If you will, turn in your Bibles
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, please. We delight in celebrating
not only our Lord's birth, but that which is essential to all
of our salvation, the salvation of all of God's people all over
the world, hang on this one reality, and that is the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. A truth that is controversial
without a doubt, but not among his believing people. We believe
in the resurrection, do we not? What I want to do today, as we
have already been nurtured and edified in our hearts on Friday,
as we looked at the cross of our master, is now to deal with
his subsequent prayer, which is given to us in Psalm 22. And we'll look at that in a moment. I want to call your attention
to just two ideas around the resurrection and then to remind
you, if you are a biblical student, of the evidence that supports
the resurrection of Jesus Christ largely from the scriptures. So the title of our message today
is The Evidence and the Impact of the Resurrection. The Evidence
and the Impact of the Resurrection. Why would
we want evidence? Because our world is filled with
myths. And we are born and raised with them as well. They meet
our fancy. They make us feel good. Most
myths are nice, harmless stories that are so abstract that they
don't threaten us at all. And I think sometimes we also,
as Christians, can collapse into thinking of the incarnation,
or the cross of Christ, or even the resurrection as a myth. Now when something's a myth,
you cannot prove it empirically. All you can do is take someone's
word for it, and you already assume that this is something
that cannot be validated. That's what a myth is. It's really
a lie that's wrapped up in a story. And frequently when you watch
National Geographic or some of the history channels around Jesus,
the manner in which they communicate what they think are those exploratory
excursions about the evidence of his existence in Galilee almost
2,000 years ago is kind of couched in the mythical terms, you know? They kind of talk to you like,
well, you know, this is just one among a bunch of other myths.
But what I want for you to do is just to embrace the biblical
testimony concerning the reality of Christ's death, burial, and
resurrection, for which I want to read 1 Corinthians chapter
15, verses 1 through 3, and then we'll consider the evidence.
And after that, we will also then consider how many resurrections
there are noted and mentioned in the Bible And then finally,
we will close with the impact of Christ's resurrection to us
according to the Psalms. The apostle says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, verse 1 through 3, these words, 1 through 4, these
words, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand. He makes it clear. And if a man
or woman is going to stand before God accepted in the beloved,
they must believe the gospel. He says, by which also you are
saved if you keep in memory what I have preached unto you, unless
you have believed in vain. He says in verse three, for I
deliver unto you first of all, that which I also received are
that which is most importantly to be received. How that Christ
died for our sins, Point one, according to the scriptures.
Point two, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third
day, watch this, according to the scriptures. Here in verses
one through four, Paul's argument is thoroughly biblical. What
he wants you as a Christian to know is your convictions are
to be rooted in your knowledge of your Bible. that your understanding
of the redemptive work of God in Christ must not hang or depend
upon secular data, the historical facts of the archaeologists or
the historians. They may augment, they may aid,
they may help your understanding of the Bible, but the Christian
is to believe the Word of God as the very fact of everything
that God has said. Why do I say that? Because it's
the very Word of God that created everything that's here. By the
Word of the Lord were the heavens made. And the Word of God is
the substance of every living thing. There is no reality apart
from the Word of God. And so for the believer, the
Bible is the first and the last answer to everything. And so
when Paul says, according to the scriptures, according to
the scriptures, according to the scriptures, you know what
that means? Bible believing Christians believe in the death, burial
and resurrection of Christ because the word of God says so. Now
in philosophy, they would call that circular reasoning. In other
words, you start with a premise and then you lead to your premise
as the grounds for your conviction. So here's what we say. So. Our premise is that the Bible
is the Word of God. And our argument is that the
Bible declares that it's the Word of God. And our conclusion
is, therefore, we believe it. And that's where we are as Christians
in this world. And whenever you move away from
the scripture, you're going to find yourself dealing with the
same dilemma that Uzzah did. When he saw the ark stumbling,
and he thought he had to help God. God really doesn't need
the scientists. or the archaeologist or the historian
to help him. Am I making some sense? And so
for you and me, please understand that your Bible is sufficiently
capable of lodging in your conscience innumerable testimonies about
the reality and verity of Christ's coming, His death, His resurrection,
His reign, His rule, and His final return. For us as Christians,
all we need is the Word of God. And this is what Paul lays out
in his first four verses to establish what he's going to be talking
about in terms of the resurrection. We will not go further into his
syllogistic argument because that then moves into other evidences.
But what I want to call your attention to now is the fact
that the evidence of Christ's resurrection starts first and
foremost with the empty tomb. That's our first point, the empty
tomb. Again, I'm not going to go at
length into this, but we do have to ask some very critical questions
around the empty tomb that's going to help us establish our
argument with those who would challenge our premise that Christ
rose again. And I'll remind you, Christian,
of this. When you start at the empty tomb, you are already telling
the world that you believe he came the first time. In other
words, when men begin to argue about the empty tomb, they are
basically confirming the death of Christ. Their controversy
about the tomb is a confirmation of His death. And if they agree
that He died, then they must agree that He came. And if they
agree that He came, then they have to deal with the evidence
of His coming, which were miracles untold, affirming His Messiahship
and the fact that He was God manifested in the flesh. Is that
true? So really you and I are dealing with an argument of speculation
with great strength behind us because we've already resolved
and they have too by admission that Jesus of Nazareth was born
into the world. That he lived some 30 odd years
and that he did miracles of all sorts and in the doing of the
miracles he obtained fame and then that he was killed by the
rulers both Jews and the Romans and then that he was buried.
That's a lot of affirmation, even for the unbeliever. Isn't
that true? So your work and mine is not to go back to those evidences
which they already accept, but to start right here. Why are
we starting here? Because we ask the question,
if in fact we already agree with the secular records and with
the secular historians, and even with all who were about Jesus
during that time, as we'll see here in a moment, that he died
and that he was buried, and that he was placed into the tomb of
Joseph of Arimathea, along with our friend who? Nicodemus. All
we got to do now is deal with the evidence that's in front
of us. Because when you read Matthew chapter 28, what you
discover is that after they buried him, and having placed a stone
over his tomb, come Sunday morning, that stone is removed. Evidence number one, in your
outline then we are dealing with now what I call the sealed stone,
which was unsealed and what? Move. Now, ladies and gentlemen,
let me talk to you very practically about this for a moment. These
are common graves in Palestine, common graves in the Middle East,
particularly ancient Israel, where they would build tombs
inside the wall of caves or mountainsides. And when they wanted to seal
those tombs, they would put large rocks in front of the tomb. How
big were those rocks? They weighed up to two tons.
I wanna help you get the big picture down. And in order to
actually lodge those rocks into the tomb, you had to have an
incline or rather a decline. And the goal was to use levers
and roll the stone to the edge and let the stone roll down into
the cave and boom, lock itself in. That was designed so that
no one could easily remove the stone. Because you know, you
got crazy folk in the world who love to go into tombs and steal
gold and silver. Will they do it? Will they do
it? And so even in that day, you
had to protect your loved ones by making sure that the stone
was heavy enough to cause people grief if they were going to move
it. you'd have to have a hundred men to move a large stone, a
sealed stone. So the question we raise is,
you ready? Who moved that stone? Listen
to the text. Verse 1 through verse 7 tells
us this. In the end of the Sabbath, as
it began to dawn toward the first of the day of the week, first
day of the week, that would be for us Saturday, Sunday rather,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary they came to see the supper
and behold there was a great earthquake Watch this for the
angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back
the stone. Ah, we know the culprit now We know the culprit. He's the angel of the Lord Well,
it was gonna take an angel if it was gonna be one person Notice
what it says he descended from heaven. He came and rolled back
the stone from the door and sat on it Now, when I saw that, I
said to myself, now this brother boasting. Remember I told you
it's a decline. The stone is two tons. That's
a good size pickup truck. You try lifting that. The angel
rolls it back and then sits on top as a testimony that this
is of God. It's also a testimony that the
maniacal objective of the leaders to make sure that Jesus stayed
dead was thwarted so that God always confounds the counsel
of the wicked. The Lord let our brother sit
up there and demonstrate the regal power of a sovereign God. Just in case y'all don't know,
God moved this stone. That's the first evidence is
quite interesting and accepted by us who are believers, are
we not? We accept that very much so. But here's something else
that goes on that needs to be borne record to in terms of the
evidence. It says in verse 3, his description
was such. His countenance was like lightning. His raiment was
as snow. That's the typical outfit in glory. You got that? That's
your typical uniform when you're working for the Lord up there.
White, shiny garments. Verse 4. Here we go. Here's another witness. Are you
ready? And for fear of the angel, the keepers did what? and became
as dead men. The soldiers watched it. The keepers watched it. Now you
know they were told to put a watch over the tomb. And these watchers
have seen upon the earthquake the angel descend, remove the
stone, sit on it, and they are petrified at what they see. Witness
number two. Because you see, in the Roman
Empire, when you were a soldier for Caesar, Your life was always
the cost of messing up. So these brothers are in a predicament
because they're supposed to make sure the tomb stays sealed. And I can hear the Lord saying
to the soldiers, now whose side you on? Cause see, we got soldiers
who work for the Lord. And then you've got soldiers
who work for Caesar. These soldiers are in a predicament because
their life now is in jeopardy. because they were to make sure
that it was sealed. The seal of the Roman government
could not be broken except by permission of the Roman government.
That seal was broken. Whoever breaks the seal will
be punished with death. Those men are in trouble, are
they not? But God is doing this to bear record to the power of
the resurrection to the unbeliever. These men have to tell the story. And what story are they going
to tell? Are they going to tell the story Caesar or Pilate? Do you know we were there late
in the morning and there was about 100 men who came. No, that's not going to work.
Right? It's just not going to work.
What did they do? Allow them to be overcome by
those 100 men? Where are those 100 men at? Did
you hack up one or two? You got swords. Those men are
in trouble, aren't they? This is all this is all about
bearing record to the empirical evidence of the resurrection
of Christ Notice what it goes on to say in verse 5 and the
end angel answered them and said I'm sorry The he's speaking now
to the women and the angel answered and said unto the women fear
ye not for I know that you see Jesus which was crucified he
is not here for he is what who says that happened the angels
don't think as he said Come see the place where he lay. Now,
if you're going to do a synopsis development of the historical
account, you'd have to go back to Luke's gospel and then go
to Mark's gospel and John, and you'll realize that the sisters
came early. John's gospel chapter 19 makes it clear. Mary and the
other Mary came early. That's why the angels are talking
to them and telling them you can go head on in. What happened
to the centurions? They took off. They're gone because they're
dead. They're dead men. They are dead
men. If they go back to Pilate, Pilate
will kill them because Pilate will not believe them when they
say an angel rolled back the stone. We don't believe you. Give us a better answer. A hundred
men? Who are they? You see the predicament
these people are in? They are in a predicament. I'm
building a basic historical account of evidence around the resurrection
of Christ based upon the first-hand witness of both the soldiers
and now Mary and the other Mary that had gone down there. They
saw the angel just as well as the centurions did. And here's
the next piece of evidence that I want you to see. It's called
the affirmation of it by the unbelievers in Matthew chapter
28 verses 11 through 15. Are you there? Listen to it now
when they were going behold some of the watch came into the city
and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done
And when they were assembled with the elders and had taken
counsel, they gave large sums of money unto the soldiers now
watch this saying Just say his disciples came and took him by
night and stole him away while he while we slept whoa Now they are suborning these
men to tell lies, irrational, illogical lies that won't work
about something that they cannot avoid logically. And that is,
he is not there. That two-ton stone is removed. Just as he said he would rise
again on the third day. And so now the rulers are trying
to collude an argument against the resurrection by saying while
they were asleep, the stone was removed. What, were they drunk? There would have been a lot of
noise for them to remain asleep through the stone being removed,
the seal broken, and then the body taken. Have you ever been
that sleep? And yet these are the evidences
that are mounting the affirmation of the resurrection of Christ
by the unbeliever to the unbeliever. The next thing I want to call
your attention to is what I call the not so empty tomb. Is that
in your outline? Good, because I'm not always
sure you have the same one I do. The not so empty tomb, because
the reality is the tomb is not empty, is it? There's some evidence
in the tomb. This is also very peculiar and
worthy of our note because our Lord didn't just disappear. He didn't go AWOL. The not-so-empty
tomb is addressed for us in John's Gospel, chapter 20, verse 1 through
7, if you go there. Now, mind you, if you're a new
believer in Christ, you want to be able to understand these
things, to render an argument. or at least a defense of the
resurrection of Christ to those who might tell you that you are
embracing and adopting a myth. You want to be able to show them
these verses of scripture and ask them the question, what say
ye of this? So in John's gospel chapter 20
verses 1 through 7, we have what I call the not so empty tomb.
Verse 1, the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early
to the sepulcher and she sees the stone taken away from the
sepulcher. Then she runs and She comes to Simon Peter and
to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said unto them, they
have taken the Lord out of the supper car. See, this is what
you called not thinking it through because her conclusion was wrong. But she goes on to say what she
says, and this compels the disciples to run and see what's going on.
And we don't know where they have later. Peter, therefore,
went and that other disciple and came to the supper car. And
they ran both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter
and came first to the sepulcher. And he, stooping down and looking
in, saw the linen clothes lying there. He says, hmm, this is
strange. I mean, what? Why didn't Jesus just bolt out
of there, leaving the clothes behind in a tattered fashion
that would have indicated him hastening himself out of bondage? But what we have here is a demonstration
of the calm, cool collected process of a sovereign God who simply
got up took off the grave clothes and said let me let me fold these
up to teach my disciples that cleanliness is next to godliness
because you know they're a bunch of fishermen teach them how to
be neat and clean even when they in a hurry just just just do
it right do it right so when they came in they saw it all
wrapped together nice and neat and that's the way that Peter
here is describing it verse 7 and the napkin that was about his
head not lying with the linen cloth but wrapped together in
a place by itself quite specific in detail now this is not for
the secular world this is for the believer This is for the
believer to know by the firsthand witnesses of Christ's apostles
that they did not see some hurried event of a bunch of people just
snatching the body of Christ away. Because you see, when we
follow the account through, Peter and John are going to analyze
the evidence. And Peter's not going to get
it, but John will. John's going to get it. John's going to get,
as it will say, that he actually Notice what it says in verse
8 then went and also the other disciple which came first to
the supper and he saw Everything that Peter saw and he what? For
as yet they knew not the scripture that he must again He must rise
again from the dead then the disciples went away unto their
own place So here is the thing that we want to mark. We want
to mark the stone removed the seal broken the soldiers watching
and the angels testifying, the unbelievers colluding, the women
going, seeing the napkin and the cloth and the headrest and
everything. All this is mounted evidence
proving, at least in part, that he rose from the dead. Is that
true? And when you work it through, we are not only dealing with
the angel's witness, not only dealing with the centurion's
witness, not only dealing with the watcher's witness, going
back to the high priest, we're dealing with the women. So the
first woman that sees it is Mary Magdalene. Is that true? Right. And then, if you don't know,
in Luke's Gospel, Jesus shows up and talks to two brothers
on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And affirms the fact
that he rose again. Because the disciples are not
believing Mary. These two brothers come and say
it's just as Sister Mary said. So what's happening? Christ is
risen from the dead and not only has he given evidence of his
resurrection by the stone being removed, by the unbelievers seeing
it, by them colluding that it didn't happen, by Mary seeing
it, now the disciples are having it affirmed to them because Peter
and John was there. You see how the information is
mounting? It's mounting first to the unbeliever, then to the
close circle of the believers. And we have the not so empty
tomb. And now here's the next question I have to ask you. The
absence of his body to this day. Pastor, why do you have the word
DNA up there with a question mark? We can find anything we
want to in our universe with DNA. Is that true? We can find anything we want
to by swabbing a little this and a little that and we can
go back thousands of years now, can't we? And they still haven't
found his body. Got that? We found Saddam Hussein
in the hole, didn't we? We can posthumously dig up bodies,
swab it, affirm the presence of people there, and indict them
for crimes that they committed of which we could not do in times
past without DNA evidence. Is that true? So I ask you, where
is the Lord's body after 2,000 years if he did not rise again? You see it, don't you? You see
it? Well, we know where his body is. Acts chapter 1 verse 9 says
he rolls a Rolls-Royce called a cloud out of here in the glory
Isn't that what it says? Acts chapter 1 verse 9 and When
he has spoken these things while they beheld he was what taken
up and received and a cloud received him out of their sight and You
will never find the body of Christ, his physical, personal incarnate
body down here because it's in glory. They will still be looking
for the body of Christ until Judgment Day. But believers know
where his body is. Is it? Is that not so? Why? Because
we actually believe the Word of God, don't we? So the evidence
for us mounts. Here's another piece of evidence
as we work it through. I thought this was quite interesting.
The testimony of the disciples. Now we've already, go with me
in your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, show you this information.
We've already seen that God has allowed the master's resurrection
to be affirmed in the conscience and minds of the unbeliever by
the angel in the hearing and instruction by the angel to Mary,
by the two brothers on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, by
the 11 disciples Where he went into the upper room where they
were hiding and showed himself and proved himself see Flesh
a spirit does not have flesh and bone as I do he confirmed
it with them, right? But I thought that this was quite
a very important piece of evidence as paul argues for it here in
first corinthians chapter 15 Here's what he says. He says
over in uh verse five after he announces the resurrection of
Christ according to the scriptures, he says, and then he was seen
of Cephas, that is Peter, right? And then of the what? Twelve.
And after that, he was seen of above how many brethren? Ladies and gentlemen, that's
a whole bunch of people hallucinating, right? That's a whole bunch of
people hallucinating. That's an overwhelming testimony. Now here's the thing about first
century Rome and the epistle to the Corinthians, which was
only about 30 to 35 years subsequent to Christ's resurrection. Those
people were still alive. The people that Paul is talking
about were still alive, largely, as he said, most of them are
alive to this day. You know what that means? If
the secular institutions of Rome and the religious institutions
of Israel really wanted to, They could have subpoenaed all 500
of them. That would have been a big court
case in America. CNN, Fox News, the BBS, 500 witnesses
who all saw Christ. Wouldn't that have been a fascinating
story? One by one, subpoenaed, giving
their testimony. of the unique manifestation of
the risen Lord in their life individually. Testimony after
testimony after testimony mounting up unarguable evidence of the
resurrection. All 500 of them could not be
crazy. Are you guys hearing me? Now
the reason I laid this down before we move to our next point is
that what I often see happening in Christianity is a cognitive
disconnect. You know what that means? You
will say you are a Christian But because you don't do the
hard work of studying scripture, your conviction is dislodged
from the Word of God. And so when people begin to argue
against your Bible, you don't have any ability to defend the
Bible's truth claims, because you don't study it enough to
be armed with the truth to say, that's a lie, or that's a falsehood,
or that's a distortion, or that's not accurate, because the Word
of God says this. We also know that faith comes
by what? And hearing by what? Is your
faith being built up even by the empirical evidence that I'm
talking about now? It ought to because that's the purpose of
the scriptures. That's the purpose of the scriptures. Not to give
you heebie-jeebies, not to give you liver quivers, not to have
you shaking and doing all that, but to lodge in your mind Clear
historical testimony of the way and work of God in redemption
by Christ For the salvation of your soul because we are called
to be his witnesses So I'm supposed to open my Bible and be able
to demonstrate by the Word of God. This is what happened This
is what happened. This is what happened and the testimony of
scripture can stand up in any courtroom Are you hearing me? It's very important to know these
tokens. And so I say that not only is
the testimony of the disciples such, but finally, point number
six, the testimony of a what? Rebel convert. I love how God
did it. He gave a few years to allow
the testimony to permeate like leaven, Jerusalem and Rome, the
gospel to settle down. And then he allowed a rebel named
Paul to fiercely, Opposed the gospel with every power in him
and then he Sovereignly knocked him down on the Damascus Road
and showed him that he was Lord And when he revealed his glory
to Paul, you know what Paul said Lord, what would you have me
to do? you know what Paul said Christ said Christ said I want
you to go tell everybody that I'm Lord and And now Paul was
the greatest testimony of the resurrection of Christ, both
to the unbelieving Jews and the unbelieving Gentiles and the
believing Christians, because he was a former rebel against
what he thought was a myth and a lie. Can you see it? Paul is
saying, I didn't believe it either, but now I believe it. And this
is often what happens in the salvation of sinners, where we
preach the gospel to loved ones and friends and relatives, etc. And they don't believe it. They
call it foolishness. They reject it out of hand. And in some cases,
our loved ones kind of persecute us, don't they? And we simply
pray, Sovereign Lord, in the same way in which you knocked
Paul down off of his high horse, knock my loved one down off of
their high horse. Cause them to see your glory.
Cause them to see your glory. and then cause them to say yes
to you so that they might know what we know about the truth
of the risen Lord. We believe in the resurrection,
do we not? And as Peter puts it in 1 Peter
1, verses 3 and 4, I want you to see this because I'm going
to move up to my next point now. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1,
verse 4, these words, critical to your understanding of the
blessings of the gospel in your life. This is a term that you
ought to learn. Here's what he says in verse
three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to his abundant mercy, is this mercy abundant?
He has made us live alive again onto a what kind of hope? Stop
right there. See, that's our point. And I'm
going to show you how it's connected to the resurrection. Every true
believer that's biblically informed has a living hope in them. Now
watch this. We talked about this on Friday.
Your hope is not for a better life now. Your hope is not for
better health now. Your hope is not prosperity now. Your hope is not that if you're
single, you'll get married. Your hope is not that if you're
married, you can be single again. I had to do that. I had to do
it. I just had to do it. Your hope
is not to be rooted in these temporal things. And if you weren't
here Friday, you need to get it. Tell them. Tell them. Tell
them. They need to get it. They need to get it. Because
today in Christianity, we have a crossless theology today. And
we avert suffering when we were made for suffering. And what
believers are told is your hope is the resurrection. And it's
what, right now, keeps your faith alive. when you know that all
of the promises of God are yes and amen to the glory of God
in Christ by us and that when he comes you and I will receive
an inheritance undefiled reserved in heaven unspeakable and full
of glory you can take the hitch down here I'm here to tell you
The resurrection did that for us when we understand the doctrine
of the resurrection and its impact in our life as we'll see here
shortly. We believe in the resurrection because it is for us our hope. It is for us our hope. And we
wouldn't even be believing in the resurrection if it weren't
for one man who left heaven, assumed a human nature, and like
a seed went into the ground and died. That's John's Gospel chapter
12 verse 24. This is what Jesus is saying
and this is what we learned last night in our men's meeting. We
who are believers in Christ, we who have hope for glory to
come, we who have a living hope in our heart, we have that because
of the consequence of one seed that fell into the ground and
died. You got that? All of our hope for the resurrection
is rooted in one man. Listen to what he says. This
is john's gospel chapter 12 verse 24 john's gospel. You can turn
in your bible there slow it down Move over to john's gospel chapter
12 verse 24. Listen to these words Jesus says
in verse 23 and jesus answered them The hour has come that the
son of man should be glorified. He viewed his cross work as glory
And he said verily verily I say unto you except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and do up It abides alone. But if it died,
it brings forth much what? Now, if you are a believer in
Christ, you are the fruit of Christ's death on Calvary. He
died to have you. You and I are the consequence. You and I are the results of
the death of Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Can you see
yourself as that? And the joy of the reality of glory to come
for us is sealed in our heart and it allows us to endure hardship
and difficulty because we know one day we're going to be with
him who loved us enough to come down to this raggedy place and
suffer on our behalf. Now let's ask the next set of
questions. How many resurrections are there? I admit this is like
a Bible study, but it's important because I am so concerned, again,
about the bereft ignorance of Christians around core theological
doctrines. It scares me to death how unbiblical
we are in our thinking and how illiterate we are in our knowledge
of the Word of God. So, yes, we have a house full
of people so glad to have you visiting, Grace, but you in a
Bible study today. Okay, you're gonna hear verses
quoted you're gonna hear verses explained because I want you
to leave with your conscious having born record that the Word
of God is capable of Convincing us of the truth of God and even
saving our souls behind it So I want to just share with you
seven kinds of resurrections in the Bible So that you can
understand that the Bible is replete with the concept of the
resurrection as we learned last night It's rooted in the image
of God is rooted in our heavenly adoption. Resurrection is critical
to God's glory and our participation in it. How many are there? There's
seven. For me, there's seven. I like the nice, neat number
seven. It's a number of perfection. The first, we will say, is the
resurrection of Christ himself. You believe that, right? At the
center of the transition of the world from the pre-Christ era
to the post-Christ era, which is where we are, is the resurrection.
Everything changed when Christ rose. We actually call our days
the year 2016 and Old Domino. The year of our what? That's radical for a myth, isn't
it? The whole world is using Jesus
as a point of reference for time. But did you know the Bible said
that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last,
the beginning and the end? And He is the cause of all time?
And as such, we rejoice in being able to nominate this day to
our risen Savior who upholds the whole world by the power
of His Word. We're able to do that. But what
I am stating is that the resurrection centrally has its origin in Christ
That's Matthew's gospel chapter 16 verse 21. You don't have to
go there This is where Jesus was telling his disciples after
he told them I will build my church and the gates of hell
will not what and then he told them but before that the Son
of Man must go through much difficulty then be betrayed and and suffer
at the hands of wicked men, be killed, be buried, and then on
the third day what? Rise again. Christ said that.
Christ said that. So his resurrection is centrally
the heart of all resurrections that are seen in the scripture.
The second kind or character of resurrection in the Bible
is the resurrection of believers before Christ's time. Now there weren't many. But if
you'll quickly pull up Second Kings 1321, you guys remember
frequently I preach Old Testament passages around baptism because
baptism promises the resurrection, doesn't it? Last week we baptized
18 people. You guys remember seeing that?
When we put them in the water, as they went down, it typified
their what? Death. If you leave them down,
it doesn't only typify it, it confirms it. Right? And some of them, some of them was fighting. I'm
just telling you. That's why I have to have a brother
to help me, because they don't want to die. And it's not legit
until the head goes all the way under. So they fight. They want to keep the head up.
No, you got to die. Now, we're not going to leave
you down there too long, but we're going to leave you down
there just enough to where you get to trusting in Jesus. Do
you trust him? Up you come. And when we raise
you up, it's a picture of the what? Resurrection. Baptism is
a picture of the resurrection. So every baptized believer is
looking for the day of resurrection because this old raggedy body
has to be changed. Is that right? Made like unto
his glorious spiritual body. But in the Old Testament, in
the days of the kings, there was a man who had died. Now this
death represents all of our death spiritually. and they were at
war and so they had to find a tomb to throw his dead body in. We
are assuming that this man that died was a soldier. And notice
what it says, it came to pass as they were burying a man that
behold, they spied a band of men and they cast the man into
the supper of whom? Oh, how convenient. Why did God
allow that to happen? To prefigure the resurrection
and the grounds of every believer's resurrection in their connection
to the one who died. Did you get it? To pre-figure
the doctrine of the resurrection in that every believer rises
only because they are united to the one dead man. And that
dead man is not Elisha, it's Jesus. But Elisha becomes a great
picture of Jesus, does he not? And so it says, and they cast
the man into the supper. And when the man was let down
and touched the bones of Elijah, he what? Resurrection and he
stood on his feet. Here's the doctrinal truth of
that as we move to our next example of resurrection Jesus said in
the gospel of John chapter 11 Because I live chapter 14 verse
19 because I live you shall live also He said in chapter 11. I
am the resurrection and the life right the man that believeth
on me Though he were dead yet shall he live The one who believes
on me also shall in this sense never die because of his union
with Christ. Christ is the grounds and cause
by which we have hope for eternity. And it's because of our union
with him. Preacher, how do I get unified with Christ? By faith.
Not by words, by faith. You and I are brought into union
by Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, by God, through faith and only
faith. You and I cannot be brought into
union with God by something we do, the effort of our good works.
It's only by trusting in the merits of Christ's righteousness
that you and I can discover that we've been made one with Him
so that when Christ died, who died? We died. And when Christ
rose, we also what? We rose. See, Christ becomes
that central revelation by which we have our the totality of our
hope. In the Old Testament, therefore, then, several allusions are given
to us of the resurrection. I will only call your attention
to two to move forward. Do you remember in the days of
Ezekiel, chapter 37, verses 1 through 10, where Ezekiel is told by
God to go into this dry valley that was filled with bones? You
guys remember that? And Ezekiel was made to analyze
those bones very critically so as to prove that they were really
dead. And the text says they were very
dry bones, which means they had been dead a long time. And what
those dry bones describe is your condition in mind before salvation. You and I are spiritually what?
Dead before salvation. We let people know that too.
You and I don't naturally come to God, naturally love God, naturally
want God. We naturally hate God, naturally
run from God, naturally hide from God. We all sow the fig
leaves of our own good works and try to dupe God. We do. Some
people sow the fig leaves of intellectualism, the pride and
arrogance of thinking that they can outwit God with their intellect.
It will never happen. Some people sow the fig leaves
of making billions of dollars, the pride of arrogance, of self-prominence. It will never happen. You will
never out-rich God. You will never out-wise God. Some people sow the fig leaves
of religion. Religion abounds with tons of methods of good
works. If you do this, that, and the other thing, you'll be
able to get into heaven. But I'm here to tell you it's not
by works of righteousness, which we have done. The only way you
get in is by the mercy of God. By his mercy have he saved us
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Only by his mercy. Only by his mercy. And so we
see in this valley of dry bones that the people are both dead
and helpless. And what does God tell Ezekiel
to do? Speak to the bones. This is exactly what he tells
me to do every week. I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but
we're all by nature dry bones. Is that true? Some of us are
really dry in this place. I can hear when you sit down
the crackling of the bones. And we pray, and we preach, and
we hope the wind blows. And should the wind blow, it
will move upon your dead bones, the dead bones of your children
sometimes sitting there. The Spirit of God will arouse
the heart of your children and give them, right in their seat,
an epiphany. You won't even know it. That
deep down inside their being, they are now aroused to the reality
of God in Christ. And from that moment on, they
are walking with God, discovering the reality of God in their life.
Are you hearing me? Because of the incorruptible
seed sown into their heart by the Word of God. This is why
we bring our children to church, is it not? This is why we raise
them in the fear and the nurture of the Lord, is it not? This
is why we have them under the preaching of the Gospel. Because
we believe, we believe faith comes by hearing. We believe
it. We believe it. And so if we were
to go through the whole process of Ezekiel's bones, it would
take too long. But it describes the process
of renewal and development and maturity and sanctification and
purpose. They came together. They stood
up. Flesh to flesh, bone to bone.
And then the Spirit of God came into them and they became a great
army. That's what God does with the
Church of Christ. Are you hearing me? Every true believer is a
soldier in God's arm. And it's interesting because
not only in our previous text of 2 Kings 13 did the man stand
on his feet, but here they stand on their feet. And in Revelation
11, what it teaches us is the resurrection of the two witnesses.
You guys remember that account? The two witnesses who are testifying
to the whole world. The whole world hated them. persecuted
them and killed them and three and a half days later they rose
again on their feet. Do you guys see that? Listen
to it. And after three and a half days the Spirit of life from
God entered into them and they stood upon their what? Now again
when we read that three times in the Old Testament twice and
here in the New Testament what it underscores is that without
a relationship with God you are dead and you're lying down. When
once God saves you He stands you upright and you are visibly
and vividly now walking in your imago dei, the image of God. You're not an animal crawling.
You're standing because you're created in the image of God.
Then you're also at attention because you're God's soldier.
You guys got that? He called you into his army when
he rose you again from the dead. And great fear fell upon them
all. Let's go on. Let's quickly go on. So the resurrection
of Christ himself, the resurrection of believers before Christ, and
then the resurrection of believers during his earthly reign. Did
Jesus raise folks from the dead? His cousin John was struggling,
wasn't he? Matthew chapter 11, verses 1 through 4. Now, John
was in prison and he really didn't know because things were going
left. whether or not the one he had pointed out was the Messiah. And he just had a temporary breakdown,
a little question. Do you ever have one? Do you
ever, from time to time... Come on, it's just you and me.
Now watch this. Do you ever, from time to time, just have
like the question, I wonder if this is true. I wonder if we're
just being deceived. You can be honest. And especially
when troubles mount in our life, it makes you really wonder, is
all this real? Isn't that so? But see, if God
has given you biblical faith, are you ready? Your faith always
rises up over that crazy mess at the end of the day, doesn't
it? Doesn't he give you the grace to shake it off? And say, uh-uh,
I believe the gospel. Uh-uh, Christ rose again from
the dead. Uh-uh, He actually saved me 37
years ago. He laid His hands on me. He called
me. And He's keeping me. And He's
promised me I'll have days where I doubt. And that's where we
don't ever trust in ourselves, we trust in Him. Because He can't
lie, fail, or change. Right? Remember, faith is not
faith in yourself. It has to be faith in God. and
in the promises of God, and they don't change. I might get crazy
in my mind and start thinking all kind of weird stuff, but
it has nothing to do with my position in God or my security
with Christ. Am I making some sense? That's
so very good. But the Holy Ghost is going to
come back in after you go on those long trips to Mars, ship
you back, and tell you you are a son of God because the Word
of God is clear. He's there to bear record that you are a child
of the living God and help remind you that you are on your way
to glory. Even though you took that trip to Pluto. So then we have the resurrection
of believers during the days of Christ. You remember Christ
touched caskets. He touched people everywhere
and raised them from the dead. That's verse 5. Tell John the
sick are healed, the lame are healed, the blind see, lepers
are healed, the dead are raised, and the gospels preached to the
poor. It settled John down. He was able to lay his head on
the chopping block knowing he had done his job and died for
Christ's sake. You guys got that? And again,
the word of Christ gave him security as the word of Christ ought to
give us security. All right, let's go on. Look at the next
one. The resurrection, not only of those believers during Christ's
time, but the resurrection of those at his resurrection. Matthew
27, verse 52 and 53. Have you ever wondered about
this strange event? When Christ rose again from the
dead on Sunday, After his resurrection, there was an earthquake that
opened up many of the tombs in Jerusalem. Watch what the 6th
says. And the graves were opened. Do
you see that? And many bodies of the saints which slept, what?
Verse 53. Well, watch this. And came out
of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and
appeared unto many. Boy, that was a day. Wasn't that
a day? Cousin! That was a day. We call this
the first fruits of his resurrection. He did that to prove that he's
the firstborn of many brethren. The firstborn of the dead. Those
folks there also were dispatched on into heaven because they had
already died. It is given unto men to die what?
Once. And after that, the judgment.
But they were actually testifying and affirming the resurrection
as the multiple witnesses out of the mouth of two or three
witnesses. That's an amazing account. the resurrection here
then is another one as we move forward the resurrection of the
elect spiritually in conversion almost done here the Bible describes
your salvation in mind as a Kind of resurrection being raised
from the dead. We've already affirmed that right Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 5 tells us that we were dead in trespasses and
sins verses 1 through 5 and God had to raise us together with
Christ. That's a resurrection. Do you understand that? John's
Gospel chapter 3 verses 3 through 8, except you be born again.
That term means to be made anew, to be born from above, and to
be born a second time. That's what we call a resurrection.
You are raised from the dead in your soul. So now your soul
is connected to the life of God, and now you actually have a relationship
with God. because you have been raised
up. More than that, for every true believer, you are right
now positionally in heaven. Did you know that? According
to Ephesians 2, 5-8, we are positioned with Christ in heaven right now.
We are seated in heavenly places in Christ. It is for that reason
you can comprehend spiritual truth. Have you ever met people
who just don't seem to get it? And then with many of them, they
don't seem to want it. And yet they go to church. The
real problem with them is that they're still dead. Because when
God makes you alive in Christ, there is a communion between
you and God by his spirit that brings you into the knowledge
of God so that the things of God begin to not only be understood,
but believed. This is 2 Corinthians chapter
4 verses 4 through 6 where God causes the light to shine out
of darkness into the heart of man and gives us the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
where now we begin to see things in the spiritual dimension of
the Word of God and of the gospel that for us mean everything.
You know how people don't get excited about God but we do?
I mean we get excited because of the Word of God and what it
means? Well you can't get excited when you're dead. You got that? You must be born again. A couple more conversions, examples. Not only is there the resurrection
of the elect spiritually in conversion, but there is the resurrection
of the just on the last day, as well as the resurrection of
the unjust. Pull up John 5, 28 and 29. Now here's the ominous
thing about the resurrection that people don't particularly
care for and the devil wants to deny by denying Christ's resurrection. Here it is. You guys ready? The idea of a resurrection means
that none of us are going to get away with our sin. Are you
hearing me? The idea of a resurrection means
that none of us are going to get away. You know, people live
like hell and they think that death is a hiding place. But
do you know that there is a day when the voice of God, like a
trumpet, is going to sound and every grave in the world is going
to shake open? And every human being that was
born from the beginning of time to the end of time is going to
rise from the dead. Do you believe that? And they're going to face
God and have to give an answer to God for what they have done
in their body, whether good or bad. This is why people don't
like the doctrine of the resurrection. They hope Jesus didn't rise from
the dead. Listen to verse 28-29. Marvel
not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are
in the graves shall what? Hear his voice. Verse 29. Listen
to it. And shall come forth they that
have done good unto the resurrection of life. Stop! Let me help you
real quick. The term done good here means
to believe the gospel. That's all it means. There is none good, no not one.
There's none that doeth good. There's none that seek after
God. We are all unprofitable. But when you and I, by the grace
of God, trust in the merits of Christ's righteousness, you know
what God accounts to you? All the obedience of Christ,
which makes you righteous before God. And the way God views you
is as if you have obeyed all of God's law. Watch this now,
from the beginning of time, throughout eternity. And only a good God
can call you good. And the only way He can call
us good is if we're in Christ. And because we're in Christ,
we get to appropriate His goodness, and thus we have done good by
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you guys hearing me? And
where we don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're left
to yourself. And this is what the next verse says. And they
that have done evil, and we might as well develop that evangelically. What is it to do evil? Not believe
the Gospel. Not believe the gospel. When you hear the gospel of a
gracious God who has offered to humanity the one escape from
the world, and that is the sacrifice of his darling son, and tells
you to simply trust him, and you don't, you have committed
the greatest evil in the world. Be sure of it. If God is telling
the truth that there's only one way to heaven, and that one way
is Christ, and we say no to Christ, doesn't it follow that that's
the worst evil we could ever commit? Stay with me now. Stay
with me. I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you. A murderer
can go to heaven. I mean a mass murderer. A pathological
fornicator can go to heaven. An adulterer can go to heaven.
You guys understand what I'm saying? Thieves go to heaven.
Don't we glory in that? God came to say what kind of
people? Sinners! People of the vilest ilk can
go to heaven. Tax collectors and harlots and
publicans and the most vile can go to heaven. But you won't go
to heaven if you reject the gospel. That is tantamount to the unpardonable
sin. Are you hearing me? where the
Holy Ghost presses down on your conscience, the realities of
Christ, and in your soul, you say, no! Should you die in that
condition, you cannot and will not be saved. All manner of sin will be forgiven
us. But sin against the witness of
the Holy Ghost pressing down on your conscience, the overtures
of Christ's righteousness, and telling you God has made a way
of escape, that we might be with Him for all eternity as His sons
and daughters, enjoying bliss, free from sin and sorrow and
pain, and glorified with Him and His Son. And we say, no,
we deserve hell. Do we not? The Gospel is the
greatest news. in the world. Amen.