WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:05.040 I invite you to take your Bible and go to Psalm 16 with me, Psalm 16. 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:09.439 And if you don't have a Bible with you, you can find one in front of you in the pew. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:15.759 And on page 478, 478, you'll find Psalm 16. 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:25.760 And just an invitation to you, if you do not have a Bible and would like to have a Bible, we gladly give you the one that's right there in front of you. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:27.760 Feel free to take that and bring it home. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:30.399 Write your name in it, call it yours. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:34.240 If your children put their crayons in it, it's well, it's on you. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:41.840 So now, if you have a Bible and uh you want another one, there are plenty of places where you can find one. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:47.359 So, but for those of you that don't have a Bible and would like one, we'd love to give you one of these. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:50.000 And please accept it as our gift to you. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:01:01.039 Easter, like Christmas, is full of all kinds of added bits in our culture, traditions that we have. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:03.840 I wasn't raised in a Christian home. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:07.439 However, our family still celebrated Easter. 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:19.920 A few days before Easter Sunday, we'd gather in the kitchen and we'd my mother would have bought a few dozen eggs and we'd be decorating them and painting them and staining them and dyeing them. 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:29.439 And Sunday morning I would wake up and next to my bed would be a little basket, and uh it would have this chocolate bunny rabbit in there, or chocolate egg. 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:32.719 And I was always disappointed when I found out it was hollow. 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:35.680 I didn't like that. 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:51.760 But we would take that basket after you know a little bit, and we'd my sister and I'd go out and we'd see all the eggs that we had painted, sort of stuck in different places around the house and the yard, and we would go out hunting for them, and that was a lot of fun. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:02:00.000 And then we would enjoy later in the day an Easter dinner that was either a rib roast or a ham and sometimes lamb. 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:05.359 My palate wasn't quite adjusted to lamb in those days, so that wasn't a special meal for me. 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:06.640 It is now. 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:11.199 Another thing my mother used to do is make these sugar egg panoramas. 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:23.840 She was quite a cake decorator and artistic, and she would make these sugar eggs with a little panorama of pastel bunny rabbits and fences and flowers and different things like that. 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:37.840 And our table used to be filled with dozens of those things that she would pass out to friends and to family and to neighbors, uh, some of the folks my dad worked with, people at the ceramic shop where she would uh she would frequent. 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:42.319 Those are Easter traditions that my family would have. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:51.280 Uh, for other people, maybe perhaps you have Easter outfits that you would receive, or an Easter hat or bonnet that you might wear. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:03:00.000 Maybe you have some special foods of your own family that you would be or might even be eating this afternoon, exchanging Easter gifts. 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:05.680 And so for some folks, coming to church on Easter and Christmas is a tradition. 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:08.000 For us, it never was. 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:12.240 We never attended church at Easter or Christmas. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:25.360 As I look back on my life in those years, I had some notion that Easter was about the resurrection of Jesus, but it only mildly sparked my interest. 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:32.159 And it didn't really carry any weight of influence at all on how I lived my life. 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:37.599 Easter was just a day of traditions, fun ones, but just traditions. 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:51.680 And much like the cycles of the seasons, year by year, Easter would come and I would enjoy the moment, enjoy the traditions, but give a casual shrugging, so what? 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:55.039 To any message behind it. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:56.800 So what? 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:03.919 And so what's not such a bad question if it's asked sincerely and with the right emphasis. 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:06.319 Mine was a shrugging, so what? 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:09.360 But your question might be a little different this morning. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:13.199 Your question might be, so what is Easter? 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:16.240 And so what is its significance? 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:42.079 Well, the so what of this day, many call Easter, I prefer resurrection Sunday, but Easter works too, is a day of remembrance of the day when Christ Jesus rose from the dead and put death to death and took away from us all of its fear-inducing power, that we might be able to go into it with hope and not with fear. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:53.920 The resurrection of Jesus Christ, the scriptures declare, is alongside the cross of Christ, the central historical fact that gives us the basis for our faith. 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:58.079 Without the resurrection, there would be no Christianity. 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:06.480 The Apostle Paul said, if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain. 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:19.680 In fact, he said, if we only in this life have hope in Christ, honestly, really, we are the of all people the most to be pitied. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:21.680 Why? 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:41.040 Because there's a certain way that we live, there's a certain attachment that we have to the things that we believe, there's a certain restriction of our behavior, there's a certain focus of our priorities, and if there's no hope of eternity, well, Paul said, why not just take up what everybody else takes up? 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:43.120 Eat and drink for tomorrow we die. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:55.040 This day, Easter, Resurrection Sunday, is a foundational day for us. 00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:59.199 You might ask another so what question. 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:01.680 So, what is its influence on my life? 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:05.199 As I said, it carried none in mind for many, many years. 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:12.560 And I certainly didn't have anyone in my family pressing at home upon my conscience or my soul or even to my interests. 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:19.839 Today I would like to take the place of maybe a family member who could have said something to me, to you today. 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:24.240 What is the influence of this day in our life? 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:30.560 Well, I want to take us to a place that might seem very odd to go to, and that is to Psalm 16. 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:44.959 Psalm 16 is a song of praise that David speaks to God in light of his goodness, in light of his person, and David does so in the most personal and intimate ways. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:55.120 In this song of rejoicing and trust, David proclaims freely that all of his benefits and all of his blessings come from God. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:04.639 And though he doesn't use this word, you can feel that he's satisfied fully in the God that he's praising. 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:07.920 Take a look at the personal pronouns. 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:09.360 Just glance over this psalm. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:12.240 It's not long, and you can see them quite easily. 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:19.519 These personal pronouns of you and your to God and I and me and my when David speaks. 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:25.519 And then you look through this and you can see just how intimate this song is to David. 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:28.879 He's not standing as the king over the nation. 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:33.279 He's not speaking as one of the one on behalf of all the Israelites. 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:38.240 He's talking from the very depths of his own personal soul to God. 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:42.000 And he's saying, God, verse 1, you're my refuge. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:46.000 God, you're my Lord in verse 2. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:50.720 You are my goodness, my portion, my cup, in verses five and six. 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:54.560 You are my counsel, my wisdom, in verse seven. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:57.360 You're at my right hand in verse eight. 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:01.199 You're my security, he says in verse nine. 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:08.240 You're my guide, you're the fullness of my joy, and at your right hand are my pleasures forevermore. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:14.160 He is satisfied in God and can't help but sing about it. 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:24.639 Jonathan Edwards, who was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, theologian in America, the first president of Princeton, said this. 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:31.680 He said, God is glorified not only by his glory being seen, but also by his glory being delighted in. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:44.720 Those who see God's glory certainly give him praise for understanding it, but those who delight in it bring an even greater degree of glory to the glory of God. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:52.159 And all those words that Jonathan Edwards said capture David's heart right here. 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:56.559 He not only saw the Lord's glory, he's delighting in it. 00:08:56.799 --> 00:08:59.200 And he can't help but talk about it. 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:02.159 Let's briefly walk through this psalm. 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:06.159 Verses 1 and 2, you see that he's satisfied with God's protection. 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:09.039 Protect me, God, for I take refuge in you. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:13.919 It is said to I said to the Lord, You are my Lord. 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:16.240 I have nothing good beside you. 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:22.159 Now David was a man who was significantly experienced in battle. 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:30.639 He was not only valiant, brave in battle, but he was also victorious over formidable enemies in those battles. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:34.320 But here he seeks protection from God. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:44.080 He doesn't lay his trust in his strategic abilities, in the strength of his arm, in the power of his army, in the force of David's mighty men. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:55.200 He doesn't take any notion of the alliances that his nation has made with other countries as some sort of combined coalition of force. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:56.559 No. 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:01.919 He looks alone to God as his protection. 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:05.600 Notice something else. 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:15.039 Verses three and four, he's satisfied not only with God's protection, he's satisfied with God as his priority and God's people as his priority. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:23.440 In verses three and four, as for the holy people who are in the land, they're the noble ones, all my delight is in them. 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:27.519 The sorrows of those who take another God for themselves will multiply. 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:33.519 And I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, and I will not speak their names with my lips. 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:40.879 He's satisfied not only to have God as his protection, but to have God as his priority. 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:43.360 Now David was a king. 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:51.679 David was a man of power and influence, and he had access to the upper echelons of society. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:56.639 And he could command the audience with the best of anyone. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:10.559 Anytime he needed some assistance or even some amusement, he could call into his presence top advisors, entertainers, people who sang and danced, poets, musicians. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:12.960 He could call in scholars. 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:22.960 He could name who he wanted to name, and they would be honored to come into the king's presence and to have some time with him and to share their skills or their abilities. 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:27.039 But what kind of company did David want to keep? 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:34.720 As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones, and all my delight is in them. 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:37.919 God's people are a priority to him. 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:53.679 And he was so committed to the Lord as his priority that he would not so much as soil his lips or his hands with a libation or a word of worship to anyone other than the Lord his God. 00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:59.039 Verses five and six, he speaks of God as his prize. 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:02.960 Lord, you are my portion and my cup of blessing. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:04.960 You hold my future. 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:08.399 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:12.480 Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:20.879 The surrounding nations had their deities, and were often named after the things that they wanted from these gods. 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:30.000 And they would call upon these deities to exert their powers of fertility and prosperity for their crops and for their herds. 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:41.360 And they felt like by giving these kinds of sacrifices of worship and these promises to these gods, that the gods would in turn favor them and prosper them. 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:47.039 David himself was a very rich man, prosperous. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:58.000 And he could have easily spoken about the great portion that he had received as a very wealthy person, all the acquisitions that he had gained over the years. 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:05.039 But here he makes a declaration that God, who is his protection, who is his priority, is also his prize. 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:08.240 Lord, you are my portion. 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:12.240 Lord, I don't take stock in my herds. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:16.240 I don't take stock in the accumulation of my gold or silver. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:18.080 I don't care about those things. 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:21.919 God, if I was to say, what is my most valuable possession? 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:23.039 It's you. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:24.960 It's you, God. 00:13:26.639 --> 00:13:40.240 And even if David had lost his prestige or lost his properties, and there were times in his life when he did, he would still say this: my wealth is not found in what I own. 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:41.840 It's found in him. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:44.080 And I'll never lose that. 00:13:45.039 --> 00:14:00.960 We also see here that he is satisfied not only with God as his protection and his priority and as his prize, but also he is finding satisfaction in God's providence and God's precepts. 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:03.519 Take a look at verse 7. 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:06.159 I will bless the Lord who counsels me. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:14.879 Even at night when my thoughts trouble me, I always let the Lord guide me, because He's at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:24.399 He took the scriptures at face value, that they were God's revelation, and that they were instructions for him for life and eternity. 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:35.279 And he says, I will submit myself gladly to him, because he counsels me, he guides me, he leads me providentially and through the proclamation of the word. 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:38.960 I love your instruction, he said in another psalm. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:42.720 It is the meditation of my heart every day. 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:47.039 And then one last one. 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:01.279 Satisfied in his providence and precepts, but here he has God as his highest pleasure. 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:08.480 In verse 9, he expresses the peak of joy and satisfaction and the depths of his confidence here. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:16.240 My heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices, and my body also rests securely. 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:26.080 Verse 11, you reveal the path of life to me, and your presence is abundant joy, at your right hand are eternal pleasures. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:40.000 Why this sort of extreme, maximal, extraordinary degree of attachment and affection from David, this confidence which seems unshaken. 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:46.080 Verse 10 there's a promise that he's relied on. 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:49.360 For you will not abandon me to Sheol. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:55.200 You will not allow your faithful one to see decay. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:06.000 David could talk about God being his ultimate satisfaction, his protector, his priority, his prize. 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:12.639 He could talk about God being the one who guides him by word of his precepts and his providence. 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:24.559 He could talk about being satisfied with God as his highest pleasure because he had rested himself and anchored everything that existed about him on this promise. 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:26.879 On this promise. 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:55.039 David was confident that he would come through death and out the other side. 00:16:57.200 --> 00:16:58.720 That's glorious. 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:03.600 I have to tell you though, David died. 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:06.559 And he was buried. 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:09.279 And his flesh did decay. 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:11.599 And it corrupted. 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:16.559 In the normal way that all of ours will too. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:20.559 And that leads us to a question. 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:23.440 Was this just a hollow fable? 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:36.799 Was this something that merely just distracted the king from the cares of rule and the strategies of being a commander of his armies? 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:41.039 Was this just some way to express himself poetically? 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:50.880 In distraction, lift himself above the realities of life into the ethereal escape of poetic expression. 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:58.400 Was he one like Paul said should be of all people most pitied? 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:07.519 If David's hope was personified, would it be like Shelley's poem Oxamandius Mandius? 00:18:08.079 --> 00:18:17.759 The poem when a traveler comes through the desert to two giant stone legs, and next to those legs is a shattered head of a statue with a pedestal. 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:22.799 And the traveler looks on the pedestal and reads these ironic words. 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:30.319 Look on my works, you mighty, and despair. 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:35.839 And the traveler's like, you're nothing but a broken statue. 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:39.680 Was David's confidence a broken statue? 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:49.920 Full of boasting, but in reality, just headed back to desert sand, just like Osimanteus' statue. 00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:54.319 Is David's confidence nothing more than that? 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:58.960 Perhaps it was in vain. 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:07.119 Perhaps he should have swelled with pride about his accomplishments instead of saying God should get all the glory. 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:14.079 Maybe he should have dived deep into the pleasures of his power and position and privilege. 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:22.079 Perhaps he should have spent more time thinking about his agenda, and he could have been marked even as a greater one in human history. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:29.519 For over 900 years, David's body suffered the effect of death and decay. 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:36.000 For over 900 years, the question of David's confidence stood unanswered. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:45.599 Was his confidence no more meaningful than the Easter baskets and chocolate bunnies that I got as a child? 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:50.480 900 years later. 00:19:52.079 --> 00:20:00.559 Nine hundred years later, Peter the Apostle stood up on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:10.640 And he stood before masses of people who had been gathered because they had heard some roaring sounds like a rushing mighty wind. 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:24.799 And they had heard with their ears people speaking the praises of God in a language that they could understand, though when they looked at them, they'd realized they are certainly not from the same place they were. 00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:31.920 And they were puzzled and questioning, what is going on in Jerusalem? 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:41.599 And Peter stands before this puzzled and perplexed people, and he says to them in Acts chapter 2, fellow Israelites, listen to me. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:44.240 Listen to these words. 00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:59.839 Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by mighty by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, just as you know. 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:12.240 Though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan and foreknowledge, you use lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:25.920 Why? 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:31.119 Because it's not possible for him to be held by death. 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:36.960 How do you know that, Peter? 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:40.799 Because Peter had read Psalm 16. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:52.319 And in Psalm 16, he would read verse 10 You will not abandon me to Sheol, you will not allow your faithful one to see decay. 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:56.319 David knew that he was not the faithful one. 00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:59.680 He penned Psalm 51, where he speaks. 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:01.200 Of his sin. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:05.119 He speaks of the corruption of his heart. 00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:07.839 In sin did my mother conceive me. 00:22:08.079 --> 00:22:12.720 He speaks of the corruption of his life in the actions that he did. 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:14.640 And he calls out for cleansing. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:16.720 He knows he's not the holy one. 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:19.279 Who is this holy one? 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:28.319 Peter sat with Jesus for three years and marveled, and he said, Part from me, Lord, for I am a mere man. 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:32.319 He knew that he was in the presence of the Holy One. 00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:35.359 He knew he was in the presence of the faithful one. 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:44.240 Peter, who tried to be faithful, said, I will never deny you, but did that night three times curse and deny the Lord. 00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:46.880 He knew he wasn't the faithful one. 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:49.119 Who was this faithful one? 00:22:49.519 --> 00:22:53.440 This is exactly what Paul or Peter says in Acts 2. 00:22:53.680 --> 00:23:00.640 He says, For David says of him, I saw the Lord ever before me, because he's at my right hand. 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:02.799 I will not be shaken. 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:06.079 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:13.759 My flesh will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me in Hades or allow your holy one to see decay. 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:19.920 You have revealed the path of life to me, and you fill me with gladness in your presence. 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:36.799 Peter is arguing that David could not have been talking about himself, but talking about one who is to come, and had put his trust in the one who was going to be the faithful one, the one who would not see decay. 00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:45.759 And he says, brothers and sisters, again speaking to these Israelites, he said, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David. 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:49.519 He's both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us here today. 00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:56.400 See, David was dead 900 years. 00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:00.880 His body did see corruption 900 years. 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:05.519 His muscles, his skin, and his tissues rotted away and turned to dust. 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.880 Peter declares that David was speaking of one to come. 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:18.079 That he put his hope in the prophecy of God's coming holy one, God's coming faithful one. 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:21.359 And he continues his sermon on that day. 00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:29.599 Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on the throne. 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:33.839 And seeing what was to come, he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah. 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:39.920 He was not abandoned to Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay. 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:47.119 God has raised this Jesus, and we are witnesses this day of him. 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:52.400 And before the crowds he spoke the resurrection of Christ. 00:24:52.480 --> 00:25:05.039 And on that day, 3,000 people realized they had crucified the Lord Christ, and with stricken hearts and their consciences broken, they cried out, What must we do? 00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:13.039 And Peter said, Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. 00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:19.519 And three thousand people that day believed and were baptized. 00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:24.160 Peter applied Psalm 16 to Jesus. 00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:35.200 In Acts chapter 13, the Apostle Paul also, standing before people, preaches Jesus Christ and the resurrection from this very same spot. 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:47.680 And he says to the Jews in Antioch, we ourselves proclaim to you the good news of the promise that was made to our ancestors. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:53.839 And God has fulfilled it to us, their children, by raising Jesus. 00:25:54.960 --> 00:26:00.559 He says, As to his raising from the dead, never to return to decay, he was spoken of in this way. 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:03.680 I will give you the holy and sure promises of David. 00:26:03.839 --> 00:26:09.680 And therefore he also says in another passage, you will not see your holy one in decay. 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:31.920 Paul read Psalm 16 and saw what Peter saw, the same thing that David saw: a coming one, a holy one, a faithful one, who for through no fault of his own would die, but would never stay dead. 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:33.759 He would rise. 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:41.039 And Paul continues just as Peter did, that David was not talking about himself. 00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:46.000 He said, David, after serving God's purposes in his own generation, fell asleep. 00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:47.119 He died. 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:51.119 And was buried with his father and decayed. 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:54.640 But the one God raised up did not decay. 00:26:55.920 --> 00:26:57.680 Now, what is the significance of this? 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:00.559 Listen to the significance that Paul gives to it. 00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:08.480 Let it be known to you, brothers and sisters, that through this man, Jesus, forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you. 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:16.480 Everyone who believes is justified through him from everything that you could not be justified from through the law of Moses. 00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:20.319 What is Paul saying here? 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:27.680 You cannot go to heaven by being the faithful one yourself. 00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:34.640 You cannot go to heaven by trying to be the best you can be. 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:39.039 The law of Moses strikes every one of us down. 00:27:39.440 --> 00:27:47.279 The law of Moses not only calls out our actions, it also calls out the recesses of our motivations, of our hearts. 00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:51.920 That very last one is the one that got right between the ribs of Paul. 00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:53.759 You shall not covet. 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:55.920 And he knew he did. 00:27:57.759 --> 00:28:15.200 He said, the forgiveness of sins doesn't come through rituals, it doesn't come through ceremonies, it doesn't come through the sacrifices of blood, of bulls and of goats, it doesn't come from you making any of the efforts, it comes through a person, Jesus Christ. 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:21.119 And how I can tell you that that is the truth is because Christ rose from the dead. 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:28.319 Death is a circumstance of sin. 00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:33.279 Christ never sinned, and he rose from the dead. 00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:37.599 But on the cross, he bore the sins of many. 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:39.440 What happened to them? 00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:46.000 They went in the grave with him, and they stayed there when he came out. 00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:54.319 That all who believe on Christ are justified, declared righteous, like Christ was when he was resurrected. 00:28:54.799 --> 00:28:55.440 Amen. 00:28:57.200 --> 00:29:01.839 And so Paul preaches Psalm 16. 00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:06.000 Your sins can be gone in Christ. 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:15.200 Your justification, your declaration of righteousness can be had in him, and you're going to participate in his resurrection. 00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:20.720 This is why David could say, My body rests in hope. 00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:24.640 Because you will not allow your faithful one to see decay. 00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:29.039 David himself knew that the grave would not be the end of him. 00:29:31.119 --> 00:29:37.839 100 years after he dies, if he could have spoken to that generation, he would say, Just wait. 00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:47.680 200 years, just wait, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 years, just wait. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:49.920 My faith was not in vain. 00:29:50.480 --> 00:29:51.680 Just wait. 00:29:52.400 --> 00:30:06.079 And up from the grave he arose, and David's soul sang, The truth, the truth of why he was so satisfied, was found in reality, in human history. 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:08.319 Jesus rose from the dead. 00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:21.279 And so he sang, in anticipation of that day, and in light of that coming day, 900 years before it happened, God, you are my refuge, God, you are my goodness, God, you are my portion and cup. 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:22.559 God, you are my counsel. 00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:25.039 God, you are my partner at my right hand. 00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:27.440 God, you are my security and my guide. 00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:32.240 You are the fullness of my joy, and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:36.079 He spoke that looking forward to the day. 00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:38.559 Looking forward to the day. 00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:47.599 And we stand here today seeing not just the promise, but the fulfillment of the promise. 00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:53.680 And we can confidently share in David's praise of Psalm 16. 00:30:54.240 --> 00:30:57.119 We can confidently share these very words. 00:30:57.440 --> 00:30:59.200 My heart is glad. 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:02.559 My whole being rejoices. 00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:05.279 My body rests securely. 00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:09.200 For you will not abandon me to Sheol. 00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:13.039 You will not allow your faithful one to see decay. 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:15.119 You did not allow him to see decay. 00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:18.400 And in Christ I will rise too. 00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:22.400 You reveal the path of life to me. 00:31:23.759 --> 00:31:36.000 So that confidence of rest, that confidence of rescue, that confidence of reward that David speaks about here in triumphant jubilation at the apex of his song, that's our song. 00:31:36.400 --> 00:31:37.920 That's our praise. 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:42.079 So what is Easter, you asked? 00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:46.240 Well, it's the confidence of our hope. 00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:47.680 That's what it is. 00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:53.839 It's the confidence for all who believe on Christ, that this life is not it. 00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:57.359 It is not all there is at all. 00:31:58.480 --> 00:32:02.400 And that God, yes, in this time is our protector. 00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:06.559 He is for us, certainly our priority and our prize. 00:32:07.039 --> 00:32:14.319 We certainly submit ourselves gladly and joyfully to his precepts and watch the unfolding of his providential hand. 00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:23.599 And in a way, yet, we're still learning to make him our highest pleasure. 00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:31.440 The day will come when we will be unleashed from the limitations of our body and soul and life in this world. 00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:35.119 And in that day, look out. 00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:39.440 You better have your airinades turned down because there's gonna be a lot of shouting. 00:32:41.680 --> 00:32:43.119 The resurrection. 00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:49.039 Everyone who believes on Christ is granted all that Christ has gained on their behalf. 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:53.359 When he died, if you believe on Christ, you died with him. 00:32:53.759 --> 00:32:57.119 When he was buried, your sins were buried with him. 00:32:57.359 --> 00:33:02.480 When he rose victorious over death, you will rise victorious over death with him. 00:33:03.119 --> 00:33:04.640 You will rise. 00:33:04.799 --> 00:33:08.720 And in rising you will understand the enjoyment of the Lord. 00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:17.119 You will experience the same treasures that God has laid upon his beloved Son, because you are a co-heir with Christ. 00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:24.079 What is the significance of death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ? 00:33:25.279 --> 00:33:28.400 It is for us confidence in the face of death. 00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:37.920 We believe on the basis of God's character and God's actions in Christ that He will not abandon those who believe on Jesus to the grave. 00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:50.720 And though we stretch each foot forward day after day, we do so confidently that we will one day come into the presence of God and enjoy him forever without condemnation. 00:33:51.440 --> 00:33:54.160 We will take up with confidence these very words. 00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:57.519 You have revealed to me the path of life. 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:03.920 And as a believer, we can speak to our Lord and say, I have no other guide but you. 00:34:04.240 --> 00:34:07.279 I trust no priest, no man like myself. 00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:09.280 I don't even trust an angel. 00:34:09.440 --> 00:34:16.639 I trust only you, you who led your people through the wilderness by a pillar of fire and smoke. 00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:22.000 You who lead us now will lead us into the path of life. 00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:33.920 And though I come to death alone as a solitary traveler from this life to the next, I don't know where I'm going, but you will show me the path of life. 00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:42.239 You will devote your wisdom and your strength and take me by the hand and lead me home like a father leads his child. 00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:45.599 You will be gentle and patient with me. 00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:55.119 And when I am so broken by death, so blind that I cannot see with my eyes, I will hear you say, This is the way. 00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:59.519 Come now and enter into the joy of your Lord. 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:04.480 Can you hear the answer to the question yet? 00:35:04.960 --> 00:35:05.840 So what? 00:35:06.559 --> 00:35:07.440 So what? 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:10.239 How can I have ever said so what? 00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:15.760 So, what is the significance of the resurrection celebration that we have today? 00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:24.719 Do you see how precious it is, how full of meaning it is for the psalmist David to cry, you reveal to me the path of life? 00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:30.320 Christ, the resurrected one, can give you that confidence too. 00:35:31.280 --> 00:35:41.119 And though the dewdrops of death might might lay cold and clammy upon your brow, you don't have to go there and fear. 00:35:42.639 --> 00:35:45.280 The Lord Jesus will show you the way. 00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:49.920 The Lord Jesus will give you the victory over your greatest adversary. 00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:52.480 You do not have to fear death. 00:35:52.800 --> 00:36:01.679 He will teach you how how to find life in death and how to triumph in the midst of this last earthly conflict that will endure. 00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:10.239 And that moment when we part this life and our spirit is launched into the sea that we've never traversed before. 00:36:10.559 --> 00:36:12.159 We don't go alone. 00:36:12.960 --> 00:36:18.880 We will leave the familiar surroundings of this place to come to a place we call home. 00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:20.320 Home. 00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:29.760 You will never have to cry as a believer as your last breath is spent saying, Where will I go? 00:36:31.679 --> 00:36:35.760 Because you will not be left in an unknown land of death without guidance. 00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:40.239 You will not need to ask any question because you already know the answer. 00:36:40.480 --> 00:36:42.960 You have shown me the path of life. 00:36:44.320 --> 00:36:53.760 Up to the realms where angels dwell, on eagle's wings born, you shall to heaven ascend and find it home. 00:36:54.639 --> 00:37:01.599 God Himself will stoop from heaven and be your guide, and he will take you to dwell at his right hand. 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:12.960 The ages, yes, they'll speed on, and anybody left on earth will see your grave, just as they saw David's tomb. 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:16.400 And they might ask the same question. 00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:22.079 Was all his confidence, all her hope, vain? 00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:41.360 And years, decades, maybe even centuries, might continue to roll, and the question might continue to hang in the air about you and me who believe on Christ and others and different places and times. 00:37:41.840 --> 00:37:45.119 Was there confidence vain? 00:37:46.159 --> 00:37:49.679 Should they have just eaten and drunk? 00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:52.239 Because tomorrow they died. 00:37:54.079 --> 00:37:54.960 Is it? 00:37:56.559 --> 00:38:02.559 If David cried from the tomb for 900 years, he would just say, just wait. 00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:04.000 Just wait. 00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:05.599 Just wait. 00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:14.800 And if we could cry from our grave to those who might ask the question about any confidence of our hope, just wait. 00:38:15.360 --> 00:38:16.639 Just wait. 00:38:17.519 --> 00:38:18.800 Just wait. 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:26.639 Because the ages will speed on, and due time there will ring out the mighty blast of the resurrection trumpet. 00:38:26.880 --> 00:38:35.039 And that trumpet will sound, and these limbs all moldered to the dust, these eyes that have vanished from family and friends. 00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:45.920 This whole moral fabric of our bodies, dissolved and returned to Mother Earth, will arise in Christ. 00:38:46.320 --> 00:38:50.800 We don't have to worry about our own power to lift ourselves out of the grave. 00:38:51.039 --> 00:38:57.199 We don't have the power to put bone to bone and knit ourselves back together. 00:38:57.760 --> 00:39:07.360 God will call out to each and every Adam and say, Come together, and we will be who we are, but something far grander than we are. 00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:10.639 Wondrously and mysteriously changed. 00:39:11.440 --> 00:39:25.920 Paul said this in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:33.039 For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body clothed with immortality. 00:39:33.599 --> 00:39:43.599 When this corruptible body is clothed with immortality, and when this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place. 00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:46.639 Death has been swallowed up with victory. 00:39:47.280 --> 00:39:57.920 Where death is your victory, where death is your sting, and will stand on the neck of death because Christ our King killed it already. 00:39:59.679 --> 00:40:00.320 Amen. 00:40:02.960 --> 00:40:07.280 And in Christ He's revealed to us the path of life. 00:40:20.079 --> 00:40:24.639 If we're in union with him, we will have the victory he won over death. 00:40:25.760 --> 00:40:33.519 So if you're a brother and sister in Christ, drink this in today and let us rejoice with greater voice than David could have even spoken. 00:40:33.679 --> 00:40:35.519 He saw promises afar. 00:40:35.679 --> 00:40:38.079 We look back and see realities in place. 00:40:38.559 --> 00:40:40.000 We know it's true. 00:40:40.320 --> 00:40:42.559 He looked for it to happen. 00:40:42.719 --> 00:40:58.480 We look back at what happened and we rejoice because that gives us a grander, deeper, greater sense of enjoyment and satisfaction and delight than David could have even mustered as he looked for the promise to be real. 00:40:59.280 --> 00:40:59.920 Amen. 00:41:01.199 --> 00:41:08.400 If you're here this morning and your question might have been, well, Easter's kind of a tradition for me, but not a reality for me. 00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:10.239 I know what that's like. 00:41:10.400 --> 00:41:12.800 I lived that way for many years. 00:41:14.719 --> 00:41:16.480 But it's so much more. 00:41:17.199 --> 00:41:24.880 There's so much what to it that you never has to ask so what again. 00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:26.400 It's here. 00:41:26.800 --> 00:41:32.400 Drink it in and let it kill all your fears of death. 00:41:32.719 --> 00:41:41.599