We'll look to the Lord for a good blessing tonight. Lord, we thank you that we can be in the house of God and this is a privilege and an honor, Lord. We pray that we'll rightly divide the word tonight and that it will prove to be an edification of all that have joined us. Lord, thank you for your blessings upon us. Keep us safe and healthy through all of this that's going about, Lord. We recognize that your sovereign hand rules over all things, Lord, so we pray put your people under the shadow of the Almighty as we trust you with all our heart. And Lord, we thank you for the gift of eternal life and what this season brings to mind in the doctrine of incarnation, the great sacrifice wherewith you came down from heaven's glory, God descended to become like us. Tempted at all points as we are yet without sin. Thank you for going through the experience of life as we must. You said the children were made partakers of flesh and blood. He also himself likewise took part of the same. So, Lord, You understand everything that we endure, all the conditions of life, all the difficulties that we endure. You've been through it, Lord, and You promised to give us help in time of need. So remember each person here, Lord, and people there. private burdens in their heart. We come here, Lord, as a place of refuge. We come to the house of God to forget our troubles and our sorrows and to focus on the life to come. Thank you for a place that you prepared eternally in the heavens. We're looking forward, Lord, to that day that you call us and we meet you in glory. So until that hour, Lord, help us to be faithful people, to live to the glory of God in Jesus' name. Amen. Here we are in the 24th chapter, and what we have is the angels confronting the women who are coming down, ready to anoint the dead body of Jesus. And the angels, I think, tenderly rebuke the women. Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here. He's risen, as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay. Invites them to go in and inspect the empty tomb. They go inside, of course, to the shock and amazement, and to some degree, a great amount of trepidation and fear. They wonder what's happened here and they begin to put all this together as we mentioned this morning That amazing moment in a person's life. Do you remember that moment in your life? Where all of a sudden it dawned on you what this was all about You could have been raised and steeped in religion and not really understand it until you come to a certain point And then it all makes sense it's like the fog lifts and then you realize and I think that's what happened here to these ladies and as they went in there. And I just think it's a wonderful thing that they went down and, so to speak, risked their lives. They were willing to be identified with Christ. They were not ashamed of Jesus. And they were doing what they felt to be a sacred duty, and that was to perfume the body of the dead. And so, as they approached there, of course they have the problem, as we mentioned last week, who's going to roll the stone aside? But that was already settled. It was already rolled aside, not because The angel had to let Jesus out. He was already out. They rolled it aside so you could see he wasn't there. And so when they get there, he's not there. The angels are there instead, and they're accosted in this fashion. They go in to examine the tomb, and they come out, and the angels tell them, well, don't you remember what he said unto you? And he said it several times. He would die and rise again the third day. They should have been expecting it. There should have been a crowd of his disciples at the tomb Counting down the hours until Jesus would rise from the dead after three days in the tomb of Joseph But instead no one was there, but these ladies and they weren't there to see his resurrection so it all comes crystallizes in their minds and hearts at this point and they rush forth from the tomb and it's time now to tell the others and so they departed quickly and from the sepulcher, with fear, and with great joy. So he elucidated the point this morning. You can have fear and joy at the same time, and they had this kind of co-mingled oxymoronic feeling in their hearts, you know, fear and joy at the same time. They didn't know whether to shout for joy or to scream for fear, but they knew something momentous had happened. And they're quite excited now as they run back to tell the others. They've got an evangel. They've got a good news to tell. And they're the first ones to bear the good news that he is risen indeed. And on their journey back to the upper room where the cowardly men are hidden upstairs, locked behind the closed doors, lest they should be identified with Christ and be crucified themselves. And on the journey back, Jesus meets them, and that's where we take it up here. This, of course, is Matthew's account. You have to take all four accounts to get the perspectives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John seen from four different perspectives, and each gives us a bit of different degree and emphasis. Just like there are four cherubim that surround the throne of Christ in Revelation chapter 4, each of them having four faces and four different types of bestial images, we understand that there'd be four gospels as well. Four is the number of completion in the scripture, and so we have this notion of them, the four gospelers, telling us different stories and giving us different details and things that they emphasize where the other doesn't. And as we put the composite picture together, we get all of what God wants us to know in the plan of reform. So they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and they did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, you can imagine they're bearing the gospel, right? Just like we're supposed to do. All believers take the gospel, and we want to give it out freely. And we should be in a hurry to do it, because I don't know how much longer the world's going to be here. Do you? No man knows that. You don't know how much longer some of your friends and relatives will be here on Earth. You know, life and some of the crises of life happen suddenly upon people. And how often has been the case for me and for you where we rue the fact that somebody's died before we did what we thought we should do to complete the work in their lives. I just had that experience recently here. I said, well, you know, I didn't do everything I should have done. I could have done more. I thought I'd have more time. But we really don't know what a day will bring, do we? So they ran, and they said, we've got to get this news as soon as we can. When you have news like this, it can't wait. By the way, it doesn't tell us in the scripture, but I imagine they probably had to leave all the spices, very, very expensive by the way, cinnamon, aloes, and all this that they would have used to perfume the body. They probably just dropped all of that and ran with the news that Jesus was risen. This would not be necessary anymore. And as they went to tell his disciples, and this is a glorious passage, Jesus met them saying all hail and they came and they held him by the feet and they did worship him. It tells us so much in this passage. So we have them kneeling down before Jesus as they are. It was eight days after that Jesus rose from the dead. Thomas was not in the group in the upper room. Apparently wasn't there when Jesus rose from the dead. In the next couple of weeks we'll probably be discussing here the rest of the 24th chapter. And they're shocked and surprised when Jesus arrives. From what I can tell, perhaps Peter and John weren't even there. And certainly Judas, he had already hung himself, and Thomas wasn't there. So just a partial group there that met him in the upper room, Easter evening, so to speak. So, well, what a difference it was for Thomas after he said, well, I'm not going to believe it. Some doubt it, it says in Matthew. So I'm not going to believe it unless I see it for myself. And he wanted evidence. He wanted proof. We've got a lot of people around us that are very skeptical about whether Jesus is divine, whether the Bible's inspired, whether we should follow Christ and give up our lives and so on. We that have followed Jesus long enough have all the certitude we need, but the lost world around us, they want all kinds of evidential proofs, and God doesn't provide all of that for people. So, they wanted, Thomas said, I've got to put my finger through the nail prints in his hands and his feet, and thrust up my hand into his side, then I'll believe. And remember that Jesus appeared eight days, again in the upper room, this time Thomas was there with the group, John tells us. and says Thomas come and reach forth your hand and Thomas Of course, who demanded that kind of evidence didn't need it any longer. He fell at his feet, worshipped him, and said, my Lord and my God. Now, I don't know what these ladies were saying on the road. They fell at his feet and worshipped him. But I would imagine, you know, there are groanings which cannot be uttered, beloved. There are movements in the heart and the spirit that cannot be expressed. And whereas Thomas was willing to blurt out, my Lord and my God, he said the right thing. He recognized Christ to be divine. And no doubt these women did as well because we worship no men. We don't bow down and kiss anybody's ring like they do with the Pope and all that. No, no, no. We don't go to the Mason's Hall and call the guy there the Grand Poupon, you know. We have no interest in exalting flesh. But we have all the interest in worshiping the Lord, the creator. And so they followed his feet and they worshiped him. And it says they held him by the feet. They held him. They didn't want him to go anywhere, I suppose. Now, we might have good questions here and say, well, where was he? And where is he going? You know, the Bible doesn't give us all the details, does it? There's some intriguing thoughts here at any rate. We do know that when he rose from the dead, Mary Magdalene saw him at the tomb and he said, touch me not, I have not yet ascended unto my God and your God. So, she did the same as these women did, and apparently this is two different types of meetings that are occurring here. We know there was a group of women, Salome, Joanna, the other Mary, there was, there were other women that are unnamed that were there at the tomb as well as Mary Magdalene. So there was a separate meeting apparently with Mary Magdalene, as there was with Peter, and the brothers of Jesus also got a private resurrection meeting. And these ladies here on the road, they bow down and they worship and they hold on to him. They don't want him to go anywhere, that's for sure. And Jesus is on his way somewhere at this point, so we can try to put all the pieces together in the synoptic account, and it won't be so easy. A lot of details are left out, and God doesn't give us every detail because, as he tells us, you'd have to fill up the libraries with all the pages that would be written. But I'd like to take that one phrase apart and just consider this just for a moment and take it and extrapolate on the point. So they held him by his feet. And that is the place of worship. We've followed his feet, don't we? Now, around this time of the year, somebody sings, Oh Holy Night, right? And the chorus is, Fall on your knees. And that's the position of abjection, where we are down on our face before God. I don't know, what other position would you like to take up? You'll find that those that saw Jesus, and saw God in a beatific form like Isaiah, and like Ezekiel, And like John in the book of the Revelation, when they fall on their face when they see the glory of God. I don't know, I don't think I'll be any different. I hear people saying all the time, when they get to heaven, they're going to ask God, you're not going to say anything, let me tell you. You're not going to go up with some kind of arrogant, presumptuous spirit. You're going to be glad to be there, first of all, and you will humble yourself before the creator of the heavens and the earth. And we'll see him in his splendor and glory. I'll tell you, that's enough to take your spirit away as it did in Ezekiel's case. So they held him. They held him by the feet. Go back in the book of Genesis, you're going to find here, the 32nd chapter or so, the picture of Jacob wrestling with the angel. Now we know that this is the angel of the Lord, but Jacob called the place Penuel. And that word itself means, I've wrestled with God, I've seen God. Penuel. And so it wasn't just an angel. Oftentimes in the Old Testament when God would appear, he would appear in forms, a fiery bush when he spoke to Moses. But now he's coming to Jacob in an angelic form. He appears as an angel when really he's the Lord from heaven itself. We call this Christophany. This is before Christ takes the human body. This is many, many hundreds of years before Jesus would be born of a virgin. And he takes this position, takes a form, and begins wrestling with Jacob. And we know the story that they're wrestling all night long. And Jacob, finally, the angel says, I've got other business to tend to, right? And Jacob holds on to him and will not let him go. And look, folks, if you find Jesus, Never let him go. And I'm going to tell you what, the devil's going to do everything he can to break that hold. There are all sorts of things that come in the way. We all know what we're talking about here, right? We've all experienced it. Something comes in the way of our service for the Lord. Reasons that are set up, and some of them legitimate reasons. But it's all a test. Who comes first in your life? It has to be the Lord. He's first. And so all these trivial things that come in our way and sometimes cloud the picture of how and what we're going to do for the Master, realize that these are all tests. Let's make sure we pass them. Let's hold on to him and never let him go. Like Jacob, wrestling with the angel, he said, I will not let thee go unless, unless, except thou bless me. In Timothy it says, seeing then that we have a great high, or Hebrews, seeing then that we have a great high priest. has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Holding fast means holding it with tenacity, you know, you're clinging to it and never going to let it go. You know the way some of you hold on to a $5 bill, you know what I'm talking about, right? You hold on, hold on to that thing, right? So we want to hold on to it. The other holdfast is in Timothy, so we have, there it is, 2 Timothy 1.13, holdfast the form of sound words. In other words, the word of God, holdfast. We just ended four weeks in the book of Job about the Bible and its translations and what people have been doing to change the meaning of the scripture. And I'm warning people, the devil is doing what he can to try to soften the word of God to corrupt it in some fashion, and the believer has to be attuned to this and understand that this is a place where Satan wants to attack for sure. So we have to hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. So Jesus, even in the book of the Revelation, says, Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take it from thee. So this glorious picture of Ruth and Naomi, they're all widowed, you know, a terrible plight, three of them widowed. And now Naomi is coming back to Bethlehem, her home. They were dwelling there in Moab because of famine, and now they were coming back home. Now she's coming back with her two daughters-in-law, and they're both Moabites. And there's no hope for them. They're coming back to a Jewish settlement. There's a separation law there, and so they have no hope for their future. And so Orpah says, I'm going back to where I can get myself another husband. But Ruth, it says, to Naomi. But Ruth claimed unto her, and Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. And my people shall be your people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more so, also, if ought not but death part thee from me." It's a picture again of cleaving and holding fast. These ladies have to remember what they had seen. They were there at the cross and they watched Jesus suffer and bleed and die. They saw that ignominious pain that he went through and the shame and the ridicule that he experienced while on the cross. They saw the crown of thorns, the mocking crown on his head. They heard the people cursing at him, spitting at him, and they saw him Finally bow his head and die into thy hands. I commend my spirit saying those last words so it is finished So they saw all of that just three days before this and now They see him on the road. Jesus meets them and his countenance has changed and there's a glory about him and What a relief that is, you know many people that lose their life's partner And they have to go through the terrible experience of going to the hospital with them. We don't know... what they may have gone through sometimes. Funeral directors will often say, you know, it was very hard to get them in a position where they looked good and, you know, their face was blue and their cheeks were gaunt and they had to do a lot of work, they'll tell me. They had to do a lot of work to make them look decent, you know, for a viewing. So you can imagine and some of you have seen loved ones in the throes of death and you know what I were talking about IVs everywhere and the painful look and the agony that Is etched in the forehead and through the through the facial muscles as a person goes through those struggling moments until finally they breathe their last and So you see that, and that becomes the terrible memory that people have sometimes. I'm not really against viewings and funerals, because I really think people need sometimes to see them in a different way, and there's a closure to it. And you say, well, it's very expensive. I understand it's the last expense you'll ever make for that person, but at least you'll have a different frame of mind. But even then, the best that the funeral director can do, they're still dead, quite dead. As a matter of fact, you put all the makeup you want and the eyelash and call the hairdresser to come in. You can do all of that, but they're still quite dead. What a moment it will be for those whose husband or their wife or their children that died before them, which is an awful thing. Imagine what it would be when you finally get to heaven and see on the other side the way it is. It was early in my ministry, back in the 70s, and I was, you know, I had bus ministry everywhere, and so we were somewhat known in these communities, in poor communities in particular, because they would ride the buses. And one of the young girls that was a teenager had gotten pregnant and without being married, and she gave birth. and uh... the baby was alive just for a few hours and then died and so the family called me to do the funeral and we went down to McKeesport. They lived in Crawford Village and went down to McKeesport to do a funeral. It was such a sad event. The mother, of course, was still in the hospital, so she couldn't attend the funeral. Whoever the father of the child was had no interest of being involved with the child, as often is the case, sad as it is. And nobody else from the family attended the funeral, no one. And so I walked in the funeral home and here was this little styrofoam casket they couldn't afford any more than that. And this little babe wrapped up, and they called her Mahogany. I'd never heard anybody called that before, but that was her name, she was named that. But there was that cherubic face. She was here for just a few minutes, a few hours, and then she was taken. The Lord took her home. And how sad it was, I'm thinking, there's nobody here to mourn her death. Certainly the mother would have been there, but she was in the hospital couldn't couldn't be there so Here I was in a room by myself to to give some words out but the Lord hears That was my feeling and you know the funeral director came in and he sat down and a few others sat down and showed a little bit of respect and And I said, you know, we'll see this little one again one day in glory. It'll be completely different than what we're seeing here, this pathetic scene. All of this that we're looking at with the grief and the sorrow and the heartache that accompanied this, and that's all going to be suddenly ameliorated. That Jesus promised to wipe away all tears from our eyes. And all the questions that people have and all the why did this happen and why didn't God do that and so forth that'll all be settled When we finally get to the other side, you've got to hold on to the Lord Because if you don't hold on to him, what are you gonna hold on to? Perhaps it's apocryphal, but there's a story that's told of Voltaire the infamous deist France that said that he would, before he died, he would stamp out every Bible in France. He was a rationalist, rejected the notion of Christ. And he had students, philosophical students, that followed him, considered him to be erudite, and they wanted to have whatever Voltaire had. Imagine that. He was their instructor. But one of his young students was dying, and Voltaire went to the deathbed. And the young boy was in the throes of pain, and Voltaire was standing there with nothing to offer him. What could he offer him? It troubled him so much that Voltaire finally said to him, hold on, young man, hold on. And the young man said, Master Voltaire, what shall I hold on to? To what shall I hold? Well, Voltaire didn't have the answer to that, but we have the answer, don't we? Hold on to the Lord. You've got something to hold on to, something substantial. Isn't this a beautiful passage in Song of Solomon? Song of Solomon 3.4. But it was a little, if you know the story, it's a love story, but behind the love story, that's the external shroud. But if you lift the shroud, you'll understand this is Christ and his church. It's Solomon and the Shunammite, but it's beyond that. The love story is really God's love for his own people. It's the bride and the bridegroom. Well, we know that the bridegroom left in the middle of the night. The bride awakes and he's gone. And fear grips her heart. Where is my lover? Where did he go? And she runs out into the street. She accosts these elders that are in the street. Have you seen my beloved? Where is he? And she was frantic because she had thought he had left her. left her forever, and then she found him. And this passage, it was but a little that I passed by from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him and would not let him go. And I think that's the attitude every believer should have towards our Lord. We love him and we will never let him go. Jesus came to his disciples after he preached what can be considered one of the hard sayings in John chapter 6. Eat my flesh and drink my blood or you have no life in you. That frightened most of those that followed looking for a free fish sandwich that day. They left him, departed. And Jesus said to his 12, wilt thou also depart. And Peter said, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And so they held fast to the Lord. Must we as well, even in the face of all the accusations and insults that are hurled in the face of our Lord, we'll hold on to him no matter what. And we will believe him no matter what. So we fight the good fight of faith, and we lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. So we lay hold on eternal life, just like these ladies here that are on the road, and they're running back to give the news that Jesus has risen when they see him. As we mentioned this morning, they were running by faith in the beginning here. They were told that he was risen, but they hadn't seen it. They believe without seeing the essence and the definition of what faith is in Hebrews 11 1. So then faith, now faith is a substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen by the elders obtained a good report. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so the things which are seen are not things made of things which do appear. All of that mystery in those three verses is a definition of what faith is all about. Peter says it a little differently and lovingly. That we're kept by the power of God unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time And as he says whom having not seen Ye love though now you see him not yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Oh, one day our faith will become sight, just like these ladies that are on the road. Their faith was rewarded. They saw Jesus. They were the first to see Him. And they saw Him, and immediately seeing Him now in a deified and glorified body, seeing Him now without the crown of thorns without all of the whippings and the lashings that he had received, only seeing the nail prints in his hands and his feet. They followed his feet and they worship him. The book of the Revelation records the last times, the last moments of human existence and experience as far as the earthly life is concerned. It's the moment of redemption in Revelation chapter 4 and 5 where we see the master on his throne. We see him where he is, as he is now, in a glorified position. And the 4 and 20 elders, it's a mysterious number, 12 plus 12. So we have 12 patriarchs, we have 12 apostles. But David appointed 12 elders, Levites, that would serve day and night and give praise and honor to God day and night. And I think that's what the 4 and 20 elders represent here. Those that surround the throne of God to offer praise from human lips day and night incessantly. And so John is escorted, literally jettisoned out of his body and in the spirit and taken up to heaven in Revelation 4.1. Come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit. And what does he see but this great emerald rainbow surrounding the throne. And on the throne is the master himself. But then he gives us the description of those that surround the throne. There were four and twenty elders, it says. And they fell down before him that sat on the throne. And they worshipped him. So it's very much what we see here happening with these ladies, right? They fell down and they worshipped him. And they do, of course, forever and ever. And they cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power For thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and they were created. The psalmist suggests that when we come, we come and kneel before the Lord our maker. Let us worship and bow down and let us kneel before the Lord our maker. I'm going to be there in a happy mood, aren't you? We won't need masks. There's no coronavirus in heaven, by the way. And there'll be no social distancing. So we will be one happy people when we arrive there. And we'll enjoy it all the much more because of whatever necessities we had to endure while here on Earth. We have to understand that the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. And it seems as though Part of the recompense of God will be the more you suffered on earth, the more you'll enjoy heaven when we get there. Now the scripture also tells us in 2 Thessalonians, the first chapter, that when he shall come, when Jesus returns, we saw this morning the passage where we'll meet him in the air, 1 Thessalonians 4. We'll meet him in the air. Just as he met them on the road, we'll meet him again in the air. And then what happens? Well, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, glorified in his saints, all is redeemed, in other words, and to be admired in all them that believe. So this expression, admiration, in a sense is diminutive for what the original speaking about this admiration, you know, we might say, well, I admire somebody and so forth. This goes well beyond human imagination. This admiration has to do with putting our whole heart, mind, and soul in the worship of the Master. None of us can do that here. We're, unfortunately, we're afflicted here. Malignant thoughts and problems that beset us here in this world hinder that, but that will all be relieved and taken out. The thorn is gone and then our minds will be open receptacles to the glory of God and we will admire in the sense of taking in His resplendent glory, sitting in the presence of Almighty God. Now we'll have more to say about this on Wednesday night, so I hope you'll come for the study about when Job says, whom I shall see for myself and not another, and mine eyes shall behold Though my reigns be destroyed within me. So the corruptible will have to put on incorruption and we shall behold him as he is. Every man that has this hope in himself purifies himself. So that's where we're headed. And so take hope, beloved. We're only here for a little bit. And it won't be long before we see him as he is. All right, back to our text. Of course, we haven't gotten back to Luke 24 yet because we're still comparing Matthew 28. Can't get beyond this. So then said Jesus unto them, be not afraid, go tell thy brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me. A very confusing moment now for us. And something that those that find contradiction wherever they look in the Bible, they're just not satisfied. So they're sure that the Bible is filled with errors, so they find them. They spend their lives finding them. Years back, a fella came running up to me in the jail, and just from his countenance you could tell he had a question. It depends on how somebody comes with a question. The attitude sometimes tells you what kind of question this is. And I said, Let me guess, you want to know where Cain got his wife? He said, how did you know that? I said, because I've heard it a thousand times. I said, let me tell you something right now. If I were you, I wouldn't go to hell because I can't figure out where Cain got his wife. See, he saw a movie, what was it called, Inherit the Wind? That was the movie about Clarence Darrow and the Scopes Trial. And Spencer Tracy played Clarence Darrow, the mocking attorney that mocked the Bible and mocked Jesus and all the rest. And that was one of the questions that he brought to Williams, Jennings, Bryant. And it supposedly wins the case in the movie. He's the loser ultimately. And they brought that question to mind, you know, and so people see a movie and they write that down, you know, this is something, this is a way of trapping Bible believers. Well, there's all sorts of things if you want to look for contradictions in the Bible, but there's also a book, did you get that book, Bob? Contradictions on the Bible? So that's a book I recommended, I guess, a couple weeks ago and so forth. And it shows you all the supposed contradictions in the Bible and the answers to them. There's an answer to all these. And in this particular one, we've got a conundrum. And that is that Jesus tells them, go tell the brethren that I go into Galilee and there shall they see me. But we know that he didn't go immediately into Galilee. This is Easter evening. He's risen from the dead. He's in Jerusalem. And the disciples, at least eight of them, are in the upper room, cloistered and afraid to leave the upper room. We know that Jesus will visit them in the upper room. So what does he mean that they're to go to Galilee and we'll meet in Galilee? Well, the problem here is just simply how Matthew takes the perspective. He doesn't give the account that Luke gives. He doesn't tell us what John told us about that evening either. He apparently is projecting forward to what will ultimately be the meeting of Jesus with the 500 brethren at one time, mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15. And his disciples would also meet him there. And he would reveal there and in other places the Great Commission. You have to keep all of this in mind. And again, like I mentioned this morning, this is like a Rubik's Cube. You try to straighten all the things that you have in the four Gospels and try to line them all up to make sure that we have all our ducks in order. This is hard for people whose minds are very analytical, and they look at things like this, and this is just a problem for them. Not a problem at all. God doesn't give all the details in one place. So Matthew's account is different in that sense. He's not emphasizing the upper room. He's not emphasizing the meeting with the few disciples. He's talking about when he meets with them collectively in a large gathering and of all places Galilee because after all that's where he did most of his mighty works. And apparently it was a scheduled meeting in Galilee. You might remember that Jesus says this, Communion night, the last supper. After supper they went to the Mount of Olives. They were headed toward the Garden of Gethsemane. On the way there, again only John tells us what he was teaching on the way there in John 15, I am the vine, ye are the branches. So the others don't tell us anything about that, except here, where Matthew gives us a little detail of something else that he told them that night. And that was, when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. So they're done with the Last Supper. They go out to the Mount of Olives. Then saith Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee." Now again, I've mentioned how many times that Jesus brings this matter to light. He's told them at least on three separate occasions that he would go into Jerusalem, suffer many things of the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees, be crucified, and the third day rise again. This is just one more place where he reminds them of this and now just before it's about to happen again you would imagine them to be waiting for three days counting off the three days and three nights and running with the women down to the tomb not to anoint his body but to see him risen from the dead well at any rate they didn't understand what he was saying here But you see that Jesus already made this tryst, this arrangement. He was going to meet them after his resurrection, and he would go before them into Galilee, and that they could expect to meet him there. Later, of course, Matthew elucidates on that point. He doesn't talk about the upper room. He doesn't talk about Thomas. Eight days afterwards, coming in, he doesn't mention any of those details. He goes right to this detail at the end. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted. So I believe what we have here. I don't think of the eleven now. And Thomas would have been in that cadre that this is many days after the Easter resurrection that Jesus goes to Galilee. Now, I don't know. I had an intriguing notion. I've never read it anywhere else, so it might be just something that I'm tossing out. But could it be that Jesus expected them to understand what he was saying in Matthew's account before he was crucified? He said, I'm going to meet you in Galilee. I'm going to rise again, and three days later I expect to meet you in Galilee." Now, Galilee is at least a two-day journey for strong men, probably three or four days for Mary and Joseph to get there, because they're on a donkey and she's pregnant. So it's a distance. So, in other words, how could Jesus, now risen from the dead, expect to meet them in Galilee that quickly? Well, my thought was, look, for Him it's not a problem. because he's not confined as we are to time, space, and matter, dimensionally. In other words, and we'll see the case in the book of Acts, where Philip is in one place preaching in Samaria, and in just a moment of time, he's at Azotthos. and he is transported somehow miraculously and gets from one place to the other by miracle. And Jesus certainly could do that as well. He could be in one place and be in another in just a moment of time. He disappears here later in chapter 24 as we'll see. But I'm wondering if indeed Jesus rises from the dead, ascends to the Father, Comes back to the earth, but comes back to Galilee as was the appointed meeting place Only to find that his disciples are not there Where are they? They're not here So he has to go now back to Jerusalem and fetch them he has to go back and meet them because they were unbelieving and they did not show up and Now they had three days and three nights where they could have traveled to Galilee and they could have been there to celebrate with the Lord on the mountain, thus appointed. Well, That's just my notion. Again, I have no credibility. I don't have anybody that would stand behind that. You can read all the commentaries you'd like. But I'm wondering if that's what happened. And maybe explains this contradiction, so to speak, that Jesus comes back, they're not there, so he goes to Jerusalem, where he knows where they are, and he goes and he fetches them. And they're down there, they're still hiding in the upper room, when they should have been rejoicing about the resurrection. Well, whatever the case, eventually, They do end up in Galilee. I would have to say probably in the 40 days that Jesus was here on earth after his resurrection, probably 20 some days after the resurrection, they traveled to Galilee. And Jesus meets them along with what I believe to be over 500 brethren. This is taken from 1st Corinthians chapter 15, where it's one of the powerful evidences that Christ is risen from the dead, is that you have 500 witnesses that saw him all at the same time. That's hard to gainsay. So you see that again, just a line in 1st Corinthians 15. Had Paul not recorded it, we would never know it. But this tells us again that there were many people that were assembled there in Galilee, and this is again where he did most of his mighty works, and they were assembled there, perhaps on a mountain, it doesn't tell us which, but let's assume it to be the same mountain where he taught the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount. And here they assembled to see Jesus risen from the dead. And a great multitude had assembled along with the eleven to give glory to God and to worship Him. Even though in that group some of them doubted, and perhaps that's why Jesus appeared to them, because they were followers, but they had legitimate doubt. And so those doubts were resolved. Okay, so back to the story at hand and we actually get to Luke finally. So we have the ladies here and Matthew tells us what happens from the tomb to the upper room. And so we had to get that little detail in, I felt. So they returned in from the sepulcher and told all these things unto the 11 and to all the rest. Now, when you see the word 11 there, so that would have meant, well, was Thomas there. Maybe. But oftentimes, when the Bible referred to the apostles, they called them the Twelve. It was a name for them. The Twelve. So it was more an appellation. And in this case, of course, Judas now had committed suicide, hung himself. So now they were called the Eleven. Even if all Eleven weren't there, that was their name. It was a sobriquet for the apostles. But perhaps Thomas was there. These ladies come with this story. He says, I don't believe this. Perhaps leaves the room at that point because he doesn't appear later on in the upper room when Jesus appears to them. So they go back and they do what they were instructed to do. They go back, as the angel said, go tell the disciples. And the disciples are there in the upper room and they come back and they say, look, Jesus is risen from the dead. And we're supposed to go and we have to meet him in Galilee. And we should have already been there for that matter. Because he told us he would be there. They are now named here. So we have Mary Magdalene, who was not a prostitute. She was possessed of seven devils, but the Roman Catholics made her a prostitute. I don't know why. There's no evidence at all, and all the movies make her a prostitute, but she's not a prostitute. She's a woman of means, as a matter of fact, and she was one of the supporters, along with Joanna and Susanna, who gave of their substance so that the Twelve could continue on in their itinerant ministries. and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. So the women here, coming out of the shadows a bit so that we have their names identified, they were identified earlier in the Gospel of Luke as well. And then, of course, there's the catchphrase, and other women. Other women that are anonymous to us, but they were just as faithful, and were followers, and apparently, in some cases, supporters of the Lord. I mentioned earlier that Mary Magdalene seems to have a separate moment at the tomb. And the others run ahead to tell the story, and she seems to stay behind, waiting, and is still perplexed by it. Perhaps not even believing just yet, because she thinks somebody's stolen his body. And so she didn't necessarily follow what the angels were saying there. And she's in a confused state, perhaps, at this point. And then, Jesus meets her. Jesus said unto her, Mary, Well, she thought he was the gardener at first. Where have you taken his body? Tell me where his body is. You stole his body. You know where it is. She starts that and Jesus calls her name Mary. Then she turned herself and she said unto him, Rabboni. That is the great teacher. Jesus saith unto her touch me not for I'm not yet ascended to my father but go ye to my brethren and say unto them that I ascended to my father and your father and to my God and your God. So now they're sent along with the women who have already gone ahead and they've seen Jesus now Mary has seen him as well. They're already in the upper room giving the story out, and now Mary joins them. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her. So how is this met? These are incontrovertible witnesses. They're coming back. How is it met? Well, I say here, they're faithful witnesses met with incredulity. In other words, to them, the story's incredible. They can't believe it. They won't believe it. And these men, chauvinistic as they are, are thinking, they're just emotional women. They think they've seen something that they really didn't see. and perhaps even try to settle them down a little bit and say, you know, it's been hard on all of us for three days here and you're imagining things now and you think you've seen this or that. Can you imagine this message, the most glorious message that has ever been uttered, this is how it would be received? Yes, I can imagine it, because I see it all the time. People hear the message, they realize what good news it is, but they don't believe it. To them, it's incredible. It doesn't suit their fancy. Their great minds can't take it in. I had a fellow, and he's still alive, and he made the statement to me, and I had witnessed to him several occasions, and he was a pseudo-intellectual, and he said, I wish I could have the simple faith that you have. Of course, that sounds like he really meant it, but what he was really doing is demeaning me and depreciating and saying, well, you know, I wish I could be a simpleton like you and be able to just, you know, believe like a child would believe. He doesn't realize what he's saying. And to this day, as far as I know, he hasn't received the Lord, so how sad it is to receive a credible witness with incredulity. So Luke tells us it was Mary, Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and so forth. They all came rushing in the room and they all gave the same witness. And she went and told them that had been with him as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that he was alive and had been seen of her, believed not. What a sad commentary that is. Sadly, I'd like to go on. We're stopped in the middle of this, but the time has run out. So we'll have to take up the message again next week and get even more details. Let's bow our heads together. So Lord, here we are on the Lord's day contemplating what you have put before us, eternal words, and how they speak to our heart, Lord, and they minister to our soul. We thank you for the hope that we have in Christ. Now, Lord, it is not a blind faith in the sense that we have no reason to believe it. We have every reason to believe it. All that you did was confirmed, not just in the mouth of two or three witnesses, but as we saw here, 500 saw you at one place at the same time, and many others. Lord, you did this intentionally so that we would have, as Luke calls it, infallible proofs. But it only comes to a certain point where the mind can be satisfied. At a certain point, we must take the leap of faith. We have to embrace what you have said. We have to believe and take your word at face value. The women did that day, and they were glad they did. Their faith was then rewarded with sight. They believed that Jesus was risen, and then they saw the evidence. So we believe as well, Lord, that you are risen. From the dead, as you said, you have ascended to the right hand of God as you promised, and you serve there, ever serve there, as our intercessor and mediator. You complicate the wrath of an angry God and a God who has every right to condemn us to a hellfire forever. But Jesus has come to seek and to save. The word that day that was given at the birth of Jesus was I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. The shepherds needed a Savior and so do we. They came running down with great joy and they fell at the feet of the Lord and worshiped him. May all of us find that as well. Not just the babe in the cradle, but now the risen Savior. Let us, would the ladies, fall at his feet and worship him. With every erg of energy, with every heartbeat, help us to love you and serve you. We thank you for the glorious gift. We pray, Father, that everybody here in this room will embrace it fully with their heart, and that you will show us your great mercies. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless all of you.