Luke 24. Let's read the first 12 verses. Luke 24. On the first day of the week,
very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing
the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled
away from the sepulchre. Joseph had a large stone rolled
over the door. It took three or four strong
men to put it there and to remove it. Verse 3, they entered in
and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they
were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them
in shining garments. And as they were afraid and bowed
down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek
ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember? Remember how he spake
unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and the third
day rise again. And they remembered his words
and returned from the sepulchre and told all these things unto
the eleven, to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene. Who are
they? Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary
the mother of James, and other women. Women. They were with
them which told these things unto the apostles. And their
words seemed to them as idle tales. And they believed him
not. Then arose Peter. John also went
with him, as told in another gospel, and ran unto the sepulchre. Stooping down, he beheld the
linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, he and John wondering
in himself at that which was come to pass. And I believe,
I'm certain, that Mary went back with them, and that's when the
Lord appeared to Mary in John's Gospel when he said, Mary. This is the story of our Lord's
resurrection. It's been told so often, it's
been told so long, heard by everyone. And it has now become commonplace. Just an interesting story. A phenomena, yes, but just an
interesting story to many. It has become just an idle tale. Someone rose from the dead. Now, our Lord said no one will
believe even though someone rose from the dead. That's not where
faith comes from. Believe in this phenomenon. Just
believe in the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Many say
they believe that. That's not salvation. We're going to see
salvation is by revelation. It's a person revealing Himself
to you, who He is, living, reigning, ruling Lord Jesus. Did you notice with me how it
said, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus? That's who He is now. That's
what Romans 14 says, to this end Christ both died and was
buried and rose again and He might be Lord. Yes, a man named
Jesus died. We see him made a little lower
than the angels for the suffering of death, but now he's crowned
with honor and glory. And what do you call him? The
Lord. This proves who he is. He's not
just a man named Jesus. Even these disciples walking
on the road, they were confused. What happened to Jesus? What
they did to Jesus? That's the next message. But,
you see, everything hangs on this. Our Lord rising from the
grave, being raised from the dead. Everything hangs on Him. Everything hangs on Him. Our
living, reigning, ruling Lord. Salvation is not a doctrine.
Salvation is not in a book. He is the book. Salvation is
in Him. In Him we live and move and have
our being. God's people know that. Paul,
who was Saul of Tarsus, before the Lord came to reveal himself
to him, Saul believed God and believed God was sovereign. He
believed the Bible. He was orthodox. He kept the
Sabbath and on and on it go. He was a good man, good works
and all that, but he hated the truth. He did not believe Christ. He didn't really need Christ.
He had a righteousness. Remember? He said, I'm blameless. Then why'd Christ come and die?
He didn't need him to die for you. Saul, who was Paul, hated
it, but he met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. He heard His voice. He saw His
glory. He fell at His feet, trembling,
and he begged Him, asked Him, what are you going to do with
me, Lord? And God said, I've chosen you. Election. He realized then and there, didn't
he? You don't choose God. You don't even know God unless
God knows you and comes to you. He met him. And from then on,
who did Paul preach? What did Paul preach? Paul, now
his name has changed. His name means small. But who
hath despised the day of small things? The Lord used that man. My, my. Preach the gospel everywhere. The gospel is the power of God,
not men. But he went about preaching Christ.
And every time, in Acts, every time Paul stood up to preach
for anybody, he talked about the living Lord. How Christ had
risen from the dead. He said, this is why I'm called
into question. This is why people hate me, for
the resurrection. That is, I preach a living person,
not dead doctrine, not orthodoxy. No, I preach a reigning, ruling,
living person seated on the right hand of the majesty on high who
did what he came to do, who went back and sat down, and he's coming
again to get those he came to do it for. That's all he preached. That's who he preached. That's
who Peter preached the Pentecost to. And it struck fear. What struck fear? A person. A
sovereign, reigning, ruling Lord on the throne. That struck fear
in 3,000. So what are we going to do? We're in the hands of
Jesus. He's not just Jesus like we thought.
He's God. So salvation is about revelation.
Revelation. Salvation is by sovereign election.
He chooses whom He will to reveal Himself to whom He will. Him. He reveals Himself. Paul said, God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace when it
pleased God to reveal His Son in me. Our Lord, His person, His work,
everything about Him, the truth, everything has been hidden from
men and women from the beginning. In a mystery it's been hidden,
though every eye, every ear has to some degree seen. these things,
yet they're hidden. His birth, when our Lord came,
His birth, though prophesied all through the Scriptures, where
He would be born, it looks like everybody would be camping out
at Bethlehem then. His birth prophesied, His actual
appearance when He came was hidden. It was in the dark. That was
by design. Hidden to the world. Revealed
to who? A few shepherds on a mountainside. A few shepherds sitting, watching
over their sheep. That's pity, isn't it? And a poor man and his wife. Surrounded by some dumb animals.
Dumb animals. The ox knows he's owner, the
ass knows he's master. Didn't know his maker. Came to
his own, his own receiving him not. So his birth was done in
the dark while the world slept. A star shone, a bright star shone,
pointed exactly to Bethlehem. Right there he is. Who saw it? A few wise men all the way from
afar off. Have you seen His glory? Here's
the marvel. Here's the wonder. Here's amazing
mercy and grace. Have you seen His glory? Have
you heard His voice? Has He revealed Himself to you?
Who? You see, you're calling brethren. I use this word all the time
because I can't think of another way to put it. It's unbelievable. Just unbelievable. I can't believe
it. The disciples, when the Lord appeared to them the second time,
said they couldn't believe for joy. It was just beside them. His life, His words, His miracles
were public. All heard, all saw, yet most
followed Him for the food and the miracles, didn't they? And
He turned and rebuked them sharply. Multitude, you follow Me for
what you can get out of Me. And isn't that what men do today? They say they follow Jesus. Why? Because all your troubles will
be over, you know. He'll provide health and wealth
and all that. That's not the Jesus Christ description.
He said, your troubles are just starting. You follow me? Your
troubles are just beginning. So they followed Him for the
miracles, for the loaves and fishes and all that. A few chosen disciples followed
Him for Him. They loved Him. They hung on
Him. Remember when the Lord said,
Will you also go away? And Simon Peter said, To whom? Like David, Whom have I in heaven
but thee? There is none on earth I desire
beside thee. How do you know? I'm following
you. Like these women. A few chosen
women. You know, like I said, his birth. One man in the temple named Simeon,
an old man about to die, waiting. The Lord came to him, didn't
He? One woman named Anna. One. One. And what did she speak of? Him. To all who look for redemption.
His life, His words, His miracles were all public, yet just a few
chosen disciples believed Him, looked to Him, loved Him. They
were words of life to them. And they all said to a man, to
a woman, they all said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of God,
the One who should come, the One who came for me. I'm not
leaving. His transfiguration was only
seen by three. And it was in Galilee. We're
going to see that in a minute. Galilee. Everybody despised Galilee. That's where Nazareth was. Three
chosen disciples saw the Lord at who He was. Transfigured. When He peeled back that robe
of flesh revealed to them, them whom He had chosen. His crucifixion,
though now known and seemingly believed by all, yet even it
was in the dark, wasn't it? Darkness. And at His crucifixion,
the whole earth shook. The Scripture says the whole
globe shook when Christ was crucified. Why didn't the whole world then
hit their knees? Wouldn't you think? The dead
arose, graves opened, and people walked out. Why didn't everybody?
Because they won't believe the one rose from the dead. That's
not where salvation comes. Salvation comes when Jesus Christ
reveals Himself to you. Isn't that the woman at the well? I am. I've come for you. Nobody else. He came for her. She dropped her wife. Dropped everything and everybody.
Dropped that fella she was living with. She's one of them. You know, that woman at the well
is one of them. They, I've started to entitle
this, here they come. Back again. To him. To whom? Coming. You can't keep them away. Here they are. when He first
found them and revealed Himself to them. That He loved them and
came to save them. Then they loved Him. Nothing
and no one is going to separate them from Him. Here they are. Are you one of them? I think
you are. Here you are. You've come back. You see your calling, brethren? Bless God, I think I'm one of
them. Let us not ever get over that. His ascension went back to glory. Who saw that? Who saw that? Just those chosen. He took them out on a hill in
Bethany. A little old town. A house of
figs. Bethany. He took them out on
a hill. And they saw Him ascend to glory
in the clouds. And heard the angels say, He's
coming back. That day forward, they went,
Oh, His Second Coming. Every eye is going to see Him.
But not every eye has been waiting on Him. Not every eye and not
every heart believes Him. And I believe it's going to be
like He came the first time in darkness while the world sleeps.
And then like lightning lights the sky. God's people. Trunks shall sound,
you know that? The dead in Christ shall rise.
The saints ascend. And all shall see Him. Two. These Galileans look at it, verse
1, upon the first day of the week. Here they come. First day
of the week. Isn't that significant? Here
we are. First day of the week. See, Christ
is our Sabbath, isn't it? We don't meet on a day. We don't
worship a day. We don't even deserve a day.
This is not a Christian Sabbath. It's just a day like any other
day. Not a holy day. No day, no things. There's nothing,
no thing or time or place holy. You understand that? Every day
is the Lord's day. God's people worship every day
of the week. Every day. But this is the day,
it's called the Lord's Day, because it's the day our Lord arose from
the grave, and it's the day He's told us to meet together to worship
Him. But we don't hallow this day. We hallowed be His name. We don't come here because it's
Sunday, because we're supposed to. We come here because He said
He'd be with us, or hope. This is the day. I was glad when
they said enough, let's go to the house of the Lord. I'm glad.
I'm glad for this day, aren't you? But God's people worship
Him every day. But it was the first day of the
week and they came very early. Very early in the morning. Mark's Gospel says, at the rising
of the sun. They came at the rising of the
sun. That's when we're going to come,
when he raises it. We see him, son of righteousness
arisen. And they came. Who? Look at chapter
23, verse 49. This is significant. All his
acquaintance. That's who's coming. That's who
comes to Him. His acquaintance. Those He knows
and loves and those who are acquainted with Him. John, I love this.
We know that the Son of God has come and given us an understanding. We might know Him that is true
and we're in Him that is true. This is salvation. He's given
us an understanding. We're acquainted with Him. were
married to him, verse 49, and the women that followed him from
Galilee. Behold in these things. That's
who came. His chosen, his saved one, these
women, they came. When he called the first time,
they followed him, they fell, they sat, they worshipped him,
and they kept coming. As I said, they're following
Him. And you can't keep them from the Lord now. Mary Magdalene,
when He called, He called her in Galilee. Magdalene is in Galilee,
a little town by the seashore. Poor little town. She was a poor
little woman. A forlorn woman. Full of seven
devils. Mary. Her name means bitter. Oh, He's going to turn her bitter
to sweet. The Lord chose her. The Lord loved her. The Lord
came to her. The Lord raised her from the dead, the spiritual
dead, quickened her, revealed Himself to her. And from that
day forward, she kept coming to Christ, sitting at His feet. There are several Marys
in Scripture. It's a good name. At least two of them brought
spices. You know that? Two Marys that brought all they
had and anointed Him. One with her hair, and this isn't
Mary, but... You see, what I'm trying to say
is that when God calls a person, and He calls the weak, the nobodies,
like these poor women, and they follow Him, and they sit at His
feet, And that's where you'll find them, till the day he comes
back. That's where you'll find them.
Because nothing can separate them from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus. Not principalities, power, death,
no. Nothing. No one. They love him. Because he first
loved them. And it says they brought the
spices. But spices, verse 1, spices which they prepared, as
we noted last Wednesday, that he didn't need these spices.
I was going to have you turn to Solomon. It speaks of him. She spoke of him and he spoke
of her. And they both had been wearing these spices. His cheeks
were spices. The principal spices, I was going
to go all the way back to Exodus and look at all these principal
spices we've looked at before. One of them principally was myrrh. And that woman in the Song of
Solomon, remember she was asleep and he came for her again. She was asleep. And he left,
and she thought she'd lost him. And she went to open the door
and says it was dropping myrrh. And then she was not going to
rest until she found him again. So here they come with these
same spices. He didn't need them, but they brought them anyway.
And that's why I love that verse in the Song of Solomon. It says, Come, O north wind,
blow, O south, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow
out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits. That's what we say when we come
to worship the Lord. Let the spices of praise and
singing and calling and hearing enwrapped. Let this flow out. That's the fruit of the Spirit.
Love, joy. Let my beloved come into my garden. Find these spices. Let me anoint
him with these spices. Though he doesn't need them.
Now he rolled back that door, verse 2. Who did? That man did. God did. Sent two powerful angels. Rolled back that stone. Like
the same one who ripped that veil in the temple. Removed the
barrier, the hindrance. And stone was rolled away, an
earthquake. Keepers that kept that, I love
the story, it says that Herod or Pilate, which one? Pilate. They came to him and said, he
said he was going to, they say that he's going to rise again,
so we need to do something about that. And Pilate said, well go
make it sure as you can. You go and you keep the door
and you stay there and just make certain he doesn't come out of
that hut. You going to stop the sun from shining? And it says that when he rolled
back that stone, those men were on the ground like dead men.
And they were there when he was talking to Mary and everybody,
but they were dead. Well, these poor women again
heard his blessed voice. There they lay, dead. Boy, if
that isn't a picture of the gospel. But they went in, verse 3, they
entered in, found not the body of the Lord Jesus. They were
much perplexed, and two shining ones in garment, in shining garment,
two men in shining garment. These are just me, angels. We've
seen this before. Angels are just messengers. Angels
aren't God. You're not to worship angels.
Right? John fell at the feet of one
of those angels. He said, don't. He said, I'm
one of your brethren of the prophets. I'm just like you. I'm just wearing
a glorified body. Don't worship me. You know, I'm wearing a shining
garment right now, you just can't see it. You are too. You are too. Two men, and here's what they
said, don't seek the living among the dead. Why do you seek the living among
the dead? You know, dead works, dead religion,
dead doctrine, dead services, the whole world is just dead,
aren't they? But they like to meet together
in the cemetery and make some feel dead. I don't know. Candlelight service
early in the morning, sunrise service. The Scriptures doesn't
tell us to do that. Oh, religion is so dead. I was
going to have you turn to Isaiah 8. It's as if to the law and
to the testimony, if they speak not according to my word, there's
no light into their darkness. And all that's in the world is
dimness and darkness and anguish of the spirit, dead and dying.
He said, in Isaiah 8, he said, don't fear their fear, fear the
Lord. Let Him be your fear and your
dread. Don't join with them in what they do. It's just dead
religion. Well, look at verse 6. I said, He is not here. He is risen. He is not here. You know, God's
not worshipped with men's hands. God dwelleth not in buildings
made with hands. That's what we just said, that
a day, we don't worship a day. We don't hallow a day. We hallow
a person. And this house is not a place
where the Lord lives. He visits it. He visits it, but he doesn't
live here. He dwelleth in light that no
man can approach unto. How can God dwell in who sitteth
on the circle of the earth? Our Lord Jesus Christ is seated
at the right hand of the Lord right now. And this building
is not hallowed. This place, this building is
just wood, hay, and stubble. And not one stone going to be
left standing on another. And that, like Jerusalem, like
the temple, people worship those things and it's idolatry. Holy
places, it's idolatry. And that's why the Lord tore
everyone down that they built. He tore them all down. That's
why you can't find the Ark of the Covenant. That's why you
can't find Noah's Ark. One time they found the serpent
of brass, remember? And they were worshiping at that
time. And Hezekiah grounded the powder and threw it and said,
it's just Nahushtin, worthless brass. God's people worship God,
half in spirit. Don't need flesh. flesh, things,
like the Spirit of God. And who we worship and rejoice
in is Christ crucified, buried, risen, ascended, exalted, seated,
coming again. He's not here. He's risen. He's
risen. He's not here. And verse 6 says,
Remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee? See,
the truth has changed. He has changed. Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Remember what He said
to you in Galilee? The truth was heard in Galilee.
Let me dwell on this a little more. Galilee was a very poor place. It was in the northern mountains
above. It was pretty far away from Jerusalem. That's where he started. And
when he was crucified, he was crucified outside of Jerusalem. He came into Jerusalem. Did they
receive him? Uh-uh. Went outside the camp. That's where he started. He was
raised in Nazareth, which was Galilee. That's where the poor
people were. That's where the despised people,
mountain people, ignorant people, uneducated people, fishermen. Remember, that's what they said
about the apostle. Who are these Galileans? How
did they get such wisdom? Where did these Galileans come
up with this? Jesus of Galilee. He spent most
of his time in Capernaum, where most of his miracles were done
in those places. Capernaum. Nazareth. Can anything good come out of
Nazareth? That's what even Nathanael said.
Magdala. Who lives in Magdala? Poor, despised,
nobodies from nowhere. Who lives in Grundy, Virginia? One of God's elect. The Lord was raised in this place.
He walked there. Most of his preaching, most of
his miracles were done there. His alone time by the Sea of
Galilee with his disciples, a bunch of poor, chosen nobodies. 1500 years before this, Joshua set
aside a city of refuge in Galilee. Are you with me? Brothers and sisters, oh, there's
a place that God has chosen to put His name there, and this
is one of them. Aren't we blessed? I'll put His truth here. A little
old two-bit town full of nobodies but God. Christ keeps coming back. And
I failed, I mentioned it Wednesday, but he wasn't, he laid in the
grave on the Sabbath, didn't he, on Sabbath day, by design,
on purpose. He was resting. And we were crucified with Christ
and buried, and He laid in the grave seemingly dead on the Sabbath
day. And we're dead to the law by
the body of Christ. When He arose the first day of
the week, and He is our Sabbath now from now on. We rest in Him. He rested from His work, from
keeping the law, and we rest in Him now. We have risen in
Him. And here's what they said, reminding
them again that all that Christ had said to them in Galilee.
From the beginning. He reminded them again of all
that he'd been saying to them. Again. Verse 7. The Son of Man must be delivered
into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third
day rise again. We're going to see in the next
message how that all our confusion and all of our lack of peace
and joy and all of our sadness and all of our troubles come
from the fact that we forget what he said. Why he came, what
he did, who he did it for, why he did it to us, and why we're
here. And so they returned, they returned
from the sepulcher and told the eleven. They were together. And
all the rest, they were still meeting together, but they were
afraid. They were in doubt, they were in fear. It was Mary, who
was it? Who are they? You remember on the Isle of Patmos,
John saw the revelation of Christ and all these things. He said
he saw a number which no man could number. And he said, who
are they? Who are they? And the angel said,
these are they whom Christ redeemed, washed in his own blood. They've
gone through great tribulations, all of them. It was Mary Magdalene,
Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women. You know, if
you could open up the books of heaven, you'd see where's Robin,
Nancy, Irene, Earlene, yeah, Catherine, Ron, we said women,
we're all the bride, John, John, John, Thomas, Charles, Dan, and the
Lamb's Book of Life. How do you know? Here they are. Right back again. That's it. The disciples, the words seem
like idle tales. They believe not, but, but. Here
goes Peter again. He acted like he didn't believe,
but. What did he do? Ran. He acted
later on, well, early on, he acted like he didn't even know
the Lord, like he didn't believe the Lord. And we heard that command,
go tell the disciples and Peter. He was out in the boat, remember,
and he couldn't get back fast enough. That's how you know.
We act like we don't believe. And we might go away a little
while, but if we belong to Him, we'll run back to Him. We'll
run back to Him. And they rose, and he stooped
down and held the linen clothes, and that's all. Another message
in another gospel. A little napkin wrapped the head,
laid by itself. Don't you love that? Is there a greater story ever
told? There ain't no idle tale either.
It's the truth. Our living Lord. He wondered in himself at that
which was come to pass. Later on, Simon Peter wrote, Simon Peter, he hadn't seen him
yet. Did Simon love him? Oh yes he did. Did he act like
he didn't? Yes he did. Why is he back? Because the Lord loved him. And
later on Simon Peter wrote to all those who have obtained like
precious faith, he said, whom have you not seen? You love. Have you not? Here you are. Back again. waiting on the consolation of
Israel, the Kingdom of God, and the Lord to appear. He's coming.
Look at it.