I'll read the two next words that Justin stopped at, because my message really could be summed up in two very simple four-letter and a three-letter word. And those two words are come and see. Simple as that. That's the message. But of course, the message has implications that go far beyond that. Justin was saying that the Spirit of God working and leading, and in Angus in his reading, and Justin in his reading, and the message this morning, you could sum it up with those two words, come and see. Take your Bibles then to the book of Acts and chapter two, and we're gonna read from verses 22 all the way to verse 41. To truly see Jesus is to be changed. To truly see Jesus, to really see him, is to be transformed into the same image. How many of us have looked at something but failed to truly see it? You kind of glance at something and you don't notice it and move on, don't see it. Who's ever gone to some marvelous natural phenomenon like Ayers Rock or Uluru, I think that's what they call it now, or Niagara Falls or the Alaskan icebergs and left unchanged by what we had seen and experienced. Heather and I had the opportunity before we left Canada to go up the Tracy Fjord up in Alaska and see some of those incredible sights. And you stand on the deck of the boat and it just takes your breath away and you look at what God has done. And it's incredible to go away from those things unchanged. How often in our reading of scripture have we read an account of a great Bible story, or read a moving psalm, or read some of the words of one of the prophets, Isaiah or Jeremiah, and been unaffected by the power of those words of truth. But to truly, to really come face to face with the glory of the risen Lord Jesus Christ in the scriptures, the word of God, is to be changed, to be transformed into that image. Now this Easter Sunday, this is a day we celebrate and rejoice with hearts full of joy for our risen Lord Jesus Christ. This beautiful Easter Sunday morning, I want us all to turn our eyes and I want us to look and see and be changed by the glory of Jesus Christ. I want us to go out from this place changed. And my prayer is that you will leave totally different than how you came in. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior, to leave confident that you know him, whom to know is eternal life. And if you know Jesus as your Lord and savior, then to leave here more like Jesus than when you arrived. And so I want to show us, I want us to look at and see this morning three things from the book of Acts chapter two. And those three things are this. Number one, Jesus, the man displayed by God. Number two, Jesus, the lamb delivered by God. And three, Jesus, the son of God raised by God. Let's read together, shall we? Acts 2, beginning at verse 22, he says this, and it's Peter's sermon on Pentecost morning. They've gone out into the streets, they've been filled with the spirit of God, and they've given utterance to speak in other languages, and to the people around are hearing them, and they're all gathering together to see what this great commotion and turmoil is. And Peter is preaching his sermon. He says this, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and for knowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me. for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the path of life, and you will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that, sorry, we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, save yourself from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized and they were added, sorry, there were added that day about 3,000 souls. I'm gonna read the next verse as well. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and the prayers. Number one, I want us to see this morning the glory of Jesus, this man displayed. Notice what he says in verse 23, he says, this Jesus, sorry, verse 22, men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty wonders, works and signs and so on. That word there, attested, is the idea of showing off. It's kind of like when I had my first son, and we went to church, and he was in the baby carrier, and everybody wanted to come up, and it's a sense of great joy, and you just kind of hold it out so everybody can see your boy. You know, you've had that kid, and, well, Heather's had the kid, and you get to hold him and show him off. And that's what that word literally means. It says that God showed him off. He displayed him as one who was approved. God displayed Jesus with signs and wonders and miracles, the healing, healing, sorry, and the sicknesses that were cured and the leprosy that was cleaned, the feeding of the thousands and the water turned to wine, the great catches of fish, all through the gospels, the Father is showing off and displaying his Son saying, look at Jesus, see Jesus. To use those two words again, come and see Jesus. God displayed Jesus exercising power with his spoken word. Without even breaking a sweat, Jesus did all kinds of things. In Mark 2, the verse 12 verse, it describes a story where four men bring their paralytic friend on a mat, and Jesus is inside of a house, and he's preaching the gospel, and he's talking to people about the kingdom of God, and these men can't get through the crowd. There's so many people jammed in to see Jesus that they go up on top of the roof, and they dig through the roof, and packed big enough for that bed to get lowered down the middle of them. And Jesus displays the power of God and He, first of all, forgives that paralytic. Son, your sins are forgiven you. And then he shows something else. He displays the Jesus power, having power over physical body. And he says, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or rise, pick up your mat and go home. But that you may know, so that you may know that Jesus has power on earth to forgive sins. He looks down at the man lying on the mat or maybe stand there because he's, no, he's lying on the mat still. He's forgiven, he's still paralyzed, and he says, pick up your bed and go home. And the man stands up, now he's forgiven of his sin, his paralysm is totally cured, and he picks up his mat, he rolls it up, puts it over his shoulder, and he walks through the crowd, and he goes home. And God is displaying Jesus Christ for both those people and all of us who read the scriptures to see that Jesus is the man approved by God with signs and wonders and miracles. In Matthew 8 verses 14 to 16. Sorry, Matthew 8 verses 1 to 4, Jesus has just finished his great sermon on the mountain. He's coming down from the mountain, and as he comes down, there's a leprous man. And the leprous man comes up close to Jesus, and he's looking to be cleansed, and Jesus does the most unbelievable thing. He reaches out his hand, he touches the leper, and he says, I'm willing be cleansed. And for the first time in recorded history, a man with leprosy is totally cleansed and he is completely clean of his leprosy and he goes away totally changed. with the power of his words, heals leprosy, cleanses leprosy, sorry. And then a little later on in the same chapter, he goes into the house of Peter's house, and there's Peter's mother-in-law, and she's lying there sick on a couch, and Jesus goes over and touches her, and the fever immediately leaves her, and she gets up, and she begins to run around, and she's serving all the people, and she's, I'm sorry Lydia, I'm looking at you, and just, you remind me of her, and she was running around, she was serving people with the food, and looking after them, Jesus healed her so thoroughly, her sickness was so completely gone that she was full of energy and life, and she ran around serving people. And God displayed Jesus having power to heal sickness by His very words. In Mark 11, Jesus is walking into the temple area, and He's going into Jerusalem to be crucified in a week's time, and He passes the fig tree, and He sees no fruit on it. And Jesus speaks a word, a curse, a fig tree. And the very next day, the disciples and Jesus are going back into the city again. And there's a fig tree all shriveled up and it's dead, completely dead. And God is displaying Jesus having power over creation. You remember the story, Jesus is out in the boat on the lake with his disciples and the great waging with storm and there's wind and there's waves knocking the boat all over the place. And the Bible says that Jesus is asleep in the stern on a pillow. How you can sleep through a storm like that, I don't know. But Jesus had such faith and such peace with him and his father that he could sleep even through the middle of the greatest storms. And the disciples go and wake him up. Hey, don't you care that we're drowning? We're going to drown. We're going to die. Come on. Don't sleep. And Jesus stands up. Silent, be still. And instantly, there's a calm over the whole of the sea. And you can see the disciples stand there. And it's so calm now. They wish they had some winds. They could keep going somewhere. But it's dead calm. And they're all looking at Jesus. And they're seeing there's something tremendously different about this man. Who is he, they ask, that he commands the wind and the waves of the word, the word of his power. God displayed the glory of Jesus through signs and miracles and wonders to give us a foretaste of what a restored creation would be like when Jesus comes again. The Bible says that Jesus, when he walked amongst his people, he said, the kingdom of God is among you and it's near you. And what he was doing as he cleansed people and he healed people and he provided food for thousands and still storms and all that stuff. What he was showing is what would be like when the future kingdom, when the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord reigns on this earth, the effect of restoring creation back to its former glorified state. It's a little tiny foretaste of what is coming. I don't know about you, but every time I get up in the morning, I feel a little bit older and a little bit older, and the aches and the pains and the stiffness and the cartilage in the knees that's worn away and all this stuff, and you just feel old, you know? I feel like walking like this sometimes, you know? Like an old man. You know, a day's coming when all of that's going to be put right. When Jesus again returns to reign on the earth and sickness and death and darkness and all those things will be finished and done away with. And his time on the earth as he walked amongst his people healing the sick and doing those things was a little tiny foretaste of what's to come. Come and see this morning, come and see and be changed, be transformed by beholding the glory of God, displaying Jesus, the man working these miracles through him. The Bible says in second Corinthians three 18, and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. The second thing I want us to notice this morning is this. Behold the glory of Jesus, the lamb delivered by God. Look what it says in verse 24. No, verse 23, it says this. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Jesus is the lamb of God. come to take away the sin of the world. The purpose of Jesus coming into the world was not just to restore the damage of the consequences of sin. The purpose of Jesus coming into the world was not just to speak to reveal God's truth to us. The purpose of Jesus coming into the world wasn't just to reveal and explain and exegete the father to us. The purpose of Jesus coming into the world was also to take away the sin of the world. God delivered Christ up into the hands of lawless men in accordance with two things it says here. First of all, the definite plan of God and also the foreknowledge of God. The cross was not a mistake. It was not a plan B. The suffering and death of Christ was planned out before the foundation of the world. In God's omniscient understanding, all that redeeming and setting us free from sin and death would require God had a definite plan. God announced that plan in the Garden of Eden before He expelled Adam and Eve, and after their fall into sin and rebellion, the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. God reiterated that plan in Abraham's words to Isaac. You remember the scene? Isaac and Abraham are going across the desert. They're going to a place called Moriah. And there Abraham will build an altar, and he will arrange the wood on the altar, and he will take his son, and he will kill him and offer him up to God as a whole burnt offering to God. And Isaac, the young man, is shouldering the load of the firewood, and Abraham carries the fire and the knife. And as they're walking along together, I imagine he says to his father, my father, behold, the fire and the knife, but where is the lamb for the offering? And Abraham states these incredible words that ring all the way through the Old Testament and right into the New Testament, says this, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering. And you realize all the rest of the Old Testament from that point, even before in Adam and Eve, but definitely from that point is a search to find the lamb that will be the one that will take away the sin of the world. And it comes all the way down to John chapter two. And there Jesus is walking along the beach and John the Baptist sees him and he shouts out with a cry, behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. God showed in rich detail and picture form all the suffering and death of Christ would accomplish in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament Israel. Burnt offerings, and sin offerings, and peace offerings, and fellowship offerings, and so on. All those different offerings, if you unpack their meaning, they all illustrate and display something of the majesty and the richness of what Christ will both do and accomplish. I used to love the old brethren men in our church back in Canada. Some of them really had a grasp on Leviticus and you think Leviticus is that book when you're in a vow to read through the Bible and you hit Leviticus and your vow takes a massive test because it seems so dry. And these old men would say, listen, there's so much meaning in those things. If you understand the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering, and the peace offering, and the sin offering, and the grain offering, and all those different offerings, and the way that they're partaken of, the way they're shared, all of it shows something of the work of Christ in dying on the cross. It was God's plan, and it was in place. It was already known to the mind of God what it would accomplish. He also says, the second thing there, the foreknowledge of God. Look, I'll read it again. He says in verse number 23, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified, and so on. This detail has to do with God's sovereign knowledge and predetermining of all that Christ would endure. It is more than simply God's knowing ahead of time what was going to happen to Christ and his sufferings. The foreknowledge of God is also God's sovereign control, excuse me, or all that's going to happen to Christ. The foreknowledge of God does not remove the human responsibility for their actions or our actions. Peter says, you crucified him. God delivered him, but you're still responsible. You crucified him. The charge of God against those men stands. They are still responsible for their actions. And beloved, we are still responsible for our actions, even though God is in sovereign control over all things. Praise the Lord, God in sovereign control used the willful, rebellious actions of sinful men to accomplish our redemption, our being set free. As Justin was reading the story of Matthew 27 there, in my mind's eye, I could see those soldiers and the work they had to do, bringing Jesus up to the cross and putting him down, taking the nails and driving them through his hands and his ankles, his wrists and his ankles. It's an amazing thing that God, in His sovereign purposes, in His love and His grace, He used the rebellious, sinful actions of wicked men to accomplish His purposes. You say, how do you understand that? I say, I don't really understand that. But I accept what Scripture teaches me, and I trust it by faith. God knows exactly what He's doing, and God accomplished His purposes through sinful men. By the way, Jesus did not die by blood loss, by pain, by exposure, or by suffocation. Jesus gave up his spirit the moment of death. He chose to die. He commended his spirit to God with a shout, which goes completely contrary to exactly of all the physiological requirements of death on a cross. You die by suffocation, which means you can breathe in, but you can't breathe out. So in order for Jesus to shout out, he had to push down the nails, suck in a breath of air, Shout it out. And then it says he commended his spirit to God. He sent his spirit to go and be with God. Justin made a great point. He said Jesus had power both to lay his life down and to take it up. He had power. The laying down part was to send his spirit up to God. That's how he died. God delivered this Jesus over to further display for us the holiness of God. God's holiness cannot tolerate sin. It must be dealt with. So Jesus had to go through everything he went on the cross and the father could not pull back and mitigate a little bit and ease off on Jesus. Jesus bore the full weight of the wrath of God against your sin and mine. You know, when someone offers to pay somebody else's fine or take someone else's penalty or take someone else's punishment, usually they let off a little bit. They make it a little easier for them. No. God in his justice and in his holiness required the full payment for sin. Jesus endured the full measure of the wrath of God against sin. The love of God was also displayed in the cross. The love of a God who was willing to allow, sorry, The love of God that is willing to allow one to be substituted for another. God knows that you and I cannot survive his justice requiring death like that. And so God delivered Jesus knowing that death had no hold over Jesus. That's Peter's main point coming up after this. The fact that death had no hold over him. And also the cross displays for us the grace of God in pouring out God's unearned favor towards us. Through Jesus, it also shows the mercy of God. Because while we deserve to be there, Jesus certainly did not deserve to be there. And God restrained his wrath against us and poured it out instead on Jesus. Come and see, come and be changed this morning. Come and be transformed by beholding the glory of Jesus. Jesus, the man approved by God with signs and wonders and miracles. Jesus, the Lamb of God, delivered over to be crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3.18, I'll read it again. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. The third thing I want us to see this morning, the last thing I want to see this morning is this. Behold the glory of this Jesus, the Son of God, raised from the dead. Let's read again. I want to read, yeah, Acts 2, right from verse 22 again down to verse 32, just to freshen it up. He says, men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make known to me the full gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his thrones, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh see corruption this Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses the Bible also says in Romans chapter 1 and verse 4 as Paul talking he says that he was declared a to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. This Jesus went to the cross and suffered there to pay the penalty for our sin. The soldiers had done their duty, nailing Jesus to the cross in such a way to cause the slowest and most painful death. The crowd had gathered and mocked and jeered and taunted, and Jesus had taken care of his mother, commending her to John. Jesus had promised the repentant thief life in paradise. Jesus had cried out to God from the depths of a broken heart, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus had shouted with a great shout that echoed off the walls of Jerusalem and the walls of the temple, it is finished. And Jesus had died, commending his spirit to go. And Jesus truly was dead, not fainting, not unconscious. And the Bible tells us in Luke 23, verses 50 to 56, that Joseph of Arimathea, who was a secret disciple, goes to Pilate and he asks for the body and he removes it and wraps it in a living cloth and lays it in a tomb cut in stone. When I was in high school, I had a great interest in art. I really enjoyed drawing and painting and sculpture. I wasn't nearly as good as Emily, I must admit, but I really did enjoy doing it. And I used to look at great pictures of art through history. And one of the scenes that sort of stuck in my mind, one of the paintings I remember looking at, I don't know who painted it, I don't know where it came from, it's just one scene. And the scene is a picture of Jesus being taken down and lowered from the cross, and the artist has extremely skillfully used color and shape and the way he's portrayed Jesus to give the stark, striking image of Jesus' death. I want to describe a little bit of it to you, and so I want you to imagine your mind's eye for a second as I describe it. There are ladders placed, one up on either side of Jesus, close to his wrist so that they can extract the nails. Cloths and ropes are used underneath Jesus' arm and his body to try and support the weight of Jesus' body. And the nails that have punctured and fastened Jesus' hands and arms to the cross have severed the nerves in his wrist and caused his hands to contort and freeze like a claw-like shape like that. Hands calloused and toughened from years of holding tools. Hands that touched lepers to cleanse them. Hands and arms that strained and hauled to pull in the fishnets with Peter and James and John. Hands that took a young girl's hand in his and lifted her to her feet as he raised her from the dead. Hands that are now frozen and immobile in death. The nails are extracted from both his feet and his wrists, and the weight shifts onto the linen cloths and the ropes they're using. And Jesus' body is grotesquely twisted. There's no muscle tension to hold it in position. He just sort of hangs in a very awkward and ungainly position. His mouth and his jaw hangs gaping and silent. The mouth that once spoke words of peace and comfort, the mouth that shouted out in the last great day of the feast, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. the mouth that always spoke the truth in love and grace, the mouth that only spoke as the Father gave him to, the mouth of Jesus is silent. And Jesus is lowered to the ground and wrapped in a long linen burial sheet. His mouth is tied with a cloth around this way to keep his jaw in place. And Jesus' body is placed inside a tomb on a shelf that's hewn into the rock. And for three days, and what that means, and mostly one of this, is why there are three days in Friday to Sunday seems like not three days. In the Jewish way of numbering days, any part of a day counts for a full day. So part of Friday, all of Saturday, And early Sunday morning for them counts as three days. Jesus' body lies in a cold, ghostly pallor in the darkness and the silence of a tomb. The silence of death. Jesus died. I think we sometimes lose sight of that one little fact. Our Savior really did die. He really was death. I don't know how many people have been into a funeral parlor or been to a burial and seen a coffin open and seen a dead body in there. Jesus' body would have looked similar, but no makeup. Early Sunday morning, one of the priests would gather together and they would bring out the morning sacrifice. Every single morning of the day of the priest ritual, they would bring out the morning sacrifice and they would draw lots for different roles and different responsibilities. And one of the priests drew a lot, I think it was the third lot, And he would get to climb all the way up to the highest pinnacle of the temple. This is the pre-dawn, dark hours. In the darkness that night, he would climb all the way up there, and he would wait on the pinnacle of the temple, and he would look right across to the east to see. And as soon as the sun would break over the horizon, and the rays of sunlight would flood across the valley on the sides of the walls, he would shout down, the sun is risen. Can you get it? The sun has risen. And the priest would shout back up, has it reached as far as Hebron? And the priest would shout down, yes, as far as Hebron. And the priest would take the little lamb, and they would bring it up, and they would carefully examine it. And then they would tie its feet and its legs to the rings of the altar. And they'll take the knife and push the windpipe forward and cut the throat of this animal sacrifice. And the blood was all caught in a special bowl. And you know what strikes me? The moment when the priest cried out, the sun has risen. Never, ever, ever, ever again was there required a sacrifice that morning. Never again will there be the need for blood to be splattered against the sides of the altar. Never again will there be the need for the death of an innocent victim. It truly has been finished. The sun truly has risen. Inside the darkened tomb, something else is happening. Jesus' spirit has returned to him. Jesus' brain immediately begins again to function. His body, once cold, is beginning to warm as his heart resumes its beating and blood flows through Jesus' veins. Jesus awakes as a dead man awakes from his sleep. He stands up and removes the linen shroud and the head cloth, and he pauses for a moment to fold that linen cloth and place it in a spot by itself. Now, there's no biblical evidence of this, but in my mind's eye, just thinking about this and thinking about Paul's words and how he was declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead, I kind of wonder if the angels, all the angels and the elders and all those different beasts in heaven were all standing there and they're looking over the edge of the clouds and looking down the tomb, and the moment Jesus rose, the cherubim didn't start shouting back and forth to one another, the Son of God, the Son of God is alive. He says he was declared. I know you say, well, that's just the gospel message. It just proves the truth about Jesus. But you know what? That great scene, when Jesus arises from the dead, it proves everything about Jesus. Jesus' resurrection forever changed the course of human existence. Jesus' death proved beyond any argument that He indeed is the Son of God, but His resurrection validated and vindicated that fact. If Jesus had gone into the tomb and had never come out, everything He said would either have been a lie or the ravings of a lunatic. And our faith this morning would be absolutely pointless and useless. There's no point in being here. There's no point in doing any of this. We may as well put all the chairs away, go out, eat, drink, get drunk, be merry, because there's no point to any of it. But the reality is that Jesus indeed did rise again. Death had no power over Him. John 10.18, as Justin already mentioned it, tells us Jesus had power both to lay His life down and to take it up again. Romans 4.25 tells us that Jesus' death was the penalty for your trespasses and mine. Jesus' resurrection was for our justification. Now what that means is this, being declared to be holy, to be the son of God, being that he had no sin, his death was not for himself, his death was for you and me. His righteousness, you say, what does righteousness mean? That is the estimation of his entire person and character. His righteousness can now be imputed, can be applied to you and me in response to our faith in God. The glory of God is shouted to all of humanity in Christ's resurrection. The glory of God planting it before the foundation of the world. The glory of the Son of God being incarnate, coming as flesh and blood. The glory of God in the Son of God working signs and wonders and miracles. The glory of God in the cross work of Christ delivered up for our offenses. The glory of God, it's all validated, it's all vindicated by Christ's resurrection. Without the resurrection of Christ, there is nothing. The resurrection is the crown jewel in all the work of God through Christ. Come and see. like Mary and Peter and John who are running to the tomb to see what was going on. Come and see Jesus. Come and see the risen Son of God. Come and see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Why do I keep saying for all of us to do that, to come and see, to come and look? Why is it so important that we, you and I, through the eyes of faith, see Jesus? Not on television, not in a movie theater, not portrayed in any way, shape, or form. Why is it so important for us to see by faith? Because, beloved, to see the glory of God in the face of Christ is to be saved. Let me read that verse to you again, 2 Corinthians 3.18. He says this, And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. We're saved from the wrath of God which is to come, and all those that reject and refuse to believe in Him. We're saved by grace. That's the unmerited favor of God poured out on us. We're saved by seeing, by looking with faith to Christ, trusting Christ to keep his promises. Faith is like a channel. It's a channel through which we experience the grace of God in our individual lives. It's like a garden hose, if you like. A garden hose in which we have one end of the garden hose, and the Father in heaven has the other end of the garden hose, and grace is poured down through that garden hose. It's like a channel. We're saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Why is it so important for us to come and see, to come and look long at the glory of God in the face of Christ? Because that's how we are changed into his image. Notice what Paul says. He says we're transformed. It means to be changed from the inside out. Not change from the outside in. We see through the eyes of faith the glory of God in the face of Christ. We see that glory and we're transformed, changed from the inside out. We're changed into the same image, into the likeness of Christ. Where do we see these things? How do you see them? I invite you to come and look. Look where? We see Christ in the Old Testament promised and typified. We see Christ in the Gospels described and displayed for us. We see Christ in the New Testament epistles explained for us. And we see Christ in Revelation exalted and glorified and coming again as a conquering king. It's all by seeing the glory of God in the face of Christ. So what must we do? We must come and see the glory of this Jesus. We must believe the promises that Christ has made to us in the scriptures. Listen to what he says. Come to me. all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Repent of your sin. The people ask Peter, what shall we do? And he says, repent, is one of them, and be baptized is the second one. We repent of our sin and commit our life to Christ, being willing to follow wherever he leads. Jesus said this. Jesus said to his disciples, listen, this is a tough one. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. Whoever would loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Come and see this morning. So easy for us to get caught up in the world we live in. So easy to go through year after year as Christian people, we've heard the message so often it just becomes like water off a duck's back. We've heard it, we listen, yeah, we know, we just carry right on, changed, unchanged. The reality is, beloved, we need to stop and take a long, hard look at the glory of God in the face of Christ and be changed. I've been reading a passage, I don't know how many times through this week, I read it and I read it and I read it and I read it and all of a sudden I read it again and I saw a verse and it just stood out like massively. How does that happen? The Spirit of God said, I want you to see that. Not just look at it, I want you to really see it and I want you to impact you. As you're sitting here on Easter Sunday morning, and maybe you're thinking about Sunday lunch, and maybe you're thinking about your work responsibilities, maybe you're thinking about other things that are going to crowd out your life throughout this week and the coming months. Take time. Stop and look. Take time to see Jesus. See the glory of the Son of God risen again. It changes everything. Would you stand with me? We're going to close in prayer. Father in Heaven, we give you thanks again this morning for our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And Father, as our minds think back over some of those scenes in the Gospels, the stories of people he spoke to and lives he touched, the stories of great things he did, feeding thousands with a loaf and some fish. Father, the stories of him turning water into wine, the storms of him stilling storms, the stories of him, Lord, cleansing lepers and healing the sick and even standing outside the tomb of a friend and raising him from the dead. Father, we see him this morning, the glory of your son, the man that you approved of and displayed for all of us to see. Father, we see also the cross and that scene outside the walls of Jerusalem. And Father, we realize in a moment that you did deliver him. It was your plan from the beginning of the ages, before the world was even created. Father, you had a plan in mind. And your plan was to redeem us, to set us free from sin and death. And Father, you allowed by your grace and by your love. for your son to come. Father, we think of that great verse in John three and verse 16, for God loved us in this way that he gave his only begotten son. Father, for that gift, we would this morning just say, thank you. We thank you, father, and we love you for what you have accomplished in the death of Christ. We thank you, oh God, for the greatest gift ever given. Father, we thank you that you have called us to repentance. Father, help us to turn this morning to put aside all the cares and struggles and problems and bits and pieces of the world and look full into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and to be changed. Father, what a tragedy it would be to go and see some great sight and come away no different. How infinitely great of a tragedy to stare into Jesus' face and to walk away unchanged. Father, we cry out to you for this morning, for all of us gathered here this morning. Help us to take time today to see Jesus, to see the glory of our Savior risen from the dead. Change us, oh God. Make us more like Christ. Make us more like the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. Father, we thank you for him. We thank you for this church. Lord, for those that can't be here for different reasons, we ask, O God, for your blessing and your encouragement for them. Father, may they this morning be turning their eyes for a time towards Jesus to see the glory of God in the face of Christ. We give you thanks, O God, for our time together. In Jesus' name, amen. We're done.