[0:00] But it's a special Sunday, right? It once again reminds us of the hope that we have in Christ.! And the cup that he drank for all of us.
[0:15] The sin that was in that cup that he said, Lord, if this cup can go from me, let it go from me. But if you want me to drink it, so be it. As he prayed there at the Garden of Gethsemane.
[0:29] So I had a, I just, today I think I just felt like when John asked about sharing something that maybe I would share a little bit on the physical aspect and medical part of the crucifixion, which was kind of inspired by a video that Tim posted on WhatsApp here a while back, and I found it very interesting.
[0:51] And so I just made some notes. I'll try to not have too long. So I found it interesting that in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus, he died and arose in three days, and he also prophesied of his death three times.
[1:15] So in Matthew 16, Matthew 16, verse 21 to 23, you can turn there, you don't have to if you don't want to.
[1:27] It says, From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.
[1:41] And then also in Matthew 17, verses 22 and 23, it says, And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again.
[1:59] And they were exceeding sorry. And then again in Matthew 20, verses 18 and 19, it says, He says, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge, and to crucify him, and the third day he shall rise again.
[2:23] That was one thing that I wanted to touch on, was on the scourging and how that took place. And also, before I go there, in Isaiah 53, he prophesied, Isaiah 53, verse 4 to 6, I believe it is.
[2:39] I didn't mark it, so I have to find it. It says, Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
[2:52] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, and chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with our stripes we are healed. Which I think we already heard that this morning in the devotional about Christ being our friend, and through his stripes we're healed.
[3:08] And so I wanted to touch a little bit on the scourging of what that actually was, and the pain and the suffering that it entailed. So scourging was one of the most horrible torture in that time, and Roman citizens were even forbade to be scourged.
[3:26] So if you were a Roman citizen, you were actually exempt from being scourged. It was such, it was actually just considered as more a, it was only considered to be for slaves as a form of punishment for disobedience or misconduct, or traitors or non-citizens who did not hold Roman citizenship.
[3:43] Which we know that Paul exercised that in his, that they wanted to scourge him that one time, and he said that he's a Roman, and they backed away, and he ended up in front of the king, and whatever. So it's, and then, and it's, there was a, Cicero was a great Roman lawyer and historian, and he described crucifixion as the most cruel and disgusting form of punishment, that the very mention of the cross should be far removed, not only from a Roman citizen body, but from his mind, his eyes, and ears.
[4:12] Crucifixion was a feared form of punishment throughout the Roman world. And so the research that I came up with, crucifixion was not invented by the Romans, but it was, it was perfected.
[4:22] They perfected it. They, they knew exactly what to do, as we go into detail, what to do that a person would not bleed to death, yet would inflict the most amount of pain possible without actually killing the person.
[4:34] And so, it says, it typically, typically began with a stripping them from their clothes, and with what they called a flagrum, which had a handle about 18 inches long, and it had nine leather throngs, or they also called it the cat of nine tails.
[4:47] And the leather throngs were six to seven feet long, typically. And at the end of the leather throngs, were small pieces of bone and or metal attached to the throngs, and they usually tied their wrists to a post and beat them from the shoulders all the way down to the heels.
[5:02] So nothing was, anything from the shoulders to the heels was open to beat. And, and they were, by two Roman legionnaires, one on either side, alternating blows. So they would, if I understand, stand it right, they would do 39 blows.
[5:16] They couldn't do more than 40, or they couldn't beat them again. So, so they'd do 39 blows, but picture these Roman legionnaires, like athletic, maybe like a football player, flipping this, this, this, this flagrum, or whatever you want to call it.
[5:31] That's what they called it. That was the name for it. Flipping that, and, and beating it, and, and, and then tearing. It was a brutal instrument designed to tear the skin, and severely bruise the muscle, and with every blow, every blow, an instrument of torture perfected by Romans, to expose the nerves in as much pain as possible, without actually killing them, and it exposed torn skin tissue, muscle, and even bone.
[5:53] By the flip of legionnaires' wrist, would not only cut the skin, but also put small ribbons of muscle, pull, small ribbons of muscle, hanging from the skin, which from a, which from a medical point of view, the lash from one of those nine throngs, could make a cut approximately two inches long, and a three quarter inch to an inch deep, which would take around 20 stitches to close up.
[6:13] If you take that times nine, with one whip, would be around 180 stitches to close up. If you take that times 39, you can do the math. Be a lot of stitches. So, just, just the, just the pain from, from being scourged, was, was more than just standing with a whip, and just being whipped 10 or 15 times.
[6:32] It was, it was brutal. It was, it was humiliating. It was painful. It was torture. And then, they also had the crown of thorns, which are said to be from an inch and a half to two inches long, sharp enough to penetrate the outer table, or outer bone of the skull, when hit with the reed, or whatever they used, as they smote and spat in his face, which in Matthew 26, verse 73, it says, Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands.
[6:59] So, and then, I found it interesting, that after that, they had him carry the cross, and I found different references, that some thought he carried it a third of a mile, some thought he carried it the distance of two football fields, I'm not sure, I guess it doesn't exactly matter.
[7:12] But it said, Jesus carried his cross for a distance, until Simon of, of Cyrene, whatever that's pronounced, helped, which, which consisted of a cross bar. So, I was not aware, until I was studying on this, that the cross, according to research, the cross was not in two pieces.
[7:29] I always pictured Jesus as carrying the cross put together on his back. But according to, according to research, the cross was made of two pieces, which had, which had what they called the stipe, I believe is what they called, was erected, usually beforehand, had a little foot rest, here, that they, that they would, to nail their feet to.
[7:52] And then the top, this part, the cross beam, or the patibulum, was, was approximately six, or five to six feet long.
[8:04] Long, usually. And this one was usually six, six to eight feet long. And so, and they normally would, either tie or nail, the person to the cross bar, before they erected him, either by nailing it on here, or, or hoisting it up on top.
[8:25] And then they would nail them to this. So, and they usually would, would lift this up from the best that I could gather, with a, a, like a, um, fork shaped, uh, maybe piece of wood, or whatever, that they would, on either side, that they would use to hoist up, hoist up that cross, that, that cross beam.
[8:46] So I did, that was, I thought it was interesting. I didn't realize that, that the cross was not put together. And so they called it a patibulum, or a cross beam, which is five to six feet long, typically. And you, uh, they compared it to a railroad tie, probably, um, unfinished and splintery, just a piece of wood.
[9:03] Um, and it was, uh, they, they figure it weighed approximately 125 to 150 pounds. And so the vertical part was called the stipe, and it was usually erected beforehand, and then they nailed or tied them to the patibulum, and used the white fork pieces of wood to lift the person up on top of the stipe, or nail, it on, nail it on.
[9:22] The Romans practiced crucifixion for many years, and perfected the art of pain and suffering. The, the spikes believed to be five to seven inches long. If they drove a spike through a man's wrist, and I always, another thing that I've always pictured was that when they, that they crucified him, they, they spiked him through the palm of his hand.
[9:40] Well, it says that there, it is, it is, it is an, it is an accepted fact, that if you were nailed through the palm, a person was nailed through the palm of his hand, that the nails would literally just tear out through the center of your fingers.
[9:51] You're, there's not enough, there's not enough muscle or tendon there to support that weight. And so, they figured out that if they, if you could, if they would nail them through, um, it would not support your body weight.
[10:02] So they figured that there was a ligament that was strong enough in your wrist, and so, um, according to research, there's people that try to kill themselves, when they try to kill themselves, they'll slit themselves on the wrist, because, you know, when the doctor takes your pulse, there's a, there's a, um, there's a, a vessel, artery, that you can feel, and so they would slit that and they would bleed.
[10:22] Well, they figured out that there's two arteries going into your wrist, and that if they go into the center of your wrist, they miss both of those arteries, arteries, and you'll bleed very minimally, very minimal blood loss, and that there's an, there's a ligament in there that's strong enough to support your body weight, and also, going through that, they went through what they call the median nerve, and the median nerve is very sensitive, and if you had carpal tunnel or whatever, you would know what, what that feels like.
[10:49] It's very, very sensitive nerve, I guess. And so, and it's, it's equivalent to feeling like a cattle prod would be applied to your hand, and it makes your hand claw, like, that's the pain that it sends through.
[11:01] So they would put the nails in the wrist, on both hands, and then it would be the same, lift the person up, on the crossbar, onto the, onto the vertical beam, or the, the, the, the, stike, or whatever it was called, and then they would nail your feet, and they'd give you a little room, they'd nail your feet onto the seat, and they would do the same thing there.
[11:22] They would, they would, there was arteries that they would miss, but then they would hit the plantar nerves, in your feet, which would give the same effect as the hands. So now, there, there, there is a person hanging, with, you know, fire shooting through his arms, fingertips up to his shoulders, and then also in his feet.
[11:39] So, with the back lacerated, right, from being scourged. And so, as, and I, as there, as, as Jesus was hanging on the cross, we assume that at this time, Jesus had probably been awake all night, right?
[11:52] He had been gone from Harold's house, to, to the, high priest, to Pilate, whatever, you know, he'd been, he'd just been, and walked approximately two and a half miles.
[12:04] And what was interesting, that I came across, that somebody brought up, as he walked approximately two and a half miles, and as he was hanging there, his first words were thinking of others. His first words were not about himself.
[12:17] He was still, even though he had no sin, he knew no sin, he became sin. But yet, his, his thoughts were not about himself. What, his first words were on the cross was, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
[12:30] Luke 23, verse 34. And also remembering his favorite disciple, John. In Luke, in, John 19, 26, and 27, he said, Woman, behold your son, and to John, behold your mother.
[12:46] And it says, from that hour, John took her into his own home. And then, and then also to the thief, that was beside him, he said, Truly, I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.
[12:57] While on the cross, while on the cross dying, he was still thinking of others more than himself. And I just had to think about that. If I would be on the cross, would I be concerned about others, or would I be concerned about where, you know, about how I'm being misused, or mistreated, or whatever it may be, especially if it's through persecution.
[13:15] But Jesus wasn't. He had, he had chose to do this, and I think it's a love that I can't grasp, and that we can have if we surrender and walk with him. And then it says, hanging, then I wrote, hanging on the cross was not hard breathing.
[13:30] I did not realize either that, hanging on the cross, it is not hard to inhale, but it's hard to exhale. And so it's, it's not hard to inhale, but exhaling was a problem.
[13:43] Normal breathing involves, you know, expanding our chest when you inhale, and then relaxing when you exhale. On a cross, the weight of our body pulls down on the diaphragm and rib cage, making it difficult to contract the muscles needed for exhalation.
[13:56] To exhale, the body needs to push up on the feet, which causes more pain from the nails, in the nerves, and lacerations on the back to the splenery pore. Compress the, or then the other way was, was to compress their lungs by bringing the elbows into their sides, pushing up and bringing their elbow into their sides so that they could exhale, you know, so they could relax, which was further, put further strain on the body and pain and whatever.
[14:23] And then here, Jesus was humiliated, he was naked, he was totally shamed, convicted, tortured, and condemned for something he was not guilty of. He died for the guilt of you and me, and for each and every one that wants to accept that, which is the beauty of the, which was the resurrection later, right?
[14:42] First was the crucifixion, then the resurrection. And usually a crucifixion lasts from several hours to several days. It depends on the physical condition. It depends how hard they was scourged. It depends how, you know, there's a lot of factors that go into how long they would last on the crucifixion.
[14:56] This is another thing that I didn't realize was why they broke their legs. I always thought that they broke their legs so they couldn't escape. Well, they broke their legs so they died. According to research, they would break their legs, which would lead to suffocation around four to six minutes.
[15:10] because once your legs were broke, you could no longer use your muscles to push up, to inhale or exhale. You know, you could inhale and then you needed to exhale, but you never, didn't have that power anymore so you would suffocate.
[15:24] And so they, they did that to the two thieves. They broke their legs, but not to Jesus, which it says in John 19, verse 36, not one, according to scripture, not one of his bones will be broken, which I found a reference back to Exodus 12, verse 46.
[15:38] It talks about the Passover lamb's bones shall not be broken. Also, in Psalms 34, verse 20, it says, we keep all his bones, not one is broken. And then instead of breaking his bones, Jesus had already died.
[15:53] They pierced his side. And then John 19, verse 37, it talks again about, they shall look on him whom they pierced. And which I found a reference back to Zechariah 12, verse 10.
[16:07] And it says, and I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and please for mercy, so that when they look on me and him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him as he weeps over a firstborn.
[16:27] So, as Jesus, his last words on the cross, I found interesting again. In John, he talks about, he says, it is finished.
[16:40] And then he gave up the ghost. In Luke 23, it talks about, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. But one thing that really touched me in Matthew and Mark, they both give the account of the last words of Christ on the cross, were, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[16:56] And he'd done that all because of me, because of us, because of sin. He was willing to pay that ransom, to redeem us and release us from the bondage of sin and death.
[17:07] And he wouldn't have had to, but he chose to because he loved mankind. He created mankind. He wanted to redeem us. And yet, for what he'd done and what he went through. And then, and then, a reference that I found from, from my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[17:25] Is back in Psalm 22, verses 14 to 18. It says, I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax.
[17:36] It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death, for dogs encompass me.
[17:46] A company of evildoers encircles me, and they have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing cast lots.
[17:59] But then I wrote down, but today he is risen. He has come above that. That's what we are celebrating today, is that he has, he has come out glorious across all of that.
[18:11] He has, he has bore that shame, and that humiliation, naked bearing the cross, taking the pain and suffering. I believe that he felt the pain just like we would have.
[18:24] He was fully human, yet also fully God, I believe. And then Matthew 28, verse 6, it says, when they came to the, maybe Joe will touch up on this a little more.
[18:36] When they came to the tomb, the angel was there, and she said, he is not here, he is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay. And then I had to think this morning on a verse in Hebrews chapter, Hebrews 12, verse 2.
[18:51] It says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and also of our salvation, I believe. He is it from start to finish. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
[19:11] And also, in verse 3, it says, how shall we escape if we would neglect so great a salvation? So I just had to ponder, I was pondering on that. How shall we escape?
[19:23] We have, we, today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of redemption. We aren't promised tomorrow. We aren't promised tonight. And so, how shall we escape if we neglect it?
[19:34] If we neglect so great a salvation, it's, yeah, I just found that interesting. There were some facts in the crucifixion of Christ that I had not, that I had not realized, and, and how it was, it was deemed to be a very brutal, torturous form of death.
[19:54] And yet, that's the death that Jesus died. He could have just, he could have just died a different way, right? Another thing I found interesting, just a thought, was that men crucified Jesus, yet, I don't know if we can say that they killed him.
[20:10] He gave his life for us. They did not break his bones. He was already dead, which was not really normal unless they break their bones.
[20:22] And so, therefore, it goes back to the prophecy of the Old Testament that they shall not break his bones. And it goes back that they shall pierce his side. And that's what happened. And so, I found an interesting, interesting thought that, well, Jesus actually, they actually, they crucified him, but he actually gave his life.
[20:38] He done it out of love for each and every one of us. I'm thankful for that. Thankful that God has, has chosen, chosen me to be worthy of his blood.
[20:50] And that his blood still has that same power that it had 2,000 years ago. I think that was all I had. Thank you for listening.
[21:01] Blessings. Good morning. Yeah, thank you, Mike, for sharing.
[21:13] yeah, I was gonna have us sing the song between Alive, Alive, but you've already led that one and thank you for leading that. But, yeah, we're gonna go from looking at, now I'm gonna go to looking at the resurrection and Alive, Alive, Alive Forevermore.
[21:32] Isn't that just a beautiful, a beautiful thought? I want us to remember that. One thing I wanted to ask a question right up front, and you can turn to Luke 24 in your Bibles.
[21:46] I know James read a little bit of that and that's fine. I'm gonna probably read that again. But, this morning, especially for y'all younger ones, what do y'all think about when you think of Easter?
[21:59] Do you think of egg hunts and bunny rabbits and what do you think about when you think of Easter? Because that's what the world wants us to think about.
[22:11] Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And, I was talking to somebody there the other day, well it was Mike, and I realize we all come from different backgrounds, a lot of different backgrounds, but, I just really encourage y'all younger ones with younger families, just, we were brought up that you didn't mix any of those things, nothing of egg hunts or bunnies or anything with Easter.
[22:46] And, I'm not gonna get here, sit here, and get real dogmatic on it or whatever, but, that we think about that what we're doing when we do that, are we taking away from what, if Easter is something that we celebrate, why would we take away anything from it?
[23:05] If we wanna have some kind of a treasure hunt, do it on another day would be my encouragement. Easter, let's not get our focus off of the true meaning of Easter is the commemoration of Jesus' resurrection from the dead, a pivotal event in the Christian faith that signifies victory over sin and death.
[23:27] it's a time to celebrate the hope and new life that this event provides and to reflect on the love and sacrifice of Jesus. And, if we do that, it'll have a profound effect in our lives.
[23:43] And so, yeah, that's just my encouragement is let's not get all wrapped up in the world wants to mix things in and to get our focus off of what the true meaning of things are.
[23:57] Anything that they can do and I believe they do that with Easter. I don't feel like this morning that I have a lot of really profound things to say, but I want to read some scriptures that I believe are very profound and expound some on that.
[24:16] It's a beautiful thing, but yet the part, the resurrection part is a beautiful thing, but we need to remember what Mike talked about the death.
[24:29] It was a very traumatic thing that Jesus went through and it was for us. That's what sometimes we just kind of gloss over that part of it, but we need to take it personal.
[24:44] It was for me. It wasn't just, oh, he just died for the world, but I couldn't be saved. It's for me and we take it personal and look at it personally, what Jesus went through and it just, it changes the way we look at things and don't, that we don't just gloss over it and yeah, he died and then he rose again.
[25:05] No, it was a lot that he went through. We're going to start reading in Luke 24. We'll just go ahead and start at verse 1. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others with them, and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher, and they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus, and it came to pass as they were much perplexed thereabout.
[25:34] Behold, the two men stood by them in shining garments, and I can just see them just confused, here they were coming to anoint his body, and he's not there, he's gone, and they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth and said unto them, why seek ye the living among the dead?
[25:55] He is not here, but he is risen. Those had to be some of the sweetest words those women had ever heard. They should be to us. He is not here, but he is risen.
[26:08] Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, the Son of Man must be delivered unto the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.
[26:21] And they remembered his words. You know, to me, I think, you know, it's like, how could they forget so quickly? But, because he had been talking, he had told them, how many times, I don't know, but he had told them these things that were going to happen.
[26:35] But the human mind, you know, I get to thinking more about it, the human mind to wrap around all these things. We're looking back on it now, and we can see what happened, but they were going through it, and the human mind to wrap around all these things and to understand, and it just, you know, and then they remembered his words, and then it made sense to them, they understood.
[27:00] And I'm sure they still had a lot of questions even at that time. In verse 9, And they returned unto the sepulcher and told all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest, and Mary, Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary, mother of James, and the other woman that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles, and their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
[27:28] Here again, you know, this just, it was more than their human minds could wrap around, and it just seemed like idle tales. How could this be?
[27:39] And they believed them not. And then Peter, typical Peter, he jumps up, verse 12, He arose and ran unto the sepulcher, and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
[27:56] You know, he needed to see for himself, but then we see that he did believe, and he was very instrumental. And I'm going to kind of skip over a few things here, a few of these verses, it's talking about the, we all know the story, the two men on their way to Emmaus, and they met Jesus, and I don't quite understand, I don't know really why, verse 16, he says, their eyes were holding that they should not know him, how or why that he made it where they didn't understand, know who he was, and, but he joins them, in verse 17, what manner of communications are these that you have one another as you walk and are sad, it was very obvious that they were sad, they were walking and talking and were really sad, and so they were like, well have you not been here, have you not seen the things that were happening, and he said, what things, and they said that concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was, in verse 19, which was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before
[29:02] God and all the people, it seems at this point they still, these two at least, didn't put together that it was the son of God, they called him a mighty prophet, and, you know, we could see, if you're thinking about it, you can understand from their standpoint, because verse 21, we had trusted that he had been which should have redeemed Israel, you know, they thought that he was the savior, and then here he is put to death, you know, their hopes are crushed, they had forgotten what he had told them about being three days in the tomb, and their hopes were crushed, because here he was crucified, after they thought that he was going to be their redeemer, redeem Israel, and then in verse 25, and he said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken, ought not Christ have suffered these things and entered into his glory, and this is the part that is so amazing to me, and in 27, and beginning in Moses and all the prophets he expounded in them all the scriptures, in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself,
[30:10] I would have loved to have heard that, yeah, it would have been I'm sure amazing what he said there, and then skipping on down, he, they invited him to take bread with him, eat meat with him, and finally in verse 31, and their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight, so finally here, their eyes were opened, and verse 32, and they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened unto us the scriptures, you know, even this whole time, they knew that something was different about this man, their hearts that say, he said, burned within us, they realized they didn't, somehow, like I say, God closed their eyes, they didn't understand it all, but they knew that something was different, and they rose up in the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon, and I can see here, that, you know, they were excited, and told them the things which were done in the way, and how he had known them in the breaking of bread, and as they thus spoke,
[31:34] Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, peace be unto you, those would have been beautiful words, but, you know, here in verse 37, they were terrified, and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit, you know, to me, at first, I was thinking, you know, why would they be that scared, you know, he said, peace be unto you, but in the human mind, you know, they couldn't understand, it was so much things, so many things happening, and here Jesus appears now and he said unto them, why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts, behold my hands and my feet, that it is that I myself handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have, and when he had thus spoken, he showed his hands and feet, and while they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, have ye any meat here, and they gave him a piece of broiled fish and of honeycomb, and he took it and did eat before them,
[32:40] I believe if my understanding of that would be that he was, that was part of just proving that he was, you know, his humanity, that it wasn't, that he wasn't a spirit, that he took, asked for something to eat there, and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all these things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me, and then he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, now I pondered on this quite a bit too, and you know, each one of us, if we're truly born again, our understanding should be open to the scriptures, but I still think it's something that we should ask God on a continual basis, it's just to truly, that, I don't know, it seems like our man, human reasoning comes in somewhere, it just, it keeps on wanting to come in, and I think this is something very important that we need to, on a continual basis, ask God to just, to open our understanding that we might understand the scriptures as he would have us to understand them, and he said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved
[34:00] Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things, and behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye are endued with the power from on high, and we know what that was, they were the Pentecost, they were endued with the Holy Spirit, and that's what he's talking about there, and then he led them out as far as Bethany and lifted his hands and blessed them, and it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven, and they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God, God, and that is another thing that really spoke to me.
[34:59] I don't believe that we need to always be in a church, at the church building or whatever, but am I, are we continually praising God?
[35:10] Is this, does it really have the meaning to it that it had to them, like that they were there continually praising God, or are we letting the Easter eggs and the bunny rabbits and I'm talking in cliche, the things of life, are we letting those things just slowly get in and are we losing that great joy that we should have that they had here?
[35:38] It says they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising God. it just, to me, paints a picture of some pretty excited people.
[35:53] I don't think you could have been around them and not got caught the excitement, and I know there's a lot of times you can be around me and there's not a lot of excitement there, and that's not the way I want it to be.
[36:10] We should be excited about anything, the things of God. We can get excited, or at least I can, about a fishing trip or something like that, but do I stay excited about the things of God?
[36:25] I also want to look in 1 Corinthians 15, I want to look at some writings here of Paul, that the witness of Christ's resurrection, and then he defends the defense of the resurrection.
[36:43] starting at verse 1, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory that which I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
[37:06] And we'll understand, I'll try to, some of this gets a little complicated to me the way it's worded, but I'll try to go through this here, because he's going the back and forth here between two things of what he's saying.
[37:21] For I delivered unto you first off that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that's what Mike talked about, he talked about his death, and he was buried, and he rose again, we read that in Luke 24, and he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures, it all came to pass just as he was prophesied and foretold, and as Christ had foretold them, and that he was seen of Cephas then of the twelve, and that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
[38:03] So it wasn't like just two or three people had, you know, accounted for this, there was hundreds of people that had witnessed that Jesus had rose from the dead.
[38:18] After that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all he was seen of me also as one born out of due season. So Paul did, he did see him there when he had his, when the light struck him down.
[38:36] He, like he says, he was late, he was one to do. For I, for I am the least of the apostles, that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
[38:51] He realized that he had actually, you know, persecuted against the church of God, but God had used those things to bring him to where he wanted him. And by the, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me.
[39:14] You know, here's somebody, Paul, he could have boasted in himself, but he realized, you know, God used him mightily, but he realized it was nothing to do with him.
[39:26] It was God using him. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. And now we're going to get into here with a part where he defends the resurrection.
[39:40] Apparently, there was some there in the church that didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. And I don't quite understand the way it would sound here.
[39:52] They believed that Christ arose from the dead, but they didn't believe. Apparently, with the Greeks, and some of y'all, I didn't study real much on it, didn't have a lot of time to, but the Greeks didn't believe in a resurrection of the dead.
[40:08] I mean, like, the common culture. They just believed that once you died, it was all done, it was finished. And maybe some of that was creeping into the church here.
[40:18] I don't know what was causing them to believe this, but if we don't believe in the resurrection of the dead, then, and it'll be pointed out here, then there's nothing in Christ rising from the dead.
[40:33] There's no, so verse 12, now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen?
[40:49] Because he's, you know, he's pointing out that if there's no resurrection of the dead, then why would we say that Christ is risen? If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and our faith is vain? We have nothing.
[41:01] If without, we, it all works together. The death, his death that Mike talked about, that had to happen, but then the resurrection had to happen to have the triumph over sin and death.
[41:14] And I think this is the way to me when I was thinking about these things, I thought about that so often people try to take away pieces and truth of the gospel and the gospel in our lives will slowly crumble if we take away pieces.
[41:33] Like, we can't, we've either got to believe it as a whole or it's not going to come out in our lives, it's not going to work out in our lives. It's going to slowly crumble if we don't believe these things, believe the whole gospel and this is where it really comes out evident.
[41:49] You know, if we can't there was no use in his death without the resurrection and he couldn't be raised from the dead if he didn't die. Verse 15, and ye and yea, yea and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he has raised up Christ whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead is not raised.
[42:15] He's saying that their teaching is lies, and not true if because they were teaching that God is raised from the dead.
[42:27] If Christ hadn't been raised from the dead, then their teaching was all false. But we know in verse 16, for if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
[42:41] And if Christ is not raised, your faith is vain, for ye are yet in your sins. And so we see without his resurrection, it's vain.
[42:54] Our Christian life is for nothing because we're still in our sins. Then they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. And that's another thing that would be a sad thought that everybody that has gone before us that have believed in Christ, they perished in vain.
[43:11] But we know that's not true. Verse 19, and if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. And I was thinking through that a little bit and how true that is.
[43:25] We would have no eternity with God to believe in. But we know, and this is another thing that to me is such a reassuring fact that I know and believe and all Christians can that this account is all true because we know outside of our Christian life with outside of giving our heart and life to Jesus we can't have peace, love, joy.
[43:54] You can't find it anywhere in the world or else it would have been found. Everybody including me has tried to find it. It's not there. So we know that we can't have those things outside of the Christian life.
[44:10] And so that's another reassuring fact. And so yeah, the Christian life even today doesn't have to be miserable because we have love and joy and peace and then we have that eternal hope.
[44:23] Verse 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. He's going on before and we will follow.
[44:34] He's the first fruits. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
[44:49] But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits after, were they there of Christ at his coming. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom of God, even the Father, and when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
[45:08] That's going to be quite the time when the end comes and he shows his power, total power. For in his death he has taken power, showed his power over sin and death.
[45:21] We'll see here in verse 25, for he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
[45:32] He's already showed his power over death because he rose again, rose from death. But to me that verse there is quite the thing to look forward to.
[45:43] And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death because we know death is a hard thing. I know for myself and probably a lot of y'all, we have older people in our lives that we know that's going to be coming up, but we know that death is but for a temporary thing for a Christian.
[46:04] we have the hope of the resurrection and the resurrection in Christ. And yeah, another verse that I just want us to think on then too in closing here, John 16 33.
[46:22] These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
[46:33] I have overcome the world. You know, we're going to face things in the world. We have preachers and teachers out here that try to preach and teach that you know, everything's going to be, you follow God and everything's going to be good and good in this life, but it's not true and let's not make ourselves believe those things.
[46:55] It gives us, it opens us up for doubt when these things happen, but he said in this world you shall have tribulation. There's things going to be happening, but let's keep our focus on but be of good cheer.
[47:11] I have overcome the world and that's what I want us to focus on this morning here that in his resurrection like I say, just like death hasn't been conquered or yeah, he hasn't conquered death the way he's conquered death but it hasn't been destroyed but those things, you know, we can look forward to that he has, there is victory, I guess the way I want to put it, there's victory in Jesus and he has made that way for us too that we can be victorious so yeah, that's what I had to share so thank you.
[47:52]