SPEAKER_00 0:00

I heard a pretty cool, neat story about Resurrection Sunday. A Sunday school teacher was asking her third graders, What do you think the first words out of Jesus' mouth was when he came out of the tomb? And so they were thinking and thinking, and then a young little girl said, I got it. I know, I know, I know. And the teacher said, Well, what do you think Jesus said? And the little girl said, Jesus came out of the tomb and said, Ta-da! Yeah. Isn't that great? I think that's biblical right there. Ta-da! That is awesome. Man, we uh we live in Lackawanna, and if you notice, you don't have to drive too far to notice that cemeteries take up a huge portion of the land in Lackawanna, isn't it? True. And a lot of people walk take walks through uh through the cemeteries, and Steph and I have walked through the cemeteries, and and you take a look at all the inscriptions on the tombstones, and it's pretty pretty interesting. They reveal the character and nature of the person, how they were appreciated, how they were loved. Um, but some of them are are are are funny. And here's some of them. There's one registered recorded in Niagara Falls, Ontario, says this here's here lies the body of Jonathan Blake, who stepped on the gas instead of the brake that was on his. In uh New Mexico, there was one, here lies Johnny Yeast. Pardon me for not rising. Um kind of strange, kind of weird, but it makes you think, what would uh what would Jesus have put on his tombstone? And the first thing that what's that? Tada! You said it right off. Tata. But I was thinking, um, how about this one? I'll be back. Right? I'll be back. Three days he spent in the tomb. And Sunday he rose again from the dead. What a great, great Savior. Uh, if you have your Bibles, why don't you turn to Acts chapter 2? And we're gonna read from verse 22 to verse 36. Acts chapter 2, 22 to 36. And it says this Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced, my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life, you will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he had both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us today. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing, for David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you have crucified. Lord, we thank you for your word. We know it's living, it's active, and we pray, Lord, that when we hear your word, we'd receive it as truth, and we receive it with the power of the Holy Spirit and minister, life, and power, wisdom into our hearts today. Transformation of heart is what we long for, God. Our hearts wander, our minds wander. But Lord, as we look into the truth of the word of God, it is living and active, and it can it can change us and transform us, and that's what we pray now as we look into this passage of Scripture today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, Peter gave this uh wonderful message, and 3,000 souls came to know Christ. 3,000 people received Christ as Lord and Savior on that day. It was a message filled with hope, and the people in that day needed hope. Peter needed hope. In that day and in that time, Israel was oppressed by Rome. Jews uh in the first century were under Roman rule. They had uh to pay heavy taxes, they had soldiers walking the streets, they had a forced allegiance to the Roman Empire. Roman garrisons were stationed all over, creating tension and direct military suppression of unrest. Generally, the Jews were not Roman citizens, so the soldiers could basically treat them as non-citizens, and that means that they could slap them, they could mishandle them, they can ask a Jew to carry, a soldier could ask a Jew to carry his gear for a mile. And don't you remember when this was brought up? Jesus said, Hey, when someone asks you to carry something for a mile, carry it for two. Amen. This is how we deal with oppressors. We kill them with kindness and we kill them with the grace of God, amen, and we kill them with the love of God, so their hearts turn to realize their oppressive attitudes and their oppressive ways. Jesus also said, Hey, if somebody asks you for your coat, give them your shirt also. Jesus said, when a soldier, when someone slaps you in the face, what did he say? Put him in a headlock and give him a noogie. No. He said, turn, turn the other cheek. Amen? And this is the gospel message. This is the hope of the of the message. So the Jews were oppressed by Rome. Peter was as well. And then you have the religious leaders. They uh harassed the Jews, producing um enforcing rigid, heavy-handed legalism that created excessive burdens, treating ordinary people with disdain, extorting money through corrupt temple practices. They prioritized rigid tradition over compassion, creating a heavy yoke that weighed heavy, heavy, heavy on the people. They felt that they could never, never live up to the righteousness of the Pharisees and the religious leaders. This was forced on Peter. And then you have the regular day in and day out doldrums of the day. How many, as you're going through the week, sometimes you just go through doldrums, don't you? It's the regular routine that you go through, the grind, and you say to yourself, sometimes, whoa Lord, is this all there is? I get up to go to work, I come home, I eat supper, I play with the dog, I might kick the dog, I might play with the kids, I'll never kick the kids. But the grind of it all becomes, in ways, desperation. And this is what Peter was dealing with. The daily doldrums of the regular day, in and out. Harassment, oppression by the government, harassment by the Jews, by the leaders, and then just the daily, daily grind of possible desperation. Henry David Thoreau said the mass of men live their lives in quiet desperation. Jesus knew that we needed hope. Amen. Jesus knew that we needed life. Peter was possibly facing this. He had a couple of boats, he did fishing, but maybe he's out on the boat looking over the sea and just saying to himself, is this it? Are we continually going to be harassed by the government, harassed by religious leaders? When will there be hope? When will there be life? Jesus brought hope into Peter's life, didn't he? Jesus met Peter and said, Hey, you're a fisherman. Guess what? Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Hanging around Jesus every day can change your attitude, can't it, people? Hearing his words of truth and grace, seeing the multitudes, blessed, seeing the healings, the ministry, the feeding of the 5,000. Peter went from an all-time high to an all-time low, though, when Jesus died. His hope was crushed, devastated, until that third day when Jesus rose from the grave, when Jesus showed himself to Peter, alive and not dead, resurrected up from the grave. Peter's hope in Jesus Christ after the resurrection became a living hope. Amen? His hopeless living became a living hope. And he wrote about it in 1 Peter. Blessed be the God and Savior of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, Peter needed hope. Amen. He denied Christ, he cursed out a little girl. He felt the guilt and the shame of thinking that he was something that he was not, and that he turned and denied his Savior. But Jesus Christ said, Hey, listen, the enemy wants to sift you. But when you return, I'm going to use you for my glory and for my honor. Amen? Jesus' miracles got attention, didn't they? Can you imagine? Before Jesus came, there were 400 silent years. 400 silent years where there was no prophetic utterance, no prophetic word, no prophet. Jesus came on the scene and began to do miracles, began to touch people's lives, began to speak with an authority that came from heaven and not from self-righteousness and hypocrisy. It was overwhelming evidence that Jesus was who he claimed to be. New Testament records over 30 miracles that Jesus performed, where he suspended natural law and enacted supernatural force. He had power over disease, he had power over deformities, he had power over demons, and he had power over death. Amen? He miraculously showed power, giving evidence of who he was. And Jesus appealed to his own power. In John 14, 11, he said, Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Peter gives three lines of evidence for the fact that Jesus was not just an ordinary man. Peter gave in verse 22 Jesus' life, verse 23, Jesus' death, and verse 24, Jesus' resurrection. His miraculous life. Jesus appealed to his own power. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. John 10, 37, 38 said, If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father. Remember, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night? He said to Jesus, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. And even the most bitter enemies of Jesus were forced to admit that he had miraculous power, a miraculous life. After the raising of Lazarus, it says, the chief priests, the Pharisees, gathered the council and said, What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. Simon Green Greenleaf was a lawyer and a professor of law at Harvard University, and he said this A person who rejects Christ may choose to say that he does not accept it, but he may not choose to say that there is not enough evidence. Amen. Jesus' miraculous life, attested by the New Testament historians, disciples, apostles, and witnesses, prove that God's power was uniquely operating. And if he can do those miracles, he can do the greatest miracle of all, and that is saving a soul from sin, shame, guilt, and condemnation and death, and bringing that soul into heaven to be with God forever and ever. Amen. And that's our that's our cry and that's our prayer. And that's why we praise Him. Jesus can heal blind eyes, deaf ears, crippled bodies. He cast out demons, and he raised people back from the dead, made them alive again. He can save me. Praise God, and he can save you. Amen. Putting our faith and trust in Christ, turning from our sin and accepting him as Lord as Lord. So our miraculous, the miraculous life of Jesus. It was divinely confirmed and attested by his miraculous miracles, signs, and wonders. And then we look at his meaningful death. Jesus was crucified according to God's plan. It seems unthinkable and unimaginable that a man like Jesus could die. He miraculously lived his life, healing the sick, feeding thousands, walking on water, casting out demons, raising the dead. But Peter wants to make it clear that just like Jesus, life was no ordinary life. Jesus' death was no ordinary death. And he approaches it from two different angles. We see in verse 23. Let's read it together. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God's sovereign, foreordained plan, but yet lawless and wicked hands crucified and put Jesus to death. On one hand, it was a vicious plot. On the other hand, it was a victorious strategy that was even before the foundation of the world. God's sovereignty yet met humans' responsibility. So we ask ourselves today, who killed Jesus? Was it Pontius Pilate? Was it Judas Iscariot? Was it his false accusers? Was it the religious leaders? Was it some of the Jews that yelled out, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him? And yes, it was all of them, amen. And guess what? It was me, and it was you. Our sin that put Christ on the cross. But it was God's predetermined plan. He's known as the Lamb of God that was slain before the foundation of the world. God had a plan, amen. And we all should know this that God always has a plan. So Jesus' death was a strategy. The Lamb slain from the foundations of the world. Jesus' death was voluntary. The trial didn't catch him off guard. He wasn't surprised. He knew exactly what was coming. He was the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He made this statement: No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power or authority to take it up. Amen. Jesus laid down his life. Jesus' death was a strategy, it was voluntary, it was substitutionary. He died for our sin. He died for us, and he died instead of us. Isaiah 53, 6 says, All we like sheep have gone astray, but God laid on him the iniquity of us all. He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Do you understand that Christ died in your place? The wrath of God, the Bible says, was against us. Sin separated us from God. Sin caused this alienation. The Bible says this hostility, this enmity. But God being in Christ, in Christ, reconciled us back to Him. Amen. The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ reconciled us. Sinners, in the hands of a God that is holy, reconciled us to a holy God. And that is awesome. Jesus' death was necessary. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life, more than that we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom now we have received reconciliation. So we have the miraculous life. We have the meaningful death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then we get to the magnificent resurrection. Amen. Listen to this verse, 1 Corinthians 15, 19. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied and to be mostly considered miserable. Verse 24 says this God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. I like that phrase. And it makes sense, doesn't it? Because didn't Jesus say, I am the resurrection and the life? He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever lives and believes in me, we said it earlier, shall never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever and ever die. Amen. I added the ever many times, just so you know. Here's the thing: the one who had no beginning and who has no end cannot be ended. Amen. The one who caused all things to exist cannot cease to exist. Death cannot hold the author of life. And Peter knew the Jews saw the miracles and could could attest to them. Peter knew that the Jews would reject Jesus because he died on a cross. They would never accept the Messiah as dying on the cross. So they brought up, Peter brought up this wonderful passage from Psalm 16, where David is actually prophesying the wonder and the amazement of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that he would not suffer corruption. Amen. Here it is. I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, and I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad, my tongue rejoiced, my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness in your presence. Peter brought this up to let the Jews know that all the prophecies in the Old Testament Jesus has fulfilled. Amen? The wonderful prophecies of him coming, of him dying, of him being raised to life. And this is the wonder of the word of God that we that we read and the truth of his wonderful presence, his magnificent presence. Resurrection. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me. That was Paul when he wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 3 to 8. So we understand, friends, that the resurrection is not a myth. Amen? It is a witnessed historical reality. And I pray today that this historical reality of Jesus' resurrection is more than just a historical reality, but it is the very life of God within you. The Bible says that the Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, if you can imagine, now dwells in you. Wow. There's a lot of dead things in us that Jesus wants to make come alive. Amen. I sometimes uh sit in my 97 Lincoln with a cup of deep calf coffee, and I ponder all the thoughts and purposes and destinies that Christ originally had planned for me, and I ask the Lord, Lord, am I fulfilling your destiny for my life? Is there more to my my life that I can live for the glory of God and for the good of others that you've destined before time began? The same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead now dwells in you. If you are in Christ today, you have been made alive, you've been born from above, the Holy Spirit resides in you, and that is the promise of the Father. The Spirit of the Lord was poured out on Pentecost. Amen. Prophesied by Ezekiel. The Lord said, I'm gonna give you a new heart and I'm gonna give you a new mind. I'm gonna be your God and you will be my people. And our cry today is that we'd understand the resurrected power of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he has conquered death, he has overcome the enemy, he has destroyed the works of the enemy, and he has canceled our debt of sin, shame, and condemnation, paid for by his very blood. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement or the punishment of our peace was upon him. And he did it because he loves his bride. Amen. And he's coming for his bride. Do you know him today? Do you know him not just as a historical reality where we say that was nice and we have sentimental feelings to it? One day, all of us will stand before the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the resurrected Christ. We will bow our knee and confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen? Confess with our mouth, Jesus Christ is Lord. He desires for us to do it now. If we wait till after death, it's too late. My prayer for each of you today is that you would accept Christ as your Savior, that you'd understand this resurrection power and life that he has to transform our sinful heart into a heart that's made after God's character and his nature. And when we go with God's character and nature and the Holy Spirit and the word of truth into a lost and dying world, they will see Jesus. Amen. As a living epistle. They'll see Jesus, they'll see his presence, and they'll see the resurrected Christ that lives within us that we're different. Amen. We're changed, we're not of this world. Our kingdom is not of this world. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are sojourners and we're travelers. We're strangers here. And we're going soon to see Him, our King of kings and Lord of Lords. Lord, I thank you for the fact that you were no ordinary man. You were the God man. You were supernatural. You were extraordinary. You lived your miraculous life to show the power of God and the grace of God and the love of God. You were divinely confirmed by your works, by your way, by your word. Lord, we even know that you were asleep in the ship, when the disciples were girly girls, fearing for their lives because of the storms and the waves. And you got up and you calmed the seas and the waves. And the men said, What manner of man is this? Amen. We thank you, Lord, for your meaningful death. It didn't catch you off guard. It was planned all along so that we might have life and life eternal. The cross was not an accident, it was a strategic plan that blew the minds of demons and the devil and brought resurrected life to us. We thank you that you were wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. Chastisement of our peace was upon you, and we are healed. We have gained access into the very presence of God today because of your miraculous life, your meaningful death, and your magnificent resurrection. And now, because we are in Christ, we have the very life of Christ in us. And you said it in your word that if we die today in Christ, we'll be absent from the body, but present with the Lord. Greatest miracle, God, is that you can take a sinful soul, make him right, and bring him into the very presence of our Heavenly Father to be with Him forever and ever and ever and ever. And we thank you, Lord. We give you praise. So, Lord, resurrect your life within us, God, anew and afresh. We don't know you personally. If we've never confessed our sins to you, we pray, Lord, that we do it today. And we'd know without a doubt that our sin debt is paid in full, stamped by the blood of Jesus Christ on our heart, paid in full. And we thank you, Lord. We give you praise. The resurrection is not a myth, it's the very life of God within us. And we give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Worship the Lord.