And I trust the Lord will bless
His word all over the world today. We recognize that people are
speaking and talking about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But today, I want us to read
and think about what took place on the day of His resurrection
as it is recorded here in Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. And I'll read the first 10 verses. 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 is 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. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna
and Mary, the mother of James, and other women that were with
them, which told these things unto the apostles. We read in
verse one that it was on the first day of the week, a Sunday
like today, when the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He
had said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise
it up again. It was now three days since he
had been crucified and he came out of the tomb conquering death. Today, my message I want to bring
to you centers around the question that the angels asked these women
who came out to the tomb early that morning. Why seek you the
living among the dead? They had come early that morning,
fully expecting to find and to anoint the dead body of the Lord
Jesus. To them, the angel asked this
question, why seek ye the living among the dead? The word angel
literally means messenger. And in this gospel of Luke, we
find five appearances of angels. The first time is in chapter
one, when God sent an angel by the name of Gabriel to Zacharias
and brought him the message that he and his wife Elizabeth would
have a son and they would call his son John. And the angel told
Zacharias, that he that is Zacharias would have joy and gladness and
many would rejoice at his birth. Now this was in fulfillment of
the Old Testament prophecy found in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse
3. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Notice that Zacharias and
his wife were to have a son. They were to call him John. We
know him as John the Baptist, and he was the forerunner of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the one who came to prepare
the way for him. And it's interesting that that
prophecy said, make straight in the desert a highway for our
God. In other words, the deity of
the Lord Jesus Christ was announced even then, my friends, that this
one of whom John the Baptist would come as a forerunner, that
this was our God who had come. And then a second time in that
same chapter, Luke chapter one, the same angel, Gabriel, he appeared
to Mary and he told her that she should conceive in her womb
and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. And of course,
Mary didn't understand. She didn't understand how this
could be possible. And we know that with man it
is impossible, that a virgin should bring forth a son. But
all things are possible with God. And the angel Gabriel told
Mary how this would happen. He said, the Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee, and the power of the high shall overshadow
thee. Therefore, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall
be called Immanuel. And we know that word, that title,
Immanuel, means God with us. Now this was the fulfillment
of the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14. Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son and shall be called Immanuel. And then there's a third appearance
of the angels in Luke. An angel brought the most wonderful
message that this world has ever received. You know, there's been
a lot of messages that have gone out over the years, but this
is the greatest, the most wonderful message that has ever been delivered
to this world. It's a wonderful message, a message
of great joy. And it was delivered to shepherds. but not only to them, but to
all people. For the message was, unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior. Now there's
nothing that I need more. There's nothing that you need
more. There's nothing that any man needs more than a Savior. This is the greatest news, the
greatest message, isn't it, that has ever been brought to this
world. The scripture said, unto you is born this day in the city
of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. This, too, we
know is a fulfillment of prophecy, many prophecies, but I think
of this one in Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9. Rejoice greatly,
O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, the King cometh unto
thee. He is just. and having salvation. Behold, unto you a Savior is
born. And then there is a fourth appearance
in the Gospel of Luke of an angel. And this time it was to the Lord
Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. An angel came when
the Lord was in his agony. And it was then we are told that
being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat was,
as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. He prayed
more earnestly, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from
me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine, be done. And we are told that this angel
strengthened him. How did the angel strengthen
him? Well, we're not told, but it
must have been that he brought him a message from the Father,
the Father of glory, the Father of glory, who told him of the
glory that should follow his suffering. I wonder if he was
not strengthened by other promises that he had, like the one that
is recorded in Psalm chapter 16. Thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither suffer thy holy one to see corruption. But now here's the fifth appearance
of angels in the Gospel of Luke. The text tells us that these
angels rolled away the stone of the sepulchre. And we know
from the gospel of Mark, and I encourage you to read the accounts
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John of the resurrection of Christ.
But we know from Mark's gospel that this had been a concern.
As these women started out that day with the spices that they
were bringing to anoint the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, they
knew that there had been a stone rolled over the opening of that
sepulchre. It was a large stone, no doubt.
And they wondered how they would be able, how it would be rolled
away. And they said, who shall roll
us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And I see in
that a lesson itself for you and I. How many times do we fret
and worry about things that God has already taken care of? How
many times are we anxious about things that never come to pass?
And yet they give us trouble, things that the Lord God takes
care of, even before we ask. As these women were concerned,
who's going to roll away the stone? God took care of that.
God sent these two angels and they rolled away the stone. And
so they were there when these women came. But I want us to
consider their question. the question of the angels. And
I thought about this and wondered if this is the only place in
scripture where the angels ask a question. And I can't think
of another place. But this place, the angels ask
this question, why seek ye the living among the dead? And I want to answer that. I
want to answer that question in two ways. First of all, it
was not from lack of love. I want to emphasize that, first
of all. Here they were, coming out, but
the angels understood that they were seeking the living among
the dead. Why was that? Well, it was not
from lack of love on their part. In fact, just the opposite is
true. Just the opposite is true. If
you look back just a page into chapter 23 and verse 49, we see
it was these women, these women who had followed the Lord Jesus
Christ out to the mouth where He was crucified, and they witnessed
His crucifixion. Then they saw and they followed
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus to this place where they laid
his body. We read that first in verse 53. I'm sorry, first we see this
in verse 49. And all his acquaintance and
the women, there it is, the women that followed him from Galilee
stood afar off beholding these things. First of all, they witnessed
the Lord Jesus Christ and his sufferings upon the cross. But
then, down in verse 55, you see, and the women also which came
with him from Galilee followed after and beheld the sepulchre
and how his body was laid. It was not from lack of love
that they came seeking the living among the dead. These women are
named here in verse 10. And in Mark, we are told that
these women ministered to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they
had ministered to him as he went from village to village and over
those two and a half or three years of his public ministry.
They ministered to him out of their substance, Luke tells us
in his gospel. So it was not from lack of love
that they were seeking the living among the dead. You know, the
first one who is named here, the first one of these women
who is named is Mary Magdalene. And of all of these who are named,
we know the most about her, about Mary Magdalene. And what do we
know about her? We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
cast seven demons, seven devils, out of her. Now you know in the
Bible the number seven is a number of completion. And so I'd just
like to borrow that number. Out of her went seven devils. The Lord cast seven devils out
of her. And I believe we should see from
this the truth that the scriptures reveal that all men As we come
into this world, we all, because of the fall in our father Adam,
we all come into this world and we walk according to the power,
to the rule of the prince of the power of the air. We all
do. These women were no exception. You know, in the parable, one
of the parables our Lord gave, he gave this parable in the house
of Simon the Pharisee. Remember in that house, the Pharisee
had invited the Lord to come and eat with him. And while they
were eating, this woman came in and she began to wash the
Lord's feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair and
to kiss his feet. And Simon the Pharisee reasoned
within himself, if he were a prophet, he would know what manner of
woman she is. And the Lord told this parable
of two debtors two men, and both were in debt. One owed 50 pence,
I believe it was, and one owed 500 pence. But they were alike
in this, neither one had anything to pay. They couldn't pay. And so they were frankly, that
word frankly of course means freely, they were freely forgiven
all. And then our Lord asked the Pharisee,
which one of these will love him most, the one that was forgiven
50 pence or the one that was forgiven 500 pence. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, or the Pharisee, answered, I suppose the man to
whom much was forgiven. And do you know every child of
God, every child of God, no exceptions, every child of God is forgiven
much. If we're forgiven all, we're
forgiven much, because we have all offended in so many different
ways. By thoughts, by words, by deeds,
we have offended. And all sin, remember, is against
God. And yet God, frankly, freely
forgives all. And what does that produce? It
produces love. It produces love. And these women,
they came out this morning not The angel said, why seek ye the
living among the dead? It was not from lack of love.
They loved the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people love their Savior. We love Him, the Apostle John
said, we love Him because He first loved us. God's people
love Christ. These women, they were no exception,
they loved Him. So that's the way I would answer
this question, first of all. Why seek ye the living among
the dead? It certainly was not from lack
of love, because they did love the Lord. Well, let me answer
in a second way. Why seek ye the living among
the dead? It was because they misunderstood
or they did not understand the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not understand the Lord
Jesus Christ and his words. You see, the angel asked them
if they did not remember his words in verses six and seven. The angel said, 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 and be crucified, and the third
day rise again? And notice, they remembered.
They remembered His words, but they had not understood His words. Because in Mark, this is the
account that the angel has reference to in Mark chapter 9, and beginning
in verse 30. The scripture says, he taught
his disciples and said unto them, the Son of Man must, must be
delivered into the hands of men. And they shall kill him, and
after that he is killed, he shall rise again the third day. But,
now this is still part of the scripture, but they understood
not that saying and were afraid to ask him. You see the same
thing in Matthew chapter 16, just after Peter had made that
wonderful confession, thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. And yet our Lord began to explain
or to tell them rather, that he was going to Jerusalem, what
would take place, he would be crucified, and he would rise
again the third day. And Peter took him aside and
would rebuke him. And that's when our Lord told
Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savest not the things
that be of God. They heard, but they did not
understand. They did not understand the words
of God and they did not ask. I wanted to point that out. If
you look at that passage in Mark chapter nine, it says, but they
understood not that saying and were afraid to ask him. They were afraid to ask him.
You know, I thought about another man we read about in the scripture
who was reading the word of God and he didn't understand. This
was an Ethiopian eunuch. Read about it in Acts chapter
8. And the Bible tells us he had been up to Jerusalem to worship,
and he was on his way home. This was a man of some authority. He was riding in his chariot,
and God sent Philip to him. And Philip asked him this question,
Understandest thou what thou readest? And the eunuch responded,
how can I except some man guide me? He needed someone to guide
him in the truth. And yes, as amazing as it is
to me, God uses men. God uses men preaching the gospel. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Whosoever believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Whosoever believeth not shall
be damned. God takes an instrument like
myself and other men. You have that in the case of
Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. He sent for Peter and Peter came
and preached the gospel to him. An angel could bring him the
message and tell him to seek for Peter, but an angel could
not preach the gospel to him. This is something that has been
committed unto man, and that's my charge, and that's the charge
of every man that God calls and puts into the ministry. We're
not to entertain people. Our work is to preach Christ
and Him crucified. That's our message. It never
changes. It never is altered. Christ and
Him crucified. Paul said this when he was writing
to the church at Corinth. He said some men, they seek after
wisdom. They want a preacher who can
really tickle their imaginations, you know. He's so smart and he
can speak over everybody's head. Nobody understands what he's
talking about. They're seeking after wisdom,
the wisdom of this world. Paul said it's foolishness with
God. And then some, they look for
signs. But, Paul said, we preach Christ. And unto them which are called,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. We preach Christ. So this eunuch, he was reading
that part of the Bible that we call Isaiah chapter 53. And he asked Philip asked him, rather,
understandest thou what thou readest? He said, how can I,
except some man guide me? And the place where he was reading,
the scripture says, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter,
and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened he not his
mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? For his
life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch asked Philip,
now who is he talking about? Whom is this prophecy speaking
of? Is the prophet talking about
himself? Or is he talking about someone else? And you know the
scripture here says that Philip began at the same scripture and
preached unto him, Jesus, the son of God. And as they went
on their way, They came to a certain place where there was water,
and the eunuch said, What hinders me from being baptized? If thou
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. You see, faith comes
before baptism. Man has reversed that order,
hasn't he? In some places, he's reversed
that order. And so they sprinkle water on
the head of some little baby and tell that baby he's now part
of the kingdom of God. How foolish is that, my friends?
No, faith, faith first. If thou believest. And what was
his confession of faith? His confession of faith is, I
believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And with that
confession, Philip baptized him. Yes, but he was someone who couldn't
understand, just like these people. They heard our Lord talk about
the fact he was going to Jerusalem, he was going to be crucified,
he would die, but he would rise again the third day. But they
did not understand and they would not ask. I think about the fact
our Lord said, except you be converted and become as little
children, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.
One thing about children, they'll ask questions. Sometimes men,
you know, we've got so much pride, we won't ask anybody to help
us and to guide us into the truth. But yes, God's chosen to use
men. But let me answer this question
in a second way. Why seek ye the living among
the dead? They did this because they had
not understood the word of God. And number two, they had not
understood the purpose of God's Redeemer, of God's Messiah. If you look further down in this
chapter, chapter 24 of Luke, What you see is there's two of
these 11 disciples on the road to Emmaus on the day of our Lord's
resurrection. And our Lord came along and went
with them. They could not see who he was
or understand who he was, perceive who he was. But our Lord asked
them, why are you so sad? What's this you're talking about?
And notice, I only want to point out what they said in verse 21.
But we trusted. Speaking of Christ, we trusted
that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel. How did they think Israel would
be redeemed? They had been taught and they
believed that the Messiah would come and He would throw off the
yoke of the Roman rule. And their nation would once again
be as Moses said, would be the head and not the tail. Would
be on top and not underneath. Would be something like it was
in the days of David. And that's the kind of Messiah
they were looking for. A national ruler who would bring
their nation into liberty and freedom. But they had no idea
that God's Messiah, the one who had been promised, was coming
to save sinners, to save men and women from their sin. And
in order to do that blood, sacrifice must be offered. The scripture
says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.
They had been deceived by their rulers. Now I'm talking about
their religious rulers. They were blind guides. You know
what our Lord said about blind guides? Because men are blind,
they follow blind guides, and they both fall into the ditch.
Well, I'm convinced, my friends, that our nation is cursed all
over this country today with blind guides who are standing
in pulpits, and they talk about everything else other than the
Christ of the Bible and his sacrifice that does put away sin. They talk about everything else,
how you can live a happy life, how you can have a happy home
and be a good father and all of those things are good and
right in their place. But my friends, first of all,
a man must know how he may be right with God, how he may be
just with God. I thought about this, how many
people around the world today, the only thing they know about
the resurrection has to do with an Easter bunny or eggs? What does that have to do with
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? How did that come
into the so-called Christian community? You know it came out
of paganism. You know it did. It has nothing
to do with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. How many
people around the world today, they do not know and they will
not ask, why was it necessary that Christ die? Why was that
necessary? That God sent his son, his only
begotten son into this world. Why was that necessary for him
to come and to die the death that he died upon the cross?
Well, remember our Lord in that agony there in Gethsemane. I
read that verse just a moment ago when he said, if it be possible,
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. There
is no other way that man might be saved and reconciled unto
God apart from the death of Jesus Christ, apart from God's justice
being satisfied, his law being honored. No, his death was absolutely
necessary. He spoke of his death. Christ
spoke of his death. He used the word must. Even so,
must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. His death
was an absolute necessity for God to be just and justify men
and women like you and I. How many people around this world
They have no idea and they will not ask, why was it necessary
for Christ to die? And then how many people will
never ask, what did his death accomplish? What did his death,
did it accomplish anything? I get the idea from hearing most
of the people I see, these religious leaders, that he did something
that made it possible, but really he didn't accomplish anything.
He just made salvation possible. But that's not what the Lord
Jesus Christ said. He said this, I am come that
they might have life. Who's He talking about? In the
context there, He's talking about His sheep. I am come that they
might have life, those sheep which the Father gave unto Him
in that everlasting covenant, and that they might have it more
abundantly. Yes, and what is declared by
His resurrection? Men do not know and will not
ask. What does the resurrection of Christ declare? Let me give
you this. And I'll close. Number one, the
resurrection of Christ. It declares that he is God. That's what we read in Romans
chapter one, my friends. He said, I am the son of God. I am one with the father and
his resurrection declares that yes, he is the son of God. Number two, his resurrection
declares the sin debt of his people has been paid, that his
people are justified. That's what the scripture says
in Romans chapter four and verse 25. He was delivered for our
offenses, for our sins, but he was raised for our justification. Yes. And three, His resurrection
declares that He conquered death, death which is called the King
of Terrors, that He conquered it and He has removed the sting
of death for all of His children. And four, that Jesus lives to
make the inheritance sure to all of the heirs. And number
five, that there is a man in glory. That's what His resurrection
declares today. There's a man, God-man, yes,
but a man in glory. And He's there, the scripture
says, as the forerunner, as the one who is there first, the first
fruits of them that slept. But it declares unto us that
there shall be a great number A number so great, not an infinite
number, no, but a finite number that only God knows, but a number
so great, my friends, that we could not begin to calculate
all of those for whom Christ died. and paid their sin debt. And sure as he's there today,
one day we too, those of us who know him as our Lord and Savior,
we too shall be there with him. I pray that the Lord would bless
this message to our hearts today. We serve a living Savior He died,
that's true, it was necessary that he suffer and enter into
his glory. This is the thing they couldn't
see. They could see he would enter into his glory, but they
wanted to bypass the cross. My friends, there is no bypassing
the cross, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. If sinners were
to be saved, a sacrifice that God would accept had to be offered,
a propitiation. That's the word the Bible uses,
which turns away the wrath of God, the wrath of God that our
sins deserve. Christ suffered that wrath and
he paid that sin debt price and he ever lives now to make intercession
for all who come unto God by him. Brother Bill Parker is going
to come now and sing