Beloved congregation in the Lord Jesus Christ, on Friday we looked at the meaning of Good Friday. We looked at the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We looked at the fact that Christ was the one who was crucified in the place of his people. That He is the One who took the curse of the covenant. He is the One who then provided all the blessings for the people of God because of His perfect work. His fulfilling all the demands of the covenant of works. All the stipulations that God has given to Him. But Good Friday is not the end of the story. His being put into the grave as He was buried, thereby being dead. That He came out of the grave. That He rose up from the dead. Because the Scripture must be fulfilled. The fulfillment of all that God has promised in the Old Covenant must come to pass. Christ must rise from the dead. For him to not rise from the dead would mean that all that had been given to him are lost as well. And Jesus said, it cannot be that I should lose any for which the Father has given unto me. So Christ must then rise up from the grave. And did you notice in our scripture reading that the disciples had a hard time believing in the resurrection? That they thought it was an idle tale that Christ had risen from the dead. Notice also it was the women that were first witnesses to the resurrection of Christ. That would not have been in the ancient day a credible witness in that day. And yet, that's who the Lord uses as the first to witness Christ rose from the dead. Then we find them going back and in joy and telling the apostles, and they didn't believe them. It's amazing, isn't it? Because the Scriptures are clear about the resurrection. The Old Testament is clear that Christ must rise from the grave, thus fulfilling the Word of God. God's Word must come to pass. In all that He says, it cannot fail. Reminds me of Samuel, the prophet. One of the things that was said about Samuel is none of his words fell to the ground. What does that mean? That everything that he declared, all that he prophesied, all the word that was given to him by the Lord came to pass. None of it then failed to happen. Jesus had been preparing His disciples with regards to His suffering, His death, His resurrection, and His coming again. And it's a packaged deal. I often hear about this time of the year that the most important thing we celebrate is the resurrection of Christ. I don't know how you make that distinction. Because if He doesn't rise, we're still in our sins. But if He's not born, there is no resurrection. I don't think you can put a hierarchy on the person and the work of Christ and all that is entailed in his life and in his work. Because it all holds together as a covenant bundle. Without one portion, the rest would fail. It's like what James speaks about what the law of God. If you fail at one point to keep the law, if you keep some of it and fail at one point, you've broken all of the commandments. Because they all hold together, they hang together. And so, Jesus in Luke chapter 9, Luke chapter 18, Luke chapter 24, He had told them numerous times within those chapters that this is what's going to happen. The Son of Man is going to be given unto godless men, and they are going to beat Him, whip Him, scourge Him, crucify Him, and He is going to die, but then He will rise on the third day. Peter, at this point, even yells out, it's not going to happen to you, Lord. Far be it! This shall never happen to you. And that's when Jesus said to him, get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. For you don't have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. Christ must go to the cross. He is prophesied as the suffering servant to give his life a ransom for many. And so we commemorate this day, but let's keep it in focus that it's not just this one particular day. The early church began to worship on the first day of the week because of the resurrection of Christ. So truly, beloved, every Lord's Day that we gather together, we are commemorating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are acknowledging the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's not one particular day. It's kind of like we speak about Thanksgiving. It's not wrong to have a day that we commemorate thanks to God. But this is our life. We are to be a living sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord. We are to honor Him in all that we think, say, and do. We are to be those people that give Him thanks in all things. And so, yes, the resurrection is crucial. It's essential. Without it, as Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15, we're still on our sins. We're still under the wrath and condemnation of God. but because Christ has risen from the dead. And why do we believe this? Why do you believe that Christ rose from the dead? Let's make no mistake about this. You don't believe this because of your own ingenuity. You don't believe this because you might have a big intellect. You don't believe this because you would say that you're a smart, intelligent person. The only way anyone believes the resurrection of Christ is by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit who creates faith in the heart to believe the promise of God in Scripture. That the Holy Spirit causes us to believe all things that are revealed in Scripture. We don't understand lots of things in Scripture, but we believe that it is the Word of the Sovereign God. He has given us this Word. And so we embrace it. We believe it because the Holy Spirit has given us this faith. That's why we believe. That's why we rejoice. The world doesn't rejoice. How is it that even the disciples didn't believe in the resurrection? They came to believe, but why was it when they were first told that they didn't believe? Because that is the work of the Holy Spirit again, illumining the mind. Did you notice that Christ is the one who opens the understanding to be able to understand the scriptures? So, our text, Jesus is clear about the things that he had spoken to the disciples. Notice in verse 44. Then he said to them, 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." That is an astounding statement from Christ. It is an astounding statement because of the fact that all of Scripture testifies to Christ. We have throughout all of Scripture from Genesis, and he's talking about the Old Covenant. From Genesis to Malachi, Jesus is saying in these words, they all spoke about me. This is what Jesus said to the Pharisees. If you believe Moses, you would believe me because Moses wrote about me. The Lord then gave them a Bible study and explained to them in all things in the Scripture concerning Him. And it's amazing how all of this comes together, that He opens their understanding to give them thoroughness, completeness, to bring it together. To say, yes, I see that. Oh, I understand that now. Oh, okay, that's what that meant. That's what He's referring to. Now notice, he said he spoke words while he was still with them. He told them. While he was with them, before his crucifixion, before his going to the cross and laying down his life for his people, this whole time he is preparing them and telling them of these words. He's revealing the Old Testament to them. Let me ask you this question. Could you go to the Old Testament and proclaim Christ to an unbeliever from the Old Covenant? Are you steeped enough in the teaching of God's Word in the Old Covenant to be able to give witness to Christ as the Messiah, as the Redeemer? Because that's what the Apostle Paul did when he went into the synagogues and he reasoned with the Jews explaining, showing, declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the one promised of the old covenant, God in flesh, God incarnate. Jesus had schooled them up in the Old Testament. And again, they weren't believing in the resurrection. So he goes on and he says, these are the things that all things must be fulfilled. The Greek term there, fulfilled, pleirou, means to be filled up or completed. In other words, all the things concerning the Christ must come to the completion. Paul speaks about that in Romans chapter 10. He calls it the talos, that it all ends in Jesus Christ. He is the aim, the end of the law. In other words, as Jesus has said to the scribes, the Pharisees, the Herodians, You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. But these are they that speak of Me. In other words, if you don't see Christ in the Old Covenant, you've missed it. You think because you have the oracles of God, the Scriptures, the Bible in your hand, that you are then the people of God. Jesus said, you are only the people of God and children of Abraham if you are believing on Me. Philippians 3, we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in our flesh. They must be fulfilled. Notice the words, must be. It has to happen. It cannot fail to be completed. That's what Jesus is saying. And He says, the things that were written. Now, notice the threefold division that you have here. This is the division that the Jews had. The threefold division of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Now, that division, it speaks of genres. It speaks of certain literature. The Law, referring to the first five books of Moses. It's called Pentateuch. The five books. So you have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Then when he speaks about the prophets, he is speaking both about the historical books, so Joshua, Judges, Ruth, so on, as well as the major and the minor prophets. The major prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Daniel, the major prophets simply because of the amount of material that was written. The minor prophets are referring to, not that there's one is better or more holy or more righteous than the other, or more significant. It has to do with the amount of material. The minor prophets referring to, as you know, 14 minor prophets. And that is included as well as historical. So there is the law and the prophets, and then you have the Psalms. The Psalms is not just referring to the 150 that we have that would have been the song book. It's more than that. It is also including the wisdom literature. So, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Song of Songs. That is included. What is left out? This is comprehensive. Jesus is saying the whole Old Testament spoke of Him. And yet, how easy it is for us to go to the Old Testament and not see Christ there. Now, how is He revealed there? Well, that is clear and that is evident as well in types, shadows, symbols, ceremonies, and sacrifices. All pointing towards the Lord Jesus Christ. So, concerning Him is the Old Covenant. He is the diamond in the rough. He is the diamond in the old covenant. Now, think about this as Jesus speaks of the types, the shadows, and symbols. Let me just run through some of them with you. This is just a few. It's not everything. We would be here all morning looking at all the different types and the shadows, ceremonies, and sacrifice of Christ. Where does it start? It starts right from the beginning, doesn't it? It starts, the person of Christ symbolically demonstrated in the animal skins, right in the garden in Genesis 3. This is what the Lord had given to cover them, and that covering is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have types, you have even the prophets were types of Christ. But we find that right there from Genesis 3.15. There is the type. Here's another type in Genesis. You have the type of the substitutionary atonement when Abraham was then commanded to take up his son Isaac and offer him there as an offering to the Lord. And that Isaac was taken off of the altar, and that a ram caught in a thicket was placed upon the altar, and was there sacrificed in Isaac's place was the demonstration of the substitutionary atonement. How do you know that? In John chapter 8, that's what Jesus said. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it, and he was glad. Types of the Lord Jesus Christ. How about in Numbers chapter 21, when you have the children of Israel, lamenting and crying and complaining against the Lord. And the Lord, in his discipline, sends fiery serpents, it simply means poisonous snakes, into the camp to bite the people. It was a chastisement, wasn't it? It was a discipline of the people. And the people then cried out and lamented to Moses, and Moses was crying out to the Lord, and the Lord told him to erect a bronze serpent and put it in the midst of the camp. And tell all those that were bitten by snake to look to the bronze serpent and they will be healed. And many died in the wilderness. Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, 23,000 died. Because they didn't have faith. They didn't believe. It wasn't the bronze serpent that was going to heal. It was an act of faith, believing what God said. Just like the fruit in the garden. There's another type of Christ. The tree of life. It's the tree that gives life. He is the one who grants life. Jesus says that in John 3, that even as Moses erected the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Here is a type of Christ that all who look unto Him will be saved. What do you have there with the type of Christ with the rock in the wilderness? The book of Numbers talks about that. Moses, in two accounts, was told at one point to speak to the rock, and another he was told to strike the rock. In Numbers 21, he strikes the rock twice because he's angry. He's angry at the people. And it was because he struck the rock twice that Moses was prohibited from going into the promised land. Why was that? Because in 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul says that the rock that followed them in the wilderness, that rock was Christ. Christ was smote once, not twice. And he was misrepresented by Moses, and it was so severe that he was not allowed to go into the Promised Land. We have Noah's Ark as a type of Jesus Christ. The safety from the impending wrath that is going to come upon the unbelieving world is the ark of safety. The only place, beloved, that you can go to escape the wrath of God that is coming against all those that believe not the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ. The ark is a type of Christ. Jacob's ladder. Jacob laid down his head, he saw the ladder ascending, coming down from heaven onto the earth, and angels ascending and descending upon it, which Jesus says in John chapter 1, that's with regards to the Son of Man. It is a type of Christ coming down to man. God coming down to man. Not as the Sunday school song sings, we are climbing Jacob's ladder. It's not you working your way up to the kingdom, it's God coming down to us to redeem mankind. There's a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The tabernacle, the temple, they were all types of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true temple. They were images that were given. And that's why Moses was instructed to do everything exactly in coordination with what God had revealed to him. Do not deviate from it. Because it's a type that reveals the Lord Jesus Christ. The burning bush and the voice that comes from the burning bush. This is the Logos of God. Christ is the one who speaks. We find the scapegoat. That's the high priest putting his hands on the scapegoat. Sending it out into the wilderness. The other goat then cut up and the blood sprinkled within the temple. And all the instruments cleansed by that. This is the type of Christ in propitiation, expiation. The wrath of God is sent away, never to return to us again. As the high priest pronounced then, all of the sins of Israel upon that goat and send it off in the wilderness. There is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. The Passover lamb. That God's wrath would pass over us because of the blood that was on the lintel and the doorposts. And as I said on Friday night, it wasn't the angel of death who came by who looked into the doors to see who was worthy. It was the blood, and because of the blood, that the angel of death passed by. Everybody inside was unworthy. You and I are unworthy in and of ourselves. The only ones that are worthy are in Christ Jesus. He is the worthy one, and we partake of that as He shares with all of His benefits. So we have constantly the Day of Atonement, the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. speaking about the wrath of God coming upon him to save a multitude of children that were given unto him. And it goes on to speak about the servant's song, and the song from the cross in Psalm 22. That his soul would not be then seeing corruption. Why? It is prophesied in Psalm 16 that his body must come out of the grave. So it just goes on and on with the Psalms and with the prophets and with the law, speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, we miss so much of the rich typology as we go there. Because we often go with the duties. What do I need to do? No, it's what I need to see, what I need to believe. And this is what I see and believe. And this is how the Holy Spirit works. I'm thinking of the manna and the wilderness. What a wonder! And the thing that is so blasphemous about the people of God that they don't recognize. That God gave manna to the children of Israel as they were wandering 40 years in the wilderness. And as Jesus speaks about that manna in John chapter 6. But think about this, that they had the manna and everything in the manna was sufficient to care for their physical needs. And what did they do? Just like us. This is where we want to abstract ourselves, isn't it? This is where we want to distance ourselves. They complained. They grumbled against God because of the manna, which they didn't have to plant. They didn't have to cultivate. It came down with the morning dew and laid upon everything on the ground, and all they had to do is just gather it up. And yet they said in the book of Numbers that our soul loathes this worthless manna. Jesus said it wasn't Moses that gave you the manna, but it was my father who gives you the true bread from heaven. The manna became man and redeemed his people. And they loathe that manna. It would be like us coming to the Lord's table and despising the bread and the wine and what that represents. And complaining, beloved. Isn't it us to complain? Wanting more? Yeah, yeah, Lord, we know, okay? You've given us baptism. You've given us the Lord's Supper. You've given us the Word, but we want more. We don't think that this is sufficient for us. We want more. That's a despising of the person of Christ. Because Christ is all-sufficient. You need no more. No more and no less than Christ. When you have Him, you have all that is necessary unto your salvation. We need to recognize that, beloved, that sin that is still within us that wants more. It's not content. Always railing and complaining about the things that God gives. Never content with the providential hand of God. We want more. We want meat. What is it? That there are not enough graves in Egypt that you send us out here? We want the leeks and the garlics and the onion. We want to fill our belly. That's what we want. And the Lord accommodates them. Do you remember He gave them quail? The wind blew in and it blew in the quail and it was so much quail, it was about two feet off the ground that the quail came in. And they had so much meat that they ate for 30 days, 40 days is what they ate it. That it came out of their nose, they said. Now they complain about that. Aren't we a complaining lot? Beloved, we need to be content with the provision that God gives. We need to see and recognize the depth of that provision and what God has done for us in Christ. This is what Jesus does to the disciples, verse 45. And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. The opening of the understanding is that which is able then to put things together. That's what it means. He enabled them to put the scriptures together to see the resurrection, to see the types, to see the symbols, the ceremonies, the sacrifices of the old covenant that they foreshadowed the Christ who was to come. And then they were able to put together the ceremonial aspect of the law, that tutorship. that then brought them to Christ. He opened their understanding. The understanding has to do with the mind, the knowing, that you would understand, that you would believe, that you would comprehend. And so Jesus wants the people of God to comprehend the scriptures, to understand the word. And then he said to him, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer. No, it had to come to pass. Hell thinks, Satan thinks, the demonic world thinks, the unbelieving world, the God-haters think that the victory was won at the cross for them. And the victory was won at the cross. This is the prophecy, isn't it, from the old covenant, right from the beginning. You will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head. The head of the serpent was crushed in the crucifixion of Christ. His heel was bruised, but victory was won. It was necessary for this to happen. And then, because of this, Christ being crucified, rising from the dead. This is what has to happen then. Preaching. Preaching that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations. Because of the resurrection of Christ, there is repentance. Because of the resurrection of Christ, there is remission of sins. Now, the repentance, metanoia, means a change of mind. First and foremost, it means a change of the mind, change of the thinking. And when your mind changes, the direction of your life changes. Your activity changes as your mind changes. And so that must be preached. And it's through the preaching that Jesus brings repentance to sinners. To change the mind about the types, shadows, symbols, ceremonies, about the Christ, about the resurrection, about salvation in Him. And then, and. Repentance and remission. that you need to repent, you need to turn and look to Jesus, you need to believe on Him, and know that your sins have been remitted. The Greek term, aphesis, comes from the root word, aphiemi, which means to send away. And to know that those that believe on Christ, look to Him, all of your sins have been sent away. What a wonder that that is. We bear our sins no more. Yeah, but I feel dirty. I still feel defiled. It's not based upon how I feel. My righteous standing before a holy God is a declaration given to us in the Word that we have been justified by the crucified Savior who is risen from the dead and shares with us all of His merits, all of His benefits. We stand complete. We stand whole. We stand holy and righteous, acceptable unto a holy God. because of the resurrected Christ. And so he says that this should be preached to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And this is what we find in the book of Acts, that it's from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world. We keep on preaching. And that we preach repentance and remission of sins, that if there is a turning from sins, there is a remission of sins. in that the turning of sins is a consequence of the mind being opened by the Lord Jesus Christ. So the one that does turn and has his sins remitted, returns right back around and gives praise to the Christ who has redeemed me from all of my sin and misery. And it must be preached, it must be proclaimed, even to you as to people of God. Because there are those that are here this morning who do not believe. The Holy Spirit has not opened their understanding to believe the promise of the resurrected Savior. I don't know who they are, but I know that there are always tares that are mixed in with the wheat. So the prayer is that the Holy Spirit would open understandings, that there would be repentance and turning from the way that you are thinking about the Christ, and then know that you have received the fullness of forgiveness. because of the work of Christ, in that you would go out then and evangelize. You would go out as a missionary, as it were, for the Lord Jesus Christ, and tell people about the salvation that is in Him. That is all contained in the work of Christ. As He said, you are the witnesses of these things. They were the ones that bore witness. They became martyrs for the cause of Christ. And then he tells them, Behold, the promise of my Father is upon you. I send that promise. That promise was the filling of the Holy Spirit. That promise was the Spirit coming upon them in power, enabling them to go out into a hostile world, proclaiming salvation in none other That's why you find Peter saying in Acts chapter 4, there is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved. Beloved, that could cost you your life. Doesn't cost you much today in our culture. You can say these things here, Grand Island, Lincoln. Nobody's gonna put you to death. But in this culture, you'd be put to death. It costs something to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Oh, that it would cost something today, we wouldn't have so many phony disciples. We'd have true disciples of Jesus Christ. True worshippers of the living God. The ones who truly would say, if I live, I live to the Lord. If I die, I die to the Lord. Whether I live or die, I am the Lord's, come what may. I am a disciple of Christ, and I'm not ashamed to declare His name. I'm not ashamed to proclaim His name. I'm not ashamed to bear witness of the risen Christ, who rules over all. I'm not ashamed to say, bow the knee to Him. You do it now, or you'll do it when He comes, and you'll bow out. This is the promise that he's given to his disciples. Power from on high. Do we not need power today, beloved? We are a people that needs power. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. We need zeal that comes from the Holy Spirit. We need our minds held captive to the obedience of Christ. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be kept on being filled up. We need to be a people that are filled with the Word of God, permeated, saturated with God's Word. That's Spirit-filled people, who go out into highways and the hedges from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and for us, to the uttermost parts of the world. proclaiming salvation in none other. It is cosmic treason to say that there is salvation in anyone other than Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. And this we proclaim. And beloved, when we have the boldness from the promise that God gives, the filling of the Holy Spirit, we will proclaim. We will not be ashamed. We will not be ashamed to bow our heads to the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. We will not be ashamed to praise His name. We will not be ashamed to gather and worship. We will not be ashamed to bear witness of Him. We will not be ashamed to call all men everywhere to repent and to believe on this resurrected Savior, who right now rules over all things, because all power and all authority has been given unto Him. We need that power. We need the Holy Spirit power. So that we'd be faithful, diligent, zealous. God-honoring disciples of Jesus Christ. Who have our mouths, our tongues, loosed to declare His praise. This is what you see in the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and they were fearless. They stood in the face of opposition, and whether it is right in the sight of God to obey you or to obey God, you judge. But we can't stop proclaiming the things that have been told to us, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we believe, of the resurrected Jesus Christ. And this is what He gives to His church, and this is what we ought to pray for. Fill us, O Lord. Fill us that we would be true disciples. zealous disciples, God-honoring disciples, fearless of the faces of men who will always frown at you. As soon as you bring up the name of Jesus, the frowns come out, the snickers happen. And yet we bow to Him as the Lord and the King. Why? Because He has opened our understanding to understand the truth of Scripture. That as the Father said, I have set my King, on my holy hill of Zion. Kiss the sun, lest you perish in the way. This is what we believe because of the work of the spirit, as a result of the benefits of the resurrected Christ. Amen. Shall we pray?