This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
I'm just thinking about all the times that we run into a
complicated or difficult situation, a circumstance that
seems like a mountain that we can't get over or can't move.
And how many times do we look into the Word of God, which
gives us an assurance that Jesus is there with us, but not only
that, He will give us evidence that he's with us?
The Easter season is the single most joyous time of the year for
those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus.
It's the time of year when we celebrate the resurrection of
Jesus. The grave could not hold him.
The tomb was found to be empty. All that God had said about the
coming Messiah was fulfilled during this time of year.
Today, Pastor Lewis continues unpacking the story of the
resurrection, highlighting the evidence of the resurrection as
a way for us to have increased faith and trust in God.
Now here's Pastor Lewis in Matthew chapter 28 with today's
edition of Living Waters of Grace.
This Angel, he, he's giving them an invitation now, an invitation
to come and validate what he just said.
So they go when they look in and they see, well, he's not there.
He's not there. I've never been to Israel, I've
never been to Jerusalem. I've never been to this tomb,
but I know many people who have my pastor have a Clark, you've
been to this tomb, correct? So and I know many people have
been there several times, several times.
So I want to ask a question because I know that when the
people that I asked when they were there at this tomb and they
said, well, you want to go over to Jerusalem, I said I don't
need to. You were there.
You said he wasn't in there. You said he wasn't there.
So I believe he wasn't there. The Bible says he wasn't there.
That's two witnesses. Pastor Clark, when you went to
Jerusalem, when you went to the tomb, when you looked in, was he
there? I have no reason to have to go.
My pastor said he wasn't there, He's not there, and indeed he is
going before you into Galilee. There you will see him.
Behold, I have told you. And he did.
He told him just that. Jesus told them on the last time
in the book of Matthew when he told him that he was going to be
killed and he was going to be buried and he was going to rise
again. He said, but I will go before
you in Galilee. If you go back to Matthew
chapter 26, which is a should be just a couple pages over and
verse 32 and I'm going to start reading here in verse 31.
Then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble
because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike
the shepherd, meaning that he was going to be stricken,
beaten, He's going to suffer and he's going to die, and the sheep
of the flock will be scattered. And that's exactly what they all
did when he was being beaten. They ran, they left them.
Even Peter who said that he wouldn't.
Verse 32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to
Galilee. So just like the Angel said,
look just like he said, just like he told you, OK, He's going
to go before you into Galilee. So so far, everything that Jesus
has said was going to happen is coming to be verse 8 and 9
Martha do 10/2. He says so they went out quickly
from the tomb with fear and great joy and they ran to bring
his disciples word. So let's stop there for a
second. So they left with both fear and
joy. I I, I can certainly understand
that. And you just saw this Angel
sitting on a the stone of this tomb that it probably would have
taken about 30 men plus a machine to move of some type.
But this Angel was there by himself.
But the other accounts actually show that there were more than
one Angel there. We don't know exactly how many
angels were there, but there were more than one Angel.
There was more than one Angel there.
But this Angel was sitting there on this on a stone as in victory
over this thing. This is not important.
You know, he's sitting there on a stone.
So I would imagine because everybody that sees an Angel,
the first thing the Angel has to say to them is fear.
Not because it's so horrific to see an Angel, so terrifying to
see the face of an Angel. So he says, so he says here that
he, they left there with fear in that fear, I'm sure from the
fact of having that encounter with the Angel, but also fear,
the fact that they don't know where their Lord is.
They don't know where their Lord is.
The Lord is not here in this tomb and we don't know where he
is. I'm sure there's fear there, but
also great joy because the Angel has told them that he is risen,
so they have the hope that he is alive.
He's alive. So they ran there with great
joy. But once again, the Providence
and the foreknowledge of God to know that I need these women to
be convincing witnesses for me. I need them to have a conviction
about the fact that Jesus Christ has risen and not just take it
from hearsay, but I need them to know.
So look at what happens in verse 9.
So as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met
them, and he said, rejoice. So they came and held him by the
feet and worshipped. Then Jesus said to them, do not
be afraid, go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and
there we they will see me. So they got the testimony from
the angels, but then the Providence and the foreknowledge
of God, they knew that their hearts had to be settled on
this. So as they were going on the
way, Jesus appears to them and he meets them on the way.
I'm just thinking about all the times that we run into a
complicated or a difficult situation, a circumstance that
seems like a mountain that we can't get over or can't move.
And how many times do we look into the word of God, which
gives us an assurance that Jesus is there with us, But not only
that, he will give us evidence that he's with us.
He will either send somebody with a with a word of
confirmation or send help from somewhere, or he will turn the
situation around supernaturally that we can't even explain.
He meets us right where we need him, where he met then and they
were able to see that he was alive.
Man, what that must have felt like, What that must have been
like. You're crying one night.
You're crying Friday night. You're crying all day Saturday.
I'm sure they cried missing their savior early morning
Sunday on the way to the tomb. They're probably crying carrying
their spices. And then they get there and the
Angel said he's not there. Whoa, wait a minute.
He's not here. Hell, he's risen.
Oh, OK, OK, you say so and I'll go tell him like you told me to.
But then on the way they see Jesus standing there and he says
rejoice, He doesn't have to say anything else, just rejoice,
rejoice. So the Bible says that they
grabbed him, they held on to his feet and worship him.
Which also deals with another issue that those who are want us
to deny Christ and those who want us to refute his deity and
want us to refute the fact that he was not only man but he was
also God. They said that he grabbed him by
the feet, which means this was not a phantom, this was not an A
figment of their imagination, this was not a just a spirit,
this was Jesus. Not only did they recognize him,
but they were able to touch him. They grabbed him by the feet and
they worshipped him. Glory to God.
So now they're leaving there and they're going there with a heart
filled with peace, a heart filled with joy.
They can't wait to get to the apostles.
Now I know he's alive. So these women become the first
evangelist and tell the true story about Jesus Christ was
dead and now he's alive. So they go and they and, and he
says go and tell, go and tell. This is the second time he said
that. He also said that back in verse
7. He said go and tell, go quickly
and tell his disciples. And then over here Jesus tells
them go and tell, go tell it, go tell it.
We have the truth. He revealed the truth for us.
We see the truth, go tell it. We should go tell it to share it
with other people. He gave it to us for us to do
that. So now looking at these next few
verses, verse 11 through 15, we're going to take it all
together. Now while they were going,
behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to
the chief priests all the things that had happened.
Now I just want to say this. For generations upon generations
upon generations upon generations, Satan has
consistently try to use people to defy the name Jesus, to deny
the name Jesus, and to deny the truth of Jesus.
Done it for generations. This lie about Jesus did not
resurrect from the dead. This lie starts here.
So verse 12, now the Bible says they went to the chief priest
and he reported all things that had happened.
We don't know if rather or not they actually saw Jesus.
In fact, I don't think that they actually did see you.
I think they were knocked out when Jesus came on out of that
tomb. They're probably knocked out
just by the fact that they saw those angels and they knew they
couldn't beat them. You know, you know, these are
these are tough men, but these angels come down looking like
lightning and dressed in all white.
I don't know if we I don't know if my spear is going to go.
It's going to work here. So I'm sure these men were so
frightened and they like you said, they were they were out.
So when Jesus came out of that tomb, they probably didn't even
see them, but they know what had happened.
They know what had happened. So in verse 12 it says when they
had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they
gave a large sum of money. Here we go.
Here we go, a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying tell
them his disciples came at night and stole him away while we
slept. And if this comes to the
governor's ears, pilot's ears, if we we will appease him and
make you secure, we're going to make sure you're OK Don't worry
about it. So they took the money and did
as they were instructed. And this saying is commonly
reported among the Jews until this day.
So many questions in this group of Scripture here, so many
questions. But the main question comes
here, the Pharisees who knew that Jesus probably would not be
there because they knew that he said he was going to resurrect.
So they knew that that was a possibility.
He would not be there. They weren't afraid of the of
the, the, the believers coming and taking them.
They put a guard there. So if you put a guard there, how
in the world did some men just come and take Jesus?
So that means if you were so sleepy, that means you had to
sleep through them moving the stone.
You had to sleep through them going in to the the tomb and you
had to be asleep as they carried this dead man out of the tomb
and away from you. You had to sleep through all
that. I mean, that just doesn't even
make sense. But that's the enemy.
The enemy Satan will will put together lies that don't even
make sense might make sense to him, but it don't make sense
doesn't make sense. So, so, so they, so they started
this lie and just like the Scripture says, so they took the
money because you know, you know, if, if you're not in the
Lord Jesus Christ, you have a price, you have a price.
What would it take for you to compromise?
What would it take for you to deny what you know about Jesus
Christ? Is there anything in your life
that might cause you to compromise Jesus Christ?
Is there any ungodly relationship?
Is there any possession? Is there any amount of money?
Is there anything that's in your life that may cause you to
compromise and to deny the truth about Jesus Christ?
We all have to ask ourselves those questions and pray that
the Holy Spirit will give us strength, will give us strength
because we are, we're people and we are prone to wander, we're
prone to fail. But through the power of the
Holy Spirit, he can give us the strength to stand and to not
waver and to not compromise. So it says, and this has been
done and, and, and it's, it's, it's been spoken and that's been
the story ever since. So there's 2.
So there's two stories that's in history today.
There's two stories. First of all, no Jesus and one
story. Jesus didn't rise, he didn't
resurrect. That's one story.
Second stories that he did resurrect, He is the Messiah.
One story is that he's not the Messiah, but he's some madman.
The other stories, no, he is the Messiah.
He is the truth. He's the way and he is the life.
And the question is, what story do you believe today?
There's so much proof here that Jesus resurrected.
There's so much proof because it says hereafter.
If we read a little further and go into first First Corinthians
chapter 15 verses 2 and three, it talks about how not only did
these men did he show himself to these men and to these women,
but the Bible says that he was seen by more than 500.
Now keep in mind you only need 2 to 3 witnesses to make every
word confirmed. According to the Jewish
tradition and Jewish law, in the mouth of two or three witnesses,
every word is established. They have more than 500
witnesses that would have that have seen Jesus alive after his
resurrection afterwards. Not only that, he has us as
witnesses that Jesus is not dead, but he's alive.
And how do we know? Because he lives in me, He lives
in you. He lives in you, He lives in
you. Your life demonstrates the true
life of Jesus Christ. So because we know that Jesus
did die as he said, he was killed.
And because we know that Jesus was buried, as he said, and
because we know that he rose again out of that grave from the
dead, as he said. So how does that impact our
lives? Well, first of all, as we just
talked about last week with Jude, Jude tells us that we
should contend for the faith that was once delivered to us to
stand on the word of God. I was driving through Greensburg
yesterday, and I wonder how many of you were driving through
Greensburg on Main Street going in front of the courthouse.
And they had this protest going on.
So on the left side of the street, there was probably about
four or 500 people who were, you know, it doesn't matter what
they represent. It was 2 or 4, about 3 or 400
people, 5 or 600 people on this one side of the street.
And over here, there's a little less people, but they were all
still protesting. Right through the middle were a
number of police cars making sure that it was separated and
that there was no, no violence going on.
But as I was coming through there, I was thinking, man, look
how passionate these people are about whatever it is that
they're believing. And I don't even know what it
was, but look how passionate they are about it.
And I looked to the other side of the street, said, look how
passionate they are about what it is they believe.
Obviously it's different than what they believe.
And then I thought, are we that passionate about what we
believe? We're not told that we go out
and carry picket signs or anything like that, but we are
told to contend for the faith. Do we stand on the truth of
Jesus Christ? Do we stand on the truth of the
apostles and the and the and the the teaching of the apostles,
the doctrines of the apostles when we share our faith with
someone or do we flip flop? Do we contend for the truth?
And then a little further down in the in the book of Matthew
chapter 28, it tells us he says that we should obey the, the
Great Commission. He said go and make disciples of
all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and in the Holy Spirit and teaching them.
To observe all things that I have taught you.
Are we doing that? That's how we live, you know, in
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, of knowing the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. We don't live for the here and
now. We live for what's going to
happen for us later, for the life to come.
That's what we live for and also tells us over in first
Corinthians 5815 and 58. He says that we should stand
fast, be steadfast, and we should be unmovable and we
should always be abounding in the work of the Lord, the
ministry of the Lord, the life of the Lord, abounding in it
every day. It should fill our hearts.
Regardless of what you do professionally, regardless of
what high school you go to, regardless of what middle school
you go to, regardless of where you go on your job, from 9:00 to
5:00 or 8:00 to 5:00 or whatever it may be, are you, are we
abounding? Are we abounding in the work of
the Lord? When I meet with people in my
community, when I meet with people on the street or talk to
people in grocery stores, am I abounding in the work of the
Lord? It's his spirit, the one that
people are seeing or they see in my old fleshly spirit.
Am I abounding in the things of the Lord?
That's how we should live. And of course, we're not living
to build up treasures or to lay up treasures in this life.
That's not what we're, that's not what we're doing.
That's another part of us not living for this world.
You see, the treasures of this life, the moth and the rust, can
come in and cause it to be corrupt because it's not
permanent, It's temporary. Anything that we achieve in this
world is temporary. I was always taught that at one
point or another, everything that we have, it's either going
to leave us or we're going to leave it.
Nothing is permanent in this world, but it's what we have in
heaven. The treasures that we lay up in
heaven that are eternal. So we lay up treasures in heaven
with a moth and a rust does not corrupt, nor can thieves break
in and steal, but we have an inheritance.
The Bible tells us we have an inheritance in Jesus Christ, an
inheritance that is incorruptible, an inheritance
that is, that is undefiled, an inheritance that will never,
ever, ever fade away. So I pray that with this
resurrection and understanding of this resurrection, it means
that we too will have a resurrection one day.
And this life is not our permanent home, but we're going
to be resurrected to resurrecting life one day where
not only will our bodies change, but our world will change.
It's going to be a new heaven and a new earth and all these
old things are going to pass away.
And we live looking for that, looking unto Jesus, the Author
and the finisher of our faith. That's what Resurrection Day
should mean to us all. Thanks for joining us today as
we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus here on Living Waters of
Grace. Pastor Lewis Harrell has been so
excited to share with us about the miracle of the resurrection
of Christ. The human race spent thousands
of years lost in sin before God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ,
to come be a perfect sacrifice for all mankind.
His blood is enough to atone for the sins of all mankind, and His
resurrection puts an end to death itself.
Our desire is to spread this good news of the gospel to as
many people as possible, but we need your help to do so.
The first way you can help us is by sharing this program with a
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Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601. If you're in Greensburg, we'd
also love to invite you to join us at Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland. We're located at 400 E
Pittsburgh St. Ste. 6B.
We need on Sundays at 10:30 AM. If you're not able to visit us
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We also live stream our services every Sunday on our YouTube
channel. Well, we pray that you will be
blessed as you go forth into your week.
Until next time, we'd like to thank you for tuning into this
special Easter edition of Living Waters of Grace.