SPEAKER_01: Jesus gives us anchors, specific anchors that you and I can have in times of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you so much for another Sunday we get to gather.
SPEAKER_01: Another Sunday we get to worship you.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you for the breath in our lungs.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the people that are around us.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the circumstances that you've dealt us in, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You tell us that there are there is always a reason to thank you.
SPEAKER_01: You in every circumstance, you always bless us with reasons to thank you and to worship you.
SPEAKER_01: So Lord, thank you that you are good and you are in control, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now will you please open up my heart and open up just our hearts collectively as we look to the scriptures, as we look to you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for Grant Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: Um thank you just for who you are in this church and what you've done in this church.
SPEAKER_01: I ask you now, Lord, that you can be um be yourself in this space.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is in your beautiful, amazing name I pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Um Grant Parkway, happy Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: It's good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles, would you just go ahead and grab those and go to Luke chapter 24?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Luke chapter 24.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't think I need to introduce myself to you.
SPEAKER_01: I think I've been here enough times to where most of you know exactly who I am.
SPEAKER_01: But for those who don't, or for those who are new, um, my name is Leo Almeida.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a youth pastor, a student pastor over in Richmond, Sugarland, Rosenberg.
SPEAKER_01: I still have no clue which one.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm geographically challenged, but my church is called Cornerstone.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, maybe you can look that up and tell me where I actually um go to church.
SPEAKER_01: But I've been a youth pastor there for the last four years, and I have absolutely loved it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad to be there, but also I I love coming here.
SPEAKER_01: I love getting the opportunity to preach here.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm glad to be with you this Sunday morning wherever you are.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's just an honor and a pleasure to be with you today.
SPEAKER_01: Now, listen, um right off the bat, I don't quite have to have the time that I wish that I had to fully exegete this text.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I know I know some of you are wrangling kiddos into the living room as we speak, and I know it's difficult to focus on a screen when you have tiny humans crawling up and down your torso.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I know those things are difficult.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, what I want to do is I want to be mindful of your time.
SPEAKER_01: I want to honor your time.
SPEAKER_01: So, therefore, we're gonna jump right in.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get right into Luke chapter 24.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna jump right in.
SPEAKER_01: So, just by way of contact with context, Luke was not an eyewitness of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But what Luke did is Luke went through and he interviewed anyone that had any sort of significant encounter with Jesus, and what he did was he compiled these things into an orderly account.
SPEAKER_01: So the book of Luke, the chapel, the the gospel of Jesus according to Luke, reads like a documentary.
SPEAKER_01: And where we are specifically in chapter 24, Jesus died two days ago.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died the day before yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: And chapter 24, the last chapter of the Gospel of Jesus according to Luke, chapter 24 opens up with a couple women taking spices to the burial sites of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, first century Jews, they cared a lot about ossuary preservation, they cared a lot about um bodily, um bodily preservation of other Jews that had just died.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, these women are taking spices to the burial site of Jesus just to find out the tomb is empty.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, the grave is empty.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 23 ends with a specific statement that they actually saw where he was laying, so they went back on the third day and the tomb was empty.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens is the camera of the Bible shifts away from this scene and it shifts to two men that are walking.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens next makes for one of the weirdest stories in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That also happens in my favorite story of the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be in Luke chapter 24, verses 13 through 32.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 13 through 32.
SPEAKER_01: Those 19 verses, I know it's a long text, but the implications for it are too good to describe.
SPEAKER_01: They're too good for words.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll try to anyway.
SPEAKER_01: So this is chapter 24, verses 13 through 32, and here we go.
SPEAKER_01: That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And they were talking to each other about the things that had happened.
SPEAKER_01: While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
SPEAKER_01: But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, What is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk?
SPEAKER_01: And they stood still, looking sad.
SPEAKER_01: Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, are you the only visitor of Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days?
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, What things?
SPEAKER_01: And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word, before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.
SPEAKER_01: But we hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things have happened.
SPEAKER_01: Moreover, some women, some women of our company amazed us.
SPEAKER_01: They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back seeing that they had even seen vision of angels who said that he was alive.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them who were with us went to the tomb and found just as the women had said, but him they did not see.
SPEAKER_01: But he said to them, Oh, foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe, all the prophets that have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
SPEAKER_01: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
SPEAKER_01: So they drew near to the village to which they were going, and he acted as if he was going further, but they urged him strongly, saying, Hey, stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent.
SPEAKER_01: So he went in to stay with them.
SPEAKER_01: And when he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed blessed and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
SPEAKER_01: And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
SPEAKER_01: They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?
SPEAKER_01: And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.
SPEAKER_01: Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, this is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what just happened?
SPEAKER_01: What just happened?
SPEAKER_01: Now, we have two men right here, two men who are walking to Emmaus.
SPEAKER_01: They are walking to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is the spot where Jesus is crucified.
SPEAKER_01: So they're walking away from the spot where Jesus dies, and they're walking to Emmaus.
SPEAKER_01: And they're walking with two things.
SPEAKER_01: They got two things.
SPEAKER_01: These two men, Cleopus and his buddy, are walking with two things.
SPEAKER_01: One, they are walking with crushed hearts.
SPEAKER_01: They're walking with crushed hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17 says this.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to them, What is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk?
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is asking, Hey, what are you guys walking and talking about?
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says, they stood still looking sad.
SPEAKER_01: They stood still looking gloomy.
SPEAKER_01: These men had crushed hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, their hearts were sore, their hearts were broken.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, this would have been a devastating moment for these men.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how would you feel if the religion that you believed in was proved to be fake?
SPEAKER_01: How would you feel if the religion that you believed in was proved to be fake?
SPEAKER_01: That would be immensely disorienting.
SPEAKER_01: That would be extremely painful, extremely traumatic.
SPEAKER_01: The scaffolding of who you were would be completely rattled and shaking, and that's the situation they were in.
SPEAKER_01: That's the situation these two men were in because these two men believed in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, they believed in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What's the first way?
SPEAKER_01: What's the first way Luke describes these men?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: What's the first way Luke describes these men?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: It says this that very day, two of them.
SPEAKER_01: The first descriptor of these men are two of them, which begs the question, two of who?
SPEAKER_01: Well, in the scene before this, Luke is documenting something that happened with the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, That very day, two of them.
SPEAKER_01: So these men were not one of the, not two of the twelve apostles, but these men were disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, they believed in Jesus, they were followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And then furthermore, verse 21 tells us that they hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So these are men that were believers in Christ, they were followers of Christ, they were learners from Christ, and they placed their hope in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So they went from worshiping Jesus to watching him die.
SPEAKER_01: They went from singing and thinking that this was the king, this was the one, to watching blood come out of his chest, to watching him suffocate and yell and screech as he's dying in the most barbaric of ways to die.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, their hopes would have been crushed.
SPEAKER_01: Just by way of illustration, man, think of the millions of people that will be in doctors' offices this very year that are gonna hear the two brutal words that nobody wants to hear.
SPEAKER_01: It's cancer.
SPEAKER_01: That's a disorienting moment.
SPEAKER_01: That is a difficult moment.
SPEAKER_01: And even as I say that, I know some of you have been in that moment, or you've walked with someone that's been in that moment, or you've done life with someone who's been in that moment, or you've lost someone who's been in that moment, but just put yourself in the shoes of someone who hears those words.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, it's cancer.
SPEAKER_01: Now, picture, use your imagination, picture that walk from the doctor's office, from that room to the car.
SPEAKER_01: That's a difficult walk.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart would be sore, and you would be walking back the way you came in, and everything looks the same, but not everything is completely different.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, this is the spirit crush that these men are undergoing.
SPEAKER_01: That's what these men were experiencing.
SPEAKER_01: They were absolutely devastated.
SPEAKER_01: And I know many of you who are watching this, you might have even grown up reading this story.
SPEAKER_01: Let it not be lost on you.
SPEAKER_01: It cannot be overstated how devastated these men would have been.
SPEAKER_01: They went from worshiping him to watching him die.
SPEAKER_01: Man, they were walking to Emmaus, first off, with crushed hearts.
SPEAKER_01: With crushed hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, these men were walking with confused minds.
SPEAKER_01: Crushed hearts and confused minds.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verses 22 through 24.
SPEAKER_01: 22 through 24.
SPEAKER_01: It says this.
SPEAKER_01: Moreover, some of the women, some of some of our women company amazed us.
SPEAKER_01: They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
SPEAKER_01: And some of them who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said.
SPEAKER_01: But Hamda did not see.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, this would have been a bizarre moment as well.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, what if you went to a funeral for a loved one?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you went to a funeral for a loved one and you were absolutely devastated, and then you got home from a funeral, and the next morning, okay, next morning or two days after, one of your most trustworthy friends calls you.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody you really trust, someone you know well that knows you well, calls you and says, Hey, listen, I know that you went to that funeral of the loved one, but the casket is empty, okay, and they are alive.
SPEAKER_01: The casket is empty and they are actually fine.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's what happened.
SPEAKER_01: You would have, in that moment, what you would do is you would try to grapple what you saw versus what they said.
SPEAKER_01: Try to like I saw them in the casket, but my trustworthy friend.
SPEAKER_01: So what you would be doing is you would be going back and forth from anger, okay, to excitement.
SPEAKER_01: Anger, because you're like, how could you make a joke like that in a time like this?
SPEAKER_01: So you'd be going back and forth from anger to excitement.
SPEAKER_01: Could it be that my my sadness was in vain?
SPEAKER_01: You'd be going back and forth between those two from anger to excitement, but all the while it would be confusing.
SPEAKER_01: It would be very confusing.
SPEAKER_01: And so these men are walking with confused minds.
SPEAKER_01: So they're on their way from the from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and they're walking with crushed hearts and confused minds.
SPEAKER_01: And with crushed hearts and confused brains, Jesus walks with them.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe his interaction with these men answers the timely question.
SPEAKER_01: What's our anchor in life?
SPEAKER_01: What's our anchor in this time of uncertainty?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, what is our anchor?
SPEAKER_01: What should be your anchor in times of uncertainty?
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I am not a social analyst or even a historian, but I I'm not even, I'm smarter than your average bear, and I can I can tell you that we are dealing with some uncertain times.
SPEAKER_01: Right now, the COVID-19 has brought about some very uncertain times.
SPEAKER_01: And friends, you can see this at every level.
SPEAKER_01: At every level.
SPEAKER_01: Like over the last couple months, I have watched as world powers from all over the globe, presidents, prime ministers, dictators, senators from all over planet Earth stand in front of a group of people or stand in front of a camera and go, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: This is my first pandemic.
SPEAKER_01: They don't say it that like that, that bluntly.
SPEAKER_01: They put it in more, they veil it with more eloquence, but it's more like, I I'm going about, I have a little more information than the rest of you, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: So you can see uncertainty at the highest level, but even at the lowest level.
SPEAKER_01: Some of my students just finished their first year or their second year of college, and they're coming back saying, Hey Leo, I don't know if I'm going back to school in the fall.
SPEAKER_01: Or if I go back to school in the fall, what's our living arrangement gonna be like?
SPEAKER_01: Or hey, Leo, what's youth ministry gonna look like for us in the future?
SPEAKER_01: Are we still gonna go to camp?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, what's it going to look like?
SPEAKER_01: So do you see um uncertainty at the highest of even for some of you?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, some of you probably have toddlers who are looking around like, wait, why can't we go to that restaurant?
SPEAKER_01: Or hey, it's been a while since I've been at the jungle gym, right?
SPEAKER_01: So you you you see uncertainty at every single level, and there are anchors.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gives us anchors, specific anchors that you and I can have in times of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not general, like, hey, I know it's crazy out there, but you're a Christian, so everything's gonna be work out well to you at the end.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gives us at least, again, this passage is pregnant with things that I could break down, but Jesus gives us at the very least two specific anchors in times of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: Here's anchor number one.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, here is anchor number one in times of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rose bodily from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 30 one more time.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: When he was at the table with them, so when Jesus was at the table with Clepus, his friend, when he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
SPEAKER_01: That's the verse.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is so interesting, but one of the things that you see Jesus resurrected Jesus constantly doing is eating.
SPEAKER_01: Resurrected Jesus is always about the food.
SPEAKER_01: He's always either asking for food, he's always eating, he's always cooking food, resurrected Jesus is about the food.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: It's because he's trying to show his, the people that are looking at him, hey, listen, I am not a figment of your imagination.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I am not some sort of figment of your imagination.
SPEAKER_01: This is not some sort of extension of your greeting process.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what's happening right here.
SPEAKER_01: He's breaking bread with them to show him, hey, listen, I am not just your daydream, I am actually here.
SPEAKER_01: And this is incredibly important for you to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Every is very important for you to understand because around every March or every April, a lot of skeptics come out of the woodwork, a lot of New Testament critics come out of the woodwork and they say things like you know, those disciples, those apostles, those writers of the New Testament, you can tell they're noble men.
SPEAKER_01: You can tell that these are noble men with no real reason to lie.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe they think they saw something.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that those disciples and those apostles, they think they saw the risen Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But what probably happened is like, for example, Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Peter was such a sellout when you needed him most.
SPEAKER_01: He was loyal until you actually needed him the most.
SPEAKER_01: So he probably felt awful about ditching Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He probably felt bad about denying he knew Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So what he did was as he was grieving, he started daydreaming.
SPEAKER_01: And he daydreamed and he daydreamed, and he was daydreaming Jesus saying, Hey, I forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: He started to daydream Jesus saying, Hey, I forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: And what that did was that psychologically helped him close the chapter in his life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That psychologically helped him cope with what he did.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of skeptics will say that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm here to tell you, 2000, this shows right here, 2,000 years earlier, 2,000 years before that argument starts being made and circulated, Jesus says, no.
SPEAKER_01: Happy thoughts can't eat dinner with you.
SPEAKER_01: Daydreams can't share meal with you.
SPEAKER_01: Imaginations can't actually eat with you.
SPEAKER_01: So one of the interesting things that you see about resurrected Jesus, he is all about the food.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the ways, one of the places you actually see this very explicitly is in the very next scene.
SPEAKER_01: So Cleopas and his buddy, the disverse Jesus, Jesus vanishes, so they run back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: They run all the way back to Jerusalem, and this is the scene where they walk into, or that's actually happening in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: The camera of the Bible shifts to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: This is verses 36 through 43.
SPEAKER_01: It says this.
SPEAKER_01: But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Why are you troubled?
SPEAKER_01: Why do why do why do doubts arise in your hearts?
SPEAKER_01: See my hands and my feet.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That it is I myself.
SPEAKER_01: Touch me and see.
SPEAKER_01: For a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.
SPEAKER_01: And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
SPEAKER_01: And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat?
SPEAKER_01: And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them.
SPEAKER_01: He's responding to their doubts by eating food in front of them.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I am actually here.
SPEAKER_01: Um you probably can't tell, um, but I was very passionate.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up, I am, I grew up and I still am extremely passionate.
SPEAKER_01: Passionate about basketball, and it's all because of a man named Alan Iverson.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Alan Iverson is one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
SPEAKER_01: Alan Iverson is also really, really skinny and really, really short.
SPEAKER_01: He is skinny and short.
SPEAKER_01: I think the stats say that he's about six feet tall, which is a lie, because most people that spend any time in the same room as this as Alan Iverson would say that he's not six feet tall.
SPEAKER_01: He's like 5'10.
SPEAKER_01: And he's about 165 pounds.
SPEAKER_01: He's just a very small guy, a very small frame.
SPEAKER_01: And in 2001 was his best year because he took a team of just knuckleheads.
SPEAKER_01: He took a team of just average players.
SPEAKER_01: He took a team, carried him on his back, and took him all the way to the NBA finals only to play against the Los Angeles Lakers.
SPEAKER_01: The Lakers at the time were the best team in the NBA by far.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, they were on their way to building a dynasty basketball team because the Lakers had everyone.
SPEAKER_01: The Lakers had Kobe, they had Shaq, they had Phyllis Jackson, they had Thanos, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: The Lakers had absolutely everybody.
SPEAKER_01: So naturally, the Lakers beat Iverson's team.
SPEAKER_01: But Alan Iverson played so hard, and he played so well.
SPEAKER_01: He literally inspired an entire generation of skinny people to play basketball.
SPEAKER_01: People like me, who was seven at the time in June 2001, was looking at that going, I want to do what that guy's doing.
SPEAKER_01: An entire generation of NBA players today would tell you, hey, I started playing basketball when I saw Alan Iverson play in the finals.
SPEAKER_01: Look how much heart that little guy has.
SPEAKER_01: That inspired me to want to play basketball.
SPEAKER_01: So when a lot of people look at those NBA finals, they'll say things like, hey, Alan Iverson, he lost in the finals, but he won in our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: He lost in the finals, but he won an entire generation over.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I just want to tell you, that's the exact opposite of what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: That is not what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: People are not going, he is risen because they're saying, hey, Jesus dies, Jesus died on a cross, but he rose again in our imagination.
SPEAKER_01: Or hey, Jesus died on a cross, but his teachings live forever.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Look right at me.
SPEAKER_01: Listen.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rose bodily from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: One explicit way that you can see this is in the transformation that it causes.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: The transformation that it crosses.
SPEAKER_01: Before the cross, this is a pop quiz question.
SPEAKER_01: Before the cross, what did Jesus' family think of Hemanist's teachings?
SPEAKER_01: So pre-cross Jesus, what did Jesus and his family think of Hemanist's teachings?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Mark chapter 3, verse 21 actually gives us a glimpse of what they thought of him.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus has a mom and he has siblings.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and here's a scene in Mark chapter 3 where Jesus just gets done picking his apostles and growing an entire fan base as he's teaching all of these things, basically calling himself the Messiah almost every chance he gets.
SPEAKER_01: And in uh Mark chapter 3, verse 21 says this.
SPEAKER_01: For they were saying, He's out of his mind.
SPEAKER_01: His family thought that he was crazy.
SPEAKER_01: And in John chapter 7, verse 5 goes on to say, Not even his brothers believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: Not even his brothers believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, fast forward, there's a man named Saul of Tarsus who has his name switched from Saul of Tarsus, a man who is persecuting the church, a man who is just a one-man wrecking crew of the church.
SPEAKER_01: His day job is making sure that Christians are getting imprisoned and killed on time.
SPEAKER_01: And he is explaining how he goes from Saul of Tarsus to one of the greatest missionaries of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And he says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 3 through 8.
SPEAKER_01: He says this, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: And when he and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
SPEAKER_01: Then he appeared to more than five brothers at one time, most of whom were still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_01: Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
SPEAKER_01: Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
SPEAKER_01: Did you catch verse 7?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: James is Jesus' little brother, and James encounters the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, he sees Jesus die, and then he sees Jesus resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: And what does he do after that?
SPEAKER_01: What does his life look like when he saw his brother resurrected?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he looks completely transformed.
SPEAKER_01: So he goes from skeptic to writing a letter that is now a book of the Bible, the book of Jacobas, which translates to James.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how.
SPEAKER_01: James 1:1 literally says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus' little brother.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, hey, my brother is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's using the definite article right there, the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Not a good man, not sir, but the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, He's the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Christos, the Meshok, the anointed one that Israel has been waiting for all these years.
SPEAKER_01: He's the king of Israel, the king of the world.
SPEAKER_01: That's my brother.
SPEAKER_01: James ends up believing his brother is God.
SPEAKER_01: So he goes from skeptic to a believer.
SPEAKER_01: Furthermore, he goes from skeptic to a leader of the Jerusalem church.
SPEAKER_01: He's a leader of the Jerusalem church.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that might not mean anything to you.
SPEAKER_01: But friends, the Jerusalem church is not just like any other church.
SPEAKER_01: Jerusalem Church, in early Christianity, the Jerusalem church was the mothership.
SPEAKER_01: And James, in Acts 15, it shows us that James one of the leaders of the Jerusalem church.
SPEAKER_01: So he goes from a skeptic to a leader of the Jerusalem church.
SPEAKER_01: And then furthermore, he goes from a skeptic to being referred to as an apostle, Galatians 1.9.
SPEAKER_01: He goes from a skeptic, ultimately, a skeptic to someone who actually dies for this belief.
SPEAKER_01: He dies for believing Jesus is the Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And look right at me, listen.
SPEAKER_01: When someone dies for their religion or dies because of their belief, that does not make your belief true.
SPEAKER_01: That does not make your religion true.
SPEAKER_01: People die for all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_01: That does not make your religion or belief true.
SPEAKER_01: But what it does, it shows how much you believe what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: It shows how much you believe what you're preaching.
SPEAKER_01: And what we know from church history is that James just refused, he refused to renounce his faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And he was thrown off of a building about a hundred feet tall.
SPEAKER_01: He was thrown off the pinnacle of a building a hundred feet tall, and he hits the ground and he doesn't die.
SPEAKER_01: So he's actually clubbed to death.
SPEAKER_01: He goes from a skeptic to a martyr.
SPEAKER_01: Now, um, if you adults watching right now, you can go ahead and tune me out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking directly to you elementary school schoolers, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking to you elementary schoolers and even you junior hires.
SPEAKER_01: My question to you is this what would it take for you to believe that your sibling is God?
SPEAKER_01: What would it take for you to believe that your sibling is God?
SPEAKER_01: You would have to see or experience something beyond comprehension.
SPEAKER_01: Beyond comprehension.
SPEAKER_01: And what turns James from a skeptic to someone who believes that Jesus is God is he saw the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So, friends, Jesus rose bodily from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Why am I spending so much time hammering this point?
SPEAKER_01: Why am I hammering this point away?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's because I've heard a few social analysts and even some pastors say this and tag 2020.
SPEAKER_01: They're tagging 2020 as the year of death.
SPEAKER_01: If it's like every morning we're we're we're we're watching how Italy's doing, or how Africa's doing, or how America's doing, how Texas is doing versus that state, or how this state's doing, how that state.
SPEAKER_01: This year has been tagged as the year of death to a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01: And this has been a painful year.
SPEAKER_01: This has been a very confusing, disorienting, um, painful year.
SPEAKER_01: I know for some of you, the pandemic has been merely inconvenient for you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe just your siblings are on your nerve.
SPEAKER_01: They're convincing you that they're more like Satan than they are God, but your siblings are on your nerve or you're stir crazy or you're bored, you want to get out of the house.
SPEAKER_01: So the pandemic has been inconvenient for you.
SPEAKER_01: But I know some of you that the pandemic may have been, maybe, maybe tragic for you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've dealt with some anxiety, or maybe you've even dealt with a loved one who's passed away, or just some scares, or some health complications.
SPEAKER_01: I'm hammering this point away because I want to tell you that in the midst of the year of death with our Tiger in 2020, I want to tell you that Jesus has defeated death.
SPEAKER_01: And look right at me.
SPEAKER_01: That's not just a Christian slogan.
SPEAKER_01: That's not just a cute Christian slogan.
SPEAKER_01: What that means is that we have a living hope.
SPEAKER_01: We have a living hope.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, hoping in Christ is not the same as wishing for good weather.
SPEAKER_01: Hoping in Christ is not the same as as betting on stocks or hoping on a scoreboard.
SPEAKER_01: No, our hope in Christ, he is alive.
SPEAKER_01: The object of our faith, he himself is alive.
SPEAKER_01: And what this passage is showing us is that he is alive and he is at large.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, he is at large.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, funerals do not have the last say.
SPEAKER_01: The feast is still on, and our soldier made sure of that.
SPEAKER_01: Our soldier made sure of that.
SPEAKER_01: So what's our anchor in this time of uncertainty?
SPEAKER_01: Number one is that Jesus Christ rose bodily.
SPEAKER_01: Keyword bodily, Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, what's our what's our what's our anchor?
SPEAKER_01: Number two, what's our what is our anchor in this time of uncertainty?
SPEAKER_01: Number two is you can enjoy the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you can actually enjoy, spend time savoring and enjoying the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verses 25 through 27 for me.
SPEAKER_01: 25 through 27.
SPEAKER_01: It says this.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Oh, foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe, all that the prophets have spoken.
SPEAKER_01: Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
SPEAKER_01: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures what things about the things concerning himself.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I love this part.
SPEAKER_01: What's happening here?
SPEAKER_01: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: What's happening here?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is revealing himself to these two men.
SPEAKER_01: So at first, their eyes are kept from seeing him.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus is now revealing himself to these two men, and what's so interesting is what Jesus didn't do.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus Christ didn't do.
SPEAKER_01: What he could have done is he could have snapped his fingers like Thanos, and the grass would have gone blue.
SPEAKER_01: And snapped his fingers like Thanos, and then the sky would have gone green.
SPEAKER_01: Or he could have started levitating, or he could have made these disciples start levitating.
SPEAKER_01: He could have done all sorts of visual miracles to show them that he is God.
SPEAKER_01: But verse 27 shows us exactly what he actually did, beginning with Moses and all the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of doing one of those miracles, what he does is he does this.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, remember Moses?
SPEAKER_01: Remember what Moses said?
SPEAKER_01: Remember what Isaiah said?
SPEAKER_01: Remember what Jeremiah, remember what Ezekiel, remember what Haggai said?
SPEAKER_01: Remember what Malachi said?
SPEAKER_01: Remember what the prophets said?
SPEAKER_01: The Christ had to suffer.
SPEAKER_01: God's plan is still on.
SPEAKER_01: He is still good.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, he comforts them.
SPEAKER_01: He comforts them by pointing them back, directly back to the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what old Leo, okay, 2016-ish, 2017, I was so young back then.
SPEAKER_01: Old Leo, what he used to do is he would just look dead in the eyes of his uh youth group, and old Leo would say, you see, Jesus is prioritizing the Old Testament over visual miracles.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I would say is he's prioritizing the Old Testament over miracles.
SPEAKER_01: And now I wouldn't say that anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I would change my verbial to say, he's showing them that the Old Testament is a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: It is a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, God talked.
SPEAKER_01: God talks.
SPEAKER_01: We have a talking God.
SPEAKER_01: God did not create this world the way you see it, like people make watches.
SPEAKER_01: They make it to run, they make it to spin, they put it there, and then he's standoffic just watching it run.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: God talks.
SPEAKER_01: And that's very important because if a bunch of identity in Christ books miss it.
SPEAKER_01: They'll talk about Adam and Eve and said, When are Adam and Eve?
SPEAKER_01: They were image bearer.
SPEAKER_01: What were Adam and Eve?
SPEAKER_01: They were dominion havers.
SPEAKER_01: But they skip over the fact that God talked, making Adam and Eve revelation receivers.
SPEAKER_01: Adam and Eve were revelation receivers, and you and I, our ancestors were, so you and I are also meant to run on God's word.
SPEAKER_01: We were meant to run on God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And because of this passage that we just saw, we can approach his word with a fresh confidence.
SPEAKER_01: A fresh confidence.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, we can trust the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But not in a way that we can win arguments over people.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: We can trust the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But furthermore, late at night, we can enjoy his promises.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we can actually enjoy his promises.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, this quarantine or this lockdown or whatever, as you are reading your Bible, and you just run into one of those sweet new covenant promises that God makes to his people, just understand that those were validated and detonated by the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: They were detonated by the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 20 puts it really well when it says, All of the promises of God find, or all of the promises of God are yes in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: All the promises of God are yes in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus actually validates the entire Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: He's validating the Old Testament, but also the New Testament as well.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people say things like, hey, I love all the like the practical life teaching stuff, all the theological stuff that Jesus said, I don't really vouch for that, but all of the life touch the life, the golden rule, all the life lessons that Jesus gave, those are pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: I want those, but friends, no.
SPEAKER_01: Embedded in the middle of all those talks, he's saying, hey, the Son of Man must suffer, but on the third day, he will be rising again.
SPEAKER_01: He will rise again.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, if someone can specifically predict their death, burial, and resurrection, you should listen to everything else they have to say.
SPEAKER_01: If someone can specifically predict their death, burial, and resurrection, you should listen to everything else that they have to say.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus promised he would be resurrected.
SPEAKER_01: He promised that.
SPEAKER_01: And then it happened.
SPEAKER_01: And just logically, this begs the question what other promises did Jesus make?
SPEAKER_01: What other promises did Jesus make?
SPEAKER_01: Which ones are the most exciting for you?
SPEAKER_01: Which ones are the most comforting for you?
SPEAKER_01: Friends, his resurrection is evidence that they are all still on.
SPEAKER_01: What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no heart of man has imagined, the things that God has, the things that God has prepared for those who love him.
SPEAKER_01: Or even Jesus' last uh the Great Commission uh promise, the whole I will I will I will be with you always.
SPEAKER_01: Those are remarkably comforting, and they have been detonated by the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: So what's our anchor in times of uncertainty?
SPEAKER_01: In the time of uncertainty, you can enjoy the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, those are our two anchors that are specific in this text.
SPEAKER_01: There are more in here, but those are our two anchors that are specific in this text.
SPEAKER_01: What is our anchor in this time of uncertainty?
SPEAKER_01: Number one, Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And number two, we can enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: We can actually savor and enjoy his promises.
SPEAKER_01: I encourage you in this time to go to him.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what your circumstance, you you go to him because he is at large and he's faithful.
SPEAKER_01: He's at large and he's faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, um much like Cleopus and his buddy, a lot of us are making that walk.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we have sore hearts or confused minds, but Lord, I pray that these things can anchor us down.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, I trust you.
SPEAKER_01: We trust you.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for meeting us exactly where we are.
SPEAKER_01: We love you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for just your promises that you've made.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for this book, the fact that you are a talking God.
SPEAKER_01: Just I pray that you can be with us in these times of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: It's your naming, it's in your amazing name I pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: One of the ironies of the current situation that we're facing is that um the world is getting a micro glimpse of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, they're they're getting a glimpse of um one of the aspects of the Christian life, which is waiting.
SPEAKER_01: It's a major aspect of the Christian life, is waiting.
SPEAKER_01: As Christians, we are waiting for Jesus Christ to return, or we're we're waiting to look more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We're waiting.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole world right now is we're all waiting together for the public square to open back up.
SPEAKER_01: We're waiting for normality to be set in, we're waiting for a vaccine for this thing.
SPEAKER_01: But in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul is writing to the people of Thessalonica, and he's encouraging them.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, listen, you can you can cry about these people that are passing away.
SPEAKER_01: You can cry about the pain that's happening, but do not grieve as people who have no hope.
SPEAKER_01: Do not grieve as people who have no hope, but grieve, but not as people who have no hope.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to borrow that verbiage to tell you, hey, listen, let us not wait as people who have no hope.
SPEAKER_01: As the whole world waits for things to get normal, let us wait for as people who have a hope.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to give you this benediction right here.
SPEAKER_01: So the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you, and the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace.
SPEAKER_01: Blessings.