The Resurrection of Jesus: Spread the Good News | Pastor William Hixson

for all of them. And we welcome you here

today.

If you're new with us, we've been

studying a series on the resurrection of

Jesus Christ, the physical resurrection

of Jesus Christ. This is basic basic

Christianity, isn't it? And it's

something we should be experts in.

I mean, experts. If there's anything in

the Bible you should know well, it's

about the death, resurre death death,

burial, and resurrection of Jesus

Christ. We should know that backwards

and forwards because everything is based

on that, right? If Christ isn't risen,

our faith is what? Vain. Were yet in our

sins. So the resurrection is absolutely

important for us to know. And it's part

not just for our sanctification and our

edification, but it's also something

very important for our ministry to those

that don't know the Lord. Because part

of being saved is is believing in the

resurrection, right? We don't just

believe in his death for our sins. We

believe that he was raised again for our

justification.

So our Lord's not a private person. He's

a public person. He's the seed of the

woman. He's the seed of David. He's the

son of God. And we we don't just believe

anyone was risen from the dead. We

believe that Jesus Christ, the seed of

David, was raised from the dead. He was

God's appointed one to deal with the sin

problem. So, I'd like to call your

attention to the book of Acts if you

would.

We're doing a couple of things at once

in our church right now. Usually, we do

book studies verse by verse through

books of the Bible, which we're still

doing the book of Jeremiah uh on uh on

Wednesday nights. But uh besides doing

book studies, sometimes we just do a

series just to give our minds a rest and

do something a little different. And so

we're doing two serieses at once. And

one of them is a series on the

resurrection. And so I call your

attention to the book of Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 1 as we begin this morning.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And you're c if you're new with us,

you're catching us in uh midseries.

We've always already had several

messages on the resurrection of Jesus.

Dr. Luke writes, "The former treatise

have I made O Theophilos of all that

Jesus both began both to do and teach."

Luke, Dr. Luke is the writer. He wrote

the Gospel of Luke, which is the former

treatise he's referring to.

And that the book of Luke was all about

what Jesus both began to do and teach.

What's the book of Acts? It's about what

he continues to do and teach.

Are you with me? This is two volume

work.

So the gospel of Luke is what about what

Jesus began to do and to teach.

But the book of Acts, the second volume,

is what the risen Lord Jesus, ascended

Lord Jesus, continues to do and teach.

And so the Lord's working in the world

today, even before his second coming,

he's working every day through the Holy

Spirit, through the church. He's doing

things. He's the head of the church.

And he's sitted at the right hand of

God.

But so he he Luke is referring back to

his former work of 24 chapters and now

he starts another work of 28 chapters to

disciple one guy,

one man,

the lover of God who'd already been

discipled

to a certain degree but was being

discipled more

by Dr. Luke. And how did Dr. Luke

disciple him? 24 chapters of the book of

Luke of the birth, the life, the death,

the resurrection of Jesus. And now

that's and now he's talking about what

Jesus is was dead, but he's alive now

and he's still working. He's still doing

things from the third heaven

until the day which he was taken up

after through the Holy Spirit had given

commandments to the apostles whom he

chosen to whom he showed himself alive

after his passion by many infallible

proofs being seen of them 40 days

speaking of the things pertaining to the

kingdom of God.

And I think we'll sign off right here

for that. And let's have a word of

prayer. Father, we ask your blessing and

grace upon our time together. Accomplish

your purposes, we ask. Amen.

Now, if you were to put a title on my

message,

we one way we could say it is discipling

the disciple.

Discipling the discip. This guy

Theophilus was already discipled by

others and he'd been baptized and he

already knew stuff. You read Luke

Luke 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, he already wasn't ignorant.

But now he's going to learn more. And

that's Matthew 28, right? You go into

all the world, teach all nations. That's

part of it. You teach them and you

baptize them. You teach them again.

Teaching them all things whatever I've

commanded you to the end of of the age.

And so and so here here we can call this

discipling disciple discipled.

and uh uh and and certainly it's going

on.

Um several years ago I preached through

the Gospel of Luke and also the book of

Acts. Actually I reversed it. I preached

through Acts first and then went to

Luke. We spent years and years just on

those two books. So there's an in-depth

study on all of this that we've already

done. My interest this morning is not to

repeat those studies. My interest is not

to go into another book study. My

interest is to dip into this and look at

the resurrection

specifically that's behind everything

else.

And

uh very very important stuff.

And also remember we've been keyed off

Matthew 28 where 11 disciples went and

were met by Jesus. And I believe there

were others there too. 500 at once. And

Jesus said, "Teach all nations." And he

was teaching them to observe all things

whatever I've commanded you and I'm with

you always to the end of the world. What

does the word mate mean? It's a

disciple. It means a learner. A disciple

is a learner.

A disciple is someone who learns things.

A disciper is someone that teaches

someone some things, right?

And the picture here is that those that

have been discipled by the risen Jesus

are discipled all nations. That's a big

that's a big assignment.

Only the disciples can disciple all

nations. It takes a disciple

to disciple another person. It's the

disciples are going to be discipling.

It's those that have been taught that

are going to be doing the teaching. It's

those that have been trained are going

to be doing the training.

It's those that are discipled by Jesus,

the Jesus who has all authority in

heaven and earth that's been given a

universal message to go into all the

world.

There's no place that we shouldn't be

interested in. There's no country,

there's no tribe, there's no people

group

that we shouldn't be interested in.

Uh, none of us would aspire to this. No

one would dare do this unless we have

legitimate authority.

And you're you're going to all nations.

Well, who are you to do that? Well,

Jesus sent me

the one that the one the risen Lord. We

live in a world of empire builders,

don't we? You ever think about that?

Uh remember Nebuchadnezzar isn't this

great Babylon that I built and then you

come another empire building the Persian

Empire and then the Greek Empire and

then the Roman Empire. All these empires

not satisfied what they got. They got to

move out militarily and expand and so

forth. We still got empire buildings

uh empire builders today.

But empires are not just built by

armies. Some are built by philosophers.

Some are built by religions.

Uh there's different religions on the

march. There's different philosophies on

the march. And they want to bend

everybody to their viewpoint.

They're not satisfied with just

believing it themselves. They want

everybody to be like them

and it's their mission.

Uh, is it okay to

take a business internationally? Yeah.

Yeah. Anybody that's traveled knows

there's McDonald's and Wendy's and Pizza

Huts everywhere. There's nothing wrong

with that.

But

uh it's it's it's in the human DNA

to expand

and to grow and to influence beyond

where you are and who you are. We know

that from Genesis chapter 1 where Adam

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

and Eve were very clearly told in the

dominion covenant to uh

I I want you to be fruitful and multiply

and fill the earth.

You got a job. Be fruitful and multiply.

And what are you supposed to do after

that? The earth. Take dominion over it.

Take dominion over the fish of the sea

and the animals of the earth. Take

dominion. That's the dementia covenant.

And but we live in a broken world and

the fall of man has distorted and

damaged that commission in Genesis 1

Genesis 1:26

verse 26.

Uh and the reason we have that dominion

covenant is every human being since Adam

and Eve is born in the image of God.

Isn't that true? Genesis 1:26, the

Genesis 1:26

Godhead said, "Let us create man in our

image, and let those in our image have

dominion over the fish of the sea, the

birds of the air, and the animals of the

earth."

So, we've been created to with a primal

need to expand, to explore, to extend,

to externalize.

But the fall of man has distorted and

damaged that.

We live in a broken world. We live in a

world that's uh uh uh

not in the right relationship with God

and not in the relationship with each

other. Salvation starts working on that.

And the creator stepped in and became

the redeemer and said, "I will build my

church. I'm not just going to fix

people so they can take dominion over

the world of the animals and the

creatures and stuff.

I'm building my church.

So God put that in us to expand,

to explore,

to

take over authority.

But Jesus said, "I've got I'll build my

church and the gates of hell will not

prevail against it." This is a this is a

battle we're going to win. The church is

going to win.

And we know this current planet's going

to burn up according to Revelation

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

chapter 21 and 22 and there's going to

be a new heaven and new earth. But guess

what we'll be doing in that new heaven

and earth. Then we'll be doing after no

more gospel to preach. We'll be

expanding and exploring and and all

kinds of stuff for all eternity.

So it's in our DNA. It's it's something

bound in us. And we're told to be

fruitful and multiply physically. That

command has never been rescended.

People say we don't have we don't

population explosion. We got the

opposite. We don't have enough people.

Look at that's a whole other message.

That's never been rescended. God told

Noah after the flood to be fruitful and

multiply and fill the earth. It's

repeated in the Old Testament. It's

repeated in the New Testament.

But the church is also to spiritually be

fruitful and multiply.

Um,

and we have to have our priorities.

Right. Right.

It's good to have more physical

descendants. We need that.

I did my best. I just made it to four

kids. That kind of multiplied, right?

Whether you have no kids or one kid, you

ought to try. And so uh but there's

something that uh we need to grasp.

Being fruitful multiply has never been

recorded. We've sinned

and but we do have this this deal to uh

spread the gospel.

And if we spread the gospel, we cannot

be tied down with unnecessary things.

Many of you flown in airplanes

and something in if you're flying in an

airplane there's something in an

aircraft

they always you know they do all the

routine where they tell you the mask

comes down and this and that if you have

to exit what leave your luggage

leave your luggage.

Why? Because if you have to get off the

plane, it might blow up and it crash

landing. You You're not trying to drag.

Oh, we open the bin and we get more

luggage and nobody gets out because

somebody's trying to find their luggage.

Leave your luggage. No matter what it

is,

and get out the exit door as fast as you

can. Over the wing, out in front, out in

back. Everybody go. And don't hang

around. Boom.

Leave your luggage.

Some of us have too much luggage.

And God says, "Leave your luggage. Get

on the move for me.

Cut your life down to where you can

learn to live with a little bit less.

Get the gospel out to other people."

And may God help us. Are we willing to

do that?

Do we see that as a priority?

If the plane's on fire and somebody's

trying to get their luggage, is that a

loving thing to do?

I got to get my If the plane's on fire,

I'm I'm out of there. You know, I'm

going to try other people get out, but

I'm not going to drag my try to hold

things up to get my luggage. And if you

don't think that's a problem, just

remember the last time you landed and

everybody stands up and they're trying

to get their luggage and you're waiting

15 minutes to try to get out of the

airplane minimum.

You do that in emergency, you're going

to die.

So the apostles had to customize their

life. Christians have to customize their

life. We can travel light

because we've got a job to do

to get the gospel out. And there's some

things we need to leave behind, if you

will.

And that's really what the book of Acts

is all about.

These people had priorities.

These people, Jesus was building his

church and they knew who they were and

they embraced in faith the risen Christ.

And they were saying, "Our hope is built

on nothing less than Jesus blood and

righteousness." And they were they they

were people who would sell stuff

to help others. They were people who

were sacrificing financial. They were

people sacrificing time, sacrificing

their lives

because it was that important.

How could they do that?

They knew Jesus had risen.

100%.

No question at all in their mind.

None.

You know, if we know Christ is risen and

we know we're going to be risen, then it

kind of changes the way we think about

life here. This life, if one soul's

worth more than the whole world, then I

better see the value of other people and

try to reach them.

The church is built on people who know

Jesus is. The church is uh is uh built

on those who've been uh believed in

Christ and trusted in him. The Bible

says if you confess with your mouth the

Lord Jesus and believe in your heart

that God's raised him from the dead,

you'll be saved.

And so those are basic things.

Now, there are people that are ever

learning and never able to come to the

knowledge of the truth,

but the church is in the truth business.

And it's not a little dabble, do you?

Some of you remember the broker.

It's not a little dabble.

Some churches are based on that.

Little dab will do you. Sermonets for

Christians.

You don't need to be too serious about

them.

Uh but the resurrection of Jesus Christ

is just fills the book of Acts. This

week I just read and I started counting.

How many times is the resurrection

explicitly referred to in the book of

Acts? How many times it it is it

implicitly referred to in the book of

I just was curious about that and I

found multiple cases where it's

explicitly mentioned and also various

cases where it's implied even though

it's not the word resurrection is not

being used

over 30

over 30 times the resurrection is

mentioned explicitly or implicitly in a

book that's 28 chapters long.

So, it's kind of focused on the

resurrection, right?

The book of Acts is very much focused on

the resurrection. It dominates the book

of Acts. And

may God help us

to be dominated with this idea in our

mind and this fact in our mind.

Leon Morris was a Church of England uh

New Testament scholar, Greek scholar,

very prominent fellow

and he said this. We face a problem when

we turn to the gospels. If we

concentrate on what Jesus did and said,

we may overlook the fact that each of

the evangelist is a theologian.

There's the theology of Matthew,

theology of Mark, theology of Luke,

theology of John. They each present the

same material, similar material, but a

little differently, focusing a little

bit.

But we need to see not only what Jesus

said and did, but also how each

evangelist understood what he said.

But then he said this, when we study any

one of the gospels, it's legitimate to

look at the selection of material the

writers made and ask why he made it and

what he means by writing as he did. But

it is Jesus who matters, not the

evangelists.

You can get so caught up in Matthew's

theology, Matthew's approach to the the

Jewish people in the kingdom or Mark's

approach uh on uh uh on service or

Luke's approach or John's approach on

the deity of Christ, you forget what

it's all about.

All of them believe in the resurrection.

All of them are into it.

And when we come to the public ministry

of Jesus, we have only a small

proportion of what Jesus teaching in

life and a disproportionate amount of

information about his death and

resurrection. Right? Most of every

gospel

is heavy on one end. It's like a

tadpole. Someone said every gospel is

like a tadpole. It's big on one end.

There's an awful lot of material on the

last week of Jesus

and it's weighted. Matthew is weighted.

There's more about that than anything

else. There's more about that in Mark

than anything else. There's more about

that in Luke than anything else. You

know a little bit about his birth and

and you know a little bit about his

childhood. You know a little bit about

his three-year ministry, but they're all

heavily weighted on that last week.

Why?

Because all of them, even though they

have a little different emphasis and are

looking at Jesus from a little different

angle, are emphasizing the important

thing is that he died on the cross for

our sins, rose again.

And important to get this now, when you

go to chapter one, and some I didn't

read this far for time sake.

They were one apostle short because

Judas hung himself. You know, he was an

apostate. He wasn't saved. He hung

himself and couldn't live with himself

after he he denied the Lord.

And they had to replace him. And chapter

one is we need we're one apostle short.

So they they they had some what's the

qualities? They have to be with Jesus

from John the Baptist all the way

through.

Right? That's three years.

And all the apostles were baptized by

John before they came to know Jesus.

And so that was a qualification that

they gave. They had to be there the

whole three years because we don't just

believe anyone was raised from the dead.

We remember we believe this certain one

that was virgin born predicted the Old

Testament uh uh ratified by John the

Baptist who baptized him and lived those

three years the perfect life no one's

ever lived. So

there was 120 Christians in Acts chapter

Acts 1 · chapter mention

1 and they they were to be witnesses of

the resurrection but they wanted to get

some they wanted to get they want the

number to be 12 12 tribes of Israel. We

need 12 apostles to stand up and so

forth and so on.

And so they did something very very

interesting.

The people that are apostles have to

have seen the risen Lord and they had to

know it was the risen Lord and not

somebody posing as the

risen Lord.

My wife and I

I won't say wasted because we only watch

about one hour of television

a day usually detective show. Have you

ever been to a detective show? Watch

one. somebody's murdered or somebody's

killed and the detectives and everybody,

they go in and they pull the person's in

the morg and they pull the they pull the

blanket back and say to the mother or

the wife or the uh friend, is this so

and so,

right?

They bring somebody in that they know

knew that person well. They don't bring

somebody in that met them on the street

for five minutes. They bring somebody in

if they've got them. Who's the mother?

Who's the father? Who's the brother or

sister? Who's the one that knew them

over a long period of time? So when they

look at that body, they can say that's

them.

Well, guess what? The people who

preached the resurrection of Jesus knew

Jesus. They were with him for three

years, day and night.

They knew him well.

And yes, the resurrection body of Jesus

was changed. It was a little bit

different. They didn't always recognize

him right away any more than you and I

would recognize people that we didn't

expect to be alive.

But then when they look closely, oh,

that's him. No question.

No question.

And so you got 120 qualified witnesses.

Some are more qualified than others. And

it's the ones that knew him the longest.

That's the ones were with him for John

the Baptist on.

They're the ones who going to stand up

apostles.

Now that brings us to something also

very interesting. He's taught on this

last week.

Nobody in the first century

denied the empty tomb.

Nobody.

The enemies who hated Jesus wanted to

stop the whole thing. They acknowledged

the empty tomb. The believers

acknowledged the empty tomb. Nobody in

the first century

even even thought about saying the tomb

is not empty. We already taught on that.

Both the enemies of Jesus and the

friends of Jesus believed the tomb was

empty.

Two members of the Sanhedrin buried him

in that tomb.

Other members of the Sanhedrin

unbelievers wanted to guard that tomb so

nobody would steal it.

But everybody knew the tim tomb was

empty. Nobody in the first century

denied the empty tomb. The enemies and

the friends agreed on one thing. The

tomb is empty.

Um kind of important.

So the book of Acts is based on the fact

the tomb is empty. The messages keep

saying it's empty

and and so forth. Nobody even argued

about that any much because they're

pretty much agreed on.

Now Dr. Luke has done his homework.

He had time to do it when Paul was in

prison. Uh Dr. Luke had nothing to do.

So he interviewed all the people way

back to Mary

and he got this the everything from I

believe the Virgin Mary about how Jesus

was born and John the Baptist was born

and all of that stuff.

And Luke uh was uh a investigator and a

historian of great ability

and he he even joined Paul in his some

of his missionary journeys. When you

move from Luke in the Gospel of Ma Acts,

you get the we sections. Now Luke is

alone.

So Luke knew some things firsthand, but

he knew other things by people who were

there.

There was a I mentioned this last time,

but Gary Habermass has listed several

people who are experts in archaeology

and New Testament. One was Sir William

Ramsey. He was a 19th century Scottish

archaeologist. He was not a Christian.

He was an archaeologist dealing with

Turkey and and Asia Minor. And uh he

died in 1939, I believe.

But after he investigated

Turkey and the archaeological sites and

Israel, the archaeological sites, he

said, "Luke is a historian of the first

rank. This guy got his tax."

Now, after he realized that, he even

down to the little things, he became a

believer and trusted Christ. and Sherwin

White in you died in 1993. He was an

ancient historian taught at Oxford. He

said for acts the confirmation of

historicity is overwhelming.

It's overwhelming.

Luke was not only accurate, he was

accurate. Accurate.

And Donald Greth who was a New Testament

British scholar in 199 died in 1992.

He said the era has now passed when the

history of the axe can with any

plausibility

be discounted.

Everybody knows Luke was accurate.

Even non-Christians know Luke was

accurate. They might debate about a few

little things here and there, but

basically they said this is amazing.

It's truthful.

Got the mileage right when they're

sailing. here. He's got the towns right.

He's got the distance between the towns.

He's got all that stuff. He's got the

people that were living at the time. He

did his homework.

Now, having said all of that,

Luke was a third generation

person,

but he talked to first generation

followers.

First generation would be who?

John the Baptist parents,

Mary and Joseph.

I'll call them first generation.

Second generation would be apostles.

Well, they were first generation in the

sense they'd been with Jesus since John

the Baptist, but they the apostles were

really kind of second generation. None

of them were hanging out in the manger.

None of them where Jesus was born. Uh

they did know John the Baptist, but

whether they knew his parents, we don't

know. But Mary knew. Mary knew all of

them.

And Mary was his source for the birth of

Jesus. Mary was a source for the birth

of John the Baptist and all that really

early stuff.

And the apostles were his source for the

three years with Jesus.

And then Paul was the source for more

because Luke even traveled with him.

So Luke was what I would call a third

generation uh Christian. The apostles

were second generation uh not second

generation Christian but second

generation witnesses and Elizabeth and

Zachchariah and John the Baptist and

Mary and Joseph were first generation.

Now, I'm old enough to know

I'm

I'm uh I was in Athens when this church

started.

That was over 50 years ago.

So, I was like first generation, second

generation, third generation. I I I span

that.

And so no doubt there were people plenty

of people for Luke to talk to

to know what happened 60 years before

his time or 50 years before.

And plus he's writing inspired

scripture. Now the twel apostles were

replaced. Paul was a baker's dozen

apostle. He was the apostle of the

gentile. He was like number 13. He was a

special apostle to do a special work

that came in later.

When you come to Acts chapter 2, you're

Acts 2 · chapter mention

in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus

was murdered and buried.

City he was crucified and where he was

buried. Peter stood up and preached to

thousands of people who were there for

the day of Pentecost.

And those people were from 17 different

nations.

Jewish people who came to Jerusalem from

17 named places around the Roman Empire.

And they saw the Holy Spirit.

They saw they heard the speaking in

tongues. They heard Peter's message.

They heard all of that. They heard him

quote Psalm 16 and Psalm 110.

And Peter charges the Jewish leadership

with reicide.

What's reicide? You know what homicide

is? Homicide is when you kill a man or a

woman. Homicide.

Reicide is when you kill the king

and Jesus was the king. Oh, deocide

would fit too. They just killed God.

God, man.

So Peter stood up and charged them all

and 3,000 people got saved that day. Got

baptized that day and entered the

church. 3,000 one sermon.

And then in Acts three, they healed the

crippled man. And the church grew to

4,000 or 5,000. Two more 2,000 plus

more. So the church is busting at the

seams. And Peter and John said, "Why are

you looking at us?" said, "We did

something to this guy. Jesus did it.

We didn't do it. Jesus from heaven did

it."

An amazing thing.

So, that's kind of where we are here.

And then you move on. If you turn with

me to Acts 4, verse 33,

Acts 4:33

bear with me just a little bit.

This is speaking of Jerusalem.

With great power gave the apostles

witness of the what? Of the resurrection

of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was

upon them all with great power.

People were selling the farms. They were

selling houses and they were getting

persecuted. People others were losing

their job. They're sharing their goods

temporarily because of the persecution.

And with great power,

the apostles gave witness of the

resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The

authorities kept telling them to stop

and they just kept preaching.

They kept preaching. They didn't stop

just because they were told to stop. In

chapter 5 verse 29, then Peter and the

other apostles answered after they were

told to stop. 529 of Acts,

we ought to obey God rather than men,

the God of of our fathers, raised up

Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a

tree. Him God exalted with his right

hand to be a prince and savior to give

repentance to Israel and forgiveness of

sins. And we're his witnesses of these

things. And so is the Holy Spirit whom

God hath given to them that obey him. So

they just disobeyed the authorities that

had the power of life and death over and

backed them off.

And so if you go to 540, chapter 5:40

to him they agreed. And when they called

the apostles and beaten them, they

commanded they should not speak in the

name of Jesus and let him go.

And they departed from the presence of

the council rejoicing. They were counted

worthy to suffer shame for his name. And

daily, daily, daily, not one day of the

week, every day of the week. Every day

of the week,

daily in the temple and in every house.

They cease not to teach and preach Jesus

Christ. That's intense. I mean, they

didn't even take a day off. Just did it

every day.

Every day.

And so they couldn't kill the Christians

fast enough. Church just started

multiplying, multiplying

more and more.

And you move through the book of Acts

and you see all of these things. Then

Paul gets saved. He was the main

persecutor. He was killing Christians.

That was his thing until the risen Jesus

made it. and immediately went into the

synagogue and preached that Jesus is the

Christ and now the chief enemy of

Christianity has become the chief

promote pro proponent of Christianity.

All of this all the way through the book

of Acts turn with me to Acts 17 just for

time sake because there's plenty of

other verses.

No, stop off in chapter 10 if you will.

Verse 36.

The early church started with Jews, Jews

only, and then they spread out to

Samaritans, half Jews. And now through

the Holy Spirit's guiding, they're going

to full-blooded Gentiles.

I hope that's what we do, right? Reach

the pe to others that are like us. Reach

to people who are a little bit like us,

and then preach to people that aren't

like us at all.

We all got our comfort zones, right?

And uh so may God help us to get out of

our comfort zone. The early church got

out of their comfort zone. Peter did. He

got criticized for you went into

Gentiles and you ate with them. You

can't do that.

There's something wrong with you, Peter.

And but Peter answered, "Well, God's

taught me not to call any man unclean."

And so in Acts chapter 10 verse 36,

Acts 10:36

Peter starts preaching to Cornelius, a

Roman centurion. And I'll go back to

verse 34. You remember the sheet coming

down out of heaven and all the Chinese

food in it? Oh, I mean

uh Mexican food, whatever it was,

Italian food.

Rise, Peter, kill and eat. I've never

eaten anything unclean. I've never had

lobster. I've never had any of that

stuff. I don't eat that stuff. I'm a

good Jew. I obey the food laws.

Finally, God said, "What God has

cleansed, don't call common."

The food laws are over. They had a

temporary purpose.

And you can eat anything now, Peter. But

that's not the real lesson.

Everybody everywhere

needs to hear about Jesus.

Peter was stuck. Sometimes we get stuck,

right? I I talk to people that are like

me.

I don't go too much out of my comfort

zone.

Well, what the Lord was trying to do

with Peter was get him out of his

comfort zone, but not just Peter, the

whole church out of their comfort zone.

A lot of times we talk to people like

us, but we don't talk to people not like

us. especially if they're a Buddhist or

a Muslim or a or something else that I

don't want to get into that discussion.

You're just nervous about it.

And but Peter learned something and if

you look in uh verse 34, he admits it.

10:34 Peter opened his mouth and said,

"Of a truth I perceive God's no

respector of persons.

I've got it all wrong.

I need to dilate my heart.

I need to look at people that are not

like me, that don't eat the way I eat,

and don't live the way I live.

But in every nation, verse 35, he that

fears him and works righteousness is

accepted of him.

The word of God, the word which God sent

to the children of Israel, preaching

peace by Jesus. He's Lord of all. that

word I say you know this is very

interesting Peter wasn't the first

person that told Cornelius about Jesus

that was common knowledge

about Jesus

but Peter preached it Peter applied it

and so he says but in every nation God

is no respector of person and And he

says verse 36, "The word which God sent

unto the children of Israel preaching

peace by Jesus. He's Lord of all." That

word I say, you know. You've heard about

it. I It wasn't done in the corner. You

all know about Jesus. Well, I'm here to

preach Jesus to you. I'm here to

confront you. I'm here to minister to

you and show you there's a door open for

you.

How many people have you ever talked to

and they said, "I can't be saved. I'm

not good enough. God would never accept

me.

because of what I've done. They say

stuff stuff like well Peter says uh very

clearly

verse 37 that word I say you know which

was published throughout all Judea and

began from Galilee after the baptism

which John preached. How God anointed

Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit

with power who went about doing good

healing all that were oppressed of the

devil. For God was with with him. And we

are witnesses of all things which he did

both in the land of Jews and in

Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on a

tree. Him God raised up the third day

and showed him openly, not to all the

people, but to witnesses chosen before

by God, even to us who did eat and drink

with him after he rose from the dead. He

didn't put 40 days on there, but it was

40 days of eating and drinking

with the risen Lord.

It wasn't. Is that him? Might be him.

Now we see him. Now we don't 40 days of

eating with him

after he rose and dead. That's Acts

Acts 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. And he commanded us to preach

to the people and to testify as he who

was ordained by God to be the judge of

the living and the dead. And to him all

the prophets give witness. And through

his name whosoever believes in him shall

receive remission of sins. Sermon over.

The Holy Spirit interrupted it and all

the other people got saved.

Shut up, Peter.

Sermon's over. Service is over.

Everybody's got saved. Now, let's

baptize these people.

Now, was that rude of God to interrupt

Peter's sermon?

Is that what we all want? Is it we all

Is what we all want is for God to turn

the light on for people. I've used this

illustration so many times, but it

happened very early in my life. I I was

I knocked on a man's door back in the

day when you used to do all that and and

uh he let me in. Very nice fellow. And

he he was stuck. He he thought you had

to be he thought you had to be baptized

to be saved. That was his

belief. And so I I thought I'm going to

talk to him a little bit. So I just gave

him John 3:16. And I turned the Bible

John 3:16

around. And I said, "Would you read that

verse and tell me how somebody's saved?"

And so he read John 3:16. For God so

John 3:16

loved the world, he gave his only

begotten son. He read it out loud that

whoever believes in him would not perish

but have everlasting life. And I said,

"How according to that verse, how is

someone saved?" He said, "By being

waterbaptized."

That's what the man said.

He was a Sunday school teacher for 20 or

30 years. I don't remember which one.

Wasn't a young man. So that was kind of

stretched my patience a little bit. I

said, "Would you read that verse again?"

And according to this verse,

how does someone get eternal life?

So he read it out loud and I said,

"According to this verse, how does

someone get everlasting life?" He said

they're being waterbaptized.

Now I was early 20s at that point and I

wanted to be very respectful to this man

who was probably 70.

So I didn't know where to go from now

and I said

but anyway somewhere in the conversation

I talked to him again. I said would you

read that verse again?

tell me according to that person. How

does someone get eternal?

And he read it again. That was all my

conversation with the guy. Just had turn

the Bible around, had him read it and

ask him what it said.

And I kid you not at all by this. It was

like the cartoons where the light bulb

goes on before over someone's head.

His face lit up

and he said, "It's by believing."

And it's by believing.

God turned the light on. I could have

argued with that guy till the horses

come home, you know, to the barn. It

wouldn't have made any difference. But

he he got God and I was praying for it.

God, turn on the lights. And God did

turn on the lights. He got saved.

And I never forgot that because it's not

my arguments. It's not my words. It's

God's spirit that does the work

on people's hearts.

And we can talk to them and they're not

interested and maybe they go away

unbelieving. But if anyone does believe,

it's called the Holy Spirit brings them

to salvation. We're born again, aren't

we? As uh uh by the word of God.

And so that's what happened to that man.

And so as we look at what's going on

here, it says in verse 44, "While Peter

spoke yet spoke these words, the Holy

Spirit fell on all them who heard the

word." Every person in that room got

saved.

Now that's unusual.

That's very unsaved

and some don't. In this case, everybody

got saved in that room. He'd invited all

his friends and family and fellow

soldiers and stuff. And

so, uh, it's a fascinating business

here.

And so, while Peter verse 44 spoke these

words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them

who heard the word. And they of the

circumcision who believed, that's the

people that came with Peter to the

meeting, were astonished.

astonished as many as came with Peter

because on the Gentiles also was poured

out the gift of the Lord.

What?

So all those people got their minds

expanded, their theology got uh

challenged of the of how they were

looking at things or they heard them

speak with tongues and magnify God. Then

answered Peter, "Can any man forbid

water that these should not be baptized

who receive the Holy Spirit as well as

we?" And he commanded them to be

baptized in the name of the Lord. Then

asked they him to t certain days. So by

the way, there's four reasons for the

speaking in tongues in the Bible.

A whole other lesson, right?

And one of them is to identify new

people

that are going to be added to the

church.

And that's how the Holy Spirit was

identifying in the book of Acts. He did

it with the Samaritans. Oh, they're in

now. He did it with the Gentiles. Now

they're in. You don't need it after that

because all the groups are in. The

world's made up of Jews, half Jews,

Samaritans, and Gentiles. And so here it

was. And God was clearly leading in that

business.

Fascinating thing. Now we go on. We go

on in the book of Acts, Acts 25, Acts

26, Acts 28. Explicitly and implicitly

they're talking about the resurrection

of Jesus Christ.

And

the church is the butterfly that came

out of the Jewish cocoon.

Right? The church is the butterfly that

came out of the Jewish cocoon.

No cocoon, no butterfly.

God had a purpose for the Jew, the

Jewish people, right? And that his

purpose for them goes beyond the church.

That's a whole other subject. But the

church owes uh the program of God

through the Jewish people. The church

owes a big debt to that.

We should never forget that. And the

gospel was to the Jew first and then to

the what? The Gentiles. God had a

program. God had a and he he had a

long-term program.

And we now 2,000 years later of church

history, it's still gone on. God's

saving people all over the place

that know nothing, know little,

and it's all because Jesus arose from

the dead. Now, there's other purposes

for Israel. That's a whole other

subject. I believe their physical return

to the land is a political resurrection

that is also a confirmation of the

Bible.

And that's a whole other subject. Go

with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

And I'll close.

If you want to understand the

resurrection of Jesus,

if you want to understand what the early

church believed,

if you want to understand what

resurrection is and is not, you need to

study this chapter 58 verses. You want

to understand how it applies, that we'll

be risen from the dead, place you ought

to live in light of it, how absolutely

uh assured we are of these truths. And I

would remind you that 1 Corinthians was

written 13 years before Luke's gospel.

In our Bible, Matthew, Mark, and Luke,

and John record things that happened

before the missionary journeys to the

Gentiles, but they were written after

that time.

So, they're chronologically before, but

the written record is after. First

Corinthians is earlier than Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John as far as the

writing of the document is concerned.

They didn't have to write it for many

years because there's so many people

alive that knew all the stuff.

They started dying off. They started

writing the four gospels.

But in 1 Corinthians, Paul says,

"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you

the gospel which I preached to you,

which you've received and in which you

stand, by which you're saved, if you

keep in memory what I preached to you,

unless you believed in vain. For I

delivered to you first of all that which

I received, that Christ died for our

sins according to the scriptures. Then

he was buried and rose again the third

day according to the scriptures. He was

seen of Cphus, that's Peter, then the

twel, and after that he was seen of

above 500 brethren at once, of whom the

greater part remained to this present

time, but some are fallen asleep. After

that, he was seen of James. That's

Jesus's half-brother. Then of all the

apostles, and last of all, he was seen

of me as one born out of due time. I'm

the least of the apostles. I'm not fit

to be called an apostle because I

persecuted the church of God. But by the

grace of God, I am what I am. And his

grace which was bestowed upon me was not

in vain. But I labored more abundantly

than they all. Yet not I, but the grace

of God which is in me. Therefore,

whether it were I or they, so we preach,

and so you believe. I just want to say

this just without getting into it.

The Corinthian church got mixed up. They

were mixing Greek philosophy and the

gospel

and they believed that Jesus was risen

from the dead. But they believed they

weren't going to be

Greeks didn't Greek Greek culture and

Greek philosophy thought the

resurrection wasn't possible or

desirable.

That's what Greek philosophy did.

why Paul was mocked when he went into

Athens, Greece.

So the Corinthian church, they did not

deny the physical resurrection of Jesus

from the dead. If you deny that, you're

not a Christian. They were Christians.

But they didn't understand how Jesus's

resurrection demanded their own

resurrection. Do you understand that?

This is important. And what Paul is

saying, the one can't happen without the

other happening.

You can't stay in the grave any more

than Jesus did. If you're a believer,

you're going to be resurrected

because you are united to him, his

person and work.

That's a comfort. Don't let anybody rob

you of that.

And so Paul goes on and he says in verse

12, "Now if Christ be preached that he

rose from the dead, how say some among

you there's no resurrection from the

dead?" You How do you even think that's

possible?

It's inconsistent. It's incoherent.

But if there be no resurrection of the

dead, then Christ is not risen. And if

Christ be not risen, then our preaching

is vain, and your faith is also vain.

Yay. And we're found false witnesses of

God, because we testified of God, that

he raised up Christ, whom he raised not

up. If so be that the dead rise not.

Therefore, if the dead rise not, then is

not Christ raised. And if Christ be not

raised, your faith is vain. You're yet

in your sins, then they also who are

fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

For if in this life only we have hope in

Christ, we are of all men most

miserable. So he's saying, "Your

theology is so inconsistent, you better

get better get a a better grasp of what

happened."

Jesus is not a private person. He's a

public person. Adam was not a private

person. He was a public person. What

Adam did affected the whole human race.

What Jesus did affects everybody that

believes in him. There's two Adams.

There's the first Adam and there's the

last Adam, right? 1 Corinthians 15,

Romans chapter 5. There's no third Adam.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

That Korean

cultist says he's the third Adam.

Yeah. No. No way. You're the third Adam.

There is no third Adam.

There's the first Adam, the federal head

of the human race, and in Adam all die.

And Jesus is the last Adam, not the

second.

He's the last. In Christ, all that's all

that are in Christ will be made.

It's impossible for a Christian's body

to stay at the grave.

As we're reunited with Jesus,

we will be risen

to be with him

based on our good works. based on his

work. And Paul's just rearranging their

theology so they could think straight.

Saved people sometimes get mixed up.

Saved people sometimes let something

else influence them besides God's word.

And this there's a whole church is mixed

up

because they were listening to their

culture and their philosophical

background more than they knew the

Bible. And you know what? That's a

problem in America. We live in an

atheistic materialistic

uh culture.

Philosophically reduces everything to

matter.

They don't understand there's other

things in life besides

physical existence.

And so we need we have the same problem

the early Greeks had in our culture. And

we can get mixed up. I was kind of mixed

up in college.

Stuff I did in college. I got very mixed

up. Too many philosophy courses.

I had 30 some philosophy courses besides

my major.

So Christians can get confused

and they were confused not on a little

thing but a very big thing.

We need to immerse oursel in scripture.

We need to be soaked in the Bible.

We need to become Bible readers and

Bible students.

And some of hardly read their Bible.

Well, then if you don't, then your mind

is filled with what the culture says. We

have to fill it with what God has said.

And so this is very, very important. And

we have an effect in history. It's

called the coming of Jesus Christ.

Every effect has to have a cause.

Every effect must have a cause. The

church is the effect. The cause is Jesus

Christ. There'd be no church if Jesus

was dead.

If Jesus was dead in the tomb, whether

somebody stole the body or burned the

body or anything else, if he didn't rise

from the dead, there'd be no church. I

know the church is corrupt in many

places. We understand that. Bible

predicts that. We're not defending

everything out there that says it's a

church or Christianity, but that I'm

saying there's a church in the world

today

because Jesus arose from the dead.

You know, there were other people back

in the first century, second century,

third century that said they were Christ

and they died. Some even said they'd

rise from the dead. How many have heard

of them?

How many followers they got now?

Nothing.

Do you know there were 40 false messiahs

in early history? That's a lot.

How many of them could you name?

You say, "I haven't heard of any of

them." You know why you haven't heard of

any of them?

They were false.

They were discovered to be false. They

predicted things that didn't happen.

One, a couple of them even said, "On the

third day, they were imitating Jesus. On

the third day, I'll rise from the dead."

Well, it didn't happen. They were still

dead.

So, it's a wonderful thing to know that

the church

is based on the empty tomb and built on

the risen Christ.

And the church is here because Jesus was

here.

History can't forget him.

History cannot ignore him.

How many people lived 2,000 years ago

are still affecting the world today? Not

too many.

And Jesus more than any other.

So we have all this truth that's so just

amazing. Every effect has to have a

cause and but you have to know the real

cause, right? Not just guess it. And so

hopefully this has been a little bit

helpful to you as we think about the

resurrection of our Lord and the church

of Jesus Christ and how things just

exploded.

It didn't stay in Israel.

It didn't stay in the Jewish cocoon. It

expanded like if you throw a pebble in a

pond and just the ripples kept coming

out and out.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the utter

parts of the earth. We're in the utter

parts.

We're in the utter parts. Think about

where we live.

Think about how far away from first

century we live and the gospels come to

us. Forgive

me for using old illustrations, but

we've been at church as long as I have.

You kind of just use some of the same.

My dad was in the Pacific in World War

II. He was a medic in World War II in

the Pacific Island, different islands.

And in one of the islands,

uh, he was on some islands where

fighting was happening. He was also on

some other islands where they're just

staging things. And one of the islands

was uh Tonga.

It was a staging area. You go there

first and then you go other places. And

he had different experiences there. But

uh uh and then I I looked on the map and

I saw where Tonga was and I saw where

the other islands dad was on and I said,

"Dad, guess what? Jerusalem's over here

on a globe and Tonga and Waka and

Boganville and uh New Calonia. New New

Calonia. you are all over here. I said,

"Dad, you were in the uttermost parts of

the earth. You were completely you were

as far away from Jerusalem as you could

get."

And my dad was a Christian went to a

little Methodist chapel

on one of those islands

and there were Christians there.

Christians

that far from Jerusalem.

And dad told me the testimony of a guy

that used to be a cannibal. And he said,

'I used to eat people, but now I'm

saved. I don't do that anymore.

So there were people who were saved that

far away from Jerusalem.

That is worldwide. That's a worldwide

ripple.

That's a worldwide effect.

And so if you don't know the Lord as

your savior, you can be like the Jews.

You can be raised in a bibleelving place

and still not know the Lord. Be ignorant

of the Lord. Being the scriptures,

but God can save your soul.

The gospel is the power of God to

salvation

to everyone that believes to the Jew

first and then to to the what? The

Greek. You can come to the Lord today.

And I hope this whole resurrection

stuff, there's much more to be said on

the resurrection thing. I'm going to

take a break from it because we've been

several weeks on it. Probably go back to

great text series for a little bit. Then

we'll move on back to the resurrection.

But these are important things. These

are bas

Christianity. This is basic stuff.

Father, we thank you for your goodness

and mercy. Accomplish your purposes in

our lives as we wait upon you. We thank

you for the resurrection of Jesus

Christ. And Psalm 22 mentioned the

people from other countries around the

world that would be saved because of the

resurrection of the Messiah.

And here we are so far away.

And we know about it just like Psalm 22

predicted.

The same psalm that predicted the holes

in his hands, forsakenness

at the cross, his death,

and his resurrection. Predicted that the

whole world's going to hear it. And here

we are 2,000 years later.

What confirmation.

So bless us and work in our we pray in

Jesus name.

>> Then turn to page 644.

We'll write in 6:45

loving you more,

trusting you more.

May the power of your love and the light

of your word shine to a sin darkened

world. As we go from this place,