Living Waters of Grace for Good Friday, 2026

This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis

Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland

County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he

continues teaching through God's Word.

I'm just thinking about all the times that we run into a

complicated or difficult situation, a circumstance that

seems like a mountain that we can't get over or can't move.

And how many times do we look into the Word of God, which

gives us an assurance that Jesus is there with us, but not only

that, He will give us evidence that he's with us?

The Easter season is the single most joyous time of the year for

those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus.

It's the time of year when we celebrate the resurrection of

Jesus. The grave could not hold him.

The tomb was found to be empty. All that God had said about the

coming Messiah was fulfilled during this time of year.

Today, Pastor Lewis continues unpacking the story of the

resurrection, highlighting the evidence of the resurrection as

a way for us to have increased faith and trust in God.

Now here's Pastor Lewis in Matthew chapter 28 with today's

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

edition of Living Waters of Grace.

This Angel, he, he's giving them an invitation now, an invitation

to come and validate what he just said.

So they go when they look in and they see, well, he's not there.

He's not there. I've never been to Israel, I've

never been to Jerusalem. I've never been to this tomb,

but I know many people who have my pastor have a Clark, you've

been to this tomb, correct? So and I know many people have

been there several times, several times.

So I want to ask a question because I know that when the

people that I asked when they were there at this tomb and they

said, well, you want to go over to Jerusalem, I said I don't

need to. You were there.

You said he wasn't in there. You said he wasn't there.

So I believe he wasn't there. The Bible says he wasn't there.

That's two witnesses. Pastor Clark, when you went to

Jerusalem, when you went to the tomb, when you looked in, was he

there? I have no reason to have to go.

My pastor said he wasn't there, He's not there, and indeed he is

going before you into Galilee. There you will see him.

Behold, I have told you. And he did.

He told him just that. Jesus told them on the last time

in the book of Matthew when he told him that he was going to be

killed and he was going to be buried and he was going to rise

again. He said, but I will go before

you in Galilee. If you go back to Matthew

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

chapter 26, which is a should be just a couple pages over and

verse 32 and I'm going to start reading here in verse 31.

Then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble

because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike

the shepherd, meaning that he was going to be stricken,

beaten, He's going to suffer and he's going to die, and the sheep

of the flock will be scattered. And that's exactly what they all

did when he was being beaten. They ran, they left them.

Even Peter who said that he wouldn't.

Verse 32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to

Galilee. So just like the Angel said,

look just like he said, just like he told you, OK, He's going

to go before you into Galilee. So so far, everything that Jesus

has said was going to happen is coming to be verse 8 and 9

Martha do 10/2. He says so they went out quickly

from the tomb with fear and great joy and they ran to bring

his disciples word. So let's stop there for a

second. So they left with both fear and

joy. I I, I can certainly understand

that. And you just saw this Angel

sitting on a the stone of this tomb that it probably would have

taken about 30 men plus a machine to move of some type.

But this Angel was there by himself.

But the other accounts actually show that there were more than

one Angel there. We don't know exactly how many

angels were there, but there were more than one Angel.

There was more than one Angel there.

But this Angel was sitting there on this on a stone as in victory

over this thing. This is not important.

You know, he's sitting there on a stone.

So I would imagine because everybody that sees an Angel,

the first thing the Angel has to say to them is fear.

Not because it's so horrific to see an Angel, so terrifying to

see the face of an Angel. So he says, so he says here that

he, they left there with fear in that fear, I'm sure from the

fact of having that encounter with the Angel, but also fear,

the fact that they don't know where their Lord is.

They don't know where their Lord is.

The Lord is not here in this tomb and we don't know where he

is. I'm sure there's fear there, but

also great joy because the Angel has told them that he is risen,

so they have the hope that he is alive.

He's alive. So they ran there with great

joy. But once again, the Providence

and the foreknowledge of God to know that I need these women to

be convincing witnesses for me. I need them to have a conviction

about the fact that Jesus Christ has risen and not just take it

from hearsay, but I need them to know.

So look at what happens in verse 9.

So as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met

them, and he said, rejoice. So they came and held him by the

feet and worshipped. Then Jesus said to them, do not

be afraid, go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and

there we they will see me. So they got the testimony from

the angels, but then the Providence and the foreknowledge

of God, they knew that their hearts had to be settled on

this. So as they were going on the

way, Jesus appears to them and he meets them on the way.

I'm just thinking about all the times that we run into a

complicated or a difficult situation, a circumstance that

seems like a mountain that we can't get over or can't move.

And how many times do we look into the word of God, which

gives us an assurance that Jesus is there with us, But not only

that, he will give us evidence that he's with us.

He will either send somebody with a with a word of

confirmation or send help from somewhere, or he will turn the

situation around supernaturally that we can't even explain.

He meets us right where we need him, where he met then and they

were able to see that he was alive.

Man, what that must have felt like, What that must have been

like. You're crying one night.

You're crying Friday night. You're crying all day Saturday.

I'm sure they cried missing their savior early morning

Sunday on the way to the tomb. They're probably crying carrying

their spices. And then they get there and the

Angel said he's not there. Whoa, wait a minute.

He's not here. Hell, he's risen.

Oh, OK, OK, you say so and I'll go tell him like you told me to.

But then on the way they see Jesus standing there and he says

rejoice, He doesn't have to say anything else, just rejoice,

rejoice. So the Bible says that they

grabbed him, they held on to his feet and worship him.

Which also deals with another issue that those who are want us

to deny Christ and those who want us to refute his deity and

want us to refute the fact that he was not only man but he was

also God. They said that he grabbed him by

the feet, which means this was not a phantom, this was not an A

figment of their imagination, this was not a just a spirit,

this was Jesus. Not only did they recognize him,

but they were able to touch him. They grabbed him by the feet and

they worshipped him. Glory to God.

So now they're leaving there and they're going there with a heart

filled with peace, a heart filled with joy.

They can't wait to get to the apostles.

Now I know he's alive. So these women become the first

evangelist and tell the true story about Jesus Christ was

dead and now he's alive. So they go and they and, and he

says go and tell, go and tell. This is the second time he said

that. He also said that back in verse

7. He said go and tell, go quickly

and tell his disciples. And then over here Jesus tells

them go and tell, go tell it, go tell it.

We have the truth. He revealed the truth for us.

We see the truth, go tell it. We should go tell it to share it

with other people. He gave it to us for us to do

that. So now looking at these next few

verses, verse 11 through 15, we're going to take it all

together. Now while they were going,

behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to

the chief priests all the things that had happened.

Now I just want to say this. For generations upon generations

upon generations upon generations, Satan has

consistently try to use people to defy the name Jesus, to deny

the name Jesus, and to deny the truth of Jesus.

Done it for generations. This lie about Jesus did not

resurrect from the dead. This lie starts here.

So verse 12, now the Bible says they went to the chief priest

and he reported all things that had happened.

We don't know if rather or not they actually saw Jesus.

In fact, I don't think that they actually did see you.

I think they were knocked out when Jesus came on out of that

tomb. They're probably knocked out

just by the fact that they saw those angels and they knew they

couldn't beat them. You know, you know, these are

these are tough men, but these angels come down looking like

lightning and dressed in all white.

I don't know if we I don't know if my spear is going to go.

It's going to work here. So I'm sure these men were so

frightened and they like you said, they were they were out.

So when Jesus came out of that tomb, they probably didn't even

see them, but they know what had happened.

They know what had happened. So in verse 12 it says when they

had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they

gave a large sum of money. Here we go.

Here we go, a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying tell

them his disciples came at night and stole him away while we

slept. And if this comes to the

governor's ears, pilot's ears, if we we will appease him and

make you secure, we're going to make sure you're OK Don't worry

about it. So they took the money and did

as they were instructed. And this saying is commonly

reported among the Jews until this day.

So many questions in this group of Scripture here, so many

questions. But the main question comes

here, the Pharisees who knew that Jesus probably would not be

there because they knew that he said he was going to resurrect.

So they knew that that was a possibility.

He would not be there. They weren't afraid of the of

the, the, the believers coming and taking them.

They put a guard there. So if you put a guard there, how

in the world did some men just come and take Jesus?

So that means if you were so sleepy, that means you had to

sleep through them moving the stone.

You had to sleep through them going in to the the tomb and you

had to be asleep as they carried this dead man out of the tomb

and away from you. You had to sleep through all

that. I mean, that just doesn't even

make sense. But that's the enemy.

The enemy Satan will will put together lies that don't even

make sense might make sense to him, but it don't make sense

doesn't make sense. So, so, so they, so they started

this lie and just like the Scripture says, so they took the

money because you know, you know, if, if you're not in the

Lord Jesus Christ, you have a price, you have a price.

What would it take for you to compromise?

What would it take for you to deny what you know about Jesus

Christ? Is there anything in your life

that might cause you to compromise Jesus Christ?

Is there any ungodly relationship?

Is there any possession? Is there any amount of money?

Is there anything that's in your life that may cause you to

compromise and to deny the truth about Jesus Christ?

We all have to ask ourselves those questions and pray that

the Holy Spirit will give us strength, will give us strength

because we are, we're people and we are prone to wander, we're

prone to fail. But through the power of the

Holy Spirit, he can give us the strength to stand and to not

waver and to not compromise. So it says, and this has been

done and, and, and it's, it's, it's been spoken and that's been

the story ever since. So there's 2.

So there's two stories that's in history today.

There's two stories. First of all, no Jesus and one

story. Jesus didn't rise, he didn't

resurrect. That's one story.

Second stories that he did resurrect, He is the Messiah.

One story is that he's not the Messiah, but he's some madman.

The other stories, no, he is the Messiah.

He is the truth. He's the way and he is the life.

And the question is, what story do you believe today?

There's so much proof here that Jesus resurrected.

There's so much proof because it says hereafter.

If we read a little further and go into first First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 15:2

chapter 15 verses 2 and three, it talks about how not only did

these men did he show himself to these men and to these women,

but the Bible says that he was seen by more than 500.

Now keep in mind you only need 2 to 3 witnesses to make every

word confirmed. According to the Jewish

tradition and Jewish law, in the mouth of two or three witnesses,

every word is established. They have more than 500

witnesses that would have that have seen Jesus alive after his

resurrection afterwards. Not only that, he has us as

witnesses that Jesus is not dead, but he's alive.

And how do we know? Because he lives in me, He lives

in you. He lives in you, He lives in

you. Your life demonstrates the true

life of Jesus Christ. So because we know that Jesus

did die as he said, he was killed.

And because we know that Jesus was buried, as he said, and

because we know that he rose again out of that grave from the

dead, as he said. So how does that impact our

lives? Well, first of all, as we just

talked about last week with Jude, Jude tells us that we

should contend for the faith that was once delivered to us to

stand on the word of God. I was driving through Greensburg

yesterday, and I wonder how many of you were driving through

Greensburg on Main Street going in front of the courthouse.

And they had this protest going on.

So on the left side of the street, there was probably about

four or 500 people who were, you know, it doesn't matter what

they represent. It was 2 or 4, about 3 or 400

people, 5 or 600 people on this one side of the street.

And over here, there's a little less people, but they were all

still protesting. Right through the middle were a

number of police cars making sure that it was separated and

that there was no, no violence going on.

But as I was coming through there, I was thinking, man, look

how passionate these people are about whatever it is that

they're believing. And I don't even know what it

was, but look how passionate they are about it.

And I looked to the other side of the street, said, look how

passionate they are about what it is they believe.

Obviously it's different than what they believe.

And then I thought, are we that passionate about what we

believe? We're not told that we go out

and carry picket signs or anything like that, but we are

told to contend for the faith. Do we stand on the truth of

Jesus Christ? Do we stand on the truth of the

apostles and the and the and the the teaching of the apostles,

the doctrines of the apostles when we share our faith with

someone or do we flip flop? Do we contend for the truth?

And then a little further down in the in the book of Matthew

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

chapter 28, it tells us he says that we should obey the, the

Great Commission. He said go and make disciples of

all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,

and in the Holy Spirit and teaching them.

To observe all things that I have taught you.

Are we doing that? That's how we live, you know, in

the resurrection of Jesus Christ, of knowing the

resurrection of Jesus Christ. We don't live for the here and

now. We live for what's going to

happen for us later, for the life to come.

That's what we live for and also tells us over in first

Corinthians 5815 and 58. He says that we should stand

fast, be steadfast, and we should be unmovable and we

should always be abounding in the work of the Lord, the

ministry of the Lord, the life of the Lord, abounding in it

every day. It should fill our hearts.

Regardless of what you do professionally, regardless of

what high school you go to, regardless of what middle school

you go to, regardless of where you go on your job, from 9:00 to

5:00 or 8:00 to 5:00 or whatever it may be, are you, are we

abounding? Are we abounding in the work of

the Lord? When I meet with people in my

community, when I meet with people on the street or talk to

people in grocery stores, am I abounding in the work of the

Lord? It's his spirit, the one that

people are seeing or they see in my old fleshly spirit.

Am I abounding in the things of the Lord?

That's how we should live. And of course, we're not living

to build up treasures or to lay up treasures in this life.

That's not what we're, that's not what we're doing.

That's another part of us not living for this world.

You see, the treasures of this life, the moth and the rust, can

come in and cause it to be corrupt because it's not

permanent, It's temporary. Anything that we achieve in this

world is temporary. I was always taught that at one

point or another, everything that we have, it's either going

to leave us or we're going to leave it.

Nothing is permanent in this world, but it's what we have in

heaven. The treasures that we lay up in

heaven that are eternal. So we lay up treasures in heaven

with a moth and a rust does not corrupt, nor can thieves break

in and steal, but we have an inheritance.

The Bible tells us we have an inheritance in Jesus Christ, an

inheritance that is incorruptible, an inheritance

that is, that is undefiled, an inheritance that will never,

ever, ever fade away. So I pray that with this

resurrection and understanding of this resurrection, it means

that we too will have a resurrection one day.

And this life is not our permanent home, but we're going

to be resurrected to resurrecting life one day where

not only will our bodies change, but our world will change.

It's going to be a new heaven and a new earth and all these

old things are going to pass away.

And we live looking for that, looking unto Jesus, the Author

and the finisher of our faith. That's what Resurrection Day

should mean to us all. Thanks for joining us today as

we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus here on Living Waters of

Grace. Pastor Lewis Harrell has been so

excited to share with us about the miracle of the resurrection

of Christ. The human race spent thousands

of years lost in sin before God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ,

to come be a perfect sacrifice for all mankind.

His blood is enough to atone for the sins of all mankind, and His

resurrection puts an end to death itself.

Our desire is to spread this good news of the gospel to as

many people as possible, but we need your help to do so.

The first way you can help us is by sharing this program with a

friend. You can join us here on Grace FM

91.7 or they can TuneIn online at Grace Radio dot FM.

And as we continue to develop a new station that will reach many

more listeners, you can send financial gifts to Grace FMPO

Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601. If you're in Greensburg, we'd

also love to invite you to join us at Calvary Chapel

Westmoreland. We're located at 400 E

Pittsburgh St. Ste. 6B.

We need on Sundays at 10:30 AM. If you're not able to visit us

in person, we encourage you to connect with us on the web at

calvarychapelonline.com. There you will find a link to

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feeds and the contact form so you can get connected with us or

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We also live stream our services every Sunday on our YouTube

channel. Well, we pray that you will be

blessed as you go forth into your week.

Until next time, we'd like to thank you for tuning into this

special Easter edition of Living Waters of Grace.