SPEAKER_00: I want you to think for just a second about words that cause you anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great way to start off, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Words that cause you a sense of gloom or doom.
SPEAKER_00: And then while you're thinking of those words, I'd like to interject a couple, if you'll just let me enter your mind for a minute, and suggest to you maybe that a couple of those words might be words like lost.
SPEAKER_00: Another word might be a word alone.
SPEAKER_00: I think those words are some of the most dreadful words that we could ever think about.
SPEAKER_00: Lost alone.
SPEAKER_00: Then kind of let's switch over and let's think about some of the more positive thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: What are some words that bring positive thinking in your mind?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe words like saved.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe another word like united.
SPEAKER_00: And I know you have several words like that, but lost alone, some of the darkest words we could think of, and saved united are some of the best words we could think about.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see some of that this morning as well in our study together as we turn our thoughts to the book of Matthew together this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So while you're getting uh situated there and turning in in your Bible if you're able to the book of Matthew, uh just say to you good morning.
SPEAKER_00: And so good to be here with one another this morning.
SPEAKER_00: As you may be aware, I think probably most are that last Friday through today is the weekend that the Christian religious world at least pauses to uh celebrate and consider Jesus' death and resurrection, as we uh mentioned as well, as Brother uh Keith mentioned as well at the at the Lord's table this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It uh it does introduce a good opportunity to address that topic uh without difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and I think maybe today that is a good thing for us to think about, since that is where people's minds uh most often are on this weekend.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are here for that reason this morning, there are many who make it a habit to attend services during that, the Easter weekend is called.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and if you're here for that reason this morning, I just say to you that you are commended for being here.
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't already, I would go ahead and say, even in addition to that, that you should consider making such a remembrance a weekly occurrence in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Because there is nothing, ladies and gentlemen, like the resurrection of Jesus Christ in connection to the death of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There is no greater doctrine, there is no greater teaching in all the world and in all of Scripture than what we find surrounding that event.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, our time is defined by that event, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We went from a period of BC to a period of AD, and it is centered on the death of Jesus and on the days of his resurrection, the day of his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is as life-changing before or after becoming a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing gives greater confidence in our future after becoming a Christian than worshiping with God's family, God's way.
SPEAKER_00: So we love the fact that we're all together this way, and we love the fact, if you're a guest with us today, that you are part of the assembly today with God's people, as we celebrate the very thing that we celebrate every first day of the week, and that is his death, and then the confirmation of what that death meant, which we call the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: I want to think about some of these things with you from the book of Matthew this morning, and then this evening we'll be talking about uh and we'll be looking at an introduction from the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: I invite you everyone back for that as well.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you are thinking, well, uh I don't usually go on Sunday night.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to remind you that you're gonna miss half of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: That'd be an atrocity because Romans is one of the best books you'll ever study in your whole life.
SPEAKER_00: It is a fantastic book.
SPEAKER_00: It's not necessarily better than the other books, but there are a lot of things in there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and it's and it's pretty concise in 15 chapters, you're not gonna want to miss it, especially if you're a Christian and you want to know more deeply what God has for you uh as a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and also it'll go very well with our classes from teenage level all the way uh up here to the adult class level uh in the in the book of Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: And so those books will very nicely fit together.
SPEAKER_00: I think you'll enjoy that.
SPEAKER_00: Hope you can be here for that at five o'clock tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you uh are one who suffers with feelings of anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about that for a second.
SPEAKER_00: We all do from time to time, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Uh even though we try not to, and and passages come to our mind, do not be anxious.
SPEAKER_00: And we're like, I'm trying not to be anxious.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but yet anxiety is hard for us to deal with at times.
SPEAKER_00: And and it could be that it's because of major events in life.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see today in our in our thoughts together, our study together.
SPEAKER_00: I I think about when I think about times of anxiety, I think about sometimes a looming career change in people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they don't want to make a change, maybe it's a retirement change, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh from working to retirement.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't care to go through that.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes their their job just ends and they have to finally look for another job somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: And that can cause those kinds of things, are life-changing events that cause anxiety, or at least can.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most anxiety-driven times in my personal life was when my mother and father died.
SPEAKER_00: That was hard to cope with.
SPEAKER_00: That's hard to deal with because you realize as far as the family, you know, the family you were raised in, you're alone, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you may have a sibling or two or three or whatever, in Sam's case, ten.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, but you know, the there, they're really, I mean, you may have your siblings there, and that's one thing, but it is different, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: When your parents are no longer kind of the core of that family, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like you were used to.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things that you could probably think of that have caused you great consternation, anxiety, sometimes even despair, if we allow it to consume us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Even downward despair in our life, where it just can't seem to function again.
SPEAKER_00: I think that this is the way that the apostles were feeling and the thoughts they were having to fight against, when the Son of God, that they believe the man they knew to be, they knew to be the Son of God, was killed when he was murdered.
SPEAKER_00: The death of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to put yourself in their shoes the best you can for a moment, the best that we're able to do, and think that for three years you have come to have this great revelation given to you that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is actually the one who was fulfilling every prophecy that you've grown up learning out of the old covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And in addition to that, that he's there with you, has selected you, and you are following in his steps, learning day after day from the Son of God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine that for just a second?
SPEAKER_00: Now think about what happened to Jesus after that.
SPEAKER_00: Does that cause you some anxiety?
SPEAKER_00: What is happening?
SPEAKER_00: How could this be happening?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the one who God sent to be king over Israel, they would each be in his inner circle.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they had planned.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament makes that understandable to us.
SPEAKER_00: They would reign with him on the throne there in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And the nation would finally throw off this harness and these these shackles that Rome had placed on your nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, out from under the rule of someone else overseeing you, making all the rules for your personal life as well as your national life.
SPEAKER_00: They were willing to do whatever they could do to bring all of this to pass.
SPEAKER_00: Peter confessed to Jesus one time in Luke chapter 18, verse 28, we have left everything and followed you.
SPEAKER_00: And that was the absolute truth.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't say, Well, not everything.
SPEAKER_00: They actually had left everything that was important to them, and they followed after him.
SPEAKER_00: They gave it all up.
SPEAKER_00: Their possessions, their homes, their businesses.
SPEAKER_00: For a time, even their families.
SPEAKER_00: But now nothing seems to make sense if you put yourself in their shoes.
SPEAKER_00: At the crucifixion site, it all seemed to come crashing down, didn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I would have been absolutely stunned had I been living then and been one of those disciples following after Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That would have been a stunning event.
SPEAKER_00: That he would allow himself to die, that he would allow himself to go through the things that he went through.
SPEAKER_00: Most of all, I don't see Jesus in that situation in all of his greatness that the Old Testament promised.
SPEAKER_00: The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the King of the world.
SPEAKER_00: In the crucifixion, I see defeat.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been absolutely unsettling.
SPEAKER_00: The arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, as they all fled flee for fear, leaving Jesus to face the bloodthirsty accusers all alone, from a distance, because he was going through all of this alone.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is that you hear, or maybe at a distance you see, perhaps, the mock trials that are taking place, the Jewish officials, the Pilate, the blasphemous and physical abuse of the robe, the crown of thorns, the blood that went with that, the brutal scourging of Jesus that took place.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' arduous trek through the city of Jerusalem to the site of his execution.
SPEAKER_00: And you might have heard the sounds of those hammers as they came down on the heads of those spikes that were driven through his body into the wood.
SPEAKER_00: You might have seen from a distance the cross being lifted up and dropped into place.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt they became aware of the words that we read this morning at the table, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: As he quotes from Psalm chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, you see it is finished as he drops his head and he slumps down into death.
SPEAKER_00: I ask you again, if you're one of his disciples putting out of your mind what you know right now, because we live on the other side of the cross, but if you were living on the pre-cross period, don't you think you would have felt lost and alone?
SPEAKER_00: They knew of the physical evidence of death.
SPEAKER_00: As the soldiers thrust the spear upward into the heart of Jesus, and blood and water come forth, that mixture, something that medical science still today calls death.
SPEAKER_00: Absolute death.
SPEAKER_00: No more life in that body.
SPEAKER_00: Was it really a defeat, though, or a prediction of something better?
SPEAKER_00: You know, the quickness and the unfolding of these events that would have left a person feeling fearful, lost.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what else it left these disciples that left them forgetful?
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is because we are we are told that they were told several times and in a variety of ways that Jesus planned this to happen.
SPEAKER_00: It is in Matthew chapter 16, verse 21, that Jesus begins to show, the text says, his disciples that they must go to Jerusalem and suffer.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a person that underlined words, I'm going to mention to you some words you should have underlined in your biblical text, okay?
SPEAKER_00: One is that word suffer, that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, underline it, and on the third day be erased, underline it, suffer, killed, but raised.
SPEAKER_00: And what did they hear out of that?
SPEAKER_00: Pretty much nothing.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to hear about the looming predictions.
SPEAKER_00: Over Matthew chapter 17, verse 22 of your text.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 17, just maybe even the same opening there.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 17, verse 22, Jesus said to them that he was about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they would kill him, and he would be raised on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: Is that a hope-filled statement of assurance?
SPEAKER_00: He would be raised on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: Not to them.
SPEAKER_00: The text actually tells us they were greatly distressed.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because, like us, most often, all they know how to do is emphasize the negatives in their life.
SPEAKER_00: When they hear this, that's where their mind centers.
SPEAKER_00: That he is saying to us, he will be killed.
SPEAKER_00: What about the resurrection part of that?
SPEAKER_00: Same book, chapter 20 of Matthew, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 20, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: The last week before the predictions that he has made, the prophecies that he has spoken, will take place.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the last seven days of his life at this point, the last week.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was going up to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he has to go to Jerusalem if he's going to carry out the plan that was set forth, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because that is where the execution will take place.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes to Jerusalem and he took the twelve disciples aside.
SPEAKER_00: Now it becomes something more thoughtful that he's actually wanting them to really consider what it is he's saying to them.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, see, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered, underline it, over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn, underline it.
SPEAKER_00: They will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, one, flogged, two, and crucified, three, and he will be raised on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: You can't get more plain in your statement than that, can you?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that is black and white.
SPEAKER_00: There's no ambiguity whatsoever in that statement.
SPEAKER_00: And he even has them in a close circle with him.
SPEAKER_00: Quiet time to talk about these things as they're on the way, walking to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Why are they struggling?
SPEAKER_00: What are they thinking about at this time?
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, examination of the text will tell us they were still thinking about what we started talking about at the beginning of the lesson.
SPEAKER_00: How great it's going to be when Jesus is the king over Jerusalem and over Israel, and this nation's going to rise, and this nation's going to throw off the bonds of the Romans, and we're going to be there right along with him doing it.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be great.
SPEAKER_00: They were actually arguing about who was going to be greatest in that coming kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Who was going to get to have the most attention?
SPEAKER_00: Who was going to get to be the one?
SPEAKER_00: Such statements from Jesus must have circulated, though.
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually assuming, and I think I'm probably right in this, that it wasn't just these times that we've looked at that Jesus talked about this at some point in his work among people in general.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is because of what we read about the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: They come to believe in Jesus is the Christ, at least some of them.
SPEAKER_00: And one of them, by the name of Joseph of Arimathea, he definitely believes, and he's the one who wants to take care of Jesus' body in the burial process after his death.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 27.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me there.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 27.
SPEAKER_00: And sorry, and we'll notice verse 59 of that text.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 27, beginning in verse 59, Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Jesus' body in his new tomb, rolled a great stone in front of the entrance, and went away.
SPEAKER_00: And you can cross-reference that and see there's more detail to that story that shows him to be a believer in Jesus as the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: But now looking down to verse 62 of this text, verse 62, the next day, that is, after the day of preparation, now just to put a sense of this into our mind, that would have been the Sabbath day, Saturday, and in the calendar of events, it would have been yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: And so the chief priests and the Pharisees gather before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how this imposter, some versions say deceiver, said, While he was still alive, after three days I will rise.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 64, therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And the last deception will be worse than the first.
SPEAKER_00: And Pilate said to them, You have a guard of soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: Go, make secure as you can.
SPEAKER_00: So they went and they made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting a guard.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, I say to you, if that was the end of the story, we would be worthless in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: There would be nothing for us to hang on to.
SPEAKER_00: But you say to yourself, But just didn't Jesus die for our sins?
SPEAKER_00: Prove it.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like for you to prove to me that Jesus died for our sins without the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Saying something and doing something are two different things.
SPEAKER_00: We all know that.
SPEAKER_00: There'd be no need for us to be here today.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you, I would not be a believer if that's where the story stopped.
SPEAKER_00: I am a believer.
SPEAKER_00: I get to remember that every first day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: Because I remember that's the day Jesus walked out of the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his life for my sins, but he proves what he did by his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no denial of that.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible even talks about it.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me over at chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 15, I want us to notice verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is along these same lines, this same line of thinking as what we've just brought up or brought to our attention out of this text.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you're still in your sins, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
SPEAKER_00: That would be a hopeless hope.
SPEAKER_00: For even our loved ones, if that's where the story stopped.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to notice he says in verse 20, but in fact, do you know, brothers and sisters, that a fact is not a hypothesis, it is not a possible conclusion, it is not a theory, it is not a hope.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reality.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it is based in information with real occurrences that can be verified.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul is talking about here within this text when he says, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead and become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to keep thinking in this term.
SPEAKER_00: Look in chapter 28 of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 28, now, going back to your text in Matthew, and look in verse 1 there of that text.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 28, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: I know you probably get stuck there and you go, Mary Magdalene, we know who that is, who's the other Mary?
SPEAKER_00: Other sections of text that are parallel to this would tell us that was the Mary, the mother of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, went to see the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
SPEAKER_00: He appeared, and his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
SPEAKER_00: But the angel said to the women who did not faint and become like dead men, like the guards did, said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He is not here, for he has risen.
SPEAKER_00: As he said, Come and see where he lay.
SPEAKER_00: Then go quickly and tell the disciples that he is risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings.
SPEAKER_00: And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus repeats the message that the angel tells him, and that is, go tell the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, while they were going, behold, after the fainting, fearful soldiers recovered, some of the guards went into the city and they told the chief priests all that had taken place.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, underline this.
SPEAKER_00: Notice this every time you read it.
SPEAKER_00: They gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers, and they said, Tell the people, his disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.
SPEAKER_00: And if this comes to the governor Pilate's ears, then we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.
SPEAKER_00: So they took the money and they did as they were directed, and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever considered the point that the first witnesses of the resurrected Christ were not just the two Marys that are spoken of there?
SPEAKER_00: But it's also non-believers.
SPEAKER_00: Truth has nothing at all to fear.
SPEAKER_00: These non-believers, the guards, maybe the ones who spit on him earlier, maybe the ones who slapped him or beat him or mocked him that Friday before.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, what is their final decision to Jesus' resurrection?
SPEAKER_00: They take the bribe and they tell lies.
SPEAKER_00: And I have to say to you, brothers and sisters, that absolutely amazes me in this story as well, doesn't it, you?
SPEAKER_00: Who in their right mind would be able to say, I'll take the money and lie about what I saw?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's not just some everyday occurrence that you've just seen.
SPEAKER_00: You have been so struck by that occurrence as a seasoned and hardened soldier in the Roman army, your legs grow weak, your mind grows faint, everything goes dark, and you fall down like a dead person.
SPEAKER_00: That just seems crazy to me.
SPEAKER_00: These men were willing to forsake the truth for money.
SPEAKER_00: Now that is an important point for us to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how easy it is for you and me still today to forsake the truth for something else we would rather have?
SPEAKER_00: Some people still forsake the truth for money.
SPEAKER_00: They still make livings that aren't proper for a society and gain money from that.
SPEAKER_00: They're forsaking truth for money.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are working today that don't have to be working, but they would rather have the money than they would to hear truth.
SPEAKER_00: There are still many people in our day who will gladly forsake truth for what is a lie, for something that actually doesn't exist forever in one's life.
SPEAKER_00: Some will sacrifice truth for friendships, some will sacrifice truth for family, some will sacrifice truth for pride or prestige, or because they want to spend their time some other way than serving and worshiping the God who gave his life for them each week.
SPEAKER_00: Still today, those who exchange convincing truth for anything else do so to their own hurt.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that is an important point for us to consider.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just that I want people to spend their time worshiping God.
SPEAKER_00: The truth of the matter is God wants them to spend their time doing something that actually will have an eternal consequence for them in a positive way.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Here for this morning, we're reading through this text.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know the names of these guards, but we know that they were living men and they had jobs to do, and that what they did in that job was fail because they couldn't defeat the body of Jesus walking through the stone tomb.
SPEAKER_00: You might just remember stone wasn't removed and Jesus came out.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came out, and then the angels moved the stone.
SPEAKER_00: Here we are 2,000 years later, we read about these men, how that all took place for them, and then how they respond to it.
SPEAKER_00: Where they're willing to lie about it in order to take some money.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just ask you this morning, where is that money?
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, where's the family?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were family men and they're like, hey, you gotta make a living.
SPEAKER_00: Take this home.
SPEAKER_00: We have meat tonight instead of this porridge stuff or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Where's it all at?
SPEAKER_00: They were they were willing to lie against the truth and deceive in order to get that money, but you know, not one coin can be found.
SPEAKER_00: It is wise for us, my friends, to consider the long-term effects on our of the decisions that we're making on our eternal destiny.
SPEAKER_00: They would have been smarter thinking about what is happening here and what kind of consequence comes from this.
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to listen?
SPEAKER_00: Do I need to consider what has just taken place more deeply than to grab hold of this flashy stuff?
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say to you that if something isn't right that we are contemplating, we need to consider where will it lead me?
SPEAKER_00: They would have been right to consider, is it right for me to lie about this?
SPEAKER_00: Just for money?
SPEAKER_00: Is it really right?
SPEAKER_00: Is that a right thing?
SPEAKER_00: Even the pagans understood lying was not a right thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: Where will I end up?
SPEAKER_00: Our preservation, ladies and gentlemen, is not built upon things that decay.
SPEAKER_00: It's not built upon things that rust.
SPEAKER_00: It's not built upon things that stay here when we leave from here.
SPEAKER_00: This world, I mean.
SPEAKER_00: But in a willingness to change our direction based upon the truth and the convictions that it brings.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing compares with good integrity and spiritual virtue.
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew chapter 6, verse 19, Jesus offers something better when he tells us the treasures you have here, those things will only be at best temporarily used.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm offering you something that it makes eternity a difference for you.
SPEAKER_00: What about the reaction of the majority of the religious leaders to the news that they had received from these guards?
SPEAKER_00: Here, take this money, tell the people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I but and I'm not an investigator anymore, but I can tell you this that that person who believes this is not a very good listener at all.
SPEAKER_00: They have not thought through the process.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it makes me wonder about these highly educated men who are doing the very thing they'd gone to Pilate and said, we're afraid of this happening.
SPEAKER_00: Now they're promoting that it happened.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, this story would it's only going to work on lazy listeners, like I said.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about this.
SPEAKER_00: How could they have known the disciples stole the body if they are sleeping so much that they don't even wake up to know that the body's been stolen?
SPEAKER_00: How do you identify who stole the body if you're sleeping?
SPEAKER_00: What we learn is this, and it's more important in all of this, just like then, in the face of evidence and truth, some people are still just going to do what they have always done and deny something that is difficult to deal with.
SPEAKER_00: Hardened hearts, denial, rejection, never stopping to consider once again what are the implications of what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Where will this lead?
SPEAKER_00: Us, the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: And where are we leading people who will follow us?
SPEAKER_00: Both the soldiers and the leaders in this meeting knew the truth.
SPEAKER_00: All of those people who were assembled there together talking over what how it was they were going to handle this dilemma.
SPEAKER_00: All of them knew the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And that truth was undeniable, as I said.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a hypothesis, it wasn't speculation.
SPEAKER_00: They knew what took place.
SPEAKER_00: But they just couldn't let it change their lives because they were just too short-sighted to think it through.
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of people today short-sighted.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how undeniable and convincing truth may be, for some, the only ones who will really be receptive are going to be those who have an honest heart about the facts that is good before God.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be who God wants me to be.
SPEAKER_00: An honest and good heart is referred to in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: An honest and good heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to seek to ignore evidences or the implications of those evidences.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes those are more concerning than the evidences themselves, right?
SPEAKER_00: This kind of soul can't just go away and say, eh, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: It's got to dig.
SPEAKER_00: It's got to know more.
SPEAKER_00: It won't be happy until it knows more.
SPEAKER_00: And starting with these women to whom Jesus first appeared, the apostles fearlessly stand before the people.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike the time when they were in the garden and they were all afraid and they all left.
SPEAKER_00: Now the resurrection with the death of Jesus has changed them completely.
SPEAKER_00: They are no longer those men anymore.
SPEAKER_00: No, now they're willing to stand.
SPEAKER_00: And what do they do when they stand?
SPEAKER_00: About 40 or 50 days, I guess it was, after the things that we've just read take place, Peter and the other disciples deliver the statements that we read in Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're familiar with that text.
SPEAKER_00: If you are, I encourage you to go over there anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Read it with some thought about the things that we've just read, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 2, verse 22, where Peter says there toward the end of his sermon, Men of Israel, hear these words.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wondrous signs.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
SPEAKER_00: Resurrection, you can't get more mighty and wondrous than that.
SPEAKER_00: Someone raising themselves from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: God did these through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and you killed by the hands of lawless men.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: But God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
SPEAKER_00: You know why that is?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's God.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't kill God when God wants to live.
SPEAKER_00: He did what he did for us, brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32, this Jesus, God raised up.
SPEAKER_00: And of all that, we are all witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to consider the fact that there were thousands of people there hearing this on that day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: None of them, none of them, whether it's this document or secular documents, would record for us that somebody in the crowd was saying, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: That's all a lie.
SPEAKER_00: It's been disproven.
SPEAKER_00: The guards told us.
SPEAKER_00: There is no denial of the facts at this point.
SPEAKER_00: None of this came true.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, verse 37 says, Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, What shall we do?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the word Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We read that like it's his second name.
SPEAKER_00: It actually isn't.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't named Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's not his second name.
SPEAKER_00: That is a name that identifies him or who he is.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not connected to his earthly name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It means one who is anointed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus the anointed.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it that way for a second, because that is an identification of kingship.
SPEAKER_00: Kings were anointed.
SPEAKER_00: It's an identification of a kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: There's no sense of having a king if you don't have something he's ruling over called a kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: So read that sentence again.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus, king.
SPEAKER_00: For the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection proves the deity of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection proves we can't believe and confidently act on the implications of his death until we understand that resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Just as Peter is teaching here in Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: And it proves Jesus has power over life and death, the resurrection and a judgment that is yet to come.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 17, as we begin to close out together this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice there, verse 30, as Paul now is preaching, he says here that God commands all people everywhere to repent.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 31 tells why.
SPEAKER_00: Why should we do that, Paul?
SPEAKER_00: Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world.
SPEAKER_00: That includes you, me, and every other created human being.
SPEAKER_00: And he'll do so in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.
SPEAKER_00: And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to ask you, why do people mock at that?
SPEAKER_00: Why do people choose to not believe in that?
SPEAKER_00: Is it because victory over death seems too good to be true?
SPEAKER_00: It's so contrary to our world of death and destruction and decay.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to suffer with that our entire existence?
SPEAKER_00: It's too good to be true.
SPEAKER_00: But some joined him in and believe.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything culminates with the death and the resurrection of Jesus and a judgment to come.
SPEAKER_00: Those three great points.
SPEAKER_00: And all of that is meant to cause us to stop, to think, and to make a choice.
SPEAKER_00: All of that.
SPEAKER_00: Just like it was here in the story that we've read about in this account.
SPEAKER_00: Are you as the soldier who knew the as one of the soldiers who knew the truth?
SPEAKER_00: But they were just more interested in the temporary satisfaction of other stuff that they could get for the here and now right away?
SPEAKER_00: A fixation on the gold or the silver?
SPEAKER_00: Are you as the Jewish authorities unwilling to accept what you know because you just don't want to change the way you're going?
SPEAKER_00: I like these things more than those things.
SPEAKER_00: It's choice.
SPEAKER_00: Are you as those who deny the truth because a miracle would force you to admit there is a God over life and death, over this world, and there is a judgment to come that terrifies me?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to think about it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll do other things to sidetrack my thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Or are you like the others who believed, allowing the truth to absolutely change their life, and I mean this word forever.
SPEAKER_00: Never the same thing again, including the afterlife.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection of Christ is more than just a great theological argument or a doctrinal discussion.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll say to this, I'll say this to you, and I mean this, it's more than just a man-made holiday.
SPEAKER_00: It's real.
SPEAKER_00: And it has great impact on our life if we'll let it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the bedrock of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: It is the foundation of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is the hope of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: God provides historical, prophetical, written, and biblical testimony, both secular as well as sacred testimony of his resurrection and his death.
SPEAKER_00: There's no denying this process that we've looked at, these statements that we've looked at from the Bible this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It is what causes us to take seriously the coming judgment, Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: If you can believe Jesus raised from the dead, you better believe that what he says is true.
SPEAKER_00: And when he says, I'll judge the whole world, he means it.
SPEAKER_00: So it causes some sobriety in how we're living and where we're going with our life.
SPEAKER_00: As Paul proclaims in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 57, thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: What an understatement.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That victory is proved by the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Stones rolled away, not so Jesus could come out, it's so that we, even Still today can look in.
SPEAKER_00: From the very beginning, Jesus' death and resurrection were God's plan for our redemption.
SPEAKER_00: One more passage, and we'll end here.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 42, we read the following: God's plan for our redemption.
SPEAKER_00: With the resurrection of the dead, what is sown is perishable.
SPEAKER_00: What is raised is imperishable.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 44, it is sown in a natural body.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're going to die physically.
SPEAKER_00: It is raised in a spiritual body.
SPEAKER_00: There's an eternal perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Just as we have borne the image of the man of the dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven, Jesus, the King.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say to you, if you've not experienced a spiritual burial and resurrection, Paul teaches in Romans chapter 6, verses 3 and 4, that old man can be buried and like Christ be raised through baptism.
SPEAKER_00: That is a Bible doctrine that directly ties to the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's great.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to embrace that?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been putting that off?
SPEAKER_00: Think about what the Lord's day, the first day of the week, means.
SPEAKER_00: And follow after that with everything you've got.
SPEAKER_00: Let it change you completely.
SPEAKER_00: Forever.
SPEAKER_00: If you're subject to that call this morning and you're ready to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins in the name of Jesus Christ and for the gift of the Holy Spirit, we invite you to come forward right now while together we stand and as we sing.