Three Days To Glory | Selected Scripture

Dr. Grant Castleberry preaches "Three Days to Glory" from Selected Scripture at The Lord's Day Service on Easter Sunday at The King's Chapel, Sunday, April 5, 2026.



Website: https://www.thekingschapel.com/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@TheKingsChapelRaleigh

Facebook: facebook.com/thekingschapelnc

Instagram: instagram.com/thekingschapelnc

X: x.com/kingschapelnc

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Could you pray with me one more time? Heavenly Father, I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me now in the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, that you would make this book live. It is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and I pray, Lord, that its truth would not just be merely theoretical, but it would live in our hearts as Christ lives in our hearts. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. It's amazing that Jesus has indeed been raised. Amazing. Not just in a body like this, but in an indestructible resurrection body. It wasn't just random or happenstance. Jesus said he would be raised from the dead. And it's not just that he said he would be raised from the dead. He predicted when he would be raised from the dead. Over and over, he said, I will be raised in three days. Open your Bibles, if you will, to the Gospel of John. We're going to be in a number of places. I put these verses on the sheet so you can, if you're, if you're a Bible sword person, you can turn with me. And if you're not, they're right there in the notes that you can go and look up later. But they're right there. Excuse me, in John chapter 2. Jesus says this. This is after he cleared the temple at his first Passover. The Jews said to him, What sign do you show us for doing these things? Verse 19, Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? John adds, but he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. People remembered this. Even the Pharisees remembered this. So when Jesus was on trial, one of the false witnesses that came forward, this is in Matthew chapter 26, he said, The man Jesus said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. So people remembered this saying. If you turn over to Matthew's gospel, to Matthew chapter 16, this is right after Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi, where he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus takes the disciples aside. This is verse 21 of Matthew 16. It says, From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised. Mark chapter 8, verse 31. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. If you look over on the page to the right, maybe it's the next page. This is chapter 9, verse 31, very next chapter. He was teaching his disciples, saying to them, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise. What's interesting, I think, if you turn to the left now to the gospel of Matthew, is even the Pharisees and the scribes understood that Jesus had predicted that he would rise in three days. This is Matthew 27. If you look at verse 62, the context is the scribes, the Pharisees, this is after the crucifixion, they go to Pilate and they ask for a guard to guard the tomb. And notice why, verse 62, the next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that imposter said while he was still alive, after three days, I will rise. Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Notice they even put a timestamp on how long they want Pilate to send a Roman guard. If you can just guard the tomb for three days. Because if something happens after that, it's irrelevant because he predicted he would rise in three days. He says, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he is risen from the dead, and the last fraud will be worse than the first. In Luke's gospel, this is after the resurrection, Luke 24, when Mary Magdalene and the other women who were the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection came to the tomb. There were two angels that were there outside the tomb. Remember how he told you while he was still alive that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise. Okay. So it's very clear. Jesus made these predictions that he would be raised on the third day. Everybody knew it. The disciples remembered it. Even the Pharisees and the scribes understood it. That's why they asked Pilate to put the guard there. And the angels knew it. The angels who are watching and studying our Lord Jesus during his whole earthly ministry. They know that Jesus had predicted that he would be raised in three days. Now I was asking the question: is that significant? Is three days significant? Now, we read earlier in 1 Corinthians 15, I'm going to read you the verse again, because Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4, he's talking about the gospel. He essentially reiterates the main points of the gospel. He says, For I've delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. What scriptures? What's he talking about? He's talking about the Old Testament. He's talking about the Old Testament scriptures that they had at the time. He's saying that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Old Testament scriptures. And then he says, verse 4, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day. Now look at this. In accordance with the scriptures. So this was predicted, so to speak, in the Old Testament, that Jesus would be raised three days after his death. But where in the Old Testament does it predict that Jesus will be raised in three days? There's not a verse, one verse in the Old Testament, that says the Messiah will be raised on the third day. You won't find that verse. So how can Paul say this is in accordance with the scriptures? That's a puzzler, isn't it? Well, I want to show you how this morning. I want to show you how Paul can say this, that this is in accordance with the scriptures. First reason. I'm going to give you five very quickly. First reason is that three days in the grave is sufficient time to give proof to his death. Sufficient time to give proof to his death. Now the Old Testament scriptures predicted that Jesus would die and be buried. Jut down these verses. Psalm 16, 10. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. That's a verse that predicts that he will be raised. Isaiah 53, 9 says they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man in his death. So it's predicted that he will be dead and that he will be buried. And logically, three days is enough time to give proof to the fact that he is dead. Now, throughout history, all sorts of people have tried to discredit the empty tomb. Because how do you argue with the fact that Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, new tomb, everybody knew where it was, was empty. And one of the theories, of course, is that the disciples stole the body. The very disciples who were pathetically afraid in the Garden of Gethsemane ran away. They somehow mustered the courage to come and overthrow an entire Roman guard and somehow whisked away his body without anybody seeing, though there were probably 40 or 50,000 extra Jews in the city for the Passover, in addition to 5,000 Roman centurions who were there keeping watch, that with all those people around, the disciples somehow overpowered the guard, took the body, removed the seal, removed the stone, went and hit it. No, no, no, no. Or some have said, this is a theory that was put forward in the 1800s, a fellow by the name of Heinrich Paulus. It's called the swoon theory. Have you ever heard of the swoon theory? It said after Jesus was flogged, his back literally ripped away, the crown of thorns put on his head, and after being crucified, a spear shoved into his heart, and then being taken down and wrapped in cloth and a hundred pounds of embalming spices, that he was put into the tomb, and in the coolness of the tomb, this is important for the swoon theory. In the coolness of the tomb, the cool air did something. It caused him to awake. And he takes off all of the cloths, he pushes the stone, he overpowers all of the Roman guards that were there, and he walks the seven miles to Emmaus. That's the swoon theory. It's ridiculous, just hearing it, isn't it? It's been discredited by physicians and all sorts of people, but it keeps coming back. Every Easter there's somebody that talks about the so-called swoon theory. No, no, no, no. He was in the ground for three days, certifying the reality that he indeed did die. Second reason why it had to be three days. This is fascinating. In the Gospel of John, we looked at this last Sunday in John 12. Jesus makes this statement. This is verse 23. Jesus answered them, Philip and Andrew, coming to him because some Greeks had approached them. He says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And notice what he compares his death to. He says, Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. So he compares his death, and Paul's going to pick this theme up, comparing it to the resurrection, to a seed, a kernel of wheat being planted into the ground, that then dies and then bears fruit that springs forth. So Paul picks up this theme in terms of the resurrection. Again, you don't need to turn there. I put this verse in the notes. But it's in 1 Corinthians 15. This is verse 36. He says, What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not, is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and each kind a seed, its own body. What he's saying is that when you bury someone, it's like a seed that you're putting in the ground in the hope that one day they will be raised with a body like Christ. So there's a comparison here. Jesus says, My body is like a seed that's put in the ground. And Paul is saying that when you bury a believer, that's the normal way that a Christian's body is preserved after death is through burial. It's like a seed. Okay, here's what's interesting. What day in creation did the seeds bear fruit? So first day of creation, remember there's six days. First day, God said, Let there be light. Second day, let the waters be divided, the water, the atmosphere above, and the waters below. Third day, dry land, and then the grass and the flowers bursting forth. What day? The third day. The day that the seeds came forth. What day is Jesus raised? The third day. Third reason. Three days is the Old Testament time period of deliverance. When you study the Exodus, and the Exodus is when the children of Israel were brought out of the land of Egypt. Remember Chalton Heston, Ten Commandments, the Exodus, the Red Sea, all of that. When you go back and read the book of Exodus over and over and over again, Moses comes to Pharaoh. Remember all the ten plagues? And Moses tells Pharaoh, let us go and worship out into the wilderness a three days journey. So three days is the number, the time period of deliverance. Let me give you a couple more examples. Exodus 15, 22. It says, Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness, and then there they found no water. Of course, God makes water for them. When they're coming into the promised land, this is Joshua 1.11. He says, Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. It's fascinating to note that Jesus' ministry, his life and ministry, pictures the deliverance of the Exodus. In fact, Jesus reenacts Israel's history. In Matthew 2, do you remember Herod wanted to kill the little children? And an angel appeared to Joseph, and he says, You must take the mother and the child to Egypt. And Matthew makes the note that this was to fulfill what was prophesied by the prophet, out of Egypt, I called my son. So Jesus goes to Egypt. And then Matthew records that next scene, Matthew 3, he's baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Israel was baptized in the Red Sea. Where did Israel go after the Red Sea? Into the wilderness, where they would be tempted. Where does Jesus go after he goes to the Jordan River to be baptized? Into the wilderness to be tempted. So Jesus is redoing Israel's history. And what does Jesus do for all those who believe in his name? He provides deliverance from sin. So Christ's work is pictured as a new exodus. Paul says in Colossians 1 13, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Three days is the number of redemption and deliverance. So it is fitting that our Lord be in the tomb for three days in order to bring about deliverance and redemption for his people. Fourth reason why he needed to be in the tomb for three days. It's the pattern of the Old Testament prophet. Stay with me here. Turn over to Matthew twelve. Jesus makes this really fascinating statement in Matthew twelve. Verse 38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. We wish to see a miracle from you. But he answered them an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it. Notice this, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. It's really fascinating that Jesus understood himself to be repeating different actions of both Israel and the Old Testament prophets. And so here he says that Jonah. The rebellious prophet? Jonah was a prophet in eighth century BC Israel. It was at the height of Israel's power. At the height of the northern kingdom. Really the height of the southern kingdom as well, when Uzziah was king of Judah. And God tells Jonah, he says, You are going to go preach to the Assyrians. You're going to go to their capital city. Assyria is way, way far to the northeast, hundreds of miles. And the Assyrians were the sworn enemy of Israel. They were terrible people. They would literally strip the skin off the warriors they captured, strip the skin people alive. They were wicked people. And God tells Jonah, I want you to go to these people. And Jonah says, No, I'm not going to do that. And he goes the opposite way to the Mediterranean. He gets on a boat to sell to Tarshus in Spain. And they get out into the Mediterranean, and God sends a storm. And it's a storm unlike these sailors had ever seen before. And it's so bad they say, we must be under the judgment of Almighty God. And they decide to cast lots to see why they are under judgment. And they cast lots. Jonah's down sleeping. They get him up. He pulls a lot, the short lot, and they say, You're the guy. Why are we under judgment? And he says, I am a prophet of God most high, the maker of all the earth, including the oceans. What? And he says, and I'm in rebellion against God. He told me to do one thing, and I'm going the opposite direction. So at this point, they try to turn around and go back to land, and they can't do it. They can't do it. So Jonah says, Here's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to pick me up and you're going to throw me into the sea. You're going to sacrifice me for the sake of the ship. So they do. They throw him into the sea, and God appoints a fish. Doesn't say a well. Maybe it was a well, but God appoints a great fish to come and swallow him. And this is Jonah 1.17. The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. In chapter 2 of Jonah, he's praying in the belly of this fish. Lord, would you deliver me? Would you deliver me? And this fish, God appoints to spit him up. Spit him up on the seashore. Wouldn't you love to see that? A man being vomited up by a fish. How does this depict Jesus? I mean, this rebellious prophet? Well, what does Jonah then go do? He's the only prophet of the Old Testament who brings the gospel to the Gentiles. He goes to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. Of course, he preaches with his arms locked rebelliously, repent. He doesn't want them to repent, but guess what happens? They do repent. The whole city repents. And Jesus says, in many ways, I am like Jonah in the best sense, in that I am bringing salvation to the world. Not just the Jew, but to all tribes, all peoples, all nations. And I will give you the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, I will be in the ground for three days. Amazing, isn't it? Okay, fifth and final reason. Isn't this interesting? There's no direct prediction, but yet all the signs point to three days. Now Jesus is the fulfillment of every feast, every festival the Jews were given, including the feast of first fruits. Let me explain these. So the Passover feast. Remember, that was during the Exodus, they were to eat the Passover lamb. We already talked about that, how Christ enacts a new Exodus, a new redemption. Jesus was literally killed while they were eating the Passover feast. He fulfills the feast of unleavened bread through his sinless life. He fulfills the feast of weeks or Pentecost. That's Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit is given from heaven, and so many believe. He will fulfill the feast of trumpets at his second coming. What will be played at his second coming? It will be accompanied by the sound of the trumpet. Of course, he fulfills the day of atonement through his substitutionary death. That's why the temple veil was torn in two. There's no longer a need for the high priest to go make atonement in the Holy of Holies. He fulfills, will fulfill the Feast of Tabernacles and Booth. That's after his second coming when we're in resurrection bodies. We'll all be around the New Jerusalem forever praising the Lord. And then he fulfills the feast of first fruits. What was the feast of first fruits? It was a dedication to God at the harvest of the first fruit that would be harvested. And they would come and they would make sacrifices to the Lord, thanking God for the first fruit. The first fruit, it's like that first apple that's picked. And it's the promise of what is to come, right? Okay. When was the feast of first fruits celebrated? 16th day of Nisan. What day was Christ raised? 16th day of Nisan. So Paul says, we read this earlier, 1 Corinthians 15, 23, he says, but each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Now when you study the Gospels, you see that Christ has a body that is both similar and dissimilar from our bodies. You notice this. On the one hand, people are able to recognize him. And on the other hand, people have some trouble recognizing him. On the one hand, he appears in a body that looks like ours. It has even nail piercings in his hands, a piercing in his side, but yet he can seemingly go through walls. Paul says it is a new type of body. And it pictures the type of body that all the saints will receive when he returns. That all the saints, whether they're buried or like my father who was killed, whose body was lost at sea in the ocean, that wherever they are, all of the bodies of the saints will be raised and they will be transformed. And you will have a resurrection body like the body of the first fruit, who is Christ. So Christ's resurrection on the third day occurs on the feast of first fruits, thus completely fulfilling it. I find that absolutely amazing. So why does this matter? What's the point of all this? One, let me give you several reasons. But first, do you see how Jesus in every way is the fulfillment of the Old Testament? You know, Jews today, so many here in America over in Israel, are waiting for a Messiah. They're saying, we're waiting for our Messiah to come. But the Messiah has come. The anointed one has come. And not only did he fulfill all of the Old Testament prophecies that were made literally, literally, he also fulfilled all of the feasts and the festivals and the types. He fulfills what the prophets were to do. He fulfilled what Israel was supposed to do. He fulfills this feast of first fruits. And so you see in an amazing way that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. So if you're a Jew, do not keep waiting and looking for your Messiah. He's come. May your eyes be open to the fact that he's fulfilled all of the Old Testament, all of the requirements that the Messiah was to fulfill. Second reason why this is so important is that Jesus' resurrection on the third day is the vindication of his perfect life and death. The vindication. There is no one else who has ever been raised in a resurrection body. No one else. Not Muhammad, not Buddha, not Confucius, certainly not Joseph Smith. No one has ever been raised in a perfect body. It's a fact. How do we know it's a fact? Well, Paul said 500 eyewitnesses saw it. We know that the apostles died for it. You don't die for falsehoods, but most important, we know it's a fact because it's recorded in the inerrant Word of God. Oh, if there could be a trustworthy source of which we could see that there was indeed a resurrection, here it is. It's the Bible. And the Bible from beginning to end records the truth that he was indeed raised. So you can believe that he was raised. This is important because all of us, unless the Lord comes back before our time, will one day die. But Jesus, his righteous life and death for sinners was vindicated by the resurrection. What do I mean by this? The wage of sin is death. All of us sin, and therefore we are subject to the penalty of death. Jesus never sinned. He died in the place of sinners. In the proof of his sinless, perfect life, and the penalty that he made for sinners is in the resurrection. So don't trust in your own works. Sometimes I hear people say this, you know, I of course I believe in Jesus, but I'm also trying to be a good person. And in the final analysis, what you're doing is you're trusting in your own life. Friend, your own life ends in death. Don't trust in good works or religiosity. You have to come to the end of that, and you trust in Christ alone. He is the only person who has ever been raised from the dead. Why would you trust in anyone else? This is the point of the resurrection, it verifies our faith. And God promises that all those who believe in his name, repent of their sins, and trust Christ in faith, will one day be raised just like Christ. It is the only hope for eternal life. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which you can be saved. And so I want to say this morning to you some of you came this morning and you've never come to the end of yourself. You've never come to the point in which you cried out to God and you said, Save me. In order to be saved, in order to become a Christian, in order to be guaranteed a resurrection body, you don't have to walk an aisle. I know sometimes people do that. You don't have to come up to the front. You won't find that in the New Testament. You don't have to fill out a card. You know what the New Testament says you must do in order to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't do that for you. No one can do that for you. You must, as an act of the will, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ from the heart. Paul said, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So the question is, do you believe? Do you believe? Third reason why this is so important is this is our hope. I don't know about you, but I got up this morning so happy. Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy. It was amazing. I have the greatest hope. If you're a Christian, you have the greatest hope. You know, God has given me so many good gifts. But one day we're gonna die. But you know what? That's not the end. It's not the end. And so I've been to so many funerals of my family members and friends. But for those who are in Christ, it's not the end. There's hope. It's just really the beginning. Because to be absent from the body, your soul goes to be with the Lord, and then you will wait for the Lord to return when the dead in Christ will be raised, and then we will reign with Christ. You know, that feast of boost thing we were talking about? We will reign with Christ forever and ever. In glorious bodies. Charles asked me this morning, my son, he said, will we sneeze in the new heavens and the new earth? You know, will we have these pollen allergies? I don't think so. Will we enjoy coffee? Yeah, but I don't think we'll need caffeine pick-me-ups. It's gonna be so wonderful. Are you encouraged that Jesus, you know, when he appeared with his disciples on the Sea of Galilee, that he went and enjoyed some food? Two fishes? Any foodies here? Yes! That means we're gonna be eating in heaven juicy steaks. Remember the story of the prodigal son Luke 15? Barbecue the fatted calf? Yes, amen. But where would we be without this hope if Jesus Christ had not been raised from the dead in three days? He is the only hope. Lord, we thank you for this hope. We thank you, Lord, for the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The first fruits of those who have been raised from the dead. Lord, we confess this morning in our hearts that you are our only hope. The only sin payment that has been made. The only Lord, the only savior, the only Christ. And it is your name that we confess this morning as Lord. We praise you. Give you all of the glory. In Christ's name. Amen. Listen, this morning, if you would like to speak to me or one of the pastors, some of the pastors are going to be up front. I'm going to be outside by the uh chapel books, by the bookstore. I would love to talk with you if you are thinking about what it means to repent of your sins and trust in Christ in faith.