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Welcome to Pilgrim Talk Radio.
I'm Reverend Lee Johnson. And he's just as happy as can
be today. Happy as I can be, because with
me today, Daryl Twinkle Toes Kingswood. Twinkle Toes. I like
it. All right. And Scott. Reverend Scott Henry, also with
us again. And of course, the main man,
Nick. The one, the only. The one, the
only, Nick. The man behind the scenes. The
man in control of everything that goes on, except for what
we say. Hey, did you notice how fast he scarfed down that Chick-fil-A?
I never seen that. How was that sandwich, Nick?
Let me tell you, it was pretty cold. Kind of like the weather
today. Oh man. Anyway, go ahead with your program
now. Okay. All right then, on to our
next... He ate the beak and everything. He liked the chickpea. All right. So let's get serious
here. Yes, let's get serious. But seriously, folks. We are
talking about the Apostles' Creed, if you've been following along
with us, and we are now to the part about His resurrection and
how He rose from the dead. It's actually the Catechism says
the benefit that we receive, this is true, because of the
resurrection of Christ. We're starting with the Apostles'
Creed and I'm working my way to the Catechism. Oh, okay. So there's
a sequence here. I am doing a sequence. Sometimes
I can do explanatory notes. You've just got to be able to
pay attention. If you're following along in
the heart of our catechism, we're on question 45. What benefit do we receive
from the resurrection of Christ? And the answer is, first, by
his resurrection he's overcome death, that he might make us
partakers of the righteousness which he has obtained for us.
by his death. And second, by his power, we
also are now raised up to a new life. And third, the resurrection
of Christ is to us a sure pledge of our blessed resurrection.
I've got a feeling this one might take us three programs. But,
what's... Well, what is the benefit then,
okay? So I'm sitting here and I'm sitting in your study, Lee,
all right? And I come in and I say, Pastor
Johnson. Pastor Spanky. What is... I've
read it. I'm reading it. But what is it?
What is the benefit? What is the benefit that we receive
from the resurrection of Christ? The benefit that we receive is
that through his resurrection, we can share in his victory.
His victory over death through his righteousness. Salvation?
Salvation. Are you telling me that that's
the benefit? Salvation? The benefit. Well, I declare
as God. Is that what you're talking about?
I think that's what we're talking about. Are salvation hinges?
This is a hinge, an important hinge. Well, let me ask you this.
What is resurrection? Resurrection is a return to life. Because there are those that
say that Jesus swooned when he was on the cross. They put him
in the tomb and in the cool of the day he revived. In the south
they would have said he got the vapors. That's true. He got the vapors.
We would have said that, yeah. What about resuscitation? How
is resurrection different than swooning or resuscitation? Resuscitation
is somebody is just, you know, maybe it's hard to stop for a
moment when you're able to bring it, jumpstart it again. Let me answer his question about
resurrection. You mentioned swoon, right? resuscitation, and yet
you go back as we work our way logically through what the Catechism
has taught us, summarizing the teaching of God's Word. It dealt
with the necessity of Christ's death and also the necessity
of Christ's burial to what? To show thereby that he was really
dead. He didn't swoon. You know, he
wasn't simply resuscitated, that he was actually dead, that the
body they put in the tomb was a corpse. Right? He's dead. Dead as a doornail. They killed him dead. Killed
him dead. And we knew we'd get Lee to get that. Ding, ding,
ding, ding, ding. I get the $50. I made him say it. That was the
surprise word today. Killed him dead. Which I don't
know any other way you could... Which would be if you're killed,
you're dead. And that's what we're dealing with. So therefore,
resurrection has to do with being raised to life from death. Not just being revived, not being
resuscitated. Was Lazarus resurrected? Okay, that's a good question,
isn't it? Was he resuscitated or was he resurrected? So what's
the difference between the resurrections that are recorded that Christ
performed in his ministry and his resurrection, Scott. I'm
putting the question to you now. What is the difference between
Lazarus... Christ had a glorified body. So now we're getting at
the difference, right? Lazarus didn't. He had the same
body. But he was raised to die again. He was really dead. Let me ask
you this. When Christ died, his body was placed in the tomb.
His soul went to be with his father. When Lazarus died, he
was also placed in the tomb, and he was dead four days. And
Jesus said, you know, I go to wake him up. And the disciples
said, well, if he sleeps, he'll wake up. He's dead. but I go
that the glory of God may be manifested, that Christ's glory
might be manifested there, that He is the Messiah, that He is
the one who gives life to the dead. The Father gives life to
whom He will, and Jesus said, and I give life to whom I will.
The Father raises the dead, and Jesus said, I raise the dead.
So Jesus demonstrated Himself as the Messiah in the resurrection
of Lazarus. Now, where did the soul of Lazarus go? Because James
says to be absent, or the soul without the body is dead. Okay,
so that physical body was dead. Where did his soul go? He meant
to say the body without the soul is dead. Yeah. Okay. Right, the
body, what did I say? We got your orthography right
there. Ah, Lee got me all going on. I got y'all worked up. He
almost got you in a lather. He almost got me dead. So where? Now you're asking a good question.
The body without the soul is dead. So is there the possibility
that we can say we don't know? Yeah. Because there's another
one with the little girl when Jesus came in and Talitha Kumi,
little girl I say arise. And it says, it literally says
her spirit returned to her. Where did her spirit go? Did
it go to heaven? I mean, the scripture doesn't
say. I don't know. I don't know those answers. Post-resurrection, after
Christ's resurrection, her soul absented from the body present
with the Lord, maybe it went to Abraham's bosom. But even
if we can't answer that question, it doesn't matter, does it? It's
just one of those curious things that Scripture speaks of. Thanks
for bringing that up. You can ponder that. It's something you've
really to think about. So there is a difference. There
is a difference between resuscitation and resurrection. And Christ,
when he was raised from the dead, he has a glorified body, never
to die again. Notice the Catechism says he's
overcome death. Lazarus died again. But also
the nature of Christ's death is something that then influences
our whole understanding of the nature of His resurrection, right?
Because Christ's death is different than Lazarus' death. Because
Christ was atoning. It was a sacrifice. Lazarus wasn't. He was a dying force. I think
it also needs to be mentioned that Lazarus didn't overcome
death. Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. No, didn't he
negotiate about his recent demise? And like I said, Lazarus died
again. That's right. So Lazarus didn't
overcome death. And it was Christ who raised
him. Lazarus never would have been raised again. He never would
have come out of there on his own strength. Sure. He would
have at the resurrection at the last day. And so is it fair,
would you guys disagree with me if I said to people, you know,
Christ was raised, as Paul says, by the glory of the Father. Right? And just as Christ was said on
the cross, it is finished, the resurrection, in a sense, is
the Father saying, it is finished. Yeah, and is that okay? That's
the declaration of the father. You okay with that, Nick, over
there? Scott, you okay with that? I'm good. That's the father's
declaration that the work of the son was received by him,
and it is paid in full. And what Jesus said, it is finished.
It is finished. And the father testified to that by raising
his son from the dead, never to die again. which is the Father
also saying, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. He satisfied the
wrath of God against our sins. You have satisfied. Satisfied
the justice of God against our sins. And so what a blessing
to understand that and read through that and read that and understand
that in Scripture of the testimony of the Father on our behalf.
So this bodily resurrection of Christ is at the very center
of our whole understanding of the gospel, the good news of
great joy of salvation. Yeah, without which there is
no salvation. That the Savior who was born was born to die, but he couldn't
remain dead. Couldn't remain dead. He had
to rise. Death could not hold him down.
Why? Because he had no sin. He had to rise. He had to rise.
And there was the Old Testament promise, wasn't there? It's prophesied.
In fact, on the day of Pentecost, the very first sermon preached
after the descent of the Holy Spirit, Peter calls attention
to this in David's prophecy. So this is crucial. He foresaw
the prophesied of the resurrection of Christ. We're talking about
Christianity 101 here. And Christianity A to Z. Or Zed for you Canadian listeners. And it all hangs together. You don't even know how to say
Zed. No I don't. He says Zed with an American
accent. The conception of Christ, the
birth of Christ, the life of Christ, the humility of Christ,
the suffering of Jesus Christ is perfect fulfillment of all
the demands of the law of God. His death on the cross, suffering
the infinite, eternal wrath of God against the sins of those
that were given to Him, His burial, His rising from the dead, His
ascension into heaven, His session where He is sitting at the right
hand of the Father now making His enemies the footstool of
His feet, all of that hangs together. You can't eliminate any of it
because it's all prophesied in the Scripture. And His return.
And His coming return. Consummation of His kingdom.
Right. So, that's why Paul said 1 Corinthians chapter 15 Verse
3, I deliver to you first of all that which I also received,
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. As he said previously, I declare
to you the gospel, which I preach to you, which also you receive,
and in which you stand." And what is it? The gospel is Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and
rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And rose again,
as Paul goes on to show here, it's not a spiritual resurrection.
It's not the resurrection of an idea in the minds of the disciples.
This is a bodily, physical resurrection. So let's discuss this. I've heard
sermons. I remember when I was a young
believer. We don't have much time. I'm going to bring this
up now then. In other words, now I'm driving the bus. I just
took over. And if you ring the bell, I'll
stop and let you off. When I was a young believer,
I always used to hear these kind of negative sermons about bad,
bad Thomas, doubting Thomas, doubting Thomas. How dare he
ask for physical proof of the resurrection? How dare he demand
to put his finger in the wounds? And that was doubting Thomas,
and it was a bad thing. It was a bad thing. Thomas was
a bad man for doing that. Don't be a doubting Thomas. Yeah,
don't be a doubting Thomas. Don't be a doubting Thomas. He
couldn't help it. He was from Missouri. No, he wasn't. The show must
hate him. He was not from Missouri. He was not from Missouri. So
is that the way we should preach about Thomas? No. So it was all
right? In fact, all the disciples had
the same thing. They were all able to put their fingers in
there. What are you talking about, Spanky? Yeah, it's in there.
The time that Thomas is not there, they all have the same thing.
So it was all right for those guys to demand demonstrative physical
proof No. Of a bodily resurrection. Know
what? It's not right to demand that.
You know why? To request that. Because Jesus,
when he rebukes them, and he does, he rebukes Thomas, don't
be unbelieving but believe. It's because it was prophesied.
You should have known this. It was prophesied that I would
rise from the dead. Where is your faith? Well, if it's so
unimportant, then why do the disciples always tell, we were
eyewitnesses of this? We actually did see it. So they
bear witness to that. I didn't say it's unimportant. I said
it is important. But what I'm saying is that this
was already taught in the Old Testament, that Christ would
rise from the dead. And Jesus had taught them. Jesus taught.
Jesus said, look, I think it's in Luke 9. He even mentions this.
He says, you know, I'm going to go into Jerusalem. I'm going
to be mocked, scourged. I'm going to be crucified. I'm
going to die. But on the third day, I'm going to rise from the
dead. They didn't hear it. All right. We're going to have
to come back and yell about this some more. We are back and we are talking
about doubting Thomas and the resurrection of Jesus Christ
at this particular moment and whether or not Thomas should
have the bad rap that he often gets. I don't think he should.
I don't think he should either. I don't think he's a bad rap.
I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that he was rebuked
by Jesus and so were the rest of the disciples for their lack
of faith, for believing. Blessed are those who do not
see and do not believe. However, Jesus does go out of
his way several times to show it's a physical resurrection.
He eats the fish in the honeycomb, right? In order to prove that
he's not a ghost. that this is a physical body
that this is a real resurrection that's what he says touch me
feel me yeah it is i handle me and see yep uh but i think that
uh what uh all i'm referring to is that this uh the resurrection
was not something new and daryl's use of the word demand was not
a good we don't demand things of jesus i'm not sure that's
ever the best He's not sure that that's ever the best. I'm getting
a glare from Darrell and so now it's just… All right. Well, I
just want to read what Jesus said in full before saying, do
not be unbelieving, but believing the believing was based upon
the physical evidence. Reach your finger here and look
at my hands, and reach your hand here and put it into my side.
So it then says, do not be unbelieving, but believe. Believe on the basis
of this evidence, physical evidence. It is I. No, I would disagree
with that. And I would disagree simply because
they were to believe the scriptures. And that's where the rebuke comes
in, I think. I think at that point, you should have known
this. Phil, show us the Father and it'll be sufficient. Have
I been with you so long a time and you say, show me the Father?
If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I and the Father
are one. This is what the Old Testament talks about. I'm just
going to read a little bit further here. And Thomas answered and
said to him, my Lord and my God. And Jesus said to him, Thomas,
because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those
who have not seen and have not believed. So he says, because
you have seen me. And I think the point of the fact is that
what Jesus is saying is, blessed are those who have not seen and
yet believe. Believe the scriptures. believe the Word of God. They
should have believed. But the Scriptures are a testimony. The New Testament is the record
of the eyewitness. And the Old Testament is a record
of that which was to come. So therefore, that's why, see
I'm trying to use my my pastoral voice here to make it even more
convincing. I see, I like that. So you know. For example, you
know, John doesn't hesitate when he writes his first epistle to
say things like this, and Peter does this as well, but that which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands
have handled concerning the word of life. And that's why Paul
in the first Corinthians 15, and this gets back to the resurrection,
After talking about the gospel, Jesus died according to the scriptures,
was buried and rose again according to the scriptures, and then he
goes into this list of what, Lee? People who had seen. Yeah. And ultimately concluding with
himself as a man born out of time, untimely born. What does
he say? Scott, what does he say? Are
you listening? No, I wasn't listening. I'm sorry. I was reading something.
What are you doing? What are you trying to get a little information
to argue against what I was saying, which you weren't listening to? I think I knew where you were
going. Yeah, you think you knew where I was going. I didn't even
see you try to get on the bus I was driving, never mind. I
really want to hear his refutation of the argument. He does not
know what I was saying. I'm sorry, brother. That's okay. I got off the bus. Second Peter 1, this is what
Peter says, That was the Mount of Transfiguration. And he says, for he received
from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came
to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. And we heard this voice which
came from heaven when we were on the mount with him. And he
goes on and he says in verse 19, and so we have the prophetic
word confirmed. We have a more sure word. You
know, it's not simply the sight. But both, both, and I'm not saying
it's just, but I'm saying for them, we have those eyewitnesses. That's demonstrative. In terms
of, in a court of law, the eyewitnesses are convincing here. Okay, what
do we do as far as the disciples, Matthew 28, when he was resurrected
and he was standing before, and it says, and some of them didn't
believe. Yeah. Some of them doubted. Yeah, some
of them don't. They told the women. They didn't
believe. They told the women, you're outside your mind. Right? And that's what they, what are
you talking about? You know, they thought it as
fables. Come on. And this is what Jesus
had prophesied to happen. I'm just saying that our confidence
needs to rest in the Word of God. We don't see Jesus as resurrected
right now. You haven't seen him resurrected,
but we do see him in the Word. In the Word of God, which is
the testimony to Those eyewitnesses who said, this is real. This
is a physical bodily resurrection. I think that's the important
thing. So that's the testimony of Scripture. We are to believe the Word, and
the Word is written by people who had the eyewitness testimony.
Right. This is what John's telling us
in John 1. And all I'm saying is that they
didn't need to see Him. They should have believed what
the Old Testament taught. That's true, but I do believe
that the Lord is giving us eyewitnesses. Sure. The cause. Sure. Here's
what's interesting. Who brought all this up? You
did. This is why you're never allowed to drive the bus. So
if this was a hockey game, I just got kicked out of the game for
instigating the whole thing. Luckily we're in America. Which
comes down to the importance of the whole discussion. Did
you hear this Calvinist talking about luck? I tried to insult
the candidate, he won't even listen. You know what's terrible?
The last time I talked about luck... You knew it was wrong, you looked
right at me. Listen, I got a Ron Morris story
here. Oh, yeah. We'll bring Ron up
here, I'll tell it. This one goes out to you, Ron.
Out to Ron Morris. Talk about luck. There was a
guy I knew, I won't mention names to protect the guilty here. About
23 years ago, he got married. And so, just joking around with
him on his wedding day, I shook his hand and said, I wish you
all the luck in the world. I shouldn't have done that. 15 years later,
his wife left him because she became a lesbian. So, hey, what
are you going to do? That's a Ron Moore story. Well,
it's a little more edgy. But if they don't allow that
on Christian radio, I just got a big long beep. So we come back, I'm still driving
the bus. I've made all my stops, I'm pulling in to the station.
The point is, it's a bodily resurrection. We deny that, we deny the testimony
of the Word of God. But weren't the disciples, weren't
they in fact denying that? Yeah. Oh yeah. And Jesus rebuked
him for that. Oh, no doubt. No doubt. But here's
the point I'm making. So when we come back to why is
this... You know, why were they so... Oh man, a lot of what you...
In wonderment. You see how difficult it is to
drive the bus around? It is. Yeah, I'm hanging on, man. You
can throw me out. He's trying to loosen the...
I'm trying to grab that wheel. I'm driving 60 miles an hour and
he's trying to loosen the lug nuts. I'm sorry, go ahead. You know
what, I'm like you. I wasn't paying attention to
anything I was saying anyway. You know what I'm trying to argue
against here? I'm trying to argue against the
evidential school of apologetics. Thinking that you have to demonstrate
these things, you have to have the physical evidence. And I'm
saying that we don't need to give new facts. No, because we
have the Word of God. We have the Word of God. And
it's the more sure word, as Peter says. And so we got it all right
back for us. Even though we've seen him, Peter says, we have
the more sure word. And faith cometh by hearing.
So we come back. This is important because when
we discuss the benefit we receive from the resurrection of Christ,
and it is a bodily, physical resurrection. It's not a spiritual
resurrection. It wasn't a resuscitation. It wasn't a reviving. He didn't
just simply swoon. He was dead and buried, right? Yeah, and notice the comment,
the words here in the Hutterburg Calvary, he overcame death. This
is, John Owen wrote a book, The Death of Death and the Death
of Christ. Right here, he put death to death in his death. He has overcome that and he's
overcome it for us. He's overcome it, the second
death. and he's done that for us, in
our place, condemned he stood. And so, that we might be partakers
of the righteousness, Jesus did this, that we might partake of
his righteousness, and be received by his Father. As I had said
in a program before, all the benefits of Christ accrue to
us, they've been imputed to us, and we are treated now, in Jesus
Christ, as if we had kept all the commandments perfectly, because
of what Christ has done for us. His life, His death, His resurrection,
His ascension, His session, seating at the right hand, and His coming
again to show all the world that He is the reigning King and every
knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. So, at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, this is what Paul writes,
verse 56, the sting of death, sin. And then what's he say? The strength of sin is the law,
right? But thanks be to God who gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's Christ's
death in our place and his resurrection. He died physically, didn't he?
He was dead. And he was raised from the dead.
And that's why Peter says, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten
us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And that's why all of us will stand at the last day and say,
oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, Hades, where is thy victory? It has been swallowed up in life. It's about salvation. And so
that's the end of our first broadcast then on resurrection, right?
We've got like three minutes. It's about salvation. It's about
glorification. It's about glorifying God. Let's go back to things
we've discussed before. Salvation being used in all tenses
in Scripture in terms of past, present, and future. In terms
of having been saved, being saved, and will be saved. Justification,
sanctification, glorification. That's the benefit. I mean that's
essentially what the Catechism is teaching us here when it talks
about the benefit we receive from the resurrection of Christ.
The past, present, and future salvation that is guaranteed
because of Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection
from the tomb. And so that leads us into our
next broadcast and discussing in greater detail exactly what
is it about the resurrection of Christ that attains for us
our justification, our sanctification, and our glorification. So I set
it up for you, Lee. There you go. That in the business
is called a teaser. Ooh. Ooh. Nicely done, Darrell. In our last few minutes then,
Reverend Henry, why don't you tell people where they can learn
more about this glorious gospel, and perhaps even worship the
risen Lord Jesus Christ here in Omaha. Heritage Reformed Church,
2202 Washington Street, and we are located at Mission Middle
School in Bellevue, and worship is at 10 o'clock, Sunday school
at 9 o'clock, You can look us up on the web at heritagercus.com
or look us up on Facebook, Heritage R-C-U-S. And if this is your
first time listening to this radio program and you're thinking
to yourself, man, I really want to get all the rest that they've
missed. you can find us on Sermon Audio. Sermon Audio or if you
look on the Heritage Reformed Church webpage you can see all
the programs are listed there or St. John's Reformed Church
in Lincoln, Nebraska and you can find all the programs listed
there. There you go. That's stjohnsrcus.com. There
you go. That's just for those people.
There's a picture there of Lee, and if you're wondering if he's
as funny looking as he sounds, you would be correct. Yeah, you'll
be able to determine for yourself if that is the case. Send him an email. Now that is
a teaser. And if you have anything, any questions for the program,
send it to Lee Johnson. No, put it on the Facebook page.
Actually, you could go if you do have a question. We've got
a debate going again. At the end of the broadcast. If you
do have a question for us and anything that you've heard, look
us up on heritagercus.com and go to the contact button and
send us your questions and we'll get at it. We'll get at it in
our next broadcast. Absolutely. Until then, we'll see you next
week. Arrivederci. Arrivederci.
The Benefits of Christ's Resurrection
Series Pilgrim Talk
Rev. Lee Johnson, Rev. Darrell Kingswood & Rev. Scott Henry discuss the benefits believers receive from Christ's resurrection mentioned in the Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 45.
| Sermon ID | 1117131824431 |
| Duration | 27:11 |
| Date | |
| Category | Radio Broadcast |
| Language | English |
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