The Holy Terror of the Resurrection
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Summary
In America, most Easter services or Resurrection Day services focus almost entirely on the personal comfort that comes from the resurrection. But when we flip the resurrection right side up, we see something far greater. The resurrection is not primarily about the comfort we receive, it is about the fear and reverence now required to belong to Jesus Christ.
Transcript
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This is kind of my aim today, to turn the resurrection right side up, to turn the resurrection
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right side up. In America, most Easter services or Resurrection Day services focus almost entirely
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on this idea of the personal comfort to weary souls about the resurrection, that Jesus defeated
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death so that you can have peace and hope. Now, that is true, and that is also beautiful.
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It's like admiring a masterpiece, which is still a masterpiece, but I think it's upside down.
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When we flip the resurrection right side up, we see something far greater.
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the resurrection is not primarily about the comfort we receive
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it is about the fear and the reverence and the total allegiance now required to jesus christ
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and we're going to see that in this text today it's not primarily about you
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Peter grasped this in his sermon at Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2, that says,
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Therefore, let all of you know for certain that God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ.
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Paul captures it in Philippians 2, 9 through 11. It says,
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Therefore, God has highly exalted and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
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so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth
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and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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Luke says in Acts 17, 30 through 31, quote, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he
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commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the
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world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance
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to all by raising him from the dead. The resurrection is not merely about admiration.
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It's about coronation. It's about crowning Christ. It's about revealing who he is.
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it's not primarily about our joy it's primarily about his identity do we get joy out of his
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identity absolutely but it is not about us primarily it is about him
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ultimately if there was any doubt about who jesus was the resurrection eliminated that doubt
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If there was any wavering allegiance of faith or devotion, the resurrection eliminated it.
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If there was any thought that he was just a good man, or just a good teacher, or just a great rabbi, the resurrection eliminated it.
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the resurrection is terrifying and fearful because it reveals who you owe all loyalty
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and devotion and allegiance and worship and faithfulness and obedience
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it reveals for a fact who owns your life that's what the resurrection does
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and we're going to go verse by verse but I am going to put a little bit of an
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so they departed quickly from the tomb with fear
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afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
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or demonstrated or manifested by having others speak
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or announce on your behalf. Okay, an angel announces
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the conception of Jesus to Mary. We see an angel announces his birth to the shepherds. We see John
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the Baptist announce his ministry to the world. And now an angel announces his resurrection
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to these female disciples. Now, this announcement comes immediately after the guards witnessed this
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extreme, brilliant, bright light, and they stood paralyzed in terror.
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Now, I want you to notice something important here. The angels don't tell the guards,
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do not be afraid, okay? But the angel does tell the women to not be afraid. He offers no comfort
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to the guards. He lets them remain in their fear and their
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paralyzation and their terror. But again, in contrast, he goes to
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the women and he says gently, do not be afraid. And I think this
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is a powerful example that God does not comfort the wicked. The
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only comfort is condemnation that you might turn. But God does
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not bring comfort to the wicked. Isaiah 48, 22 says, there is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.
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I think of the alternative of this particular verse is Psalm 34, verse 7. It says, the angel
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of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them. I think it's what we're seeing here
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with this angel. Here the angel says, do not be afraid. I know that you seek Jesus who
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was crucified. Now notice that the word crucified is in the past tense. Why does that matter?
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Well, because without a real death, there is no real atonement. And without a real atonement,
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there's no real gospel. There's no real forgiveness, no reconciliation, no redemption, no salvation.
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If Christ was not actually crucified and actually killed, then he truly did not pay the penalty of death that is deserved for our sins.
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And if Christ did not die and bear God's wrath on our behalf, then we will bear it ourselves.
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And so there's a lot of theological, forensic, complicated, but beautiful truths wrapped up in these very simple words.
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And that's why the angel's words are so precise.
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He says, I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified, not appeared to be crucified, not seemed to suffer, but was crucified.
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Now, crucified is basically a synonym for tortured to death.
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Any claim that softens or denies the death of Christ stands in direct opposition to Scripture.
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If you get into the apologetic arena around the resurrection,
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certainly the argument surrounds this particular moment.
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They want to soften or deny the death of Christ,
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And that is the Bible does not present a symbolic sacrifice, but a real one, a real death.
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And it's why scripture says that Christ was the lamb who was slain, who was slain.
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It actually has a really an emphasis of being forcefully killed or forcefully killed under judgment.
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That's why Paul says, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
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Over and over, the crucifixion is a very important dimension of the gospel.
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Without the death of Christ, you cannot have the death of death, which we will get to here shortly.
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The angel continues in verse 6, he says, he is not here, for he has risen as he said.
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So the last words you expect to hear when you're trying to go visit somebody who's dead is,
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Now, as I was studying this, I was trying to put myself in the experience and the context of the disciples,
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especially those that had walked with him for some time, including Mary Magdalene, who was here.
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Now, as shocking as this statement, he has risen, is to us, I'm not sure it was as jarring to the
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disciples, and let me tell you for two reasons. First, just weeks earlier, Jesus had raised
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Lazarus from the dead, just like a few weeks before this moment. He had raised Lazarus from
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the dead. Before that, he had raised Jairus' daughter. Before that, he had raised the widow's
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son. And so to the disciples, resurrection, while incredibly astonishing, it wasn't outside of their
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very recent experience. It's something that Jesus did three times in his ministry.
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and the second reason is Jesus had clearly told his disciples that he would rise from the dead
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now to be clear I do not believe that they fully understood his words in fact scripture says
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that every time he said something about the resurrection it said that they didn't fully
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understand and I think because of their weak faith at this particular time that when he died
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It's not like Jesus was trying to conceal this.
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I'm just letting you guys know I'm going to die.
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and i'm going to rise now this is not just some sort of passing or isolated remark the gospels
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record explicitly three times that's recorded nine times in the actual gospel corpus
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but he also has three additional implicit statements about him being raised from the
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dead as well. So there's really six very clear statements about Jesus saying, I'm going to die
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and I'm going to raise. He even clarifies in most of them on the third day. The first is Matthew 16
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verses 21. It says, from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
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and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the
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third day be raised. Okay, so this is like a statement that he's saying from that time he
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began to show. He could have said it many times. He could have been consistently teaching on it.
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So at some degree, I generally believe that they didn't understand and that their weak faith
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didn't actually believe that Jesus was going to resurrect. But I also don't believe that they
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were as shocked as we might think they were when they found out that he did rise from the dead.
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For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them,
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The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him.
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And when he is killed after these days, he will rise.
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But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him.
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So again, it's not that they didn't have the information.
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He said to them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished,
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for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.
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And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise, end quote.
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So again, just, it's over and over, and they're hitting it intellectually,
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but it's not translating particularly into a belief from the degree of the soul.
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But then we also have statements like Matthew 12 40 that says, for just as Jonah was three days
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and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the son of man be three days and three
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nights in the heart of the earth. It's not explicit, but it's pretty close.
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And they were coming down from the mountain
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So Jesus says this over and over throughout his ministry.
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I think it was almost, oh my goodness, he did it.
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I think there could have been some element there that we don't know.
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This is me putting myself in the shoes of the disciples.
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but we know that jesus's claims were so often that even his enemies had heard that he was
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making them in matthew 27 63 through 64 the pharisee said to pilate sir we remember that
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when he was still alive that deceiver said quote after three days i am to rise again
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therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day lest the disciples go and steal him
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away and tell the people he has risen from the dead. This wasn't like a hidden statement.
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It's not like, oh my goodness, I never expected such a thing. Certainly there was some of that,
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but there are certainly the information had been communicated.
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So while the news of his resurrection would have been shocking, it wasn't entirely
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unconceivable or inconceivable to the disciples.
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Now, what made this resurrection so unique was this.
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This is where I think they might have stumbled.
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Whether it's the Old Testament, whether it's the New Testament,
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every resurrection in Scripture has a man standing over the dead.
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When Jairus' daughter is raised, Jesus is there.
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When the widow's son is raised, Jesus is there.
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In every case, the power appears to be located in the man who is speaking.
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Whether it's the prophet Elisha in the Old Testament,
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But here, in this particular moment of Jesus in the tomb, the scene is reversed.
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No prophet, no apostle, no human voice calling him back to life.
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The one who called the dead to life is himself dead.
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what does that show us that should start making you think theologically here
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what does that mean what's the implication here
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the power has never merely been in the man it was always in god god is the one who raises the dead
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God is the one that raised Christ from the dead
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this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan
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you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men
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like what's the theological significance of the resurrection
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Some of you have been Christians for 10 to 15 to 20 to 30 years.
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You should be able to explain to me what's the significance of that verse.
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We know that the scriptures say that the wages of sin is death.
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The reason that you must die is because of sin.
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the death is the consequence of sin the reason people die now check this out the reason people
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die and stay dead is because they're sinners the reason people die and stay dead is because they
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are sinners now let me give you something real quick lazarus lazarus died and was resurrected
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But did you know that above his tomb says, Lazarus, twice dead.
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Lazarus died again, and he's not here right now.
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So the reason people die and stay dead is because the wages of sin is death.
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see but here's the here's the very important theological implication Christ had no sin
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and because he had no sin death could not hold him you've heard that phrase death could not hold
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him he did not deserve to die if a man has no sin and dies he must be resurrected
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in fact acts 2 24 goes on to say god raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not
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possible for him to be held by it he couldn't be held by death because it would have been an
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injustice a divine injustice and what i want you to see is that the resurrection of christ
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is not just a biological miracle. That's not what it is. It's not, oh my goodness,
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his body started working again. That's not what's being communicated here.
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It is a forensic and judicial statement. It is a statement about his identity,
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about who he is. God is publicly vindicating Jesus. Everybody called him a sinner and killed
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him as a sinner. And Jesus is vindicated through the resurrection. When Jesus rises up from
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the grave, it is God's way of saying, this man has no sin. In other words, if Christ had
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not been raised, you have to make two conclusions. Number one is that Christ was a sinner and
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he deserved to die and he paid the consequences of his sin with his own death. That's the first
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conclusion. The second conclusion is that God failed to vindicate a righteous man. Those are
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the only options you have. Had Christ not been resurrected, that's what you got. Either Christ
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was a sinner or God is not righteous and he's unjust. Those are the only options theologically
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that you have. But neither can be true without the entire gospel collapsing.
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So the resurrection is not just a man coming back to life. The resurrection declares
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that Christ was perfectly righteous. Unlike the first Adam who failed to keep
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God's commandments, Jesus is the second Adam that kept the commandments perfectly.
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You were born in Adam, and because you were born of Adam, you will die like Adam.
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You must now be born again in Christ, the second Adam.
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And if you are born in Christ, you will rise like the second Adam.
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Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead.
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you got to think these statements are go quickly and tell the disciples that he was truly the
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sinless eternal man he was the son of god go tell them the implications of what has just happened
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and it says that behold he is going before you to galilee there will there you will see him see
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Verse 8, so they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.
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Now, in God's perfect wisdom, he chose to reveal the resurrection first, not to John, not to Peter, not to James, but to three women.
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to three women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Joanna.
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Now, I think this is spectacular for two reasons.
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First, nobody inventing this story would say that the resurrection was first seen by three women.
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Now, if you don't understand the context of this particular time, a woman's testimony was considered legally worthless in a first century.
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So, to make up a story, to communicate that Jesus resurrected and three women came and told us,
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would not have been wise if you were trying to convince people of your lie.
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Second, this was a profound act of dignity and honor toward women.
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Christianity has done more to dignify and elevate women than any other religion.
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We are now in a time, I just watched a video, of somebody asking white, liberal American women,
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would you rather hang out with a conservative American Trump supporter
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or someone running down the street saying, Allah Akbar.
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And over and over and over again, these white liberal women said,
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oh, I would much stand with the Muslim woman or Muslim man.
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Yes, I would stand, I feel safer and more at peace with the Muslim man.
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while the world often claims to champion women it is the gospel that declares that they are
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made in the image of God equally precious in his sight and worthy to be the first heralds of the
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resurrection now the other side of this verse is an abuse and a perversion that I've heard many
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times they use this verse to argue that this is the justification for women pastors okay this is
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it right here. See, look, if the women can preach the first or the resurrection of Christ,
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they can certainly pass through the church of God, correct?
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Now, this is foolish because it's the same as saying something like the angel also decided
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to tell the incarnation to shepherds in the field. Therefore, every pastor must be shepherding
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actual sheep. It'd be a weird comparison. No, the reality is that
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that God sovereignly chose women to be the first witnesses does not overturn
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the clear pattern, instruction, commandment, and clarity in the scriptures about who is to rule
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in having women be the leadership model for the church,
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was a man. Now we finally arrived at this last line. It says, so they departed quickly from the
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tomb with fear and great joy. Now notice those two emotions that are held together, fear and great
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joy. It's kind of a weird contradiction there. How many times in your life are you filled with fear
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and great joy? Not many. That seems like a very strange combination.
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but i don't think it's a contradiction it's the only right response to the resurrection when you
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finally see it right side up there is a wrong fear that you could have a malicious fear a terror
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and that is the fear i think the guards felt when they trembled like dead men as it says in the
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passage but this is a fear of those who know that they are guilty that's a very different fear
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that's a fear of death that's a fear of condemnation
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but there is also a righteous fear a holy fear a holy terror
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that makes you surrender to christ and that is the fear the women felt
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It is the fear of which scripture speaks when it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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Ultimately, the resurrection is terrifying precisely because it reveals who Jesus is.
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That is, if you could take one thing away today.
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the resurrection is terrifying precisely because it reveals who jesus really is
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it's not just that he rose it's that god has made him both christ and lord
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it is that he now bears the name above every name and that every knee will bow
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It is that he now sits on the judgment seat over your eternity.
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It is now that he holds the keys of death and Hades in his hands.
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It is now that he possesses all authority in heaven and on earth.
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The resurrection does not merely comfort us, it sobers us.
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and he says away from me I do not know you there are many people that have come to church
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and never came to Christ you're a dead man sitting in a pew happens all the time I preach
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the gospel to Christians just as much as I preach it preach it to pagans in America where people
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grew up feeling like they had some sort of emotional experience, but their life has never
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changed. They don't conform to anything. If you asked, where's the fruit? Who's the Lord of your
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life? Do you make sacrifice? Do you submit to the obedience and the law of God? And for many people,
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it's no. No. The terror and the glory of the resurrection is that Jesus cannot be an add-on
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to your life. We're not looking for Sunday-only Christianity. We're not looking for quiet
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Christianity, isolated Christianity, compartmentalized Christianity. Do you think the disciples lived
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like that? Do you think that there was any part of their life that was not fully given over to
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Christ, that their allegiance was somehow mixed between multiple things? Do you think they left
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after the resurrection and go, you know what, I think I'm gonna just go, I'm gonna go back to work
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it should permeate every possible area of your life c.s lewis famously said jesus is either a
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lunatic a liar or lord there are no other options
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today is a day that we recognize who christ is and that we might bow
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And so may we leave this place today like those women,
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We thank you for the great story of redemption,
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for the great work that you've accomplished on our behalf.
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Lord, we ask that you would help us to understand
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That we would see Christianity as a totalizing faith.
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That we would be devout, consistent, committed, obedient,
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Lord, we ask all of these things in the name of Christ.