O living God, manifold in all thy purposes, reveal your inner thoughts and affections to us, your words of life more precious than gold, sweeter than honey in the honeycomb, in Jesus' name, amen. Turn with me, if you will, to Luke chapter 24, Luke chapter 24, verses 1 through 12. Luke 24, verse 1, but on the first day of the week at early dawn, They came to the tomb, that is the women, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing. And as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen You remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee saying that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified in the third day rise again. And they remembered his words and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the 11 and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense and they would not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, and he saw the linen wrappings only. And he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened. You may be seated. The vast majority of interpretation of Scripture that is taking place in our day and in this land, particularly among Protestants, is an evidentialist approach to the Scripture. An evidentialist approach to the Scripture. And one of the things that we find in Scripture that is plainly taught to us from end to end, Starting really, I mean, with a very intense class of this that he is teaching to the church, starting in the desert after they have come out of Egypt, when signs and wonders are being shown before them. The one thing that God wants to make very clear to his people is that without a circumcised heart, without a transformed, born-again, regenerated heart, no amount of evidence in this world is going to convince anybody of the truth of God in any other way or in any higher way than probability. That's as far as it goes, probability. The only thing evidence can prove is the probability of something. God has a way of proving things to us far better than that. He has a way of taking his truth and putting it deep inside of us and making it part of us so that we do not doubt. Doubt is assuaged. It isn't a matter of probability. And he does this by laying before us the hardest thing we can possibly believe. Get through that barrier and all the rest of it, no problem, okay? And what is that? Well, there is nothing more absolute in the mind of man than death. That is the most absolute thing that the natural mind comprehend. Death, it's final, that's it, it's over. Nothing is more unbelievable than resurrection. And yet that must be believed in. It is the ultimate test of faith. It is a hard faith. Why is it hard to believe in the resurrection? It's hard to believe in the resurrection because of the wiring of man. He is oriented to death. Proverbs 14, 12 and 16, 25 sum up all of the things that have ever come out of the mind of autonomous man, man standing apart from God's informing him of himself, his revelation and manifestation of himself through his living spirit, into the living spirit of a man. Apart from that, all man can know there is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. That's it. So much for mythology, so much for philosophy, so much for rituals, so much for everything that man has invented coming forth out of his mind. So much for politics, so much for culture. And it's not that we're waving all these things away into non-existence, but what we're saying is there's a futility there. It can only go so far and no further. God takes us the rest of the way through the empty tomb. Even when he looks, Even when man with his own eyes unaided by God looks into the empty tomb, he sees nothing in it that he can believe in. God says to us, as he said to Israel in Jeremiah 21, eight, behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. I set before your eyes the way of life, my way, and the way of death, man's way. And Isaiah says at the end of chapter two, cease ye from man. whose breath is in his nostrils. He's totally dependent upon the atmosphere that God has given to him to breathe in the lungs that God has made in him in order to think with the brain that God has given him and to interpret those things into the speech which God has given to him. Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils. For what is he to be accounted off? We have God's word. We have the manifestation of God. Luke here in our passage is following a unique train of thought through the resurrection of Christ. And I want to point out to you something, you know, as you deal with the four gospels and they sound different as you're going along, you know, we have harmony of the gospels where we compare this, that, and the other thing. What does that mean? Does it mean there's contention between these guys? Does it mean that they're in contradiction to one another? No, each one of them is dealing with a particular theme. And he puts things in truth. He puts facts in there, or he takes facts out in order to deal with these themes. These are not chronological biographical. That's not the purpose of the gospels. They are generally chronological, but they're not perfectly chronological and that's not a defect. They're thematic. There is something that, that God is wanting to say to his people about Jesus in his flesh. And here, Luke is following a unique train of thought running through the resurrection of Christ. And he uses that editing to do that. Faith is built upon the unbelievable and the testimony of the resurrection, which is the unbelievable. is the basis of that faith. It is the basis of that faith. There is no other. Man lives in vanity until he trusts in God. And that trust must go beyond death and to life beyond. Only then do we become what God made us to be. Only then. In union with him. That's what he made us for. Not like Adam who was a seed of mankind, but like Christ who is the fruit, the fruit of that tree. That's what Jesus is. He is the far greater than Adam. He is the fruit. He is the first fruit of that plant. And it is not complete until Christ Rises from the dead. It's not complete until the resurrection. Some of the things we want to take from this text versus one through three, the first fruit of those who sleep that's Jesus versus four through seven, the heavenly testimony of the resurrection. Eight through 10, the earthly testimony of the resurrection. And 11 through 12, the uncertainty of the evidentialist mind. Verses one through three, we see the first fruits of those who sleep. But on the first day of the week at early dawn, the first day, the first day of the week, and the first day of the week is also the eighth day. All right, now, you can just blame me for not knowing anything about math whatsoever for having said that, but the first day of the week is the eighth day. That's Old Testament, it's Old Testament. You know, in the festival laws, and I'm not gonna go into this in a great deal of detail, but I did some weeks ago in our Hebrew study in the evening, In the Old Testament, the festivals were kind of like bubbles in the annual calendar, okay? So you've got a year calendar that goes by and always on the seventh day, everybody is to rest from their work and Sabbath. But encapsulated within this are these little spots of time that are independent of that annual calendar. And these, they, they start their own weeks. Okay. From the first day that the, that, that, that the festival begins and, and the festival could, you know, fall any, you know, on any day of the week, you never know when it's going to fall on a day of the week from one year to the next. But on the first day of that, that begins a week, a consecrated week. And so it's counted off from there. You know, if it's more than one week, then it's counted off from that first day to those seventh days and eighth days and so forth, all the way through the festival. These festivals are there because they are prefiguring Christ. And one in particular is prefiguring Christ's resurrection. And that is the festival of the first fruits. Exodus 22, 29 through 30 says, you shall not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage. The firstborn of your sons, you shall give to me, you shall do the same with your oxen, with your sheep, it shall be with its mother seven days. Who knows, maybe that's why in John 19, five through 27, Jesus gives his mother to John. John takes his mother because now it's time for the consecrated one to be taken away maybe but it shall be with his mother seven days and on the eighth day you shall give it to me now this is you know this festival is here as a sign all right two things that are to come How is it fulfilled? Look at 1 Corinthians 15, 20 through 23. 1 Corinthians 15, 20 through 23. And I like it that it starts out, but now, okay, that was back then, but now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, after that, those who are Christ that is coming. And don't pass over that last clause because Christ the first fruit, the one who was resurrected first, has in his train more fruit to come. Much more fruit to come. We were just singing this a minute ago. Christ is risen, Christ the first fruits of the holy harvest field, which will all its full abundance at his second coming yield. Then the golden ears of harvest will their heads before him wave, ripened by his glorious sunshine from the furrows of the grave. This is the fulfillment of this festival. Christ, the first fruit, and in his train, the ripening crop. Us, that's us. We're the fruit. Christ's resurrection was the first of many resurrections. Other fruit would follow. The chosen of God, as Isaiah said in chapter 43 of his book, which we began this worship service with. Going on in our text now they that is the women who had come with him out of Galilee They came to the tomb Bringing the spices which he had which they had prepared. You'll remember that when Jesus died they went and spied out or whatever you wanna call it, the place where he was to be buried, went back, prepared spices, but they got caught by the Sabbath day or the Sabbath evening and they had to go into Sabbath from that point on. Now, early in the morning, they've come with the spices that they've prepared in order to prepare the body of Jesus for his burial. There's just gonna be one great big problem with that. Lots of spices, no body. So they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And in verse two, they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. You can almost hear them going, you can hear the gasp coming forth. And when they entered, these were some brave women. Here they come over the hill, open tomb. They knew there had been a body in there, open tomb, and they go in. How many of you women would do that? How many of you men would do that? You know, later, John and Peter are gonna run to the tomb, and John is the younger one, so he gets there first, but he stops, and he doesn't go in. He waits for Peter. Peter, you go on in there. They did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. It's an empty tomb. You can do one of two things with that. You can either say somebody moved that body out of here and it's still dead, or you can say that body moved himself out of here and he's alive. That's all you can do with that. That's all you can do with it. You know, the previous story to all of this from Matthew 28 and John 20, Mary Magdalene had already been there earlier than this group of women who came here. She had already been there. It was dark when she got there. She came while it was still dark and she encountered the empty tomb. I don't know what she saw. It must have been just after he rose from the dead, but probably the soldiers were still lying around on the ground about that time. She goes back and tells, nobody believes her. So before she got there, an earthquake had occurred. An angel had come, rolled the stone away. The guards fell down in a dead faint. And then Mary went and told the event and nobody believed her. That angel was still there when she and the other women came back. And we have three women named here, but there were probably more than that as we see later. But when they came back with the spices and so forth, Once again, they see the angels that are there. And in our text, we only see one angel, but there were two. And one of the reasons why we see one angel, I think, is because he's the spokesman and the word really is being pushed by Luke in this text, very much so. The word and the response to the word, the belief in the word is being pushed here. But, They went and told the disciples, and as we'll see, the disciples thought they were nuts. No one had seen the empty tomb. No one who had seen it could get anybody to believe the testimony of the resurrection. This is palpable in our text right here. This whole idea of seeing, not believing, okay? What does man say? He says, seeing is believing. Show it to me. I'm from Missouri. Let me see it and I'll believe, will you? You might believe a lot of things, but will you believe in God? Will you believe in the resurrected Christ? You know, it's interesting that when Mary was alone and she looked in the tomb in John 20, verse 12, it says, she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying. The slab of death and corruption had suddenly become a mercy seat. Two angels on both sides with nothing in between. The resurrection of Christ, the place of mercy, that which had been death has now been glorified. Verses four through seven, the heavenly testimony of the resurrection is given to us because the angels asked the women in verse four, why do you seek the living among the dead? You know, when I read this, I'm very gratified to know that angels have Bibles and read them. Because obviously this angel right here knows the book of Isaiah. Why are you seeking the living among the dead? Look at Isaiah chapter eight, 16 through 20. Because what we see here is the problem. All right, how are you going to get a faith that's going to comprehend and apprehend the resurrection of life when all of your life is oriented to death and the finality and absoluteness of death. How are you going to get that kind of faith? Well, something's got to happen. Isaiah chapter eight verse 16 says, bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And that's exactly what's going on right here. He is sealing up the law and the testimony among his disciples right there at the open tomb. This is the place where this testimony is going to be bound right here where the evidence of your eyes sees nobody in that tomb. What happened to him? And you know, it's not without good reason that Jesus at this point is not showing up. Because he's going to bind that testimony in order that it might engender faith in the fruits that are to come. Verse 17. of Isaiah 8, and I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will even look eagerly for him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given to me are signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells in Mount Zion. Here the prophet is speaking. And he's speaking to us of how it is in his day that God is revealing himself. He reveals himself through me, the prophet, and through my children, Meir Shalalhashbaz and Shir Jashub here as signs and wonders. And by the way, it's a whole seminary, it's a whole quarter in seminary just to learn how to pronounce the word Meir Shalalhashbaz. Just kidding. But he's saying, these, me and my children, we are the ones who are the signs and the wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. But you know, one of the wonderful things about the Holy Spirit who inspired the word of God and also interprets that word of God to us is how artfully He is able to make those interpretations pull out of the Old Testament and into the interpretation of Christ, as we'll see in just a moment. I and the children whom the Lord has given me. Who are those children? Verse 19, when they say to you, consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, should not a people consult their God? Basically what he's saying to us right here is, why are you listening to people with dead lips? Why? Why do you listen to the thoughts of those who consult the dead? Now here it's spiritist and mediums and so forth, but it could be anything. It could be disciples of philosophers who are disciples of philosophers who are disciples of philosophers who are long dead. In any way that we consult the dead in order to manifest God, it is inappropriate to do so. Why do you seek the living among the dead? Verse 20, to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. The sun has not risen in their hearts. What does God say to Israel when he gives them the law? Circumcise your hearts. That's what's needed. That is the basis of it all right there. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. That is the basis of it all. There must be a change in the heart. As Peter says in 2 Peter 1 19, so we have the prophetic word. Made more sure, more sure than what? More sure than we seeing him transfigured on the mountain and hearing the voice of God there. More sure than that, what the evidence of our senses saw. Great vision that was, best vision I've ever seen in my life, but not good enough. I need something more than that. I need the prophetic word which is made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp that is shining in a dark place in your heart. Until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. Have you ever had the day dawn and the morning star arise in your heart? You know, it should happen at least once in your Christian experience. But it should happen a lot more times than that because there are many dark corners in our life that his son needs to rise on over and over again. It was dawn when these women arrived at the empty tomb and the dawn of life and faith began to arise in their hearts. I want to, before passing back into our text, I want to take a look at that phrase. I and the children whom the Lord has given me. Look at Hebrews chapter two, verse 15. Remember what we read from second, second Corinthians. 15 verse 23, but each in his order, Christ, the first fruits after that, after that, after that, those who are Christ's at his coming. Hebrews 2 10 says for it was fitting for him. That is, it was appropriate for him. It was necessary that it should take place for whom are all things and through whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory and bringing many sons to glory. It was appropriate for God. who was handing these sons over to his son to be saved, John 17. Remember when Jesus prayed? And he says, you have given me these out of the world and none of them has departed except for Judas, the son of perdition. And that according to scripture. They have heard your words and they have believed. They have glorified me. Now, in order to bring these sons to glory, it had to be that God would perfect the author of their salvation through his suffering. Jesus had to go to the cross in order that they might be brought to glory. but he had to rise again in order to bring them. He, the first fruits. And now he begins to bring the many sons of God to glory. You know, these sons of God, that's us, by the way. And women, don't be afraid of being called a son of God because that has to do with inheritance. It makes you one who can inherit like the daughters of Zelophehad. You may inherit, you are an inheritor, okay? That's a good thing. And bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. And because we are the sons of God, we are the brothers of Christ. the son of God. For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, brethren, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brethren in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise, Psalm 22, 22, which is what Jesus is doing with us right now at this very moment. lifting up praise to his father with his brethren. He is not ashamed to do so. And again, I will put my trust in him, Isaiah 8, 17. And again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me, Isaiah 8, 18. Who are the children that God has given to Jesus? We are. We are. He is the first fruit and we are the fruit who follows him. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same. that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives so that the orientation of this messianic age might be life and light and liberty. That's our kingdom. That's our kingdom because that's our king. Verse six in our text, the angel continues and says, remember how he spoke to you, and by the way, that term there, remember, he's not asking a question here. He's telling them what they already know. It's in the aorist passive indicative, meaning you have remembered. You have remembered. It might even mean you have memorized this, all right? how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee saying that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men to be crucified and the third day rise again. It's almost like a catechism. Six times in the book of Matthew, six times he told him this. And one of the sons of Belial, one of the false accusers of his at the time of his trial actually remembered it, remembered him saying that. But his disciples just continually didn't get it. Matthew 17, 22 through 23 says, and while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him and he will be raised up on the third day. And they were deeply grieved. And by the way, it's very amazing here that Luke is quoting out of Matthew because that's the only place where this is said in those words. So they recognized each other, the canon of each other. That's another subject, forget it. But they were grieved, they were grieved. But they still did not get it. They still did not grasp what Jesus was saying to them over and over again. So there has to be a heavenly testimony here, a heavenly testimony. The angels were there. Remember when the angels were there before? At the time of Jesus's birth. They are there. They are testifying to the virgin birth, the incarnation of the Son of God. Now here they are at his tomb. And they are not only attending him as angels together, testifying of these things in heaven. You know, it doesn't matter how many doubts there are on earth about whether Jesus rose from the dead. Or whether or not the God of the Bible is the true God. Or whether or not his word is his word. Or all of these other things that are subject to doubt down here and speculation and all kinds of argumentation going back and forth on this planet. And this planet does not make up the sum total of all reality. and all of those who are on it with all of their issues that string forth out of corrupt minds and corrupt hearts, not yet, even in the case of Christians who argue such matters with one another, not yet able to comprehend all things, still having trouble getting it. But I'll tell you one thing right now. You go to heaven, where all the angels are, Millions and millions and millions of them. Organized, I have no doubt, in some incredible system of society that we cannot even comprehend, more complex than 100 Earths put together, who all believe in one thing, Jesus rose from the dead. All of them believe that. That whole exalted society doubts not for one moment the resurrection of Jesus and all that God has revealed about himself, which the angels are anxious to look into. That testimony is in heaven and it's secure in heaven. But the testimony is also to take place on earth as well, verses eight through 10. It says of the women that after the angel said to them, you memorize this, you remembered this while he was still in Galilee, that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful man, crucified and on the third day rise again. And they remembered his words, called to mind again. They remembered those words. What he had said was brought to their remembrance by the Holy Spirit and his use of his holy angels. And so they reported these things to the 11 and to all the rest, they reported them. You know, if there's ever a place in the Bible for a really, really cool personal experience, we've got it right here. These women who have gone into that tomb and they have seen that Jesus is not there and an angel has spoken to them and told them, oh, that is really a fine personal religious experience. That's one that you can sit down to coffee and donuts with early in the morning while the birds are twittering away outside of the window. Not that there's anything in the world wrong with that. That's fine. Please keep doing it. But it can't stay a personal experience. That's the thing. If all we're looking for is a personal experience, then to us, the sum total of our Christianity is in here. And God says, I won't allow that. go and tell my disciples. Our religious experience is together as one. Anything short of that is terribly weak and truncated. I'm not gonna say it's not real and not living. But I will say it's weak and it is very truncated. We burn together or we don't burn. Go tell the disciples. This experience is not exclusively for them. False religion is selfish. It always seeks its own, always seeks its own. That's why when you go to a church, almost everybody in there looks alike, acts alike, has pretty much the same accent, and has pretty similar range of professions. People are constantly looking for their own. It eats its own fruit and shares it with no one. True religion is a relay from the experience to the divine revelation, to the testimony of it, to the sharing of faith. to the living together in it. That's the whole story of religion, true religion. How does James put it? It's not finished until you've taken care of the widows and the orphans. Verse 10. We now see these women named, they're named. Why weren't they named at the beginning of it? They're just women before, and now they're named at the very tail end of it. They're named Mary Magdalene and Joanna, who probably is Salome. Mary, the mother of James, probably James, the son of Alphaeus. They are now named because they're witnesses. They are more than two. And this incredible document of the manifestation of God called the empty tomb, which presents itself to their eyes and before their faces, in order to establish truth at this moment requires their signature on it. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary. James's mom, not to be confused with all the other Marys, all right? Their name is to be ascribed to it. They are witnesses of these things. This testimony is incredibly, incredibly important to me and should be to you. It's important to me. You know why it's important to me? My life hangs on it. My eternal life hangs on the testimony that has been handed to these people. It's like a thin thread, but that thin thread is held together by all the power of God Almighty. They are establishing truth. Verse 11 through 12, we see the uncertainty of the evidentialist mind. But these words appeared to them as nonsense to the disciples that they told nonsense. Well, you know, using the, the normal human mind resurrection does seem like nonsense. Why don't you try that sometime? Why, why don't you try going and tell your family members? You know what? I saw somebody rise from the dead today. I went and found an empty tomb that should have had a body in it. And I believe this person has risen from the dead. They're going to have a lot of trouble believing you until the testimony is established. and they would not believe them. They would not believe them. John says in chapter 29, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. There's a missing element here. They could not believe, not even from witnesses or from sight until God by His Holy Spirit spoke it to them in scripture. Faith is born of the Word of God and all that it means for it to be the Word of God. Faith is born from this, 1 Peter 1, 23 through 25. For you, he says to the church, you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever and this is the word which was preached to you. And that very Peter who said these words right here, all those years earlier while he was in that tomb or when he was in that upper room hearing the testimony of these women, he got up, And he ran to the tomb and stooping down, he looked in. Now we know that when he got up and ran to the tomb, John ran with him because we have that from John. And John outran him, got there first. Peter went and stooped down. He looked in, he saw the linen wrappings there, but something had been denied him. No angels, no angels. Notice that everybody gets their revelation of Christ in a different way. Everybody gets it in a different way. The women came and there's angels there. Peter comes and there's linen wrapping in an empty tomb. The women get to hear the words of God coming from the heavenly ones. Peter, has to look at the bare physical evidence in front of his eyes. And when he does, it says he marveled at what had happened. He went away to his home and marveled. Peter had to see for himself, and he was amazed. Make sure you understand, evidences can sure amaze. They can amaze, they can surprise, they can just, you know, people can just go gaga over evidences. They can do all kinds of emotional and intellectual things to you. But there's one thing that they can't do. They can't make you believe in the resurrected Christ. Peter does not know what to make of this. Now, if you read John's account, John says that he came in after Peter and saw the same things and believed. But he doesn't say Peter did, and nor does it say so here. And we're gonna see Peter struggling with this as we go along through the text and through what follows until Jesus comes to him and arrests his faith. until Jesus himself comes to him. Do you notice that the disciples themselves are the ones being tested here the most? Women come and see things and come back and they give testimony. And these guys just don't believe. They're not there. They vested so much into the life of Jesus in those last three years. And when he died, it was over. The whole thing was a failure. Everything that we've done in the last three years can be just scratched out, it's no good anymore. And I'll tell you, that is never true for the Christian, never. And I wanna encourage you with this. Because sometimes we can look back over many, many years and say, was that wasted? Was I going in the wrong direction all this time? Was I being led astray? Did I get caught up in something? And how much time was wasted while I did? But you know, you need to make sure that you understand something. That when you're in the hands of the sanctifying God, no time has been wasted. You had things that you had to learn. For one thing, you might have had to learn, well, you know, I need to learn not to be deceived so easily. You know, I need to learn not to follow every crowd that comes along. I need to learn how to discern between various voices. I need to learn how to go to Christ, the risen Christ first and ask him before I seek the victory. These are things that have to be learned. There's much that can be learned from failure. The disciples are being tested. Peter, he sees it, he's amazed. There is a religion that's based on amazement, that looks at an empty tomb and sees nothing. It is amazed, it marvels, but it still believes in death, ultimately. There is a religion that's based on faith. It's based on a hard faith that believes past the barriers of death. It looks in into an empty tomb and remembers the life-giving words of God and sees in that empty tomb, with eyes of faith, a resurrected Christ. That's our religion. And it is unique. There is no other religion, no other philosophy, no other thought process of man that exists that's anything like it. And it could not have been invented by men because our minds don't work that way. This is divinely revealed to us by God from heaven. and attested to by those who put their signature on what they saw, especially when it came fully to them in full living faith to them that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. And this is what it means to you and me. Because as Paul said to the Galatians, he said to them, you Galatians, living over here in upper Asia minor. You saw Christ crucified with what? Very good telescopes up on very high mountains in Asia minor trained in on Jerusalem at that particular period of time. How did they see Christ crucified? They saw Christ crucified because the testimony of heaven, the testimony of earth brought to bear upon them by the Holy Spirit's power, showed them the cross as good as if, better than if they had actually been standing there. That same faith is what is offered to you. Because as we see later, Jesus, when he meets them in the upper room, He says to them, look at my hands, look at the wound in my side. Put your hand there, Thomas. Look at the wounds in my feet. More blessed are those who have not seen than those who have seen. More blessed, why? Because we didn't see? No, more blessed because we see better. We see better. We see through the eyes of God's witness to us. This is a great day today. The first day of the week, the eighth day, Jesus rose again on this day. He rose again on this day. And when he did, redemption was complete. You know, when he died on the cross, he conquered sin. When he went into the grave, he conquered death and corruption. And when he came out of the tomb, he came out bringing power with him that he now shares with us who are in the train of his fruit. Power, power. to live according to the law, all right? To the law and to the testimony, seal it in my disciples in order that we might be able to obey him and to be his servants. He came to establish righteousness, and through His empty tomb, He opens the way of life to us, that righteous way of life, so that we may live in it, in His presence until He comes. Let us pray. Our dear heavenly father, thank you. Thank you that Jesus has raised again from the dead. Thank you. Thank you that you have established the testimony of it in heaven and on the earth. And thank you for visiting us with your word by your spirit through the preaching of this gospel in order, oh Lord, that these seeds might be planted in our hearts and that we too might rise from our grave, which was that very grave. For as we are dead in Christ, so also we come alive in him. When Jesus walked out of that grave, oh God, he brought with him all of his brethren. We thank you for this Lord, make it real to us every day, cause it to be the power by which we live for the rest of our lives. For it's in his name and for his sake that we pray. Amen. We have before us a festival. It's a very small festival compared to the festivals of the Old Testament, but it's also a more powerful festival because this festival looks back on the testimony of those things that have taken place. It is a festival in the death of Jesus. It carries with it the symbols of that death, his blood and his flesh. But we know, we know that salvation does not stop when Jesus' heart stopped. That was only the beginning of the accomplishment of salvation. From there, he must rise from the dead in order that we might have power. And notice as we've seen, The initiation of it, or we might say the instrument by which these things take place, is faith. It's faith. We have to believe. And that faith has to be engendered. And that faith, our faith, this is one reason why I just really can't go along with those who say that it is the very faith that you were born with and that is the faith that we believe in God with. No, that's not the faith either. That's not faith, it's doubt. The faith that we have is one that was fashioned particularly salvation it's not one that's a part of our being it's something that has to be given to us and where does it come from it comes from the empty tomb that's where it was established my faith was established at the empty tomb that's where my faith comes from a saving faith totally dependent upon those signatories and those angels and everything that he did to give such great aid to our belief in him so that our faith might apprehend him and comprehend him past the grave, past the grave. That's what we're looking for here. We need help in this. We need continual help. It's not something that comes to us all at once. It's something that's built into us over and over and over again. We have to be refreshed in it from time to time for as the corruptions of the world begin to work us down, then we have to come back and be refreshed over and over again. And that's what this meal is here for. This meal is here to refresh you. It's here to build up your faith. It's here to take you back to the beginning of the accomplishment of salvation, back to the cross, which leads us up through that tomb so that we may believe in him, that we may believe in him. You might look at it this way. Our trust in him goes back, all right? In the old covenant, their trust went forward. It went forward into the future by promises made that could not be broken. It was their belief in God being faithful to his promise that saved them, all right? Well, it's our belief in his testimony to us, which is true, because he cannot lie. And that testimony goes through that resurrection to this cross right here. Exercise that faith here. That's how we're gonna eat this meal. We're gonna eat it fully in faith in him, believing with such a hard faith that cannot be broken because we do comprehend that resurrection. Let's pray and ask God's blessings upon this meal. Our dear Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this meal. We thank you for the refreshing graces that you give to us through all of your means of grace. We thank you that your eye is always zealously upon us. You never forget us. We are always before your eyes. You never sleep or slumber in dealing with your people in care. And even though we ourselves may forget thee. You do not forget us. And so it is that you have provided for us this meal by which our faith may be built. Help us to believe through the signs of the bread and of the wine, in the effectualness of your blood and of your body on our behalf. Help us to believe through the seals of these elements. that the promises that you have made to your people, which ultimately are that you will carry us through this life. whether by lifting us up through blessings or by chastising us so that we will get back in the way of life again when we wander and drift away, but that in it all, you will carry us even into old age and beyond in death to come into your presence and live eternally forevermore. Thank you, oh Lord, for the day when we will receive our bodies And when we, the fruits of the resurrection, following the first fruit, will live together in your presence forever and ever. We lift these things up in the name of Jesus.