Please, Please remember these
verses. Don't forget them, record them.
Isaiah 26, verse 19. Here's what the prophet
declares. Your dead shall live, their
bodies shall rise, You who dwell in the dust awake and sing for
joy, For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give
birth to the dead. Why don't we just close our
Bible to say Hallelujah, Amen and go on?
However, it's a bad habit to pluck any verse, any place in
the Bible and to drive your interpretation in isolation.
If you want to be a serious student of the Bible, if you
want to be taken seriously by others, always honor the context
of any verse. So here's the question.
Why is Isaiah saying this here and now?
And here's what you'll discover, that this is actually more of a
metaphor for the reviving of national and political Israel,
that after all the devastation that they've experienced at this
time, the prophet wants to comfort them that they have a
bright future, They will be revived.
And he's offering symbolic imagery here.
You're dead shall come to life. You will rise from the dust.
So again, this is to say something about the national
entity of the Jewish people. And that becomes more clear when
you realize that what Isaiah says in this verse contrast the
fate of the neighboring enemies of Israel.
So look back here now, verse 13 in Isaiah 26, what does he say
about Israel's foes? They are dead, they will not
live. They are shades, they will not
rise. To that end, you have visited
them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.
So by way of comparison, the enemies of Israel who have
harassed and oppressed God's people will die.
They will cease to exist and it will be permanent.
There is no future transformation.
There is no fruit. There is no hope for tomorrow.
You will be decimated for good. And as you just read, then it
comes to the people of God says no, no, no.
But for you there will be a resurrection.
OK, great. So this deals with a historical
period and there's poetic imagery to portray Israel's
reviving. So we can't really use this in
our doctrine. Hold on.
There is still a clear indication of a literal
individual bodily resurrection in this passage, especially when
you look at the surrounding apocalyptic literature in its
context. So let me give you an example.
We're in Isaiah 26, right? There was no chapter numbers or
verse numbers in the original scrolls that came much later to
help us. So look at Isaiah 25 and notice
what's being said here in Isaiah 25 verse 6, a close neighbor to
this passage in Isaiah 26, Isaiah 25 verse 6, the same
prophet says on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for
all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine, well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is
cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will
wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people
He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
What do we have in view here? A universal shift to a universal
problem, the conquering of death.
And it's not just for Israel. And you can't make it seem
metaphorical. It's not just a prophecy about
this particular group. No, look again at the language,
the covering that casts over all peoples, over all nations, wipe
away tears from all faces. So what is here being prophesied
is that there will be the Lord who on this mountain, so that
that points to some kind of manifest power of God in our
realm. The Lord on this mountain that
is the mountain of Jerusalem, He's going to do something at
that point. He's going to cancel death.
He's going to defeat death. He's going to erase death, and
it will be the cause of global celebration.
And as he wipes away all our sorrows forever and ever.
So again, this is a real prophecy about a real victory
over a real death, and real people will benefit from it.
So let's take a breath here, right?
What makes us even more profound is that this is what Paul quotes
when he makes a defense for the resurrection in that famous
passage in First Corinthians 15. I just encourage you to take a
deep breath in and just hear these words because it comes
from Isaiah 25. Listen to what Paul says in
First Corinthians 15, 54 When the perishable puts on the
imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall
come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up
in victory. Where did that come from?
Paul's head, Isaiah 25 How will life after death be possible?
How will there be this ability to remain with God
uninterrupted, without the fear of any cessation of existence?
You ready for this? We're told in the same book, the
same book of Isaiah, we are told that there will be the death of
one individual and through his resurrection, this resurrection
will be possible. Isaiah 53.
Can I say something here? Again, I'm trying to contain
myself. If you are a person in this
place that really takes serious your faith, if you want to
enrich your understanding, if you want to be more effective in
proclaiming and proving what you believe, can I offer a word of
advice? Master Isaiah 53.
Don't even just memorize it. Master it, because if you really
unpack line by line what Isaiah says 700 years before Christ, it
will blow your mind. I mean, just reading it, we read
it on Friday. Just reading it is astounding.
And perhaps some of you have seen this clip online where
Messianic Jews made their way to Jerusalem and met with Orthodox
Jews and secular Jews and Reformed Jews and simply read
Isaiah 53 without telling them where it came from.
And what you find there is consistently that people, the
Jewish people who are being interviewed denied it, some
saying that's in the New Testament, only to be shocked
when they were told it's Isaiah 53.
It's an incredible prophecy. I actually believe that.
Again, remember, chapter divisions and verse numbers were
not original. I believe Isaiah 53 should have
began in Isaiah 52, the last part of it.
Can I give you an example? I failed.
I couldn't contain myself. I'm sorry.
Let me give you an example. I want to stir your heart to be
mighty in the Scriptures. Isaiah 52.
Look at verse 13. This is where I believe the
prophecy of the suffering servant should begin.
Look at this. We're just going to deal with
the first line. Behold, My Servant shall act
wisely. He shall be high and lifted up
and shall be exalted. Hold on.
I read through Isaiah. I've read it multiple times and
here's what I learned. That that phrase high and lifted
up is exclusive to the Lord. That awesome status and position
purely belongs to God in the book of Isaiah.
Let me give an example. Isaiah 6.
One in the year that King Gozaiah died, I saw the Lord
seated high and lifted up. Isaiah 57 verse 15 thus says the
one who is high and lifted up. And then now I come to Isaiah 52
and I read about a servant which many who do not believe in Jesus
claim is Israel the nation. OK, let's go with that.
Israel, the nation will be high and lifted up.
Whoever the servant is, you have to admit that they will be
exalted to a position and they will share a prerogative that
belongs to God alone. Listen, you don't just have a
prophecy here of the Messiah. You have a prophecy here about
the divinity of the Messiah, because whoever the servant is,
he will share a seat with Yahweh.
OK, guys, that that's just the first line.
That's just the first line. We didn't even get to Isaiah 53,
yet be stirred. This is what God has given us as
a gift to be assured in our faith, to proclaim it boldly no
matter who says what. Now let's come to Isaiah 53.
Let's look at one place, verse 10 again.
What are we doing here? We're showing how the
resurrection is found in the Old Testament, the Tanakh.
We cover the law briefly. Now we come to the prophets.
Let's deal with this passage. Yet it was the will of the Lord
to crush him. He has put him to grief when his
soul makes an offering for guilt.
He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Well, I've been talking about our Jewish friends a lot.
Let me speak about our Muslim neighbors Now.
Our Muslim neighbors often point to this passage and attempt to
convince Christians that it's not about Jesus.
Why? Because if you think Isaiah 53
is about Jesus, then you also have to admit that Jesus had
kids. Where are they getting that
from? Well, again, look again at
Isaiah 53 verse 10, the second part.
He shall see His offspring. Oh, so the Messiah had children?
Do you believe Jesus produced children?
Did He have an earthly family? Of course He didn't.
Now if you really want to get technical, in the Hebrew, when
it says He shall see His offspring, the word His isn't
there. So more literally reads he shall
see offspring. But even if you want to just
avoid that route and deal with this directly and understand
that this is in fact speaking about the Messiah's offspring.
It's so evident that he's speaking about a spiritual
offspring in the same way the word seed or offspring is used
throughout the book of Isaiah to denote the offspring of the
wicked, a Sinner producing a Sinner alike.
We don't have time to get there, but it's all over the book of
Isaiah. So in the same way that an
unrighteous man is able to produce unrighteousness in a
spiritual sense, so we have here that there's something about the
Messiah and what he does that will bring forth a new breed of
righteous people. He shall see his offspring.
This is a promise that through the agonizing, substitutionary
and vicarious death of the Messiah, there will be a new
family, there will be a new people, there will be a new
breed who will not be righteous by their own merit, but who will
be made holy because of the efforts of the Messiah.
It's so plain. Just read the next verse.
Look at verse 11, Isaiah 53. Out of the anguish of his soul,
he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge.
Shall the righteous one, my Servant, make many to be
accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
So what do we see here? What does this have to do with
resurrection? It's very obvious in the very
same passage that people point to to make you doubt that Jesus
was predicted and prophesied about actually teaches about the
fact that he resurrected. Let me give you just a simple
observation. After being told before Isaiah
5310 that he will be cut out from the land of the living,
that he'll be offered up as a guilt offering, which according
to the law means death, that his grave will be made with the
wicked. After all this language being
pierced unto death, being crushed to death, what does it
say? He shall see his offspring.
Last time I checked, after you die, you don't see anything.
Apparently he's going to see. He's going to see the fruit of
his sacrifice. This isn't even end there.
What does he say next? Moreover, he shall prolong his
days. I thought your days were cut
off. I thought you ceased to live.
I thought you were put to death. Yes.
But after that, this is this is chronological.
After that, there will be an extension of his life.
He will continue to live. Is there anything else in this
one verse alone? Yes.
Look at the end of verse 10. The will of the Lord shall
prosper in His hand, implying that there is something else
that this suffering servant will accomplish after his death.
How can my hand do anything unless it is animated with life?
And so there's still more for Messiah to do, and we learn
about it. He's going to intercede for
transgressors. So clearly there's only one
logical conclusion, that this one who does lay down his life,
who does become a sin bearing sacrifice for many, will live
again. He will live again.
Who said that? Peter.
Who said that? John.
Who said that? The pastor of Maranatha Bible
Church, Isaiah the prophet 700 years before the life of Christ.
That's why Isaiah is known as the 5th Gospel.
Reeling all this together, here's the message.
In Isaiah, the Messiah's personal defeat over sin will
conquer death forever, and it will justify others who are
belonging to him. Just the surface of finding the
resurrection in the prophets. Let's come finally now to the
writings, the last part of the Old Testament, Daniel, chapter
12. Did you know that in the Tanakh,
the book of Daniel is not placed under the prophets, but with the
Ketuvim, the writings? I can explain why, but I don't
want to keep you too long. We could go to the Psalms.
We can go to Job. There's so many things in the
writings that point to the resurrection.
Why am I going to Daniel? I'm going to Daniel because it
brings us full circle to our original verse.
When we open up this message when Paul was defending his
faith in the resurrection, he alludes to what Daniel says in
Daniel 12 verse 2. Let's read It is what the
prophet Daniel says. And many of those who sleep in
the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
I want to end a little differently here.
I'm fully aware that there are some, maybe even many.
Who are listening to this message and you don't believe
not just what I have to say here, you don't believe anything
that the Bible has to say. And if you have survived the
sermon to this point, I want to tell you something that might
pique your interest, that whether you believe in it or
not, the Lord speaks about you. Yes, even if you don't believe
in this truth, even if you don't believe in God, Jesus, you want
to live your own life. You're the you're the master of
your fate. You're the captain of your soul.
Can I tell you that the Bible anticipated you?
Can't be said more clearly. Than what Daniel says here, that
there will be those who will, yes, be raised everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
The Bible tells us why there will be.
Some who will be raised everlasting contempt it.
Anticipates again that there will be those.
Who will deny God, deny His provision of eternal life, and
live their way the Bible wants? To tell you that.
There is a cost to that decision.
And I want to say something. That most would hesitate to say
for an Easter message. But I'm aware that you may never
hear it at another place. You may not hear it from another
person. What this book teaches.
Is that there is a real heaven and there is a real hell, and
every single person will spend. Eternity in one.
Of those two places, that's it. It's as simple as that.
You're not a bag of skin stuffed with meat.
You're an immortal soul. That's been created in the image
of God, and he made you to walk with him.
But our first parents made the decision to walk away from Him
because love has choice in it, and the choice of our parents
and we follow it in their direction is to ignore God,
blasphemy God, enjoy what he hates, break his law.
On top of that, you have some who deny.
His existence reject his creative work separate.
Themselves from anything that. Is righteous and pure and good.
Let me be the one to tell you. That you have.
Been made by God. And you've been made for God,
but again, he gives you the choice because sin separates us
from God. And He was the one who initiated
reconciliation with him. But he.
Couldn't just sweep our sin? Underneath a rug, he couldn't
just ignore it, because as much as he is loved, he is holy, he
is true, He is just. And so he came with a plan.
Paul calls it the wisdom of God. He came up with a plan in order
to extend his love and yet at the same time satisfy his
justice. The second Person of the
Trinity. Enters into the world, takes on
flesh, and he pays our debt. And he does that by.
Dying on the cross, absorbing the wrath of God that was over
your head and mine. He's buried.
He. Raises from the grave, and that
resurrection is God's. Amen.
That he approved that payment. All for what?
So that you, a debtor, you a Sinner, you condemned, you
guilty, would acknowledge it and receive that free gift of
salvation and be saved. How can I?
Know with absolute assurance that would Daniel prophesized
here. Will that be my portion?
How can I transition from everlasting contempt to
everlasting life? How can?
I know that when I give my. Final breath.
How can I know that even if I'm surprised by death, that the
next step I will take will be in the presence of God, will be in
the arms of a loving Creator? Let.
Me tell you what Jesus says to. You.
Here's what Jesus says to you in John 1125.
I am the resurrection of life. Whoever believes in me, though
he die, yet shall he live. The way you can know that.
You will have resurrection unto life is by embracing the Lord
Jesus Christ, by understanding his love for you, by
understanding what he laid aside.
Again, I I gave that very faint picture of what it must have
been like for Christ to return in glory in flesh.
But what was it like when he removed his glory to enter into
this world as flesh? What did those creatures?
See, how do they converse among themselves?
How do they try to ratify it and justify it and explain it that
this? God chooses to.
Come into this world that he created, this world that spat in
his face and denied him and turned their back on him, and
yet he is reaching for them to bring them back to himself.
How can this be? Just restart, change the whole
thing. Start from square 1, The
throbbing love of God for him to come and to reach out to us.
So here's what you're hearing on this Sunday afternoon.
God's hand, even today, because he commanded men to go and
preach the gospel to all nations.
Here's the message. God's hand is extended out to
you. What will you do with it?
Will you ignore it? Will you slap it away?
Will you come up with your own terms?
And shake his hand on a premise that he did not propose.
Here's what he. Asks of you.
Repent, turn from your sins, and embrace His forgiveness for your
life and in the moment that you genuinely turn not from God, you
turn from your sins and you believe on Him in.
That very second. You'll be justified before God,
just as you have never sinned. You will be redeemed, you'll be
cleansed, and your name will be written in the Lamb's book of
life. And not only.
Do you have something to look forward?
To after this life, but you can walk with your God in this life
and enjoy him until it climaxes where you see him and you.
Get to be with him and his people.
Forever, because death is. Swallowed up in.
Victory. Praise God, let's pray.
Indeed, but we have feasted on your.
Word today. And though there may be some
who. Deny the validity of these truth
claims. I trust that there is not one.
Person who can deny that it is consistent in your word?
That at various stages in. History you have hinted at,
you've made known, you have revealed that you will defeat
death, and those who place their trust and their faith in your
son will also defeat that. And so, Lord, today as your word
went forth, we ask that you would do what no man can do, and
that is to convict and change hearts.
And Lord, for those who have been redeemed and who were here
celebrating what happened to their lives because of what
you've done, we've now come to celebrate you in this final
moment. Receive glory.
Lord, help us never forget the richness of this treasure that
you've made available to us in Jesus name, Amen.
Let's stand. He's in the law, He's in the
prophets, He's in the writings, He's everywhere.
He's the theme of the Bible, He's the theme of the universe,
and he is our King.