The Resurrection of Jesus: What Happened After | Pastor William Hixson

Thank you.

>> Thank you.

visiting with us this morning. Please

turn with us to Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Our standard procedure in this church

for decades has been to teach book

studies. We start at the beginning of a

book and we go all the way through it

and then we start another book and we go

all the way through it and that's our

standard practice. Sometimes we deviate

from that practice just so we can uh uh

have a break from it. Not we love doing

that. And so, uh, this is the fourth

message in a series on Sunday morning

on the resurrection

of the Lord Jesus Christ

and the resurrection in general

for all people, saved and unsaved,

Christian and non-Christian.

Resurrection of all people is going to

be part of this series. Death is not the

end. Physical death is not the end of

anyone.

Uh

there's a big difference in where people

spend eternity, but everyone's going to

be resurrected. All that are in the

graves are going to hear his voice and

come forth.

But there's also this wonderful factor

of the resurrection of Jesus

and his resurrection assures us of ours.

Now, that's a terror to those that don't

know the Lord, but it's a great comfort

once we do know the Lord and know that

his our sins are paid for through his

death on the cross.

So, we've been looking in Matthew chap

28

and this is a very, very familiar

passage.

Very, very familiar passage.

And it it's a a appearance of the risen

Lord. This was after Easter, right?

There were five appearances on Easter

in that in Jerusalem.

And uh this is after Easter. This is not

in Jerusalem. This is 60 miles north in

Galilee.

And so the Lord told them to go to

Galilee. And he would appear to them

there.

So as soon as those appearances ended in

Jerusalem, well a week after that,

remember there was another appearance to

Thomas when he was with them a week

later after that the disciples all

migrated north

because that was the appointment. And

they said, "Well, we're going to go see

him up there again." And remember, for

40 days Jesus appeared.

40 days eating and drinking with them.

This was no,

I think I see him, but no, I don't.

Maybe that's him. Maybe it's not. 40

days

and eating and drinking and teaching, I

might add.

And this is is this is within that

40-day period. And there were different

commissions being given by the Lord in

these different appearances that of

course appear in Mark and John and Luke

as well as Matthew and Acts.

So, we spent this is our fourth week on

Matthew 28 and this particular

appearance

and I call your attention to it today.

Let's read verse 16.

Matthew

uh 28 verse 16.

Then the 11 disciples went away into

Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had

appointed them.

Apparently they'd been to that mountain

before. Some believe that was the where

the mountain where the sermon on the

mount was given. Been on the mount where

the sermon on the mount was given.

There's plenty of room for 500 people.

Uh and uh it's very probable that not

just the 11 were there, but this is the

appearance that 1 Corinthians 15 calls.

He appeared to over 500 at once.

If you mess around with the chronology

of those appearances, it's likely that

the 11 are mentioned here. Uh uh but

there's others here as well.

So it says in verse 17, "And when they

saw him, they worshiped him, but some

doubted." We've already dealt with this.

Commentator after commentator, Bible

teacher after Bible teacher looks at

that particular word. He came up to

them, which means he appeared in the

distance. He didn't appear in their

midst like he did scared them scared

them out of their sandals uh on Easter

morning and Easter evening. uh when

they're in the house and he peers in

their midst. He didn't want to do that

with 500 people and have people running

off the off the cliffs. So, he appeared

in a distance and it was some of the

crowd that had not yet seen him, I

believe, that doubted or some even of

the apostles may have said, "Well, I

think that's him." A couple hundred

couple hundred yards away. Maybe it's

him, maybe it's not. And uh but it says

he came up is the proper translation of

that particular word. Uh uh uh say so

when they saw him they worshiped him but

some doubted and Jesus came up. Jesus

came up and spoke to them

and this is what he said. All authority

is given unto me in heaven and earth. We

mentioned in previous mentions messages

that word all has appears four times

here.

This is the first one. All authority.

King James says power. It means

authority is given to me in heaven. In

heaven. And

the Greek text says upon the earth.

All authority is given unto me in heaven

and upon the earth. Go ye therefore and

teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Teaching them to observe all things

whatever I've commanded you. And lo, I'm

with you all the days is the Greek text,

even to the end of the age.

So Christ has all authority. The

disciples are to go into all the earth.

They're to be teaching all the things

that he's taught them. Everything. Not

just some things, not just the easy

things, not just the enjoyable things,

the hard things.

So, if you just want to teach the fun

things, enjoyable things, you'll tickle

people's ears, but they're not going to

learn. They got to learn the whole

council of God. That's what Paul did in

Ephesus in the time he was there. And

so, it's what we need to be doing.

People need to know their Bibles. They

need to know Genesis to Revelation.

And go ye therefore and teach all

nations. Now, that's where it gets hard.

He has all authority

on every every person on this planet,

wherever they are. He has uh we're to

teach all nations. And the one that

tells us to go to all nations is one

that has the authority over all the

nations.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations.

Now notice the the great commission is

what this is called has three parts.

Number one, you teach.

Number two, you baptize.

Number three, you teach again.

That's intense.

You don't go around putting water on

people without teaching them. You'd be

surprised who does that.

Long as we get you wet, you're good.

They teach them nothing. They know

nothing.

But it says, he says very clearly, "All

authorities give me in heaven and earth.

Go you therefore and teach all nations."

That's the first step.

It's not But there's three steps, not

one.

You teach all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the Father and the Son and

the Holy Spirit. So, they're taught

before they're baptized.

This is pretty basic.

Pretty basic.

I know many Christians believe in infant

baptism. I don't. I believe in a

believer's baptism. And one of the

reasons I do is because you have to be

taught before you're baptized.

That's what it says.

So he says, "Teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the

father, the son, and the holy spirit." a

very clear verse of the triunity of God

and the equality with Jesus with the

father and the spirit

teaching them to observe all things

whatever I've commanded you and lo I'm

with you always

or all the days is literally what it

says all the days from beginning to the

end

of the age

this is an incredible verse it's worth

spending extra time on

as you watch that word all it becomes

very stunning

and we see our Lord's

uh work here in a special way.

Now

think about what Jesus required of these

people. I want you to go to Galilee and

then you'll see me there.

How far did you go to come to church

this morning?

I live on the road right outside the

church. I walk to church every day. I

don't have to go very far. Some of you

have come farther.

How far did you go? These people went 60

miles

to see the Lord.

When I was a senior at OU, uh, a pastor

from Chilikathy started a Bible class

that later became this church. And, uh,

there were some of us students that

actually got in a 57 Chevy and drove to

church in Chilikathy every Sunday

morning.

That's not quite 60 miles.

Why did we do it? Because we were

getting fed and we wanted we wanted to

fellowship. Now, I'll tell you, with my

roommates partying till 3:00 in the

morning and trying to wake up after that

where you barely got any sleep, I have I

slept in church a lot when I got there.

But I stayed a week awake as long as I

could

and we stayed all day. They just gave us

the keys of the church, studied, rested,

took a nap, went to church in the

evening, got in the 57 Chevy, and came

back.

Now, that was just fair because that

pastor had no charge to anybody here.

Drove his car over here, taught Bible

classes for years.

No charge to anybody. Took no money.

So,

I don't think 60 miles is too much to

ask. But anyway, Jesus asked what he

demanded and they went. And let me ask

you this. Was it worth it?

Was it worth it? Was it worth the trip?

You know, every church service ought to

be worth the trip. Did you know that?

Whether it's a little bit or far, but

seeing the Lord was certainly worth it.

Pardon my allergies. I'm sorry.

Now, that 60 miles was longer than 60

miles was for me back in 1970.

We got a 57 Chevy.

Were there any 57 Chevys in

Jerusalem ready to go to Galilee?

If you wanted to go from Jerusalem to

Galilee, what did you do? You either

walk or grab the donkey.

That's a long way to go.

Walking.

walking.

And so they went a long way. And the

Lord wanted them to go a long way

because the commission was to go into

all the world. You better get used to

traveling.

That was the commission

to go into all the world. It was is such

a striking difference because earlier in

Matthew 10, Jesus said, "Don't go to the

Gentiles. Go only to the house of

Israel."

In his first coming to the Jewish

nation, he focused on the Jews. That was

the right thing to do. He was the Jewish

Messiah. But when they rejected him, he

opened it up not only to Jews, but to

Gentiles as well.

It's a tremendous contrast in Matthew as

you see the restriction in Matthew 10

and then the the restriction totally

removed in 28 because our Lord didn't

just die for the Jews. He died for the

Gentiles, too.

Jesus didn't die for just religious

sinners. He died for pagan sinners,

idolatrous sinners, atheistic sinners.

He died for people of every stripe.

And he wanted them to go to people from

all nations. And the word nations is not

like we do that. We use the word nations

for a nation state. They didn't have

nation states then. There were no nation

states 2,000 years ago. The word tthne

there means a people group, an ethnic

group.

So it's even more complicated. You know,

well, it's not just getting the gospel

to every country

politically. It's getting the gospel to

every group in that country,

every people group. That means everyone

everywhere.

That's a challenge.

That's a big challenge.

Now, I think it's pretty safe

that this was a challenge.

And even if they'd have had a Pony

Express horse, this would have been a

long trip.

Have you ever studied in America the

Pony Express?

Those young riders were like 16.

They may have made 15 miles a day

on a fast horse. Not just one horse.

They changed horses.

They were busting it across the United

States.

15 miles. That's about it.

And uh

so long trip

and it was a longer trip for the

apostles probably walking or riding

donkeys than a pony express horse. But

they got used to travel and God wants

you to get used to travel. Some of us

it's a big deal to go across the street

and talk to our neighbor about Jesus.

But God wants his people to be on the

move.

In the Old Testament, God's system was,

"I'll bless Israel and have all the

nations come in.

So stay on your farm, stay on your land,

stay in your country, and I'll bring the

Gentiles to you." That was the Old

Testament system of evangelism.

I'll bless Israel, and once you see I

bless them, people will be attracted.

The New Testament is go. You don't wait.

you go.

That's the picture here.

And

uh I think it's pretty safe that they

misheard him.

I don't want to get on the weeds on

this.

I don't think when he said all nations,

I think they probably heard all Jews in

all nations.

Because remember in the book of Acts, it

was an extremely big revelation to them

when Jesus was trying to tell them. They

were saying, "Will you will you at this

time? You're risen from the dead. You

conquered death. You paid for sins. Will

you this time restore the kingdom to

Israel?"

And Jesus didn't say, "Nope, not doing

it. It's never going to happen. I'm done

with them. They killed me." It's not for

you to know

the times that God said it in his power.

But you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem.

Start with the place that killed me.

Start right there in Jerusalem and

Judea. That's the larger area around

Jerusalem. Then Samaria. That's the half

gentile, half Jew. And then to the

uttermost part of the earth. But you

know what? I think they still heard

the Jews in the uttermost part of the

earth.

Why?

Because they couldn't think past that.

They couldn't think past that. They had

a mental block.

Um,

and that's proved by Acts 10 and 11,

isn't it? When the Cornelius and his

family got saved and the people took

Peter on the carpet. What do you 10,000?

You ate with them. What do you think

you're doing, Peter? You're an apostate.

You should know better than this.

By the way, that shows us that the early

church believed leaders could be

corrected by their followers if they

thought they were in error.

It's one passage.

Of course, in this case, Peter was right

and they were not. In other cases, Peter

got things wrong and he got corrected.

But anyway, they were shocked that he'd

go to Gentiles. You went into Gentiles

and you ate with them. You gave them the

gospel. Peter said, "Yeah, I did."

But God gave them the Holy Spirit just

like he gave us. And who was I that I

could withstand God? What? They got the

Holy Spirit?

Yeah.

So, I'm not going to argue with God.

That's Acts 10, Acts 11. And then they

said, "This is a long way down the

road." And the Lord has given the

Gentiles life. You mean we got to go to

Gentiles?

What's this?

It was kind of a new thing to them. They

had a blind spot, didn't they?

You have blind spots.

You have blind spots with people that

your neighbor or your family Oh, I

wouldn't even try to witness to them.

They're too far gone.

I'm glad

from my parents' prayers

that somebody had the guts to deal with

me as a senior at OU and all my pride

and arrogance and stupidity cuz I was

eating my stupid pills.

Thank God for that.

So this is a awesome thing here.

But I don't think the Savior's words

were understood at the time, but they

certainly were clear at the time. And

they the and time gave clarity to those

words. And that's the wonderful thing.

Um

so they begin to teach all nations and

they begin to baptize people. Taught

them first. baptize them in the name of

the triune God. That's a lot of

teaching. They poured a lot of teaching

in them before they were baptized

and then they poured more teaching into

them after they were baptized. How much

teaching pastor?

Uh this will give you a hint.

We spentund and some messages on the

gospel of Luke one point here

and that's the gospel of Luke and the

book of acts are a two volume work

written to one person that was being

discipled

in fact he'd already been discipled and

Luke is discipling him more

and both Luke acts are written to the

same guy

that's a lot of work 24 chapters of Luke

28 chapters of Acts. Okay. Now you now

you've been discipled.

That's a little intense.

So obviously Luke is for us as well, but

the original book was written to one

person. So it tells us something about

the intensity of our efforts in

ministering to people to help them to

grow up.

And so, uh, every church should have

that intensity, I believe,

and should go at it that way.

I'm going to say one more thing. You

say, "Well, that's going to take a lot

of work out of me, pastor. I'll wear

myself out." Yeah, you will.

Yeah, you will. Doing Christian work is

I love it. I love Christian work. I wore

myself out in it. I'd do it again if I

had another life.

I'm thankful.

But there is a dilating of the heart

when we meet people different than us.

It's not just God bless us for no more.

There's a dilating of the heart when we

are challenged with the differences. And

God wants you to have an adventure.

God doesn't want you to have a boring

life. He wants you to have an adventure.

And some of us may never be able to go

to another country or even another town

because we're too old or whatever. But

we can still have an adventure.

We can pray for those that are going. We

can read the prayer letters.

We can visit them if we can, or we can

talk to them when we can.

The God that wants his people to have an

adventure said to Adam and Eve,

"Be fruitful and multiply and fill the

earth."

Was that a little assignment?

Think about how that must have sounded.

They didn't even know how big the earth

was. Be fruitful and multiply and fill

the earth. It's never been rescended.

Oh, climate change. We can't have

babies.

Not going to go there.

God said, "Be fruitful and multiply and

fill the earth." He said it. We said,

"Well, the world's so bad." Well, he

said it after the world drowned in

Noah's day and they got off the ark. Be

fruitful and multiply and fill the

earth. You got to do it again. He said

it at the Tower of Babel. Be fruitful,

multiply, and fill the earth. That's why

they built the Tower of Babel so they

couldn't do that.

But God said, "You're going to do it

whether you want to or not. So, we're

going to make different languages and

scatter you everywhere." God's serious

about this stuff.

Now, we can do the same thing as a Tower

of Babel. I'm I was saved in a fairly

large church. Hundreds of people

membered. Jim Lusher's dad was the

pastor. I thank God for that. Big

churches can do some things. Little ones

can't. Tabernacle Baptist Church in

Chilikoth.

But little churches have their place,

too.

Little churches can do some things. Big

ones can't. Big ones can do things.

Little ones can't. I don't want to go

down that road too far. God's got a

purpose for all of them. But the point

is, we're not to clump up, even as

churches.

Not trying to be critical of anybody.

Thank God for the big churches that can

do things we can't. They got a purpose.

And sometimes they're in a big place

where that really is needs to happen.

Well, what's the Tower of Babel? God

doesn't want clumping up. God wants

scattering.

Guess what ministry in Athens is? It's

like a leaky bucket in this city. People

come in and people go. People come in

and people go.

That's good.

Is that bad? No, it's good. We don't

even have to try to scatter. We can

scatter without even trying.

So churches are meant to be sacrificial.

Churches are meant to be giving of their

own and not just of their money.

Pardon me. And uh God wants us to have

an adventure.

And I know some of us are home bodies.

And there's nothing wrong with that at

all. There's people their home bodies

never go anywhere but they know a lot

more and people go everywhere. But

people are wired differently. But it's

good to be exposed to something bigger

than yourself, bigger than your

community, bigger than you've ever

imagined. It expands the heart. It

dilates the soul. It's supposed to be

that way. The creator designed us to be

on the move.

The creator designed us to have big

ideas about life.

Even when you have a family and your

fruitful multiply, what's it say in

Psalms? Blessed is the man who has his

quiver full of them, which children are

called arrows.

What's an arrow? An arrow goes where you

can't go.

If I got a sword, I'm limited to who

comes at me. If I've got an arrow, I can

hit somebody. Well, I can't do that now,

but I mean, I could I could hit

somebody, you know, 100 yards away. I

was any good with a bow and arrow. I'm

not much good at that.

But that's the point. Children go where

you can't go.

I'm not gonna I'm 77 years old. I'm not

How long am I going to be here? You

think I'm going to be here in 10 more

years?

Maybe if maybe they can bring them in

from the nursing home.

You never know, do you? So, but your

children can go where you can't go. Now,

that's true of spiritual children as

well as physical children.

Your converts can go where you can't go.

Some people God wants to stay so they

can have a church where they're raising

up spiritual children and the spiritual

children are going where the

many of those people never left town but

they're having a big impact.

Pardon me.

So this is the picture and uh I hope

it's helpful to you to think through

this a little bit.

And so this is a very dynamic picture.

Adolf Saber, Jewish Christian, quote on

this.

Our Lord's words here are full of divine

mystery. They possess heavenly

massiveness. They possess heavenly

massiveness

and grander. And yet they are full of

peace, consolation, and hope to every

Christ loving heart.

Can I read this again

with Safer's statement? They possess

heavenly

massiveness.

Verse 18, Jesus came up and spoke to

them, "All authority is given to me in

heaven and earth.

Go ye therefore teach all nations."

baptizing them in the name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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. Thank you, Carol.

Walked out without my mask this morning,

and I'm paying for it.

Now, we see the risen Lord's power. We

see the risen Lord's program. Uh we see

the risen Lord's provision.

We see the li risen Lord's presence.

That's where we're at here. We're going

to go through this quickly because we're

going to have communion this morning. He

has all authority. He has all power.

Uh nobody but Jesus could say that.

Nobody. Nobody would dare say something.

He has all power,

has all authority in heaven and earth.

There's nowhere you can go that's not

outside of his jurisdiction.

Now, you can go places on the planet

where America can't help you.

Well, we got a we got restrictions on

that country. You go there, we can't we

don't even have an embassy there.

Better not go there. We can't help you

if you go there. You can go nowhere

where the Lord isn't already there. He's

omniresent.

And so, and and he has all authority

everywhere. So, uh, Matthew Henry said

it's a great word which none but Jesus

could really say

and it is a great word. He has authority

to forgive sin.

Can't do that.

He has authority to raise the dead. I

can't do that. He has authority to heal

sickness. I can't do that.

But he has all authority. And there's

nowhere anybody can go that's not

outside of his jurisdiction. Then his

program, our Lord's program, all

nations, it's universal in scope.

It's universal in scope. And then our

word Lord's provision. I want to I want

you to teach them all things. I've given

you everything they need to know.

I've given them everything they need to

know. And I've given you everything you

need to know. I provided you with the

means to do what you need to do.

The Lord Jesus did not see a future time

in all history or a place in all the

world where his teaching will be rightly

judged to be needless, outmoded,

superseded, or outdated.

I've given you everything you need to do

your job.

Here I come.

By the way, I know how to do a lot of

things that I learned in the 50s and 60s

as a young person

that are totally useless today

and just outdated.

And I I go back to where we I'm talking

about all that. Got a lot of those and

some of you do too. Remember the party

lines?

You remember a party line? You're not a

young person.

Your loan, your phone was on a party

line. Other neighbors were on the same

line. You pick it up, they're talking to

somebody.

You're talking to somebody and they pick

the phone up. Be kind of maybe that's a

good idea. You had to watch what you

said.

But things like that that people of my

age group understand that other people I

don't even know what you're talking

about.

But the Lord says there's no place you

can't go where where I am not able to

equip you

uh for all that you need

and my teaching needs to go to everybody

everywhere. What a provision.

What a provision.

And I'm I'm very thankful for that. When

I travel internationally, I try to take

a Bible in that language if at all

possible I can. if I'm in some place

where I think that would be helpful or

Bible tracks and other things uh because

oh I'm on the Lord's business here even

if I'm on vacation or especially if I'm

on a mission trip.

So our Lord's power is program and his

provision. And the last one is his

presence.

His presence.

I've been married to my wife for four

and a half decades.

But there's some places I've gone that

she's never gone.

There's some places she's gone that I've

never.

A lot of times we go together.

It doesn't always work that way. She

went to Eastern Europe with her mom. I

had to stay home and babysit.

I would love to have gone to Eastern.

Never made it to Eastern.

Uh many other places we've gone

together, but there's other places I've

gone that she's never been.

But when it comes to the Lord Jesus,

we are never outside his presence.

He's owned thy present.

The eternal son of God,

the second member of the God heaven, the

Godhead

is omniresent.

Everywhere you go, he's already there.

So you always have him.

Even if you don't have others.

Isn't that a comfort?

Some of us have had to travel either

within the states or outside the states

when we're by oursel and it's like I

have no partner. I have no person. If I

get sick, I have nobody. If I have a

wreck, I'm hit. I'm it. And that's I've

done that.

I'm it.

Tell me the Lord doesn't take care of

you.

He does.

the Lord's presence.

And so he is omniresent.

And though I'm with you always, even to

the end of the age, I'm with you. I'm

with everybody else that follows you.

Now, what's this mean? This omni

presence? It means God manifests his

presence. You know he's helping you. You

know he's there.

You say, "Lord, I'm in trouble. I need

help."

And God provides help.

I was so sick coming back from Istanbul.

I had sinus headaches so bad I could

hardly function. I said, "Lord, I need

some help. I can't even think right to

know where what gate to go to."

And God provided a guy from Canada. I he

talked to me and he I'm going to help

you. I was really dragging.

And it's very You think that was an

accident? That man came by. That was not

an accident. That was answer to prayer.

People come by and then they don't want

to help. They too busy. This guy did all

kinds of stuff for me. I could hardly

function.

I had to get on the plane by myself and

cough my way all the way to America. I

had to get get, you know, but at least I

got on the right aircraft.

So it's very important for us to just

rest at God's presence. He provides when

we have a need.

And it's certainly our Lord's omni

presence. But it's that omniresence.

He's omniresence whether you know it or

not or see it or not or feel it or not.

It's a presence that comes in your life

that makes the Christian life exciting.

There's been times, especially in my

early life, where I was doing some

things that were wrong as a Christian,

and I felt God's omni presence,

well, okay, Lord, thank you for that

spanking. I needed that.

So, he promises all the days.

CJ vaugh said, "There's a great force

and beauty in all the days. It conveys

at once the idea that before the mind of

the speaker, all the days lay ranged in

order to the last time that the sun

shall ever set on earth, he saw each in

its individuality." That's each day,

each with its own proper history. We're

always stepping into an unknown future,

but the foot cannot fall outside the

presence of Jesus.

Does that comfort you? I hope so.

every single day for every single

Christian in every single place to the

end of the day age.

So that holds good for us

as well.

I I hope that we're challenged by this

last point.

David Livingston. Some of you read some

stuff from David Livingston, a great

African missionary and explorer.

He's been, this is back in the old days,

Africa was just getting explored.

He spent 16 years in Africa.

On 30 occasions, he was laid low with

fever. 30.

His left arm was crushed by a lion. He

buried his wife there.

He went all the way to the Nile, the

Congo in the Zambesi River. He he was he

had discovery after discovery over

30,000 miles

in Africa.

And you know what David Livingston's

wrote? It was this text that supported

him in all of those adventures.

The man died on his knees praying to the

one who promised him he'd be with him

all the days,

even to the end of the age.

John G. Patton was another missionary.

He was in the South Sea Islands.

cannibals were there

and somebody told him as a young man,

"If you go there, the cannibals will eat

you." And I said, he said, "Well, if I

stay here, the worms will eat me because

I'll just die as an old man. The worms

get me. So, what makes a difference?"

So, he went

and he buried his wife there. He ba

buried his baby boy there

in the South Sea Islands. And he said,

'The ever merciful Lord sustained me to

lay this precious dust of my loved ones

in the same quiet grave. But for Jesus

and his the fellowship, he vouched safe

be there, I must have gone mad and died

beside that lonely grave." Some of you

know what he's talking about because

you've lost loved ones. We've had

several funerals in the church.

Later he was on that island and a war

still broke out between the natives.

He spent the whole night in a chestnut

tree.

The whole night

to escape the warriors that were looking

for him.

He said, "Yet never in all my sorrows

did my Lord draw near to me. I was alone

yet not alone.

I would cheerfully spend many nights

alone in such a tree to feel again my

Savior's spiritual presence as I felt it

that night. He lived to be 83 years old.

Now, Livingston and Patton were 18

centuries after Jesus said this to the

apostles.

So, he's still doing it. I'm with you

always,

even to the end of me.

Probably 80% of the people here know

this that Pastor Demar is with the

Marshes

in Africa and Pastor Pastor Brunk from

our church works with them. That Esther

Joy Marsh

her grandfather

took a wooden sailing ship to Africa.

Her grandfather

and they had a Model T and they had a

printing press

and the ship

the ship took on water in the middle of

the ocean.

It was off

normal places where ships were.

They were in big trouble. Ship was going

to sink. He's got pictures of this. Mark

Green is in heaven now. We've seen the

pictures. They the Green family got in

their lifeboat. The P the captain did.

Everybody else got in their lifeboats

and they're taking pictures of the ship

and they lit the ship on fire as it was

sinking hoping somebody would see the

smoke

and it worked. They weren't in the

shipping lanes. One ship had been off

was off course and saw the smoke and

came and rescued them and brought them

back to the Caribbean and they re

refurbished everything, lost everything

and went back to Africa.

You tell me there's not a God that

answers prayer.

Tell me there's not a God that works in

people's lives. Yeah. Things don't

always go like we want them to go.

The Lord doesn't promise a life without

adventure or without pain.

But he does say, "I'll be with you

always, even to the end of the age.

What's the psalmist say

about the great shepherd?

Your rod and your staff comfort me.

He knew that God was with him in the

valley of the shadow of death.

What do we say?

Hopefully, we say the same thing.

Let's uh come to the table of the Lord

this morning.

Remember his death.

We don't worship a dead Jesus.

We worship him who was dead

and is alive

forever

more.

We worship him who paid for our sins and

rose again.

and may God help us to do it.

Um, Father, we come into your presence

today as we take the bread and the cup.

We're looking back.

We're looking back to 2,000 years ago

when our Lord took Passover bread,

Passover wine,

and began the Lord's supper.

He is the Passover lamb.

He's the fulfillment of what Jewish

Passover was meant to picture.

And when you see his blood, you'll pass

over us.

So if there's anyone here without

Christ,

may they realize

that the blood of Jesus Christ cleans us

from all sin.

There's no one here too bad to be saved.

There's no one here past salvation.

Not yet.

But now is the time of salvation.

So we pray if there's anyone that's not

yet a Christian, you bring them to

saving faith. The good news

will become real to them in a way it's

never been before.

And father, they put their trust in you

in repentance and faith, not in

themselves. Remember what Jesus said or

what the Old Testament says. God said,

"When I see the blood, I'll pass over

you."

Our rejoicing is not that we're so good.

It's in Jesus's blood and righteousness.

So we remember his death till he comes.

We're looking forward to his coming not

with trepidation

because we know we failed him even after

we're Christians. Not with trepidation,

but with enthusiastic

earnest

longing.

And we take the bread and the cup till

he come.

Cuz the one that's coming is the one

that died for us and rose again.

Amen.

It's our practice here at the church to

observe the Lord's supper.

Uh there's nothing in the Bible that

tells you how often to do it. Uh that's

a church's discretion.

At our church, we celebrate the Lord's

supper the second Sunday of every month

and in the morning and the fourth Sunday

of every month in the evening. And so

that's just something we've chosen to

do. Some churches do it every Sunday.

Some churches do it once a month or

every six months. Our practice here is

once on Sunday morning a month and once

on Sunday evening a month.

Call your attention to 1 Corinthians 11.

And if you're with us this morning, uh

it it's important to just kind of know

what's happening. Some churches people

come forward to take communion. We don't

do that. We pass the bread. We wait for

one another. We partake together.

And uh so that's our practice here. The

bread representing the body of our Lord.

The the cup is blood. So we're

celebrating his death till he comes. So

1 Corinthians 11:23, the Apostle Paul

1 Corinthians 11:23

writing to the Corinthians, "For I

received of the Lord that which also I

delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus

the same night in which he was betrayed

took bread."

And when he given thanks, he broke it

and said, "Take, this is my body which

is broken for you. This do in

remembrance of me." After the same

manner also he took the cup when he

sang, "This cup is the new testament of

my blood. This do as often as you drink

it in remembrance of me. So where's our

mind to be on him? Who he is and what he

did.

For as often as you eat this bread and

drink this cup, you to show or actually

preach the Lord's death till he come. So

there's a nonverbal sermon going on for

every Christian that eats and drinks.

And that sermon is, I'm a sinner like

everybody else, but there's power in the

blood and my faith is in not myself. how

good I am or my performance, but in what

Jesus did for me 2,000 years ago. I

appropriate that by faith. Eating

represents faith. Drinking represents

faith. It's personal appropriation.

Now, verse 27 has been misunderstood

many times. I'm just going to keep

reading this for a moment.

Wherefore, whoever shall eat this bread

and drink of this cup of the Lord

unworthily shall be guilty of the body

and blood of the Lord. What's that? You

don't want to do that.

Unworthily is an adverb. It's not an

adjective.

Kind of important.

If it was an adjective, none of us could

take the bread or the cup, right? For

all I'm worthy.

None of us.

It's an adverb. It refers to how we do

it with proper love and reverence and

submission and prayer and confession.

If there's something for me as a

Christian to confess, I haven't been

walking with the Lord. I shouldn't have

said that. I shouldn't have done that

this week. We all got plenty to confess.

We don't want to dwell on our sins, but

certainly Lord's supper brings us up

short. Jesus died for this. I shouldn't

have done it. I shouldn't have said it.

I confess it. This is a time to do that.

Not to do that is to eat the bread and

drink the cup unworthily. Shall be

guilty of the body and blood of the

Lord. But let a man examine himself. Not

the church examine you, not somebody

else examine you. Let a man examine

himself. So let him eat of that bread

and drink of that cup.

And even sometimes Christians might say,

you know, I came here this morning. I

didn't realize it was the Lord's supper.

Uh, I'm not really ready. I I I want to

make sure my sins are confessed.

That's okay. Just let the bread and cup

pass. Or you might say, "I'm not a

Christian. I didn't know if I'm saved."

Well, just let the cup pass.

I had to do that as a young person. I

wasn't saved. I went to church. I didn't

wasn't saved. Just let it pass.

Nobody's going to be looking at you, but

that's between you and the Lord. We're

still glad you're here.

And you don't have to be a member of our

church to take the Lord's supper with

us. You just have to be a believer in

Christ who's

ready to take the supper.

Now, the opposite of that is verse 29.

He that eats and drinks unworthily eats

and drinks judgment to himself, not

discerning the Lord's body. For this

cause many are weak and sickly among

you, and many sleep. He's talking about

Christians here. He's talking about

Christians

and uh they weren't coming prepared.

You get the bigger context. For if we

judge ourselves, we should not be

judged. But when we're judged, we're

chasing to the Lord, and we should not

be condemned with the world. Wherefore,

my brethren, when you come together to

eat, that's the love feast, tar for one

another. And if any man hunger, let him

eat at home. That's again the love feast

that preceded the Lord's supper in the

first century. But you come not together

to judgment and the rest all set in

order when I come. So we'll pass the

bread. We'll wait for one another. Just

let it pass. If you don't feel ready to

do it, that's fine. Nobody's going to

look me looking at you. Uh if you are a

Christian and you're not a member of

this church, you we have open communion

here. You're welcome to take the Lord's

supper even if you're not a member of

our assembly. Uh so uh father we thank

you for the time we can spend together.

Bless us as we come before you in this

most sacred moment

as we remember our lord's death till he

come. Amen.

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,