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A Miraculous Resurrection │ Msg 1216 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: In his final moments on the cross, Jesus uttered the
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  Speaker 1: words it is finished. Soon after he breathed his last
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  Speaker 1: to John, who witnessed Jesus' agonizing death. Everything he knew
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  Speaker 1: and cherished died with Jesus. It was not just finished,
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  Speaker 1: it was over. The one who had called Lazarus out
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  Speaker 1: of his tomb now hung, lifeless and limp, needing to
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  Speaker 1: be placed in a tomb himself. As John watched Joseph
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  Speaker 1: of Arimathea and Nicodemus lowered Jesus' body off the cross,
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  Speaker 1: he must have wondered, was it all just a dream?
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  Speaker 1: Confusion and despair must have flooded John's soul. Yes, it
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  Speaker 1: was finished, but as John and the whole world would
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  Speaker 1: soon see, it was.
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  Speaker 2: Far from over.
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  Speaker 1: Turn with me, please in your bibles as I read
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  Speaker 1: the account of Jesus' resurrection, the event that forever changed
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  Speaker 1: the course of history. I'll begin in John nineteen with
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  Speaker 1: the burial of Jesus, and then I'll read on into
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  Speaker 1: John's description of the resurrection in John twenty. Starting now
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: in John nineteen, verse thirty eight, I'll be reading from
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  Speaker 1: the new Living translation. Afterward, Joseph of Arimathea, who had
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  Speaker 1: been a secret disciple of Jesus because he feared the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish leaders, asked Pilot for permission to take down Jesus' body.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: When Pilot gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away.
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  Speaker 1: With him, came Nicodemus, the man who had come to
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  Speaker 1: Jesus at night. He brought about seventy five pounds of
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  Speaker 1: perfumed ointment made from mrr and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom,
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  Speaker 1: they wrapped Jesus's body with the spices in long sheets
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  Speaker 1: of linen cloth. The place of crucifixion was near a garden,
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  Speaker 1: for there was a new tomb never used before, and
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  Speaker 1: so because it was the day of preparation for the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish Passover, and since the tomb was close at hand,
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  Speaker 1: they laid Jesus there. And now Chapter twenty, beginning at
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  Speaker 1: verse one. Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark,
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  Speaker 1: Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the
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  Speaker 1: stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran
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  Speaker 1: and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one
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  Speaker 1: whom Jesus loved. She said, they have taken the Lord's
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  Speaker 1: body out of the tomb, and we don't know where
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  Speaker 1: they have put him. Peter and the other disciples started
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  Speaker 1: out for the tomb. They were both running, but the
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  Speaker 1: other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He
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  Speaker 1: stooped and looked in and saw the linen rappings lying there,
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  Speaker 1: but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and
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  Speaker 1: went inside. He also noticed the linen rappings lying there,
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  Speaker 1: while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded
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  Speaker 1: up and lying apart from the other rappings. Then the
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  Speaker 1: disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in,
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  Speaker 1: and he saw and believed. For until then they still
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  Speaker 1: hadn't understood the scriptures that said Jesus must rise from
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  Speaker 1: the dead. Then they went home.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Doctor Frank Morrison was not the kind of person you
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  Speaker 2: would find in church on Sunday morning. Chances are he
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't even come to an Easter service or a Christmas celebration.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: But he was a man that you couldn't help but respect. Marrison,
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  Speaker 2: you see, was a well educated Britisher. He was by
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  Speaker 2: profession a lawyer, but he was by philosophy a skeptic.
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  Speaker 2: He was moved in his own words, by irresistible logic
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  Speaker 2: and facts. He was not moved at all by the
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  Speaker 2: Christian tradition, not at all by the bias of so
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  Speaker 2: many people around him who claimed to love the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: His thinking was shaped by the German critics and doctor
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  Speaker 2: Matthew Arnold of Oxford, by Darwin's disciples, Sir Thomas Huxley.
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  Speaker 2: He was a man who did not believe at all
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  Speaker 2: in the miraculous, and so when he came upon the
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  Speaker 2: historic Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
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  Speaker 2: the dead, he denied it absolutely when challenged on one occasion,
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  Speaker 2: for the reasons he decided to undertake a task that
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  Speaker 2: was destined to change his life. He chose to pursue
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  Speaker 2: the study from an intellectual point of view, using the
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  Speaker 2: documents of scripture, history and archaeology, and let the chips
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  Speaker 2: fall they may. With the curiosity of a Sherlock Holmes,
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  Speaker 2: he began the pursuit. He wound up on the other side. However,
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  Speaker 2: his book entitled Who Moved the Stone tells the story
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  Speaker 2: in its preface. This study is in some ways so
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  Speaker 2: unusual and provocative that the writer thinks it desirable to
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  Speaker 2: state here very briefly, how the book came to take
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  Speaker 2: its present form. In one sense, it could have taken
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  Speaker 2: no other, For this is essentially a confession. It is
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  Speaker 2: the inner story of a man who originally set out
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  Speaker 2: to write one kind of book, but found himself compelled
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  Speaker 2: by the sheer force of circumstances to write quite another.
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  Speaker 2: It is not that the facts themselves altered, for they
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  Speaker 2: are recorded imperishably in the monuments and in the pages
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  Speaker 2: of human history. But the interpretation to be put upon
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  Speaker 2: the facts underwent a change. Somehow. My perspective shifted, not suddenly,
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  Speaker 2: as in a flash of insight or inspiration, but slowly,
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  Speaker 2: almost imperceptibly, by the very stubbornness of the facts themselves.
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  Speaker 2: The book, as it was originally planned, was left high
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  Speaker 2: and dry, like those barges when the great river goes
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  Speaker 2: out to meet the incoming sea. The writer discovered one
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  Speaker 2: day that not only could he no longer write the
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  Speaker 2: book as he had once conceived it, but that he
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  Speaker 2: would not even if he could. Who moved the stone?
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  Speaker 2: That's a question that any thinking person must wrestle with,
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  Speaker 2: and your answer will have an effect on your whole life.
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  Speaker 2: We come to that point today in our study of
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  Speaker 2: the Gospel of John. As a matter of fact, we
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  Speaker 2: have been in sort of a pocket of studies for
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  Speaker 2: the past several weeks. They have been pursuits for the truth.
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  Speaker 2: Using John as our guide, we examined the trials of
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  Speaker 2: Jesus with exacting interest in precisely what occurred that took
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  Speaker 2: us two messages. We backed off and took a human
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  Speaker 2: interest study of Peter, examining from an eyewitness account why
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  Speaker 2: Peter did what he did the whole area of his denial.
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  Speaker 2: And then, of course, last week we were left in
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  Speaker 2: the darkness of death as we studied our Saviour's crucifixion
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  Speaker 2: and gleaned from John's Gospel and the other accounts what
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  Speaker 2: must have happened, at least in part, as best we
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  Speaker 2: can over these nineteen centuries since that time, we try
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  Speaker 2: to uncover the evidence of our Saviour's death. Now we
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  Speaker 2: begin actually where we left off this morning, because you
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  Speaker 2: do not prove a miraculous resurrection if you do not
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  Speaker 2: have a corpse. In order for there to be a
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  Speaker 2: miracle in the empty tomb, you must have evidence of
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  Speaker 2: the certainty of death, and that seems to be the
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  Speaker 2: place we must begin John nineteen thirty two down through
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  Speaker 2: thirty seven reveals for us a couple of physical evidences
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  Speaker 2: that Jesus was dead. And you might say, as you
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  Speaker 2: sit there as a Christian, why even take time to
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  Speaker 2: talk about the certainty of the death, because you see
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  Speaker 2: so many of the critics declare that he never died.
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  Speaker 2: Books are written teaching that Jesus in fact swooned into
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  Speaker 2: a coma, that comatose body was placed on a slab,
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  Speaker 2: and inside the cool, damp, dark tomb, he revived, He
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  Speaker 2: slipped away, and he claimed miraculous resurrection, which was no
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  Speaker 2: miracle at all. It was a hoax because he never died.
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  Speaker 2: Now the account before us tells us that he did
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  Speaker 2: die verse thirty two. The soldiers therefore came and broke
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  Speaker 2: the legs of the first man and the other man
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  Speaker 2: who was crucified with him. That's a reference to the
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  Speaker 2: two thieves crucified on both sides, on either side. But
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  Speaker 2: notice now coming to Jesus, when they saw that he
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  Speaker 2: was already dead, they did not break his legs. This
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  Speaker 2: is not a passing observation of a tourist walking by Galgatha.
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  Speaker 2: This is a studied examination of a man who had
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  Speaker 2: the grim duty of killing people. These were guards that
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  Speaker 2: had the duty of execution. Their single responsibility under the
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  Speaker 2: law of Rome was when they went to the cross
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  Speaker 2: with thectims. They didn't leave until there was a corpse
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  Speaker 2: hanging on timbers. It was their job to secure death,
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  Speaker 2: if necessary, hasten it. Now, when they came to Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: it was the decision of the guards who knew death
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  Speaker 2: when they saw it that Jesus was dead. Mark tells us,
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  Speaker 2: not John, that the centurion, when he witnessed the death, said,
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  Speaker 2: surely this one was the son of God. We refer
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  Speaker 2: to that, and we say probably he became a Christian.
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  Speaker 2: Whether he did or not is not of concern right now.
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  Speaker 2: The point is of interest to me that Mark uses
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  Speaker 2: the word was and the tense he uses from the
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  Speaker 2: centurion's words, declares past act. It's like you would say
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  Speaker 2: Lyndon Johnson was the president, or you would say it
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  Speaker 2: was raining last week. It's a completed fact. He was
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  Speaker 2: when he was alive, the son of God. Now Here
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  Speaker 2: is the squad leader of the execution detail declaring he
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  Speaker 2: was such and such, meaning he was dead. But there's more.
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  Speaker 2: Verse thirty four tells us one of the soldiers pricked
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  Speaker 2: his side with a spear, and immediately there came out
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  Speaker 2: blood and water. We worked this over rather carefully last Sunday,
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  Speaker 2: so there's no reason to go back into it. I
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  Speaker 2: just would remind you that there is more thann opinion.
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  Speaker 2: A good attorney could question the opinion of a centurion
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  Speaker 2: or a guard, but no one's going to question the
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  Speaker 2: appearance of blood and serum. When death occurs, the blood
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  Speaker 2: separates into a whitey serum and the dark red corpuscles
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  Speaker 2: housed in a section of the heart. And when that piercing,
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  Speaker 2: stabbing wound was made out, came signs medically that he
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  Speaker 2: had died. It wasn't up for grabs. They had a
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  Speaker 2: cool corpse on their hands. Now there's a procedural evidence
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  Speaker 2: as well, verse thirty eight. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea,
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  Speaker 2: being a disciple of Jesus, a secret one for fear
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  Speaker 2: of the Jews, asked Pilot that he might take away
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  Speaker 2: the body of Jesus, and Pilot granted permission. Verse thirty nine.
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  Speaker 2: Nicodemus came also, who had first come to him by night,
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  Speaker 2: bringing a mixture of mirror and aloes, about one hundred
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  Speaker 2: pounds now mark verse forty. So they took the body
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  Speaker 2: of Jesus and bounded in linen wrappings with the spices,
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  Speaker 2: as is the burial custom of the Jews. Probably you
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  Speaker 2: are not Jewish, and even if you are Jewish, you
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  Speaker 2: probably are not familiar with the custom of the Jews.
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  Speaker 2: I wasn't, so I consulted the writings of one who
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  Speaker 2: was in preparing a body for burial. According to Jewish custom,
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  Speaker 2: it was usually washed and straightened, writes this man, and
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  Speaker 2: then it was bandaged tightly from the armpits to the
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  Speaker 2: ankles in strips of linen about a foot wide. By
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  Speaker 2: the way, these rappings were often called swaddlings. It's interesting,
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  Speaker 2: isn't it. Aromatic spices, often of a gummy consistency, were
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  Speaker 2: placed between the wrappings or the folds. So what we
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  Speaker 2: have is the wrapping in mummy like form of the
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  Speaker 2: body that is now dead. They served partially as a preservative,
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  Speaker 2: that is, these spices, and partially as a cement to
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  Speaker 2: glue the wrappings into a solid covering. Hetdersheim writes and
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  Speaker 2: another work that the body was folded, that is, the
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  Speaker 2: arms were folded over the chest in this fashion. You've
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  Speaker 2: seen the ancient Egyptian forms much like this. The same
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  Speaker 2: method was used by the Jews, and the wrappings were
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  Speaker 2: from shoulder down to ankle, and the actual curve contour
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  Speaker 2: of the body was maintained in the tape like wrappings
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  Speaker 2: around the body, tight and slipping in those folds were
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  Speaker 2: these spices that would finally see meant and glue together
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  Speaker 2: the wrappings. Now, when the body was thus encased, he adds,
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  Speaker 2: a square piece of cloth was wrapped around the head
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  Speaker 2: and tied under the chin to keep the lower jaw
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  Speaker 2: from sagging. John's term bound verse forty is in perfect
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  Speaker 2: accord with the language of Luke, where the doctor says
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  Speaker 2: that the body was rolled in linen. John uses the
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  Speaker 2: same verb to describe the headcloth, which was found rolled
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  Speaker 2: up in a place by itself, and then he concludes
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  Speaker 2: the language implies that the body of Jesus was not
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  Speaker 2: carelessly entombed, or why make such a case of it
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  Speaker 2: when talking about the death of Jesus, Well, stop and think.
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  Speaker 2: These were friends, not enemies. These were not the ones
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  Speaker 2: who pushed the sword in his side or a spear
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  Speaker 2: in his side. These were followers brave enough to come
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  Speaker 2: out of the woodwork and say, we'd like to take
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  Speaker 2: his body and put it in the tomb. These were
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  Speaker 2: bold followers of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine in working
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  Speaker 2: with that body, if they had found one sign of animation,
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  Speaker 2: they would have carried through and put it in a tomb.
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  Speaker 2: It's incredible. What they worked with was a graying mass
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  Speaker 2: called a corpse, cool to the touch. There was not
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  Speaker 2: a sign of life. Had there been, he would never
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  Speaker 2: have been placed in a tomb. Remember now they were
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  Speaker 2: confused about resurrection. They would love to have revived him,
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  Speaker 2: nursed him back to help. He was dead, it is
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  Speaker 2: a fact, and then comes silence, silence in the tomb
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  Speaker 2: verse forty one. In the place where he was crucified,
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  Speaker 2: there was a garden, and in the garden a tomb
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  Speaker 2: in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, on
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  Speaker 2: account of the Jewish day of preparation, that is the
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  Speaker 2: Passover holiday, because the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
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  Speaker 2: There's every reason to believe that it was a normal tomb,
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  Speaker 2: hollowed out, carved out of a soft limestone hillside. My
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  Speaker 2: days in Okinawa and time in Japan, I remember seeing
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  Speaker 2: tombs in the side of hills, and flower vases setting nearby.
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  Speaker 2: These hillside tombs and closed to keep out the animals
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  Speaker 2: and those that would steal from the bodies. Bodies were buried,
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  Speaker 2: often with riches. Now he was laid there, three things
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  Speaker 2: occurred in the silence of the tomb. That is, three
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  Speaker 2: important matters ought to be considered. First, the tomb was sealed.
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  Speaker 2: It was sealed. A tomb was not only hollowed out,
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  Speaker 2: but it had to have some kind of covering over
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  Speaker 2: the mouth. And so a large circular stone, probably weighing
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  Speaker 2: a ton or more, was set on its edge in
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  Speaker 2: an inclined groove. A wedge of stone or wood at
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  Speaker 2: the base of this stone would keep it from rolling
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  Speaker 2: down and lunging into place. However, when the body was
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  Speaker 2: placed on the slab in mummy like fashion, those who
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  Speaker 2: had buried would pull back the wedge and this great
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  Speaker 2: rock would slide or rolled into place, and then it
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  Speaker 2: would be sealed. In this case, sealed according to Roman law. Now,
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  Speaker 2: a seal was not cement. It was not a glue.
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  Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, it was only a piece
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  Speaker 2: of string, a cord or a piece of twine was
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  Speaker 2: stretched across the widest part of that diameter, and with
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  Speaker 2: ceiling wax pushed against the edge of that stone on
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  Speaker 2: one side and against the edge on the opposite side,
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  Speaker 2: and the signet of Rome, the imprint of the Caesar
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  Speaker 2: worn on a ring by an official, would be pressed
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  Speaker 2: into that wax on either side. The string wasn't powerful,
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  Speaker 2: but that signet was, and to break that seal would
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  Speaker 2: incur Roman wrath. It was, in fact a terrible act
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  Speaker 2: of disobedience. So with fear, the tomb was sealed. The
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  Speaker 2: guards could not touch that tomb even as they watched it.
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  Speaker 2: That's the second significant factor is that guards were placed there.
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  Speaker 2: The tomb wasn't left alone. Guards were hired by the
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  Speaker 2: Jews to stand over this tomb. The last thing the
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  Speaker 2: Jewish officials wanted was an empty tomb. They wanted that
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  Speaker 2: body to stay and to stay forever, because Jesus had said,
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  Speaker 2: after three days and three nights, watch out. He predicted
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  Speaker 2: his resurrection, and they did not want that to happen.
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  Speaker 2: So guards were placed on duty. By the way, it
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  Speaker 2: was interesting in my study to discover that if a
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  Speaker 2: Roman guard went to sleep on his watch, his garments
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  Speaker 2: were set on fire. That was a sure way of
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  Speaker 2: keeping you wide awake when you were on guard duty.
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  Speaker 2: Now you can imagine that if just sleeping would cause
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  Speaker 2: that to happen, what it would be to break the seal. D. D.
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  Speaker 2: Weldon writes the guard was to prevent the duplicity of
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  Speaker 2: the disciples, but the seal was to secure against the
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  Speaker 2: collusion of the guard, so both sides were covered. Friend
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  Speaker 2: or enemy could not come and take him out of
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  Speaker 2: that tune, which brings us to the third factor. And
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  Speaker 2: that's time. You notice the space between verse forty two
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  Speaker 2: of chapter nineteen and verse one of chapter twenty that
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  Speaker 2: represents three days and three nights, a period of time
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  Speaker 2: of silence. Now, the orthodox position is that Jesus was
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  Speaker 2: crucified on a Friday. That's why there are good Friday
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  Speaker 2: services in most churches. My seminary professors would throw darts
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  Speaker 2: at me this morning if they could seeing this I'm
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  Speaker 2: laying on you. There is the opinion that he was
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  Speaker 2: crucified on a Wednesday. I believe he was crucified at
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  Speaker 2: nine in the morning on Wednesday. He died at three
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  Speaker 2: in the afternoon what we would call the afternoon on Wednesday,
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  Speaker 2: and buried just before sun's Remember the promise that Jesus
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  Speaker 2: gave up in Matthew twelve, So shall the Son of
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  Speaker 2: Man be three days and three nights in the heart
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  Speaker 2: of the earth, all right. The shaded area represents darkness
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  Speaker 2: or night. The light area represents daylight. Obviously, he's in
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  Speaker 2: the tomb. The first full twenty four hour period that
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  Speaker 2: was a high day and Passover week. This was called
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  Speaker 2: a sabbath. It was an extra sabbath, if you please,
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  Speaker 2: like a holy day or what we would call a holiday,
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  Speaker 2: and that day was sacred. John calls it a special
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  Speaker 2: or a high day. Nineteen thirty one. He was in
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  Speaker 2: the tomb that day Friday, he was in the tomb.
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  Speaker 2: The second twenty four hour period Saturday, he was in
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  Speaker 2: the tomb. The third twenty four hour period that is
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  Speaker 2: the weekly Sabbath. Matthew twenty eight says, literally, now after
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  Speaker 2: the Sabbaths plural meaning the Passover Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath.
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  Speaker 2: As I see it, he was raised. Well, I take
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  Speaker 2: it that after sunset Jesus Christ miraculously came back from beyond.
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  Speaker 2: He was raised. Now, this is a fun thing to
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: kick around. This is the kind of thing the seminary
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: students turned cartwheels over write thess on and when it's
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  Speaker 2: all said and done, who cares? Frankly? But I cannot
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  Speaker 2: bury him on a Friday and get three days and
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  Speaker 2: three nights. Hasn't that ever bothered you? Maybe your theology
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  Speaker 2: isn't like mine, but your mathematics is pretty good. One
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  Speaker 2: plus one plus one equals three. Right, Show me how
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  Speaker 2: you get three when you bury him on a Friday,
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  Speaker 2: and I would very much appreciate it. Don't play games
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  Speaker 2: with the three. Three means three and he repeats it
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: once in Matthew twelve forty. Now, then I really believe
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: when we get to Heaven and we walk in the gates,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: the Lord Jesus will say, why in the world, Swindall
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: did you take three minutes to even talk about what
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: day my son or I was a crazy fout? It
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: really doesn't matter, Okay, What does matter is that he
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: was raised. That's what matters. That's where we are right now.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: So don't even worry about getting been out of shape.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: It isn't worth it. Of course, you'll be wrong if
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: you don't think that he was crucified in a mist.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: All.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Right, let's look at the proof. This is the kind
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: of thing that Frank Morrison studied along with all so
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: many others, and came to the conclusion that his position
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: had to change. I see three things that were of
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: evidence that were irresistible in kind. When they came to
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: the tomb that morning Verse one. On the first day
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Just let me relieve some people's mind. We're not told
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: this was their first visit. Okay, Now, on the first
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: day of the week they came and probably they were
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: going to bring flowers, they were going to bring spices,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: They were going to show their respect, as you might
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: to the dead. And suddenly there was something different.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: What was it?
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Well, there was a stone displaced, rolled uphill or fallen
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: back or christ. The displaced stone is the first thing
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: they noticed. They saw the stone taken away. Question how
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: it's sealed. There are guards, but it's gone. Now you
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: know already that it wasn't removed to let Jesus out.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: He was raised. I'm convinced before the stone ever left.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: A resurrection body doesn't need a stone out of the
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: way to move through. It was moved so we could
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: get in the disciples could witness the remains. How Matthew
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: tells us that an angel moved the stone. Billy Graham
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: writes in his book on Angels, I have often wondered
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: what those guards must have fought when they saw the
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: angel rolling the gigantic boulder with possibly the lightest touch
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: of his finger. But that was some kind of guard.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: That morning he looked and he saw this irresistible force
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: moving the stone away from the mouth of the tomb,
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: and like nobody else, he watched it happen. Well, the
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: women got there, and they saw this open mouth in
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: the tomb and stayed long enough to examine. He's not there.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: So they raced back verse two down through verse four
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: with the second piece of evidence, the empty tomb. The
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: stone is back and there's nobody they expected. Kidnap. She
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: disciple whom Jesus loved. Who is that? That was John
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: who wrote this book. Interesting human interest story here. I
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: want you to stay awake on it. They said they've
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: taken away the Lord out of the tomb. She thought
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: they've kidnapped him, and we don't know where they've laid him.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Peter therefore went forth and the other disciples they were
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: going to the tomb, and they were running together, and
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter. Kind of
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: important to John that, you know, he outran Peter back
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: to the tomb, and he came to the tomb first.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: He says it, I got there first. Now he looks
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: inside and there's no body. What's happened, Well, there are
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: three possibilities. Number One, Jesus left of his own accord.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: That's really an impossibility if he's dead. There are those
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: who say he revived, pushed the stone back and slipped away. Second,
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: he was kidnapped. Let's think about that for just a
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: few minutes. Only two kinds of people would have kidnapped him.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: One would have been the enemies. Question there is why.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: That's what they did not want to happen. That's why
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: they sealed the tomb and put guards there. To kidnap
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: the body is to cut off your nose, despite your face.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: They wanted the body to stay. Furthermore, as Patrick Fairbairn reveals,
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: when these Christians preached the resurrection in the streets during
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: the first century, the silence of the critic was as
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: eloquent as the preaching of the Christian If they had
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: the body, why didn't they say, here's that Jew and
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: silence them. They didn't have the body. Arnold Tornby says,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: you find the body of that Jew and Christianity crumbles.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: He's not there. So let's say friends stole the body.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: The question there is how not a motive there, but
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: a method? How would the Christians get to that tomb
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: and get that stone moved back? The guards? By the way,
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: they're scared to death now from the crucifixion on. They're
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: just shaking, quaking with fear. I suppose before I give
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: you the third, which is resur I should add that
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: there has been suggested another one here of late. I
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: guess you'd call it the gas theory. It says the
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: body disintegrated through normal processes, so it falls naturally that
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: he was not found, for he evaporated into gases. One
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: sage offers this answer, decay would have begun in three
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: days time, but would certainly not have reached the stage
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: of complete chemical disillusion. To assume that the body of
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Jesus evaporated into gases within three days after death is
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: to project a miracle as great as the resurrection itself.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Now an intelligent person seriously thinking about it come to
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: a position on the gas theory or a kidnapped theory,
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: or a swoon theory. Not a lot of alternatives. A
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: miracle happened. Now, let me go to one more piece
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: of evidence. That's the presence of the grave clothes. This
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: gets kind of exciting when you're inside this tomb and
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: it's early in the morning and you're looking not at
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: an indentation a slab. When you put a body on
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: a slab, there's no mark. If the body's removed, it
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: hasn't left an indentation. It's still a slab, looks just
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: like a flat piece, just as before three days earlier. Well,
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: then what were they seeing? They were seeing the grave clothes,
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: the wrappings. Three times John uses the word see or behold,
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: and each one is different. In the verse five, this
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: is John now stooping and looking in. He saw the
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: This word means simply to glance or to look, as
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: you would look at those flowers, as you would look
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: at the cross or that organ or that piano. It's
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: not an inaccurate glance. It's just not deep or profound.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: It's there. It's there. Let's go on. So John stood
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: there and he saw there was nobody. There were rappings.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: Verse six Simon Peter therefore came following him. Remember now
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: John got there first. Peter came following him and entered
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: the two. So here's Peter all the way. John, let
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: me look in there and see that thing, what it's
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: all about. So Peter walks in, and it says he'd
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: beheld the linen wrappings. That's another word theore. Oh, we
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: get our word theorized from it. Now, this term John uses,
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: and I quote from a good lexicon, means to make
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: a careful notice, not a mere glance. At Robertson's words,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: it denotes a careful observation, a theorizing. If you saw
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: smoke pouring out of the baptistry, you wouldn't simply glance.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: You would you would theorize what is happening. In other words,
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: the mental machinery would start working, The gears would work together,
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: and you'd begin to think it through. Now here's Peter inside,
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: walking looking thinking about the rappings. Verse seven says the
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: facecloth which had been on his head. Not lying with
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: the rappings. Now listen, if he had been kidnapped, they
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: would have, you know, pull all that stuff off and
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: dumped it and taken off. But that's not what he saw.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: He saw a cocoon. He saw rappings just as though
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: they were around a body, arms hips, legs. And the
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: word used in verse seven for rolled up doesn't mean
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: flat like you would fold a table napkin. It means
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: rolled like around a ball or head. But there was
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: no flesh and bone. Got it. Peter studied that rappings
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: and this ball with no head, and says, then entered
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: the other disciple who had come first to the tomb,
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: and he saw, yeah, I forgot to say it. He
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: was there first, okay, And he saw. This is the
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: third word oida. It means to get a mental picture.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: It clicked. That's what it means. You listened to a
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: mathematic professor describe a particular formula, you wrestle with it.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: Then you say, I see what you mean is you
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: understand the thing. That's what happened with John. He came
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: in and he looked over Peter's shoulder, and he got
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: it together and the response was he believed, Hey, Peter,
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: he's been raised. I believe this John, just like Peter
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: A few moments later, just like Morrison, in the middle
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: of his studies, pushed his books aside one night and said,
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: I believe just like Paul on the Damascus road, fell
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: off that animal and looked up, and he believed it
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: all fell together, and he realized he had lived in
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: vain having doubted a glorious, miraculous resurrection. They didn't have
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: it all together. Verse nine says, but they went away
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: to their own homes with belief in their hearts. Say,
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: I leave two suggestions for the living today, you and
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: I who have vicariously visited the tomb. The first is this,
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: To live without faith in the resurrection is to deny
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: biblical evidence. Men far smarter than I have made that
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: kind of examination and have said, can't deny it any longer.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: To live without faith in the resurrection is to deny
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: biblical evidence, which is well supported by the way cold
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: hard facts. Second, to die without hope of resurrection is
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: to face a baron eternity, especially addressed those words to
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: you that have intelligently thought it through and continued to
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: reject the evidence. Like Will Durant preferred the famous lecturer
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: of Columbia University, unbeliever to the core, but brilliant philosopher.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: One day, he, like you and I, came to the
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: day of his death. Someone was near enough to record
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: his words, the words of a man who had rejected
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: faith in Jesus Christ and the resurrection. He said, there
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: is nothing in life now that is certain except defeat
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: and death, asleep, from which it seems there is no awakening.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: Faith and hoped disappear. Doubt and despair are the order
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: of my day. It seems impossible any longer for me
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: to believe in the permanent greatness of man, or to
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: give life any meaning, and he died. The other was
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: doctor Robert Ingersoll, the American lawyer, the Attorney General of
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: the state of Illinois, who traveled as a lecturer promoting
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: his agnostic beliefs, or maybe the better word is unbeliefs.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: He was the man who would sway audiences many times
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: this size, by standing on a stage in a performance saying,
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: if there is a God, let him strike me dead.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: I'll give you ten minutes, and God graciously let it pass.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: Until one day Ingersoll became ill. Sitting by him was
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: an Emmanuensis, who wrote his last statement, life is now
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: a narrow veil between two cold and barren peaks of
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: two eternities. I strive in vain to look beyond the heights.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: I cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: of my wailing cry. And he died. Yes, you can
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: choose to reject the evidence. Durant did, and Ingersoll did,
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: Morrison tried. All three have died if there was some
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: way to bring them back from beyond. I wonder what
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: their counsel to you would be. No, I don't wonder.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: I know, so do you. That's about our heads this morning.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: Some of you have never made this most important decision
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: in all of life. And yes, I confess to you.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: I've had you in my heart since we begin the message.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: I don't want you to leave in a state of unbelief.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: I don't want you to die without Christ. I don't
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: want you to face the barren peaks of a cold eternity.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: You don't have to, So we dedicate the closing moments
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: of silence in this service not to emotional manipulation or
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: to gimmicks that force you, out of embarrassment to respond positively.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: I respect you as an intelligent human being who has
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: wrestled with facts, evidence clearly set forth in historic inspired documents.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: But I plead with you to give your heart to
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ this day, this very day, ask Jesus Christ
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: to come into your life. Once you do that, some
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: of you have put it off too long. You're living
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: on borrowed time. Please do not.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Delay, Gracious Father and loving Lord. We are reminded by
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: the things around us that we are serving a living savior,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: the beauty of this natural world, the elements that remain
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: secure in your sovereign care, and by your power, Oh Father,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: These things tell us that you're in control, that you
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: are very much alive. Your son has been raised. We
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: come with a desire to be renewed within, and we're
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: completely dependent upon you to do that, to affect within
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: us that which we cannot do within ourselves. And so,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Dear Lord, enlighten us in our dark areas and give
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: truth where there is now ignorance and superstition and fear.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Replace our doubt with full assurance, increase our faith. May
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: our faith not be dependent upon the flimsy web of feelings,
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: but upon the rock, the granite of your truth and then,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: having done that, give us a song that brightens our day,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: and that lightens our walk, and that removes our burden.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I pray this in the name of Christ, to whom
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: we give first place. Amen.
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: The preceding message, A Miraculous Resurrection, was copyrighted in nineteen
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: seventy six, nineteen eighty two, nineteen eighty eight, two thousand
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: and twenty eighteen, and the sound recording was copyrighted in
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: twenty eighteen by Charles R. S. Wind all Ink. All
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: use is strictly prohibited.
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: Oh in the d