Let's turn in our Bibles today
to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. Now, upon the first day of the
week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre,
bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others
with them. And they found the stone rolled
away from the sepulchre. And they entered in and found
not the body of 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's not here, but is risen. 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, and 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 11 and to all the rest. I wanted to bring a message this
morning on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know
that's something on all of our minds That's something the world
is thinking about today. So I began my preparation for
this message praying and reading each one of the accounts, that
is, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I read what each
one of them had to say about the resurrection of the Savior. And I was especially impressed
with two things. Now, this is not all that is
involved, but there were two things that really spoke to my
heart as I read over these four accounts once again of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, the presence of angels. The presence of angels. In each
one of these accounts, we are told as we see here in verse
number four, that there were angels attending the resurrection
of Christ. Behold, two men stood by them
in shining garments. And I thought about the Apostle
Paul's word in 1 Timothy 3 and verse 16 when he said, and without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. That is the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, and that refers, of course, to his
resurrection, seen of angels, and we see at each in each account,
rather, that angels attended his resurrection. And I thought
about this, I thought about the fact that it was an angel who
was sent by God to Mary to announce that she should bring forth a
son and his name should be called Jesus. That is, Emmanuel, which
being interpreted means God with us. God manifested in the flesh. Then I thought about the fact
that when he was born, that angels, they appeared and they sang the
praises of God Almighty. As they said, glory to God in
the highest. Then I thought about when he
was in the garden just the night before his crucifixion, and we're
told that an angel came and ministered unto him. Let's read that. Turn back just a few pages in
Luke chapter 22. In Luke chapter 22 and verse 41,
as he and his disciples had gone into the garden of Gethsemane
that night, And he left some at the entrance to the garden,
some went a little farther, and then verse 41 says, and he was
withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed,
saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. What
was in that cup? What was in that cup? Could it
have been all the sins of all his people? Father, here he is,
a holy son of God, so pure, so holy, and yet he sees that in
just a short time he would be made sin. He would have the sins
of all his elect people imputed unto him. Father, if thou be
willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will,
but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he
prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great
drops of blood falling down to the ground. an angel strengthening
him. What a testimony that verse of
scripture is to the humanity, the humanity of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Yes, he is God manifest in the
flesh, but he was man. The word was made flesh. He took
into union with his deity, that body that was prepared him of
the Holy Spirit. How truly he was man, so overwhelmed
in another place. Another gospel rather says, my
soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death at this time. His sweat as he prayed there
in the garden was as drops of blood falling to the ground.
And an angel appeared strengthening him. Now God cannot be strengthened. What a testimony to the truth
that he is both God and man. He's bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh. And if that were not true, he
could not be our kinsman redeemer. And then I thought about the
fact that angels attended his resurrection here. An angel descended
from heaven and rolled back the stone. Now in our text here in
Luke chapter 24 and verse 2, we read that the women who came
that morning found the stone rolled away. But in Matthew,
his account, we see that it was an angel who descended from heaven
to roll back the stone from the door. And then fifthly, angels
announced his birth to Mary, sang praises at his birth, ministered
to him in the garden, attended his resurrection, and also was
at his ascension. We read this in Acts chapter
one in verses 10 and 11. Now that when our Lord was parted
from his disciples, he ascended up into heaven, bodily ascended
up into heaven. And the disciples, of course,
they were just like you and me. We would all be gazing up into
the heavens. And the angel said, why stand
you here gazing up into the heavens? This same Jesus that you've seen
go into heaven, he's going to come again from heaven. But as I thought about that,
those five times when we read that angels were in attendance
around the Lord Jesus Christ, and then I thought, but never
do we read that an angel was near the cross. We never read that, and I thought
about that. And my thought is that there
could not be, there could not be even the least hint that what
the Lord Jesus Christ was doing on that cross, that he was not
doing it solely by himself. That he could not be helped by
an angel. that he must stride the winepress
of God's wrath alone, that he is a complete Savior, a perfect
Savior, that all our salvation is in him and not even in any
angels to help him. No, solamente in Cristo, only
in Christ. only in Christ. Could not even appear. Could not even have the semblance
of appearance that he was somehow helped in the work that he was
doing there on the cross and redeeming his people. Look with
me to Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. Beginning with verse one, we
read, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the
brightness of his glory and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power. Now notice
this, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on high. Well, that was the first
thing that seemed to really grip me as I read through these accounts
again. But the second, when I read here
in Luke's account, the word must in verse seven, I just jumped
off the page, must. The angel speaking to the women
saying, the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful
men and be crucified and the third day rise again. When I read the account here,
and I read that our Lord Jesus Christ, those were his words
that the angel told the women, that he said there was something
that he must do. We're talking about the God man
here. There's something that he must do. Well, that reminded me of an
everlasting covenant. We know from the Word of God
that God alone made a covenant before the foundation of the
world, a contract, if you please. And in that covenant, God the
Father promised certain things and God the Son promised certain
things. And God, the Holy Spirit, was
a witness of that eternal covenant. And the Lord Jesus Christ, of
course, one of the things he promised was to become flesh,
to become incarnate in the fullness of the time, to be made of a
woman. That was one of the promises.
But he also promised This is not all of them, of course, in
that covenant. But he also promised that he
must be delivered into the hands of wicked men, sinful men. And he must be crucified. And
he must again rise on the third day. Now we're thinking mainly
about that third thing, but let me just mention these other two
must. The Son of Man must. First of
all, he must be delivered into the hands of sinful men. If you
read through the Gospels, you see the Lord Jesus Christ told
this to his 12 disciples. He told this to them on three
different occasions of what was going to take place. They would
go up to Jerusalem, he would be delivered into the hands of
wicked men, he would be crucified, and he would rise again the third
day. They never understood it. They
never comprehended it. Peter, at one time, even tried
to rebuke him and say, not so, Lord, no, no, that can't happen
to you. Get behind me, Satan. You don't
savor the things that be of God. No, when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world, he knew exactly what he would be doing,
what would take place, And these things must take place. They
must take place. They were ordained of God, purposed
of God. And God's purpose never changes. What he has purposed, he brings
to pass. What he has ordained, it comes
to pass in his beautiful, wonderful, good providence of God. The providence
of God. We're not here today to worship
some wannabe God. If you are, you're in the wrong
place. We're here today to worship He
who is truly God Almighty, who works all things after the counsel
of His own will. And no one can say unto Him,
what doeth thou? What right do you have to do
that? No, no, he worketh his will in the armies of heaven,
that is, among the angels of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. God purposed this. First of all, he must be delivered
into the hands of sinful men. If you were to ask me, well,
who delivered him? He must be delivered into the
hands of sinful men. Well, who delivered him into
the hands of sinful men? Well, we might say Judas. Judas
betrayed him with a kiss. And remember, he led a group
of soldiers and an army there out to arrest the Lord Jesus
Christ. We might say Judas. He's the
one who delivered him into the hands of sinful men. Oh, no,
no, no. We might say the priest, the
religious rulers of Israel at that time, they delivered him
into the hands of Pilate, a wicked man, a ruler. He delivered him. Oh, no, no. It was Pilate. Pilate delivered him into the
hands or to do the will of the people, the nation of Israel.
And what did they say? Crucify him, crucify him. But oh no, we might say it was
the Roman ruler once again who delivered him into the hands
of the Roman soldiers to take him and nail him to a tree. We'd be right. We'd be right,
no matter which one of those we were to mention. But when
you think about it, who delivered him into the hands of sinful
men? He delivered himself. He delivered himself. You know,
just a short time before his crucifixion, recorded in John
chapter 12, something took place there. God spoke to him from
heaven and he said, now, now is my soul troubled and what
shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. He delivered himself. He said, I have a baptism to
be baptized with and how am I straightened until it be accomplished? He
delivered himself into the hands of sinful man. No man taketh
my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have power both to lay it down
and to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my father. But then he must not only be
delivered into the hands of sinful man, he must be crucified. Now
that's a message in itself, isn't it? That's a message in itself. He must be crucified to save
His covenant people, those whom the Father had chosen and given
unto Him in His covenant. He had to be crucified in order
to save them. We had offended God's justice. God's justice must be satisfied. God's holy law must be honored
if anyone were to be saved. And just a word on that word
crucified. He must be crucified. It's not
that he must die. People die in their sleep. Would
that serve? Of course not. The Jews were
given the way of executing capital punishment by stoning. He must
be stoned. No. No. He must be crucified. And when you think about it,
the Jews never invented crucifixion. That isn't a method they used.
They used stoning as the law commanded them. But the whole
nation had to be under the rule and authority of Rome. for him
to be put to death by crucifixion. That was a Roman way of execution. Don't you see God's providence
in that? Well, why must he be crucified?
Well, in crucifixion, a person is, he's nailed to a tree. He's
nailed to a tree. And in God's law, thousands of
years before this, God had had declared he that hangeth upon
a tree is cursed, is cursed. And to deliver his
people from the curse of the law, which is death, eternal
death, he himself had to be made a curse. He must be crucified. He must hang upon a tree that
he might redeem. us from the curse of that law.
We sing that hymn sometimes, Redeemed, Redeemed. That's a wonderful theme, isn't
it? Redemption. Redeemed from the
curse of the law. But the last thing, he must the
third day rise again. Had to be on the third day. I thought about why did it have
to be on the third day? Well, you read through the scriptures. Men before had been raised to
a mortal life, that's true. They'd been raised to die again. But I never find in the word
of God that anyone was raised on the third day after their
death. Remember Lazarus? He was raised,
his sister said he's been in the grave four days. And he smells, that's what she
said, he stinketh. And I don't know that this is
so, I know that this is what the Jews believed. That it was
on the fourth day, that the body that was buried began to decompose
and put off that stink that Martha spoke about. He, his body, would not see corruption. That was a promise that he was
given of his father. Read about it in Psalm chapter
16. Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell. His anointed, thy anointed
God would not see corruption. And so on that third day, he
came out of the grave. And I want to point out hurriedly
five precious truths that speak to me thinking about the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, His resurrection confirms
my faith in his person, confirms your faith in his person if you
are one of his children today. The Apostle Paul said, if Christ
be not risen, your faith is vain. My faith is that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. That's my faith. My faith hath
found a resting place, not in device nor creed. I trust the
ever-living One. That is, I believe, my faith
is that Jesus Christ who was crucified, that He is the Son
of God, that He is God Almighty in person. And that was testified
to confirms my faith in his resurrection. The Apostle Paul said it in Romans
1 and verse 4. He said he was declared to be
the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness. How? By the resurrection from the
dead. He said he was God. How many
times in the Gospel of John did he say, I am? He confessed to
be God, I and my father are one. This confirms my faith. He is
God. He is God. Secondly, his resurrection confirms
my faith in his offices as a mediator. A mediator serves to bring peace. You've got two parties and they're
at odds with each other. God and man. He's the mediator. He's the one
that makes peace and reconciles man to God, and in a sense, God
to man. And as a mediator, he has three
offices. He's prophet, priest, and king. Now God told the nation of Israel
this about how you would know if a man is a true prophet. If
he says something's going to happen and it doesn't happen,
he's no prophet. He's no prophet. I want you to
look in John chapter 2 just a moment. John chapter 2. beginning in verse 13. And the Jews' Passover was at
hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the temple those
that sold oxen and sheep and doves, changers of money, sitting. And when he had made a scourge
of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple and the
sheep and the oxen and poured out the changers' money over
through the tables and said unto them that sold doves, take these
things hence, make not my father's house an house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered
that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me
up. Then answered the Jews and said
unto him, what sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest
these things? In other words, give us a sign
that you have a right in this temple of God to clean it out
like you've done. Give us a sign. The Jews seek
a sign, right? That was characteristic of the
Jews, always asking for a sign. What did our Lord say? Jesus
answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, And in three
days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, forty and
six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear
it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of
his body. What sign do you show us that
this house is your house, your father's house, this temple,
that you have the right to cleanse it? What sign do you show us? destroy this temple, and in three
days, I'll raise it up. And notice that next verse. When
therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered
that he had said unto them, what he had said unto them, and they
believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. A prophet If his word did not
come to pass, he was not a prophet of God. What about a priest? Well, we need a priest today.
I need a priest today. Every time that I sin and you
sin, we all sin. We know that many times we're
not even aware of it. Sins of ignorance. We need a
priest. We don't need a dead priest.
We need a living priest, not some man who will go through
some rigamarole and tell us our sins are forgiven. No, no. We
need a man, a priest at the right hand of God who ever lives to
make intercession for us. That's this man. And we need
a king. That's another office, right,
of the mediator, prophet, priest, and king. We need someone to
rule us. We're not capable. We're not
capable to rule ourselves. We are all born like a wild ass's
colt. That's all of us by nature. We
need someone who can rule over us. Reign in our hearts. He's our King. He's our King,
King of kings and Lord of lords. Third, his resurrection confirms
my faith that my sin debt is discharged. It's discharged. It was while someone pictured
the Lord's resurrection in relation to our sin debt like this, someone
pictured him as while on the cross being handed the debt book. I don't know if any of you have
ever charged things at a store. This is old-fashioned now. Everybody
has credit cards and all that, but I'm old enough to remember,
and I was involved in this. You go to the grocery store,
even, and the man there, he had a ledger, and we'd say, give
me that, and he'd write it down there, write it down there. And
then on payday, I was in a service there, on payday, we'd go and
pay him and he'd blot it out, blot it out. Well, someone said,
Christ on the cross is like taking that ledger book with all our
sins. Oh, they're all written down
there. And with his precious blood, it just blots out that
sin did. But then, On the day of his resurrection,
he took the debt book and just tore it apart so that our sins
are gone and gone forever, can never be remembered against us
again. Paul said, who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised for our justification. Who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Fourth, his resurrection confirms
my faith that all of my enemies have been defeated. I had an
enemy of sin, an enemy of death, and a great enemy of Satan. I
lived under his dominion. And so did you, and so do you
if you've never been delivered. You say, does the Bible teach
that? It certainly does. Look with me in Ephesians chapter
two. People say, well, I just thought
people that were wild like that man in the scripture that lived
out among the tombs. Demoniac of Gadara, I thought
those were the people who were under the power of the devil.
No, no, my friend, all men by nature. Notice in Ephesians 2,
Paul said, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according, now notice, the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit. Who's that? That's Satan. That's a devil. You walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others, but God, those are two of my favorite words, but God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ, by grace you are saved. Yes, he has defeated our
enemies, One of those enemies is the grave, of course. We can take a believer, a brother
or sister's body out to the grave and we can stand on that grave
and we can shout, oh grave, where is the victory? It's gone. It's gone. Why? Because Christ
rose from the dead. And the last thing, his resurrection
confirms my faith in the resurrection of all of God's children. Paul
said, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the
first fruits of them that slept. You know what he refers to there,
there were five, five, feast in the Old Testament the Jews
were given. They all pictured Christ in some
way. The first feast was the Passover,
the Feast of the Passover. You know, Paul just, he cuts
to the chase, doesn't he? He says, Christ, our Passover
is sacrificed for us. And he does the same thing about
the Feast of Firstfruits. He tells us that Christ is risen
from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. In the feast of the first fruits,
man would have his field planted and the fruit was beginning to
come to maturity and he'd go out and he'd take one sheaf,
let's say wheat or barley, whichever it was. He'd just take one stalk
and take it to the priest and the priest would take it and
he'd wave it before the Lord. What did that say? It said there's
many more out there in the field. Christ is the firstfruits of
the resurrection, or firstfruits from the dead, rather. But what
does it tell us? It tells us that there's many,
many more. When Christ comes again, all
of whose bodies are there in the grave are going to be brought
up. and reunited with their souls,
which are now with the Lord. What a Savior, right? We're going to sing this hymn
and be dismissed.