Proving The Resurrection From The Old Testament | Easter Service | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

There are many ways to approach the truth of the resurrection of

Jesus Christ, so many aspects and elements regarding it that

we can commemorate and reaffirm. But as I meditating on this

message and what to say on this Sunday, I trust that will be

most beneficial to consider the deep and the rich roots of this

precious truth. In other words, I want us to see

together in the Word of God how what we just sang about this

past 45 minutes, what we hold dear to, what everything really

hinges on. Pertaining our faith is not a

novel idea introduced in the New Testament.

It is something that God has consistently conveyed to the

world from the beginning of time.

It is a hope that has been woven throughout redemptive history,

culminating 2000 years ago, and something that we still hold to

today. And this is something that Paul,

the great apostle, always alluded to, always affirmed,

especially in his defense of his faith in the person of Jesus

Christ. This great man of God known as

Paul was charged for many things after he became a follower of

the Messiah. But one of the main things that

he was accused of is that he was some kind of a ringleader of

this new sect that supposedly contradicted the truths of the

Hebrew Scriptures. But I want you to see and I hope

you have your Bible with you. I want you to see what Paul says

in a particular place that confirms this glorious truth is

something that's always been meet me in your Bibles in Acts

Acts 24:14

24, verse 14, as we look at Paul standing on trial before Felix,

the governor at Caesarea. And I want to encourage you.

This is where we're headed today for this Easter service.

There's going to be a lot of Bible because more than

anything, I want all of our hearts to leave here more

assured regarding the historicity of our faith, the

validity, the consistent message that we hold to.

And so we're going to start here and we're going to continue make

note of these verses. I trust that they will help you

in your worship and also your defense of what we believe.

Acts 24, verse 14 Paul says. But this I confess to you, that

Acts 24:14

according to the way which they call a sect, I worship the God

of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law

and written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these

men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of

both the just and the unjust. There are three major statements

that Paul makes here in his defense #1HE affirms that he

worships the God of his father's, the God of the

patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the 12 tribes

of Israel. He's not introducing a new God.

He is confirming I believe in the one true God, the Lord

Yahweh. Second, he also says that he

holds to the entirety of the scriptures.

Is that what he says, believing everything laid down by the law

and written in the prophets, what you and I call the Old

Testament, the Hebrew Bible, is what Paul says he wholeheartedly

believes. And combining these things, he

says his final thing, that the message of the resurrection that

Paul preached, that Paul promotes, was something that he

came to because of his faith in the true God and because of his

belief in the sacred Scriptures. So in essence, what he is saying

to his accusers, these Pharisees and these Jews who were standing

there hoping to condemn him, is I'm more orthodox than you are.

I'm more scripturally sound than you.

I'm no heretic. This comes from what God had

said from the beginning. This was transmitted down

throughout the ages from these prophets and these men of God

that God set apart to speak His oracles.

This is a wonderful claim, but only begins here.

Go to Acts 26. Now here we find Paul standing

on trial before King Agrippa, and look what he says in Acts 26

Acts 26:6

verse 6. And now I stand here on trial

because of my hope and the promise made by God to our

fathers, to which our 12 tribes hope to attain, as they

earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused

by Jews. O King, why is it thought

incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

I love this man of God. What hope is he speaking about?

What? What is he trying to explain?

Primarily, the hope of Israel's redemption, which includes the

reality of the resurrection. And again, he's reminding his

opponents that God is the one who promised this glorious

future. This didn't begin with him.

It didn't start with Jesus. The Messiah didn't come from

these apostles. No, it's something that stirred

the nation of Israel to a continually adorn worship day

and night. Which leads Paul again to

challenge his hearers. Is not my proclamation of Jesus

Christ of Nazareth raising from the dead a validation of this

long standing truth that God raises the dead?

Why are you so shocked? Why does that stun you?

Why does it sound like blasphemy to you?

It is something that was always there, and I'm here to tell you

it happened in the person of Jesus Christ.

He is the first born of many, and we see here that there's so

much we can say, But I want to highlight one main thing.

Paul, who's defending the central theme of his message,

the resurrection, is proving to us that we can actually go to

the law and to the prophets and discover it there.

That is so crucial for us if we are people of the book.

That is so important for us if we really want substance to our

faith. Because when you consider the

supernatural element of this book, it's not just one piece of

literature. It's 66 books that span over

thousands of years and multiple different authors and even

different languages. And yet there is this golden

thread. There is one voice.

So here's my aim. I'm not really interested in

hyping up anybody emotionally. I want all of our minds to be

opened and I want our hearts as a result to burn as we see the

beauty and the wisdom of God in His Word.

So here's what we're going to do.

Because the benefit of recognizing this is that it

strengthens our faith. And also it also brings more

weight to the gospel message in that if anyone were to deny it,

you're not just rejecting what Jesus said.

You're not just swatting away what his apostle died for,

you're also denying what God has said from the beginning of time.

That's significant, and I want to prove that to you.

In Jesus's day, the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christians

again called the Old Testament, was divided into two main

sections, the law and the prophets.

But if you wanted to be more precise, there was actually

three different categories. And Jesus in that chapter that

we read during the announcements actually points to that

threefold division of the Old Testament.

He says it there when he says it was written about me in the law,

the prophets. And what's the last one?

The Psalms. The Psalms.

Here's what's interesting, that the Hebrew Bible today, the one

that Jews uphold even now, is similar, is similar in the fact

that, again, what we call the Old Testament is identified

perfectly in terms of the amount of books and the same content,

but they call it something different.

I remember being in a room filled with Jews, and there were

Christians there as well. And one Christian asked a Jewish

teacher something about the Old Testament.

And that person, the Jewish man interrupting right away, says

what's old about it? It's their Bible, and it's in

our Bible as well, But they call that Tanakh, and the Tanakh is

really an acronym for the threefold division of the Old

Testament. We have the first part, which is

the Torah, and that deals with the first five books of the

Bible. We call that the Pentateuch, and

from there we have the Nevaeum, which is comprised of the

oracles of the prophets. And lastly, we have the Ketuvim,

which speaks of the writings. That's what it means, and it

contains things like the wisdom literature and the poetic books,

as well as some historical records.

Now, it's important to note that though we have the same books as

our Jewish neighbors, they're organized quite differently.

But that's not the main point that I want to make.

What I want to bring to your attention is how we can prove

the resurrection. And what I mean by resurrection

is the glorification of these bodies.

We can find that in each section of the Tanakh.

It's everywhere and I want us to see it together.

And though this may seem like a daunting task, I want to assure

you that the Lord has been gracious to us because he guides

us through the New Testament of what to look for and how to find

it. Are we ready?

We're going to begin and seeing the resurrection in the law in

the first five books of the Bible, and this isn't going to

be exhausted. This is just a sample for you to

be stirred that this book is indeed God's book.

You know, this trust and this belief and this faith in the

resurrection is denied by many as you sing about it this

afternoon. There are people who mock it

just around us at your workplace.

Maybe as you gather with your families, they don't see the

beauty and the truth in it. But it's not something this

disbelief then spring out of the Enlightenment period or

postmodernism or any kind of humanistic ideology.

No, it's also ancient. And there's a particular group

in Jesus Day that vehemently despised it and denied it.

They were a liberal theological camp known as the Sadducees,

very prominent individuals, very influential, but they did not

hold to anything really supernatural.

And on one day, they approached Jesus hoping to trap him, hoping

to have him confused and not be able to answer this hypothetical

situation that they come up with.

So they present this case that here's this woman whose husband

died. And according to the law, that

means the husband's brother had to marry her to continue his

legacy. And they imagine that she had 7

husbands. And they approach Jesus and ask,

whose wife will she be at the resurrection?

And the Lord is brilliant. I mean, you're talking about the

word, who's become flesh, and you're going to try to stump him

with the word. And so now he's going to show

them how they overlooked a very important detail and what they

call the Scripture. Because again, the Sadducees

only held to the Torah the first five books.

They didn't acknowledge any of the other ones.

So what does the Lord do? He meets them at their level and

he says the following. Turn with me to Matthew 22.

Let's look at verse 31. And As for the resurrection of

the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God?

Pause. I'm sorry I cannot get by this

passage without always making this comment.

Jesus is going to quote the Old Testament to these Sadducees,

but notice how He presents it. He says here in verse 31, Have

you not read what was said to you?

You know what that teaches me? That every part of God's word is

meant to speak to you, even Exodus 3, which he's about to

quote. Let's continue verse 32.

I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of

Jacob. He's not God of the dead, but of

the living. And when the crowd heard it,

they were astonished at his teaching.

Jesus brilliantly references the Lord's appearance to Moses at

the burning Bush, and in that encounter, Jesus wants to show

that the Sadducees missed a detail.

When the Lord introduces himself to Moses in this spectacular

fashion, he does not say I was the God of Abraham, the God of

Isaac, the God of Jacob. He deliberately uses the present

tense, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And why that's important to note is because these patriarchs were

long dead before the Lord appeared to Moses, and yet God

declares that he relates to them as though they were alive,

actually more alive than ever. I am their God.

I do recognize them. I do relate to them.

And he would never say this about anything or anyone that no

longer exists. So what we find here is that

though these patriarchs have been buried in the Promised land

long before this, the only conclusion that we can make is

that they're alive. They're alive.

They're this, they're in this intermediate state, they're in

the presence of God. They're again more vibrant than

ever, awaiting the resurrection bodies.

And we know that this is true because when the Sadducees heard

it, they didn't rebut, They didn't, they didn't challenge

him further. They understood exactly what God

was saying in that place and they couldn't deny it.

He is their God, meaning they are alive.

And if that's not what Jesus is saying, then what did he mean

when he said in another place? You don't have to turn there.

But when he's talking about the Kingdom of heaven and the

culmination of the age, He tells these Jews that they're going to

be people from the East and the West that will gather and

recline at table with who? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Matthew 811 So how are these Gentiles who are going to be now

grafted in, how are they able to fellowship and have supper with

the patriarchs, unless of course, they are alive?

So this is just the beginning, but can we trace it further

back? Is there anything before Exodus

in Genesis, for example, where we can find this belief, this,

this truth vibrating in the hearts of these Saints, giving

them the hope, understanding what's to come, that this life,

this is not the end of it. Absolutely.

And again, the New Testament is our guide.

Turn with me now to Hebrews Chapter 11, beginning in verse

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

17. This chapter is famously

identified as a chapter that describes what faith looks like.

And what's being highlighted here is the depth of Abraham's

faith. This man had rich trust in God.

It's no wonder that he is consistently portrayed as a

model of faith in God. Here's how we see it in Hebrews

11/17. By faith, Abraham, when he was

tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the

promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of

whom it was said, through Isaac. Shall your offspring be named?

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead,

from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him

back. So we know this very well, that

there came a critical point in Abraham's relationship with God

where he was told to give up the promised son Isaac, surrender

him. I wanted to become a burnt

offering. And we're being reminded here

that Abraham obeyed, but that wasn't where his fat faith

rested. Solely What's being underscored

here is that he believed that God, though asking him to do

this, was not going to let Isaac remain dead.

And why did he believe that? Because God told him earlier in

Genesis and in chapter 17 more specifically, that through Isaac

and his offspring, what Abraham's seed continue and

flourish. Abraham understood the

unconditional covenant that God made with him and his

descendants, and so he firmly understood that though this

seems like a strange request, there's something on the other

side of it. Because God does not break his

promise. What kind of faith is that?

Most of us have got asked to do something like this.

Would blame God for being contradicting, for being

inconsistent. I thought you said that through

Isaac my seed would continue. And now you're asking me to

eliminate Isaac and therefore eliminating the promise.

He doesn't accuse. He is now forced to believe in

something called the resurrection.

OK, I don't make sense of this really in its entirety.

So the only logical outcome is that, yes, I will sacrifice

Isaac, but then God's going to raise him from the dead.

And I believe there is a measure of Abraham's own experience that

lended him, the faith to believe this about his son.

What do I mean by that? Scroll back to Hebrews 11, verse

Hebrews 11:12

12. Notice what it says.

Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, this is Abraham

we're speaking about, and him as good as dead.

We're born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven, and as

many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Look at that description of Abraham's condition in his old

age. As good as dead.

This is me and my sanctified imagination.

Now I like to imagine that when Abraham heard the call to

sacrifice his son and he woke up very early to obey, as he was

making his way to that mountain that God consecrated for that

sacrifice to take place, he thought the following.

I have to believe that the same power that birthed Isaac, that I

was as good as dead, will also bring Isaac back to life.

It has to be. And so he boldly approached that

mountain, not wavering in faith, anticipating A resurrection.

This is mind blowing. Now I can hear the critics.

I hear you. I can hear the critics because

I've talked to them. Oh, here's yet another example

of you New Testament Christians forcing your interpretation in

these Hebrew texts, taking your Christ and shoving him into

these stories and trying to make him to be the central theme and

trying to find types and shadows.

And my response would be, Are you sure about that?

Are you sure that there is nothing in the original account

of Abraham ready to sacrifice his son Isaac, believing in his

resurrection? Well, let's be certain.

Turn to Genesis 22 and let's look at it together.

I told you there would be a lot of Bible today, Genesis 22.

Let's start in verse 3. So Abraham rose early in the

morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with

him and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt

offering, and a rose, and went to the place of which God had

told him. On the third day Abraham lifted

up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

Then Abraham said to his young man, Stay here with the donkey,

I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to

you. Now if you hold the New King

James Version in your hand, this critical observation will be

more clear, because in verse 5 it would read in your

translation, Stay here with the donkey, the lad and I will go

Yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.

The same can be said in the NASB.

Either way, the honest reader will acknowledge that the same

point is being made with any faithful translation.

What is Abraham saying? He's planning to go through with

God's decree, but he wholeheartedly believes that

both he and Isaac are coming back down that mountain.

We're coming back to you. How do you believe that if this

son is going to be slain, how is that possible if he's going to

be a complete sacrifice? Well, Hebrews clarifies the

same. Holy Spirit tells us it's

because he believed that God would raise him from the dead.

What are you going to do about this?

Now, the resurrection didn't begin with the Christian

movement. It's found all the way here in

the heart of the Father of the faith.

He believed it. Do you?

He understood God's characters, ways, the extent of his power.

Do you? By the way, when did Abraham say

to his servants that he and Isaac would go and worship and

come back together? Look again at verse 4 on the

third day. Did you see it?

That coincidence couldn't have been the second day, the 7th

day, the 12th day. No, on the third day my son will

come back. I love the Bible.

I'm trying to contain myself here.

This is this is no ordinary book.

When you consider again that Genesis was written way before,

centuries before Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

One voice, resurrection found even there.

This is the law. But that's not the complete

Tanakh. So we now come to the prophets.

Where can we go in the prophets? How many places can we go in the

prophets? Why don't we go to Isaiah

together? Let's travel now.

Isaiah 26, a very well known passage, but it's more rich than

people believe. Isaiah 26, verse 19.

Isaiah 26:19

And I will wait for you. Please, Please remember these

verses. Don't forget them, record them.

Isaiah 26, verse 19. Here's what the prophet

Isaiah 26:19

declares. Your dead shall live, their

bodies shall rise, You who dwell in the dust awake and sing for

joy, For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give

birth to the dead. Why don't we just close our

Bible to say Hallelujah, Amen and go on?

However, it's a bad habit to pluck any verse, any place in

the Bible and to drive your interpretation in isolation.

If you want to be a serious student of the Bible, if you

want to be taken seriously by others, always honor the context

of any verse. So here's the question.

Why is Isaiah saying this here and now?

And here's what you'll discover, that this is actually more of a

metaphor for the reviving of national and political Israel,

that after all the devastation that they've experienced at this

time, the prophet wants to comfort them that they have a

bright future, They will be revived.

And he's offering symbolic imagery here.

You're dead shall come to life. You will rise from the dust.

So again, this is to say something about the national

entity of the Jewish people. And that becomes more clear when

you realize that what Isaiah says in this verse contrast the

fate of the neighboring enemies of Israel.

So look back here now, verse 13 in Isaiah 26, what does he say

about Israel's foes? They are dead, they will not

live. They are shades, they will not

rise. To that end, you have visited

them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.

So by way of comparison, the enemies of Israel who have

harassed and oppressed God's people will die.

They will cease to exist and it will be permanent.

There is no future transformation.

There is no fruit. There is no hope for tomorrow.

You will be decimated for good. And as you just read, then it

comes to the people of God says no, no, no.

But for you there will be a resurrection.

OK, great. So this deals with a historical

period and there's poetic imagery to portray Israel's

reviving. So we can't really use this in

our doctrine. Hold on.

There is still a clear indication of a literal

individual bodily resurrection in this passage, especially when

you look at the surrounding apocalyptic literature in its

context. So let me give you an example.

We're in Isaiah 26, right? There was no chapter numbers or

verse numbers in the original scrolls that came much later to

help us. So look at Isaiah 25 and notice

what's being said here in Isaiah 25 verse 6, a close neighbor to

Isaiah 25:6

this passage in Isaiah 26, Isaiah 25 verse 6, the same

Isaiah 25:6

prophet says on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for

all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine,

of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine, well refined.

And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is

cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will

wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people

He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

What do we have in view here? A universal shift to a universal

problem, the conquering of death.

And it's not just for Israel. And you can't make it seem

metaphorical. It's not just a prophecy about

this particular group. No, look again at the language,

the covering that casts over all peoples, over all nations, wipe

away tears from all faces. So what is here being prophesied

is that there will be the Lord who on this mountain, so that

that points to some kind of manifest power of God in our

realm. The Lord on this mountain that

is the mountain of Jerusalem, He's going to do something at

that point. He's going to cancel death.

He's going to defeat death. He's going to erase death, and

it will be the cause of global celebration.

And as he wipes away all our sorrows forever and ever.

So again, this is a real prophecy about a real victory

over a real death, and real people will benefit from it.

So let's take a breath here, right?

What makes us even more profound is that this is what Paul quotes

when he makes a defense for the resurrection in that famous

passage in First Corinthians 15. I just encourage you to take a

deep breath in and just hear these words because it comes

from Isaiah 25. Listen to what Paul says in

First Corinthians 15, 54 When the perishable puts on the

imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall

come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up

in victory. Where did that come from?

Paul's head, Isaiah 25 How will life after death be possible?

How will there be this ability to remain with God

uninterrupted, without the fear of any cessation of existence?

You ready for this? We're told in the same book, the

same book of Isaiah, we are told that there will be the death of

one individual and through his resurrection, this resurrection

will be possible. Isaiah 53.

Can I say something here? Again, I'm trying to contain

myself. If you are a person in this

place that really takes serious your faith, if you want to

enrich your understanding, if you want to be more effective in

proclaiming and proving what you believe, can I offer a word of

advice? Master Isaiah 53.

Don't even just memorize it. Master it, because if you really

unpack line by line what Isaiah says 700 years before Christ, it

will blow your mind. I mean, just reading it, we read

it on Friday. Just reading it is astounding.

And perhaps some of you have seen this clip online where

Messianic Jews made their way to Jerusalem and met with Orthodox

Jews and secular Jews and Reformed Jews and simply read

Isaiah 53 without telling them where it came from.

And what you find there is consistently that people, the

Jewish people who are being interviewed denied it, some

saying that's in the New Testament, only to be shocked

when they were told it's Isaiah 53.

It's an incredible prophecy. I actually believe that.

Again, remember, chapter divisions and verse numbers were

not original. I believe Isaiah 53 should have

began in Isaiah 52, the last part of it.

Can I give you an example? I failed.

I couldn't contain myself. I'm sorry.

Let me give you an example. I want to stir your heart to be

mighty in the Scriptures. Isaiah 52.

Look at verse 13. This is where I believe the

prophecy of the suffering servant should begin.

Look at this. We're just going to deal with

the first line. Behold, My Servant shall act

wisely. He shall be high and lifted up

and shall be exalted. Hold on.

I read through Isaiah. I've read it multiple times and

here's what I learned. That that phrase high and lifted

up is exclusive to the Lord. That awesome status and position

purely belongs to God in the book of Isaiah.

Let me give an example. Isaiah 6.

One in the year that King Gozaiah died, I saw the Lord

seated high and lifted up. Isaiah 57 verse 15 thus says the

Isaiah 57:15

one who is high and lifted up. And then now I come to Isaiah 52

and I read about a servant which many who do not believe in Jesus

claim is Israel the nation. OK, let's go with that.

Israel, the nation will be high and lifted up.

Whoever the servant is, you have to admit that they will be

exalted to a position and they will share a prerogative that

belongs to God alone. Listen, you don't just have a

prophecy here of the Messiah. You have a prophecy here about

the divinity of the Messiah, because whoever the servant is,

he will share a seat with Yahweh.

OK, guys, that that's just the first line.

That's just the first line. We didn't even get to Isaiah 53,

yet be stirred. This is what God has given us as

a gift to be assured in our faith, to proclaim it boldly no

matter who says what. Now let's come to Isaiah 53.

Let's look at one place, verse 10 again.

What are we doing here? We're showing how the

resurrection is found in the Old Testament, the Tanakh.

We cover the law briefly. Now we come to the prophets.

Let's deal with this passage. Yet it was the will of the Lord

to crush him. He has put him to grief when his

soul makes an offering for guilt.

He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.

The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Well, I've been talking about our Jewish friends a lot.

Let me speak about our Muslim neighbors Now.

Our Muslim neighbors often point to this passage and attempt to

convince Christians that it's not about Jesus.

Why? Because if you think Isaiah 53

is about Jesus, then you also have to admit that Jesus had

kids. Where are they getting that

from? Well, again, look again at

Isaiah 53 verse 10, the second part.

Isaiah 53:10

He shall see His offspring. Oh, so the Messiah had children?

Do you believe Jesus produced children?

Did He have an earthly family? Of course He didn't.

Now if you really want to get technical, in the Hebrew, when

it says He shall see His offspring, the word His isn't

there. So more literally reads he shall

see offspring. But even if you want to just

avoid that route and deal with this directly and understand

that this is in fact speaking about the Messiah's offspring.

It's so evident that he's speaking about a spiritual

offspring in the same way the word seed or offspring is used

throughout the book of Isaiah to denote the offspring of the

wicked, a Sinner producing a Sinner alike.

We don't have time to get there, but it's all over the book of

Isaiah. So in the same way that an

unrighteous man is able to produce unrighteousness in a

spiritual sense, so we have here that there's something about the

Messiah and what he does that will bring forth a new breed of

righteous people. He shall see his offspring.

This is a promise that through the agonizing, substitutionary

and vicarious death of the Messiah, there will be a new

family, there will be a new people, there will be a new

breed who will not be righteous by their own merit, but who will

be made holy because of the efforts of the Messiah.

It's so plain. Just read the next verse.

Look at verse 11, Isaiah 53. Out of the anguish of his soul,

he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge.

Shall the righteous one, my Servant, make many to be

accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

So what do we see here? What does this have to do with

resurrection? It's very obvious in the very

same passage that people point to to make you doubt that Jesus

was predicted and prophesied about actually teaches about the

fact that he resurrected. Let me give you just a simple

observation. After being told before Isaiah

5310 that he will be cut out from the land of the living,

that he'll be offered up as a guilt offering, which according

to the law means death, that his grave will be made with the

wicked. After all this language being

pierced unto death, being crushed to death, what does it

say? He shall see his offspring.

Last time I checked, after you die, you don't see anything.

Apparently he's going to see. He's going to see the fruit of

his sacrifice. This isn't even end there.

What does he say next? Moreover, he shall prolong his

days. I thought your days were cut

off. I thought you ceased to live.

I thought you were put to death. Yes.

But after that, this is this is chronological.

After that, there will be an extension of his life.

He will continue to live. Is there anything else in this

one verse alone? Yes.

Look at the end of verse 10. The will of the Lord shall

prosper in His hand, implying that there is something else

that this suffering servant will accomplish after his death.

How can my hand do anything unless it is animated with life?

And so there's still more for Messiah to do, and we learn

about it. He's going to intercede for

transgressors. So clearly there's only one

logical conclusion, that this one who does lay down his life,

who does become a sin bearing sacrifice for many, will live

again. He will live again.

Who said that? Peter.

Who said that? John.

Who said that? The pastor of Maranatha Bible

Church, Isaiah the prophet 700 years before the life of Christ.

That's why Isaiah is known as the 5th Gospel.

Reeling all this together, here's the message.

In Isaiah, the Messiah's personal defeat over sin will

conquer death forever, and it will justify others who are

belonging to him. Just the surface of finding the

resurrection in the prophets. Let's come finally now to the

writings, the last part of the Old Testament, Daniel, chapter

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

12. Did you know that in the Tanakh,

the book of Daniel is not placed under the prophets, but with the

Ketuvim, the writings? I can explain why, but I don't

want to keep you too long. We could go to the Psalms.

We can go to Job. There's so many things in the

writings that point to the resurrection.

Why am I going to Daniel? I'm going to Daniel because it

brings us full circle to our original verse.

When we open up this message when Paul was defending his

faith in the resurrection, he alludes to what Daniel says in

Daniel 12 verse 2. Let's read It is what the

Daniel 12:2

prophet Daniel says. And many of those who sleep in

the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,

and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

I want to end a little differently here.

I'm fully aware that there are some, maybe even many.

Who are listening to this message and you don't believe

not just what I have to say here, you don't believe anything

that the Bible has to say. And if you have survived the

sermon to this point, I want to tell you something that might

pique your interest, that whether you believe in it or

not, the Lord speaks about you. Yes, even if you don't believe

in this truth, even if you don't believe in God, Jesus, you want

to live your own life. You're the you're the master of

your fate. You're the captain of your soul.

Can I tell you that the Bible anticipated you?

Can't be said more clearly. Than what Daniel says here, that

there will be those who will, yes, be raised everlasting life,

and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

The Bible tells us why there will be.

Some who will be raised everlasting contempt it.

Anticipates again that there will be those.

Who will deny God, deny His provision of eternal life, and

live their way the Bible wants? To tell you that.

There is a cost to that decision.

And I want to say something. That most would hesitate to say

for an Easter message. But I'm aware that you may never

hear it at another place. You may not hear it from another

person. What this book teaches.

Is that there is a real heaven and there is a real hell, and

every single person will spend. Eternity in one.

Of those two places, that's it. It's as simple as that.

You're not a bag of skin stuffed with meat.

You're an immortal soul. That's been created in the image

of God, and he made you to walk with him.

But our first parents made the decision to walk away from Him

because love has choice in it, and the choice of our parents

and we follow it in their direction is to ignore God,

blasphemy God, enjoy what he hates, break his law.

On top of that, you have some who deny.

His existence reject his creative work separate.

Themselves from anything that. Is righteous and pure and good.

Let me be the one to tell you. That you have.

Been made by God. And you've been made for God,

but again, he gives you the choice because sin separates us

from God. And He was the one who initiated

reconciliation with him. But he.

Couldn't just sweep our sin? Underneath a rug, he couldn't

just ignore it, because as much as he is loved, he is holy, he

is true, He is just. And so he came with a plan.

Paul calls it the wisdom of God. He came up with a plan in order

to extend his love and yet at the same time satisfy his

justice. The second Person of the

Trinity. Enters into the world, takes on

flesh, and he pays our debt. And he does that by.

Dying on the cross, absorbing the wrath of God that was over

your head and mine. He's buried.

He. Raises from the grave, and that

resurrection is God's. Amen.

That he approved that payment. All for what?

So that you, a debtor, you a Sinner, you condemned, you

guilty, would acknowledge it and receive that free gift of

salvation and be saved. How can I?

Know with absolute assurance that would Daniel prophesized

here. Will that be my portion?

How can I transition from everlasting contempt to

everlasting life? How can?

I know that when I give my. Final breath.

How can I know that even if I'm surprised by death, that the

next step I will take will be in the presence of God, will be in

the arms of a loving Creator? Let.

Me tell you what Jesus says to. You.

Here's what Jesus says to you in John 1125.

I am the resurrection of life. Whoever believes in me, though

he die, yet shall he live. The way you can know that.

You will have resurrection unto life is by embracing the Lord

Jesus Christ, by understanding his love for you, by

understanding what he laid aside.

Again, I I gave that very faint picture of what it must have

been like for Christ to return in glory in flesh.

But what was it like when he removed his glory to enter into

this world as flesh? What did those creatures?

See, how do they converse among themselves?

How do they try to ratify it and justify it and explain it that

this? God chooses to.

Come into this world that he created, this world that spat in

his face and denied him and turned their back on him, and

yet he is reaching for them to bring them back to himself.

How can this be? Just restart, change the whole

thing. Start from square 1, The

throbbing love of God for him to come and to reach out to us.

So here's what you're hearing on this Sunday afternoon.

God's hand, even today, because he commanded men to go and

preach the gospel to all nations.

Here's the message. God's hand is extended out to

you. What will you do with it?

Will you ignore it? Will you slap it away?

Will you come up with your own terms?

And shake his hand on a premise that he did not propose.

Here's what he. Asks of you.

Repent, turn from your sins, and embrace His forgiveness for your

life and in the moment that you genuinely turn not from God, you

turn from your sins and you believe on Him in.

That very second. You'll be justified before God,

just as you have never sinned. You will be redeemed, you'll be

cleansed, and your name will be written in the Lamb's book of

life. And not only.

Do you have something to look forward?

To after this life, but you can walk with your God in this life

and enjoy him until it climaxes where you see him and you.

Get to be with him and his people.

Forever, because death is. Swallowed up in.

Victory. Praise God, let's pray.

Indeed, but we have feasted on your.

Word today. And though there may be some

who. Deny the validity of these truth

claims. I trust that there is not one.

Person who can deny that it is consistent in your word?

That at various stages in. History you have hinted at,

you've made known, you have revealed that you will defeat

death, and those who place their trust and their faith in your

son will also defeat that. And so, Lord, today as your word

went forth, we ask that you would do what no man can do, and

that is to convict and change hearts.

And Lord, for those who have been redeemed and who were here

celebrating what happened to their lives because of what

you've done, we've now come to celebrate you in this final

moment. Receive glory.

Lord, help us never forget the richness of this treasure that

you've made available to us in Jesus name, Amen.

Let's stand. He's in the law, He's in the

prophets, He's in the writings, He's everywhere.

He's the theme of the Bible, He's the theme of the universe,

and he is our King.