← ArchiveSunday, April 5, 2015DateApril 5, 2015Speaker—TextJohnPassages in this sermonEcclesiastes 72:27Romans 6:92:51John 2013:19John 115:561 Corinthians 1517:25Acts 9018:44Ephesians 2:1–920:00Ephesians 2:120:06John 3:1622:07Romans 1:1622:28TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Music Glory to God Thank you, thank you choir, thank you so much Wonderful biblical worship today If you brought your Bible, I hope you did If you didn't, inside your worship folders in outline0:27And follow along with us as we unpack God's word today Matthew's gospel chapter 28 is our text Very familiar text today Rudyard Kipling in his book Jungle Book Moji the man club asked the animals What's the most feared thing in the jungle? He's told when two animals meet on a narrow path0:53The one must step aside to let the other one pass The animal that steps aside for no one Could be the most feared animal Moji wants to know what kind of animal that would be Would it be an elephant? Would it be a lion? Would it be a tiger? Would it be some other form of animal? What would be the most feared animal in the jungle?1:22Moji the old owl answered and said The most feared animal in the jungle is death It steps aside for no one As I was thinking about that I happened upon that little book The Jungle Book It's not one of my preferred reading assignments But it's one that I ran across recently And as I looked at that I started thinking about That is a true statement, is it not?1:51That is a true statement No matter how physically strong you might be in this room No matter how financially successful that you may be No matter how fantastically popular you might be Overwhelmingly powerful you might be Death is absolute for every one of us No one escapes Escapes And no one is exempt from death That's why the writer in the book of Hebrews wrote this2:20It is appointed unto man once to die And after that comes the judgment The writer in the book of Ecclesiastes 7 verse 2 says For death is the destiny for everyone But death was not the destiny of Jesus Christ It was not since he was God in the flesh Death had to step aside for him Like a coward steps aside for the brave Death coward in the presence of the power of Jesus Christ2:47Romans chapter 6 verse 9 declares For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead He cannot die again Death no longer has mastery over him Today we celebrate the resurrected Savior Today we celebrate Easter Celebrate that death could not keep the God man down I want you to look with me At our text today in Matthew's gospel3:16Chapter 28 verse 1 through 8 I'm reading the New American Standard Version of God's word It may render just a bit differently than your copy But it's all close together Now after the Sabbath as it began to dawn Toward the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and the other Mary Came to look at the grave Verse 2 And behold a severe earthquake had occurred For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven And came down and rolled away the stone3:45And sat upon it And his appearance was like lightning And his garments were white as snow And the guards shook for fear of him Because it became like dead men And the angel answered and said to the woman Do not be afraid For I know that you are looking for Jesus Who had been crucified He is not here He is risen Just as he said4:14Come and see Come see the place where he was lying And go quickly and tell his disciples That he was risen from the dead And behold And behold He is going before you into Galilee There you will see him again Behold I have told you Verse 8 And they did And they departed quickly From the tomb With fear and great joy And ran to report it To his disciples4:43Let's pray Father let the words of my mouth And the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in your sight today Lord we love you We praise you We thank you for what We're here today to celebrate And that is your resurrection And God as we said already We celebrate that every day of our lives As Christ followers And Father we don't have to just have a special day To do that But today We set aside This most precious moment5:12That three days after crucifixion You arose from the grave You live In our lives as Christ followers You are alive And willing and ready to take those Who will say yes to you And Father I pray That today we will walk away From this place Incredibly different Radically changed As I say often Lord Jesus5:41It would be tragic That we come and experience Biblical worship like we've had Hear the teaching and preaching Of your word today And we leave the same way That we came God I pray that we're like Those that visited that grave We walk away Changed people Rejoicing That we serve A risen Savior We love you so much Lord6:10Do you work in this place In Jesus name we pray And the church did say Amen He lives He lives Christ Jesus lives today Six undeniable Irrefutable Pieces of evidence Found in this passage Of scripture today Will determine that The proof is not in the pudding That most of us Are going to have today The proof is in the person Of Jesus Christ He does live You cannot keep The God man down6:39God became flesh And he died on the cross For our sins That he might Pay the penalty For our sins That we might live Victoriously I was thinking The world needs to know this We need to know Why we should be So happy about that They really need to know That this took place And the events that took place On that day That he rose from the grave They can turn from Being complacent people Complacent Christians To courageous Victorious Christians Today we can enjoy7:09The power of the resurrection In our own very lives For three years He made life better For three years He healed people He healed the blind eye He healed the lepers He healed those That were lame To walk again Seven days Pontius Pilate Falsely charged him Punched him in the mouth Spit upon him Nailed him to the cross For the world to die For him to die For the world He was spit upon He was scourged7:38Everything that possible People could come Against him But three days later He arose victoriously We serve a risen savior And he is in the world today That's not just a hymn That we sing That is a reality That Christ followers Proclaim and declare today As I began to prepare My comments and thoughts For this today's message How many ways It's kind of like The Easter message How many ways Can you tell this story How many ways Can we get our messages8:08Wrapped around And our principles Laid out For those that walk Into this building today To celebrate Why we're so excited About it I began to think through How can we convince Those of you That may not be convinced Today First of all I think we need to look At the evidence That's presented to us today I think there are Six distinct pieces Of evidence That will help us Understand That Jesus Christ Is alive today First of all They saw the stone That was there8:37Look with me in verse 2 Mary Magdalene Mary came to the grave Verse 2 And behold A severe earthquake Had occurred For the angel of the Lord Had descended from heaven And came down And rolled away The stone And sat upon it Folks Let me tell you something This is not just Some ordinary rock This is not just a pebble Historically Biblically tell us That that stone That they rolled away That was rolled away Was not rolled down the hill9:06It was actually rolled Up an incline A shelf so to speak And it was rolled up And chalked off And stopped In its place And that stone Historically Was about 2,000 pounds The angel of the Lord Rolled that stone away Not to let Jesus Christ out The angel of the Lord Rolled that stone away So that we Might look inside To see That he's not there That's why the stone Was rolled away That is one of the most9:36Important pieces Of evidence Jesus Christ Did not need To have the stone Rolled away To rise from the dead He had all power He created the stone He could pass Right straight through it But the stone Was rolled away For you and I People like you and I To walk in And notice And see That he Was not There The second piece Of evidence For us to consider Not only the stone Was rolled away They saw the seal Was broken Notice with me10:06Back over in Matthew's gospel Chapter 27 Verse 25 And 65 And 66 Pilate said to them You have a guard Go Make it as secure As you know how Verse 66 And they went And they made The grave secure Along with the guard They set a Say it with me Seal On the stone Now the Roman guards Would come down And when they would Secure a grave They would put the seal10:34On there And that seal Was never To be broken This particular seal Was placed there For a reason It was to say That he is done He is finished We're putting the seal The stamp Of government Approval He is dead And that seal Was never To be broken And folks I want you to know Something When they got there Not only was that Stone rolled away But the stone11:04Being rolled away That seal Had to be broken And so when they Got there They noticed That the Roman guards The seal They were standing There like dead men Not only did we see The stone rolled away We saw the seal That had been broken Number three We saw the stone Soldiers Standing by They were standing Nearby Verse 66 again And he went And made the grave Secured Along with the guard They set a seal Now they were not only11:32Instructed to stand there They were commanded To stand there They were commanded Not to go to sleep They had to stand By this grave They were committed To never sleep Never sit down And they were commissioned To put that seal They were the ones Who secured The grave Although Pontius Pilate May have crucified him Although the Roman guards Nailed him to the cross Folks let me tell you something These soldiers12:01These soldiers They did as they were told To do And when the angel Of the Lord Brought this severe earthquake Occurred and the angel Of the Lord Descended upon From heaven And came down And rolled away The stone And then he sat upon it As if to say Na-na-na-na-boo-boo Look what we got Going on here Folks let me tell you something He did that for a reason Not to rub their nose Into it But to realize That Jesus Christ Was no longer There12:30There The soldiers Were terrified They were standing there Like dead men I don't know about you But if I saw Somebody get up From the grave I'm sure I'd be Standing there Like a dead man As well Amen I mean I'd be A little bit terrified And that's what These soldiers These armed guards Were terrified They were standing there As dead men They saw the stone Rolled away13:00Rolled away They saw the seal Had been broken And they saw the soldiers Standing nearby And the fourth piece Of evidence For you to consider today Is that they saw The shroud That neatly Was over his face It was neatly Folded John John's events In John chapter 20 He gives us A better narrative To understand This piece of cloth Stooping down And looking in In verse 5 John chapter 20 Stooping down And looking in13:30He saw the He saw the linen wrappings Lying there But he did not Go in Simon Peter Our good friend You know him Simon Peter Therefore Also came following him And entered into the tomb And he beheld The linen wrappings Lying there And the face cloth Which had been On his head Not lying With the linen wrappings But rolled up And placed by itself So the other disciples Who had come14:00Had first come To the tomb Entered then also He saw And believed Folks let me tell you Something Jesus let those Grave clothes Lying right where They were It was like He was in a cocoon And passed Completely through Those grave clothes He did not need Them any longer They were not Needed any longer The face cloth Was no longer needed And Jesus I think he did this For a reason In my own personal heart14:28I believe he just Quietly took that Face cloth off And rolled it up Neatly Why? Because if he was Being rushed out of there Or the body Was being stolen From him They would just Discard it Throw it off To the side He neatly He neatly laid Those That shroud That face cloth So that those Who walked in Would see how Perfect our Savior was So you see The shroud Was neatly Folded The fifth piece14:58Of evidence For us to consider Today Is that they saw The Savior Resurrected Not only Did they see The stone That had been Rolled away And the seal Had been broken And the soldiers Were standing As dead men And they saw The shroud The grave clothes Laying there Neatly They saw The Savior Resurrected We cannot See the event That took place That day But we have The word of God For us to consider Today All these years15:28The word of God Has been our guide All these years We can notice What the word of God Tells us Of how to live How to walk How to be directed In daily life How to have a comfort When with times of need A sharper than A two-edged sword We have the word of God He left that for us Prophecies were fulfilled John preached About it Jesus performed it John says Behold the Lamb of God In John chapter 1 But Jesus15:57But Jesus Performed The act Of the resurrection Jesus It was Resurrected That day So They saw The Savior And not only Did they see The Savior But the sixth And final piece Of evidence For us to consider Today The stone Yes Was rolled away And the seal Was broken And they did See the soldiers Standing there As dead men They were just Frozen In place Terrified16:26Terrified About what was About to happen They saw The neatly Folded clothes The neatly Folded grave clothes And the shroud That had been Rolled in place They saw The Savior Resurrected But they also Saw The sinners That were saved By his grace They saw The sinners Saved by his grace Disciples Were changed Once defeated Once discouraged Now they were dancing Once cowered down16:56Now they were courageous They were Disciples Were changed People Not only did they See the changed Disciples But they also saw 500 other witnesses Saw him So this is not Some kind of Little fictitious Story There was plenty Of witnesses Radically changed That's not the name Of a book Radically changed Forever 500 people Saw the resurrected Savior 1 Corinthians Chapter 1517:25Chapter 15 Paul writes For I delivered To you As the first Importance What I also Received That Christ Died for our sins According to Scriptures Verse 4 And that He was buried And that He was raised On the third Day According to The scriptures And that He appeared To Cephas Then the twelve And that And that After that He appeared To more Than Say it With me 500 Brethren At one Time Most of17:55Most of Whom remained Until now But some Have fallen Asleep Then he Appeared To James Then all The apostles And at last Of all As it were To one Untimely Born He appeared To me Also The apostle Paul Not only Said He only Appeared To those 500 People But he Appeared To this Untimely Born Person This Sinner That he Saved By his Grace On the Damascus Road Once A hater18:25A hater And a Persecutor Of the Church Became A proclamator Of the Gospel Of Jesus Christ Folks Let me Tell you Something Not only Did he Change The Disciples He Changed The 500 Witnesses He Also Changed Saul Into The Persecutor Of the Church To the Apostle Paul Acts Chapter 90 If you Want to See The Rendering Of That See What God Did Radically In the Apostle Paul By the Way Those Of you That Are Maybe Familiar With This Or Not He Is18:55Is Scribed He Scribed Two Thirds Of The New Testament That We Study Today In Modern Bibles Two Thirds The Apostle Paul Wrote Two Thirds Of The New Testament That We Study Today So He Radically Changed Saul19:15He Changed This Wretched Sinner From Trustville Alabama He Reached Down From The Halls Of Heaven And This Old Baptist Boy Been A Southern Baptist Nine Months Before I Was Born Grew Up Going To Church All My Life Reached Down In The Center Isle Of First Baptist Church And Said Dan Moran I19:45I Call You As My Child You Are My Friend I Save You By My Grace Today And He Changed Some Of You As Well He Changed Some Of You As Well Ephesians Chapter Two Verses One Through Nine I Want You To Notice What This Beautiful Text Tells Us Ephesians Chapter Two Verses One And You Were Dead To The Trespasses And Sins In Which You Walked According You Walked Following The Course20:15Course Of This World Following The Prince Of Power The Air And The Spirit That Is Now Working In The Sons Of Disobedience Verse Three Among Them We All Once Lived In The Passions Of Our Flesh Carrying Out The Desires Of The Body And The Mind And Were By Nature Wow Here It Is Children Of Wrath Like The Rest Of Mankind Then Verse Four Turns The Corner Verse Four These Two Words Makes The Transition Listen to20:45Listen to What It Says But God Being Rich In Mercy Because Of His Great Love Which He Loved Us Even When We're Dead To Our Trespasses Made Us Alive Together With Christ By Grace You've Been Saved And Raised Us Up With Him And Seated Us With Him In The Heavenly Places In Christ Jesus So That In The Coming Ages He Might Sow His Immeasurable Riches Grace You've Been Saved21:15Saved Through Faith And That Not Of Yourselves It Is The Free Gift Of God The Free Gift Of God So That No One May Boast Church Let Me Tell You Something Jesus Christ Reached Down From The Halls Of Heaven And Gave Me The Free Gift Of Eternal Life And That Day In April Of 1971 That Day He Took My Name Off The Church Roll And Said Not Just21:45Just A Baptist Boy In Youth Ministry Not Just A Baptist Boy In Youth Choir But Now You Are My Child You Are My Kid You Are My Friend Today I Give You Salvation You See Today You May Be Just Like That Maybe You're Here Today And You Need To Witness And Experience What John 3 16 Is All About For God So Loved The World That He Gave His Only Begotten Son That Whosoever22:14Whosoever Church Listen To Me That Whosoever Encompasses Everybody In This Room And Everybody On This Planet Whosoever Not Just A Select Elect Few Romans Chapter 1 Verse 16 Says For I Am Not Ashamed Of The Gospel Of Christ For It Is The Power Of God Unto Salvation To What Say It With Everyone Who Believes Believe On The Name Of The Son Of God And Thou Shalt Be Saved Is What The Scriptures Declare For God So22:44So Love The War That He Gave His Only Begotten Son That Whosoever Believeth In Him Should Not Perish But Have Life And Life Everlasting Six Pieces Of Evidence The Stone Was Rolled Away The Seal Was Broken The Seal Was Broken And And The Soldiers Were Standing There Left As Dead Almost They Were Frozen In Time The Shroud Was Neatly Folded23:13Folded The Savior Was Seen By Many And He Changed Lives The Lives Of Sinners Folks The Difference Between Those Of Us That Are Christ Followers And Those That Are Not We Just Saved By His Grace We Just Sinners Saved By God's Marvelous Grace The Most Religious In The Room The One Who Is The Closest To Christ Is Still A Sinner Saved23:43Saved By The Grace Of God There's No Ranking Hierarchy In Christianity Either You're Saved Or We Would Say Entrustful Or You Ain't It's That Simple You're Saved By His Grace Or You're Not And Today I Would Be Derelict In My Duty As A Preacher Of The Gospel Not To Give You An Opportunity To Do Just That And In A Moment We're Going To Have A Time Where You Can Be24:13Be Radically Changed November To November 2001 Sports Illustrated Was Covering Baseball's World Series Now I'm Not A Fan Of Baseball I Think It's A Great Sport I'm Sure You've Got People In Here That Love It I'm Just Not Real Crazy About Baseball I Think It's Great It's Just Too Slow I Mean You Know This Four Pitches And You're Going To Walk Them Anyway Just Tell Them To Go24:45That's A Waste Of Time I Know You Baseball Lovers Are Going Oh You Don't Get It Yeah I Do You're Wasting My Time Put The Boy On The Base Over There Right And So Baseball But Sports Illustrated Was Covering The World Series Because It's A Big Event Every Year And They Were Covering When The Arizona Diamondbacks At This Particular Time I Don't Think They've Been25:15Today But The Arizona Diamondbacks Were Playing The New York Yankees For The World Series You Know Everybody Loves The Yankees Especially Here In The Deep South Right We Love The New York Yankees There Are Some Yankee Fans I Guess Out There I Like The Logo They Got But The Yankees They Were Playing Them And The Yankees Had Them Down It Was Down To The End Of Game And The Editors Were Writing About This The Arizona Diamondbacks Staged A Comeback And They Won The25:45The World Series They Started Thinking About This And They Started Putting Together The Greatest Comebacks In History And So They Produced An Entire Magazine About An Entire List Of The Ten Greatest Comebacks In History Some Of The People On The List It Was Quite Broad Elvis Presley Was On It As A Result Of His TV Special In 1968 Reviving A Staggering Career That He Had Muhammad Ali The Boxer He Returned He26:15He Made The List And Returned A Seven Year Exile To Boxing To Win The World Championship In Boxing President Harry Truman Made The Cut With With With His 1948 No I Was Not There But Some Of You Were 1948 Victory Over Thomas Dewey When All The Poles Had Him Losing By A Large Margin One Of The Greatest Basketball Players If Not The Greatest Basketball Player Of All Time Michael Jordan Is On The List As Well He Gave26:45Gave Up Baseball And Returned To His First Love Basketball He Is A Wonderful Man For Losing Baseball And Getting Back To A Sport Of Reality Amen Of Substance But He Made The List Coming Back From Baseball To Basketball Even Humanity Was On This List Now Watch This Humanity Was 18th Century Over 25 Million Europeans Died That Made The List The Number Two27:15Two Among All Time Comebacks Was A Tie Of Two Countries Japan And Germany They Were Devastated During World War II But Becoming A World Power They Came Back In A Short Generation Time The Number One All Time Comeback In Sports Illustrated Magazine List Was Jesus Christ A.D. 3327:4533 It Got me Thinking When I Was Researching For Today's Message For You Today I Started Thinking About The People That Might Be Visiting With Us Today You're Here To Visit With Family And That's Wonderful We're Glad You're Here Or Maybe Maybe Just Maybe You're Here For The First Time Or You Haven't Been Here In A While And You've Been In Church Or You've Heard The Name Of Jesus Maybe You Even Actually Have Him In Your Life And You're Just28:15Just Kind Of Away From The Lord Maybe You You Need Maybe Come Maybe Maybe You Need To Come Life Has Got You Beat Down You Know Your Chances Are Slim And None And Slim Just Took The Last Plane Out Of Town That's Okay That's Okay You Could Place Your Hope And Your Trust In Jesus Christ Today You Can Start Afresh Today Today28:43Today You Can Begin That Comeback Death Couldn't Keep Jesus Down Death Could Not Hold Jesus Christ In The Grave You Placing Your Faith And Trust In The Greatest Comeback Of All Time The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ Today The Resurrection Is Not Only Good News It Is The Best News Possible Trust29:13Trust Him Put Your Life Into His Life Let Him Have Complete Control And Enjoy The Greatest Comeback In The History Of Mankind For God So Loved The World That He Gave His Only Begotten Son That Whosoever Believeth In Him Should Not Perish But Have Life29:42Life And Life Ever Lasting You Can't Keep The God Man Jesus Christ Down The Greatest Comeback In Histories Mankind Let's Let's Pray With Heads Let's Let's Let's Let's Let's Let'sMore sermons on John →
