Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas

NT Framework - A Necessary Fact

• Jeremy Thomas • Season 6 • Episode 168

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Belief without a factual basis is nothing but fantasy, and we don't live in a fantasy world.

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01:

One of the things I like to do is look at the unbelieving responses to the resurrection. As well as the life, the birth. We've done all that. We've gone each time and kind of just get an idea for how they responded to it. Usually it's something like rejection, right? The typical response was rejection. So here's Matthew 28, 11 through 15. After the, you can see the previous part of the chapters talking about the resurrection. Verse 11. Now, while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city. Now, this do you remember the guard? The guard was okay, you had the you had the crucifixion, you had the body taken off by request of Joseph of Arimathea, and it was placed in a rich man's tomb, right? The next day, some Jews said to Pilate, Hey, there he predicted that he's going to rise again, so let can you put a guard a Roman guard down there at the tomb to ensure that this doesn't happen? And, you know, then this they say this last deception will be worse than the first. You know, and everybody will go after him and believe in him and all of this. Okay, so and and Pilate granted the request. He put Roman soldiers. Are these guys trained? I mean, is it difficult to guard a tomb from tomb robbers if you are a Roman soldier? You know, a group of Romans? Nope, no problem at all, right? I mean, this should not be an issue. I mean, first of all, if you're a tomb raider, if you're you know a tomb raider, let's say, ha ha ha ha, um, are you gonna do it if you see a bunch of Roman guards there? I mean, is it that important to you? No, you're probably gonna be like, well, we're not gonna threaten our lives over stealing the deck. We'll wait till they're gone and do it later. You know, I mean, see, so there's a lot of issues that go on here, and you want to be attuned to those in the text. So some of the guard came into the city and they reported to the chief priests all that had happened. So they don't go to their superior Roman officers, they go to the chief priest, they go to the Jewish chief priests, some of the Sadducees, and they say, Hey, look, I mean, the body's not there. I mean, the tomb, you know, the stone is rolled away. Like, how it was not easy to move these stones. You could move them into place easily because all you gotta do is get on one end and push it. But once it went into position, you can't push it from the other direction because there's a stone that blocks that side. That's what made it very difficult to remove the stone because you had to push on the front of the rock and get enough force this way to roll it back. And that's a lot more difficult than just pushing the stone. So, how did this happen? You see, so they go to the chief priest and they tell him what happened. Uh, I mean, the body's not there. When they had assembled with the elders, so the chief priest grabbed the other elders, members of the Sanhedrin, and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers. In other words, they did what? Paid him off. They bribed them. They bribed them. And they said, You are to say this. Okay, this is what you're gonna say, because they were afraid to go to their commanding officers, because if they failed on their duty, what's gonna happen to them? Well, they're gonna be executed, and it's not gonna be happy. So you are to say, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And if this should come to the governor's ears, guess what? We will win him over and we will keep you out of trouble. In other words, we have we're powerful. They were. The Jews were very influential, even among Pilate. You can see Pilate was working with them in the in the um in all the discussions leading up to the crucifixion. In fact, he kind of didn't want to even have him crucified, right? He really wanted to release him. He says, Well, he hasn't done anything wrong. I'll give you him or Barabbas, a known criminal. We will give us Barabbas, crucify this Jesus, right? So they were they were intent on having Jesus crucified, and um, they were able to convince Pilate to go along with it. And you can see their exertion of influence on the Roman rulers at this time, and here's another place where you see it. If this comes to the governor's ears, we'll win him over and we'll keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and they did as they had been instructed, and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and it is to this day. Now, it's a very unlikely story. I mean, anybody who thinks about it for five seconds realizes this is a very unlikely story. You crept through all these Roman soldiers, moved this giant stone, took this body, left the burial cloth, folded up by the what, the face cloth, and it's a dumb story. And I think it's there for that point. That's one of the reasons this is in the text, is to remind us that this is a dumb explanation. Now, that's the fact of the resurrection. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15. Does it really matter that he do we have to believe this? You know, the liberals say it's very difficult, you know, with modern canons of historicity to it to accept you know the resurrection. We can't accept that. Couldn't have happened. I mean, you do think about the resurrection, you think it's a serious thing, right? I mean, gosh, you know, the eye, the eye is amazing. What uh what what would happen to your eye if it you know didn't have any blood vascular blood supply, no oxygen supply for let's just say three days and three nights in a tomb, you know? Um I mean, do you think that eye is gonna see again? I mean uh how about all your muscles? How about all your bones? Your heart, your lungs. I mean, are these things gonna come back? I mean, like, no, if they haven't received adequate nutrients and oxygen, you know, as the Jews said, on the fourth day you're already stinking. So it's this is this is a it's a huge thing, right? Resurrection to transform all these things that are corrupting into life again and and some life on a different level that cannot cannot die again. So Paul kind of thought it was important 15, verse 1, I make known to you, brethren, the gospel. Is the gospel important? 100%. Paul says in Galatians 1 that I'm amazed that you're so quickly deserting the God of grace for another gospel. If any man preaches to you another gospel other than what I preach you, that man is to be accursed, right? So the gospel's central. And Paul is about to make it known. He says, which I preached to you when he was there at Corinth, in which also you you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are being saved, present tense. In other words, we keep being saved as long as we are believing in the death and resurrection, which he'll discuss here, the gospel. And saved from what? Difficulties. See, people don't understand, they think that you just believe the gospel one time and you know, yeah, at that point you get eternal life and you're justified, right? But do we need to keep believing it for salvation from our difficult circumstances and the power of sin in our lives? Of course we do. In fact, um, I was talking to one of my friends at the seminary yesterday, Dave Olander, and he says, he said, What are you teaching tomorrow? I said, On the resurrection. He said, Oh, you should teach about the power of resurrection in the Christian life. I was like, Well, we're going to get to that. We got three or four weeks to do all this. But it's a very good point because Paul even prays for this in Ephesians chapter 1, 18 through 23, where he prays that we may know the power of his resurrection. Why do we need to know that power? Because that's the same power that's toward us in our Christian life to help us every day.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spoke and Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.