Now please turn in your Bibles to John 20. John 20. I want to speak to the children just for a moment. As most of you know, I was raised in a Christian home myself. As many of you are raised in Christian homes, I have attended Christian churches for 55 years. So I've either been sitting where you're sitting or I've been standing up here, either way. For 55 years, kids. That's a long time. That's over 3,000 Sabbaths that I have attended churches here in America and Japan and elsewhere. So I will tell you this, that of my experience on a Sunday morning in the Christian church, Satan is not more active anywhere else than right here. Satan is very active in the church. Satan works very hard to pick out the birds of the air, pick out the words that are planted into our minds as the Word of God is preached. Spiritual warfare is so strong on Sundays. And I think my wife can confirm this as well, that Sundays often wear us out because of the spiritual warfare that's going on. Satan is active, guys. The devil is here in some form. But the Holy Spirit is here too. And there is a war going on. And the exciting thing is that the Spirit of God always wins. Because greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world. And Satan, you can hear that right now and know that the Spirit of God is going to overwhelm you again. Hallelujah. Amen, so the chills are going up and down my back right now because you know what this is exciting one more time we're going to We're gonna see that God spreads a table before us in the presence of its enemies Right here right now So now let's rise and hear the Word of God from John 20 this morning I'm going to read from verses 1 through 10 and Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Amen. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he stooping down and looking in saw the linen claws lying there. Yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him. and went into the tomb and he saw the linen cloths lying there and the handkerchief that had been around his head not lying with the linen cloths but folded together in a place by itself and then the other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also and he saw and believed for as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead and then the disciples went away again to their own homes And everybody said, Amen. Please be seated. I hear this a lot. People say something like this. We go to a church that focuses on the gospel. I've heard more about the gospel I think in the last 10 years than perhaps in the last 200 years. People speak of the gospel quite a bit but it seems to me there's a great deal of talk about the gospel but less knowledge of it or less of a sense of the power of the gospel. If there's ever going to be a conference I would love to attend a conference on the power of the gospel. But what is the gospel? People talk about it all the time. And the next time you hear somebody say, it's about the gospel, we go to a church that focuses on the gospel, you should ask the question, follow up right away, ask them, well, what is the gospel? We just read it. This is it. That's the gospel. That's it. It's not more complicated than this. The gospel is this story. See, there are so many misconceptions about the gospel. The gospel is not your subjective response to the gospel. It's not a subjective experience. It's not going over and over and over your subjective experience in relation to some spiritual activity in your life. The gospel is an objective historical reality It is an event, it's something that happened. The gospel is something that happened. Don't make it too complicated, that's what it is. It's something that God did, an action that God took. It was an historical event. Now, I've never heard anybody say, we go to a church that focuses on history. I've never heard that before, ever. Why? Because people generally don't understand the gospel. We don't talk about history, that this is about history. We are a church really into history. We love history. We focus on history. Now it's true, it's a specific historical event where God got involved in history. God entered the world. God interrupted the Roman Empire. God interrupted the Jewish whatever they were doing in Jerusalem. Excuse me very much, I'm getting involved. God rent the heavens, came down into the womb of the Virgin Mary, An event occurred in human history in Bethlehem, in Judea, in Jerusalem, at Calvary. Something happened in history. God got involved and God did His work. The Son of God took upon Himself human flesh. He lived, He died, He was buried, He rose again from the dead on the third day. And that event Changed everything. That's why for the last several years, I love history. I'm all about the gospel, so I did a world history curriculum for ninth graders focused in on this particular event, preparing the world for Jesus, taking the world for Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, right there in the center. And everything else in history is all surrounding this one incredibly important event where God came down, Emmanuel, Jesus came down, and he lived with us. And he died and he rose again on the third day. So that's the gospel. It is God's work. It's what God did. It's what happened in history 2,000 years ago. In a real place you can go there, you can see where he walked, you can float across the river that he walked on, you can see the area in which he was where he died, where he was crucified, where he was buried, where he rose again for the dead. You can go there because it happened 2,000 years ago. That's the gospel. So let's look at the history of the resurrection of Jesus. Here's the order of events. that occurred that week, some 2,000 years ago. Remember Thursday night, Jesus was with his disciples and went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is tested in the Garden. As Adam was tested in the Garden, Jesus is tested in the Garden. Jesus dies in the Garden. He rises in the Garden, as we noted last week. Friday morning, he's off to his trial and then to the crucifixion. From 9 in the morning on Friday, to three o'clock in the afternoon when he died. He was buried sometime after three o'clock in the afternoon, some 2,000 years ago, on Friday. And then on Saturday, that was the Jewish Sabbath, and then early Sunday morning, three persons came to the tomb. Let's take a look at it. Let's study history. Does somebody want to study history this morning? Anybody into history? Anybody like history this morning? Good. Let's study history. There are three people who come to the tomb. You say, well, these are minor details. Minor? Minor details? Minor details? Hey, we're going to be talking about these details into eternity. We might as well get started now. Three persons came to the grave on Sunday morning. Why did they come? What were they doing there? I think this is important for our mindset and for their mindset. We need to understand this. Well, it was Mary, Peter, and John that came first. Mary of Magdala. Some call her Mary Magdalene. She's from the town of Magdala. right off the coast of the Sea of Galilee. There's a little town called Magdala down there, and Mary was from the town of Magdala. There's a lot of fanciful stuff about Mary Magdalene, but there's only one data point we know about her for certain, and that is Jesus cast seven demons out of this woman. So here are three people at the grave, Mary, Peter, and John. Why are these people here? Why did they come to the tomb? Again, this is highly significant. This is eternally relevant stuff, so let's get into it right now. Now, Mary was delivered from seven demons. I know something about spiritual oppression. I'm sure some of you do as well. You know what it is? When you get a little demonic oppression, you know what it is to be cast out? You know what it is to be oppressed? Now, I don't know what it would be like to be Mary of Magdala. I have no idea what it would be like to be possessed of seven demons. I've only had some of this oppression, some of this temptation, some of this discouraging heavy blanket stuff that the demons will bring on me and they'll tempt me to doubt. You know, I think we can relate to that kind of thing. But these demons are the very essence of what is evil, what is depraved, what is malicious, destructive, and depressing. So you bring together all of the evil of the world, and you try to describe it in words. That's what a demon is all about. They torment, they torture, they oppress, they make people as miserable as possible. Don't kid yourself. Demons are there to take the people who are addicted to alcohol and drugs, and to witchcraft, and to all of these things, and they make the most miserable people in the whole world. Because they are evil. They are wicked. They are malicious. They're really, really mean kids. Demons are mean. They're the meanest creatures in the whole universe. And these demons were inside of Mary. They were ravaging Mary. They were tormenting her. Oppressing her. Not just one. Not just two. Not just three. Seven demons possessing this woman. making a destructive wreck out of this woman. And Jesus came and cast the seven demons out. Wow. This is the powerful demonstrative evidence of the kingdom of God. Marry before, marry after, marry on mass for 600 years. Mary off of meth, converted, cleaned up, made a beautiful creature in the Kingdom of Heaven. The contrast is amazing. The Kingdom of Jesus has come to Mary. You see the distinct contrast before the before and the after, don't you? Have you ever seen the before and the after? The on meth, off meth? Mary all shriveled up, tormented, tortured, broken down, miserable. And Mary delivered of seven demons. Why is she there? Because she has realized what has happened to her. She's been transmitted from the kingdom of darkness. Believe me, she knows what it was like. in the kingdom of the Redeemer. And the beautiful redemption and salvation and release from the fear of the evil one, the fear of death and the fear and the bondage to sin, the bondage to a thousand drugs and all of that. Mary released into the kingdom of light and beauty and righteousness. Mary is there because Mary is forever grateful and graced and realizes that she's been delivered from that which is evil. Peter, why is Peter there? Why did Peter, and by the way, they run. Did you catch that? They're running to the grave. They heard news, the grave was empty, they're running. Now Peter's running, now John has outrun Peter. Then Peter has outrun John and Peter's got his head in there and now John's inside of the tomb as well. Peter, why Peter? Because Peter is the one who offended Jesus. Peter's the one who wept bitterly. Peter's the one who's sorry. Peter's contrite. Peter's humble. Peter's looking for Jesus again. He wants to restore a relationship with the Savior. He knows who he is. He's come for Jesus. He's come for acceptance and forgiveness. He's not running away from Jesus. He's coming to Jesus. He knows that Jesus forgives. He knows all about the forgiveness of Jesus. After all, Jesus has put up with him for three years. That was tough. You all know that. And then there's John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. It's the only way he can describe himself, the disciple whom Jesus loved. There's nothing that described his identity as much as that. John says, there's a couple things I know about myself, but the one thing I know about myself more than anything else is I was loved by Jesus. Jesus loved me, I knew his love. He received me, he embraced me, he forgave me, John understood the love of Christ. So why these people? Why did they come to the tomb? I suggest to you, my brothers and sisters, that it's because they knew about Jesus. They were grateful. They were loved. They were contrite. They were approaching Him. They were grateful for Him. They were loved by Him. They were confident of Him, His approachability, His acceptance and forgiveness. These are the men and the women that are converging upon the tomb at the very beginning at His resurrection on Sunday. So have you come to Jesus with this frame of mind? This is how we come to Jesus. This is how we're drawn to Jesus. We know He forgives. We know He accepts. We want His acceptance. We want His forgiveness. We're grateful to Him. We know what He did for us. We know His love for us. This is why we come to the tomb this morning. This is why we come to Jesus this morning with the same frame of mind as belonged to Mary of Magdala, Peter and John. All right, second point this morning from verse two, let's take a look at it. Then Mary ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. Here's my second point this morning, and that is Mary did not expect the resurrection. She thought somebody had taken his body. For that matter, nobody expected I don't think there's a single person who expected the resurrection of Jesus. Now, this is a mind-boggling fact that I'm still astounded that, you know, nobody really expected Jesus to rise from the dead on the first day of the week. Even after Matthew 16, 21, when we read, from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples This is not rocket science. This is not systematic theology, third level in your Masters of Divinity course. This is not heavy duty soteriology and eschatology. Jesus began to tell his disciples four points. One, he must go to Jerusalem. Now what part of that are you having a hard time understanding? We must go to Jerusalem. Point one. Point two. that he must suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes. Suffer. Look up the word suffer in the dictionary. Not too complicated. Okay so far? Thirdly, that he be killed. Does anybody struggle with the concept of being killed? Is there a three-year-old in this room that doesn't understand something about this idea of being killed? And then fourthly, and on the third day be raised. Okay, now, they're not big words. In fact, they're all single syllable. Roughly fourth grade level, I'm working on doing readers for fifth grade children. I recognize this to be about fourth grade on the Fleisch-Kincaid scale. Does anybody struggle with knowing what this means? Remember, our Lord Jesus told them, I am going to Jerusalem, I'm gonna suffer, I'm gonna be killed, and I will be raised on the third day. Now, they had seen resurrections, they'd seen resuscitations. By the way, there were resuscitations that just happened, where people who were buried and were walking around Jerusalem at the crucifixion of Christ. So, okay, 24 hours ago this happened. 24 hours ago. And moreover, it was common knowledge. that Jesus had said this. It wasn't as if he had whispered it once. Listen to Matthew 27. This is on Saturday, the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees come together to Pilate, and they say, sir, we remember, we remember, while he was still alive, how the deceiver said, after three days, I will rise. Okay, now, the bad guys knew it. And yet, does it surprise you that Mary Magdalene and the disciples were not expecting the resurrection from the dead? Does that shock you? Well, let's try to grapple with this for a moment. Look at verses 6 through 8. It appears that John is the first to believe in the resurrection, at least from his testimony here, verses six through eight. This is one of the most unusual passages in all of the scriptures, certainly in the Gospels. So I'd like you to take a look at these verses one more time, very unusual. In terms of the details, listen, Simon Peter came following him, that is John, and went into the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but folded together in a place by itself. And then the other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also, and he saw and believed." So it appears that in the story of the resurrection of Jesus, from all of the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John, the accounts that are given here, we find that John was the first to see and believe. But what do we make of the handkerchief or the bandana folded in the linen clothes? They were in two locations. The bandana was folded over there and the linen claws were just laying over there. And I think you have to be cautious about symbolic references here. I don't believe there's much in terms of symbolic references right here to these napkins and to the linen claws. but I've thought about this for a long time, and there's only one thing that I can conclude, and that is that this really happened. Meaning that it seems like a menial detail, but life is made up of menial details. Right, we walk into a tomb, we say, well, I saw four things there. Or we walk into the bedroom and we see all of the kid's socks and underwear all over the floors. Don't you walk into rooms and see things? Or is it always perfectly kept up? No, this is life. This is a detail. That's all it is. Now remember, what was the gospel? Does anybody remember what the gospel is? The gospel is what? Stuff that happened. Okay? That's the gospel. The gospel is something happened. Now something happened here. Don't try to make it a fable. Don't try to make it some kind of ethereal thing that may or may not have happened. No, we walk into a room and the kids' socks are all over the floors. It's just life. It's the history of the Swansons. This is what we see in real history. John walks into the tomb, the empty tomb, where there's no Savior there, but he still sees the linen cloth and the bandana that was around his head folded over in the corner. Now, I believe that the reason why John believed is because he knew about Jesus. He'd been with him. And when he saw the bandana folded, see, if it had been me, I would not have folded the bandana. My wife can confirm this. In fact, she asked me, didn't your parents teach you, this was like last week, she asked me this, to fold your clothes, or whatever it was, I can't remember what it was, had something to do with my stuff laying around. I believe that John knew about Jesus. And he saw the personal touch. He saw the way that Jesus had left the cloths. And he knew this is Jesus. Now think about this for a moment. There are only two options here. Either somebody stole the body, somebody removed the body, or he walked out of there. That's it. There's no other option. Right? So, if he walked out on his own, he would have had to take off the linen cloths and the bandana around his head. And John saw and believed because he saw the personality of Jesus in what was left behind. Somehow he knew that Jesus was alive when he saw the folded bandana that had been placed over there in the tomb. And if my wife rose from the dead, the bandana would have been folded. In fact, all the sheets would have been tucked back in, just the way she is. Brothers and sisters, some of you may say, I disagree with that. That's fine, that's fine. This is a bit of a conjecture. I'm just trying to pull out of this what I discern. And if I'm wrong, then I will be corrected when I talk to John later. But for right now, this is what I believe about John's seeing and believing. He saw something he believed. Now he follows that up with something else. Let's look at verse 9. We'll close here. This morning, verse 9, look at verse 9. For as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead." All right, so they did not expect the resurrection of Jesus, and the reason given for not expecting the resurrection of Christ was that they did not know the scriptures. That's the reason given here. Believing the Scriptures is to know that He must rise from the dead. Now, look at the wording again. I think the wording here in the New King James is right on, for as yet they did not know the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead. Similar wording in Acts chapter 2, when Peter said it was necessary that he rise from the dead. The idea being that there were no other options. He absolutely, positively, 100%, infinitely probable, infinitely possible, infinitely had to happen. Jesus had to rise from the dead. All right, so that's the wording here, but somehow he says, the disciples didn't know the scriptures yet such that they would believe that he would rise from the dead. So for us, Brothers and sisters, the basis of our faith cannot be the seeing and believing, it must be the Word of God itself. That the Old Testament Scriptures promised life and promised he would rise from the dead as the New Testament Scriptures said he rose from the dead. Future tense, past tense. God said it in the Old Testament. God said it happened in the New Testament. Believe it. And this, of course, the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15. I haven't mentioned that yet, but do remember the gospel is specifically detailed to us. So if there's any question as to what the gospel is, Paul gives it to us in 1 Corinthians 15, 4, and that is that Christ died on the cross for our sins, what? According to the scriptures. And he was buried and rose again from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures. That's the gospel. That's it. It's not according to all of the witnesses and all of the evidence that demands a verdict and all the rest. No, it's according to the Scriptures. To know and to believe the Word of God is the basis for our faith today. And I say this, I emphasize it, because experientialism and evidentialism in the last hundred years in American faith has weakened the American faith. I believe the case for Christ, evidence that demands a verdict, is not a sign of a robust faith in the modern world, but a sign of a weakening faith. We are witnessing a weakening faith. A weakening faith in Scripture, in God's Word, such that we need evidence that demands a verdict. No, we don't need that. We need to believe. The Word of God! We don't need more things to introduce questions in our minds and to kowtow to our skepticism as modern scientific thinking Americans. All of this comes out of the rationalism of the Enlightenment period, the scientific era. It's not good. It's undermined faith over hundreds of years. No, let's get back to the faith, to believe the Word of God itself. We don't base our faith in our experientialism. Talk about all of our experiences. Because of all these experiences, all these miracles that happened in my life, therefore I believe in God. Propping ourselves up all the time by our experiences. Propping ourselves up by the evidences and such. We don't need that. We need faith to believe God. This is what is needed today, my brothers and sisters. Faith in God. I think it's a spiritual matter as well. Jesus said very plainly, He told them, what, a year before, six months before, the Son of Man is going to be killed, He's going to rise again the third day. God told them it would happen. He told them it would happen. They should have believed it. Why did they miss it? I think we can all relate to this. Why do we miss it? Why do we not believe? Satan clouds our minds. Satan introduces doubts. It's a spiritual thing. It's a spiritual thing. You ask yourself, why couldn't they comprehend a simple statement made up of fourth grade level words on a Flisch-Kincaid scale? Why couldn't they just understand it and say, got it, it's in my notes. You know, Jesus, you're going to rise from the dead on the third day. Well, because they couldn't process it. Sometimes, you know, you get good news. I don't know. Chris, you got a distant uncle, he just died, left you six billion dollars. Chris just goes, yeah, right. You know, he's not gonna believe me. It's just wild, it's fantastic. I think that's a lot of times, the way people receive these things, it just blows their mind. They can't comprehend it. Smoke out the ears. They're not understanding it. They can't comprehend it. They can't get their minds around it. And so their minds just blank out when he says it. I think that's what happens. I think that's what happens to us too. So they're not the only ones that do this, right? I love what my wife told me this last week. She says, you know, I've gotten to the point where I'm just saying, God, I'm just going to believe what you tell me. You know, when she said that, I just had this surge of spiritual strength that just oozed through my very being. Yeah! Yeah! God, I'm just going to believe you! I'm going to believe Psalm 46! I'm going to believe 27! I'm going to believe 91! 1,000, follow my side! 10,000, my right hand, you shall not come nigh me! Super Kevin! I'm just going to believe you, God! You know? I'm just going to go with what you say! Let God be true and every man a liar! Isn't that good? Amen. Amen. Well, you know it's interesting. Turn to Luke 24. I'm going to end here. Here they are on the road to Emmaus. Jesus has risen from the dead. He's connecting with these two guys and they're walking roughly from Franktown to Elizabeth. Okay, that's how long the walk is. We do that on one Easter. Some of you remember it takes about an hour or so, maybe, well, maybe hour and a half. And so Jesus is on the road to Emmaus with two of his disciples. They don't recognize him. And you know what? Jesus rebuked them. It's kind of a shocking passage. He remonstrates them for not knowing the scriptures. It's a little bit like, what's wrong with you guys? Why can't you read the Word of God? That's what he says in Luke 24. He expects us to know these things. He expects us to read these things, to pick up on these things. There are a lot of historical events that are blurred in history, whether Abraham Lincoln was a Christian or not, confessed Christ just before he was assassinated. People go at each other, you know, whether he, at the very end, he talked to some guy and said, I believe in Jesus, and so people fight over that. Brothers and sisters, there are a billion blurry details about history, but for God, this is not blurry. For Jesus, this is not blurry. This is for us to pick up on. Listen to Luke 24, 25, then he said to them, these are the two guys walking from Franktown to Elizabeth, that's what he says to them, oh foolish ones, and slow to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. See, again, what's wrong with you people? You're so foolish, how did you miss it? That's what he's saying here. not the Christ to have suffered these things, to enter into His glory. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. And then He said to them, these are the words, this is verse 44 now, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the scriptures. Verse 46 key here. Then he said to them thus it is written and thus it was necessary. Greek word day. Delta Epsilon Iota day. Absolutely necessary. It was necessary. It had to happen that Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. All right, so make no mistake about it, the words of God necessitated the events. God said it. God put it in writing. He signed it. There's a possibility of me not fulfilling my contracts. If a meteorite hits me tonight, I might not be able to fulfill a contract that I signed last week. But God predestinated it. God prophesied it. God wrote it down. There was no contingency. There was nothing Satan could do. There was nothing any force in the universe could do to prevent the resurrection of Jesus. Hallelujah. It had to happen. It was necessary that it would happen. Well, there are 40 references to the third-day resurrection in God's Word. As I was preparing the sermon, I went online and found that somebody did a book on this called, Milestones to Emmaus. And I'd recommend it to you. It's the first time I've seen this. Forty references in the Old Testament to not just the resurrection of Jesus, there are hundreds of those, but to the third-day resurrection of Jesus. Forty references in the Word of God to these things. There is the deliverance from a decree of death on the third day. Isaac delivered from the knife on the third day. The tribal patriarchs of Israel delivered from death on the third day. The Gibeonites delivered from the sword on the third day. David delivered from death on the third day. Daniel delivered from the lions on the third day. Esther delivered from death on the third day. The third day of life and death decision, evil intended towards Jacob on the third day, its divine deterrence. The third day is the day of life and death for the Shechemites. The third day is the day of life and death in Joseph's life. The third day is the day of life and death, decision in the exodus from Egypt. The three days of darkness in Egypt and the days of life and death that followed. and on and on it goes. The third day when God comes in great power, God reveals the tree which after three days can make our bitter waters sweet. The Lord descends in power upon Sinai on the third day. Moses sees the glory of God after offering himself to the Lord as a substitute for the sins of the people on the third day. The journey from Sinai to Zion undertook when the Lord leads to the place of rest on the third day. The manifestations of the power of God in overthrowing idolatry on the third day. The dry land emerges from the waters and life emerges from the dry land on the third day. For example, the emergence of the dry ground out of the sea on the third day in Genesis 1. The emergence of the dry ground out of the waters of Noah's flood on the third day. The emergence of the dry ground from the river Jordan at the command of Joshua on the third day. The emergence of the dry ground from the river of Jordan under Elijah and Elisha on the third day. The emergence of Jonah onto the dry ground after three days in the sea and on and on and on it goes. Forty instances and Jesus says, why did you miss it? What's wrong with you people? Why aren't you studying the Word of God? Why aren't you picking up on this stuff? He gives one instance of it in his ministry. He doesn't reveal it all. He gives one in his ministry to the Jews. You remember in Matthew 12, 40, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And as we read in Hosea 6, 1 to 3, I think it's really clear here after two days, He will revive us on the third day, He will raise us up that we may live before Him. He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that waters the earth. Jesus being the first that rises from the dead and we in Him rise with Him. But the most important of all of these I believe to be Isaac. This is, I think, to be the clearest. Genesis 22, what a great story. The story of Moriah, where God turns to Isaac and says, take your son, your only son, the son whom you love, and present him as an olah to God. This is the burnt sacrifice, the whole sacrifice, not holding anything back, but giving all of his son to God on the sacrifice, on the altar. And God provided a lamb. You remember, God provided the lamb. But God would also provide another lamb. This place was called Jehovah-Jireh. Why? Not that God is going to just provide for us every day our Cheerios and all the rest, but that God is Jehovah-Jireh when it comes to the sacrifice itself. Here, Abraham was thinking, I hope that, I hope that, I hope that my own son doesn't have to be the sacrifice. And sure enough, God did provide a lamb. Some 1800 years later, God provided a lamb. But it was on the third day of his journey to sacrifice his own son that Abraham promised his servants, listen, on the third day, he told his servants, stay here. I and the boy will go over there and worship Come again to you. I Am taking my boy there We will do the burnt sacrifice and then we will come back to you. Not I will come back to you But we will come back to you Abraham was absolutely convinced of a resurrection for his son Isaac on the third day He knew that he knew that Isaac would rise from the dead on the third day. I God would not keep him in the grave. God would not turn his back on the promised seed. Remember, Isaac was the seed. Without Isaac, there would be no Jesus. Isaac had to rise from the dead on the third day. Absolutely. Hebrews 11, 19, Abraham considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead. And that occurred on the third day. So Jesus rebuked the two disciples for their ignoring the Old Testament texts relating to his resurrection. But why were they so foolish, so slow of heart to believe? Even if they missed this, Here's what God is saying, and you thought I was going to leave my son in the grave, the worms consuming his body. You thought I was going to do that. You thought I was going to let my Holy One see corruption. Against the words of Psalm 16, Nobody should think that. Nobody. See, this is the whole tone of the prophets. Let me ask you this. Is the devil going to beat God? Will death beat God? Did you really think God was going to lose? Is that what you thought? This is a test of faith. And I believe this is the basis for our faith in God saving us and resurrecting us. If you can't believe that God wins, you have no gospel. You have no good news. You have to believe that God is good enough to win. You have to believe that God's a winner. You think God's going to lose. You really think that's what the Word of God is all about? The Old Testament, New Testament alike? You really believe God's going to lose in this battle against sin and Satan and death? You really think He's going to lose? You really think God's going to fall? I think you need to catch the crescendos of God's Word. Yeah, there's a lot of negative stuff in the prophets, but you've got to make it to the crescendos. We're riding the wave of the crescendos. And I think this monotone reading of God's word has gotta go. That's an off comment. I didn't have it in my notes here at all, but this whole monotone, like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And all this life shows up, and the whole world turns into this beautiful garden of life, and God restores all things, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Forget this monotone reading. When the orchestra turns to the crescendo, let's get on the crescendo. Let's write our music better. Let's read our scriptures better. Listen to Job, for I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I will see God. Or, as we read in Hosea, I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. Oh, death, I will be your plague. Oh, grave, I will be your destruction. It's where Paul gets his words in 1 Corinthians 15. He's on the crescendo. I'm coming after you, grave. I'm destroying you. I will destroy death. I will overcome it. I've got it well in hand. You've got to get to the crescendos. You've got to have the faith to receive God's Word, the point He's trying to make in the Scriptures. The prophets spare no hyperboles. Isaiah 64, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides you who acts for the one who waits for him." And I know you've been waiting for 1,600 years. I realize you've been waiting for 1,000 years since the judges and 400 years since the horrible compromise that was going on with God's people, with idolatry during the times of the kings and such. Yes, but eye has not seen, ear has not heard. This is the most outstanding, incredible, unbelievable, incredible thing that God is going to do such that you could not even imagine it. In a thousand years, God is going to bring about a salvation that will blow your mind. In Psalm 18, the Lord lives. Blessed be my rock. Let the God of my salvation be exalted. It is God who avenges me and subdues the people under me. He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me. You have delivered me from this violent man. Therefore, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the Gentiles. What is he saying here throughout the Psalms? I know you're going to win, God. I can see it. I can feel it. I can taste it. You're going to win! That's the spirit of the Psalms and the prophets. God is going to win. He can feel it, he can see it, he's got it. Then Psalm 68, let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, let those who hate him flee before him as smoke is driven away. So drive them away as wax melts before the fire so that the wicked perish in the presence of God. This sound like it's a close game for God that he may not win this? No, he's going to win. The power of God would raise His Son from the dead, but also His love. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in shale, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. The expectations of God's people so low the hope in God's people so low, they didn't expect the resurrection of Jesus on that third day. But the possibility of God, the all-powerful, the all-loving, the all-good God, allowing worms to eat away the body of His Son in the grave, no way, not in a billion years, would that happen. Christ had to rise from the dead. Well, in the post-Christian era, The anti-resurrection zeitgeist is very strong. There are multiple factors that play into this anti-resurrection post-modern zeitgeist. It's terrible. I'm gonna leave you just with this application. What do we have? If you step back and see the opposition to Jesus and the opposition to his resurrection show itself in so many things. The almost total desecration of the Lord's day. not just in the prophetic visions of Ellen White from the 19th century, bringing about that terrible doctrine that obliterated the Sunday as a Sabbath, the Lord's Day. It was horrible. It was a heresy that was entirely destructive to that denomination, and it became increasingly destructive to more of evangelicalism in the following hundred years. See, this is the opposing oneself to the gospel of Christ. This is setting yourself against the resurrection of Christ. We're in a new day, but no, they're going back to an old day. So the post-Christian zeitgeist began in the 19th century with the desecration of the Lord's day, the rise of cremation, the fixation on death, the black, the dark. And the massive increase in interest in the Day of the Dead, that's Halloween coming up in what, two weeks? The interest is like 10 times what it was 10 years ago. It's huge. There's more interest in Halloween now than Easter for the first time in American history. See, again, and Christians are involved in celebrating the Day of the Dead. All the skeletons and stuff, that's the Day of the Dead. The pagans have been doing that since the flood. But see, this interest in Halloween, cremation, desecration of the Lord's Day, the rise in depression, and the seven-fold increase in the use of drugs, the hopelessness, the escapism that so represents our entertainment culture, the seemingly powerlessness over sin, the inability to rise up and walk in newness of life and mortifying sinful flesh, even among people who claim to be Christians. the unawareness that the gospel of Christ is the resurrection of Christ. All of this, not just one of these factors. We all, I think, have experienced these factors in our lives because the zeitgeist just kind of oozes into us. But all of these factors together indicate the post-Christian era we live in. The entire culture has changed. The mindset has changed. It's a depressing age. The message is clear. Christ is dead. That's what they're telling us. Christ is dead. It's a denial of the gospel. And every fiber of our spiritual being should rise up and say, no, a thousand no's. Heresy of the highest order. No, my Jesus is alive. My Jesus has risen from the dead. And this is the one thing I still believe. To my dying day. Brothers and sisters, we live by hope. There's so much hopelessness around us. Someone said the last hope that's around is the hope in technology, that technology will save us. There's an article in New York Times that came out last week, said the last hope for modern man is technology and science. And the techno geeks are some of the most optimistic around still. Most people have lost hope in money and government and other things, but they're still hoping in science. And I thought it was the greatest irony I think I've ever seen. This week, when I realized in 2011, Time Magazine had a front-page article that said, Man Immortal by 2045. And three years later, The average longevity of the average American fell for the first time in a hundred years. There is no hope in science. There is no hope in technology. There's only hope in the resurrection of Jesus. We can only live by hope, brothers and sisters, to hope in the fact of the resurrection of Christ. He is risen. He is risen. Say it. He is risen! He is risen! He is risen! Hallelujah! Amen! Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we exalt in Your powerful working in our history, that Father in the midst of the 9 billion people who have died since Adam took the fruit, God in all of His death, There is one who is risen. And we follow him, Jesus. We follow you. Hallelujah. A hundred hallelujahs. We're following you, Jesus. We trust in you, Jesus. You are risen. You are on the right hand of the Father. You are our Savior. You are our Lord. And we come to you, Jesus. We will rise because you have risen in Jesus' name. Amen. The trees of the field will clap their hands." Well, you go out with joy! Amen? Why? Because we're following the Savior here. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, let's go back to the gospel. The Apostle Peter comes out of the gates in Acts chapter 2, and he's ecstatic. The message he preaches goes straight to the resurrection of Jesus. He preaches that gospel. He says, Jesus is risen from the dead. That's the point of the sermon. And it's as if Peter is spiking the ball in the end zone again and again and again through this sermon. Here's what he says, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands of crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death because, here it is, it was not possible that he should be held by it. For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. He is at my right hand. that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption." So this is the good news. Why is this a good news? Let me leave you with this before we take the table. It was not possible that He be held by death because Well, number one, God will always have the victory. But also, this is good news for us right here at the table because Jesus overcoming death for us at the cross means that we get spiritual life from Him. from His resurrection. Does that make sense? In other words, that His own body and blood rose from the dead on the right hand of the Father. Now, we receive life from His body and blood. So, His rising from the dead means we get spiritual life as well as eternal life. But secondly here also, death is the consequence of sin. So here's the logic here. If Jesus rose from the dead and he beat the consequence of sin, which was God's condemnation for our sin, then he also beat sin. If He beat the consequences of sin, then He had to beat sin as well. That's the guilt of our sin, the power of our sin, the corruption of our sin. He beat all of that as well as the consequence of our sin, and we see that in His resurrection. So resurrection means victory. It means that God won. It means that Jesus won, and He beat the greatest enemies of the human soul. And if God has given us His only begotten Son, and He's given us all of these benefits, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? It would be an insult to Jesus to mope around as if He lost. So I just want to end with that. We don't want to mope around. Any of you been a little mopey this morning? I don't know, I haven't seen that, but if you're ever tempted to mope around, listen, you don't do that because Jesus has won. You know, if someone's moping around, you just ask them, what is your problem? They say, well, I've got a mosquito bite on my forehead. You say, do you realize that you will rise from the dead? and live forever without mosquito bites. Let's get back to what he did. Let's give him some credit. Stop moping around. Live as if Jesus fixed all these problems. He's risen from the dead. He beat the greatest enemies of the human soul. And now our response is great relief and rejoicing and gratefulness. And that's what we're doing at this table now. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we come to the table. And we come realizing that we have life and we have it more abundantly from Jesus, from His resurrected body that is now the right hand of the Father. We are in Him and we receive life from Him because He is living. And Father, we pray that all of the implications of this would crash down upon our consciousness now. as we consider all of the blessings that flow from the resurrection of Jesus, not just eternally, but also right here, right now. We praise you, Father. We glory in these great truths. Lord, you share your life with us. You share your victory with us. We pray that we would more recognize it and rejoice in it as we take this cup and we take this bread that reminds us of the body and the blood of Jesus given for our life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.