The Resurrection of Jesus: Easter Sunday Service | Pastor William Hixson

is the third message in a new series on

biblical teaching of the resurrection of

the dead in general and the resurrection

of Christ in particular.

So, we are definitely going to be

dealing with his resurrection,

but we're going to be dealing with our

own resurrection.

in fact the resurrection of all people

saved and unsaved

because of it.

And so in Matthew chapter 28,

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 28

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

and our text that is our launchpad

for this particular series is what we've

often called the Great Commission. the

great commission.

Matthew 28:16.

Matthew 28:16

Then the 11 disciples went away into

Galilee

into a mountain

into a mountain where Jesus hath

appointed them. Some believe some

believe that this is the same mountain

where Jesus preached the sermon on the

mount. I don't know. We don't know. the

text doesn't say.

Then when they saw him, they worshiped

him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came. And as we've said in

previous messages, he came up. He was in

the distance when he appeared.

You don't want all these people running

in all directions, scared to death.

uh he was in the distance when he

appeared and then he came up to them and

spoke to them saying

and as we've mentioned I believe that

this is not just the 11 that Matthew

mentions here but this is likely very

very likely

the time when he appeared to over 500 at

once

as Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians

And Jesus came and spoke to them,

saying, "All authority

is given unto me in heaven and in 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

whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo,

I'm with you always, even to the end of

the age." If you're new with us, uh

remind you of what we said in previous

messages. Three times the word all is

used here. And then the word always is

another form of the word all. So there's

four alls here that are all very

important if we want to understand this

particular section of scripture.

Um,

years ago when I was in seminary, I was

introduced to a book by Dr. John Walberg

who was then president of Dallas

Seminary.

Uh, but I was introduced to this book at

Grace Theological Seminary where I was

going. It's a fine book called Jesus

Christ our Lord.

Jesus Christ our Lord. and he deals with

all kinds of things concerning Jesus

Christ our Lord. It was published in

1969 by Dr. Walford.

And this is what he said. Those who

investigate the facts

concerning the resurrection of Christ

as contained in the scriptures certainly

have abundant evidence on which to rest

their faith in Jesus Christ as their

savior and God. Certainly have abundant

evidence.

Our faith is not a leap into the dark as

Saren Kirkagar

speculated.

Our faith is a step into the light of

God's

revealed word.

And it it's a step into the light and

the evidence that that light gives us.

And then Dr. That's me speaking there.

But then Dr. Walbert lists the different

appearances of the Lord in the New

Testament.

And he he believes this is the 10th

appearance out of 17.

And by 17, he's counting his appearances

to Paul and to John much later. But uh

those are just the ones that we have

recorded in our Matthew, Mark, Luke, and

John and Acts. But there are others, of

course, because he appeared to them and

ate and drank with them for 40 days.

So, they had more evidence than we've

got.

They had evidence upon evidence upon

evidence upon evidence.

The enemies of Jesus were mad because

they saw Lazarus sitting at table with

Jesus after Jesus raised him from the

dead. That made them nervous. Now we got

to kill Lazarus and him.

You can't kill your way out of the

program of God.

That's already been tried and is being

tried all over the world right now.

People are trying to kill their way out

of the program of God.

I read read in a in an article today

about a pastor and his wife. They have

little children and they're the Muslims

are trying to kill them

and they they're No, it's not Muslims.

Excuse me. That I misspoke there. It's

the the gangs in Colombia.

in Colombia and they they rescued people

from the Muslims, took him in a boat

across the river and down the river and

then he came back for his wife and

children.

Here's a guy that put the people that

needed rescued first and then came back

for his wife and children.

They're putting their necks on the line

every day. That's today. That's not

something going on now.

So, it's important for us to know that

we have a we have a job to do. We have a

ministry to partake of.

And what the Lord did here to the 12, of

course, they were apostles. They were

special in one sense.

And they did eat and drink with him for

40 days. And we don't know everything

everything that was said or done there.

But we do know all these appearances

recorded in the Bible to the point of 17

according to Dr. Wal.

Now if you had 17 videos of Pastor Hixon

robbing Hawking Valley Bank

and eyewitnesses that said, "Yeah, he

did it." You wouldn't expect this. I

mean, Pastor Hixon never thought he'd do

that, but he did it.

that that amount of witnesses would um

and plus a bank video

would count a lot, wouldn't it? Get me

convicted. How come that that's so easy

to imagine and think that this is

something not worthy of your attention?

Um God has given us overwhelming

confirmation

of what has happened. You remember, and

I've said this many times, some of you

heard me, you could put a person to

death in the Old Testament on the on the

on the testimony of two or three

witnesses. You always needed more than

one.

Two or three witnesses. That was enough

for a life a life or death decision.

And if two or three witnesses were

enough to make a life or death decision,

how about 500 plus

witnesses

that were probably here when this

commission was given or even bring it

down to the 11 surviving apostles.

That's enough. It's more than enough.

Let's not be ashamed of the gospel of

Christ.

It's the power of God to salvation to

everyone that believes.

There was a Jewish Christian, his name's

Alfred Eershim,

and he's written that massive volume,

it's about that thick, on the life and

times of Jesus, the Messiah.

He published it in 1883. It's still

being read today.

Alfred Ethersheim said, "The world would

not have been converted to a dead Jesus

Christ." The world would not have been

converted to a dead Jesus Christ.

However, his intimate disciples might

have continued to love his memory, but

they preached everywhere. First and

foremost, the resurrection of the dead.

Why does everybody all over the world

know about Jesus?

It's because he arose from the dead.

And it's because he rose from the dead

that he was proclaimed

as risen from the dead.

There's an old saying,

the church is built on the empty tomb.

You've probably heard it. It's kind of

kind of legitimate. There's a point to

it. That's true. Kind of, but it's only

half the truth.

The empty tomb is half the truth.

1 Corinthians said Jesus was buried and

rose again the third day according to

the scriptures and was seen of Cphus and

then of the 12 and then you know and he

goes on and on.

The empty tomb did not bring people to

the right conclusion by itself. It

needed more. Right? Every gospel you see

that women said they stole the body,

taken away the Lord. We don't know where

they laid him.

They got their exercise jumping to

conclusions.

But what we have in the New Testament is

not just the empty tomb. We have what?

The appearances of Jesus

that overcome that overcome all the

reticence.

To the contrary.

Now, I'm assuming you know your Bible. I

don't have to turn to these texts.

Do you remember when David was sitting

at the tables with King Saul and King

Saul became suspicious of him?

And he started throwing spears. Remember

that?

Trying to pin David to the wall.

Now, that's really not proper table

etiquette.

And if you had somebody do that to you,

would you want to eat with them again?

But in 1st Samuel 20,

David's seat was empty.

He didn't come.

And uh King Saul thought, "Well, he's

unclean."

The next day it was empty again.

Uh so he asked Jonathan, "Where's

where's David?" David said, "Oh, he's on

a trip with family."

So the first possible interpretation,

he's unclean. He's not here because he's

not ceremony unclean. Second one was

he's on a trip with his family. Neither

of those were true.

And then Saul launched into this

horrible

tirade against his own son

and started threw a spear at

David's best friend.

David's seat being empty was subject to

different interpretations.

This is what I'm trying to get. The

empty seat

was subject to different

interpretations. The empty grave was

subject to empty definite

different interpretations.

Do you remember the empty pictures of

Gideon soldiers?

The empty pictures of Gideon soldiers.

Um

uh remember they had a light inside, a

lamp inside. The empty pictures of

Gideon soldiers without the light would

have done nothing to scare the other

soldiers into thinking they were

surrounded.

So whether it's the empty seat of David

at the dinner table of Saul or the empty

pictures of Gideon,

the empty pictures, the empty seat are

not enough. It takes more and it takes

more than the empty tomb. Although the

church is built on the empty tomb, yes,

it has to be empty.

If he's still in the grave, there's no

resurrection.

But the empty the church is built on

something more than the empty tomb. It's

the church is built on the risen Christ.

The risen Christ.

It's the risen Christ that's building

his church.

So, it's just kind of important to get

that in our heads

and the significance of this 10th

appearance of the risen Lord Jesus

Christ.

Now, this appearance took place in

Galilee.

the appearances on Easter morning and

Easter evening and the appearances uh

the next week after that to Thomas and

the appearances on the Emmas road that

ended up in the appearance or it was all

in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is 60 miles from

Galilee

and remember Jesus told them and the

angels told them go to Galilee and

you'll see him. So finally they went to

Galilee.

This is not the first appearance in

Galilee. I think when Peter went fishing

and caught nothing, that was a previous

appearance in Galilee. They were up

there waiting Peter and the seven for

everybody else to show up and most

importantly for Jesus to showed up and

because they got there early, they got

an extra Jesus cooked breakfast for them

on that morning.

Now, as we move through these multiple

appearances,

we're going to do something in our

series.

Last week, we looked at the difference

between reincarnation and resurrection.

And we did that so we would emphasize

our understanding of resurrection, that

those two are mutually exclusive

concepts.

We're not going to review that.

Really, there's three options. There's

reincarnation,

there's naturalism,

and there's reincarn and there's

resurrection. Reincarnation, naturalism,

reincarnation.

And of course, naturalism says what?

When you're dead, you're dead. There's

no resurrection. There's no eternal

life. That you got a covenant with death

and it'll stand.

Reincarnation is this. You're recycled.

You're recycled like an old plastic

bottle.

You come back different than what you

were before. You're a different person,

a different body. And the karma and

karma is part of the deal there. And

nothing about forgiveness, nothing about

God being your savior. It's you save

yourself because you finally figure out

what's going on and get the right

actions to bring come back higher

instead of lower. It's all auto

esoteric.

But then there's what?

Resurrection.

So there's naturalism, atheis, which is

atheism or materialism, whichever ism

you want to make it. In their mind, when

you when you die, you cease to exist.

um

in the United States.

It's amazing to me what's going on

today.

There was just a poll taken not very

long ago. Uh

80% of the people today believe in an

afterlife.

80%.

Does it surprise you? That does me. But

guess what?

There were only 73% that believed in an

afterlife back in back in that was that

poll was taken in 2014. There were only

73% that be believed in a afterlife in

19

54.

So more people believe in an afterlife

now than ever. But they they're all

fuzzy about it. They just believe we're

going to everything's good. It's not

really anything about understanding the

Bible or understanding truth or

understanding gospel.

They're hostile to the God of the Bible,

but we're going to live forever.

Everybody Everybody's going to be there.

Entitlement culture kind of believes,

well, yeah, why would I deserve to be

anywhere else?

They don't want to be with God in this

life. I don't know why they'd want to be

with him in the next life.

or they may not even believe in God, but

they they believe they're going to be

surviving death. Tons of mixed up people

today.

Some are in churches.

So, let's come to our subject and let's

look at naturalism.

The idea when you're dead, you're dead.

That is it.

The Sadducees believed that. The Bible

says they didn't believe in angels or

spirit or resurrection.

That's what their doctrinal statement

said.

Now, how does the risen Lord deal with

people like this?

When we learn from him, we can learn how

to do it ourselves.

But this is kind of important, isn't it?

Because a lot of people that you meet

and I meet, they're either mixed up in

reincarnation or they're mixed up in

naturalism

or some even say they believe in

everybody's going to be resurrected but

they don't know how they don't know the

way of salvation or anything like that.

So, but we're going to start with the

naturalism. What what do we do here?

Well, let's look in Matthew 22.

Matthew 22.

Our Lord had plenty of contacts with the

Sadducees. It was Sadducees that killed

him, by the way.

They're the ones behind his death.

And uh

the Pharisees were involved as well.

Sadducees were the officers in the

Sanhedrin.

But in uh Matthew chapter 22,

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

everybody has their Stump the Christian

or Stump the Preacher Bible question,

don't they?

I bet if I went around, you've probably

heard a lot of Stump the Bible preach

preacher question. Where did Cain get

his wife? Oh, we got him on that. Never

be able to answer that one. Yeah,

there's plenty of easy answers on that

if you just know your Bible, but they

don't know their Bible. They just want

to make you they want to embarrass the

Christian or the preacher.

That's the kind of thing people do.

Or snakes don't talk. There's another

one.

So those kind of questions. The

Pharisees had their stump the preacher

question. No doubt they'd used it

hundreds of times

on the Pharisees who did believe in the

resurrection.

But notice in verse Matthew 22:23,

Matthew 22:23

the same day, that's the same day he

defeated the Herodians. The same day

came to him the Sadducees, Matthew

Matthew 22:23

22:23,

who say there's no resurrection. Now,

that's what they say. That's their

doctrinal statement. Here comes their

trick question. from the Bible. They're

using Bible verses and they're saying if

these verses are true, these other

verses can't be true

saying, "Master Moses said, if a man die

having no children, his brother shall

marry his wife and raise up seed to his

brother." Now there were with us,

hypothetical question, there were with

us seven brethren, and the first when he

married a wife, died, and having no

issue, that means no children, left his

wife unto his brother. This is all live

right marriage.

Likewise the second also and the third

to the seventh and last of all the woman

died also.

So in their hypothetical question this

woman killed off seven men.

Maybe it was her cooking. I don't know.

And then finally she dies.

Therefore in the resurrection whose wife

shall she be of the seven? for they all

had her. Ha ha ha. You can't answer that

one.

We got you on that one. Who's going to

be she going to have seven husbands? No

way that's going to happen in heaven.

Which of the seven are going to get her?

So if the Bible's true that marriage

should be one man, one woman,

and if if liber is the exception,

if a husband dies, she can marry the

brother. And if those things are all

true, then resurrection is ridiculous

because you'd have to end up with seven

husbands in there.

What's how Jesus going to answer that

one?

He answers it with a Bible verse.

He answers it with Exodus chapter 3. He

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

answers it with the tense of a verb.

The tense of a verb

in a Bible verse at the burning bush

where God says, "I am the God of

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." He didn't

say, "I was the God of Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob to Moses." He said, "I am the

God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

That's a tense of a verb. Jesus, why is

it important to read the Bible

carefully?

Jesus makes an argument on the tense of

a verb. That's not the only time he does

it.

And Jesus answered and said, "You do air

not knowing the scriptures." How many

people heir because they don't know the

Bible? I got into all kinds of trouble

as a young person because I'd never read

the Bible through, not even once.

You wouldn't

Well, my friend Larry Simmons here, he

knew kind of the stuff I got into, but

it was because I didn't know the Bible.

He said, "You do Jesus said, you don't

you do not knowing the scriptures nor

the power of God. For in the

resurrection, they need neither marry

nor are given in marriage. Marriage

isn't for the afterlife. That doesn't

mean we won't have social relationships,

but we don't need marriage. Why? Because

they'll be like the angels of God in

heaven. What's that mean? It means you

don't die. So, you don't need to

multiply because you don't die.

People are think they're so smart around

the world. The Chinese have done this.

The Europeans have done it. Oh, we don't

want to have kids. And then they wonder

why their society's gone down. we're not

multiplying.

So you lose your culture.

And so we're, you know, we are to marry,

we are to have children. That's

important.

That's biblical.

And so, but anyway, uh, as we do do

these things and as we think about these

things, we also know that marriage is

for this life.

There'll be no ch marriage in heaven

because there's no death in heaven for

Christians.

We don't have to re replenish ourselves.

We'll be like the angels. Now, we're not

going to become angels. Don't say that.

That's a heresy. We'll be like the

angels in one way. We won't be able to

die. Angels don't die. All the angels

are as old as the hills, right?

They all celebrated when God started

creating this earth.

They're all the same age.

No baby angels, no teenage angels.

So that's the picture. So Jesus said,

"You heir, you don't know the scriptures

or the power of God." And for in the

resurrection, they neither married nor

given in marriage. You say, "Well, I

kind of like being married. That's going

to be a hard thing. Whatever the social

relationships in heaven are going to be,

they'll be better than the ones down

here.

but are like the angels of God in

heaven. But is touching the resurrection

of the dead? Have you not read? Have you

not read? Is Jesus going to have hold us

accountable for reading a Bible that

he's given us? Yes.

Have you not read

that which was spoken to you by God?

Spoken to you by God. Yeah. It's in your

Bible, so it's spoken to you. It was

spoken to Moses. But what God said to

Moses is written down so God can speak

to you. God wants you to know about the

burning bush. God wants you to know

about the commission of Moses. God wants

you to know it very very well. And the

tense of the verb proves it. God says,

"I am the God of Abraham, the God of

Isaac, the God of Jacob." And Jesus

added, "God's not the God of the dead,

but of the living."

In other words, Moses, Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob all survived death.

God's not the God of the dead.

He's a God of the living.

But surviving death, if your spirit uh

survives death when it leaves your body,

it implies something else. Resurrection.

That's that's a teaching of the Old

Testament. You don't survive death just

to be a spirit all eternity. You get

your body back.

And when the multitude heard this,

they were astonished

at his gospel.

Um,

how does God work? He works through

scripture.

He advances an argument on the tense of

a verb.

Is it important for us to know our

Bibles?

Yes.

And so very important. Everything Jesus

says is very important. And this

Sadducees were trying to say if this one

thing is true, this other thing can't be

true. And Jesus says, no, you're the

ones that are wrong. You don't know your

Bibles. You think you do. You know

nothing.

So the in the power of God

uh

the dead are raised and

no one has to multiply after they die

because nobody's going to die anymore.

That's a good thing.

A good thing.

So God's relationship with his people

outlast physical death.

He knows them. He knows his plan for

them. And his plan is revealed.

Now, there's other passages in the Old

Testament about resurrection, very

clear. Daniel chapter 12, uh, uh, Psalm

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

22. There's many other passages that are

very clear about survival after death.

But Jesus used it used their own because

the Sadducees only believed in the first

five books of the Bible. They didn't

believe the rest of Sadducees did or the

Pharisees did. Rest of the Jews did. But

the Sadducees only would take the first

five. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,

Numbers, Deuteronomy. So he nailed them

with their own scripture.

Now there's an application to us.

If you had a Jehovah Witness coming to

you and trying to spread his doctrine

that Jesus isn't God, he's a god, but

he's not God

and he came to you with John 1:1, would

John 1:1

you know how to defeat that?

Their their their translation of John

John 1:1

1:1 is a god.

The only problem with their translation

is Greek doesn't have an indefinite

article. It has a definite article, no

indefinite article. just a very basic

fact

and the emphasis of John 1:1 is the the

John 1:1

quality of Jesus's deity.

Uh so we ought to know something like

that. How about the plurality of the

godhead? Deuteronomy 6, if you deal with

a Jewish person here, O Israel, the Lord

our God is one. And they bring they

bring the shea to you and what am I

going to do with that? Says there's only

one God. How can there be three persons

called God? How can there be a plurality

in the Godhead?

Well, I hope we understand something

basic.

There's two Hebrew words for one.

Two different Hebrews words for one. And

the one used in Deuteronomy 6 that the

Jews quote all the time is a hod.

It's a unity that includes a plurality.

It's the same word used of Adam and Eve

are one flesh. That's two people, one

flesh.

It's used of the two sticks in Ezekiel

uh representing the nation of Israel and

uh the nation of Judah. And the two are

become one. It's

so it's not a oneness that excludes a

plurality within the oneness. It's a

oneness that includes a plurality within

the oneness. We should, these are basic

things that pastors should teach their

people that people ought to know. If

you're going to witness to a Jew, you

need to know that. If you're going to

witness to Jehovah Witness, you need to

know John 1:1 and what it says and what

John 1:1

it doesn't say. Now, by the way, I've

done that and had them stick right with

their own message even right after I did

it. Just don't know what to do with that

except pray for that person.

But we ought to be able to give an

answer to every man that ask us of a

reason for the hope that's within us. If

we're working with a Roman Catholic, do

we know how to work with a Roman

Catholic?

They claim to be Christians

and some of them are in spite of their

church. But do we know how to deal with

a Roman Catholic?

You understand their view of

justification

is completely and totally off. They

believe justification means to make

righteous and that goes with their whole

system of salvation where the church

saves you through this right and that

right and so forth else to make

righteous. But de Caillou never ever

ever in Greek in Greek literature, not

just the Bible, but in the Bible and

outside the Bible, it never means to

make righteous. It always means to

declare righteous.

And that's the whole reformation.

That's justification where you're

declared just. It's a legal declaration.

It's not dealing with our conduct. It's

dealing with our status.

So important stuff. Do we know how to

show that the resurrection of Christ is

according to the Old Testament? That

there's Old Testament verses that the

Messiah would be raised. There is Psalm

16 was one the early church used. Psalm

22,

Isaiah 53 when Christ died for our sins

according to the scriptures. Those are

basic basic things.

So the Lord Jesus when he would deal

with the naturalist

deals with them with scripture and they

say I don't believe the scripture. Well,

I do.

You got to think about this.

And we we we we don't let they want to

shut the conversation down by saying, "I

don't believe the scripture."

And but most if you ask them, "What? You

don't believe the scripture? You must

have read the Bible through. If you

don't believe the Bible, you must have

read it all the way through."

I'll guarantee you 99.9% of them will

have to answer no. I've never read it.

They haven't even read the New

Testament.

They don't believe.

But it takes biblically literate people

to minister to lost people, to

Sadducees. Even though they don't

believe the Bible, we do believe it. And

we are to quote it and trust it won't

come back.

What did Jesus do on the road to Emmas?

He started at Moses

and then the Psalms and then the

prophets and did what?

Told him all the scriptures concerning

himself. He didn't just say, "Here I am.

Recognize me?" He did that. But he did

others as well that the Old Testament

predicted and pictured his resurrection

before it ever happened.

So our Lord dealt with the materialist,

the naturalist, the atheistic

person kind of person with scripture.

Even though they don't believe the

scriptures, he dealt with it. He dealt

with the Sadducees with the scriptures.

They did believe uh well kind of believe

at least professed to believe. So he

dealt with people scripturally. So, we

need to know this book, don't we? If if

I one thing this Easter, I need to know

the Bible. I need to know better than I

know it now. I need to know this book.

What did Jesus do on earth on what' he

do on Easter? What did he do when he was

resurrection? He was opening the Bible

to him all the time.

So, may God help us to have that

conviction that in the year 2026, I'm

going to read through the New Testament.

I'm going to read through the Old

Testament for the next year. Going to

learn the Bible better than I know it.

And then the next year, for the rest of

my life, I'll start over again.

So, the Lord dealt with uh

people scripturally. Second, he deals

with people strategically.

Strategically.

This is very very important.

And this is how he dealt with uh the

Sanhedrin that was governed by

Sadducees. Our Lord deals with people

strategically. He outmaneuvered his

opponent like a general is dealing

strategically in a way that can produce

effective and helpful results by

outmaneuvering the opponent.

Remember the uh story about the prodical

son, the parable of the prodical son.

You remember why Jesus told that

parable?

Because he had people criticizing him

for receiving sinners.

He told that parable to people say,

"You're you're wrong. You're you're

hanging out with sinners. You're you're

spending too much time with sinners."

And they were trying to make it a bad

thing.

And in the pro prodical son parable,

what is that all about?

The the so-called prodal son is not as

bad as the son that wasn't the prodal

that was self-righteous and criticizing

the father in the parable about

receiving

his brother after he spent his money on

harlots and so forth. Just like the

critics of Jesus were criticizing him

for spending time with sinners. So he

dealt with them strategically.

Our Lord is a master chess player.

You've heard the expression

three-dimensional chess.

Three-dimensional chess. The Pharisees

were playing checkers. Jesus was playing

three-dimensional chess.

He outthought them.

He was observing them and he knew how to

bring the scriptures to bear on them.

Just like a chess master knows what

piece to do. He'll sacrifice some pieces

to get you into a place where you're

cornered.

The Lord Jesus knows how to do these

things. Turn to Matthew chapter 27.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

This one makes me laugh.

Matthew 27.

Now, this is a providential thing, not a

scriptural thing.

But in Matthew 27,

I want you to notice what happens.

In verse 62,

Matthew 27:62,

Matthew 27:62

watch what happens. The enemies of Jesus

crucified him.

And now they start being worried about

the disciples coming and stealing the

body and saying he's risen.

They didn't think about that at the

beginning, but they start thinking about

it. So they wanted to get the jump on

the disciples

and on Jesus. Matthew 27:62. Now the

Matthew 27:62

next day that followed, the day of

preparation, the chief priests and

Pharisees came together to Pilate,

saying, "Sir, we remember that the

deceiver said, while he was yet alive,

after three days, I'll rise again." We

remember that. We remember what he was

saying. The funny thing is they

remembered it and the Christians forgot

it. His

enemies remembered it.

And so they said, "Command therefore

that the suppler be made sure until the

third day. Only think three days." Three

days is all we need. Three days guard at

the and then we can go away cuz he said

third day.

Lest his disciples come by night and

steal him away and say to the people,

"He's risen from the dead. So the last

air will be worse than the first."

Pilate said, "Go, you have got a watch.

Go your way. Make it as strong as you

can, as sure as you can." So they went

and made the supplicer sure, sealing the

stone, setting the watch. What did his

enemies do? They guarded the tomb. They

sealed the tomb.

Oh, they did more than that.

They revealed that they heard what Jesus

said about rising from the dead the

third day. It wasn't just the Christians

that said it.

It was the people who murdered him said

he said it.

He said he's going to rise from the

dead. He said he's going to do it on the

third day. They actually put that out

there to Pilate.

Now, this is a fascinating thing. How

embarrassing for them

because the enemy, we got proof that

Jesus said he'd rise from the dead, not

from believers, but from unbelievers.

that this is what he really said.

This is strategic. This is a strategic

move on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Uh

and what a defeat it was for them. So

you know what General Patton was in

World War II to the German armies. Jesus

was in his conduct on this occasion to

the uh his enemies in the Sanhedrin. He

just he just ran over them.

He got them to legitimize his own

prophecies

to pilot to the point it's in our Bible

today. There's no matching Jesus here.

You can't out You can't out You can't

out think him.

People think they're so smart.

I'm mentioning chess, but I used to play

chess with my dad. I couldn't hardly

beat my dad. He always beat me, but I'd

play checkers with my grandfather and I

couldn't win checkers from my

grandfather. He just he'd play checkers

with me and and I thought I was winning

and then all of a sudden he jumped four

on my checkers and crowned himself and

okay, don't play checkers with an old

man

knows what he's doing.

So, our Lord dealt with his enemies

scripturally. He dealt with them

strategically, but that wasn't the main

thing. The main thing was

supernaturally.

That's what Easter's all about. He He

rose.

They wanted to kill Lazarus because he

rose in a much different way than Jesus

did. And they then they wanted to kill

Jesus. And they definitely wanted to

keep him dead,

but he arose a victor over the dark

domain

supernatural.

And you know, he is the one that all

that are in the graves are going to hear

his voice

and come forth. What the Bible, that's

what Jesus said. John five, all saved

and unsaved going to come forth.

Some are going to come forth to in a

good way to heaven and to eternity with

him. Some are going to come forth to

judgment, but they're all going to come

forth.

And that's a blessed thought and it's a

good thought.

And um Jesus said, "I'm with you always,

even to the end of the age. I'm a risen.

I'm ascended. I'm ascending. Uh and I

will still be doing miracles.

I'm risen so I can raise the dead. The

spiritually dead. Spiritual spiritual

death is harder to overcome than

physical death. I hope we all understand

that.

That dead body in the grave does not

resist.

Your dead soul does resist.

Spiritual resurrection is harder to

accomplish than physical resurrection.

So, if you're a saved person and you've

been born again, God's already done the

hard part.

He didn't leave your soul in death as

Ephesians 2 talks about and other

places. And we're new creatures in

Christ

as 2 Corinthians talks about. So, our

Lord deals with this thing

supernaturally, his own resurrection,

but then the resurrection of others

spiritually. He opened Lydia's heart,

which means her heart was closed. She

was spiritually dead. He's opening

hearts of people today

and u

thank God for that. Now ma Acts 23 and

I'm done. Acts 23 and I'm done.

Now this Lord Jesus who rose from the

dead uh script scripturally who deals

with his enemies that deny it

strategically.

He also deals with people

supernaturally.

He opened Lydia's heart. He opened the

Philippians jailer's heart.

He opened your heart. He opened my

heart.

And thank God for it. In Matthew 23, we

have the Apostle Paul.

And here, Paul was a Pharisee. Remember

that? He wasn't a Sadducee. He believed

in the resurrection. He just didn't

believe in Jesus

or Jesus's resurrection.

But Paul finds himself providentially

being brought before not just the whole

city of Jerusalem in the temple in that

riot, but now to the Sanhedrin.

This was an incredible moment.

And Paul wasn't perfect at this moment.

He lost his temper

and the Bible records it.

But I want you to notice what happened.

Acts 23 verse one. And Paul earnestly

beholding the council said, "Men and

brethren, I've lived in all good

conscience before God to this day." And

the high priest, Annis, Ananas,

commanded them to stood by to smite him

on the mount. Here's where Paul lost his

temper. You and I probably would, too.

Then Paul said, "God's going to smite

you, you might wall, for sendest thou to

judge me after the law, and command me

to be smitten contrary to the law."

Now, Paul was right, but he wasn't right

with a loud voice. He lost his temper.

And they that stood by said, "Revile

thou God's high priest? Do you know who

you're talking to?" And Paul had to eat

some toenails there, right? Foot and

mouth.

Then said Paul, "I knew not." It was,

"Brethren, he's a high priest. For it's

written, you'll not speak evil of the

ruler of your people. You respect the

office even you don't respect the man."

But here comes the great point. Remember

the Sanhedrin is made up of Sadducees

and Pharisees.

Quote, "And Paul, he was a Pharisee

before he was saved. In fact, his dad

was a Pharisee."

So Paul wasn't just a Pharisee, he was

the son of a Pharisee. He had double

qualifications of any of those guys in

that room.

So what Paul does is he divides the

herd.

He knows the Sadducees aren't going to

hear.

He knows the only body that's going to

even give him any half of listening is

the Pharisees.

So this is what he does. When Paul

perceived that one part were Sadducees

and the other Pharisees, he cried out in

the council, "Men and brethren, I'm a

Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, and of

the hope of the resurrection of the

dead, I'm called into question."

And when he so said, there arose a

dissension between the Pharisees and

Sadducees, and the multitude was

divided. For the Sadducees say, there's

no resurrection, neither angel nor

spirit. But the Pharisees confess both.

And there arose a great cry. And the

scribes, the Pharisee party arose and

said, "We find no evil in this man, but

if a spirit or angel spoken to him,

let's not fight against God." And when

there arose a great dissension,

the chief captain, fearing Paul should

have been pulled in pieces by them,

commanded the soldiers to go down and

take him by force from among them and to

bring him into the barracks.

You know, he got the truth out

as best he could

to that group of murderers,

Pharisees and Sadducees.

Sometimes we we mess up in our witness.

We say, "Oh, if I had just said more, if

I'd have just done a little differently,

that person got mad. They got upset.

They left.

And Paul must have been feeling real bad

about it. Started a riot in the temple.

People says not fit for him to live. Now

in Sanhedrin probably thought I blew it

again. Notice the next verse. The night

following the Lord stood by him

and said, "Be good cheer, Paul.

They hated your sermon

in Jerusalem. They wanted to kill you

for it.

They they persecuted you and twisted

everything in the Sanhedrin.

They hated everything you said.

That's what Jesus is saying.

That stumbling and that difficulty and

that chaos. Be a good cheer, Paul. For

as you've testified of me in Jerusalem,

so must you bear witness to Rome. going

to be bad in Rome, too. It's going to be

tough over there. But I like what you

did. I liked how how you did it.

And we're not after results. We're after

honoring our blessed Lord.

So may God help us to think about these

things. One last thought and I'm done.

I love the story in 2 Kings 7:7-9.

2 Kings 7:7–9

The city of Samaria is being besieged

by the Syrians

and the Jews in that city of Samaria are

starving.

They're starving to death. People are

eating their children.

They eat all eating all the horses. A

horrible situation.

when they're starving inside the gate.

The enemies have got them surrounded.

There's four lepers outside the city

gate.

They're starving.

Nobody wants them in the city.

And they said, "We're going to die.

If we go in the city, there's no food

there.

If we stay here, we're going to die.

let's go to the Syrians and just say we

give up.

Maybe they'll feed us.

And that's what they do. So they take

off for the army camp. They're between

the city and the army camp surrounding

the city and they go there and

everybody's gone.

The Lord had caused them to hear the

approaching army. It was a supernatural

event. And the the the Assyrians all got

scared and ran. They left their money.

They left their food. They left their

tents. They left their armor. They were

just out off to the hills as fast. And

so the lepers are in there. They go to

one tent. They eat. They're eating

eating. And they go to another tent.

They're grabbing silver and gold. Let's

stick this away and go bury it

someplace. And they're having a great

time.

And they do that for quite a while. And

then the one says, "Wait a minute. We're

not doing good.

We're not doing right.

People in the city are starving.

This is a day of good news. That's what

it says. A day of good news. Ain't that

what the gospel is? A day of good news.

Get the connection.

If we keep doing this and we don't go

tell them the good news that they need

to hear to save them, whether they

believe us or not, we're really going to

be in trouble.

So they stopped everything they were

doing. No more eating. No more stuffing

stuff away for letter a better time.

They went and told him it. And then of

course a lot of the people didn't

believe it. Finally somebody went out

and checked out that it was right.

And one one guy was an officer in the

king's army.

When he heard about all of he said,

"If the Lord would open the windows of

heaven, would such a thing be true,

the prophet said, "You're going to see

it, but you're not going to eat of it."

And the people trampled him in the gate.

It's an amazing story. I encourage you

to read it.

That was good news. Some believed it,

some didn't believe it. Those that

didn't believe it uh got judged. Those

that did believe it were blessed. But

the lepers themselves believed it,

proclaimed it, and God used it.

We're like those lepers. I hate to tell

you like this. We're like those lepers.

We got a good news to proclaim. We know

it's good news. We're not supposed to

hold back.

He's risen.

Finally, the church grew up in the day

of Pentecost.

120 people stood up

affirming everything Peter was saying.

And then the 11 stood up or 12 with

Peter and Peter preached the gospel

in the very city

that murdered him. And he did it

strategically because Jesus was the

general. I want you to begin at

Jerusalem

and then Judea and then Samaria and then

the uttermost part

of the earth.

Begin at the city that murdered me.

Do you think that was easy?

That's a tough assignment,

but they did it.

They did it. Why? What would give them

the courage to do it? Because they knew.

They kill us. They just kill us. We're

going to be risen. Jesus is risen. He's

going to rise us from the dead. And

we're doing it.

Plus, Peter knew that he wasn't going to

die. He was going to die, but not till

he got old. So, he was he was safe if

nobody else was. He was still young.

He stood up.

Are we standing up?

Do we believe it? Do we proclaim it?

Do we suffer for it?

May God give us the courage as a church

and as individuals to tell people who

need to hear. Whether they hear or

whether they forbear, as God told

Ezekiel, whether they listen or they

don't listen, whether they like it or

they hate it, we we tell them God loves

you. Jesus died for you. He rose again

from the dead. There's good news and you

need to hear it.

May God give us grace to do that

lovingly, persistently, and boldly.

Father, we pray if there's anybody here

that does not yet know the Lord, may you

supernaturally work. People are born

again through the word.

And may through us, may you

strategically work.

Help us, Father,

minister to others scripturally.

It is the sword of the spirit.

Strategically doing our best to reach as

many as we can with the gospel

and supernaturally

trusting God for a miracle because we

have to have that miracle if anybody's

ever going to get saved.

That people do pass from death into life

spiritually

even now. And we pray for our families,

our friends,

our neighbors,

churchgoers who are deceived

by this false teaching or that false

teaching.

And we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

We will have service again at four

o'clock today. I hope you can come to

that afternoon service. Let's open our

hymn books to number 326.

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.