Okay, if you would, turn to Mark
chapter 9. Mark chapter 9. I'm going to read probably the first
10 verses. And he said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here
which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom
of God come with power. And after six days Jesus taketh
with him Peter and James and John and leadeth them up into
a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before
them. And his raiment became shining,
exceeding white as snow, and so as no fuller on earth can
white them. And there appeared unto them
Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter
answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here,
and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses,
and one for Elias. For, for, he wist not what to
say, for they were sore afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed
them, and a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my
beloved son, hear him. And suddenly, when they had looked
around about, they saw no man anymore save Jesus only with
themselves. And as they came down from the
mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what
things they had seen till the Son of Man were risen from the
dead. And they kept that saying with
themselves, questioning one another what the rising from the dead
should mean. And that's my title for this
sermon. What does the rising from the
dead mean? Because there are two incredibly
important questions. One in Mark Chapter 8 and one
in Mark Chapter 9. The one I want to deal with today
is the one in Chapter 9, but you can't deal with the one in
Chapter 9 until you deal with the one in Chapter 8. The most
important question there ever was, and there ever will be,
is in Mark 8 in verse 29, when Jesus Christ looked at his disciples,
and he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered and saith
unto him, thou art the Christ. Thou art the Christ. The most important question you
will ever answer is who is Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus? He is the Christ. The Christ is his title. It means
the anointed one. It's basically the same thing
as in the Old Testament as the Messiah, the one who was promised,
the one who was to come, who is come now. If you know that,
you can understand the second question. But if you don't have
the basis of that first question, if you don't have the answer
to that first question, there's no way you're going to understand what
it means of the rising from the dead. It's not a rising from
the dead, it's the rising from the dead. Peter answered it. Matthew it
says flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my father which
is in heaven Knowing Christ is not a natural act of man It comes
from the direct revelation of God and it must come before you
can understand anything Because when Peter is saying
this man is the Christ he's saying the same thing Paul says later
or Whoever says later. I don't forgot In him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead, what? Bodily. Now notice very
carefully, he doesn't say on him dwells. No, it's in him. And that's what Peter means by
the Christ. He's the Messiah, the chosen one, the one who is
going to redeem Israel, the one who is going to bring all of
this to pass. All of the promises that Paul
read this morning that are in Abraham were to the sea. They're
in the sea. You have to know Christ before
you can know the answer to this question. There's no way to understand,
lay hold of, or even comprehend the resurrection without knowing
that this Jesus is the Christ. The Son of God, the Son of what? The Living God. And this is because
without Him, there is no resurrection. Now this is Mark's account of
the Mount of Transfiguration. That's what it's called. It was
written about in Matthew 17, and it was also written about
in Luke 9. And it's written about here in Mark 9. I want to go through this, but
I'm going to kind of go a little quickly. Verse 2, I'm not going
to deal with verse 1, because that's actually the end of chapter
8. But I had to read it. But verse two, after six days,
Jesus taken with him Peter, James, and John, and leads them up.
Guess what? Here's another place where you
will see decidedly and purposefully that our Lord decides who goes
where. Our Lord decides who gets to
see what, or in this case, who gets to see who. People pass over stuff like this
all the time. You understand? He took Peter, James, and John.
That leaves nine more of them not going. And here's the funny
thing about this. It's a little strange anyway.
You read where he told them not to tell him until after it was
over, right? The three Gospels that this is
written about, none of the people writing about
it were there. Matthew wrote about it, Luke
wrote about it, and Mark wrote about it. None of those three
were there. But they talked about it afterward. When? After he had risen from
the dead, they were told. And they recorded it and they
wrote it down. And it says, and his raiment
became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth
can white them. This was the whitest robe there
had ever been. This is the whitest raiment that
has ever been seen. Pure, clean, white raiment. And he was transfigured before
them. Very carefully, you've got to
notice that before Elias and Moses showed up And the other
ones it tells you his countenance changed not only his raiment
his countenance changed Our Lord when he came to this planet the
Lord Jesus Christ Isaiah says there's no beauty that we should
desire him You understand if he had been walking around in
that white, white, white, white raiment with his countenance
changed, glowing as the sun, however you want to see it, however
you want to say it, they might have paid a little more heed
to him. But no, when he came, there's no beauty that we should
desire him. What? Naturally. Naturally. See, if he appeared in white
raiment and with his countenance changed, Some would have followed
him just because of his looks. You understand? Some would have
paid more. Oh, yeah. Oh, he does wonderful
miracles. He did glorious miracles. And they tried to stone him for
some of them. For healing on the Sabbath and saying, I and
my father are one. But he changed. Then Elias and
Moses showed up. Luke says, Elias and Moses appeared
in glory, also in white raiment. And it says, there appeared unto
them Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Now Mark does not tell us what
they talked about. Luke does. In Luke 9 and verse
31, it says that Moses and Elias showed up and they spake, his
deceased Now that's an amazing thing to
me because when they came to speak about the death of Christ,
which is incredibly important It's absolutely necessary for
our salvation But they came All dressed in
white they came what they say they appeared in glory is the
way it says Christ is transfigured all in white And they came to talk about his
death. And they didn't show up until Christ had already transformed.
It's almost like he summoned them. You understand who has
the preeminence here? The one that was on the earth
before them, even in reality. They came, transformed, they
came in glory, and they came to speak about his death. And
they talked. They talked and Peter James and
John heard this They didn't understand it. We'll find that out very
clearly, but they came to talk about this his decease his death And Peter answered Peter answered
and said to Jesus master. It's good for us to be here and Should put a period right there
Walter That's where you should have stopped. It was good to
be there. It was good to be there It was glorious to be there to
see Christ Transfigured in white raiment his countenance changed
to see Moses and a lot and they come and they talk together Abraham saw Christ's day guess
what so did Moses and Elias and And they saw it, and they were
glad also. I believe that wholeheartedly. But here they are for this conference
between these three talking about the death of Christ. But here's
what Peter says. He goes on. And let us make three
tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias. Elias and Moses spoke. of Christ and wrote of Christ
before he got here. But Elias and Moses, this was
not a meeting between equals. There's only one Son of God.
There's only one Christ. There's the one that Elijah was
looking forward to. There's the one that Moses wrote
about that was coming. This is the seed of the woman. This is the child that was born,
the son that was given. This was not a meeting of equals.
Jesus was there first and he was transfigured before they
ever showed up. But it does explain it here.
One of the nice things about the Gospels, you get to see every
now and then, you get a little commentary along with the account. And Mark explains here why Peter
said what he said. This is what Mark says. Mark wrote. And Mark and Peter
spent a good bit of time together, historically, supposedly. For
he wist not what to say. For they were so afraid. This is the thing that the religious
world really, really misses. And we try to tell it here. And
I don't know that we can get it across the way the scripture
can, but here's the thing. Seeing glorious things can be
terrifying. Understand? I remember the first
time I saw the ocean. And I was a grown man. I was
a young man, but I was a grown man. And I'm going to tell you
something. You get out there amongst the
waves, and they don't look very big. You know? They're just lapping over a little
bit, and you can walk right out there. And when it's ankle deep,
it ain't nothing. You can get out into your knees,
and it's nothing. But you get out about your thighs and around
your chest, and one of those little bitty waves will knock
you over. An even bigger wave will knock you under. And you
come to understand the power of water in great volume. Well, I'm going to tell you something.
When you start seeing the power of God, when Isaiah saw the Lord
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple, he said, woe
is me, I am a man of unclean lips. When John saw what he saw
in heaven, he fell on his face. Anyone who runs into the power
of God is usually afraid With good reason because I'm
gonna tell you something our Lord Jesus Christ Thou art the
Christ that means he is power personified It means that in him dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in the Godhead is power. All power in heaven and in earth. And it can be a terrifying thing. Witnesses the rest of this going
on. And I'm gonna tell you something that can be especially even more
terrifying when you're not sure what's going on. And they weren't
sure. For they wist not what was going
on. And then this happens. There
was a cloud that overshadowed them, and a voice came out of
the cloud saying, this is my beloved son. Wait a minute. Hear him. Hear him. Hear him. Hear him. That's what the voice said. You know those two important
questions I want to talk about? Who is Christ? And what does
the rising from the dead mean? You're not going to know the
answers unless you hear Him. I'll do the best I can with what
I got and with what I have here in the scriptures. But if you
don't hear Him, you're not going to understand anything. If He's
not talking to you, you're not going to know. And that's just
the way it is. Earl used to say, if my voice
is the only voice you hear, you're in trouble. That's what I say. You're in trouble if my voice
is the only voice you hear. The voice from the clouds said,
this is my beloved son. Who is that? That's the father.
Hear him. Hear my beloved son. And Matthew clearly states, guess
what happens when they heard that voice? They fell on their
face. They fell on their face what?
When they heard. Why? Well, that's sort of what
happens when God speaks to you. You'll fall on your face even
if you don't do it physically. Because when he starts speaking
to you, You start understanding where you are in this relationship
that you don't have. Because he's up here and we're
not even on the planet hardly. We are less than the small dust
of the balance to this one. And that is a truly terrifying
thought. When you understand just a little
bit of what you're really worth. There is a spirit of bondage
under fear. Luckily there's also the spirit
of adoption But Paul read We are now sons of God if we believe
Christ Hmm, that's good stuff but that's what happens when
God speaks to you you'll fall on your face and Suddenly they looked around
about and they saw no man anymore saved Jesus only with themselves
and When everything is over, when
everything is over, when all is said and done, I want you
to take heart in this one thing. Christ Jesus is always with his
people. Moses is gone, Elias is gone,
the voice, the cloud is gone. And they looked around, there's
Jesus. And what say? Jesus with themselves. You understand? Nothing too bad
is going to happen to you if Jesus is with you. As a matter
of fact, everything is good. Even when you might think it's
bad, even when your circumstances might be what we consider bad,
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them that are called according to His purpose. If you're one of His, He's with
you always, even unto the ends of the earth. Him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out, but raise him up again at
the last day. That's a good place to be, Walter.
If Jesus is with you, It's a good place. And it doesn't matter
what's going on. Now sometimes, yes, we are fallen, fragile creatures, and
we think we've been abandoned. We're wrong. If we're His, and
He has brought us in, He will never leave you nor forsake you. But that doesn't mean you're
always going to know He's there. But take heart. He is, whether
you know it or not. And yes, it is hard to imagine
when you're going through some things that this is working for
my good, but it is. It is. How, I may not know. And right then and there when
you're going through it, you may not know. But, I also have
this faith in my Lord. He will teach you why you are
where you are at. And why you went through what
you went through and he will get you where he wants you to
be I've seen that in my own life many many times But when everyone leaves you
Jesus is still with you Even when the most The worst
possible outcomes are coming down on you. We have a thing
at work. We always talk about worst case scenario. Your auto
repair at the worst case will be $9,000 because I can put an
engine in for that and maybe a transmission. That's worst
case. Well, when your worst case scenario
is coming down on your head, whatever it is, he will be with
you. As I said, Elias and Moses pointed
to this one. And they're gone now. But this
one, this Christ, this Jesus, is still with his disciples. Mark 9 and verse 9, it says,
and they came down the mountain. He charged them that they should
tell no man the things they had seen till the Son of Man were
risen from the dead. Don't tell. It's not time yet. Don't tell. How many times do
we see that in the scriptures? There's a bunch. We have in this book a lot of things that the people who lived in
this time had no idea what was going on. But we have been given
to know. That's amazing to me. That's
amazing to me. Three men went up to see this
Mount of Transfiguration and three men only with Christ. And yet we have it here for all
the world to see and for all the world to hate and disbelieve
him. It just amazes me sometimes.
But when it comes time to tell, you're going to tell. He said, don't say anything about
it. What? Till I'm risen from the dead. After I'm risen from
the dead, you tell it from the mountaintops. Because things have changed.
But here in verse 10, it's really where I wanted to get, and they
kept that saying with themselves, questioning one another, questioning
one with another, what the rising of the dead should mean. Now, here's the first thing to
take from this passage. We are to talk about Christ among
ourselves. Understand that's a good thing. We are to talk about the important
questions among ourselves. We want to talk about our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now I'm not saying you always
do, but you want to. If you're one
of his, you want to know about him. You want to know. You may want to say something,
you may not get a chance to say something. And some people are
more shy than others, I'm not talking about that, but I'm talking
about what's inside you, what he has put inside you. is a love
for Him, if you're His, and you will want to talk about Him with
others who know Him. Do not forsake the assembling
of yourselves together as the manner of some is. It's not good
for you to be alone. Now you're never alone, he'll
be with you if you're his, but it's also for your own good,
all things working together for good, to assemble together and
to talk about our Lord. And to talk about the important
questions. And to talk about the answers
to the important questions. Like I said, you may not say,
but you'll wanna say. You may not speak. But I can
tell you this, you will always want to know about Him if you're
one of His. I believe that wholeheartedly.
But here, these three were speaking to each other, because Christ
told them not to talk to anybody else about this. But they were
speaking to each other this question, what does the rising from the
dead mean? Now, first of all, I do want
to point out, this is speaking of the rising from the dead of
Christ. Like I said, it's not a rising
from the dead, it's the rising from the dead. There's a world
of difference there. There were others in the Old
Testament that had been rose from the dead. But guess what? They died again. They died again. Now there's a whole genre of
fiction out there right now that deals with a guy named Lazarus,
a fictional guy named Lazarus. But there was a guy named Lazarus
later Not yet, but later it's going to be brought back from
the dead by our Lord Jesus Christ. But that's not what they're talking
about. That hasn't happened yet. They're talking about thee rising
from the dead. Well, right after when he said,
thou art the Christ, and he charged them, this is Mark 8 and verse
30, and he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
again. And he began to teach them that
the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected of the elders
and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after
three days rise again." This is not the first time he talked
about his decease. He talked about it to his disciples
personally. Then we have the Mount of Transfiguration,
which James, Peter, and John see. And guess what they showed
up to talk about? His decease. Why? Because his decease was up while
he came. He came to die. For this hour
I came. And also to rise from the dead
three days later. This is talking about the resurrection
of Christ. Secondly, I want to say this Our Lord Jesus Christ was dead
When he died You understand there are those out there also going
around saying that he was pretending Or he was in a coma or he had
the meat sweats. I don't know They say all kinds
of things No, it says clearly our Lord died on the cross. He gave up the ghost and Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit. And he died. This was a literal,
real death. And this was a literal rising
from the dead. He rose from the dead. Not only
was his death real, but also the resurrection is real. Because
if you can question his death, they're going to question his
resurrection. Because if you can cast doubt
on his death, you can cast doubt on his resurrection. He told them he was going to
tear down this temple and in three days raise it back up again.
But he was talking about his body. You know what a temple is? That's
the house of God. That's what he equated his body
to. God manifests in the flesh. In the flesh did come to die
and raise from the dead. The second thing is this. Jesus
Christ is God and death couldn't hold him. Death has no power
over him, because he's the power. He rose from the dead. The resurrection
is real. There's no waffling. There's
no qualifiers. He said he was going to rise
from the dead after three days. And guess what? He rose after
three days. That is the rising of the dead
that these men were talking about. Because from our point of view,
From our perspective, naturally, we see death as the
unassailable enemy. And man cannot overcome death. From our perspective, everybody
dies. And this is where man is naturally,
just like the flowers of the field, the grass, Because for
us, as men, death is unbeatable. Everybody
dies. However, this man died, but this
man rose from the dead. And it shows who he is. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Romans 1 and 4 put it this way,
and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to
the spirit of holiness, what? By the resurrection of the dead. That's what the rising from the
dead means. It means that Jesus Christ is God. That he is the
son of God. What? With power. According to
the spirit of holiness. By the resurrection of the dead. Next it means victory. And I
mean our victory. Over death. Like I said, for
us, naturally, death is unbeatable. But here's the thing, what this
rising from the dead means, this the rising from the dead means,
His resurrection means our resurrection. The resurrection of His people. John 11 and verse 24, speaking
to Mary and Martha. Well, Martha, saith unto him,
I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last
day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. Then he went out and rose Lazarus
up from the dead. Jesus told Martha here, the sister
of Lazarus, that he, he himself, personally, is the resurrection. He's the resurrection. And the life. The rising from the dead means
that The resurrection is a person, and so is the life. See, we're
not talking about a resurrection, a rising from the dead. We're
talking about the rising from the dead. Jesus Christ is the
resurrection, and he rose from the dead. What does that mean? Well, it
means this. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live. His resurrection means our resurrection.
Philippians 3 in verse 10. I think I got that marked. Well, I thought I did. I must
have changed it. Philippians 3 in verse 10 that
I may know him and the power of his resurrection and The fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if
by any means I may what I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead not as though I already attain, either were already perfect,
but I follow after, that I may apprehend that for which also
I am apprehended of in Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count myself,
count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, I press toward the mark For the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus If by any means I may attain
unto the resurrection of the dead how that I may know him
and the power of what his resurrection His resurrection means our resurrection
and there is no resurrection without his resurrection and
That's what the rising from the dead means And since our resurrection
is assured by his resurrection, what do you tell Martha? Believers
shall never die. He that lives and believes in
me shall never die. I like that. The next thing, the next thing I want to say
What the rising from the dead means is? That we live and we
walk because of his resurrection As in Romans 6 and look at that
Romans 6 Begin verse 9 on verse 3 excuse
me Know you not that so many of us were baptized into Jesus
Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried
with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the father even so we also
should what walk in newness of life For if we have been planted
with Together in the likeness of his death we shall be also
in Well here leave those words out that are italicized. We shall
be also of resurrection Knowing this that our old man
is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed
that henceforth We should not serve sin for he that is dead
is freed from sin now if we be dead with Christ We believe that
we shall also live with him. Knowing, knowing, knowing that
Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. That's something else we know
about what this rising from the dead means. The rising from the
dead means he's gonna die no more. He did die. He did rise again. He's not dying
anymore. There remaineth no more sacrifice
for sin. He died once. For he that died, he died unto
sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. That's verse
10. We walk in newness of life. We walk unlike the world. By his rising from the dead,
we have the new birth and a new walk. By his rising from the dead,
we live and we walk in newness of life. Peter put it this way, the like
figure wherein to even baptism doth also now save us. Not the
putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of
a good conscience toward God. That's what it is. But the like
figure wherein to baptism doth also now save us, what? By the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are buried with him in baptism,
we are risen with him in life. That's what baptism is symbolizing.
Baptism does not wash away your sins the Church of Christ can
go home. I don't care That's a lie He's the sacrifice for sin, and
he has taken away our sins Baptism puts forth the rising from the
dead of Jesus Christ baptism doesn't put away sins I It's
the answer of a good conscience toward God. What? By the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. By the rising from the dead. Because without His resurrection,
there is no salvation. There is no life. There is no
walk. There is nothing. How can you say that? Because
it's true. I'm going to have a little bit
of speculation here in my conclusion, but this is the way it works.
How is all this possible? He did it. He died, he was buried,
and he rose again. The rising from the dead shows
his acceptance by the Father. On the very day he rose up, the
first thing he did, well the first thing he did was rise up.
The second thing he did was he revealed himself to Mary Magdalene
and he told her, don't touch me. For, and you look up that
word in the Greek, the Greek word that's there means he's
going to tell you the reason why you're not supposed to touch
him. For I have not ascended to my father. Go tell my disciples I'm going
to ascend. I'm going to ascend. to my father
and to your father, to my God and to your God. I'm going to
ascend. Later that same day in the evening,
it says in John verses 19, John, I didn't write down the chapter. He came to his disciples in a
closed room and showed them his hands at his side. And you never
hear another word about don't touch me. Now we are not told
what happened in between there. Other than the fact that he said,
go tell my disciples I ascend to my father. I assume, I believe
he did exactly what he said. Because he always did exactly
what he said. He said, go tell them I ascend
and he ascended. And then he came back into this
room and he told the disciples, showed him his hands and showed
him his side. And not a word is ever spoken anymore. Later
on, he tells somebody, come on, stick your hand in there. Put
your fingers in palms. Who was it, Thomas? There's no
more of this, no touch me. So something happened in between.
Now I can't swear to it what it is, but I have my own thoughts.
And even though it may not have happened right here at this time,
I do know this happened because there's scripture for it. Hebrews
9 and 11 says this. but Christ becoming a high priest
of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands. That is to say, not of this building.
Talking about the holy, the real, the real true holy of holies,
not the one made on earth, not the tent, not the stone one.
We're talking about the real tabernacle. None of this building, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. And he did this after the rising
of the dead, after he rose from the dead. At one time, This man, this God-man,
entered into the Holy of Holies. He rose from the dead and went
into heaven and entered, not with the blood of bulls, goats,
cows, sheep, nothing, his own blood from his own death. The true Holy of Holies he entered
in once. And he obtained eternal redemption
for us. And I believe that is what the
rising of the dead means. He has saved us and not we ourselves. And he is saving us and not we
ourselves. And He shall save us and not
we ourselves. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time and this place. Most of all, thankful
for you. Thankful to you. Thankful for
you. Thankful about you. You've given us everything. You've
given us everything. even the poor praise of our worthless
lips, you've given us. Otherwise, we wouldn't know to
praise you. Thank you for all you've done. In Christ's name
we pray, amen.