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.