As has been already mentioned, welcome everyone for coming.
It is so good to see everyone that's here.
There are faces in this audience I haven't seen for a while, and
it's wonderful to see you. We have some visitors that are
among us and we want to say welcome, and we're just so
grateful you're here with us today.
It's a very special day because it's the Lord's Day.
It's the first day of the week, and I always consider it an
honor to speak concerning the Word of God.
And I'm going to talk about a subject, as has been mentioned
just a moment ago, before we sang that last song that we
rejoice in today because Jesus is risen.
Before we get into this, I want to just notice our introductory
pack passage and I have a couple introductory things that I might
say in Matthew 28, beginning in verse 2.
And behold, there was a great earthquake.
For an Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came
and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it.
His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing
white as snow. And the guards took for fear of
him and became like dead men. But the Angel answered and said
to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus
who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen
as He said. Come see the place where the
Lord lay. Before we get into the
resurrection. Just a few words regarding the
events that transpired just prior to this that we've studied
in our series leading up to this and that is regarding the
resurrection after the Lord Jesus Christ was tried, after He
was beaten and scourged and as after He was taken to a Roman
cross and he hung between heaven and earth for about 6 hours
after he was given the sour wine in his thirst done in mockery.
Jesus said those words. It is finished.
Some translations say it is accomplished and Jesus was
letting the world know I've done it.
It is over. And he says to his Father,
Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.
And Jesus died for our sins on that great day.
It's about 3:00 PM now on the day of preparation, and
something very significant has to happen.
He has to be buried to fulfill prophecy.
And they only have 3 hours to get that done because by 6:00
PM, that was the Sabbath. That's the next day.
And in order to count the day of that day that he died, he's got
to be buried before 6:00 PM. On the scene comes a man by the
name of Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple.
And the Bible says he was a secret disciple for fear of the
Jews. You remember that when Jesus was
preaching on this earth, when he had his personal ministry, there
was a decree that went forth among the Jews by the religious
leaders, and that was this. If anybody professed Jesus as
the Christ, they were cast from the synagogue.
So Joseph of Arimathea, for fear of the Jews, was a secret
disciple. Now the Bible says in Isaiah
chapter 53 that his grave was to be assigned among wicked men,
but that's not what would happen.
He would be with a rich man in his death.
And there just happened to be a rich man, a secret disciple of
Jesus that had a brand new grave unoccupied nearby.
And he was Joseph of Arimathea. He was also a member of the
Sanhedrin, but the Bible says he did not consent to the death of
Jesus Christ. He already does.
The Scripture says he summoned the courage.
I'm going to tell you, I don't care if it's back then on that
occasion, or I don't care if it's right now in 2025.
You have to summon the courage to stand up for Jesus.
He had to summon the courage. And remember, there's nothing
wrong with fear because there is no courage where there is No
Fear. In other words, your courage is
your response to fear. That's the difference between a
courageous person and a coward. Is your response to fear.
Oh, he had fear all right. He was at stake of losing
everything. Sanhedrin writes business, all
kinds of pressure on him, but he summoned the courage.
And what does he do? He comes and he begs the body of
Jesus from Pilate, and the body is taken down, the body of Jesus
taken down from the cross, and he wraps his body and he lays
them in a new unoccupied tomb. You know, I read it was quite an
honor to be laid to rest in an unoccupied tomb, a rich man's
tomb. Jesus crucified like a criminal
that he was not, and he was buried in a rich man's tomb.
But there's more. They got to prepare the body
now. So a man is summoned by the name
of Nicodemus and Nicodemus shows up in the Bible, says in John's
account, he shows up with 100 lbs of myrrh and aloes to wrap
the body of Jesus. You know what's amazing about
that? Significant.
I think it's very significant. I think there's no accident
here. The only time in all of history
where they used £100 to bury somebody is when they buried a
king crucified between Mal factors.
Buried like the king that he is, he is king of kings.
He's Lord of Lords. When he's buried, though, they
roll the stone in front of the entrance, and the stone was
rolled in front of the entrance to keep out animals and to keep
out grave robbers. Now remember, it's not the
Sabbath yet. It's not the Sabbath until 6:00
PM. So guess who's there?
There's two very special women just hanging around, two very
precious women, those Marys, Mary Magdalene and Mary the
mother of Joseph's, they just happen to be hanging around.
What are they doing there? Well, first of all, Jesus was
not buried in a public cemetery. He was buried in a private
grave. Therefore these women had to
know where the grave was so they can come back later after three
days and complete and complete the tending to the body of Jesus
Christ. Precious women hanging around.
Notice but then in Matthew 27 and 62 on the next day.
By the way, non Jews called that Friday evening on the next day
that was the Sabbath. In other words, after 6:00, the
day following the day of preparation.
The word preparation was the word Paris Fue, or the day
before the Sabbath common name, and it was actually became a
colloquial phrase for Friday, the day after the the day of
preparation. Notice the chief priests and the
Pharisees gathered together to pilot the chief priests.
Who in the world were they? Did you know the chief priests
were predominantly made-up of the Sadducees and the Pharisees
are together now? So you got the Sadducees and you
got the Pharisees teaming up. And this is only the second time
that I can find in all the New Testament where the Sadducees
teamed up with the Pharisees. Why do you remember on Tuesday,
in the last week in the life of Jesus, He had already made his
triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Sunday, by Tuesday was the
day of questions. You know what happened?
The Sadducees and the Pharisees get together and they think
they're going to stump Jesus. I'm going to tell you right now,
you ain't stumping Jesus. Big mistake.
They think they're going to get him against the ropes.
Oh no, Brilliant. Jesus shows up and took care of
the whole mess. But Sadducees and Pharisees who
were at theological odds with each other joined together on
that day, and they joined together on this day.
Why did they have theological odds?
Because the Pharisees believed in the resurrection or a life
after this one, and the Sadducees did not.
Big theological differences. Oh, but on this occasion,
they're going to team up. They're going to team up.
There's two. There's something they had in
common #1 the Sadducees did not want, and I'm going to phrase it
like this because that's how they felt it really was.
They did not want the resurrection tale of Jesus to be
circulated, and neither did the Pharisees.
Even though the Pharisees believed in a resurrection, they
just didn't believe Jesus would be resurrected and they didn't
consider him to be the Son of God.
OK, they want to squelch that. So verse 63, they come to Pilate
and they say, Sir, we remember that while he was still alive.
How that deceiver said, after three days I will arise.
You know, the most classic prediction of this is in Matthew
chapter 12, and it's by Jesus Christ himself.
And I love this because sometimes people are kind of
like this today, like they were back then.
They came to Jesus and they, you know, they want they want a
sign. Give me a sign.
You know, anytime you want a sign, you don't have any faith.
I had somebody say one time, if you just show me proof, I did
write in the Bible. Oh, but give me proof.
Yeah, I just did in the Bible. Well, give me proof that God
created. Oh, got it right here.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Gotcha. Right there.
There it is, but if you can be proof just did.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen. What they wanted though is they
didn't accept the teaching of Jesus.
What they wanted is give me a sign.
You know what Jesus said, He answered and said to them an
evil and adulterous generation. 6 after sign, and no sign will
be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
For as Jonah was 3 days and three nights in the belly of the
great fish, so will the Son of Man be also three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth.
A classic prediction of Jesus being raised from the dead on
the third day. All right, so verse 64 therefore
command that the tomb is what Pilate says, be made secure
until the third day. And then if you do that, lest
His disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the
people, He has risen from the dead, so the last deception will
be worse than the first. I was sitting there this morning
in my office looking over my sermon and I got to thinking
about something here. Isn't it true that sometimes,
actually a lot of the time, we judge people or we judge others
by way of our own character? In other words, people judge
other people based on their own character often times.
Give you an example. If a person is dishonest, they
expect everybody else to be dishonest.
If they're evil, they expect other people to be evil.
If they're suspicious, they think everybody else is going to
be suspicious. If they're not trustworthy, they
don't trust others. And oftentimes people judge
other people based on their own character.
So notice what they're doing here, lest they do what the last
deception will be worse than the first.
They're judging these men on their own character.
The religious leaders look to the disciples.
The other leaders here look to the disciples and they say these
aren't honest men, God fearing men.
These are men that are not devastated by the loss of their
leader. These are men that are going to
be rogues awaiting to pull off the greatest hoax in all of
history. That's what they thought.
So here's Pilate's solution. By the way, Pilate made some
terrible decisions throughout the entire process of the trial
and the crucifixion. And the only thing he did right,
the only thing is the inscription that was put up, the
accusation above the head of Jesus, and that was this is
Jesus the King of the Jews. Then they said, no, don't say
that, Pilate say he said I'm the king of the Jews.
Pilate says what I've written. I've written the only thing he
did right. So in this case, when they come
to him, we got a problem here. Here is Pilot's solution.
Pilot says you have a guard. Go your way.
Make it as secure as you know how.
Remember it's going to be 3 days.
All you got to do is secure it for three days.
So they went and made the tomb secure.
Notice sealing the stone and setting the guard.
I don't know what it looked like.
This is a picture here of what it probably depicted.
They say, but I'm not sure what I've read is this.
There was probably some some kind of a cord that stretched
across the stone and on each side of the cord was sealed with
wax. Kind of like with a signet ring.
You know, a signet ring when you seal a document.
Same kind of a deal. In other words, it wasn't
something that was a barrier to keep the door shut.
What it was is this. It was something that told
people, I don't know how else to phrase it, Unauthorized
personnel. Any unauthorized personnel, if
you break the seal, you commit a high crime.
That's what it was. Brilliant by God, I know you got
all these people, all these evil people involved, I get it.
But everything was orchestrated by God.
Why is that? Look how brilliant this is.
Look how brilliant God is and they think they got this dialed
in. Look at God.
Fowler says it this way. The seal means that non
disciples are forced to be the first to bring the astounding
news to Jesus's enemies that all of their precautions have been
futile. In other words, it's not the
disciples who tamper with the tomb or the body.
He arose. It's proof the Sabbath is now
over. So we go back to Matthew's
account in Matthew 28 and verse 2 and behold, there was a great
earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and
came back and rolled the stone from the door and sat on it.
Now I got to tell you, I've seen paintings.
Maybe you have two. It's interesting paintings.
I've seen paintings where the stone was rolled away and then
here comes Jesus walking out. Do you know the stone being
rolled away was not to let Jesus out?
You think Jesus needed somebody to roll the stone away?
Kind of like Lazarus when he says Lazarus come forth after he
told the roll with the stone. Jesus can walk through the
stone. Jesus could appear on one side
of the stone and then a second later appeared on the other
side. He didn't need the stone rolled
away to get out. The stone was rolled away not to
let the Lord out. The stone was rolled away to let
the others in, and sitting there on the stone was an Angel.
Verses 3 and 4 about this Angel. His countenance was like
lightning, and his clothing is white as snow.
And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.
You ever been so scared you couldn't move?
You know the phrase scared stiff?
I mean, you are so petrified you can't move.
And you just shake. You're paralyzed temporarily,
metaphorically, but in your mind you can't move.
My question is why were they afraid?
I'll tell you what some people say as the reason they were
afraid, they became like dead men, meaning they were
paralyzed. And some say, well, This is why,
because they failed to secure the tomb, because a soldier that
was given the task of guarding A prisoner, by the way, if the
prisoner escaped, he lost his life.
We know that. So because of that, everybody
assumes, and because they're afraid later on, and because the
Jews actually backed them up and protect them later on, the
soldiers. But what he was afraid of, he
was afraid because he had let Jesus go.
He's now gone. However it was the body of Jesus
is gone and the stone is rolled away.
Not so fast. Let's just look to the
scriptures and find out why they were so scared.
Sometimes you can overthink these things.
Notice it says why the guardship?
For what? Fear of him?
For fear of the Angel it describes, His countenance was
like lightning and his clothing as white as snow, and they
feared because of him. Folks, I'm going to tell you
something. It was an Angel of God.
But this is an act of God. And when an act of God occurs, I
don't care who you are, you are powerless.
If God wants something and it's an act of God, it doesn't make
any difference how much power you think you got, you got none.
All these powerful soldiers that had all this authority, they
were powerless, an act of God, kind of like when Jesus was in
the garden and they came to Jesus and Jesus sees them coming
in advance that we've already studied about.
And Jesus says, who you looking for?
And he says they said Jesus of Nazareth.
And Jesus says I am. It doesn't even say he in the
original, it says I am. And they fell, 500 men fell
back. You know why they fell back?
Because they were in the presence of deity, and Jesus
professed I am and he as deity, they fell.
They were powerless. If it's an act of God, I'm
telling you, you're powerless. And they were afraid.
Verses 5 and 6, notice, but the Angel of the Lord said to the
women, oh, these precious women, I'm going to spend a little time
about these women. Do not be afraid, for I know
that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here, for he is risen first.
He says, do not be afraid. Have you stopped to consider the
role that these precious women have?
It won? The disciples, were they, I
don't know, they're just way over there.
They're all the way over there. The women were there.
The Sabbath is over. They're about to give first hand
eyewitness testimony to the resurrection and that is
brilliant. By God, they've got no axe to
grind. They've got no agenda.
It's not like the apostles who could have gone there and
witnessed the resurrection. They could have said you're
lying. No, it was 2 precious women and
the Angel says don't be afraid and then come see the place
where the Lord lay. Have you ever stopped to
consider what it must have been like for the rest of their life?
Mary? What was it like?
The one that they seek is not
dead, He's alive. In other words, they came
seeking a dead man. They leave seeking A risen
Savior, and their hopes are full of wonder, amazement, and hope.
Verses 7 and 8, they're told, go quickly and tell his disciples
by the Angel. They said, He said that he's
risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into
Galilee. There you will see him.
Behold, I've told you. So they went out quickly from
the tomb, and fear, and great joy, with fear and great joy,
and ran to bring his disciples word.
Then notice please in verse 9. And as they went to tell the
disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, rejoice.
So they came and they held him by the feet, and they worshipped
him. What would that have been?
Like The Angel said, have hope. He's alive, he's risen.
Go tell his disciples. And then all of a sudden there's
Jesus, and they're so overwhelmed.
These precious women can't contain themself, and they fall
down at the feet of Jesus and they hold his feet.
Please get that. Yes, they touched him.
Yes, they touched him, and they held his feet and they
worshipped him. He's worthy of their worship.
We have to go to John's account for more though.
We got to go to John's account because maybe you're saying
you're thinking in your mind, well, doesn't it say somewhere
touch me not for I'm not going to say, well, here we go.
We go to John's account. John chapter 20, the new King
James says Jesus said to her, in other words, as they fell down
at his feet to worship him and they clung to him and they held
him. Jesus says, do not cling to me.
Then he's going to get specific as to why and what he means.
Well, the old King James says this.
Touch me. Not in the original.
It says this. Stop clinging to me.
That's what it says in the original.
So in other words, there's no contradiction.
Sometimes if you look at Don't Touch me, it looks like there's
a contradiction. When they fell and grabbed him
and worshiped him, they did fall.
They did grab him. They did worship him.
They didn't hold his feet. What he's saying is, is stop
clinging to me. And then he said this.
Here's the reason why, for I have not yet ascended to my
father. Let me give you some theories as
to what this means. Here's some theories, theory #1
theory #1 is that Jesus was telling them I've not yet
ascended to my father, which is going to happen in 40 days.
In other words, it's not time for me to leave yet.
You can let go. I'm, I'm talking about, I've
read this from commentaries, others say this, I'm going to be
resurrected. Here's his point in 30 days.
I'm going to ascend to my father in 40 days, ultimately in my
spiritual body. But see, I'm now in my fleshly
body. See, it's still me.
It's not time yet. And while these things may have
merit, I think there's a better explanation.
I believe what he's saying is this.
I believe Jesus needed to fulfill one final prophetic
type. Jesus fulfilled all of the
prophecies, talked about all those that were fulfilled, and
the chances of that crazy only happens if God's involved.
We already preached on that, right?
Well, there's one prophetic type that still has to be fulfilled.
We look in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 9, verse 7, But into the
second part, the high priest went in alone once a year, not
without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people
sins committed in ignorance. So in the Tabernacle and later
in the temple, the high priest, by the way, verse 6 says the
common priest, that's a picture of us Christians.
We're in the first part or the holy place, which is a picture
of the Church accomplishing the service of God.
Right now, only the high priest on the Day of Atonement for the
sins of the people will take the blood sacrifice into the Most
Holy place in the Tabernacle and also in the temple, and bring
the blood sacrifice before the mercy seat and before the
presence of God for the atonement of the sins of the
people. And it was done every year.
OK, prophetic type, Old Testament, Jesus is our ultimate
high priest. Jesus, on this ultimate Day of
Atonement, I believe, took the blood, His blood, as He was
still in the flesh, to His Father before the presence of
God, and gave the sacrifice of His blood to fulfill the
prophetic type. Now let me just say this.
If that's not true, this is the only prophecy by way of either
verbal or typical that was not fulfilled by Jesus Christ
Himself while He was in fleshly human form.
That's free. Makes more sense to me.
So he says stop clinging to me. Now we know in addition to this,
Jesus would ultimately ascend to his Father in Acts chapter 1.
He does ascend to his Father ultimately and we we know that
and you know, as he ascended up toward his father, those two men
in white apparel says, why are you standing up, you Galileans?
Why are you looking up into heaven?
Jesus, the same man that you're looking at will so come in like
manner as you've seen him go into the heavens.
That was ultimate. I just don't think this passage
is referring to that day 40 days later because you know what the
King James says, touch me not well, you know what happened 8
days after he said this? He told Thomas, stick your hand
in my in the holes in my hand. I think he was fulfilling that
prophetic type. OK, let me talk about the fact
that Jesus not only ascended, but he will return.
He will return John chapter 20 verse 710 verses before this,
when the grave was open and Peter looks in, it says in the
handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with
the linen clothes, but folded together in one place by itself.
Now just a little cultural history.
Cultural history here. If a person went to a meal, they
went to a function and they were having a meal, it was customary
if that person was going to get up from the dining area and
leave and be done and not come back, he would take the napkin.
He would ball it up, wad it up and he would throw it down with
all the rest. But when that person was not
going to leave for good, but they were coming back to let
everybody know I'm just temporarily leaving, but I'm
coming back here. What they do, they would fold
the napkin. They would put the napkin by
itself to let everybody know I'm coming back.
Significant here. I don't know.
You tell me, notice, But folded together in a place by itself as
if to say I'm coming back. Whether that's not a symbol and
whether that's tradition, I don't know.
I do know this. He's coming back, and if He's
not coming back, and that's the last verse we're going to talk
about in this sermon, we got no hope, but Jesus is risen from
the dead and He is coming back and because of that we have hope
and that's the only reason. OK, Matthew 28 again and verse
10 back to Matthew. Then Jesus said to them, do not
be afraid, Go and tell my brethren to go into Galilee and
there they will see me. You know the Lord's words here
echo the words of the Angel, except there's one exception.
Did you see the exception? As you glance up, do you see the
exception? The exception is the Angel says
go tell his disciples, please get this, Jesus said.
Go tell my brethren. Why does that matter?
You know what the word brethren means?
The word brethren means kin or brother.
And because it means kin or brother, let me tell you what
some people think he's talking about.
And maybe. But like I said before, I think
there's a better explanation makes more sense.
Some people believe because it says brethren, and that means
Ken or brother. He's talking about his own
personal step brothers. In other words, go tell them I'm
risen. So they finally get it.
They finally understand my mission.
They finally understand that it's complete and they finally
understand that it's fulfilled. Possibly.
Let me tell you what makes more sense in context.
He's not talking about his literal kin.
He's talking about his spiritual kin.
Now, why does that matter? Who's he talking about?
He's talking about men that forsook him and fled.
He's talking about one in particular who denied him three
times, even cursing and swearing.
I know not the man. He's talking about people that
turn their back on him and he calls them brethren and he
extends love. I'm going to tell you something.
If a child of God departs from the Lord temporarily, there's
changes that they need to make sure, and there was changes the
apostles need to make. I'm going to keep this series
going and we're going to get into the second conversion of
Peter that's coming. I'm going to keep it on going.
But you know something about this.
They had changes to make. They made a mistake, but they
were still the Lord's family. Sometimes we think, well, we're
not doing what's right. They're not.
Yeah, they are. They're brethren.
And sometimes in our life, we are the only light to magnify
the light of Jesus Christ so that we could be the lighthouse
to help them see their way back to Jesus.
Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind that even
Peter who denied him with cursing and swearing, I know not
the man Jesus called brethren. Then in verse 28 or chapter 28,
verse 11, now while they were eating the while they were
going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported
to the chief priests all of the things that had happened.
This is amazing to me. You got the women right, And you
got the women and they're on their way to tell good news.
OK, You got these guys, you got the soldiers going to go talk to
their superiors to present bad news.
You know what's interesting about that?
It's the same news. He's risen.
The women is wonderful news, Soldiers, terrible news.
Same facts, same story. He's risen.
You know, we've got people in every culture, in every era of
history that have tried to deny the resurrection of Jesus.
In fact, there's 77 theories that people actually have come
up with to deny the resurrection.
I'm sitting here. I'm standing here talking to a
bunch of logical people with intelligence.
We just read. He's risen.
Easy. The Bible says he's risen.
We find that the women rejoice and worship him.
He's risen. The soldiers knew he was gone.
And they go take the facts of the bad news.
He's risen and yet there's been 7 theories in history that have
come up with to explain away the resurrection.
Here are the seven. You may have known these, you
may have heard of these. I'll give them to you now.
The first one's called the swoon theory or the semi coma theory.
What's that? This theory said Jesus never
died, he was just really traumatized.
He went into shock, he fell into a semi comatose state, but the
coolest of the tomb and spices revived him.
That's not going to work. By the way, you know who came up
with that? A man by the name of Venturini
1600 years later. It took that guy 1600 years to
come up with that. And by the way, if that theory
was true, think of it this way, the Romans were very proficient
at crucifixion. You don't think they got the job
done? They got the job done.
And when they were still living, to expedite that, they broke the
legs. They didn't break the legs of
Jesus fulfilling prophecy, but they didn't break the legs of
Jesus. Why?
What was their reasoning? He was already dead.
Then they took the spear satisfying Zachariah's prophecy
and thrust it into his side, and from his side flowed blood and
water. Proving he was dead doesn't
work. But if this theory is true, then
Jesus in Luke 24 walks 7 point whatever miles to Emmaus
barefoot with holes in his feet. No, here's another one.
Believe it or not, the no burial theory.
In other words, he wasn't there on Sunday because he wasn't
there on Friday. Well, think about it.
If that's the case, why would they seal a tomb with nobody in
it? And then why would they put a
guard guarding a tomb with nobody in it if he was not
buried? You know, the Bible says his
grave was to be assigned among wicked men, but he would be with
the rich man in his death. I quoted that.
Do you know where they put the wicked men?
They sent him to the valley of Hinnom in a city waste dump.
And they threw their bodies where the where the fires burned
incessantly. It was like a dump.
Go to the dump and they burned trash.
That's where wicked men went. So the no burial theory was he
wasn't buried, he was just thrown to the waist up.
Why steal the tomb? Why guard the tomb if you saw
there was no one in it? Here's another one.
These get more and more ridiculous.
How about the hallucination theory?
That is that all the appearances of Jesus were not real.
They were only hallucinations. Why would the disciples please
get this? Why would the disciples
hallucinate a resurrection when they never expected to have a
resurrection? Do you remember when Jesus said,
Now I'm going to tell you what, I'm just a country boy.
I'm not extremely intelligent with the higher echelons of
academia, but I guarantee you what I think I would have
understood what Jesus said. Maybe not.
Maybe I would have been as dumb as the Galilean fisherman.
I don't know, but Jesus says I'm going to die and three days
later I'm going to rise. You know what they said?
Ask him what he meant by that. Ask him what he means by that.
Why would they hallucinate A resurrection when they never
anticipated a resurrection and then also die as martyrs if it
was only a hallucination? And again, again, the tomb was
empty. How about this one telepathy
theory? No physical resurrection, but
God sent back telepathic messages to the disciples that
Jesus had risen. Well, by the way, if that's
true, it wouldn't have been a telepathic message.
It would have been a telepathic movie that lasted 40 days.
Do you know that there's Learned?
Educated smart guys that have come up with this these theories
to try to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Oh, there's more about this one, the seance theory.
This theory was this, that a medium conjured up a spirit, the
spirit of the dead Jesus by the occult power.
Even with that far. So what about this?
If that's the case, how did he walk through a closed door and
how did they touch him? Oh, and by the way, tomb's
empty. Keep going back to that.
The tomb is empty. Here's another one.
This is number six, and there's only 7.
Almost finished the mistaken identity theory.
And this is just simply somebody impersonated Jesus.
Somebody else did it. If that's the case, then the
body would still be in the tomb. Finally, here is the last one,
and it's the best of the bad. It's the one that the Jews held
on to, and that's the theft theory.
The body of Jesus was stolen. My question is this, who stole
the body of Jesus? Was it the soldiers?
Was it the religious leaders? Well, it wouldn't have been the
soldiers. Absolutely would not have been
the soldiers. The religious leaders,
Absolutely not, because it would prove what they wanted to
disprove. So it couldn't have been them.
What about the disciples? It couldn't have been the
disciples. What are they going to do?
Overpower the guards? Rollback the stone?
Grab Jesus and unravel him with nobody looking?
No, no, you wouldn't steal a body, fabricate the
resurrection, and then die as a martyr.
Now we come back to Matthew 28, beginning in verse 12.
Notice what happens next. When they had assembled with the
elders and consulted together. Notice, please, they gave a
large sum of money, a large sum. I'm going to get back to the sum
in a minute to the soldiers saying, tell them his disciples
came at night and stole them away while we slept.
And if this comes into the governor's ears, we will appease
him and make you secure. So they took the money and did
as they were instructed. And this saying is commonly
reported among the Jews until this day.
Wow, look at that large sum of money.
You realize something? I'm sure it's leaping off at the
page to you. The lie cost more than the
betrayal. Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of
silver, the price of a slave. The lie about the resurrection
cost more than the betrayal. And as I'm sitting there in my
office this morning, it just kind of hit me, man.
That'll preach. Because I got into thinking a
lie always costs more in our lifetime, in our dealings with
people, a lie cost more. How many people have had a
parent that said it's always better just to tell the truth?
If you tell a lie, you got to remember what you lied about.
So you can lie about that. And it's hard to rely on and on.
It's hard, and you know what? You perpetuate the lie and it
goes on and on and on. But you know what's wonderful?
If you just tell the truth and then it's over.
You got ramifications to deal with and then it's over.
The price of the lie is always more.
I like this phrase right here. You know, the worst thing that
an honest man could ever do is make an honest mistake.
That's the worst thing that ever happened to an honest man is an
honest mistake. And then he makes it right and
he moves on. But a lie, a lie cost so much
more. It's the lie that actually
proves the resurrection. Nothing explains the empty tomb
except he is risen and I'm thankful.
In closing this morning, if Jesus were not raised, we have
no hope. We got nothing.
You ever hear that phrase, that common phrase, What if this is
as good as it gets? If Jesus wasn't raised, We have
absolutely no hope whatsoever. I'm going to tell you something
here. If you are suffering through
hard times, difficult times, painful times, medical issues,
whatever it is, spiritual struggles that you're doing
everything you can to just stay on the right side of that, I got
news for you. There's hope.
And it may not be even in this life that you have any relief.
Maybe you do, and I hope you do. But if you don't, there's relief
someday. There's hope, The apostle Paul
in First Corinthians 15 said. But now Christ is risen from the
dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen
asleep. For since by man came death, by
man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as an Adam all die, Even so in Christ shall all be made
alive, but each one in his own order.
Christ the first fruits after those who are Christ at his
coming, all because of Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead and the
the phrase firstfruits means this.
He wasn't the first guy to ever be risen from the dead.
Jesus actually rose people from the dead.
What that means is this. He was the first one to be
raised from the dead, never to die again.
And guess what? One day at his coming, we, the
children of God will be raised in His image, in His glory,
never to die again. He's risen.
I'm through this morning. Thank you for your kind
listening. Rejoice.
And let me just say, I know that sometimes people pick one day a
year to rejoice in the resurrection.
Let's not, let's not ever do that.
Let's rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ 365
days a year. And let's remember we appreciate
Jesus every day because you know what, Every day we live, we got
hope because of what Jesus did. Just keep that in mind.
We never close the service without extending an invitation
to somebody that might be subject to the gospel call.
The steps to become a child of God are very simple.
First you got to hear the Word of God.
Romans 10/17. So then faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. But after you hear the word of
God, you got a choice to make. You got to either believe it or
not believe it. The Bible says we got to believe
it with all of our heart. Hebrews 11 and 6.
Without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him. Then what?
I got to change my waves. Simple.
I've been going to One Direction.
I got to change direction. That's all that means.
I got to repent of my sins. Acts 1730.
Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent. Then what?
I have to be willing to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God. It's the greatest thing a person
will ever say. Acts 837 that Philip said if you
believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. But these steps lead us toward
the point of salvation. Folks.
We're still not saved yet. Until what?
Be baptized for the remission of our sins.
You know why? Because that's where you contact
the blood of Jesus that he shed for our sins that we talked
about. We assimilate the death, burial
and resurrection of Jesus at baptism like he did, and rise to
walk in newness of life. Mark 16/16.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he does who
does not believe will be condemned.
Is baptism necessary? We hear this a lot.
Big question here it is first Peter 321.
Let the Bible answer the light figure where in the even baptism
doth also now save us, not the putting away the filth of the
flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you've never taken these
steps of obedience, we'd love to assist you in that.
We stand ready, willing and able to do that.
Maybe you have taken those steps.
Maybe there's something in your life, it's just not what it
should be. Repent of that.
Confess that. We'll pray with you and for you,
and God will forgive and restore.
If you want to be in a class, come forward while we stand and
while we see.