[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, my name is Denny Gray, and I'll be reading from Luke 24, verses 1 through 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: But very early, on Sunday morning, Duman went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
[SPEAKER_00]: They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance, so they went in, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The woman were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the men asked, why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?
[SPEAKER_00]: He isn't here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is risen from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember what he told you back in Galilee that the son of man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and he will rise again on the third day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they remembered.
[SPEAKER_00]: that he had said this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they rushed back from the tomb to tell the he's 11 disciples and everyone else what had happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and several other women who told the apostles what had happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the story sounded like nonsense to them, so they didn't believe it.
[SPEAKER_00]: However Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to
[SPEAKER_00]: Stooping, he appeared in and saw the empty linen, saw the empty linen rapids, then he went home again, wondering what had happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Peter God.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, thank you, Danique.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys have a seat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray, Lord, again, we just come to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thankful for Resurrection Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, thank you that your word is true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your word is good and it is right, Lord, and we can look into your word this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: And be reminded if for the thousandth time or for the very first time to be shown.
[SPEAKER_01]: that the gospel is true, that Jesus Christ your son has died and has risen from the dead for our salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Lord, just let us see with fresh eyes today, the truth of this, let us be encouraged, let us be taught by you, by your word, by your spirit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let us be led out the doors and just a little while to go and live our lives devoted to our resurrected King in Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, as Christians, we, uh, the two big holidays, there's kind of the two big ones, the big holidays that we celebrate right Christmas and Easter, of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's a lot of traditions.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a lot of things we do with family.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of y'all are doing big meals today.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've already done that this weekend, um, uh, you know, Easter egg hunts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, and look, I have no problems with any of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we did a big Easter egg hunts yesterday with my family.
[SPEAKER_01]: We do that every year and it's lots of fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, have certain meals, even where certain clothes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's dudes in here wearing pink and it's amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um,
[SPEAKER_01]: things that we do right just because it's it's a holiday and it's you know it's kind of what we do but um you know I don't know about you all but I do find myself at times having to sort of just really come back to the Lord very intentionally as best I can and just doing my best to just remember and stay focused on the main things in in days like this especially Easter especially Christmas those two holidays where
[SPEAKER_01]: It just all the other things can become a lot, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll know this, it can become real commercial, it can become about just the fun things that we're doing, which is, you know, those things are fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And obviously, we want to spend time with family and have a good time, but the all the resurrection of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is nothing like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: in all of human history.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the moment that literally, this is not hyperbally.
[SPEAKER_01]: It literally changes everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's really no serious debate.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no serious debate about the historical truth of Jesus' death.
[SPEAKER_01]: right there's there's not a lot of historic series debate about that people do debate and I know some of y'all might like get on TikTok and hear people talking nonsense about stuff like that but it's pretty well agreed upon even by skeptics that there was a man named Jesus of Nazareth who lived in the first century in Palestine who died on a Roman cross I mean that's not very much debated where the real debate lies is whether or not that man
[SPEAKER_01]: walked out of that tomb three days later.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is debate about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We understand this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that the evidence and history certainly points to the veracity, the truth of those claims, of the apostles and of the witnesses, but there are still people that, of course, debate.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not something it's so much an intellectual debate, as it is really a worldview debate, and a faith debate, a belief system debate.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's really why I think people maybe just people just don't want to believe that, because if you believe this,
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm mean it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you believe this, what we celebrate today, it must change everything about your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot believe this and then just go, oh man, it's nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: A man died in front of hundreds of people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stabbed in the side with a spear.
[SPEAKER_01]: brought down from across late in a tomb with the Roman guards sealed tomb, guarded tomb, and three days later he was not there.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you do with that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe if it's true,
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's true, it changes everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's not true, go home, seriously.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no reason for you to wear your pink shirt, guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no reason for you to be here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Walk out.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not gonna fit.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, really, if you don't believe it and you're just like, you know what, this is all nonsense, whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I would just encourage you today and my hope today is this that you would just let the Lord speak in his word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see the evidence of the things that happened here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's just follow along with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Apostle Paul said this.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 310,
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection."
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what he said.
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the Apostle Paul, there was power, real power in the resurrection of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: That moment for Him in His life, for the Apostle Peter, for Thomas, for all these guys, for Mary Magnelling, for Jesus' own mother, for Jesus' brothers, James, one of Jesus' brothers wrote an epistle in the Scriptures, calling His brother, Lord, no brother's calling their brother, Lord, if he didn't rise from the dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, it's not happening, but James did it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think we can look in the description and just go, you know what, there might really be something to this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because listen, again, some people debate whether or not Jesus rose from a dead, but I think there's a more problematic question.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the more problematic question is so what?
[SPEAKER_01]: So what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if he did, why does it matter?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is that a big deal?
[SPEAKER_01]: How does that affect me two thousand years later, does it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does it affect me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does it affect my life?
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul said there is power in the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: Easter, y'all, Easter is about truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: An old pastor, Clarence W. Hall, he said this, the resurrection of Jesus changes the face of death for all his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Death is no longer a prison, but a passage in a God's presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: Easter says, you can nail truth to a cross, wrap it in sheets, put it in a grave, but it will not stay there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truth arises from the dead because Jesus is the truth and Jesus is alive and so we're looking at the gospel of Luke today If you have a Bible open up with me to Luke 24 very last chapter of Luke
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke was a physician and he was an investigative historian even secular scholars and skeptics they most agree that Luke they at least agree that Luke was a fantastic historian, a fantastic investigator of facts and some would even point to Luke whether their Christians are not points to Luke this guy who wrote this gospel as maybe the greatest historian in world history
[SPEAKER_01]: The greatest fact, checker, in fact, teller, based on eyewitness accounts, and world history, he's so detailed, he's so intentional in the way he writes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the book of Luke and the book of Axi wrote both of those in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so if you got your Bible and you want to read through Luke and Axi, there are two parts of the same story.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he literally says at the beginning of the book of Luke that he is writing this down, he had investigated witnesses, talked to witnesses surrounding Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, and he wanted to give an accurate account from eyewitnesses so that his readers would be assured of the validity of their claims.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he wrote Luke.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he wrote this gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he wrote the book of Acts as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, Luke wrote what he wrote here.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that you and I, and whoever would read his gospel, could move and take steps from doubt to wonder, to belief, to worship, to devotion.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is why the gospel of Luke is written, to move us on this continual.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my point in doing this today is simply this, I know not everybody in this room is standing here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know not everybody's standing here yet, or here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of us are probably in one of these three, but there's some of us that are just still here, kind of the wonder is sort of the amazement that questions that I'm looking into this, I'm not real sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe some of us are even here like, I'm a skeptic and I don't know if I'll believe this at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I want to tell you today is, thank you for being here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Happy Easter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look into this together.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to actually see how Luke actually shows us in this one chapter, how even the disciples, the apostles, move along this continuum.
[SPEAKER_01]: They start there too.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so let's read a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke 24.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took spices they prepared and they went to the tune.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is very common.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were going to do it and note the body.
[SPEAKER_01]: They found the stone rolled away from the tune.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: While they were wondering, Denise said puzzles.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were puzzled about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, a really good translation.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word is technically confusion.
[SPEAKER_01]: They felt confused and they were puzzled.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were perplexed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody else versions might
[SPEAKER_01]: right so they're actually still here that they see the stone moved away but they don't know to think about this they still have their doubts they're still like man this is strange I wouldn't what's going on here right it says while they were puzzled while they were perplexed about this suddenly two men and clothes that gleam like lightning stood beside them in their fright the women bowed with their faces to the ground but the men said to them why do you look for the living among the dead he is not here
[SPEAKER_01]: He is risen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee, the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men be crucified and on the third day be raised again.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the ladies, they hear this from the angels, they run back to the apostles and look what happens in verse 11.
[SPEAKER_01]: They tell the apostles about what they see.
[SPEAKER_01]: But verse 11, they did not believe the women.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because they're words seem to them, like nonsense.
[SPEAKER_01]: That Greek word, nonsense.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think nonsense is a good word.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it is a word that literally means trivial, chatter, twaddle, or gossip.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they heard what the women said and just thought, you are making this up.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are in a place today of doubt, I just want you to understand.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter started here, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all right, like there's a moment where this just is like, this is insane.
[SPEAKER_01]: This sounds like nonsense.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, maybe you just got invited today by your sister, your brother, your mom or dad, or a girlfriend, or whoever you came with today.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you just showed up for that person, because this is what we do on Easter.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're sitting in this seat right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm telling you, the Apostle Peter sat in your seat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary sat in your seat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thomas sat in your seat.
[SPEAKER_01]: That they understand what it's like to feel doubt.
[SPEAKER_01]: To just go, man, this just sounds like drivel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Preacher, you can say what you want today, but I doubt it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'll sit here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll do the things.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll wear the t-shirt, but I don't believe it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But look what Peter does.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's my encouragement today.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that's you, just listen to Peter, like do what Peter does a day because here's what he does.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 12, Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he went away wondering to himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: What it happened so pretty quickly Peter takes it upon himself to just go I'm going to investigate if you're there today Investigate.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just telling you.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is your only step today if you don't I'm not trying to get you from doubt to devotion today I'm trying to get you from doubt to wonder if you would just go I'll look into it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll think about it Peter gets up.
[SPEAKER_01]: He runs to the tune to see for himself He gets there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, the tune was actually probably a pretty low entrance.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has to crawl into it, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: gets in there sees nobody
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows he didn't do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The linen strips are still there too, which is crazy if you think about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would somebody steal the body and unwrap it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Didn't make any sense, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't get stolen, that's the point, but the linen strips are still in there and Peter very quickly moves from doubt to wonder to a mate what happened here.
[SPEAKER_01]: What happened here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there's some other guys, Luke is the only one that records this story.
[SPEAKER_01]: These two men, these two other disciples of Jesus, walking along the road in Jesus appears to them after his resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 13, now that same day, two of them were going to a village named Ames about seven miles from Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: and as they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke probably interviewed these guys later, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the point of Luke's gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: I interviewed them, I talked to them, they told me this, I witnessed a count.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk along?
[SPEAKER_01]: They stood still, their faces downcast, one of them, and Cleopis asked him, are you only a visitor to Jerusalem?
[SPEAKER_01]: And do you not know the things that have happened here these days?
[SPEAKER_01]: What things he asked?
[SPEAKER_01]: About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, he was a prophet, powerful and word and deed before God and all the people, the chief priests and all rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we had hoped, here's the doubt, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: They're confessing a little bit of doubt here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had hoped, that's what they said.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had this hope before, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We had hoped that he would be the ones who redeemed Israel.
[SPEAKER_01]: and what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
[SPEAKER_01]: In addition, some of our women, so here's the, here's the wonder, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of our women amazed us.
[SPEAKER_01]: They went to the tomb early this morning, but didn't find his body.
[SPEAKER_01]: They came and told us what they had seen, a vision of angels who said he was alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then some of our companions went to the tomb and they found it just as the women had said.
[SPEAKER_01]: But him, they did not see.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said to them, Jesus says to them, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe, all that the prophets had spoken, did not the Christ have to suffer these things?
[SPEAKER_01]: He just asked them, don't you know the word of God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you not read this?
[SPEAKER_01]: The Christ would have to suffer these things and then enter his glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: and begin it, listen to this, one of the most amazing verses in Scripture, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets.
[SPEAKER_01]: He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine walking seven miles with Jesus just having him give you a Bible study?
[SPEAKER_01]: about Himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: He started with Moses.
[SPEAKER_01]: That just means the beginning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Through the prophets, that's all the Old Testament scriptures, and spoke to them the things concerning Himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: What things in the Old Testament concern Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: all the things, everything concerns Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just, I mean, I just got a wonder, what did Jesus tell them?
[SPEAKER_01]: What did Jesus talk to them about in this moment?
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that faith comes by hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus just begins to teach them to show them.
[SPEAKER_01]: What did He tell them, did He tell them that He was the seed of Eve who crushed the head of the serpent?
[SPEAKER_01]: that he's held them, that he was the offspring of Moses, or, I see, Abraham comes to bless the whole earth, that he was the greater Moses, comes to deliver the people of God and a greater exodus out of the slavery of sin and death, that he's held them, that he was the new Joshua, leading the people of God into the promised land.
[SPEAKER_01]: That he's held them, that he was the son of David, establishing and everlasting kingdom of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That he's held them, that he was the greater Solomon, gloriously rich, marvelously wise.
[SPEAKER_01]: that he was the one who fulfilled every image, every symbol, every prophecy from their scriptures, like the Man of Heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Jesus, the rock of living water, Jesus, the pillar of cloud and fire, the cities of refuge, Jesus did he tell them that he is the high priest, that he is the great prophet, that he was the fourth man in the furnace, did he tell them that, did he tell them that he was the hope of nations, that he was the light to the Gentiles, that he's the ancient of days like Daniel writes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he tell them that he is our innocent sacrificial substitute?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that lamb in the garden of Eden that the Lord used to cover the nakedness in the shame of Adam and Eve?
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he tell them that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he tell them that he was like that ram and the thicket before Abraham sacrificed Isaac who took Isaac's place on the altar?
[SPEAKER_01]: They tell him that he was the Passover land, whose blood covered the Israelites from certain death.
[SPEAKER_01]: That he's held them.
[SPEAKER_01]: that he was like all the hundreds of thousands of sacrificial lambs, goats, bulls, given over and over and over year after year, century after century by the people and the priests at the temple to appease the wrath of God and make temporary payment for sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he tell them that he had completed all this, that he was the one come to fulfill all that blood forever and that never again what a sacrifice we needed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he tell them that he was the suffering servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: that Isaiah wrote about, as Isaiah 53, verse 3 says, He was despised and rejected by men.
[SPEAKER_01]: A man of sorrows familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not, surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.
[SPEAKER_01]: yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was crushed for our inequities.
[SPEAKER_01]: The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he tell him that?
[SPEAKER_01]: that he'd tell them that last Friday when they saw that man die on that cross in Jerusalem, that what they were witnessing was the Son of God being crushed by the wrath of God as the do penalty for the sins of men.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he tell them that he had become sin on there by half that they might become the righteousness of God in him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he tell them that his death was the full and final payment that would ever be needed to pay the debt of their sins and that his resurrection means eternal
[SPEAKER_01]: for everyone who believes in him, for the wages of sin as death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he tell them these things?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he told him all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think one day in heaven, we're going to get to hear Jesus tell us all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're just going to get to sit down and have that same conversation that they got to have in that moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: And next we says, as they walk along and then they, they end up at this house and they sit down and they break bread together with Jesus, they break bread with him and Jesus sits with them and as he breaks the bread, it says, then their eyes were opened and they recognize him and then he disappear from their sight.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does Jesus do it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's so funny.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just walks with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He teaches them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sits down with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He breaks the bread.
[SPEAKER_01]: They see him now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus and then he disappears.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then look at what they say.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not our hearts burning
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not our hearts burning within us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they go back to Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they go back seven more.
[SPEAKER_01]: My name is just walk seven miles.
[SPEAKER_01]: They go back seven miles to Jerusalem to go talk to the rest of the apostles.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they tell them, we saw him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We saw Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it says, Jesus comes and he appears to all the apostles.
[SPEAKER_01]: And verse 40 says, when he had said this, he showed them his hands in his feet, and while they still did not believe they're still here, they still did not believe even now that they see him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they still did not believe it, because of joy and amazement, he asked them, do you have anything here to eat?
[SPEAKER_01]: And they gave him a piece of royal fish and he took it and he ate it in their presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me and the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
[SPEAKER_01]: they could understand the scriptures.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that Luke includes this detail and here's why.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he knew Luke knew that as he was writing this, Jesus has already ascended when Luke wrote this, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: People don't see Jesus physically anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't see Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not here with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's seated at the right hand of the Father right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where he is, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke knows this.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Luke includes this detail to tell us what that faith doesn't come by seeing it comes by hearing the word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: What did Jesus do to convince the two on the road and the apostles, even while he was with them?
[SPEAKER_01]: What did he do to convince them?
[SPEAKER_01]: He told them the Scriptures.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, look here, it's all here.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to go beyond this to see that the evidence is here, that it's all true.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all real.
[SPEAKER_01]: The gospels are an eye-witness account of his resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: The four gospels that we have in the New Testament, they're an eye-witness account of the things Jesus did, his death, and his resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know there are four, because of the gospels.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are four historically verified, first century eye-witness accounts.
[SPEAKER_01]: of Jesus' resurrection four.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know how many I witness accounts there are negating the resurrection from the first century.
[SPEAKER_01]: Zero.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're in a court of law, I'll take four witnesses to zero every time.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not a good source that says he didn't actually rise from the dead and gives reason for that and evidence for that from the first century.
[SPEAKER_01]: They give details.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke gives details.
[SPEAKER_01]: Matthew, Mark, John, they give details.
[SPEAKER_01]: They talk about Jesus showing up physically, physical body, touching Jesus, seeing the wounds in his side, eating with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: The point is, this is not just an apparition, this is not a ghost, this is a real human bodily resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was dead and he came back to life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it changed them to a man and a woman.
[SPEAKER_01]: It changed everyone of them that saw it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they saw it because they believed what the Scriptures had said.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so for you and I, no, we don't see Jesus right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we can still see the Scriptures, can't we?
[SPEAKER_01]: You can look into this and you can see.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can see and you can know that Jesus Christ is Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he gives this summary statement in verse 44.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, this is what I told you while I was still with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: everything that was written about me has come to pass.
[SPEAKER_01]: So listen, if belief today, if maybe you're here or here and today your step is just to believe just to put faith in Christ, take that step today.
[SPEAKER_01]: My encouragement to you is take that step today.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can know you can know that you know that Jesus is the Christ, the Lord of all creation, the saviour of our souls and it is proven by His death on the cross and His resurrection.
[SPEAKER_01]: Scripture foretold it.
[SPEAKER_01]: history verifies it, witnesses testify to it, and the evidence absolutely substantiates it, all of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If your heart is burning within you, like those men on that road, just hearing the word of God, as you've heard the Scripture speak to you this morning, then take the step today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Believe in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, step three, I call this step zero.
[SPEAKER_01]: Step one, step two, step three is here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's keep reading what Luke says here, at the end of chapter 24.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: After they do believe, they doubted, they wondered, they believe, verse 50.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he had led them out of the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and he blessed them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while he was blessing them, he left them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was taken up into heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: they then they worshiped Him and they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they stayed continually at the temple doing what praising God.
[SPEAKER_01]: raising God, worshiping God, listen, if your eyes have been open to see and believe the gospel of Jesus, the resurrected Messiah, the question is, has your belief in Jesus moved from your head to your heart?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it just a mere intellectual assent to, okay, I see the facts of the resurrection and I can get on board with that, has it moved from that to
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I see him as Lord and Savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see him as my Messiah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see him as my King.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see him as my God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I bow before him in prayer and thanksgiving and praise and song and giving and service and love.
[SPEAKER_01]: I worship him with my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: you were created to worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know this?
[SPEAKER_01]: You were made to worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether you're a Christian or not in this room, you were made to worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will tell you this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's where we get to the so what.
[SPEAKER_01]: I told you, I asked you so what at the beginning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does the resurrection of Jesus matter?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's why this matters for you today because you were created to worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that it is frustrating and disheartening to live a life of misplaced worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: that is frustrating because you are worshipping little gods like money and pleasure or power or self and you know at the end of the day none of those things satisfies the desires of your soul none of those things but what if Jesus really is who he says he is?
[SPEAKER_01]: What if the Scripture's really do tell us the truth about this man who is the son of God who died on a cross for our sins and walked out of the grave three days later?
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you don't have to wonder anymore, where to go with your worship?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know where to go, you know who to worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: His name is Jesus, the search is over.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing your heart has been longing to do is now settled and secure in Christ when you
[SPEAKER_01]: find your worship at home in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you find it there, there is joy, there is contentment, there is peace, there is rest because you know that he's the only one that's ever been worthy of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you spend your life trying to give your worship to false gods, you're going to spend your life being frustrated.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why this matters.
[SPEAKER_01]: So take that step.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take that step.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not asking you just to believe something in your head.
[SPEAKER_01]: But worship Jesus in your heart as the risen King, but there's one more step.
[SPEAKER_01]: One more step and it's devotion.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually want to go to the book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's the end of Luke.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke also wrote Acts.
[SPEAKER_01]: So go to Acts chapter one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Go to Acts chapter one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, this is still getting at the so what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why does this matter practically for our lives?
[SPEAKER_01]: Worship and devotion, speak to the so what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Acts chapter 1 verse 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: After the disciples, C. Jesus, risen again, that he goes back to heaven, they returned to Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what it says they're doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 14, Acts 1, they all joined together constantly in prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: The technical Greek there is they were devoted to prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at chapter two.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once the church begins, Peter preaches a sermon, 3,000, become Christians in one day, the Holy Spirit comes and they're all following Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, look what the church is doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts 242, they devoted themselves, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone was filled with all, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles, all the believers were together and had everything in common.
[SPEAKER_01]: Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
[SPEAKER_01]: They broke bread in their homes.
[SPEAKER_01]: They ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is not boring church.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is life-changing devotion to someone that you know died a month ago and rose from the grave three days later.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what that is.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not playing a game here in the first century.
[SPEAKER_01]: They know Jesus died and he lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they've given their life to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've given their life to Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: do you live?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's our kind of final question for us today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you live a resurrected life like that?
[SPEAKER_01]: A resurrected life, a life by faith in the resurrection of Jesus, a life that has been spiritually already resurrected in Jesus, a life that has the hope that you will one day be physically resurrected
[SPEAKER_01]: serious question does your life the way that you live right now make sense for a person who truly believes that 2,000 years ago a man died and came back to life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does your life make sense if that's what you believe?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know your life is a sermon.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you know this
[SPEAKER_01]: I will preach to some people that you know, but I will not preach to a lot of people that you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: You preach every day to people that you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: People in your life, people around you in your context.
[SPEAKER_01]: By the things that you say and the things you don't say, by the attitude that you have, by how you spend your money, how you spend your time, how you treat people, your spouse, your family, your neighbors, your coworkers, your enemies, how you forgive or don't forgive,
[SPEAKER_01]: You know you're suffering, Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know you're suffering, preach as a sermon to the world?
[SPEAKER_01]: The suffering of the saints is maybe the most compelling sermon that we can preach.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone suffers, but we as Christians, we suffer differently, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We suffer with hope, enjoy, and peace, and faith in the will of God, why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because Jesus Christ suffered for us under the will of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: He suffered to the point of death, and he walked out of his tomb and into his eternal place of glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we suffer with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We suffer in him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We suffer by faith in him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about the Apostle Paul.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the Apostle Paul meets Jesus, Acts 9, he meets Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a guy who made people suffer because they believed in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now he meets Jesus, he believes in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus actually gives him this job description.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.
[SPEAKER_01]: and Paul signs up for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you sign up for that job?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, it sounds like a fun job.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul signs up, why would you sign up for that?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's only one reason, because you know that guy died, you saw it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no other, it's crazy otherwise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody follows that guy unless it really happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul's life was changed in that moment when he saw him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I saw that man dying across.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now he's alive and he's talking to me and he's calling me to go be a witness for his glory of course I'll do that what else is there there's nothing else this is all that we are Look at act chapter two what else is there for the early church nothing else y'all they had families they had jobs they had lives yes
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying we have to leave those things necessarily.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I'm saying is now our life, if we truly believe this, our life is oriented around one thing, the resurrection of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the thing that drives us, moves us, shapes us, every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: What about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that true for you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is the resurrection life the life that you are living?
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you, as you suffer, in particular, listen, the past year, I have had the privilege.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is, I used to dread this stuff really as a pastor.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be honest, I used to dread it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I used to be scared and intimidated to go sit with people at hospitals, especially to sit beside like a person dying on their bed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the last year, I've had the privilege and a sitting bedside with saints who are getting ready to take their last breath.
[SPEAKER_01]: and I'll tell you, you've got to so change my heart and my mind about those moments.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love those moments.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I look forward to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a privilege and here's why because there is not a sanctuary so holy in this world as the deathbed of a faithful saint.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not another place so holy like that because it's a person.
[SPEAKER_01]: coming to the end, having finished the race, having kept the faith who knows that they know, that they know, and I always ask them that question, do you know that you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: And if they know that when they close their eyes, that they're gonna open them again in glory, it's all game, it's all victory in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is no loss in death even in death for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: This changes everything about the way that we live our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so my question again is this, are you living a resurrected life?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or are you just living a religious life?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you living a relaxed life?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you living just a reasonable life that makes sense to you, based on your plans and hopes and dreams?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or are you living a resurrected life?
[SPEAKER_01]: A life devoted to Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does the resurrection affect and inform everything that you do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, if the resurrection of Jesus does not change the way you do your job, treat your spouse, spend your money, plan your future, then you either don't believe it or you're acting like you don't.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we call that practical atheism.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what practical atheism is?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's when I believe, but my life doesn't look like it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Paul said,
[SPEAKER_01]: that a resurrected life in Jesus is a life lived in the power of His resurrection, the power of it, power to walk in the Holy Spirit by faith and not by sight, power to love and worship Jesus, power to love and serve others.
[SPEAKER_01]: power to take up your cross and repentance and sacrifice, power to put off sin and earthly pleasures and walk in holiness, power to suffer well with joy and hope.
[SPEAKER_01]: Power to forgive the sins of others, power to look, the world, and the face, and come what may with all its trials and afflictions say, it is well with my soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because my Redeemer lives, he's alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because he lives, I can just take whatever step he's
[SPEAKER_01]: And so here here's again, just my final final ask today.
[SPEAKER_01]: That you would just take whatever step the Lord's call on you to take.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would just encourage you could fest that today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doubtful, but you can bring even that to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll just tell you start looking into it if you're here and you're amazed and you're wondering and you're kind of maybe even just confused or whatever, but you're looking into it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just telling you, ask the Lord to ask the Lord to lead you to help you to see the scriptures and what they really say and that it all really is true and that he would move you even.
[SPEAKER_01]: to live your life, giving all that you are to Him and worship, and then surrendering and sacrificing to the day that you go home to be with Him, to live a life and devotion to the resurrected King who gave everything for you, everything for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's just do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's power heads together.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to just bow your head with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: The band's going to come back up.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to sing one more song here in a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that let's just power heads and let's pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to give you a moment here just quietly to pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: wherever you are, whatever seat you sit in, doubt, wonder, belief, worship, devotion that you just ask the Lord, Lord, lead me to take another step today.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to have it all figured out today, but just ask the Lord, God, would you help me take a step?
[SPEAKER_01]: Father of the hundreds of people in this room right now are in first service.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, I know there's that many steps for us to take.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have steps that you're calling us to take to just press on forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: So God, I pray that you would encourage our hearts today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just encourage our hearts to walk with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: To look into the evidence if that's where we're at or just to begin living our lives in worship to your son.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if that, we've just been holding something back from being fully devoted, God, that you would bring us there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if there's anyone today who just needs to for the first time confess, I believe, I believe in Him, that they would do that today and receive life in His name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just lead us today, God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're so grateful, so thankful for the truth of your resurrected son, our King, our Messiah, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.