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Proving The Resurrection From The Old Testament | Easter Service | Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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  There are many ways to approach the truth of the resurrection of
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  Jesus Christ, so many aspects and elements regarding it that
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  we can commemorate and reaffirm. But as I meditating on this
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  message and what to say on this Sunday, I trust that will be
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  most beneficial to consider the deep and the rich roots of this
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  precious truth. In other words, I want us to see
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  together in the Word of God how what we just sang about this
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  past 45 minutes, what we hold dear to, what everything really
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  hinges on. Pertaining our faith is not a
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  novel idea introduced in the New Testament.
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  It is something that God has consistently conveyed to the
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  world from the beginning of time.
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  It is a hope that has been woven throughout redemptive history,
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  culminating 2000 years ago, and something that we still hold to
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  today. And this is something that Paul,
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  the great apostle, always alluded to, always affirmed,
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  especially in his defense of his faith in the person of Jesus
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  Christ. This great man of God known as
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  Paul was charged for many things after he became a follower of
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  the Messiah. But one of the main things that
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  he was accused of is that he was some kind of a ringleader of
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  this new sect that supposedly contradicted the truths of the
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  Hebrew Scriptures. But I want you to see and I hope
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  you have your Bible with you. I want you to see what Paul says
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  in a particular place that confirms this glorious truth is
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  something that's always been meet me in your Bibles in Acts
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  24, verse 14, as we look at Paul standing on trial before Felix,
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  the governor at Caesarea. And I want to encourage you.
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  This is where we're headed today for this Easter service.
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  There's going to be a lot of Bible because more than
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  anything, I want all of our hearts to leave here more
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  assured regarding the historicity of our faith, the
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  validity, the consistent message that we hold to.
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  And so we're going to start here and we're going to continue make
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  note of these verses. I trust that they will help you
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  in your worship and also your defense of what we believe.
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  Acts 24, verse 14 Paul says. But this I confess to you, that
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  according to the way which they call a sect, I worship the God
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  of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law
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  and written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these
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  men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of
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  both the just and the unjust. There are three major statements
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  that Paul makes here in his defense #1HE affirms that he
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  worships the God of his father's, the God of the
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  patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the 12 tribes
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  of Israel. He's not introducing a new God.
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  He is confirming I believe in the one true God, the Lord
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  Yahweh. Second, he also says that he
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  holds to the entirety of the scriptures.
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  Is that what he says, believing everything laid down by the law
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  and written in the prophets, what you and I call the Old
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  Testament, the Hebrew Bible, is what Paul says he wholeheartedly
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  believes. And combining these things, he
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  says his final thing, that the message of the resurrection that
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  Paul preached, that Paul promotes, was something that he
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  came to because of his faith in the true God and because of his
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  belief in the sacred Scriptures. So in essence, what he is saying
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  to his accusers, these Pharisees and these Jews who were standing
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  there hoping to condemn him, is I'm more orthodox than you are.
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  I'm more scripturally sound than you.
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  I'm no heretic. This comes from what God had
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  said from the beginning. This was transmitted down
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  throughout the ages from these prophets and these men of God
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  that God set apart to speak His oracles.
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  This is a wonderful claim, but only begins here.
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  Go to Acts 26. Now here we find Paul standing
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  on trial before King Agrippa, and look what he says in Acts 26
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  verse 6. And now I stand here on trial
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  because of my hope and the promise made by God to our
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  fathers, to which our 12 tribes hope to attain, as they
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  earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused
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  by Jews. O King, why is it thought
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  incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?
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  I love this man of God. What hope is he speaking about?
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  What? What is he trying to explain?
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  Primarily, the hope of Israel's redemption, which includes the
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  reality of the resurrection. And again, he's reminding his
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  opponents that God is the one who promised this glorious
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  future. This didn't begin with him.
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  It didn't start with Jesus. The Messiah didn't come from
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  these apostles. No, it's something that stirred
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  the nation of Israel to a continually adorn worship day
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  and night. Which leads Paul again to
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  challenge his hearers. Is not my proclamation of Jesus
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  Christ of Nazareth raising from the dead a validation of this
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  long standing truth that God raises the dead?
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  Why are you so shocked? Why does that stun you?
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  Why does it sound like blasphemy to you?
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  It is something that was always there, and I'm here to tell you
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  it happened in the person of Jesus Christ.
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  He is the first born of many, and we see here that there's so
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  much we can say, But I want to highlight one main thing.
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  Paul, who's defending the central theme of his message,
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  the resurrection, is proving to us that we can actually go to
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  the law and to the prophets and discover it there.
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  That is so crucial for us if we are people of the book.
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  That is so important for us if we really want substance to our
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  faith. Because when you consider the
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  supernatural element of this book, it's not just one piece of
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  literature. It's 66 books that span over
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  thousands of years and multiple different authors and even
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  different languages. And yet there is this golden
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  thread. There is one voice.
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  So here's my aim. I'm not really interested in
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  hyping up anybody emotionally. I want all of our minds to be
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  opened and I want our hearts as a result to burn as we see the
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  beauty and the wisdom of God in His Word.
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  So here's what we're going to do.
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  Because the benefit of recognizing this is that it
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  strengthens our faith. And also it also brings more
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  weight to the gospel message in that if anyone were to deny it,
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  you're not just rejecting what Jesus said.
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  You're not just swatting away what his apostle died for,
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  you're also denying what God has said from the beginning of time.
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  That's significant, and I want to prove that to you.
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  In Jesus's day, the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christians
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  again called the Old Testament, was divided into two main
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  sections, the law and the prophets.
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  But if you wanted to be more precise, there was actually
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  three different categories. And Jesus in that chapter that
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  we read during the announcements actually points to that
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  threefold division of the Old Testament.
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  He says it there when he says it was written about me in the law,
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  the prophets. And what's the last one?
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  The Psalms. The Psalms.
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  Here's what's interesting, that the Hebrew Bible today, the one
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  that Jews uphold even now, is similar, is similar in the fact
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  that, again, what we call the Old Testament is identified
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  perfectly in terms of the amount of books and the same content,
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  but they call it something different.
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  I remember being in a room filled with Jews, and there were
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  Christians there as well. And one Christian asked a Jewish
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  teacher something about the Old Testament.
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  And that person, the Jewish man interrupting right away, says
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  what's old about it? It's their Bible, and it's in
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  our Bible as well, But they call that Tanakh, and the Tanakh is
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  really an acronym for the threefold division of the Old
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  Testament. We have the first part, which is
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  the Torah, and that deals with the first five books of the
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  Bible. We call that the Pentateuch, and
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  from there we have the Nevaeum, which is comprised of the
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  oracles of the prophets. And lastly, we have the Ketuvim,
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  which speaks of the writings. That's what it means, and it
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  contains things like the wisdom literature and the poetic books,
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  as well as some historical records.
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  Now, it's important to note that though we have the same books as
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  our Jewish neighbors, they're organized quite differently.
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  But that's not the main point that I want to make.
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  What I want to bring to your attention is how we can prove
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  the resurrection. And what I mean by resurrection
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  is the glorification of these bodies.
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  We can find that in each section of the Tanakh.
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  It's everywhere and I want us to see it together.
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  And though this may seem like a daunting task, I want to assure
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  you that the Lord has been gracious to us because he guides
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  us through the New Testament of what to look for and how to find
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  it. Are we ready?
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  We're going to begin and seeing the resurrection in the law in
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  the first five books of the Bible, and this isn't going to
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  be exhausted. This is just a sample for you to
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  be stirred that this book is indeed God's book.
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  You know, this trust and this belief and this faith in the
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  resurrection is denied by many as you sing about it this
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  afternoon. There are people who mock it
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  just around us at your workplace.
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  Maybe as you gather with your families, they don't see the
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  beauty and the truth in it. But it's not something this
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  disbelief then spring out of the Enlightenment period or
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  postmodernism or any kind of humanistic ideology.
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  No, it's also ancient. And there's a particular group
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  in Jesus Day that vehemently despised it and denied it.
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  They were a liberal theological camp known as the Sadducees,
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  very prominent individuals, very influential, but they did not
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  hold to anything really supernatural.
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  And on one day, they approached Jesus hoping to trap him, hoping
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  to have him confused and not be able to answer this hypothetical
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  situation that they come up with.
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  So they present this case that here's this woman whose husband
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  died. And according to the law, that
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  means the husband's brother had to marry her to continue his
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  legacy. And they imagine that she had 7
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  husbands. And they approach Jesus and ask,
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  whose wife will she be at the resurrection?
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  And the Lord is brilliant. I mean, you're talking about the
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  word, who's become flesh, and you're going to try to stump him
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  with the word. And so now he's going to show
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  them how they overlooked a very important detail and what they
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  call the Scripture. Because again, the Sadducees
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  only held to the Torah the first five books.
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  They didn't acknowledge any of the other ones.
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  So what does the Lord do? He meets them at their level and
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  he says the following. Turn with me to Matthew 22.
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  Let's look at verse 31. And As for the resurrection of
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  the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God?
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  Pause. I'm sorry I cannot get by this
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  passage without always making this comment.
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  Jesus is going to quote the Old Testament to these Sadducees,
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  but notice how He presents it. He says here in verse 31, Have
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  you not read what was said to you?
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  You know what that teaches me? That every part of God's word is
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  meant to speak to you, even Exodus 3, which he's about to
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  quote. Let's continue verse 32.
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  I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of
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  Jacob. He's not God of the dead, but of
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  the living. And when the crowd heard it,
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  they were astonished at his teaching.
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  Jesus brilliantly references the Lord's appearance to Moses at
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  the burning Bush, and in that encounter, Jesus wants to show
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  that the Sadducees missed a detail.
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  When the Lord introduces himself to Moses in this spectacular
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  fashion, he does not say I was the God of Abraham, the God of
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  Isaac, the God of Jacob. He deliberately uses the present
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  tense, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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  And why that's important to note is because these patriarchs were
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  long dead before the Lord appeared to Moses, and yet God
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  declares that he relates to them as though they were alive,
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  actually more alive than ever. I am their God.
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  I do recognize them. I do relate to them.
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  And he would never say this about anything or anyone that no
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  longer exists. So what we find here is that
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  though these patriarchs have been buried in the Promised land
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  long before this, the only conclusion that we can make is
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  that they're alive. They're alive.
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  They're this, they're in this intermediate state, they're in
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  the presence of God. They're again more vibrant than
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  ever, awaiting the resurrection bodies.
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  And we know that this is true because when the Sadducees heard
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  it, they didn't rebut, They didn't, they didn't challenge
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  him further. They understood exactly what God
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  was saying in that place and they couldn't deny it.
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  He is their God, meaning they are alive.
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  And if that's not what Jesus is saying, then what did he mean
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  when he said in another place? You don't have to turn there.
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  But when he's talking about the Kingdom of heaven and the
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  culmination of the age, He tells these Jews that they're going to
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  be people from the East and the West that will gather and
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  recline at table with who? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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  Matthew 811 So how are these Gentiles who are going to be now
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  grafted in, how are they able to fellowship and have supper with
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  the patriarchs, unless of course, they are alive?
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  So this is just the beginning, but can we trace it further
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  back? Is there anything before Exodus
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  in Genesis, for example, where we can find this belief, this,
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  this truth vibrating in the hearts of these Saints, giving
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  them the hope, understanding what's to come, that this life,
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  this is not the end of it. Absolutely.
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  And again, the New Testament is our guide.
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  Turn with me now to Hebrews Chapter 11, beginning in verse
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  17. This chapter is famously
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  identified as a chapter that describes what faith looks like.
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  And what's being highlighted here is the depth of Abraham's
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  faith. This man had rich trust in God.
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  It's no wonder that he is consistently portrayed as a
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  model of faith in God. Here's how we see it in Hebrews
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  11/17. By faith, Abraham, when he was
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  tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the
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  promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of
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  whom it was said, through Isaac. Shall your offspring be named?
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  He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead,
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  from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him
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  back. So we know this very well, that
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  there came a critical point in Abraham's relationship with God
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  where he was told to give up the promised son Isaac, surrender
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  him. I wanted to become a burnt
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  offering. And we're being reminded here
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  that Abraham obeyed, but that wasn't where his fat faith
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  rested. Solely What's being underscored
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  here is that he believed that God, though asking him to do
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  this, was not going to let Isaac remain dead.
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  And why did he believe that? Because God told him earlier in
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  Genesis and in chapter 17 more specifically, that through Isaac
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  and his offspring, what Abraham's seed continue and
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  flourish. Abraham understood the
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  unconditional covenant that God made with him and his
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  descendants, and so he firmly understood that though this
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  seems like a strange request, there's something on the other
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  side of it. Because God does not break his
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  promise. What kind of faith is that?
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  Most of us have got asked to do something like this.
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  Would blame God for being contradicting, for being
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  inconsistent. I thought you said that through
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  Isaac my seed would continue. And now you're asking me to
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  eliminate Isaac and therefore eliminating the promise.
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  He doesn't accuse. He is now forced to believe in
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  something called the resurrection.
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  OK, I don't make sense of this really in its entirety.
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  So the only logical outcome is that, yes, I will sacrifice
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  Isaac, but then God's going to raise him from the dead.
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  And I believe there is a measure of Abraham's own experience that
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  lended him, the faith to believe this about his son.
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  What do I mean by that? Scroll back to Hebrews 11, verse
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  12. Notice what it says.
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  Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, this is Abraham
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  we're speaking about, and him as good as dead.
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  We're born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven, and as
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  many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
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  Look at that description of Abraham's condition in his old
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  age. As good as dead.
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  This is me and my sanctified imagination.
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  Now I like to imagine that when Abraham heard the call to
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  sacrifice his son and he woke up very early to obey, as he was
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  making his way to that mountain that God consecrated for that
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  sacrifice to take place, he thought the following.
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  I have to believe that the same power that birthed Isaac, that I
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  was as good as dead, will also bring Isaac back to life.
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  It has to be. And so he boldly approached that
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  mountain, not wavering in faith, anticipating A resurrection.
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  This is mind blowing. Now I can hear the critics.
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  I hear you. I can hear the critics because
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  I've talked to them. Oh, here's yet another example
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  of you New Testament Christians forcing your interpretation in
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  these Hebrew texts, taking your Christ and shoving him into
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  these stories and trying to make him to be the central theme and
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  trying to find types and shadows.
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  And my response would be, Are you sure about that?
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  Are you sure that there is nothing in the original account
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  of Abraham ready to sacrifice his son Isaac, believing in his
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  resurrection? Well, let's be certain.
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  Turn to Genesis 22 and let's look at it together.
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  I told you there would be a lot of Bible today, Genesis 22.
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  Let's start in verse 3. So Abraham rose early in the
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  morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with
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  him and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt
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  offering, and a rose, and went to the place of which God had
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  told him. On the third day Abraham lifted
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  up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
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  Then Abraham said to his young man, Stay here with the donkey,
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  I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to
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  you. Now if you hold the New King
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  James Version in your hand, this critical observation will be
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  more clear, because in verse 5 it would read in your
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  translation, Stay here with the donkey, the lad and I will go
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  Yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.
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  The same can be said in the NASB.
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  Either way, the honest reader will acknowledge that the same
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  point is being made with any faithful translation.
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  What is Abraham saying? He's planning to go through with
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  God's decree, but he wholeheartedly believes that
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  both he and Isaac are coming back down that mountain.
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  We're coming back to you. How do you believe that if this
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  son is going to be slain, how is that possible if he's going to
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  be a complete sacrifice? Well, Hebrews clarifies the
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  same. Holy Spirit tells us it's
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  because he believed that God would raise him from the dead.
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  What are you going to do about this?
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  Now, the resurrection didn't begin with the Christian
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  movement. It's found all the way here in
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  the heart of the Father of the faith.
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  He believed it. Do you?
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  He understood God's characters, ways, the extent of his power.
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  Do you? By the way, when did Abraham say
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  to his servants that he and Isaac would go and worship and
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  come back together? Look again at verse 4 on the
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  third day. Did you see it?
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  That coincidence couldn't have been the second day, the 7th
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  day, the 12th day. No, on the third day my son will
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  come back. I love the Bible.
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  I'm trying to contain myself here.
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  This is this is no ordinary book.
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  When you consider again that Genesis was written way before,
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  centuries before Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.
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  One voice, resurrection found even there.
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  This is the law. But that's not the complete
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  Tanakh. So we now come to the prophets.
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  Where can we go in the prophets? How many places can we go in the
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  prophets? Why don't we go to Isaiah
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  together? Let's travel now.
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  Isaiah 26, a very well known passage, but it's more rich than
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  people believe. Isaiah 26, verse 19.
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  And I will wait for you. Please, Please remember these
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  verses. Don't forget them, record them.
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  Isaiah 26, verse 19. Here's what the prophet
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  declares. Your dead shall live, their
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  bodies shall rise, You who dwell in the dust awake and sing for
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  joy, For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give
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  birth to the dead. Why don't we just close our
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  Bible to say Hallelujah, Amen and go on?
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  However, it's a bad habit to pluck any verse, any place in
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  the Bible and to drive your interpretation in isolation.
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  If you want to be a serious student of the Bible, if you
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  want to be taken seriously by others, always honor the context
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  of any verse. So here's the question.
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  Why is Isaiah saying this here and now?
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  And here's what you'll discover, that this is actually more of a
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  metaphor for the reviving of national and political Israel,
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  that after all the devastation that they've experienced at this
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  time, the prophet wants to comfort them that they have a
• 24:55
  bright future, They will be revived.
• 24:58
  And he's offering symbolic imagery here.
• 25:00
  You're dead shall come to life. You will rise from the dust.
• 25:05
  So again, this is to say something about the national
• 25:07
  entity of the Jewish people. And that becomes more clear when
• 25:11
  you realize that what Isaiah says in this verse contrast the
• 25:15
  fate of the neighboring enemies of Israel.
• 25:19
  So look back here now, verse 13 in Isaiah 26, what does he say
• 25:23
  about Israel's foes? They are dead, they will not
• 25:28
  live. They are shades, they will not
• 25:31
  rise. To that end, you have visited
• 25:34
  them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.
• 25:40
  So by way of comparison, the enemies of Israel who have
• 25:44
  harassed and oppressed God's people will die.
• 25:49
  They will cease to exist and it will be permanent.
• 25:53
  There is no future transformation.
• 25:55
  There is no fruit. There is no hope for tomorrow.
• 25:59
  You will be decimated for good. And as you just read, then it
• 26:04
  comes to the people of God says no, no, no.
• 26:06
  But for you there will be a resurrection.
• 26:08
  OK, great. So this deals with a historical
• 26:12
  period and there's poetic imagery to portray Israel's
• 26:15
  reviving. So we can't really use this in
• 26:18
  our doctrine. Hold on.
• 26:22
  There is still a clear indication of a literal
• 26:25
  individual bodily resurrection in this passage, especially when
• 26:31
  you look at the surrounding apocalyptic literature in its
• 26:36
  context. So let me give you an example.
• 26:38
  We're in Isaiah 26, right? There was no chapter numbers or
• 26:41
  verse numbers in the original scrolls that came much later to
• 26:44
  help us. So look at Isaiah 25 and notice
• 26:48
  what's being said here in Isaiah 25 verse 6, a close neighbor to
• 26:53
  this passage in Isaiah 26, Isaiah 25 verse 6, the same
• 26:59
  prophet says on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for
• 27:03
  all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine,
• 27:09
  of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine, well refined.
• 27:15
  And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is
• 27:19
  cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
• 27:23
  He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will
• 27:27
  wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people
• 27:31
  He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
• 27:37
  What do we have in view here? A universal shift to a universal
• 27:41
  problem, the conquering of death.
• 27:46
  And it's not just for Israel. And you can't make it seem
• 27:50
  metaphorical. It's not just a prophecy about
• 27:54
  this particular group. No, look again at the language,
• 27:58
  the covering that casts over all peoples, over all nations, wipe
• 28:03
  away tears from all faces. So what is here being prophesied
• 28:09
  is that there will be the Lord who on this mountain, so that
• 28:13
  that points to some kind of manifest power of God in our
• 28:20
  realm. The Lord on this mountain that
• 28:23
  is the mountain of Jerusalem, He's going to do something at
• 28:26
  that point. He's going to cancel death.
• 28:30
  He's going to defeat death. He's going to erase death, and
• 28:34
  it will be the cause of global celebration.
• 28:37
  And as he wipes away all our sorrows forever and ever.
• 28:43
  So again, this is a real prophecy about a real victory
• 28:48
  over a real death, and real people will benefit from it.
• 28:51
  So let's take a breath here, right?
• 28:56
  What makes us even more profound is that this is what Paul quotes
• 29:02
  when he makes a defense for the resurrection in that famous
• 29:04
  passage in First Corinthians 15. I just encourage you to take a
• 29:08
  deep breath in and just hear these words because it comes
• 29:11
  from Isaiah 25. Listen to what Paul says in
• 29:13
  First Corinthians 15, 54 When the perishable puts on the
• 29:19
  imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall
• 29:23
  come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up
• 29:28
  in victory. Where did that come from?
• 29:30
  Paul's head, Isaiah 25 How will life after death be possible?
• 29:40
  How will there be this ability to remain with God
• 29:47
  uninterrupted, without the fear of any cessation of existence?
• 29:51
  You ready for this? We're told in the same book, the
• 29:55
  same book of Isaiah, we are told that there will be the death of
• 29:59
  one individual and through his resurrection, this resurrection
• 30:03
  will be possible. Isaiah 53.
• 30:08
  Can I say something here? Again, I'm trying to contain
• 30:11
  myself. If you are a person in this
• 30:15
  place that really takes serious your faith, if you want to
• 30:18
  enrich your understanding, if you want to be more effective in
• 30:21
  proclaiming and proving what you believe, can I offer a word of
• 30:25
  advice? Master Isaiah 53.
• 30:31
  Don't even just memorize it. Master it, because if you really
• 30:36
  unpack line by line what Isaiah says 700 years before Christ, it
• 30:42
  will blow your mind. I mean, just reading it, we read
• 30:47
  it on Friday. Just reading it is astounding.
• 30:52
  And perhaps some of you have seen this clip online where
• 30:54
  Messianic Jews made their way to Jerusalem and met with Orthodox
• 30:59
  Jews and secular Jews and Reformed Jews and simply read
• 31:02
  Isaiah 53 without telling them where it came from.
• 31:05
  And what you find there is consistently that people, the
• 31:07
  Jewish people who are being interviewed denied it, some
• 31:10
  saying that's in the New Testament, only to be shocked
• 31:12
  when they were told it's Isaiah 53.
• 31:15
  It's an incredible prophecy. I actually believe that.
• 31:19
  Again, remember, chapter divisions and verse numbers were
• 31:21
  not original. I believe Isaiah 53 should have
• 31:23
  began in Isaiah 52, the last part of it.
• 31:28
  Can I give you an example? I failed.
• 31:29
  I couldn't contain myself. I'm sorry.
• 31:31
  Let me give you an example. I want to stir your heart to be
• 31:35
  mighty in the Scriptures. Isaiah 52.
• 31:39
  Look at verse 13. This is where I believe the
• 31:41
  prophecy of the suffering servant should begin.
• 31:43
  Look at this. We're just going to deal with
• 31:45
  the first line. Behold, My Servant shall act
• 31:51
  wisely. He shall be high and lifted up
• 31:55
  and shall be exalted. Hold on.
• 32:00
  I read through Isaiah. I've read it multiple times and
• 32:04
  here's what I learned. That that phrase high and lifted
• 32:09
  up is exclusive to the Lord. That awesome status and position
• 32:19
  purely belongs to God in the book of Isaiah.
• 32:23
  Let me give an example. Isaiah 6.
• 32:24
  One in the year that King Gozaiah died, I saw the Lord
• 32:27
  seated high and lifted up. Isaiah 57 verse 15 thus says the
• 32:35
  one who is high and lifted up. And then now I come to Isaiah 52
• 32:44
  and I read about a servant which many who do not believe in Jesus
• 32:48
  claim is Israel the nation. OK, let's go with that.
• 32:52
  Israel, the nation will be high and lifted up.
• 32:58
  Whoever the servant is, you have to admit that they will be
• 33:00
  exalted to a position and they will share a prerogative that
• 33:03
  belongs to God alone. Listen, you don't just have a
• 33:08
  prophecy here of the Messiah. You have a prophecy here about
• 33:11
  the divinity of the Messiah, because whoever the servant is,
• 33:15
  he will share a seat with Yahweh.
• 33:20
  OK, guys, that that's just the first line.
• 33:23
  That's just the first line. We didn't even get to Isaiah 53,
• 33:26
  yet be stirred. This is what God has given us as
• 33:31
  a gift to be assured in our faith, to proclaim it boldly no
• 33:35
  matter who says what. Now let's come to Isaiah 53.
• 33:39
  Let's look at one place, verse 10 again.
• 33:44
  What are we doing here? We're showing how the
• 33:45
  resurrection is found in the Old Testament, the Tanakh.
• 33:49
  We cover the law briefly. Now we come to the prophets.
• 33:51
  Let's deal with this passage. Yet it was the will of the Lord
• 33:55
  to crush him. He has put him to grief when his
• 34:00
  soul makes an offering for guilt.
• 34:02
  He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days.
• 34:08
  The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
• 34:11
  Well, I've been talking about our Jewish friends a lot.
• 34:13
  Let me speak about our Muslim neighbors Now.
• 34:17
  Our Muslim neighbors often point to this passage and attempt to
• 34:19
  convince Christians that it's not about Jesus.
• 34:22
  Why? Because if you think Isaiah 53
• 34:25
  is about Jesus, then you also have to admit that Jesus had
• 34:27
  kids. Where are they getting that
• 34:31
  from? Well, again, look again at
• 34:32
  Isaiah 53 verse 10, the second part.
• 34:34
  He shall see His offspring. Oh, so the Messiah had children?
• 34:39
  Do you believe Jesus produced children?
• 34:41
  Did He have an earthly family? Of course He didn't.
• 34:45
  Now if you really want to get technical, in the Hebrew, when
• 34:48
  it says He shall see His offspring, the word His isn't
• 34:51
  there. So more literally reads he shall
• 34:54
  see offspring. But even if you want to just
• 34:58
  avoid that route and deal with this directly and understand
• 35:01
  that this is in fact speaking about the Messiah's offspring.
• 35:04
  It's so evident that he's speaking about a spiritual
• 35:07
  offspring in the same way the word seed or offspring is used
• 35:15
  throughout the book of Isaiah to denote the offspring of the
• 35:19
  wicked, a Sinner producing a Sinner alike.
• 35:25
  We don't have time to get there, but it's all over the book of
• 35:28
  Isaiah. So in the same way that an
• 35:30
  unrighteous man is able to produce unrighteousness in a
• 35:34
  spiritual sense, so we have here that there's something about the
• 35:38
  Messiah and what he does that will bring forth a new breed of
• 35:41
  righteous people. He shall see his offspring.
• 35:46
  This is a promise that through the agonizing, substitutionary
• 35:50
  and vicarious death of the Messiah, there will be a new
• 35:54
  family, there will be a new people, there will be a new
• 35:59
  breed who will not be righteous by their own merit, but who will
• 36:04
  be made holy because of the efforts of the Messiah.
• 36:08
  It's so plain. Just read the next verse.
• 36:11
  Look at verse 11, Isaiah 53. Out of the anguish of his soul,
• 36:15
  he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge.
• 36:19
  Shall the righteous one, my Servant, make many to be
• 36:22
  accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
• 36:29
  So what do we see here? What does this have to do with
• 36:33
  resurrection? It's very obvious in the very
• 36:35
  same passage that people point to to make you doubt that Jesus
• 36:41
  was predicted and prophesied about actually teaches about the
• 36:45
  fact that he resurrected. Let me give you just a simple
• 36:50
  observation. After being told before Isaiah
• 36:53
  5310 that he will be cut out from the land of the living,
• 36:56
  that he'll be offered up as a guilt offering, which according
• 36:58
  to the law means death, that his grave will be made with the
• 37:03
  wicked. After all this language being
• 37:05
  pierced unto death, being crushed to death, what does it
• 37:09
  say? He shall see his offspring.
• 37:14
  Last time I checked, after you die, you don't see anything.
• 37:18
  Apparently he's going to see. He's going to see the fruit of
• 37:22
  his sacrifice. This isn't even end there.
• 37:24
  What does he say next? Moreover, he shall prolong his
• 37:28
  days. I thought your days were cut
• 37:31
  off. I thought you ceased to live.
• 37:33
  I thought you were put to death. Yes.
• 37:35
  But after that, this is this is chronological.
• 37:37
  After that, there will be an extension of his life.
• 37:41
  He will continue to live. Is there anything else in this
• 37:45
  one verse alone? Yes.
• 37:46
  Look at the end of verse 10. The will of the Lord shall
• 37:49
  prosper in His hand, implying that there is something else
• 37:53
  that this suffering servant will accomplish after his death.
• 37:58
  How can my hand do anything unless it is animated with life?
• 38:03
  And so there's still more for Messiah to do, and we learn
• 38:06
  about it. He's going to intercede for
• 38:08
  transgressors. So clearly there's only one
• 38:11
  logical conclusion, that this one who does lay down his life,
• 38:15
  who does become a sin bearing sacrifice for many, will live
• 38:20
  again. He will live again.
• 38:23
  Who said that? Peter.
• 38:25
  Who said that? John.
• 38:27
  Who said that? The pastor of Maranatha Bible
• 38:29
  Church, Isaiah the prophet 700 years before the life of Christ.
• 38:34
  That's why Isaiah is known as the 5th Gospel.
• 38:38
  Reeling all this together, here's the message.
• 38:40
  In Isaiah, the Messiah's personal defeat over sin will
• 38:43
  conquer death forever, and it will justify others who are
• 38:48
  belonging to him. Just the surface of finding the
• 38:54
  resurrection in the prophets. Let's come finally now to the
• 38:57
  writings, the last part of the Old Testament, Daniel, chapter
• 39:03
  12. Did you know that in the Tanakh,
• 39:08
  the book of Daniel is not placed under the prophets, but with the
• 39:12
  Ketuvim, the writings? I can explain why, but I don't
• 39:17
  want to keep you too long. We could go to the Psalms.
• 39:23
  We can go to Job. There's so many things in the
• 39:27
  writings that point to the resurrection.
• 39:29
  Why am I going to Daniel? I'm going to Daniel because it
• 39:32
  brings us full circle to our original verse.
• 39:34
  When we open up this message when Paul was defending his
• 39:38
  faith in the resurrection, he alludes to what Daniel says in
• 39:41
  Daniel 12 verse 2. Let's read It is what the
• 39:44
  prophet Daniel says. And many of those who sleep in
• 39:48
  the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
• 39:53
  and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
• 39:58
  I want to end a little differently here.
• 40:01
  I'm fully aware that there are some, maybe even many.
• 40:05
  Who are listening to this message and you don't believe
• 40:08
  not just what I have to say here, you don't believe anything
• 40:11
  that the Bible has to say. And if you have survived the
• 40:15
  sermon to this point, I want to tell you something that might
• 40:19
  pique your interest, that whether you believe in it or
• 40:22
  not, the Lord speaks about you. Yes, even if you don't believe
• 40:30
  in this truth, even if you don't believe in God, Jesus, you want
• 40:33
  to live your own life. You're the you're the master of
• 40:34
  your fate. You're the captain of your soul.
• 40:37
  Can I tell you that the Bible anticipated you?
• 40:42
  Can't be said more clearly. Than what Daniel says here, that
• 40:45
  there will be those who will, yes, be raised everlasting life,
• 40:49
  and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
• 40:53
  The Bible tells us why there will be.
• 40:55
  Some who will be raised everlasting contempt it.
• 40:58
  Anticipates again that there will be those.
• 41:00
  Who will deny God, deny His provision of eternal life, and
• 41:04
  live their way the Bible wants? To tell you that.
• 41:07
  There is a cost to that decision.
• 41:12
  And I want to say something. That most would hesitate to say
• 41:16
  for an Easter message. But I'm aware that you may never
• 41:21
  hear it at another place. You may not hear it from another
• 41:25
  person. What this book teaches.
• 41:29
  Is that there is a real heaven and there is a real hell, and
• 41:33
  every single person will spend. Eternity in one.
• 41:37
  Of those two places, that's it. It's as simple as that.
• 41:43
  You're not a bag of skin stuffed with meat.
• 41:48
  You're an immortal soul. That's been created in the image
• 41:51
  of God, and he made you to walk with him.
• 41:54
  But our first parents made the decision to walk away from Him
• 41:58
  because love has choice in it, and the choice of our parents
• 42:03
  and we follow it in their direction is to ignore God,
• 42:05
  blasphemy God, enjoy what he hates, break his law.
• 42:11
  On top of that, you have some who deny.
• 42:13
  His existence reject his creative work separate.
• 42:17
  Themselves from anything that. Is righteous and pure and good.
• 42:21
  Let me be the one to tell you. That you have.
• 42:24
  Been made by God. And you've been made for God,
• 42:29
  but again, he gives you the choice because sin separates us
• 42:33
  from God. And He was the one who initiated
• 42:35
  reconciliation with him. But he.
• 42:39
  Couldn't just sweep our sin? Underneath a rug, he couldn't
• 42:41
  just ignore it, because as much as he is loved, he is holy, he
• 42:44
  is true, He is just. And so he came with a plan.
• 42:49
  Paul calls it the wisdom of God. He came up with a plan in order
• 42:53
  to extend his love and yet at the same time satisfy his
• 42:57
  justice. The second Person of the
• 43:00
  Trinity. Enters into the world, takes on
• 43:02
  flesh, and he pays our debt. And he does that by.
• 43:07
  Dying on the cross, absorbing the wrath of God that was over
• 43:11
  your head and mine. He's buried.
• 43:15
  He. Raises from the grave, and that
• 43:17
  resurrection is God's. Amen.
• 43:19
  That he approved that payment. All for what?
• 43:24
  So that you, a debtor, you a Sinner, you condemned, you
• 43:27
  guilty, would acknowledge it and receive that free gift of
• 43:32
  salvation and be saved. How can I?
• 43:39
  Know with absolute assurance that would Daniel prophesized
• 43:43
  here. Will that be my portion?
• 43:45
  How can I transition from everlasting contempt to
• 43:48
  everlasting life? How can?
• 43:51
  I know that when I give my. Final breath.
• 43:53
  How can I know that even if I'm surprised by death, that the
• 43:56
  next step I will take will be in the presence of God, will be in
• 44:00
  the arms of a loving Creator? Let.
• 44:04
  Me tell you what Jesus says to. You.
• 44:06
  Here's what Jesus says to you in John 1125.
• 44:09
  I am the resurrection of life. Whoever believes in me, though
• 44:14
  he die, yet shall he live. The way you can know that.
• 44:26
  You will have resurrection unto life is by embracing the Lord
• 44:29
  Jesus Christ, by understanding his love for you, by
• 44:35
  understanding what he laid aside.
• 44:37
  Again, I I gave that very faint picture of what it must have
• 44:41
  been like for Christ to return in glory in flesh.
• 44:45
  But what was it like when he removed his glory to enter into
• 44:48
  this world as flesh? What did those creatures?
• 44:54
  See, how do they converse among themselves?
• 44:57
  How do they try to ratify it and justify it and explain it that
• 45:02
  this? God chooses to.
• 45:03
  Come into this world that he created, this world that spat in
• 45:07
  his face and denied him and turned their back on him, and
• 45:10
  yet he is reaching for them to bring them back to himself.
• 45:13
  How can this be? Just restart, change the whole
• 45:18
  thing. Start from square 1, The
• 45:22
  throbbing love of God for him to come and to reach out to us.
• 45:27
  So here's what you're hearing on this Sunday afternoon.
• 45:30
  God's hand, even today, because he commanded men to go and
• 45:33
  preach the gospel to all nations.
• 45:35
  Here's the message. God's hand is extended out to
• 45:37
  you. What will you do with it?
• 45:41
  Will you ignore it? Will you slap it away?
• 45:47
  Will you come up with your own terms?
• 45:48
  And shake his hand on a premise that he did not propose.
• 45:54
  Here's what he. Asks of you.
• 45:55
  Repent, turn from your sins, and embrace His forgiveness for your
• 46:01
  life and in the moment that you genuinely turn not from God, you
• 46:06
  turn from your sins and you believe on Him in.
• 46:11
  That very second. You'll be justified before God,
• 46:16
  just as you have never sinned. You will be redeemed, you'll be
• 46:19
  cleansed, and your name will be written in the Lamb's book of
• 46:21
  life. And not only.
• 46:23
  Do you have something to look forward?
• 46:24
  To after this life, but you can walk with your God in this life
• 46:29
  and enjoy him until it climaxes where you see him and you.
• 46:35
  Get to be with him and his people.
• 46:36
  Forever, because death is. Swallowed up in.
• 46:39
  Victory. Praise God, let's pray.
• 46:58
  Indeed, but we have feasted on your.
• 46:59
  Word today. And though there may be some
• 47:04
  who. Deny the validity of these truth
• 47:07
  claims. I trust that there is not one.
• 47:11
  Person who can deny that it is consistent in your word?
• 47:17
  That at various stages in. History you have hinted at,
• 47:21
  you've made known, you have revealed that you will defeat
• 47:25
  death, and those who place their trust and their faith in your
• 47:30
  son will also defeat that. And so, Lord, today as your word
• 47:37
  went forth, we ask that you would do what no man can do, and
• 47:43
  that is to convict and change hearts.
• 47:47
  And Lord, for those who have been redeemed and who were here
• 47:49
  celebrating what happened to their lives because of what
• 47:51
  you've done, we've now come to celebrate you in this final
• 47:55
  moment. Receive glory.
• 47:57
  Lord, help us never forget the richness of this treasure that
• 48:01
  you've made available to us in Jesus name, Amen.
• 48:05
  Let's stand. He's in the law, He's in the
• 48:08
  prophets, He's in the writings, He's everywhere.
• 48:11
  He's the theme of the Bible, He's the theme of the universe,
• 48:14
  and he is our King.