Today on the Evangelist Podcast we've got a special Easter edition.
SPEAKER_03The Evangelist Podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you with Andy Brinkley and Glenn Sprigham.
SPEAKER_04Welcome back to the Evangelist Podcast. We're looking this week. Easter.
SPEAKER_01We thought we'd take out a few from the church calendar. Why not?
SPEAKER_04But we've got some special things. We've got firstly we're gonna have a listen to a video.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, the video we spoke of last week. Bread of heaven. So yes, that's that's going out online and being uh shared around the place.
SPEAKER_04So this is this is like a spoken word video drawn and animated with basically telling the story of of how Jesus is the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01So it actually takes you from Exodus 16 and the manor in the wilderness to John 6 and the feeding of the 5,000 to the Last Supper to the Cross to the Resurrection to Jesus' offer to the world in sort of two minutes and 51 seconds.
SPEAKER_04So Okay. Yeah. Sounds interesting. So shall we just play it now?
SPEAKER_01Let's have a look.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00The Israelites in thirsty lands trough burning sand with desperate craving, no longer slaving for Egyptian masters. Now by grace they're free to face this fresh disaster, starving in a barren place. Until the bread of heaven fell like morning dew each day anew, and to these folks complaining, every day the bread sustaining, to lead them all their journey through. But forward fifteen hundred years, a man appears, stands tall among his peers, and feeds the desert crowds without ado, a supernatural days of loo. And having won them months' attention, then he makes his bold contention. He is the bread of old, the one foretold to feed us, and throughout wilderness to lead us. Could his claim be true? It's Thursday night, an upper room, a supper strewn with broken bread. And Jesus stands, a loaf in hand, and says, This is my body, and tears it like a lion tearing prey, a raw dissection on display. In pieces rent and ragged, Edges jagged, now laid bare in disarray, will feed his people in this way. He the Lord, for we the least, him devoured so we can feast. And so to Friday, by a highway, rivals gloating, soldiers joking, mobs provoking, Jesus choking, Torment spoken, here the bread of heaven broken. He the Lord, for we the least, him devowed so we can feast. Then, on Sunday and like bread, he rises, surprises all his friends, stands for dinner invitation, come all from every nation, it is the meaning of salvation. He the Lord, for we the least, in the vow to we can feast. It's good s on the clock, it's good to still on the open willing ooh to come and eat. It's good and sweet, I'm free to me. Available like morning chill.
SPEAKER_04So that's uh gone out on the web, and uh we've had uh a few thousand views on that now, so that's good. We'll put a link to it here on uh on the show notes.
SPEAKER_01Brilliant, and and see it for the drummings too, because my wife has done the uh Sunday school kind of drummings and they're vibrant and lovely.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, excellent. So, what have you been up to recently, Glenn?
SPEAKER_01Lots of things, but um this Sunday was quite exciting. Went up and and uh preached uh up in uh Cookfield, preached and and they did an evangelistic event, and uh a couple of people who've been kind of on the cusp of faith for quite a while sort of ticked the count me in box and said that they they wanted to be in on this Jesus thing and and um speaking to them afterwards, they were sort of two people on quite a journey of faith. That was that was lovely to to hear about and you know, eternity will show us the fruits of these kinds of things, but it's nice to get sort of encouragements along the way.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Excellent. Okay, so this this time we're not gonna actually sort of present content ourselves, but uh you you've been speaking about uh resurrection from Job.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, no, no. So I mean what I thought I'd do is just give a few sorts of lections of Easter sermons that I've given in the past, and you can go onto the show notes and and and check out some of the other ones. There's ones in the normal places that you go to at the end of the Gospels and looking at the resurrection accounts of Jesus. Um but there's also a couple that you might not immediately think of when you think of uh resurrection. So there's one on uh Isaiah chapter 50 and uh part of the servant songs of Isaiah, and talking about how the suffering servant rises, and that's kind of a one picture of of Easter, is good Friday, the suffering servant, but the suffering servant also rises and there's that kind of sermon. But um I thought what we could uh maybe introduce is a sermon that I did on the whole book of Job. The reading must have taken a long time to read. The reading was rather lengthy. I think the reading was at least one I think the reading was actually two chapters, the first two chapters, which really sets up the scene of Job losing his daughters and and um and sons and losing his health, losing his wealth, and still not cursing the Lord. And then I guess the rest of Job gives you that picture of the depths, which you know, looking through the lens of Easter, we see we see the cross very powerfully through the depths of Job, but we also see this sort of happily ever after at the end of Job and right to left bang in the middle, there's that that famous line of Job, I know that my Redeemer lives, so that in the end I shall see him with my own eyes, and just that resurrection hope that he has. And I guess I want to highlight this as an angle on Easter, because sometimes we can have too small a view of Easter, as though it's just about that one empty tomb. Well, actually, that empty tomb uh is the guarantee that that Christ will take all who are connected to him through death and out the other side into a glorious happily ever after. So just a little encouragement that uh in all our Easter preaching we remember the cosmic dimension of what Jesus has has achieved.
SPEAKER_04Okay, well it sounds interesting. Um and this time we're not gonna sandwich it into the podcast, we're gonna put it at the end. Yes. So you can listen to that directly after we finished here. Okay, so without much further ado, we'll just finish here and leave you to listen to the sermon afterwards. Just before we close though, I wanted to tell you about our uh prayer bulletin. You can find it on the show notes. It's a 24-page booklet that tells 31 stories of what God is doing around the world. You can sign up by email or by post. Just go to revivalmedia.org slash bulletin. So just go to the web address for the show notes, revivalmedia.org slash TEP51, which is one off the year.
SPEAKER_01One off the whole year's worth, yeah.
SPEAKER_04They'll find on the show notes.
SPEAKER_01They'll find that sermon and uh the script of it and other links to other uh other selections of sermons that I've given at Easter time. I think there's probably about seven or eight there. And uh and also some other um Easter resources, some Easter songs that I've written for kids that uh might be useful in all age.
SPEAKER_04Great. Well, thanks very much, and uh enjoy the sermon.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead or engraved in rock forever. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he, in the end, he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin had been destroyed, yet in my face I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another. How my heart yearns within me.
SPEAKER_01Let's pray that the risen Lord Jesus would speak to us. Our Father, we praise you that Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of your Almighty Holy Spirit, and we ask that by that same Spirit, the Lord Jesus, would address us through these words, that we would encounter him this day and find hope in his name. Amen. What phrases do you use when you're trying to comfort people? What words do you use? Uh perhaps you're explaining to someone some calamity that's just fallen on you. Someone's stolen your credit cards, they've cleared out your bank accounts. How do you finish at the very end of that story? We've all got our stock phrases, things like, still, worse things happen at sea. I don't know why people say that. Or some people like to imagine the worst thing that could possibly happen, and then they say, Well, still, at least I'm not being boiled alive in sulfuric acid. Or, you know, people do those sorts of things. Or or there's uh serves me right for being so careless, or uh, I suppose I'm just cursed. I suppose I should count my blessings. Uh uh at least I have my health, you might say. Uh, such is life if you're a kind of a pessimist. Actually, I've got a friend and we we phone each other and we've we've each got our stock phrases and we we rib each other about our stock phrases because I I call him a stark realist and he calls me a cautious optimist. Because at the end of everything I say, I say, so we'll see. You know, cautiously optimistic. And at the end of everything he says, he says, so there you are. Um I don't know what your what are your stock phrases? Uh or when a friend is in trouble, what do you say? There are religious ones that go around church, things like, God's got a plan. Um, just gotta keep trusting. Um what's the best line? What's the best words of consolation we can think of? Uh I heard one recently from a woman who was suffering uh terribly with terminal cancer. I mean, how do you how do you finish that sentence off? She had a great line. She said, at the end of explaining her condition, she said, still, nothing a resurrection won't fix. That's good, isn't it? That's consolation. Nothing a resurrection won't fix. That's what Easter is all about. We remembered on Friday, the darkest day on planet Earth, when the Lord of Glory was barbarically executed, slaughtered as a lamb. When you kill your father, it's called patricide. When you kill a king, you might know it's called regicide. On Good Friday, we celebrate Deicide, the killing of God. The worst thing that ever happened. The word of creation comes and we silence the word. The light of the cosmos shines and we extinguish the light. The author of life comes and we kill the author of life. The sun stopped shining, and the earthquaked when the Lord our Maker was lifted up on the cross, abandoned by earth, forsaken by heaven, strung up in between the two, dying the death of the rejected. Spat upon, mocked, derided, a spear thrust up into his side. Taken down, his cold, lifeless corpse, laid in a tomb. The entrance is sealed, God is dead and buried. It was the worst thing that has ever happened. But Easter Sunday. He burst out of the ground, new. The same Lord Jesus, but now he's perfected, he has passed through the fires of judgment, and he's come out refined and glorified. He hasn't just dipped his toe in suffering and death and then come back. He's gone all the way through suffering and death and darkness, and he's come out the other side into immortal resurrection life. And on Easter Sunday we remember the stories of how he appeared to his disciples, still bearing the wounds of his crucifixion. Because we will praise his death into all eternity. But now they are glorified wounds. Glorified wounds. There's nothing his resurrection won't fix. Jesus' death redeems. It even redeems a deocide. It even redeems his own death. His resurrection redeems all things. There's nothing his resurrection won't fix. And what I want us to understand this evening is that Christ's death and resurrection, it's not just a good example of how God redeems, it is the very engine of God's redemption. It's not just a lovely story of one particular redemption, it is the pattern, the prototype, and the power of how God will redeem the whole world. There's nothing his resurrection won't fix. Just before Jesus died, he said in John chapter 12, unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it will produce many seeds. Do you see what he's saying? His death will be fruitful. Put it another way, he's the head who sums up the rest of humanity, goes down into the grave and comes back up in a renewed humanity to restore all things. Or put it another way, he's like the needle that goes through the black shroud of death and suffering. And he comes out the other sides. And all those who are united to him are like the thread being pulled through to the other sides. Easter Sunday means there's nothing that his resurrection won't fix. We're gonna look at Job, uh, because I think there's there's no better book in the Bible uh to look at the problem of suffering and then the wonderful hope of resurrection and redemption from that suffering. Uh so let's turn back to the beginning of Job and we'll see uh the terrible state that Job gets into. Job chapter 1. And we'll just take a whistle stop tour through Job and see first the suffering, but then the redemption, because there's nothing a resurrection won't fix. So, Job 1, verse 1. In the land of Uz, Uz just means a wooded area, like a garden, perhaps. Okay. In the land of Uz, there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the peoples of the east. His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. This was Job's regular custom. So we've got a man in us, a wooded place, like a garden, in the east. He's in charge of a lot of animals. Is this ringing any bells? In the east, garden kind of area, in charge of a lot of animals, and then Satan comes and spoils everything. Interesting. Verse 7. Sorry, verse 6, rather. Uh one day the angels, both the fallen angels and the unfallen angels, uh, they come to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan, as an un as a fallen angel, also came with them. Verse 7. The Lord said to Satan, Where have you come from? Satan answered the Lord, From roaming through the earth and going to and fro in it. Then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. Does Job fear God for nothing? Satan replied. Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You've blessed the work of his hands so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face. The Lord said to Satan, Very well, everything he has is in your hands. But on the man himself do not lay a finger. Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. Now, this is all, of course, happening in the heavenly realms. Job has no idea that this is what's going on. In the book, he has never let in on why he has to go through suffering. As readers, we know Job doesn't. And he will ask 20 times in the book why. And he never gets an answer. In terms of the specific suffering that he endures, he has no idea why he goes through it. But instead, he is taught a huge lesson, we're taught huge lessons, about suffering in general through his experience. So verse 13. One day, when Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, a messenger came to Job and said, The oxen were ploughing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabaeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger came, and said, The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another messenger came, and said, The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came, and said, Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them, and they are dead. And I am the only one who has escaped to tell you. It's like the phone ringing again and again, isn't it? Another message of calamity, another one, another one, another one. Job has lost all his wealth and all his children in one fell swoop. What's his response, verse 20? At this Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave, and the Lord is taken away. May the name of the Lord be blessed be praised. In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. An incredible response to suffering. But Satan is not finished with Job. In chapter 2, he wants to target Job's health, and the Lord allows it. So verse 7 of chapter 2. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die. He replied, You're talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. He's lost his children, his wealth, and now his health. Can you put yourself in his shoes? Can you put yourself in the shoes of someone trying to console him or comfort him? What would you say to Job? Worse things happen at sea? No, they don't. This is as bad as it gets. And all those platitudes that we ordinarily use, when when they f when they're faced with real suffering, they're just seen as the cheap kind of statements that they usually are. What do you say to console someone like Job? Well, here come his three friends in verse eleven. When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Tamanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Namathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him. They set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him. Isn't that appalling? Couldn't even recognize him. He was so disfigured from his suffering. They began to weep aloud. Has someone ever seen you and you're in a bad state, and they just go white from seeing the state that you're in? These guys, these grown men were crying at Job's state. They tore their robes, they sprinkled dust on their heads, then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him because they saw how great his suffering was. And that's the best thing that these friends do. They say nothing. For the first seven days, they are great friends and great comforters. Their big problem comes when they open their mouths. Job is eventually the first one to open his mouth. In chapter 3, chapter 3, verse 1. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said, May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said a boy is born. I wish I was never born. That's Job's feeling. How will his friend Eliphaz respond? Well, Eliphaz from chapter 4 does what each of these th three friends do. Read with me an example of the wisdom of Eliphaz. Chapter 4, verse 7. Chapter 4, verse 7, page 511. Consider now, who being innocent has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? As I've observed, those who plough evil and those who sow trouble reap it. At the breath of God they are destroyed. At the blast of his anger they perish. Can you see Eliphaz's philosophy? What goes around comes around, Job. Job, you are perishing. You cannot be innocent. You're going through this horrible time. You must have sinned. Good things come to good people, bad things happen to bad people. That's Eliphaz's philosophy. And therefore, Job must have done something terrible, mustn't he? And as crass as Eliphaz is here, I think he's expressing what is most people's default view of suffering. What goes around comes around. We like to think this because we like to think that we are safe from Job's sufferings. We like to think that as long as we keep our noses clean, nothing like what happens to Job could ever happen to us. Because I'm a good bloke. Surely Job's sufferings could never happen to me. We hate the idea of innocent suffering. Because that would mean, my goodness, I'm not in control of things. But we're not in control of things. And there is such a thing as innocent suffering. And really, Job is a picture of that in this book. And Job constantly has to stand up for himself against his friends, and he has to keep saying, No, I really am innocent. But yes, I really, really am suffering. We actually find that hard to put together in our own thinking. Bildad, the second friend, is having none of Job's protestations. So from chapter 8, verse 1, Bildad the Shuhite replied to Job, How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind. Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? Listen to this. When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin. Isn't that appalling? He's blaming the kids for the tornado that struck. But if you will look to God, I love this verse 5. But if you will look to God and plead with the Almighty, if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your rightful place. See? Bad things happened because of bad behavior, Job. Your kids died because they were sinners, obviously, unlike me and unlike my children, clearly. Sort your own life out, Job. Become more committed to God, and then you'll be free from suffering. Have you heard that? That sort of theology, that sort of thinking, is all around in the church. If you're just more committed, you won't go through that kind of suffering. It forgets the one at the heart of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, the innocent sufferer. And he is the heart of all things. So obviously our thinking is wrong on this. Well, uh, chapters 9 and 10, Job sticks up for himself again. Uh, and then chapter 11, Zophar, uh, again he has the same kind of uh philosophy. Chapter 11, verse 13, he says to Job, You're in a sorry state now, Job. Yet, chapter 11, verse 13, if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand, and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame. You will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as water gone by. Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning. Be more committed, Job, and then life will turn out all right. Well, from chapter twelve, Job sticks up for himself again, and I love that might be my favourite line in the whole book, chapter twelve, uh verse one. Then Job replied, Doubtless you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. There's a wonderful sarcasm from Job there. When you guys die, wisdom will die with you, you wise ones. Uh but I have a mind as well as you, I'm not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things? It's tremendous sarcasm here. Um actually, there'll be tremendous sarcasm at the end of the book when the Lord appears. He is the most sarcastic. And anyone who says sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, well, it's not so low that the Lord does not stoop to it. Uh he also. Do you remember that the Lord appears and says, Where were you, Job, when I stretched out the heavens? Tell me, you've been around for so long. You know. Wonderful sarcasm. Um but Job again has to remind himself of gospel truth again and again. That's the context into which chapter 19 fits. Uh His friends don't really appear to be friends, do they? They appear more like chapter 19, verse 2, tormentors. How long will you torment me and crush me with words? It's hard to think. What's what is harder for Job to cope with, the boils or his friends? Um his friends become tormentors because they've got this horrible theology of suffering. Uh, and it really is kicking a man when he's down. They are tormenting him. Uh verse 2, and his suffering is multiplied because now Job has become a pariah. At verse 13, uh his brothers are alienated from him and his acquaintances. Verse 14, his kinsmen and friends have gone away. Verse 15, his guests and maidservants count him a stranger. Verse 17, my breath is offensive to my wife, I am loathsome to my own brothers. Here is a man all alone, and he asks for pity. Chapter 19, verse 21, have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me. Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh? When you say, This suffering is because of this sin, you're putting yourself in the place of God at that moment. You're saying, I I see all things, I can judge all things, and Job's saying, Stop putting yourself in the place of God, just be my friends here. And Job longs for something more solid than the words and opinions of religious men. So verse 23 and 24, he wants the certainty of a written word to speak on this subject of suffering. And what does he want written down? He wants these words, verse 25. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will seek God's. I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another, how my heart yearns within me. Let me highlight just four words uh from these incredible sentences. First, the word Redeemer. Job looks forward not just to uh seeing his Savior uh who would sort of pluck him out of suffering and transport him somewhere else. Uh he is looking forward to seeing his redeemer, uh one who will take all this suffering and redeem it, use it, glorify it, uh, turn it to good. A bit like the wounds of Jesus. The wounds of what good could those wounds ever do? But through suffering, somehow they are glorified. Glorified in resurrection. And Job is is looking for every one of his sufferings to be redeemed. That the suffering he's gone through won't just be forgotten, swept aside and put in the trash, but that it would somehow be used, recycled, redeemed, renewed, purified, glorified, passed through the flames and refined and brought through to greater glory. That's what a redeemer does. Not just a savior, not just someone who plucks us out from that horrible stuff. Let's forget about that horrible stuff, but someone who somehow uses those events and darkness and weaves it into something more glorious. Job trusts in his Redeemer. And in the end, his Redeemer will stand upon the earth. That's the second word I want to highlight. The earth. Job is not looking forward to escaping this nasty planet that had done him such harm. He doesn't want to just waft around in some spiritual dimension. He knows that God's future is here on planet Earth. Earth is not going into the trash heap. No, Christ is going to redeem this suffering world and raise it to new life. So on Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead, and what he did was give us a picture of resurrection life. When we see Christ walking around at the end of the Gospels after his resurrection, he was showing what the future is. What's the future? He went for country walks, didn't he? He went fishing. He cooked breakfast on the beach. And he ate many, many meals. Resurrection life will be very earthy life. Because the future is here on a redeemed planet Earth. So redeem, Redeemer, Earth. The next word I want to highlight is the word flesh. Job's skin would be destroyed, he says, but in his flesh he will see God, I and not another. So Job knew that his skin would perish, but that he would also be raised bodily, flesh and all. Think about the resurrection. Sunday morning, the tomb was empty. Jesus didn't just leave a corpse down in the tomb, and then he rose up as a ghost. No, like a seed, that thing that was planted, that body, is raised to new and better and more glorious life. So if you if you plant a seed down in the garden, uh, and then six months later you ask, where's the seed gone? It's not as though that there's still a seed down there. It's that it's it's raised up again into this glorious plant. Uh Jesus' resurrection body was like that. Raised, that same body that went into the tomb is raised up new. And that's the pattern for our resurrection as well. In the flesh we will see God's. It's an amazing thought, isn't it? He says, These eyes will see God's. These eyes, these eyes. Resurrected new, passed through death, but these eyes will see God's. These vocal cords will sing the new song when we see Jesus. These hands will cling to him. These ones. Passed through death, restored, redeemed, resurrected. Our bodies are incredible things, aren't they? They have an immortal and eternal future. In my flesh I will see God. Sometimes people talk about the future hope in such wishy-washy terms. People are often asking, you know, will I be able to recognize other people in the new creation? I think people can only ask those sorts of questions if they've got a very divorced, anti-physical idea of the future. The future will be one of country walks and fishing and barbecues on the beach and that sort of thing, you know. And we will see God in the flesh. And that's that's the last word. See. The fourth word I want to highlight. Job will see God. He's endured terrible sufferings, Job, and he has never known why. We as the reader get a glimpse into heaven. We know what's going on. Job never does, but one day Job will see God, and it will all make sense. One day. One day all God's ways will be transparent to Job and to us. And we will happily look upon beauty himself. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another. How my heart yearns within me. That's what sustains Job in the midst of suffering, resurrection hope. Let's just fast forward to the end of the book and just see how this hope plays out. His three friends have some more goes at tormenting him. From chapter 32, Elihu, who's a good a good friend, a good comforter, he has some interesting things to say. The Lord shows up, uh steals the show in chapters uh 38 to 41 and gives Job a heck of a lot of perspective. And then in chapter 42, verse 1. Chapter 42, verse 1. Then Job replied to the Lord, I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, Listen now, and I will speak, I will question you, and you shall answer me. My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Very interesting. Job never gets an explanation for his suffering. What he gets is an experience of the Lord, and then an experience of resurrection. That's very interesting as to how how we cope with suffering. He never gets a reason why. He never gets that question answered. But he gets an experience of the Lord in his suffering, and then he gets a resurrection experience. Much more to be said on that. But let's let's let's cut to the happily ever after of verse 10. After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again, and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, he had seven thousand at the beginning, remember? Six thousand camels, he had three thousand at the beginning. He used to have five hundred yoke of oxen, now he's got a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters, just like at the start. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Ketziah, and the third Karenhapuch. Nowhere in all the land were they found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this Job lived a hundred and forty years, sort of twice seventy, twice the span of life that's that's given in Psalm 90. He saw his children and their children to the fourth generation, and so he died, old and full of years. Job is a book that uh began with a man in a wooded place in the east. And though Satan, through through Satan, paradise was lost. But here at the end, paradise is more than regained, more than regained. He has twice as much as before. And Job's story really is the story of humanity. We lost paradise at the beginning. We live now in a veil of tears, but through the resurrection of Christ, we are headed to a future far greater, even than Eden. We are headed towards prosperity, says verse 10, and uh feasting and comfort and consolation. We are headed towards riches and blessing and fruitfulness and beauty and fullness of life. This happy ending in Job is not a fairy tale. It is the certain future hope guaranteed by the resurrection. Our redeemer lives, and he redeems even his own death. He redeems even daisides. And if he can redeem even deaside, he can redeem our suffering. He will redeem our bodies, our wounds, our circumstances, our sufferings, even the whole universe. Easter Sunday guarantees it. Which means there is no senseless suffering. There is no senseless suffering. We might not always know why we suffer, but we can know there is no senseless suffering. Whatever we are facing, whatever wounds we are enduring, Christ will redeem them. There's nothing a resurrection won't fix. Think now of some of the suffering you're going through. I don't know how, and and you probably won't know how either, but Christ will redeem it. You know, on Good Friday, people would have watched the Messiah murdered. And they may have gone home that night and thought that there is no way anything good could ever happen from that. How could anything the Messiah is dead? How could anything good happen from that? As a matter of fact, the greatest good came from just that evil. And Easter, that weekend, that's not just an example of redemption, it is the engine of redemption. It is the pattern, it is the prototype, it is the power of redemption. All things get passed through it and come out the other side on that last day, redeemed. If we put our hand into Christ's hand, everything is redeemed. If we trust in him, if we are the thread attached to his needle, all suffering will be redeemed. There's nothing the resurrection won't fix. And not just fix. Like Job, we will receive a double portion. At the end of the second Lord of the Rings film, The Two Towers, Sam Wyes Ganji proves to be a good comforter of his friend Frodo. When Frodo is tempted to buckle under the suffering of this world, Sam says this. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. There's nothing the resurrection won't fix. Let's pray. And that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes. I am not another. How my heart yearns within me. Father, give us the strength, the courage, and the faith to look to Jesus, our Redeemer, our risen Lord, to know Him and His resurrection power, that we might gain comfort in all our sufferings, knowing that He will redeem them all. Give us strength and courage, and help us to encourage one another with true words of gospel comfort as we look to Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.