The Resurrection of Jesus: Does it Matter Today | Pastor William Hixson

draw your attention back to Matthew 28.

It's uh

just a launch pad for our message this

morning, but it reminds us of our study

on the resurrection

of our savior.

If there's any area of the Bible

Christians should be very familiar with

and very competent in, it ought to be

the resurrection of Christ.

If Christ isn't risen, our preaching is

vain. We got nothing. Our faith is vain.

We got nothing.

So we we should be wellversed

well uh saturated with the truth about

the resurrection both for our own

sanctification both for our own

progression and ability to minister and

but also that we can benefit other

people that don't know about our Lord.

So it's a very important subject. It's a

very practical subject because it it

enables us to minister to other people.

There's so many people totally ignorant

on this subject.

Totally ignorant. Some of them are in

churches. Some have never went to

church, but they don't know hardly

anything about. And so our job is to

minister to them in such a way not to

overwhelm them or not to impress them

with how much we know and they don't

know but in a way that can be helpful to

them.

So in Matthew chap 28 19

and I I'll repeat what Dr. Witkim said.

He even wrote a little booklet on this.

There's three parts to the great

commission not two.

In American lightweight evangelism, uh,

ministry tends to emphasize the first

and second.

Teach them and baptize them.

That's about it.

There's three parts, not two.

So, it says in Matthew chapter 28

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

and verse 18, Jesus came and spoke to

them, saying, "All authority is given me

in heaven and earth. Go you therefore

and teach all nations." That's part one.

Teach all nations.

Pan out. Teach all nations. Don't clump

together. Teach all nations. Church

tradition says Matthew went to Ethiopia

himself.

We don't even know about that. We know

about the salvation of Ethiopian unic,

but we don't know about Matthew's

ministry there.

So, uh, but anyway, the apostles fanned

out. And so it's important for churches

to be willing to fan out to lose people

to the mission field. You got to lose

people. That's a good way to lose them.

And so go you therefore and teach all

nations, baptizing them in the name of

the father, the son, and the holy

spirit. So obviously part of the

teaching is teaching on

the tri triunity of God. That's pretty

heavy stuff,

the deity of Christ.

And uh so that all that happens and

salvation through to through the work of

the son of god and the spirit of god. So

go therefore be teaching all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the

father, the son, the holy spirit. And

then what happens? Third, more teaching,

liflong teaching.

I I've been teaching book studies on the

Bible my whole life.

Well, my whole life since 22.

But one of the things I found is I think

I know this book, taught this book

before, taught it two or three times

before.

Had to start teaching it again and

I'm learning new stuff.

I'm sure you see have the same

experience when you're Bible reading. I

didn't see this the first time. I didn't

see this the first 10 times. I didn't

see this the first 20 times. Why didn't

I see that before?

Bible reading is important. Bible study

is important. teaching them to observe

all things whatsoever I've commanded

you. And lo, I'm with you always, even

to the end of the age. So that's our

text.

Again, this text is a launchpad. It's a

launchpad.

And in contrast to American

Christianity, which many people have

described it in the 20th century and

21st century as a mile wide, an inch

deep.

That's not a compliment.

Not a compliment.

Now, as we look at this particular

section,

let's quickly just introduce some

problems in American Christianity.

Every country, every area of the world

has a slightly different problem. Uh

false religion,

superstition,

government oppression, all kinds of

stuff. What does America have? What's

America had in the last hundred years?

To dilute Christianity.

There's a satanic effort in America to

dilute American Christianity.

Um,

part of the problems is America is that

uh is liberalism has infected American

churches for over 100 years.

Liberalism is not

an alternative to biblical Christianity.

Liberal Christianity, I'm not talking

about politics now. Talking liberal

Christianity is not Christianity.

James Gisham man who taught at Princeton

Seminary when it was good and got kicked

out because of his writings against

liberalism wrote a great book on

Christianity and liberalism. You can

still buy it. It was written in the 30s.

And liberalism is not a legitimate

alternative to Christianity.

Conservative Christianity believes in

the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the

inspiration of the Bible, salvation by

grace. Liberalism denies all those

things.

But it's taken over church buildings,

church seminaries, and blah blah. You

know, all that.

Paul said in Galatians chapter 1, this

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

is inspired scripture.

If any I'm con I'm

I'm astonished that you're so so early

deserting him who called you to the

grace of Christ and turned to another

gospel.

Liberalism is another gospel. It's

another of a different kind gospel.

Heteros, it's not another of the same

kind. Allos, two different words, Greek

words for another there.

And so there are things that call

themselves Christian that are not

Christian. They think they're Christian,

they're not Christian.

uh the new evangelical movement in

America in the 1940s up to the 60s

especially said, "You fundamentalist,

you're fighting the liberals and you

you're so harsh and you're dealing with

them and uh you're separated from them.

We're going to do something new."

Instead of the old evangelism that made

a clear division between liberalism and

real Christianity, we're going to do

something new. We're going to go back

and infiltrate the liberal churches and

invite the liberal pastors onto our

platforms

and we're going to take them over.

How did that work?

>> Now, there were some good Christians

involved in that. Billy Graham was a

leader of that. Donald Gay Barnhouse was

a leader of that. Some very good people.

They thought we'll take them over.

And no doubt a lot of good was done by

that movement, but there was a lot of

bad done. Churches got watered down.

American Christianity has not recovered

from that.

The old not that the old evangelism that

separated from liberals were perfect.

Some of those people were a little too

nasty, too sharp. I understand that. But

it was an overreaction.

And we've got to remember what the

Apostle Paul wrote. A little leaven

leavenvens the whole lump. Pretty

simple. Every woman ought to understand

that, right? A little leaven yeast

leavenvens the whole lump. Leaven is

yeast.

Just eat a little bit and then the whole

thing is effective.

So the the strategy of going in and

taking over is a communist

strategy,

not a Christian strategy. I'm not

calling the new evangelicals communist.

I'm simply saying there's a similarity

of strategy.

And so uh but the new evangelical

movement further weakened Christianity

in my opinion. And there's been many

books, history books written on that,

historians and stuff. it did not work

well.

Um,

so as we think about that,

I'm going to mention a third, make some

people mad with this. This was a

Christian movement, very popular about

20 years ago. The seeker sensitive

movement

has destroyed

churches.

I'm not saying there wasn't some good

books. There was some things in that

book that was written. But people, the

churches immediately adopted that.

Scheler is not a good mo model.

He wasn't this, he wasn't the founder of

the seeker sensitive movement, but the

seeker sensitive movement founder

followed his techniques.

Oh, we got to make all non-Christians

extremely comfortable when they come to

church.

We're going to emphasize evangelism so

much that that's what we do on Sunday

morning.

Now, that leaves God out. That leaves

God's worship out. That leaves edifying

the church out, the work of the

ministry. We've got to dumb it down so

everybody enjoys themselves

and feels okay about it.

And as somebody said, it's there's a

difference between entertaining the

goats and feeding the sheep.

So those those last two were Christian

movements. You understand what I'm

saying? We're not saying the last two

were liberals or non liberals are

non-Christians. They don't believe the

basics of the faith although they call

themselves Christians. New evangelicals

and the secret sensitive people were

Christians.

But the combination of the three

has weakened American Christianity

incredibly.

Our ancestors wouldn't recognize it.

Um,

Christianity has been diluted.

You know what diluted is? It's a weaker

version of itself. It can be real but

diluted.

Someone recently, I won't say who, gave

me a concoction to drink and they said,

"Here, Bill, this all be good for you.

It's uncooked crushed garlic and honey."

So, wanting to go along, I took a whole

tablespoon. Well, that hit my stomach

like a rock.

I hope it did me some good.

I like garlic. I like honey.

But I didn't like crushed gut crushed uh

garlic and honey so much that I didn't

go for another glass of water to dilute

that thing was in my stomach. Sometimes

you need to dilute stuff.

Sometimes diluting is good.

Other times not so good.

Now, how does this fit into Matthew 28?

Matthew 28

is a section that especially that third

part. You're teaching the whole council

of God. Teaching them to observe all

things that I've commanded you. Not some

things, not the palable things, not the

easy things, not the things everybody

agree on. All things.

Every church ought to be attracting some

people and

upsetting other people. Want to be like

that.

And so that's the model for ministry and

disciplehip.

And disciplehip teaching them all things

was not a little thing to the early

church. All you got to do at look at

Luke chapter the book gospel of Luke and

the book of acts were written to one

person theophilos and he was in a

disciplehip program. He'd already been

taught and baptized but now he's getting

taught more. So you you need a little

more uh and uh here's 24 chapters of

Luke and 28 chapters of of Acts. That

was their disciplehip program and a

little booklet. to the biggest books in

the New Testament.

They took it seriously.

Now you say, "Are you a fundamentalist?"

You bet I am. But that's a bad word

today. That's a bad word.

Is it a bad word to believe in a coach

teaching the fundamentals of basketball?

Is it a bad word for a coach to teach

the fundamentals of baseball? Is it a

bad word for a coach to teach the

fundamentals of football or tennis or

golf or the swim team?

Obviously, you might be very talented.

You might have incredible abilities, but

if you don't know the fundamentals,

you're not going to be as good as you

can be.

So, the term fundamentalism is something

that started in the beginning of the

20th century for Christians said, "These

are the fundamentals. We believe in the

deity of Christ. We believe in the

virgin birth. We believe in the

inspiration of the Bible. We believe in

the second coming of Christ fundamentals

and uh the teaching of the churches for

the to teach the Christians for the work

of the ministry for the edifying of the

body of Christ. Now

here's a fundamental

the empty tomb.

You said you talked about this a little

bit last time. Yeah, but I just touched

on it. You're going to get you're going

to get the full dose this morning,

the empty tomb. Our subject is the

resurrection of Christ.

And the Bible says Christ died for our

sins according to the scriptures. He was

buried and he rose again the third day

according to scriptures. 1 Corinthians

15, the first four verses. And the

gospel definitely is that Christ of the

seed of David rose again uh from the

dead. Uh so the empty tomb of Jesus is

important not just on Easter but is

extremely extremely important. As the

angel said to the women, he's not here.

He's risen.

There was no guessing about what

happened to the body of Jesus. The empty

tomb was explained after it was

discovered by the angel. He's not here.

He's risen.

And then when Jesus appeared, well,

obviously the explanation of the angel

was found to be credible.

He's not here. He is risen.

Now, there's an awful lot of things in

life that if they're empty, it's bad.

Have you ever gone to store with the

empty wallet?

Put all the groceries up there and you

grab your wallet and uh Oh, I forgot I

took that $100 bill out and I spent it.

You got to grab the credit card. Or if

you didn't have a credit card with you,

now you got to now you're really

embarrassed. Can you put these aside?

I'll go home and get my money.

An empty wallet's a bad thing. An empty

checking account is a really bad thing.

An empty savings account is a bad thing.

Somebody robbed me. Somebody scammed me.

Uh, an empty swimming pool is a bad

thing.

Somebody thinks it's full of water and

they sneak over the fence and jump in

and get hurt.

And Ruth was told to not go back to her

mother-in-law empty. We don't want to

discourage her by an empty uh an empty

basket. Uh she's had enough trouble.

Don't go back empty. Let's load her up.

Um

in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus

Christ, the Lord when he died, his

commended his spirit to the Lord. Lord

into your hands I commit my spirit left

his body

in resurrection. The human spirit comes

back and returns to the body it left.

By the way, that's what's going to

happen when you get resurrected.

Your human spirit, if you're a Christian

that died, went to heaven, when you get

resurrected, your whole human spirit's

coming back to your body.

That's resurrection.

For the spirit returns to the dead body.

The Lord's spirit turned back to his

dead body and his dead body was now

alive.

The body without the spirit is dead.

But the body with the spirit is alive.

That's a biblical concept.

And as the hymnwriter said, up from the

grave he arose with a mighty

triumphorous pose. He arose a victor

over the dark domain and he lives

forever with his saints to reign.

Now, as you compare gospel accounts in

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

I think most of you know this. The angel

didn't open the stone, roll the stone

away so Jesus could get out. He was

already gone.

Um, when he was risen, when he died, his

spirit went to heaven. When he when he

was risen, his spirit came out back,

rejoined his body in the tomb, and Jesus

went through the roof.

Went through the roof of the tomb. Yes.

As he went through walls and doors when

he appeared, the resurrection body has

capacities and abilities that the

non-resurrection body does not have. It

is a physical body. It's actually the

same body

changed.

Say, "How can I believe that? Do you

believe in butterflies?

>> What did they used to be? You would

never see what they are and what they

were.

So our Lord and and the resurrection is

something you can't be saved if you

don't believe it. Romans chapter n 10

verse 9 to13 is very clear. 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. But what if you don't confess

that? What if you don't believe that?

Then you're not saved. You might say

you're saved, but you're not saved.

This is very important. This is not a m

minor thing. When you give people John

John 3:16

3:16, don't leave out the resurrection.

I gave them the gospel, told them Christ

died for their sins. You didn't give the

whole gospel. He rose again.

I got saved on John 3:16. I'm thankful

John 3:16

for that. But I'm saying I knew about

the resurrection. But uh but you know,

we sometimes we assume people know more

than they know.

Um

are the JW saved?

Jehovah witnesses. I know an awful lot

of JWS

in my life. I spent hours and hours

talking to a whole group of them once.

It was about it was about 15 to 1

till 4 in the morning. Had a great time.

Nice people. Serve me donuts.

He ate donuts all night.

But they're not saved people. They can

be saved,

but if you don't believe in the deity

Christ, you're not saved. Just not

saved.

Um,

you know, if you don't believe in the

resurrection of Christ, you're not

saved. You know what JWs believe about

the resurrection of Jesus's body? They

believe his body was vaporized in the

tomb.

Vaporized is not resurrected.

I suppose a body can be resurrect. I

suppose a body can be vaporized. They

vaporize is not resurrected.

Um,

are Muslims saved? Is it possible for a

Muslim as a Muslim to be saved? I'm not

saying you say, "Well, I believe in

God." Well, okay. They believe in Jesus.

Yeah, they believe he was a prophet.

They don't believe he was the Messiah.

They don't believe he's God.

And you know what? They don't even

believe that Jesus died.

They don't believe it's possible for a

prophet to die like Jesus died. I wonder

what happened to their Ayatollah. That

changes their mind. He didn't have an

easy death.

But their doctrine is a prophet like

Jesus could never die

and so God wouldn't kill him. So they

believe that that um he didn't die. And

it was either Judas or Simon of Sereni

that really died, not Jesus.

They do not believe that a prophet of

God could be killed in such a terrible

way.

So they cannot they don't believe in the

death of Jesus at the cross of Calvary.

They don't believe in the resurrection

of Jesus because they don't believe he

died.

They deny basic Christian truth.

And so they can't be saved.

Um,

so very important stuff here. Very, very

important stuff. Are so-called liberal

Christians saved?

Maybe some of them because people can be

very inconsistent.

Depends on what you're inconsistent on.

Again, I'm not talking about politics.

that if you don't believe in the deity

of Christ and the physical resurrection

of Christ and his death for your sins,

you're not saved.

In Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

on the day of Pentecost,

there was a public announcement

to the Jewish people

who were gathered in Jerusalem for the

day of Pentecost from all over the

world. Normally Jerusalem was what about

a population of 50,000 people at that

time. That swelled on the Passover uh

when Jesus was killed and then it

swelled at Pentecost 50 days later. It

was another holy day. Jews would come in

from all the countries. You've read Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2.

And that day of Pentecost was a very

important day.

And that was the day that the church

announced to the world

publicly

the resurrection of Jesus.

They were told not to talk about it, not

to announce it uh until

uh the power came from them on high by

the Holy Spirit. So they waited and

waited and waited, prayed and prayed and

prayed. And then on Pentecost, the 120

Christians gathered there. The apostles

were there. The mother of Jesus was

there. Jesus's brothers were there who

now become Christians because Jesus

appeared to them

and they changed their mind completely

and all of and they had a replacement

from Judas. Remember that election. So

turn with me to Acts chapter 2 and verse

Acts 2 · chapter mention

22.

Now you know what happened before this.

The Emmys decided that there were they

were going to start a lie

and the guards went and told them what

happened. The angel and all the opening

of the tomb and they said, "Well, we'll

give you money. Tell them the disciples

came and stole the body."

And Matthew records that lie. It was

still going on when the Gospel of

Matthew was written

about 30 years later. was still going on

in Acts 2:22.

Acts 2:22

But I'm not I I know the Sanhedrin

didn't announce the the so-called

resurrection. They were keeping things

quiet. That's the last thing they want

to have on their agenda was to defend

themselves.

So Peter stands up in Acts 2:22. You men

Acts 2:22

of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of

Nazareth, a man approved of God among

you by miracles, wonders, and signs,

which God did by him in the midst of

you, as you selves also know. But nobody

denies that. Nobody can even think about

denying that.

Him being delivered by the determined

counsel and fornowledge of God, you've

taken and by wicked hands have crucified

and slain. Now, there's nothing polite

about what Peter says there.

You people are wicked.

You did a wicked thing. You killed your

Messiah. You killed your God,

the God man

with wicked hands have crucified and

slain whom God raised up having loosed

the pains of death because it was not

possible he should be held by it. Now

it's all out in the open.

Now, I'm sure rumors were going all over

the city. I'm sure people were talking.

How could you not talk,

but now it's all public.

It's not just public in Jerusalem. It's

public in a way that'll go back to all

these other cities all over the world.

And he said, "For David speaks

concerning him." That's King David.

something in their own Bibles written a

thousand years before any were born. I

foraw the Lord always before my face for

he's on my right hand therefore I'll not

be moved therefore did my heart be

rejoice and my tongue was glad for over

my flesh will rest in hope because

you'll not leave my soul in Hades

neither will you allow your holy one to

see corruption thou hast made known to

me the ways of life thou shalt make me

full of joy in thy countenance now

that's David's psalm in Psalm 16 and

that last part of that is a prediction

of the Messiah's resurrection

Men and brethren, let me freely speak to

you of the patriarch David, that he is

both dead and buried, and his suppler is

with us even today.

David's dead. David's still dead. His

body still in his tomb. David's tomb's

not empty, but Jesus tomb is.

That's what he's going to say. David's

not writing about himself. He's writing

about the Messiah.

Therefore, being a prophet and knowing

that God has sworn with an oath to him

that of the fruit of his loins according

to the flesh he would raise up Christ to

sit on his throne. He seeing this before

spoke of the resurrection of Messiah

that his soul was not left in Hades,

neither his flesh did see corruption.

This Jesus hath God raised up whereof

were all witnesses.

So Peter started with scripture.

Earlier the book of Joel was quoted to

explain the speaking in lang foreign

languages they'd never learned. And now

the Psalm 16 is quoted to explain the

empty tomb

and the resurrection.

I would have liked to seen the faces of

the Sanhedrin when he did this.

Peter goes on

verse 32, "This Jesus is God raised up

wherever we're all witnesses." So we're

we're putting the scriptural

witness before our witness.

Thousand years ago, God predicted. Now

he's brought it to pass. And we've seen

it. We know it's done. We got the Bible

on our side. And we got

120 witnesses.

There's 120 of them, right? 12 apostles,

but there was 120 besides that.

That's more than enough to make a

decision right and wrong, truth or

falsehood according to Old Testament

law. You need two or three witnesses.

They had much more than that.

Therefore, being at the right hand of

God, exalted, and having received from

the Father the promise of the Holy

Spirit, he, that's Jesus, has shed forth

this which you now see and hear. For

David's not ascended into heaven, but he

says himself, the Lord said to my Lord,

now we're Psalm 110, sit at your right

hand to your foes make I make your foes

a foottool. Therefore,

application,

let all the house of Israel know

assuredly that God has made that same

Jesus whom you crucified Lord and

Christ.

What a powerful, wonderful sermon.

So, uh,

the people obviously are just shocked

when they heard this. They were

pricricked in their heart.

That's what the Bible's meant to do.

Poke you in the heart.

Prick you in the heart. You know what a

prick is. I get I get shots every week

for my allergies. You know, two in this

arm, one in that arm. I get three three

pricks.

I get poked three times every You know

what a prick is? You can feel it.

They were pricricked in the heart, which

meant they felt it.

This went right into their heart.

from heart to heart.

That's the way preaching should take

place.

And so basically, Peter says he's risen.

He's not in his tomb. David's in his

tomb, but Jesus is in his. He, by the

way, he's at the right hand of God.

That's where he is. He's not walking

around now. He's left. He's at the right

hand of God. He shed forth this that you

now see and hear. He's not with us

anymore. He's in the third heaven. He's

sovereign.

He will sit on David's throne in the

future, but he's seated at the right

hand of God now in heaven.

God raised him up. You crucified him.

Now, the enemies of Jesus have got this

story that they want to spread. The

disciples stole the body.

Maybe they already spread it before

Pentecost. I don't know. Maybe they just

kept quiet, hoped everything would blow

over. I don't know.

But the Christian said, "Nope, there's

another explanation.

God raised him up."

So,

proof that the the tomb is empty, he is

gone, and he's at the right hand of God.

And this supernatural phenomena of

people to speak in languages they've

never learned proves it.

because nobody else is doing it here,

only the Christians.

So in spite of the cleverness of the

Jewish leadership who murdered him uh to

keep the body in the grave, in spite of

the Roman guards guarding it to keep it

from being stolen or disappearing, the

tomb is empty. And even when they tell

the lie that the guard said that they

the disciples came and stole the body

while we slept. Not a very good lie.

Nobody knows what happened when they're

sleeping.

Right.

I had a good night's sleep last night. I

rarely have a good night's sleep. I

think I got eight hours. Maybe maybe

seven, but it was pretty good. Only woke

up once.

But I'll guarantee you, I don't know

anything when I was sleeping.

So if the guards are sleeping, none of

them would know what happened.

So that isn't even a good lie.

You know, the alternatives to the

resurrection and explanations people

give are very, very feeble.

They don't even come close to being able

to refute it.

modern scholarship is backing away from

many of the positions it held a hundred

years ago or even 40 years ago. It's

just like they're backing away. We can't

defend this anymore. We used to say this

was couldn't be true and that couldn't

be true. They're backing away. They're

backing away. They're backing away. They

got less and less that they can say

against it. It's fascinating. And

they're not not that they want to, they

just intellectually have to.

It's a fascinating experience to study

it.

I've got three volumes on the

resurrection by Gary Habermas. He's an

expert on the subject, the Christian

expert, teaches at Liberty University.

And uh each of those volumes is over a

thousand pages. And I'm not talking

little pages. They're big big.

He gives 38 pages to the empty tomb.

And he's quoting person after person and

person is commenting on it. And it's

very fascinating

uh is he he looks about these arguments

cited by critical scholars in favor of

the historicity of the empty tomb. Now

you even got non-Christians, atheists

saying, "Yeah, the tomb was empty. They

can't even defend it anymore. That part

they can't even defend." Some are still

trying, but it's pretty weak.

One said the woman's testimony remained

because the memory of their role was so

persistent it could not be removed.

Remember in those days women weren't

allowed to to accepted very exceptional

things in their own realm to give

testimony in court.

They just weren't.

And u that wasn't a good thing. It

wasn't a biblical thing but that's the

way it was. that the women the men

represent the women there first because

that's the way it was. The early church

was embarrassed by that. But now we can

say, well that's good. Nobody would make

it up that the women saw him first. No

first century Jew would make that up.

Not even think about it. Like you lose

your audience before you even start.

Not one first century Jewish man would

make up a story about the women

knowing something the men didn't about

the empty tomb.

Men still aren't good about that. We all

think we know something our ways.

Really bad in those days.

So a fictional uh narrative

uh is not likely.

And of all the women, Mary Magdalene's

the first one. I mean she what kind of

reputation did she have?

Nobody would make it up was demonp

possessed

at one time.

So the only reason our Bibles are full

of this

is because that's the way it was.

God did that on purpose. one to

undermine all this stupidity about

women's veracity and ability, but two

to emphasize that um

it really happened and the people

recording it are not recording the women

there because they want to because they

know other people are going to not like

it because that's the way it was.

Paul Mayer is a Christian historian.

He said Jerusalem is the very last place

it could have started if Jesus had tomb

had remained occupied.

I mean the tomb's right up the road

from the temple.

What's the old saying? Who's buried in

Grant's tomb? Trick question.

Uh Grant.

Who's buried in Jesus's tomb? Nobody. He

is not here. He's risen.

And um another writer said, "Early

proclamation of the resurrection of

Jesus in Jerusalem would have been

psychologically impossible without sure

evidence of an empty tomb."

Uh I'm going to be a little uh personal

here.

might offend some of you. Out by our

pine trees out here that I planted for

my boys when they were young and now

they're tall. Is a pet graveyard.

Our house is a constant um refuge for

dogs and cats. Gone through many of

them. I've lost count of the number of

pets I've buried over

40.

They're all there.

Uh, not too long ago, my son and I

buried our black cat, Jingaling. He was

19 years old. And I buried him there.

And I put a concrete paving stone over

his

to keep predators.

Now, what if I went around and said,

"I've had an experience. I saw a black

cat on my porch. I think it's Ging. He's

risen."

By the way, that black cat was on my

porch and he looks just like Jingling,

except a little younger. Jingling was

getting pretty afraid.

I think it's Jingle. My cat's risen from

the dead.

Well, what would you do? You'd say,

"Well, I know where the other I know

where Jingling's buried. Let's flip the

stone over and let's go in and dig it

up." Oh, there's Jingaling. Can't be

him.

So the point is, I hope you put yourself

in the historical situation here

because anybody would hear that sermon

would say, "Let's go check out Jesus's

tomb."

12 apostles, 120 uh Christians said,

"Good news. He's risen." Now, I want you

to remember something else about these

people. When I just happened to be

thinking about this, these were all

Jewish people.

And Jewish people were taught the Ten

Commandments.

And one of the ten commandments is why?

You shall not bear false witness.

Now, that's not saying some did because

of Sanhedrin obviously was lying and

they had no those people were totally

corrupt. But we're not we're talking

about fishermen. We're talking about

people that normal people normal people

would say, "I can't do that. That's

wrong. I'm going to bear false witness.

I'm going to base my life on a lie."

And so Gary Habman said, "The Jerusalem

location for the burial of Jesus's body

appears to be a major argument that

favors the emptiness of his of his uh

burial tomb. It was located far too

close for comfort to the center of early

Christian preaching and teaching for its

emptiness to not have been the case. In

other words, the tomb has to be empty.

There's no way you could do it. Anywhere

I could preach a jigalang is risen from

the emptiness of Jesus's tomb was never

disputed by the opponents of

Christianity, but only understood

differently.

Thiples stole the body.

That's that was the enemy

explanation.

It's interesting to me how God used the

enemies to certify certain things. The

enemies came to Pilate and they said

that we remember the deceiver when he

was alive said on the third day he'd

rise again. We need a guard. We remember

what he said.

So we have a certification by the Jewish

enemies that Jesus prophesied he's going

to rise from the dead.

We have a certification from the Jewish

enemies that Jesus was buried. Talk

about being outmaneuvered.

We have a certification from the Jewish

leadership that Jesus said it was going

to all happen on the third day. I love

it how God jujitsu people intellectually

to say the things that promote what he's

uh promoting.

Um

well

the first Christian church was very

strong in teaching the resurrection of

Jesus.

The Gospel of Matthew is a first century

document.

I'm going to say that again. So many

people say, "Well, the Gospel of Matthew

was written so long ago and it could

things could change over all these

thousands of years." You you have you

ever studied any kind of text or

criticism? Do you know anything about

what you're talking about?

People say that kind of stuff.

The Gospel of Matthew is a first century

gospel. The book of Acts is a first

century document. They're both first

century documents.

Uh so we're not talking about thousands

of years. We're talking about 30 years,

35 years from the time it happened.

Gospel of Matthew was written. And did

you know the Gospel of Matthew was the

favorite Gospel of the early church?

Americans love the Gospel of John. The

first church of Christians love the

Gospel of Matthew. It's extremely

popular.

And 90% of the Gospel of Matthew is the

Gospel of Mark. You know that

they got a different emphasis, but

similar material.

Da Carson at Trinity Seminary in

Chicago. He's a scholar. Scholar. I

believe he's still living.

Uh but he said as far

uh as far as our sources go, the Gospel

of Matthew was preeminently

uh and universally received as soon as

it was published. It was presently and

preeminently and in

universally received as soon as it was

published. It was published according to

him probably in the 60s.

Now there's some people that date it 70s

but I think the 60s is a legitimate date

for the gospel of Matthew.

Now think about it. Jesus died in 30 31

AD.

This is a gospel that was put put into

print 30 years maybe 35 after he died.

There were people living that were there

when he died. There were people living

uh when he lived and preached. There

were people living when the day of

Pentecost happened. There were people

living that could check this out. There

were churches in existence. And people

leave that out. There were churches all

over the empire that received this

gospel.

Yes. Matthew didn't put his name on it.

Well, that's true. We the church put the

names on this, but it's it it's

universally received that Matthew wrote

it even though his name wasn't on it.

And so it's uh

it's kind of powerful stuff if you think

about it.

Application real quick going to give you

some applications. What's a sermon

without application?

So let's land the plane.

application. Since the tomb of Jesus is

empty, the churches of Jesus should be

full.

Doesn't that make sense?

In the first century, they knew the tomb

was empty. And boy, their churches were

full. They were overflowing everywhere.

The church in Jerusalem just moved from

3,000 on the day of from 120 to 3,000 in

the first sermon. And then there were

5,000. And then there were thousands and

thousands by Acts 21:20. That was a mega

Acts 21:20

church in the very center of Jerusalem.

The biggest alternative group was the

Pharisees. And they had 7,000

Sadducees. Nobody was dumb enough to be

a Sadducee except those uh people who

were with inflated scholarship. There

was just a handful of them, but they

were kind of running stuff.

So very important, the city that

rejected him and crucified him produced

a church that was humongous

and all kinds of people were in that

church. There's people been in this

church 30 years, 35 years.

Some of them are sitting here now.

So the people were in the church from

the beginning were still living. Not all

of them are dead. Some of them were,

some were still there. So the people

that were new were interacting with the

people who were there. It wasn't just

what the Gospel of Matthew was saying.

It's what other people were saying who

were there that correlated with it. And

that's why it was

so believable and trustable. Nobody was

saying, "Ah, he didn't get it right. He

made this part up."

So if the the tomb of Jesus is empty,

the church should be full. and uh uh God

help us to spread the gospel of the good

news and do what we can. Not that we're

in charge of that. The Holy Spirit's in

charge of that.

But number two, the tomb of Jesus is

empty. The authority of Jesus should be

recognized.

I mean, who else has got an empty tomb?

Oh, they moved Abraham Lincoln and his

was empty. Yeah, I know. Course people

are trying to steal it. That's

different.

That's different. The tomb of Jesus is

empty. Oh, I know the tomb of George

Washington is empty in Washington DC. He

never was in it. He didn't want it. He

He got buried at his house, I believe,

in this rather than the tomb they built

for him in the center of DC.

The tomb of Jesus wasn't empty. He was

in it. It he was there, but he is risen.

And his authority is recognized because

he conquered death.

conquered death.

If the tomb of Jesus is empty,

unbelievers, this is third, should be

very uncomfortable in their unbelief.

Very uncomfortable in their unbelief.

If the tomb of Jesus is empty, number

four, the authority of his apostles

should be acknowledged over any other

human authority.

He put them over the church. Not the

pope.

Not not the pope. Sorry. Not the pope.

Not some patriarch, eastern patriarch.

The apostles.

And the apostles are our authority. You

say, "Well, they're dead." But their

writings are with us today. It's called

our New Testament.

See, if we're under the New Testament,

we're under the apostles.

We believe what they believe. We teach

what they teach. We submit to what they

uh taught us. Now, there is the apostles

creed. It wasn't written by the

apostles, but it's a summary. It's a

very early creed about what the apostles

believe. It's a very short thing. It's

not in the Bible, but it's right after

the Bible, very shortly after. And we

should we we should uh rest in that. If

the tomb of Jesus is empty, the

authority of the apostle should be

acknowledged over and above every other

kind of authority around.

You know, I like this book and that book

and another book. I've got tons of

books. I got I'm trying to give books

away. I'm trying to get rid of my books

before I die so my family doesn't have

to do it. I'm serious.

You know what my office looks like? All

the books. You haven't been in my

basement.

You haven't been in my bedroom. Some of

you been in my living room. I got books

in all those places. Oh, in the other

rooms got books.

Thank God for books. Thank God for human

writers. I benefited a lot by them. But

in the end, it's this book. It's this

book.

And may God help us to see that.

Um five fifth application. If the tomb

of Jesus is empty, the church of Jesus

should be energized.

That's verses 44 and 47 in Acts chapter

Acts 2 · chapter mention

2. Boy, were those people energized.

Notice what happened after they got

saved in verse 37.

Uh

well, I'm going to go down to verse 41.

First 3,000 got saved. And then it says,

"Then they that gladly received his

word, 41 were baptized, and the same day

were added to them 3,000 souls." What

happened to these people? Baptized and

never saw him since.

I got my get out of jail key, get out of

jail free card. I'm gone.

They continued steadfastly in the

apostles doctrine and fellowship and

breaking bread and prayers and fear come

on every soul. And many wonders and

signs were done by the apostles. And all

that believed were together and had all

things in common. Sold their possessions

and goods. Parted them to all every man

he had need. And they continued daily

with one accord in the temple, breaking

bread from house to house to eat their

food with gladness and singleness of

heart. They couldn't stay away from each

other.

Praising God, having favor with all the

people, and the Lord added to the

church, such as should be saved.

So if the tomb of Jesus is empty, the

early

church of Jesus should be energized.

Number six, I only got seven. This is

six. If the tomb of Jesus is empty,

listen to this one.

If the tomb of Jesus is empty,

every single tomb

in every single graveyard or mausoleum

in the world will be emptied at the end

of history. Because Jesus didn't stay in

his grave, no one's going to stay in

there. Don't you ever call a graveyard

the final resting place?

That's just a hotel for your body of a

trumpet sound.

And so it's very very important and it's

very very basic that saved and unsaved

every person that's ever been conceived

every person in every generation since

Adam who's lived and died decomposed

eaten by animals skele but gone back to

a skeleton gone back to dust digested by

a lion or by fish everyone's going to be

resurrected

all that are in the graves will hear his

voice and come forth. That's what the

Bible says.

Study John 5 and Acts 17 and Hebrews 2.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the

devil and he he knows how to destroy.

Number seven and last.

If the tomb of Jesus is empty,

those who would try to explain away the

multiple appearances of Jesus on Easter

morning in Jerusalem and subsequent

appearances in other places have an

enormous impossible task on there.

There's two things you should put

together.

The empty tomb does not stand alone.

The appearances of Jesus to the apostles

and the other Christians does not stand

alone.

They're together.

The appear the the empty tomb and the

appearances are should never be thought

about alone. They should be brought

together

because

No one just had an empty tomb and no one

just had appearances. They're both in

the New Testament for a reason.

Um is bringing them together. And of

course, we don't have time to do that

today.

If the appearances are fake, why is the

tomb empty?

And if the tomb's empty for the wrong

reason, somebody stole the body. Who was

it going around appearing to be Jesus

and convincing people? Even Thomas and

even Paul and even the hardest case all

Jesus's younger brother James.

You see these things go together and

what the Bible's put together. Let no

man put us under.

And if we take them together, it will be

a great blessing to us. You know, it's

very important for us. If we are not

convinced on the message, it'll be hard

for us to convince others.

And we have to re contore

our confidence on a regular basis. This

is an old story. I'm sorry to tell my

old stories, but you know, if a preacher

moves around, he can tell his old

stories and know they're all new. I

don't move. I've been here forever. So I

you got to hear this story.

When I was when I was 18, I worked at

Sears and Robbo. You know, some of you

know, I've heard this story. And it was

Christmas time. I was working in

housewares and hardware. And they had a

little gadget called the um

it was a thing to smash you smash down.

You chop vegetable. Chop thematic. Chop

thematic or something. Veumatic. It's a

veggomatic.

And I'm at all the zeal of an

18-year-old selling stuff and it's

Christmas time. People are buying

Christmas gifts. I got stacks of these

things in front of me. I'm I'm standing

there. That was my job that day. Get off

the cash register and sell this stuff.

And so I got into it and I had about 20

people in front of me and they're brag b

and there I'm demonstrating the

veramatic

had a little lock on the top of it and

you put it down. When you want to put it

away, you shut the lock.

plastic. It's all a bunch of plastic.

So, I'm demonstrating it and I'm

chopping up stuff and finally I chopped

up I think I went from French fries to

carrots and I chopped it and the piece

plastic piece went flying up into the

air into the crab.

I was dead in the water.

There was nothing I could say that could

overcome that. And so all the people

that had stacks of these things that

were going to buy it just kind of

quietly

and I left there standing a while.

It was quite an interest I could care

less. I was having a good time anyway,

but it was just kind of funny.

But what happened?

Edgeatic lost its credibility.

Now they may have bought that thing and

never had that problem. might have

slammed it a little too hard,

but it didn't matter.

The people lost their confidence in the

product and in the salesman

and they returned it.

It's very, very important for us to know

we got a good product.

We don't have to be ashamed of it. It's

never going to let us down. There's

nothing here that's going to be revealed

that

is legitimately against truth of the

Bible,

the gospel. People have been trying that

two

years,

unsuccessfully

ultimately.

So if there's somebody listening to me

today that doesn't know the Lord,

you need to come to Jesus Christ in

repentance and faith. The problem isn't

the Christians and your faith shouldn't

be in Christians. The reason people say

they don't go to churches because this

Christian did that and that Christian

did that. Then your faith is in

Christians. It's not supposed to be in

the church. It's to be in Christ.

We're imperfect.

that imperfect people can proclaim a

perfect savior.

And that's our role.

And may you put your faith in him and

trust in him as the one who died for you

and rose again from the dead and is

coming again. Because all in the graves

are coming forth. You're going to meet

him. Everybody that's ever lived, every

baby that was ever aborted, every person

that's ever lived, saved and unsaved, is

going to meet him. Some are going to be

frightened and terrified by it. Others

are going to be wonder glorified in it

and just can't wait. But it's coming.

All that are in the graves will hear his

voice and come forth. And every man's

going to give account of himself to God.

That God will be Jesus Christ. Father,

we thank you for what we looked at

today. Challenge us and change us from

by your word and through your truth in

Jesus name. Amen.

>> Amen.

number 387.

Let's stand and sing 387.

Lord, as we go from this place,

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,