Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Fact of Resurrection
Some people believe things because it makes them feel good, others because it fits their view of the world' but isn't it better to believe something because it is true?
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.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.
SPEAKER_01: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:What underpins moral decision making for you? Is it just the sense of I'm going to do what's right because it's right? Or could it be also that you do what's right because you fear the consequences of doing what is wrong? As Jeremy dives into looking at the resurrection, that second aspect carries a lot of weight. Because without the resurrection, there is no life after this one. And if there is no life after this one, there is no judgment for this life. There are no consequences, positive or negative, for how we live this life. You see, if there's no afterlife, no resurrection from the dead, because Christ wasn't resurrected from the dead, then there are no consequences to living your life in a way that you see fit that you deem is moral. Because what are you going to suffer for it? And yet, if Christ was raised from the dead, and he was, that means that we shall be also. And not only are we motivated to do what's right because God teaches us that it is right, but we are also motivated to do what is right because we will be rewarded for doing so and chastised for not doing so. The fact of the resurrection has an impact upon our lives every single day.
SPEAKER_01:Let's go into the fact of the resurrection. As we do this, remember that the four previous events, at each event you have to understand something in order to be able to accept it. You know, the world doesn't accept the virgin birth, okay? They don't accept the sinless life, you know, and so forth. So you have to accept certain presuppositions. So the virgin birth, which is kind of a big deal, right? A virgin birth. Uh how does that happen? Well, obviously it's miraculous, but it can only be accepted by those who have the biblical categories of God and man, so God can come as man. In other words, what we call the creator-creature distinction. So I've I've drawn this before. In Christianity, there's God and there's his creation. And within creation, there's God and there's man. And these are distinct categories. I don't know. Yeah, that can be seen. So let's put God in the open box because he's infinite, right? No limitations that are imposed on him from outside. He is who he is. And inside creation, uh, you have the man-nature distinction. Now, the idea of a God man, you know, in the virgin birth, can only be accepted if you have these categories clearly delineated in your mind. Uh because if you believe in evolution, well, first of all, there is no God, other than perhaps the universe itself might be labeled as God, as Einstein did. Um, or, but you know, so you can basically X this out. Everything is within this in um in pagan thought, and there's no distinction between man and nature. Man is a part of nature, man is just another animal form in the evolutionary progress, right? Man is just an animal. And so you don't have the distinction between God and man in pagan thought, and so you cannot accept the virgin birth. But we can, because we can understand how God can come as man in the hypostatic union, so that you have the God, man, who is one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's what we learned at the birth, and we developed that a whole lot. In the life, this can only be accepted by those who have a biblical category of revelation. In other words, the idea that God can speak to man in propositional language. He can make propositional statements. You know, people say, well, dogs communicate. Well, yeah, they do in the sense that they understand, they can learn signals. If I say treat to my dog, it knows definitely knows what that means. Because I've said it a hundred times, you know, thousands of times. I know it might know his name, you know, he knows, but he doesn't, he can't. If I say, now, dog, I want you to go out there and get yourself some dog food. Now, that's never going to work. That's a propositional statement. And animals can't do that. They can't rearrange words into new patterns and form propositions. So animals don't have that, but God and man do share that because God created man in his own image to receive language. And the event behind this, where we see God actually speaking from outside of time into time, is Mount Sinai, right? Uh, all the people of two million Jews are at the base of Mount Sinai, and God speaks, and he gives the ten Dabar, the ten words, right? What we call the Ten Commandments. And these these words were heard by all two million people, and they said, Moses, you know, they were afraid. They said, Moses, you go talk to him, you come back and tell us what he said, because this is too much. We're in fear and terror. But the point is that God spoke in the Hebrew language, and if they had had iPhones or Androids, God forbid, um, they could have recorded his actual voice, God's actual voice. See, God can speak from outside of time into time. It's not too difficult a thing. And in the life of the king, the Messiah, the God man, is speaking. Okay. He says, Oh, the only thing I say is what the Father tells me to say, you know, and so forth. So he is actually revealing uh the, and he's the ultimate revelation of who God, according to Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. So that's a presupposition we can under we can accept to understand the life of the king. Then the death, of course, and when we talk about the death and what's happening on the cross, you know, a lot of people say, well, he's just a martyr, he's just dying for his beliefs. No, he's not just a martyr. Uh, or he's just an example. He's laying down his life as an example for his followers to follow. Uh no, what's actually happening on the cross, the core of what's happening, is God's justice is being met in restitution. So the nature of justice is what we have to understand here. What is true justice? There's a lot said in our culture about justice, and most of it's along the lines of social distributive justice. That's a to take people's wealth who earned it and give it to people who didn't. A redistribution of wealth. And this is called social justice. Um, which the Bible does not uh does not recognize this as justice at all. It's it's what's called theft. Um so it's actually the total opposite of justice. But this is so this is a big issue. But restitution is the biblical form of justice. You see it in Lex Talianus, the law of retaliation in the Old Testament, when it would say eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. That's it's the idea that restitution has to be made. If someone takes a life, you know, an innocent life, they murder someone, then capital punishment was uh was the only valid justice, right? Because you can't put a monetary value on a person's life. You're not worth$10 billion. You're worth an infinite amount. You can't, you know, the only thing that can pay for it is a person has to to uh life has to be taken. They have to be capitally executed and so forth. Um so if somebody steals four of your cows in the Old Testament, you know, they had to pay restitution. They had to pay back four cows plus one additional, and a twenty another twenty percent uh because of the loss of the cows that you had and you had trained and had your genes and all that, that added up to be worth more than just four cows. So this is the restitutionary nature of justice, and that's what Christ is doing on the cross, right? There's a restitution that being made. We had stolen life from God by sin, our sin in Adam. And what he did as the last Adam is he came and he paid the penalty for our sin on the cross, and so God's justice was satisfied. And this sets God free to declare anyone righteous who believes in his son. And so that's what's going on with the death. Now we come to the resurrection, and we'll talk some about this. Resurrection is, you think about it, just pause to think about. We talk about resurrection all the time, but think about it, it's a unique claim. Um before we get too far into this unique claim, a resurrection is the transformation of the present mortal body into an immortal state. So we don't know all the details about a resurrection body because we've never been able to take one to the laboratory and dissect it and evaluate it, have we? There's only been one that ever walked in the world among men. And so all we have to go on as far as the nature of the resurrection body is what we find in the text of the Bible, right? But something is different with the physics, something is different with the chemistry, something is different with the biology that goes on, because this is a body that can't die. This is a body that's immortal, it's imperishable. So this is a totally unique claim that someone has indeed resurrected from the grave. No other religion or or leader or founder ever claimed to rise from the dead in an utterly new body. So here are the three leaders of the so-called three main religions, whatever, in the world. I don't really call Christianity religion, but whatever. For the sake of discussion, Moses' body was buried and did not rise. He's considered the founder of Judaism, right? Buddha died as any other man, and so did Muhammad. Indeed, as Dr. Wilbur Smith said, all the millions and millions of Jews, Buddhists, and Mohammedans agree that their founders have never come out out of the dust of the earth in resurrection. All of them are dead, which to me just means they're dead religions. But people follow these devoutly, right? But they don't have a resurrected leader. We have in Christianity one who is risen from the grave and lives forevermore. Who's alive right now, seated at the right hand of the Father on high, awaiting his return and establishment of his kingdom on this earth, where he will bring in peace and righteousness. So this is a totally unique claim that is made. Um by the way, another interesting point here before we press on is that the only, if you want to call it a religion, that ever that began in Jerusalem, the only one is Christianity. Judaism began at the Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula, it didn't begin in Jerusalem. Uh Islam began in Saudi Arabia. And yet all these people are trying to have a claim on Jerusalem, aren't they? But only Christianity actually began in Jerusalem, the very place where our Savior was crucified, and where he rose again. Now the resurrection is not accepted by the liberal wing of the church. The liberal wing of the church is uh the wing of the church that is not not conservative, they're progressive in their ideas, um, and they do not hold to the authority, inspiration, inerrancy of scripture. Okay. And a lot of churches are like this, especially since um the fundamentalist-modernist controversy in the early 1900s. Let's just say from the 19 teens to the 1930s or 40s. Uh most denominations split in this time period, and some remained conservative, orthodox, and others uh went liberal. Okay, so this was known as the modernist fundamentalist controversy in the 20s and 30s, and it's the most, it's perhaps the worst thing that happened in our country. At this time, uh branches of all denominations became liberal in their viewpoints on scripture. After World War II, uh the Methodists were gone, and in the 1970s, the Baptists had divided amongst themselves on the issue, and so they're divided now too. But the Baptists held out the longest. So in all these denominations that you see today, you still have conservative branches, but you really don't know what you're gonna get unless you can find some information before attending. Um you just don't know. But the the liberal branches do not accept the resurrection. Now, on Resurrection Sunday, uh Easter, right, they'll talk about the resurrection. They don't mean the same thing by the words that we mean by the word. In other words, it's a redefinition. This is a part of postmodernism and deconstruction of language. Language is simply a tool in postmodernism to manipulate the masses, to present one's agenda. Um, so they'll use the same words, but they've redefined the words. So it may sound if you go into a liberal church that on Easter Sunday that they're they believe in Jesus' physical resurrection from the body, you know, bodily resurrection from the grave and all that, when they don't even believe it for a moment.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So they may but they may talk about spring and the flowers and new life and things like that. But again, they're not talking about the resurrection, physical, literal bodily resurrection of Jesus. They're just talking about a feeling that's supposed to motivate you. Now, this is a quote from Richard Nieber. He had a brother named Reinhold Nieber. These guys in the 1950s and 60s, if you were in uh most seminaries, you would have to read these two guys. There's probably, they were probably the top in the top five most influential people, these two brothers, during that time period. And so if you went to seminary, you were gonna be reading these guys. And the guys that you're in that are in seminary are gonna be pastors, and so they're gonna go out and they're gonna fill every pew across America and across the world, right? Wherever they may go. Um here's what he here's what he said. He said, the intense analysis of the New Testament produced by the great age of historical investigation has emphasized, among other things, this fact that belief in Jesus as the risen Lord informs every part of the early church's thought. Now, in other words, the early church, did they believe in the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus? Yes, you go through the early church fathers, you go through the earliest writings, of course, and you discover that in fact they held to the risen Lord Jesus Christ. He says, but now anytime you see that, you're like, oh well, something's about to change. All right. But the rise of historical criticism has also made it increasingly difficult for theologians and biblical scholars to accept the New Testament order of thought. Now, I just really don't like the way these guys write, but it's it's meant to be written this way, so you just kind of read past it. What does he mean, though, the New Testament order of thought? What does he mean that this has become more and more difficult for scholars and theologians to accept the New Testament order of thought? Well, he's talking about the biblical framework of events that are described in the New Testament. You know, things like the virgin birth, the sinless life of the Lord Jesus Christ, right, his restitutionary death on the cross, his ascension, and the resurrection, all these things. Okay, we there he's saying this this historical criticism has made it increasingly difficult to accept these events. In other words, we don't believe them. Now, why? What is it about historical criticism? What is he talking about here? Well, he's talking about the fact that what we discovered during the period of historical investigation is mostly the rise of scientism. The idea that science is truth. And so we have biological truth, chemical truth, physics truth, right? We have all these anthropological truths, these and these all form the standard by which we judge whether something can happen or not. Now, how many people have you seen virgin born? How many people have you seen rise from the dead? Well, science says these things can't happen, therefore, these things can't happen, and therefore the Bible, which describes these things as happening, can't be correct. So, what they've done is they've made a new standard for what is truth. And basically it's scientism, the worship of science. And the Bible has to be judged or measured against these standards. So, in other words, the Bible is no longer the truth. We subject the Bible to these other historically now discovered truths and discover that the Bible is in fact in error. And so it's making it very difficult, he says, for us to accept the New Testament order of thought. The things that Jesus did, his birth, his life, his death, all these things, and the resurrection, of course. Uh, here's another one by Richard. They, the liberals, have felt obligated to remove the resurrection of Jesus from its central position and to place it on the periphery of Christian teaching and proclamation, because the primitive resurrection of faith conflicts disastrously with modern canons of historicity. Again, a canon is a standard, right? We talk about the canon of scripture, meaning what what books are actually inspired by God, right? Uh but there's other canons, canons of law, and he's talking here of canons of historicity. It's a measurement, a gauge by which you judge or evaluate whether something is true or not. And the and notice how he deprecates that primitive idea about resurrection faith. You hear the the they're talking down at you if you believe in it, right? That's a primitive belief. That's that's for people who are ignorant and super you know superstitious. You know, that's that was the primitive ideas. We've moved past that now. See, we're in the age of the modern modernism, and we know better. We know more. We know, in fact, we know more than Jesus and the apostles. We're so smart. Um so you can see how it's it's a deprecate, they're deprecating you if you still hold to this primitive resurrection faith. Um, which again they say disastrously conflicts with modern canons of historicity, by which they mean scientism, you know, biology, physics, and so forth. Um so what they've done then, of course, is they've felt obligated to remove the resurrection from its central position. I mean, is is the resurrection central to Christianity? I mean, you know, we're gonna look at some texts that basically say if we don't have this, we don't have nothing. This is kind of the center of the whole thing. So let's. Let's do a little bit of that. We're saying the resurrection, of course, is central to Christianity. Liberals claim that Christianity is the source of the resurrection. What do they mean by that? Christianity is the source of resurrection. They mean that early Christians had such a wonderful experience with Jesus that they invented the idea of the resurrection. Somehow he still lived in them or something. They kind of carry that experience with them. But it's not, they didn't, there was no real resurrection. It's just the idea. This was their spin on the events that took place. That's the liberal view. That Christianity created the idea of the resurrection because these Hebrews had these experiences. Okay, these apostles. Now, Orthodoxy's claim is that no, the resurrection is the source of Christianity. It's exactly the opposite. That we wouldn't have a Christianity if there wasn't a resurrection. And so let's look at what the Bible says, right? That's what we should always be concerned with. Oh, here's a quote from Charles Clough to this that I meant to show. All such attempts to remove the resurrection of Jesus from its central position reverse the true cause-effect of the church's origin. These unbelieving attempts try to make the church the originator of the primitive resurrection faith instead of making the resurrection the originating cause of the church. I mean, it's the resurrected Lord, right? I mean, we know the sequence of events. There was the resurrection, he spends 40 days teaching them about the kingdom of God, and then in Acts 1 you have the ascension, and then 10 days later, on the day of Pentecost, he sends forth the Spirit. So what is the origin of the church? It's the resurrected Christ who sent forth his spirit on the day of Pentecost. It's not the other way around. It's not that these guys invented the resurrection, came up with this idea because they had such a wonderful experience with Jesus. So let's go to Matthew 28, 11 through 15. 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 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 while we're still in the death. Well, 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 priests and they tell them 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 them 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 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 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? 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. You know, 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. Verse chapter 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 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, 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 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've 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. That's one. You mean the power that raised Christ from the dead is available to me? Yes. Philippians 3, another passage on that. Another passage on that. Most of the chapter is on that. So it was very important that they keep on believing the resurrection, the gospel here, because it's the means by which we are being saved presently from our difficulties as Christians. He says, if you hold fast the word which I preach to you, that is the gospel, of course, unless you believed in vain. What does this mean, believed in vain? Well, verse 12 is going to tell us that there were some there among them who did not, who were saying there's no resurrection of the dead. See, so if you believed in vain, meaning you believed in a non-resurrected Christ, you you claim to be a Christian, but you don't believe that Christ is risen. Well, how are you going to, how are you going to have his resurrection power toward you to live the Christian life if you don't even believe he's alive? You think he's just a dead guy like Muhammad. Or Joseph Smith or Buddha. Now, how are these people going to help you live your life? They're dead. But ours is alive, and his resurrection power is toward us to help us live the day-by-day Christian life. Verse 3, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. What is that? He received it on the road to Damascus. They received it when he was at Corinth. And here it is, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he appeared. Then we'll go through the appearances. So the gospel is really two things here. I know there's four things, right? There's the death, there's the burial, there's the resurrection, and there's appearances. Right? That's what it said. Now, only two of those were according to the scriptures, right? The death for our sins, according to the scriptures, and raised on the third day, according to the scriptures. It doesn't say the burial was according to scripture, nor does it say the appearances were according to scripture. Why does it distinguish? Not just because, yeah, the Old Testament predicted the death and resurrection, that's obvious. But because those are the two key elements to the gospel. It's what Christ did for us on the cross, and it's the fact that he rose again on the third day. Well, then why does it add the burial? Well, because we want to know as people, how do you know he died? What's the historical evidence that he died? Well, I mean, he was buried. And then we want to know, well, what's the evidence that he rose from the grave? Well, it's that he appeared, right? That's the historical evidence. So the gospel is the death and the resurrection, and the historical evidence is the burial and the appearances. That's the way the grammar works. And it's beautiful. It's very nice, nicely put. So in verse 5, he appears to Cephas and to the 12. This is not an exhaustive list, but he's giving the evidences. After that, he appeared to how many? More than 500 brethren at different times? One time. Yeah. I mean, were they hallucinating? This is usually one of the responses. Well, there's just hallucinations. How many people share hallucinations? I thought those were individuals. I mean, we're all sharing the same hallucination. Ooh. I mean, that's almost as supernatural as the resurrection itself. Why don't we just believe that? Um so these are all evidences of the resurrection. I mean, these are important evidences. We'll get to Acts 1.3 at the end. It uses a Greek word that means incontrovertible evidence. Incontrovertible. Like it was just, there's no way it couldn't be. This has to be. After that, he appeared to the more than 500 at one time, most of whom remain until now. In other words, you could go talk to them. That's what he's saying. You go historically verify this. Did you actually see? Yes, we saw it. Okay. Get their story. But some have fallen asleep, so some had already passed away. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. I mean, this is a lot of appearances, right? This is a lot of evidence. I mean, how many witnesses do we have, you know, on some murders in court and stuff like that that people get put in the death penalty or go to prison for life or, you know? I mean, a lot less than this. We're talking hundreds and hundreds of eyewitnesses. And last of all, he says in verse 8, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. Paul's humility. For I'm the least of these apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. That story's in the book of Acts. Acts 7, 8, and 9. But by the grace of God I am what I am. And guess what? You are too. And his grace toward me, Paul says, did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Paul doesn't credit himself with his ultimate strength for laboring, but the grace of God. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believe. Now, okay, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? Now, so this was a problem at Corinth, right? They'd initially believed in the death and resurrection. Now some of them say we don't believe in the resurrection. Uh Athens was just down the road, right? The philosophical center of the ancient world. Greece was sort of like for the secondhand good philosophers, you know. Just down the road. They would hang out in Corinth, spew their ideas. Um we know from Acts 17 that Greeks kind of, you know, the Greek thought thinking that the Romans had, they kind of, eh, resurrection. Eh, we don't like that idea. Um so here you have believers at Corinth, and now they're like, well, okay, I don't think there is a resurrection, I don't think there's a resurrection anymore. And Paul starts, his first argument is logical. Logical. If Christ has preached that he's been raised, right? And how do some say there's no resurrection? In other words, if there can be no resurrections, then Christ isn't raised either, is he? He's still he's dead. Verse 13, if there's no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. If Christ has not been raised, guess what? Then our preaching is in is vain. You know, what's the the it's purposeless? Your faith, he says, also is vain. What's he saying about Christianity here? If Jesus isn't resurrected, then guess what? This is stupid. What in the world are we all doing here? Go do something else, right? Moreover, he goes further in logical implication. We are even found to be false witnesses of God. Now, in the Ten Commandments, are we supposed to be false witnesses? What's Paul saying here? He's saying if we are telling people that Christ rose from the dead, then we're breaking the command against being false witnesses. He wasn't afraid to say that. See, he's just logical, logically. He's going through all the logical repercussions. Verse 16, if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins, right? I mean, you are, because that's what we're counting on. That he actually paid the penalty for our sins on the cross, and that his resurrection was the vindication that God accepted the payment. So if he's not resurrected, then guess what? God didn't accept the payment. And that means we're still in our sins. He says, then logically, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. I mean, that's it. That's it. They're done. You'll never ever be with them again. Okay? Eternal separation. Now, if we've hoped in Christ in this life only, further logical implication, we're of all men most to be pitied. I mean, we're the worst group in society. Because we're believing a lie. Does it matter that there's a historical resurrection, physical, bodily, of Jesus Christ? Does that matter to Christianity? Paul will say, absolutely 100%. I wouldn't be wasting my time, he says. And we're all done. It's over. We're dead. But now he goes into theological reasons. Those are all logical reasons in verses 12 to 19. Now we go to theological reasons. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, point of fact, fact of resurrection. The first fruits of those who are asleep. Meaning there's more to follow. First fruits brought in, okay, there's going to be more to follow. For since by a man, one man, that's Adam, came death, by a man Christ also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ all will be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ, the first fruits, after that, those who are at Christ at his coming. That's the rapture. Then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to God and the God and Father when he has abolished all rule and all authority and all power. So he's doing what we call telescoping there. You know, the telescope, you you see the guy on the ship, and he's got the compact telescope, and then he brings out and then he looks through it, you know. And he's not giving all the prophetic details in the world here. He's just giving us a telescoped view, looking down through the corridors of time. He says, Christ has been resurrected, then those who are at Christ is coming, then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom of God and Father, right? So it's just a big, big picture, you know, looking down through the corridors of time. For he must reign, verse 25, until he has put all his enemies under his feet. And the last enemy that would be abolished is death. It's abolished by resurrection, right? For he has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he says all things are put into subjection, it's evident he is accepted who put all things in subjection to him. In other words, the Father is accepted, right? When all things are subjected to him, then the Son Himself also would be subjected to the one who's subjected all things, so that God may be all in all. And the two will reign for all eternity, co-co-co-rulers in their capacities. Now he goes to more. So theologically, it's necessary if God's going to rule the world that there be resurrection from the dead. That's his main point. Otherwise, what's happening now will just keep happening until everybody destroys themselves on earth. Or whatever happens, happens. But no, God, Christ is coming again. Going to set up God's kingdom. Okay. Verse 29. Now we have moral arguments for why you have to have the resurrection. These are the moral arguments. We got logical, theological, now moral. Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? Now we don't, this is probably the most controversial saying in the whole 1 Corinthians, 5th uh 1 Corinthians, so we won't go into it. Some people think, well, it's people who died as they were believers, they died, and then the new converts would be baptized to fill in their place. You know, I mean, there's a number of different ideas. Uh, I don't want to go through it, but the point is why would you be baptized for Dead people, if there's no resurrection from the dead. That'd be stupid. Why do that? If the dead are not raised above, why then have they been baptized for him? Why don't we have some in danger every hour? Here he's putting his life on the line every day in his missionary journeys, right? Why would you put your life on the line for a resurrected Christ who wasn't resurrected? I mean, that's a dumb thing. I'm affirmed, brethren, by the boasting in which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. Put his life at risk for the resurrected Christ. He says, if it was just from human motives that I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, probably talking about what happened in the theater there in Acts 19. He says, What does it profit me? I mean, if it was just humanly motivated, why would I put myself at that kind of risk? That's silly. If the dead are not raised, he says, this is the logical, moral end of that. In other words, how should you live your life if there's no resurrection? Paul says, Let's eat and drink for tomorrow we die. In other words, just live it up. Just live just like the world. They're just living it up, right? Doing whatever they want to do with whoever they want, whenever they want, however they want. What's wrong with that if there's no resurrection from the dead? I mean, just do it. I mean, because when you die, that's it. You're just dead. You just turn to dust, and that's it. There's nothing left. So just do whatever you want to do, he says, if there's no resurrection from the dead. That was Paul's view. He was willing to say all these things if the resurrection is not true. So obviously, he holds to the fact of the resurrection and that it is the cornerstone of Christianity. And that Christianity is actually built on the resurrection of the res of the Christ, the Messiah. Let's go to Luke 24, real quick.
SPEAKER_02:Luke 24.
SPEAKER_01:This is the stranger on the road to Emmaus. Well, John Cross has got a book. You can get one here. They're free of charge. You just take one. I'll try to find one for you if you want one. Help you find one. Now, this is on the day of the resurrection. It's the same exact day of the resurrection, which I take to be a Sunday, right? But anyway, we'll dispute that another time. Verse 13, and behold, two of them were going that day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. So it's a short walk, right? They were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. What things which had taken place? Well, he just the resurrection. Everything in verse 24, 1 through 12. So talking about the resurrection. Well, not the resurrection, the death, all the events, not the resurrection, they didn't believe in the resurrection. But the death and all that, and what had happened at the tomb, and the women going there and not finding the body and all that kind of stuff. So while they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them. So here's the third guy. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing it. Now I'll ask you a question about the resurrection body based on that verse. Will the resurrection body, will your resurrection body, resemble you? 100%. 100%. I mean, did the guy that was walking with them look like Jesus? Yes. But something happened supernatural to prevent their eyes from recognizing him. Okay? During this walk and discussion. So yeah, the resurrection body, you are going to be you. You are not going to be someone else. Sorry, if you want to be someone else, you don't get to you got to be you forever. You're stuck with yourself, so live with it. Verse 17, he said to them, What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking? You know, what are you talking about? And they stood still looking sad. One of them, named Cleopus, answered and said to him, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? I mean, are you kidding? You know, I mean, this in other words, was all this very public and very well known about the crucifixion, the triumphal entry, all the events of that week? Were they well known? Did everybody in the region know about it? Yeah, in Acts it says, this thing wasn't done in a corner. Everybody knew. It was front page news. And he said to them, Huh? What thing? This is what I was telling my wife last night, Jesus was playing dumb. And sometimes we do that in a conversation, right? To draw something out of someone. Okay? And they said to him, Well, the things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word in the sight of God and all the people, how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to the sentence of death and they crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. But obviously they're sad, and so they're thinking he's not the one, right? Indeed, they said, besides all this, it's the third day since these things happened. You know, there's no hope. You know, he's dead. But also, some what he they say, well, some there were some women among us, they amazed us. They went to the tomb early in the morning, they didn't find his body, they came, they said that they had also seen a vision of angels. They said he was that said he was alive. And some of those who were with us went to the tomb. We found it just like the women said. Wow, women could be right sometimes. But him they did not see. Oh, well, that may be a good sign. And he said to them, Oh, foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. See, what are we supposed to always be believing? Always be believing the Bible.
SPEAKER_02:Right?
SPEAKER_01:The Bible's true. And they were slow to believe it. They're thinking, oh, he died. It's over, the one we thought was going to redeem Israel, he's done. It's the third day. Don't you believe? You know, don't you believe what the prophets wrote? Did they write about the resurrection? Yes, they wrote about the death and the resurrection. They prophesied it. Verse 26, yes, was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory? See, the Old Testament prophesies the sufferings and the glories, right? He says, Hey, hey, do you not, is this not required? I mean, in other words, is everything not happening just like it's supposed to happen? See? Then, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself and all the scripture. He's sitting there going through the messianic prophecy after messianic prophecy after messianic prophecy from Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Chronicles, King. He's going through it all, right? The Psalms. Well, I had one read today, right? Psalm 118 that talked about the stone that stumbled, they stumbled over. The messianic prophecy. Jesus probably went through that on the road to Emmaus. And they approached the village where they were going, and he acted as though he were going to go on farther, but they urged him, saying, Stay with us, for it's getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over. So he went in to stay with them. When he had reclined at the table with them, he took the bread and he blessed it, and breaking it, he began giving it to them. I mean, do you think he ate some too? Yeah, he probably ate some too. We know he ate in the resurrection body later. So can you eat in the resurrection body? Can you eat in the resurrection body? Some people say, Yeah, but we don't have to. And I'm all like, okay, great, more for me. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. See? Then their eyes were no longer prevented, right? They could see exactly who he was, and at that point he vanished from their sight. Now, this is a resurrection body, right? Can it do different things than our current bodies? Somehow this body was able to vanish. That's kind of cool. I don't know. You want one? Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall get one. I mean, this is a simple thing, right? I want one of those. I'm tired of this one. Are you tired of this one? Some of you are younger saying, ah, I'm good. Okay, wait 20 years. It's okay. We're all gonna want one if we get to that age. If we struggle, we have any kind of ailments, we're gonna want this body. This is a great one. It vanishes too. It's even so cool. Better than Superman. And imagine. They said to one another, We're not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us. I hope your heart burns within you as you hear the scriptures and you you're excited, you know, and the Holy Spirit is illuminating it and making it known to you, making it real to you. That's what was happening to them. And they got up that very hour, they returned to Jerusalem, found the get to gather together the eleven and those who are with him, and they said, Hey, the Lord has really risen. Like it's a surprise. I mean, right? I mean, the Old Testament prophets all said it was going to happen. In reality, you shouldn't be that surprised. You should be like, Yep, everything's right on schedule. Everything's happening just like God said it would. But of course, it is exciting. But you know, you shouldn't be that surprised, right? They begin to relate their experiences and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. Uh John 20, this guy. This is just to show that you remember Thomas. I mean, I'm a Thomas. My last name's Thomas. It's I'm not I'm not sure it's the greatest last name because you know, we all think doubting Thomas, you know, yeah, that's Jeremy. Um John chapter 20, verse 19. This is just to show you, these people were not gullible and superstitious. I mean, Thomas wasn't like, oh yeah, we just believe in resurrected people all the time or something like that. No, I mean, it has to be. He wanted some substantial proof, right? Verse 19, so when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut, where where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you. Now that kind of be a little alarming. What? Where'd you come from? And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. And the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you, sending them on their mission, right? The Great Mission. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. And if you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. Okay, related to their mission and preaching the gospel. But Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, which means twin. Now I got twins too, so I mean I'm really, really stacking up points here, uh, was not with them when Jesus came, so Thomas wasn't there. So the other disciples were saying to him, We've seen the Lord, but he said to them, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh, not so quick. Unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails. By the way, you could put your whole finger, you could put your finger into the hole, which shows you the size, right? And put my hand into his side. Remember the Roman soldier came and put the spear up through the side to go into the heart? Um, you could put your whole hand in there. Is this a little wound that you just kind of recover from, you know, like, I mean, you make it out of the grave and pull yourself out and heal up over the next few weeks? No, not quite. He says, Unless I see this, I will not believe. After eight days, his disciples were again inside. So eight days has passed, and Thomas with him, this time, woo! Thank goodness he's in the right place at the right time. Jesus came, the doors haven't been shut, and stood in their midst and said, Peace be with you. Again, what? Where'd you come from? Then he said to Thomas, Reach here with your finger and see my hands. Now, this is a resurrection body. Right?
SPEAKER_02:And he's gonna take his finger and he's gonna be able to put it in that wound.
SPEAKER_01:In the resurrection. That's a little strange, right? But his body in the resurrection does bear the marks of his crucifixion. It's also in Revelation 5. He's standing as a lamb who has been slain, meaning you see the marks from the crucifixion. Um and put into my your hand, put your hand, you know, into my side. You can still put the hand in the hole, in his resurrection body. I assume you can still do that today. Right now, if we were there in heaven and he's at the right hand of the Father, we could go and put our hand in his side. That's the nature of his resurrection body. Now, the nice thing is Ephesians 5 says that when we are presented before him as a resurrected church, there'll be no spot or blemish. You know, you may have spots or blemishes, scars, and so forth. Guess what? You're gonna have perfect skin.
SPEAKER_02:Perfect skin. That's gonna be beautiful, but not his, not his. He will forever carry a scar. God himself in the flesh, he carries the scars.
SPEAKER_01:What what love is this? Thomas answered verse 28, My Lord and my God. The Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormon said, Oh, he's just this is just out of shock. This is just a saying. Like, oh my god! No, he is God. He is God. Jesus didn't say, No, no, don't call me God. That re that's rever you know reserved only for uh the one true God, and I'm not really God, I'm just a man or something like that. He never corrected that. Because he is God. So Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me, you have you believed? And then he said something about all the rest of us here. Blessed are they who did not see. Blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you? Why? Because you believed in something you haven't seen, but you've been convinced of, right? Through the power of the gospel, convicted by the Spirit that this is true. I mean, if it's not true, Paul said, We're done. That's it. Eat, drink, be married, tomorrow we're dead. See? And Acts 1.3 uses that word, right? It's the last little thing. It's just a little thing, but it's not a little thing. The resurrection is central to the Christian faith. In this passage, Paul says that uh, or I'm sorry, the author Luke says, I compose all about Jesus, what he began to do and teach in the first volume, that's Luke, until the day when he was taken up to heaven in the ascension, after he'd been by the Holy Spirit given some orders to the apostles. To these he also presented himself alive after his sufferings. This is the resurrection life he presented to them. And it says, by many convincing proofs. And that word means incontrovertible evidences. You know, he ate with them, he drank with them, he said, put your hands on my side. You know, he went about, it says right here in this verse, over a period of 40 days, speaking of them concerning the things of the kingdom of God. 40 days of evidences. I mean, how much do you need, right? You don't need that much, but he gave incontrovertible evidence that he is risen and lives forevermore. Now, if you want to go be a Muslim, great, go worship a dead guy. Uh if you want to go be a Mormon, great. Go follow a dead guy, Joseph Smith. You know, I mean, this is really what you're saying. I want to serve a living God. I want someone who's alive. Someone who conquered death. Because that person said he's also gonna make me conquer death. Right? So this is the fact of the resurrection. And I hope that we're all holding firm to it and appreciate how great this is. Because we're all here today, and every believer in the world is here today, only because of one thing. Christ is risen. And if he wasn't risen, none of us will be here.
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.