SPEAKER_01: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, choir and orchestra, for an incredible time this morning of worship.
SPEAKER_00: He is risen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys this morning for leading us in worship and creating that celebrative environment.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 24 and let's look at this special day of Jesus risen.
SPEAKER_00: As you know, we have been in a study from Christmas to Easter of the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And here in the Luke version of the resurrection, we have one of the most important questions that has ever been asked, and it is a question that is still relevant today.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you look for the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we look for the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_00: There are so many places that we look for answers in so many areas of life.
SPEAKER_00: But are we looking for those answers that are presented and empowered by the resurrected Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: And so here you see this unfold, the setting in which they come to the tomb to look at Jesus, what they expect, dead body.
SPEAKER_00: And here they come with all of the emotions and the thoughts that his followers would have after watching the gruesome events we talked about last week on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And they are presented with this question Why do you look for the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_00: Start reading with me here in Luke chapter 23, beginning in verse 50.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we saw Jesus on the cross, and then we saw him voluntarily give up his life for our sins to pay the price for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Now, after he has died on the cross and given his life there for us, that's where the story picks up.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin.
SPEAKER_00: Now you will remember the Sanhedrin were part of the Jewish religious leaders who were so offended by Jesus that they were a part of this fake trial where they put him on trial.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible makes it clear that this man, Joseph, was a good man, and he had not agreed with their plan and action.
SPEAKER_00: He was from Arimathea, a Judean town, and was looking forward to the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: So we know he's a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus' body.
SPEAKER_00: Taking it down, he wrapped it in fine linen and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock where no one had ever been placed.
SPEAKER_00: It was preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
SPEAKER_00: The women who had come with him from Galilee followed along and observed the tomb and how his body was placed.
SPEAKER_00: Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes, and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as you know, if you've studied this at all, you understand that there are Jewish laws in place that they are following as the Jewish people in Jerusalem at this time.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is Jesus is on the cross on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: He dies on Friday, Saturday is the Sabbath, and there were pretty significant restrictions about what they could do and could not do on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Part of that was they couldn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Another part of that was they weren't allowed to be in contact with a dead body at that time.
SPEAKER_00: There was a whole ceremony in which you had to prepare a body, and then it had you had to be cleansed and all this kind of stuff going on.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus died on Friday, there was very little time to prepare his body properly and fully before the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: And so what the Bible tells us is this man, Joseph of Arimathea, came and asked for his body.
SPEAKER_00: They took him from the place where he had been crucified and he had died, and they took him to this tomb, which is pretty typical in that time.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem is very much like walking around, you know, northwest Arkansas or somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: There's it's all up and down like this.
SPEAKER_00: There's mountains and rock and all this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And they would go into places and they would hew into the into the rock side where there are caves.
SPEAKER_00: They would they would uh make them deeper, that kind of thing, and they would prepare those for burial tombs.
SPEAKER_00: And so this apparently was a family type of uh of cave that was a burial place that he would that that Joseph eventually would bury his family in.
SPEAKER_00: But nobody had been in there.
SPEAKER_00: It was a brand new tomb, no body had been laid in there, and so in honoring the person of Jesus as a follower of Jesus, he asked for his body and he placed him there.
SPEAKER_00: Mary and the other women who normally would be a part of preparing Jesus' body could not get all of that done.
SPEAKER_00: So, as the Bible says, they followed to the tomb, they watched his dead body be laid there, they saw what was happening, they understood where he was, they went home to prepare themselves to come back later after the Sabbath on Sunday to finish preparing his body for its completion of burial.
SPEAKER_00: We know from the other gospels that in that interim after Jesus was laid in that tomb, that uh they put a the government put a stone in front of the entrance of that tomb.
SPEAKER_00: It was sealed, and then they put a Roman guard in front of it because they finally had gotten Jesus dead and buried and killed, and they did not want to deal with this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: They remembered that Jesus had made a prophecy that he would be raised from the dead, and they didn't believe in the resurrection, they didn't believe he was the Son of God, and they didn't want anybody stealing his body and trumping up some kind of argument that somehow he was raised from the dead or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: So they put a guard in front of the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: There is no question that Jesus died, and that's important for us to understand, because the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: To pay the price for sin, there had to be a death.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins or payment of sins.
SPEAKER_00: From the very beginning of time in the Garden of Eden, God had taught them that sin, death follows sin, and it is God's judgment for sin, and he began to make the promise of a Savior all throughout Scripture, and Jesus accomplishes that.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at some of those in this journey.
SPEAKER_00: And so here you have Jesus who has died for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And it's important to start there that we understand that Jesus did that.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who try to say that Jesus just somehow swooned on the cross or passed out or went into a coma and somehow he, after all this bleeding and beating and everything else, that he, you know, he came back to himself or he came out of his coma or some kind of a weird deal.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who say, no, that Jesus didn't really die.
SPEAKER_00: They came in and they took his body and they went and hit it and all that kind of stuff, all that kind of theory, but it's important for us to understand that Jesus died for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: He paid the price for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: All of our sins, whatever it is that you have done, whatever might be coming in your life, it is important for us to know that Jesus died to pay the price for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And now you have this expectation of his followers.
SPEAKER_00: What are they going to do since Jesus has now died?
SPEAKER_00: We talked about on Palm Sunday, what we referred to as Palm Sunday, how Jesus went in, and all the people in Jerusalem felt like he was coming as a political Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He was going to reinvigorate the throne of David, throw off Roman rule, and they would be the nation of Israel again.
SPEAKER_00: And they did not understand the spiritual nature of his work, that he had come not for political revolution, but he had come for salvation and the resolution of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so now they're wondering, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: They go back and they wait on the Sabbath, as the Bible says here.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says on in Luke chapter 24, verse 1, on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the tomb, and look how it says they came to the tomb, bringing the spices that they had prepared.
SPEAKER_00: They expected Jesus' body to still be in the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: They expected him to still be dead.
SPEAKER_00: They had seen him die, and they were overcome with grief of the death of Jesus, and their sole picture of worshiping him, of who he was as the Savior, was that they were coming to honor his dead body with a full preparation for his burial.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means when it says they came bringing the spices that they prepared.
SPEAKER_00: They had been preparing them since Friday, waiting on this moment when they could come and deal with his body.
SPEAKER_00: When they got there, the Bible says in verse 2, they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, and they went into the tomb, but did not find the body of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothes.
SPEAKER_00: So the women were terrified and bowed down to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And here is our question.
SPEAKER_00: These angels ask them, Why are you looking for the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_00: He is not here, but he has been resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: And then they talk to them and say, Do you not remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and rise on the third day?
SPEAKER_00: And they remembered his words.
SPEAKER_00: You see, here's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: They come and they are faced with this question: why are you looking for a living Savior in the graves amongst the dead?
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you that question today.
SPEAKER_00: Because I still think it is a relevant question for us today.
SPEAKER_00: How do you look for Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see a risen Savior?
SPEAKER_00: When you face these questions and moments in your life, are you asking, what does a risen Savior say about this?
SPEAKER_00: When you face a struggle, do you come asking for the experiences that you've had in life or the things that you're afraid of?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you come into that moment believing that Jesus has risen from the dead?
SPEAKER_00: That question literally defines how we chart the course of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Am I living in light of a resurrected Savior?
SPEAKER_00: Do I have the hope of eternity because I believe Jesus has risen from the dead and conquered death and sin, or am I looking at life in a human, practical manner?
SPEAKER_00: You see, when we miss the risen Savior, there are reasons that we miss the risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's interesting here, they come to the tomb expecting Jesus to be dead.
SPEAKER_00: They are coming not with worship and praise expecting a risen Savior, but they are coming expecting to anoint his body with burial spices because his body is going to stay in the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And many times, even if we have joined a church or professed our faith, when we face circumstances that seem to be overwhelming, or if we are in a groove in life and things seem to be going well, sometimes we just kind of run with what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: We put it in neutral and we coast down the hill and we allow things to go instead of making decisions based on a belief in a resurrected Savior.
SPEAKER_00: We're limited by our experience and our expectations.
SPEAKER_00: We function so much by experience.
SPEAKER_00: This has happened to me before, so it will happen again.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we should be looking beyond what we know or think has happened in the past and look to where, what is Jesus going to do in this moment?
SPEAKER_00: But it's a learning experience.
SPEAKER_00: We're limited by experiences.
SPEAKER_00: This weekend I had the chance to be in Little Rock and play Granddad with Killian, our grandson.
SPEAKER_00: And he's doing his first Easter egg hunts.
SPEAKER_00: He's about a year and a half old, and he's old enough to understand that.
SPEAKER_00: The first time he went and did the Easter egg deal, he didn't really understand what we were doing, and you had to tuck him over and find an egg and do whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Well, where's the fun in this?
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's go play the game where Bomber, that's my granddad name, throws me up in the air and we're laughing and do, you know, because he's had that experience.
SPEAKER_00: But all of a sudden, when we got him to pay attention to an egg and he broke it open and he figured out there was a little graham crackers that you eat when you're a year and a half old, he's like, this is fun.
SPEAKER_00: I have a good experience.
SPEAKER_00: I've discovered something new.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's take all the Easter eggs and let's go to the other kids' baskets and take their Easter eggs.
SPEAKER_00: And let's go find all the Easter eggs we can find because now I have the experience of we break these jokers open, and there's my graham crackers that I love in there.
SPEAKER_00: Or even better, there's those little goldfish.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is an experience.
SPEAKER_00: And so now he thinks everything that is round that you find breaks open and has goldfish or graham crackers in it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's his experience.
SPEAKER_00: That's his experience.
SPEAKER_00: And we grow and mature through life from those kinds of experiences to other kinds of experiences.
SPEAKER_00: If I do this, people like me.
SPEAKER_00: If I do this, this is successful.
SPEAKER_00: If I work this way, it seems to work okay.
SPEAKER_00: If I tell this little white lie, then it seems like people don't really know who I am and what I do, and I can make this look better.
SPEAKER_00: If I work like this, if I do like this, this experience defines for me that this is how life works.
SPEAKER_00: But is experience the best way to approach the questions of life?
SPEAKER_00: Now there's nothing wrong with experience, and it's important to learn wisdom from that, but we live in a culture today where people say things like this.
SPEAKER_00: This is my truth.
SPEAKER_00: This is the truth that I live.
SPEAKER_00: You live your truth, and I'll live my truth.
SPEAKER_00: Where does that come from?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it comes from learning by experience and depending on experiences to define wisdom and truth for us.
SPEAKER_00: And experiences are not always a good definition of truth.
SPEAKER_00: I remember the first time Janet and I encountered, as we were young marriage, raising our kids, and we encountered an experience like this.
SPEAKER_00: In our neighborhood, there was a school, there was a school bus that would come in and pick up elementary school-age kids in our neighborhood, and there actually happened to be a bus stop right at our house because we lived on the corner, and there was a stop sign there, and they would drop kids off and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: One day it was a rainy, ugly day, kind of like last night.
SPEAKER_00: It was cold and windy, it was rainy, and the bus came by and they dropped off kids, and there was this little second grader, young second grader, and there was no mom or dad to pick them up.
SPEAKER_00: And so their experience with wind and rain is that it's wet and cold, and I don't want to stand in it.
SPEAKER_00: And so they just came and knocked on our door.
SPEAKER_00: We had never met this child.
SPEAKER_00: We'd, to our recognition, we'd never seen this child before.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't know their family, we didn't know who they were, and this child certainly didn't know us.
SPEAKER_00: But the child just knocks on the door.
SPEAKER_00: And so we go to the door, and I happen to be home that day, and we open the door, and the child says, Hey, my mom's not here.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just stay here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, sure.
SPEAKER_00: Don't stand out in the rain and cold.
SPEAKER_00: But as we started trying to take care of that little one, and we started trying to find out who's your mom and where's your mom and how can we call your mom?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how to contact your mom?
SPEAKER_00: It dawned on us that is really scary.
SPEAKER_00: That's really dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that mom didn't intend it that way, and it was one of those deals where you get caught in traffic and all that, but here's the second greater, and their experiences adults take care of us, so we'll just go and knock on the door, and these are adults, and they'll take care of us.
SPEAKER_00: They were living their truth.
SPEAKER_00: But are they looking?
SPEAKER_00: Was that child looking for a question and an answer among the living or the dead?
SPEAKER_00: Was that a good way to approach that?
SPEAKER_00: Is that always going to turn out well?
SPEAKER_00: Is that always gonna endure to their benefit?
SPEAKER_00: But that was an experience of that child, and you walk through and you have experiences like that, and everything goes okay and there's no tragedy, you just begin to build a body of definition of life where you think this is how life works.
SPEAKER_00: And we get that way in our 30s and 40s and 50s.
SPEAKER_00: And we have accumulated these experiences, and then their experience, people didn't come back from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Or the few people that they had actually seen be resurrected from the dead, Jesus was the one who raised them from the dead, and Jesus is not here anymore, so he cannot raise them from the dead because he is not alive, and so our experience with death and life is that Jesus is dead.
SPEAKER_00: And it's an incredible moment-in-life picture from how experiences can make us look for answers among the dead.
SPEAKER_00: The place where there is no answer or hope.
SPEAKER_00: Their expectations are to find Jesus' body dead.
SPEAKER_00: When they get there, they expect the stone that is there to be still be there.
SPEAKER_00: They are shocked that there are not Roman guards, they are surprised that the stone has been rolled away.
SPEAKER_00: They are so shocked, their expectations have been rocked.
SPEAKER_00: They go into the tomb to see what has happened because it does not match up with what they expect to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it still doesn't trigger in their minds.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when Jesus told us he was going to be raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: They are driven by their expectations and their experiences.
SPEAKER_00: And we live in a world where we are making decisions based on our expectations and our experiences.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of living in a world where we are pursuing the answers from the living Christ, from the risen Jesus, where we are looking for life and hope from a Jesus that we have expected to be raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we are expecting things to go the way they're supposed to go, the way practical things go, the way our experiences have told us things go.
SPEAKER_00: People live in all kinds of oblivion because things haven't crashed yet.
SPEAKER_00: Or we live down and struggling because we feel like everything goes wrong by our experiences and our expectations instead of looking to the risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the resurrection means for us.
SPEAKER_00: We should be living our lives that every promise written in Scripture is empowered by the blood of Jesus and is imbued with the resurrection power of life because Jesus made these promises.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrected Jesus accomplishes these promises and he makes them work.
SPEAKER_00: We should come and not enter a graveyard with burial spices, expecting a loss, expecting a death, expecting no hope.
SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't even live with such a doubting faith that we believe in Jesus, but we still come expecting it not to go the way we think.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, here's what Jesus' resurrection should mean to us in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: The reality of his resurrection should cause us to trust, first of all, in what he promised.
SPEAKER_00: The very first thing that happens is these angels gently rebuke them and they say, don't you remember what he told you?
SPEAKER_00: Last week we talked about how Jesus went intentionally and purposefully to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we looked at Multiple scriptures where Jesus took his followers aside and he said, Listen to me, I am going to go to Jerusalem and they're going to try me and they're going to put me in jail and they're going to nail me onto the cross, and the third day I am going to rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the trial, they accused him of blasphemy when he said he would raise himself from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they have forgotten that promise.
SPEAKER_00: So we understand the angels are reminding them of exactly the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man must be betrayed in the hands of sinful men.
SPEAKER_00: He must be crucified, and he will rise again on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: Are you living according to the promises of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are you searching for ways to do things because this is how the world tells you to do it, or this is what your expectations tell you should happen, or this is what your experiences have been, or are you coming to the Word of God, taking the promise of Jesus, and it becomes the filter at which you look at life and you say, Jesus has risen from the dead, He has resurrection power, and I'm going to step out in faith in this moment based on what Jesus has promised.
SPEAKER_00: Are you sharing your faith?
SPEAKER_00: Because you believe that Jesus said the gospel is the power of God into salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And when you share Jesus with someone, you believe that people are going to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Are you turning to God's word every morning and having a quiet time where you are spending time in the Word of God so that the Word of God comes into your mind and it shapes how you think and how you see and it impacts your heart and it stirs your faith?
SPEAKER_00: And you go out tomorrow morning asking, What is Jesus going to do today?
SPEAKER_00: Because he is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_00: When you face a struggle, have you gone to the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Have you simply showed up with burial spices because you think life never changes?
SPEAKER_00: Things don't change, people don't change, things never go right with me.
SPEAKER_00: Or do you take the word of God and you change your perspective of life?
SPEAKER_00: Do you invest the word of God daily in your life so it shapes how you look at every circumstance?
SPEAKER_00: Do you walk through life believing what it says in Romans 8 that all things work together for good to those who love God according to his purpose?
SPEAKER_00: Because you have a risen Savior, do you look at life the way the Bible says, yet in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us?
SPEAKER_00: There's an incredible promise at the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 when it's explaining the power of the resurrection, and he says, because Jesus has been resurrected, because he has conquered death and sin, because when we are saved, we will be transformed and walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Never get tired doing good.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we serve a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is alive today.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus promised to use us, Jesus promised to work, he promised to answer prayer.
SPEAKER_00: As we saw two weeks ago, he promised to use you to do greater works in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did everything he could do to help them understand.
SPEAKER_00: I have promised you for the future.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they were not clinging to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So they went looking for the living among the dead.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you, church family, get in the word, stay in the word.
SPEAKER_00: Do not ever walk away from the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God gives us the promise and the perspective to understand that we serve a risen Savior and He is alive, and He will accomplish for you and in you and through you what He promised.
SPEAKER_00: Go looking for the living Savior, not the dead.
SPEAKER_00: His resurrection, it should cause us to trust Him and walk with Him because we see who He is.
SPEAKER_00: He's a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what the Bible says very clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you looking for the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_00: He is not here.
SPEAKER_00: He has been resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: It should change our life that we serve a resurrected Savior.
SPEAKER_00: It should change our life that the Jesus that is in us and through us is the one who conquered death and sin.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever we're facing in life, the fact that Jesus conquered death ought to change our perspective.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul writes to his followers and he's explaining to them, the Holy Spirit has told me, church, that's supporting our ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to know how bad things were.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, listen, we were here in this place and it was so awful, and we had been arrested.
SPEAKER_00: It was so terrible.
SPEAKER_00: We knew that we were going to die.
SPEAKER_00: They'd put us in jail, they were going to stone us, and we knew we were dead.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what, church family?
SPEAKER_00: That's okay because we know we serve the one who conquered death and sin.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever he was facing did not matter because Jesus was alive.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, listen, if they kill us for preaching the gospel, hey man, then my next breath's in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And if they don't, then I'm preaching to the prisoners.
SPEAKER_00: I've done it before and seen revival break out in a prison.
SPEAKER_00: If God shakes the walls and lets us out, we've done that too, and we'll just go share more and plant another church.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever happens, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: But something good is going to happen because Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_00: Man, we should live with that kind of passion and excitement.
SPEAKER_00: We should live with an understanding.
SPEAKER_00: I serve a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Bring it on.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what happens, Jesus has conquered death and sin.
SPEAKER_00: It is incredible to see the faith of our people.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I wish everyone would have the opportunity to do, and many of you have done this.
SPEAKER_00: You go visit someone in the hospital, and they have gotten a bad report.
SPEAKER_00: You go into one room, and it feels like you're looking for the living among those who have already died or given up.
SPEAKER_00: But then you walk into another room with one of our precious folks that walks with Jesus and believes He is alive.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you walk in there and what's happening?
SPEAKER_00: They're witnessing to the nurses and the doctors.
SPEAKER_00: They are singing hymns.
SPEAKER_00: You walk in there and you are thinking, What am I going to say with them with all of their news?
SPEAKER_00: And they start telling you about how good God is, and they start telling you they've been reading about heaven, and you walk out of there and you think, shame on me, because I have been looking for the living among the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And it is time once again I look to a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: It is incredible to see how Christians who are attached to the person of Jesus change the very perspective of life because they know Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_00: He is not in that grave.
SPEAKER_00: He is alive.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is that you're facing in life, you serve a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And he is with you today.
SPEAKER_00: And every promise he has made is activated with his resurrected life and power.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we should trust and walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It should shape how we define every question in life because we know what he's promised.
SPEAKER_00: We know who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, he reveals himself.
SPEAKER_00: He reveals himself.
SPEAKER_00: If you read through this gospel and the others, what you now enter into is a time and a series of events where the resurrected Jesus reveals himself again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: He reveals himself to Mary, who is there by herself.
SPEAKER_00: He reveals himself to two men who are walking, they talk about on the road to Emmaus, and Jesus shows up there, and they bring their expectations later on here in this chapter, beginning in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: And they're saying, Jesus this and Jesus died, and Jesus said all this, and they don't even recognize it's him until he shows and reveals himself to them.
SPEAKER_00: You have, he shows up with the disciples and he reveals himself to them, and one of the disciples named Thomas is not there.
SPEAKER_00: And he refuses to believe that Jesus is alive because he is building off of his experiences and his expectations.
SPEAKER_00: And it does not matter what someone has told him, it does not matter what he's heard from somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: He is clinging to his own expectations and experiences.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he is there meeting with those disciples, and Jesus shows up and he reveals himself to Thomas and he says, Here, put your fingers in the wrist hole.
SPEAKER_00: Here, put your fist where they put the spear in my side.
SPEAKER_00: And he reveals himself to Thomas.
SPEAKER_00: He reveals himself through the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: Before that, before he attends to heaven, he reveals himself and he gives the great commission.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 1, he reveals himself to his followers and then he ascends to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And just because he is in a heaven, Jesus is still in the business of revealing himself.
SPEAKER_00: He reveals himself through the power of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: He reveals himself through the power of Peter's preaching, and thousands of people are saved.
SPEAKER_00: There's a man named Saul who is working based on his experiences and his expectations.
SPEAKER_00: People are not raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: These people are crazy.
SPEAKER_00: He was a heretic.
SPEAKER_00: There's no way people are raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And he's out persecuting Christians and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: He receives authority, papers to arrest these heretic Christians from the Pharisees, and he's on his road, on a road to a city called Damascus, and Jesus reveals himself to him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows up on that road and he says, Paul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: Paul, I am alive.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul gives himself to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's a point where a man named Stephen, he is preaching to the crowds, and they are going to stone him as a heretic.
SPEAKER_00: And as they begin to stoning him, Jesus reveals himself to Stephen.
SPEAKER_00: And he calls out to his Savior before he takes him home.
SPEAKER_00: John the apostle is on the Isle of Patmos.
SPEAKER_00: He's given his adult life to preaching the gospel about the Jesus that he knew, the Jesus who revealed himself, the Jesus who was risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And there before the end of his life, he is on this isle prison because he has been preaching Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's been in prison there because he preaches Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_00: He's waiting, most likely, knowing that soon he'll be in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus reveals himself.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows up and he gives him what we call the book of the Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows up with John and He says, John, here I am.
SPEAKER_00: I was once dead and now I am alive.
SPEAKER_00: I am the Alpha and the Omega.
SPEAKER_00: I, Jesus, hold the keys to death and hell.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus showed up in his life and told him that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus showed up in a prison in Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul and some others are singing in prison, and they've been imprisoned for being gospel preachers, and the angels of the Lord shake the doors of the prison and they open all the doors.
SPEAKER_00: And a man who has lost all hope, he knows he's going to be put to death because all of these prisoners are going to leave and he's going to receive the death penalty for failing to keep them in jail.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul calls out and says, Hey, we're still here.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes out and he tells the man about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus reveals himself to that man, and he and his entire family are saved.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, Jesus reveals himself because he is alive.
SPEAKER_00: And he promised to be in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And he promised you what life could look like if you follow him.
SPEAKER_00: And if you come with the questions of your life and you look for Jesus among the living instead of the dead, Jesus will reveal himself to you.
SPEAKER_00: If you will get in the Word of God each morning and you'll spend time with him, Jesus will reveal himself as the risen Savior to you through his word.
SPEAKER_00: When you pray, he will answer you.
SPEAKER_00: He has promised to answer you.
SPEAKER_00: He has promised to answer your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: But you have to come to him and he will reveal himself to you.
SPEAKER_00: Are you searching?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to know if Jesus is real?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has promised to reveal himself.
SPEAKER_00: We have a record ever since his resurrection of time after time after time Jesus shows up in a person's life and he saves them and he answers their questions and he works in their life and he calls them to himself and he saves them for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still revealing himself today.
SPEAKER_00: He is speaking to you.
SPEAKER_00: He is waiting to speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible tells us that he is knocking on the door of your heart in Revelation chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to trust him because he is alive.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: Are you looking for the living among the dead?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you searching for the resurrected Savior?
SPEAKER_00: He has given you his promises.
SPEAKER_00: He has shown you that he is alive and has the power to conquer death and sin and to save you for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And he is ready to reveal himself to you.
SPEAKER_00: You just have to seek him and trust him.
SPEAKER_00: It begins with that first salvation decision when you come to Jesus and you say, Jesus, I believe you are alive.
SPEAKER_00: I know my sin is to be punished, and you died on the cross to pay the price for my sins.
SPEAKER_00: I know, as we read in your word, that tells us you were buried and dead and paid the price for our sins, but I believe that you rose from the dead to conquer death and sin, and I hear your voice, and I know that you are calling to save me, and you give your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to know all the answers, you don't have to know all the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: The pastor where I grew up used to tell us this: you take all of who you are, and you give all of who you are to all you know of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And not only will he save you, but he will reveal himself to you, and he will continue to reveal himself to you, and he will do more with your life than you could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never been saved, I want to invite you to give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you're already saved, I want to encourage you, do not be captive to experiences or to expectations, but you come to the risen Savior through the Word of God and you look for the answer from the living Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to bow your heads as we close this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, I'm going to invite you to come and to give your life to the risen Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is as simple as what we've explained.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have to have a seminary degree or something like that to get saved.
SPEAKER_00: You just need to know you're a sinner, that your sin is going to be punished, that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for your sin, and he rose again to offer you forgiveness and salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, friend, if Jesus loved you so much that he had died for you, and he has so much power of eternity that he rose from the dead, you can give him your life.
SPEAKER_00: You can trust him with your life.
SPEAKER_00: If he died for you, he is certainly not going to hurt you or harm you.
SPEAKER_00: He has a plan and a path and love for you.
SPEAKER_00: And you can take whatever you're going through, whatever question is there, and you can give it to Jesus because if he can conquer death and sin, he can certainly handle what that thing is.
SPEAKER_00: An invitation is an opportunity for us to lead different than we were when we came in.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to ask you if you've been if you've never been saved, come and give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have ministers that are here.
SPEAKER_00: We want to pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: You may be ready today, or you may want to start a conversation and a journey.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is that you need, we're here to help you.
SPEAKER_00: But you respond to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you're already a Christian and you need a church home, you come.
SPEAKER_00: Come join us.
SPEAKER_00: Come walk the journey with us.
SPEAKER_00: Serve with us.
SPEAKER_00: If you want someone to pray with you, you come.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I want you to listen to whatever God has spoken to your heart, and this morning you respond to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you and we thank you and we worship you as the risen Savior, and we come now and ask those who call to your name to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, save them.
SPEAKER_00: It is in your name that we pray, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.