Well, after a several-week interlude talking about issues relating to the Church Constitution, we're back into the 1689 Confession. And as you may recall, I hope, those of you who attend regularly, we've been in Chapter 31, which deals with the state of man after death and the resurrection of the dead. And we've spent, I don't know how many months, several months, talking about the state of man after death, talking about issues of what happens to us right after we die, what is heaven-like, what is hell-like. Now we're finally moving on from that first point in the confession to the second point, which deals with the resurrection of the dead. And I wanted to begin by talking a bit about the resurrection of the dead in general terms, and we'll get into specifics from the confession maybe next week. It's fitting that this topic should come up around Easter time, obviously the resurrection, while it should always be somewhere close to the front of our minds, on Sunday mornings, especially since we remember the Lord's resurrection on the Lord's Day. That's when he rose again, and that's one of the things we celebrate together. It's especially on our minds around Easter time. And so, in the Lord's providence, that's the way it worked out, and I'm glad when that happens. As I think you all know, the resurrection is central to the gospel message. It's not incidental at all. Some people might think, well, I can believe in Christ, but maybe not in the resurrection. Those of a more liberal bent may not be too concerned with the fact that Christ may or may not have risen in a literal physical body. As long as I love Jesus or I want to live like Jesus, that's all that matters. Now, I trust that there's no one here who would remotely buy into that sort of view, but it is a view that we see from time to time. Since it is so central to the Gospel message, it's come under heavy attack, maybe not so much under attack as salvation by grace through faith alone, that's probably over through the history of the church been more of an attack. But certainly in the early part of church history and in the last say 200 years from the the liberal elements of what people who call themselves Christians, there's been a tremendous attack against their resurrection. Even as soon as the immediate aftermath of Jesus' resurrection, there was an attack on the Doctrine of the Resurrection by the Pharisees. What was it the Pharisees did when they realized, hey, we've got this empty tomb to deal with. How do we handle this? They bribed the Roman soldiers who were supposed to be standing guard and said, just spread the story that his disciples came and took him. And the gospel writer says, this story has circulated to this day. And so there were those who thought, oh, the disciples just came and took Jesus' body. That was the first attack on the truth of the resurrection. Brian, in the past several weeks, has talked from time to time about the Greek views of resurrection. And many Greeks believe that Spirit was good, matter was intrinsically evil, and so the last thing they wanted was to have a literal physical body attached to them forever. That was anathema to many Greeks. And so there were Greek-influenced heretics early in church history that would deny that Jesus actually was raised in a physical body and would also deny that we as his believers would also someday have our own resurrection bodies. They didn't want that. They wanted to be rid of the physical constraints. sort of like Paul when he said, a wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death? The Greeks would agree with that up to a point, perhaps, in getting rid of the body completely. But Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 says, I don't want to be unclothed but clothed. That is, Paul wanted to be rid of his fleshly body, but he did want his resurrection body at the appointed time. And of course, as I mentioned before, modern liberals deny the resurrection of Christ. They deny miracles, anything that seems miraculous, they just immediately write off and write out of scripture. They may say that Jesus is resurrected in the sense that he lives on in us as his followers, and we can be like Jesus, and that is the way in which he's resurrected. But that is not at all what the writers of scripture had in mind when they talked about his resurrection. I mean, that is true as far as it goes. Christ does live in us, as Paul says, but he also lives in heaven as well in an actual physical resurrected body. Now, as I mentioned before, the resurrection is central to the gospel message and it has a great import in Scripture. Jesus himself mentioned it many times even before he was crucified. He was prophesying his death and his burial and his resurrection for a long time before it actually happened. Look at Matthew chapter 16, verse 21. Matthew 16, 21. says, from that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised in the third day. And Peter contradicts him in the next verse. And Peter says, get behind me, Satan, in verse 23. Peter didn't want this to happen because he was thinking in fleshly terms. He wanted to in some way protect Jesus, perhaps, but Jesus knew that this must happen. It says in verse 21, He must go to Jerusalem. These things were a necessity for Him and His ministry. Matthew 17, verse 22 and 23, Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up. and they were exceedingly sorrowful. That's interesting to try to get into the minds of the disciples right now, seeing their sorrow, seeing their denial of what was to come. They seem to focus on the early part, that he would be betrayed and that he'd be killed, but they didn't seem to have a whole lot of interest in what he was saying by the third day he will be raised up. And we see that despair when Jesus is finally crucified and is in the grave, Are the disciples sitting in a room anticipating His resurrection on that first Sunday morning? They're depressed, they're despondent, they're fearful, wondering what's going to happen to them now that their leader, their Lord, has been killed. So they seem to have somehow blocked out this word of Jesus that He would be raised up on the third day. They seem not to have really gotten a grasp of it. Matthew 26. Verse 32, and this is while Jesus is celebrating the Passover with his disciples, Matthew 26, verse 32. Verse 31 says that, all of you will be made to stumble because of me, but verse 32, after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. And again, there doesn't seem to be much interest on the part of the disciples as to what he means by this being raised. Peter instead focuses on the fact that he will never stumble at that moment, and of course he did. Turn with me to John chapter two. We're looking at Jesus' predictions of his resurrection. John 2 verse 19, the Jews had challenged Jesus saying, what is the sign to us? Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, it has been 46 years to rebuild this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said." It appears again from this verse that the disciples didn't have that resurrection focus beforehand, but they had it afterwards. It was only after the fact that it really clicked in their minds what Jesus was talking about. And Jesus also says elsewhere that He uses Jonah as an analogy for Him. He would be buried and be raised again after three days. So Jesus predicted His own resurrection. He also predicted our resurrection. Look with me at Luke chapter 14. We'll just look briefly at this verse. We won't look at the whole passage here. But one of His parables Jesus says, when you give a feast to people who can't pay you back, you will be blessed because they cannot repay you for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Verse 14, Luke 14, 14. And then look at Luke chapter 20. verses 35 to 38. And this is in the context of, we talked about this some time ago, the Sadducees, you remember, some of the leaders, the religious leaders in Israel, deny there's a resurrection. Look at verse 27, which says that. And they are trying to challenge Jesus. Say, well, if there is a resurrection, what if there's a man who has married a wife and then he dies and his brothers marry his wife and so on down the line. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? And Jesus said, That's an invalid question. There is no marriage in the resurrection. But, verse 35, those who are counted worthy to attain that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. So Jesus uses the term resurrection several times here. But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. So Jesus here uses the passage in the burning bush back in Exodus chapter 3 to indicate that God is the God of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still exist in some way. The Sadducees, I believe, taught that once you die, that's it. There's no resurrection. You'll just go away. Sort of an annihilationism, but not just for those who are unrighteous, but those who are righteous as well. implied in here, I think, is the fact that it is not a normal state for a human soul to be without a body. God, from the beginning, has created our soul and body to be sort of symbiotic. One relies on the other, they're connected, and so a soul, a bodiless spirit or bodiless soul is an unnatural thing. And while that is the case for those who have died in Christ, it will not be the final destiny of them. The final destiny of these spirits who believe in Christ is to have a real physical body, which we'll look at in coming weeks. Let's look at a few more passages in John. John chapter five, verse 21. Jesus several times mentions our resurrection. And forgive me if I don't go into detail in all these different passages. I just want to indicate to you that the truth that Jesus spoke often of resurrection. John 5.21, for as the father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the son gives life to whom he will. So God here promises that he will give life to the dead. Look further down in verse 24. of John 5, Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation." So, Jesus mentions two kinds of resurrection, those who are resurrected to life and some who are resurrected to judgment or condemnation. The very next chapter, when Jesus is talking about being the bread of life, John 6, verse 39. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. Next verse. This is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day. Verse 44, no one who comes to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. Verse 54. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. So this phrase, raise him up at the last day, punctuates several of these comments that Jesus makes. And so this is at the forefront of Jesus' teaching here, not just that he gives some sort of vague spiritual eternal life, but that this eternal life comes along with a real resurrected body. John 11, 25. This is the place where Christ raises Lazarus from the dead, and he's speaking to Martha and Mary and those who love Lazarus. Verse 23, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Now Jesus here is speaking of actual physical resuscitation, not his final resurrection. That is, Jesus is going to raise his his literal body out of the tomb at this moment, but Martha misunderstands and says, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And she says, yes, Lord, I believe. So Martha was correct, but she didn't have the full picture. She had put Lazarus' raising way off into the future, but Jesus was talking about raising him up at that moment. But she was truly saying that Christ was the resurrection and the life. So we have Jesus predicting his own resurrection as well as our resurrection. So those who challenge the idea of resurrection are challenging the very words of Christ himself. So if there is no resurrection then Jesus is either a liar or he is greatly deceived or else this isn't the word of God. And that's the approach I think that the liberals would take is that they just they would take out of God's word, those verses that deal with things like resurrection and miracles, say they're not really what Jesus said. So, you need to say that Jesus is a liar, he's a deceiver, or was deceived himself, or that this isn't the word of God, and we can't accept any of those points. Now, not only did Jesus himself speak often of resurrection, but it was a focal point of the apostles' teaching in the book of Acts. Look as early as Acts 1, verse 22. Remember that the disciples had to choose a replacement for Judas. They wanted to keep the number of the apostles at 12. And so when they're talking about what the apostles are meant to do, Let's look at verse 21 of Acts 1. Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. So when looking at qualifications for an apostle, they wanted somebody who was going to be a witness of the resurrection. That was a central point of their teaching. Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, when Peter preaches to many and thousands are saved, the resurrection is a center point of his teaching as well. verses 22 and 23. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because 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 will also rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of this Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear." And so this center point of his sermon is about Jesus' resurrection. And this didn't come out of the blue, but it was foretold, although in a hard to understand way, by Jesus' great forefather, David himself. David's body did see corruption in the grave, but his son, Jesus Christ, did not. And that's what he was prophesying in this quote from Psalm 22. Look at the next chapter, chapter 3, Acts 3, verse 15. Again, Peter's preaching and he He says, verse 15, that you killed the prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. Here's yet another time they're talking about being witnesses of his resurrection. That was an intrinsic part of their gospel ministry. Chapter four, very next chapter. Remember the Sadducees don't believe in a resurrection. The Sadducees had a large part of the power in the main Jewish council. The chief priests would have been a Sadducee. They came upon Peter and John being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Verse 10, Peter's responding to these men, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him, this man stands before you whole. Verse 33, With great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. So the resurrection was no incidental doctrine to them, or unimportant doctrine. Chapter 10, verse 20. Again, we're going through these fairly quickly, but I just wanted to give you an idea of the import of this doctrine to the apostles. Acts 10, verse 40. Peter here is meeting with Cornelius and other Gentiles. And in telling them the gospel, he says, him God raised up on the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. So here we have Peter again, witnessing to Christ's resurrection. Acts 13. Here Paul is speaking to some Jews in Antioch in Pisidia, or Pisidia in Antioch. That's about in the middle of what is modern day Turkey. And here again, he's speaking to Jews. Start in verse 27, we'll kind of jump in the middle of this. For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not know him, nor even the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning him, that is Christ. And though they found no cause for death in him, they asked Pilate that he should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people. And we declare to you, glad tidings, that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Therefore, he also says in another psalm, you will not allow your holy one to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. So here Paul quotes the same passage. I said earlier it was Psalm 22, it's Psalm 16, I made a mistake. Psalm 16, Paul quotes this passage and makes the same point that Peter did, that David wasn't speaking of himself because David himself was corrupted in the grave. He was speaking of his future son, Jesus Christ. And again, when Paul here is preaching to Jews, he wants to make sure they understand that resurrection is an important, critical part of his message. Now we get to the city of Athens in Acts 17. And Brian spent a lot of time talking about this recently, and I won't go into the details. But as I said at the beginning, For the most part, Greeks despised the idea of a bodily resurrection because they wanted to be rid of their flesh. They wanted to be free spirits, as it were. So Paul is speaking to them, Verse 18, they want to know what he has to say. Others said, he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. That kind of was strange to them because the idea of resurrection was so strange to them. Look at verse 31. Paul says, God has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. So, Paul says that sort of God's stamp of approval on Christ's atoning work is that God raised him from the dead. And the reaction is, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked those who hated this idea of resurrection, while others said, we will hear you again on this matter. So that kind of broke up the meeting, apparently, unless there was some other stuff that Paul said that wasn't recorded. The idea of the resurrection was to the Gentiles' foolishness, and so they turned their back on Christ, for the most part. A couple more passages, Acts 23. Verse six, Paul has been hauled before the Sanhedrin. This is the main Jewish religious council, although it had a lot of political influence as well. There are those who are Sadducees, there are the liberals, those who deny the resurrection, deny angels, deny spirits, and then the Pharisees who believe in all of those things. And Paul himself was a Pharisee. And he's brought before this group of people they basically just want to condemn him for his preaching. But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am being judged. So again, Paul here is really equating this hope and resurrection of the dead with his message of Jesus Christ. There are certainly many aspects of the gospel that we could talk about, but Paul here, when he is referring, in this case, to the gospel, he talks about it in terms of the hope and the resurrection of the dead. And so when he did that, that basically split the council, the Pharisee said, oh, it doesn't sound too bad. And the Sadducee said, this man is ridiculous. And so verse 10 says, there arose a great dissension and the Roman commander fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, bring him back into the barracks. So Paul basically started a fight between the opposing factions in the Sanhedrin. Now, chapter 24, verse 15, Paul here, in this series at the end of Acts, he's being bounced from one court to another, from one place to another, generally in chains, until he finally is on a ship toward Rome. Acts 24, he's speaking to Felix, the governor, and he wants to make sure that he speaks of the resurrection to Felix. Verse 15, he says, I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men. He's telling Felix, I'm basically preaching what many of the Jews already believe. And Jews by and large, except for the Sadducees, did believe in a resurrection of some kind. Verse 21, He says, he was talking, unless it was for this one statement, which I cried out standing among them, concerning the resurrection of the dead, I'm being judged by you this day. He's referring back to his statement in Acts 23, when he was being tried by the Sanhedrin. So he wanted Felix to know that central to this dissension between himself and the Jewish leaders, resurrection was at the heart of it. Paul also mentions the resurrection often in the epistles, and I'll just read a couple of examples. We'll look at these more in detail, I think, later. Romans 1, verse 4. You can just listen while I kind of cruise through the rest. God has declared, Jesus that is, was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So, like I said before, this resurrection was the stamp of approval on Jesus' atonement. I mean, really, anybody could die on a cross. It's not that hard to die on a cross, especially in Roman times. But the truth of Christ's atonement was made public, proclaimed publicly because of his resurrection from the dead. God declared that he was satisfied with Christ's atonement and that he had triumphed over death, and that was shown by the resurrection from the dead. Anybody can die and say they're dying for sins, but only one can truly do so, and that is the one whom God has raised to show his approval of that man. Romans 10.9, I think many of you have memorized this verse. Romans 10.9, this passage really, And we see here again, the central part that resurrection plays in the gospel. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So again, that's a crucial part of the gospel. If you deny the resurrection, you cannot be saved because you were denying the heart of the gospel. Jesus is just a dead body in a tomb somewhere or something discarded by the disciples. Without the resurrection, we have nothing. And we'll see that next week in 1 Corinthians 15. Well, we're over time. Why don't we stop there and look at a few more instances of Paul and even Peter mentioning the resurrection. I just wanted to give you an idea this morning that resurrection is so important in the gospel message. It's not just a I don't want to say merely because it sounds wrong, but it's not just about Jesus dying for our sins, but it's also about him being raised for our life. And there are so many links between Christ's resurrection and ours. Because Christ has life, we have life. If Christ were still dead, we would still be dead in our sins. And Paul makes that point explicitly in 1 Corinthians 15, which we'll look at, Lord willing, next week. Any questions? It would be also fitting because it's Resurrection Sunday. Comments, questions? Yeah, Tom. In one of Josh McDowell's books, he has a chapter called Lord Lyra Lunatic, and he draws just really interesting parallels that Christ said he was going to be raised from the dead. And so these churches and these people who want to elevate Christ, Jesus as being this great and holy man, but don't acknowledge the resurrection, pretty much take the rug right out of their own heart. That's true. And I mentioned this, I think, last week or a couple weeks ago. People who want to use Jesus for whatever their political cause is, anti-war, this, that, the other thing, they don't care about Jesus as Lord, Jesus as the resurrected Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God the Father. They want Jesus, the guy who's in company with Buddha and Gandhi and Martin Luther King or, you know, pick your your sage of the past. They want him in that company. They don't want him in the company of the angels where he's at God's right hand. And so you're exactly right. People who want to deny the resurrection really want to deny who Christ is. And if that's the case, as Paul said, let's eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Who cares about Jesus' moral precepts if he doesn't have the power over death? Why not just live the way we want? Okay, let's pray. Lord, we've just scratched the surface of this great theme of resurrection in your word, and while it's so central, it's easy for us to forget it, even week to week, day to day as we go about our business. But Lord, we have a risen Christ who sits at your right hand, who loved us to the point of death, And yet, who didn't stay in that grave, he wasn't just a victim, but he was a victor over death, over sin. And he now sits at your right hand in great power and majesty and will return in that way. He's not the wimpy man standing on a hill pleading with people to please be nice to each other. He is the risen Lord of all creation. May he be ever so in our hearts and in our thoughts, in our speech to our children, to those around us. May they always see Jesus resurrected, living in us, that you might be exalted through us. For it's in his name we pray, amen.