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A-Miraculous-Resurrection · 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 lower 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 by as John and the whole world would
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Speaker 1: soon see, it was far from over. Turn with me,
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Speaker 1: please in your bibles as I read the account of
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Speaker 1: Jesus' resurrection, the event that forever changed the course of history.
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Speaker 1: I'll begin in John nineteen with the burial of Jesus,
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Speaker 1: and then I'll read on into John's description of the
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Speaker 1: resurrection in John twenty. Starting now in John nineteen, verse
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Speaker 1: thirty eight, I'll be reading from the new Living Translation. Afterward,
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Speaker 1: Joseph of Arimathea who had been a secret disciple of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: Because he feared the Jewish leaders, asked Pilot for permission
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Speaker 1: to take down Jesus's body. When Pilot gave permission, Joseph
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Speaker 1: came and took the body away. With him, came Nicodemus,
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Speaker 1: the man who had come to Jesus at night. He
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Speaker 1: brought about seventy five pounds of perfumed ointment made from
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Speaker 1: mrr and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus'
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Speaker 1: body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth.
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Speaker 1: The place of crucifixion was near a garden where there
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Speaker 1: was a new tomb never used before, and so because
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Speaker 1: it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover,
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Speaker 1: and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid
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Speaker 1: Jesus there. And now Chapter twenty, beginning at verse one.
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Speaker 1: Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary
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Speaker 1: Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone
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Speaker 1: had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and
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Speaker 1: found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom
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Speaker 1: Jesus loved. She said, they have taken the Lord's body
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Speaker 1: out of the tomb, and we don't know where they
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Speaker 1: have put him. Peter and the other disciples started out
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Speaker 1: for the tomb. They were both running, but the other
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Speaker 1: disciple out ran 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.
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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.
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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 by
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Speaker 2: doctor 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 rereguards that had
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Speaker 2: the duty of execution, their single responsibility under the law
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Speaker 2: of Rome was when they went to the cross with victims.
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Speaker 2: They didn't leave until there was a corpse hanging on timbers.
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Speaker 2: It was their job to secure death, if necessary, hasten it. Now,
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Speaker 2: when they came to Jesus, it was the decision of
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Speaker 2: the guards who knew death when they saw it that
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Speaker 2: Jesus was dead. Mark tells us, not John, that the centurion,
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Speaker 2: when he witnessed the death, said, surely this one was
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Speaker 2: the son of God. We refer to that, and we
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Speaker 2: say probably he became a Christian. Whether he did or
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Speaker 2: not is not of concern right now. The point is
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Speaker 2: of interest to me that Mark uses the word was
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Speaker 2: and the tense he uses from the centurion's words, declares
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Speaker 2: past act. It's like you would say Lyndon Johnson was
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Speaker 2: the president, or you would say it was raining last week.
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Speaker 2: It's a completed fact. He was when he was alive,
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Speaker 2: the son of God. Now Here is the squad leader
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Speaker 2: of the execution detail declaring he was such and such,
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Speaker 2: meaning he was dead. But there's more. Verse thirty four
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Speaker 2: tells us. One of the soldiers pricked his side with
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Speaker 2: a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.
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Speaker 2: We worked this over rather carefully last Sunday, so there's
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Speaker 2: no reason to go back into it. I just would
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Speaker 2: remind you that there is more than an opinion. A
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Speaker 2: good attorney could question the opinion of a centurion or
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Speaker 2: a guard, but no one's going to question the appearance
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Speaker 2: of blood and serum. When death occurs, the blood separates
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Speaker 2: into a whitey serum and the dark red corpuscles housed
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Speaker 2: 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 ankles,
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Speaker 2: in strips of linen about a foot wide. By the way,
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Speaker 2: these rappings were often called swaddlings. Interesting, isn't it. Aromatic spices,
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Speaker 2: often of a gummy consistency, were placed between the wrappings
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Speaker 2: or the folds. So what we have is the wrapping
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Speaker 2: in mummy like form of the body that is now dead.
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Speaker 2: They served partially as a preservative, that is, these spices,
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Speaker 2: and partially as a cement to glue the wrappings into
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Speaker 2: a solid covering edersheim rites and another work that the
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Speaker 2: body was folded, that is, the arms were folded over
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Speaker 2: the chest in this fashion, you've seen the ancient Egyptian
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Speaker 2: forms much like this. The same method was used by
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Speaker 2: the Jews, and the wrappings were from shoulder down to ankle,
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Speaker 2: and the actual curve contour of the body was maintained
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Speaker 2: in the tape like wrappings around the body, tight and
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Speaker 2: slipping in those folds were these spices that would finally
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Speaker 2: see meant and glue together the wrappings. Now, when the
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Speaker 2: body was thus encased, he adds, a square piece of
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Speaker 2: cloth was wrapped around the head and tied under the
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Speaker 2: chin to keep the lower jaw from sagging. John's term
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Speaker 2: bound verse forty is in perfect accord with the language
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Speaker 2: of Luke, where the doctor says that the body was
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Speaker 2: rolled in linen. John uses the same verb to describe
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Speaker 2: the headcloth, which was found rolled up in a place
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Speaker 2: by itself, and then he concludes the language implies that
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Speaker 2: the body of Jesus was not carelessly entombed, or why
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Speaker 2: make such a case of it when talking about the
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Speaker 2: death of Jesus, Well, stop and think. These were friends,
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Speaker 2: not enemies. These were not the ones who pushed the
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Speaker 2: sword in his side or a spear in his side.
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Speaker 2: These were followers brave enough to come out of the
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Speaker 2: woodwork and say we'd like to take his body and
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Speaker 2: put it in a tomb. These were bold followers of
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Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. Can you imagine in working with that body,
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Speaker 2: if they had found one sign of animation, they would
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Speaker 2: have carried through and put it in a tomb. It's incredible.
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Speaker 2: What they worked with was a graying mass called a corpse,
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Speaker 2: cool to the touch. There was not a sign of life.
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Speaker 2: Had there been, he would never have been placed in
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Speaker 2: a tomb. Remember now they were confused about resurrection. They
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Speaker 2: would love to have revived him, nursed him back to help.
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Speaker 2: He was dead, it is a fact, and then comes silence,
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Speaker 2: silence in the tomb Verse forty one. In the place
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Speaker 2: where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in
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Speaker 2: the garden a tomb in which no one had yet
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Speaker 2: been laid. Therefore, on account of the Jewish day of preparation,
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Speaker 2: that is the Passover holiday, because the tomb was nearby,
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Speaker 2: they laid Jesus there. There's every reason to believe that
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Speaker 2: it was a normal tomb, hollowed out, carved out of
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Speaker 2: a soft limestone hillside. My days in Okinawa and time
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Speaker 2: in Japan, I remember seeing tombs in the side of
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Speaker 2: hills and flower vases setting nearby. These hillside tombs field
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Speaker 2: and closed to keep out the animals and those that
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Speaker 2: would steal from the bodies. Bodies were buried, often with riches.
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Speaker 2: Now he was laid there, three things occurred in the
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Speaker 2: silence of the tomb. That is, three important matters ought
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Speaker 2: to be considered. First, the tomb was sealed. It was sealed.
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Speaker 2: A tomb was not only hollowed out, but it had
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Speaker 2: to have some kind of covering over the mouth. And
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Speaker 2: so a large circular stone, probably weighing a ton or more,
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Speaker 2: was set on its edge in an inclined groove. A
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Speaker 2: wedge of stone or wood at the base of this
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Speaker 2: stone would keep it from rolling down and lunging into place. However,
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Speaker 2: when the body was placed on the slab in mummy
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Speaker 2: like fashion, those who had buried would pull back the
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Speaker 2: wedge and this great rock would slide or rolled into place,
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Speaker 2: and then it would be sealed. In this case, sealed
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Speaker 2: according to Roman law. Now, a seal was not cement.
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Speaker 2: It was not a glue. As a matter of fact,
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Speaker 2: it was only a piece of string, a cord or
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Speaker 2: a piece of twine was stretched across the widest part
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Speaker 2: of that diameter, and with ceiling wax pushed against the
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Speaker 2: edge of that stone on one side and against the
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Speaker 2: edge on the opposite side, and the signet of Rome,
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Speaker 2: the imprint of the Caesar worn on a ring by
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Speaker 2: an official, would be pressed into that wax on either side.
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Speaker 2: The string wasn't powerful, but that signet was, and to
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Speaker 2: break that seal would incur Roman wrath. It was, in
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Speaker 2: fact a terrible act of disobedience. So with fear the
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Speaker 2: tomb was sealed. The guards could not touch that tomb
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Speaker 2: even as they watched it. That's the second significant factor
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Speaker 2: is that guards were placed there. The tomb wasn't left alone.
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Speaker 2: Guards were hired by the Jews to stand over this tomb.
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Speaker 2: The last thing the Jewish officials wanted was an empty tomb.
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Speaker 2: They wanted that body to stay and to stay forever,
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Speaker 2: because Jesus had said, after three days and three nights,
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Speaker 2: watch out. He predicted his resurrection, and they did not
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Speaker 2: want that to happen. So guards were placed on duty.
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Speaker 2: By the way, it was interesting in my study to
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Speaker 2: discover that if a Roman guard went to sleep on
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Speaker 2: his watch, his garments were set on fire. That was
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Speaker 2: a sure way of keeping you wide awake when you
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Speaker 2: were on guard duty. Now you can imagine that if
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Speaker 2: just sleeping would cause that to happen, what it would
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Speaker 2: be to break the seal. D. D. Weldon writes the
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Speaker 2: guard was to prevent the duplicity of the disciples, but
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Speaker 2: the seal was to secure against the collusion of the guard,
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Speaker 2: so both sides were covered. Friend or enemy could not
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Speaker 2: come and take him out of that tube. Which brings
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Speaker 2: us to the third factor. And that's time. You notice
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Speaker 2: the space between verse forty two of chapter nineteen and
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Speaker 2: verse one of chapter twenty that represents three days and
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Speaker 2: three nights, a period of time of silence. Now, the
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Speaker 2: orthodox position is that Jesus was crucified on a Friday.
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Speaker 2: That's why there are good Friday services in most churches.
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Speaker 2: My seminary professors would throw darts at me this morning
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Speaker 2: if they could seeing this I'm laying on you. There
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Speaker 2: is the opinion that he was crucified on a Wednesday.
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Speaker 2: I believe he was crucified at nine in the morning
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Speaker 2: on Wednesday. He died at three in the afternoon what
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Speaker 2: we would call the afternoon on Wednesday, and buried just
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Speaker 2: before Sun's st remember the promise that Jesus gave up
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Speaker 2: in Matthew twelve, So shall the Son of Man be
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Speaker 2: three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,
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Speaker 2: all right. The shaded area represents darkness or night. The
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Speaker 2: light area represents daylight. Obviously, he's in the tomb. The
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Speaker 2: first full twenty four hour period that was a high
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Speaker 2: day and Passover week. This was called a sabbath. It
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Speaker 2: was an extra sabbath, if you please, like a holy
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Speaker 2: day or what we would call a holiday, and that
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Speaker 2: day was sacred. John calls it a special or a
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Speaker 2: high day. Nineteen thirty one. He was in the tomb
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Speaker 2: that day. Friday, he was in the tomb. The second
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Speaker 2: twenty four hour period Saturday, he was in the tomb.
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Speaker 2: The third twenty four hour period that is the weekly Sabbath.
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Speaker 2: Matthew twenty eight says, literally, now after the sabbath's plural
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Speaker 2: meaning the passover Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath. As I see it,
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Speaker 2: he was raised. Well, I take it that after sunset
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Speaker 2: Jesus Christ miraculously came back from beyond. He was raised. Now,
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Speaker 2: this is a fun thing to kick around. This is
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Speaker 2: the kind of thing the seminary students turned cartwheels over
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Speaker 2: write thess on and when it's all said and done,
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Speaker 2: who cares? Frankly? But I cannot bury him on a
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Speaker 2: Friday and get three days and three nights. Hasn't that
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Speaker 2: ever bothered you? Maybe your theology isn't like mine, but
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Speaker 2: your mathematics is pretty good. One plus one plus one
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Speaker 2: equals three. Right, Show me how you get three when
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Speaker 2: you bear him on a Friday, and I would very
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Speaker 2: much appreciate it. Don't play games with the three three
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Speaker 2: meets three and he repeats at once in Matthew twelve forty. Now,
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Speaker 2: then I really believe when we get to heaven and
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Speaker 2: we walk in the gates, the Lord Jesus will say,
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Speaker 2: why in the world, Swindall did you take three minutes
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Speaker 2: to even talk about what day my son or I
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Speaker 2: was crazy? Viout? It really doesn't matter, Okay. What does
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Speaker 2: matter is that he was raised. That's what matters. That's
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Speaker 2: where we are right now. So don't even worry about
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Speaker 2: getting been out of shape. It isn't it isn't worth it.
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Speaker 2: Of course, you'll be wrong if you don't think that
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Speaker 2: he was crucified in a mist.
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Speaker 3: All.
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Speaker 2: Right, let's look at the proof. This is the kind
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Speaker 2: of thing that Frank Morrison studied along with all so
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Speaker 2: many others, and came to the conclusion that his position
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Speaker 2: had to change. I see three things that were of
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Speaker 2: evidence that were irresistible in kind. When they came to
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Speaker 2: the tomb that morning Verse one. On the first day
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Speaker 2: of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb.
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Speaker 2: Just let me relieve some people's mind. We're not told
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Speaker 2: this was their first visit. Okay, Now, on the first
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Speaker 2: day of the week they came and probably they were
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Speaker 2: going to bring flowers, they were going to bring spices,
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Speaker 2: They were going to show their respect, as you might
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Speaker 2: to the dead. And suddenly there was something different. What
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Speaker 2: was it? Well, there was a stone displaced, rolled uphill
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Speaker 2: or fallen back or christ. The displaced stone is the
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Speaker 2: first thing they noticed. They saw the stone taken away.
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Speaker 2: Question how it's sealed. There are guards, but it's gone.
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Speaker 2: Now you know already that it wasn't removed to let
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Speaker 2: Jesus out. He was raised. I'm convinced before the stone
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Speaker 2: ever left. A resurrection body doesn't need a stone out
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Speaker 2: of the way to move through. It was moved so
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Speaker 2: we could get in the disciples could witness the remains.
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Speaker 2: How Matthew tells us that an angel moved the stone.
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Speaker 2: Billy Graham writes in his book on Angels, I have
29:57
Speaker 2: often wondered what those guards must have fought when they
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Speaker 2: saw the angel rolling the gigantic boulder with possibly the
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Speaker 2: lightest touch of his finger. How but that was some
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Speaker 2: kind of guard. That morning he looked and he saw
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Speaker 2: this irresistible force moving the stone away from the mouth
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Speaker 2: of the tomb, and like nobody else, he watched it happen. Well,
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Speaker 2: the women got there and they saw this open mouth
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Speaker 2: in the tomb and stayed long enough to examine. He's
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Speaker 2: not there. So they raced back verse two down through
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Speaker 2: verse four with the second piece of evidence, the empty tomb.
30:54
Speaker 2: The stone is back and there's nobody they expected. Kidnap.
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Speaker 2: She ran and came to Simon Peter and to the
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Speaker 2: other disciple whom Jesus loved. Who was that? That was
31:08
Speaker 2: John who wrote this book. Interesting human interest story here.
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Speaker 2: I want you to stay awake on it. They said
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Speaker 2: they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb. She
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Speaker 2: thought they've kidnapped him, and we don't know where they've
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Speaker 2: laid him. Peter therefore went forth and the other disciples
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Speaker 2: they were going to the tomb, and they were running together,
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Speaker 2: and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter. Kind
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Speaker 2: of important to John that, you know, he outran Peter
31:43
Speaker 2: back to the tomb, and he came to the tomb first.
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Speaker 2: He says it, I got there first. Now he looks
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Speaker 2: inside and there's no body. What's happened, Well, there are
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Speaker 2: three possibilities. Number One, Jesus left of his own accord.
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Speaker 2: That's really an impossibility if he's dead. There are those
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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
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Speaker 2: few minutes. Only two kinds of people would have kidnapped him.
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Speaker 2: One would have been the enemies. Question there is why.
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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
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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
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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.
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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 from the crucifixion on. They're just shaking,
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Speaker 2: quaking with fear. I suppose before I give you the third,
33:59
Speaker 2: which is resur I should add that there has been
34:02
Speaker 2: suggested another one here of late. I guess you'd call
34:07
Speaker 2: it the gas theory. It says the body disintegrated through
34:14
Speaker 2: normal processes, so it falls naturally that he was not found,
34:19
Speaker 2: for he evaporated into gases. One sage offers this answer,
34:30
Speaker 2: decay would have begun in three days time, but would
34:35
Speaker 2: certainly not have reached the stage of complete chemical dissillusion.
34:41
Speaker 2: To assume that the body of Jesus evaporated into gases
34:45
Speaker 2: within three days after death is to project a miracle
34:49
Speaker 2: as great as the resurrection itself. Now an intelligent person
34:58
Speaker 2: seriously thinking about it come to a position on the
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Speaker 2: gas theory or a kidnapped theory, or a swoon theory.
35:08
Speaker 2: Not a lot of alternatives. A miracle happened. Now, let
35:15
Speaker 2: me go to one more piece of evidence. That's the
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Speaker 2: presence of the grave clothes. This gets kind of exciting
35:21
Speaker 2: when you're inside this tomb and it's early in the
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Speaker 2: morning and you're looking not at an indentation a slab.
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Speaker 2: When you put a body on a slab, there's no mark.
35:34
Speaker 2: If the body's removed, it hasn't left an indentation. It's
35:37
Speaker 2: still a slab, looks just like a flat piece, just
35:41
Speaker 2: as before three days earlier. Well, then what were they seeing?
35:45
Speaker 2: They were seeing the grave clothes, the wrappings. Three times
35:52
Speaker 2: John uses the word ce or behold, and each one
35:59
Speaker 2: is different. In the verse five, this is John now
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Speaker 2: stooping and looking in. He saw the linen wrappings lying there,
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Speaker 2: but he did not go in. This word means simply
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Speaker 2: to glance or to look, as you would look at
36:21
Speaker 2: those flowers, as you would look at the cross or
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Speaker 2: that organ or that piano. It's not an inaccurate glance.
36:32
Speaker 2: It's just not deep or profound. It's there. It's there.
36:38
Speaker 2: Let's go on. So John stood there and he saw
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Speaker 2: there was nobody. There were rappings. Verse six Simon Peter
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Speaker 2: therefore came following him. Remember now John got there first.
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Speaker 2: Peter came following him and entered the tomb. So here's
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Speaker 2: Peter all the way. John, let me look in there
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Speaker 2: and see see that thing? What's all about? So Peter
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Speaker 2: walks in, and it says he beheld the linen rappings.
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Speaker 2: That's another word, theore. Oh, we get our word theorized
37:14
Speaker 2: from it. Now, this term John uses, and I quote
37:20
Speaker 2: from a good lexicon, means to make a careful notice,
37:24
Speaker 2: not a mere glance. At Robertson's words, it denotes a
37:30
Speaker 2: careful observation, a theorizing. If you saw smoke pouring out
37:37
Speaker 2: of the baptistry, you wouldn't simply glance. You would you
37:41
Speaker 2: would theorize what is happening. In other words, the mental
37:46
Speaker 2: machinery would start working, The gears would work together, and
37:50
Speaker 2: you'd begin to think it through. Now here's Peter inside,
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Speaker 2: walking looking thinking about the rappings. Verse seven says the
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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
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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.
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Speaker 2: He saw a cocoon. He saw rappings just as though
38:22
Speaker 2: they were around the body, arms, hips, legs. And the
38:30
Speaker 2: word used in verse seven for rolled up doesn't mean
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Speaker 2: flat like you would fold a table napkin. It means
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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,
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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 listen 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
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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
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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
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Speaker 2: I who have vicariously visited the tomb. The first is this,
41:20
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. I especially addressed those words
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Speaker 2: to you that have intelligently thought it through and continued
42:10
Speaker 2: to reject the evidence, like Will Durrant, the preferred, the
42:20
Speaker 2: famous lecturer of Columbia University, unbeliever to the core, but
42:26
Speaker 2: brilliant philosopher. One day, he, like you and I, came
42:33
Speaker 2: to the day of his death. Someone was near enough
42:37
Speaker 2: to record his words, the words of a man who
42:40
Speaker 2: had rejected faith in Jesus Christ and the resurrection. He said,
42:47
Speaker 2: there is nothing in life now that is certain except
42:50
Speaker 2: defeat and death, asleep, from which it seems there is
42:56
Speaker 2: no awakening. Faith and hoped disappear. Doubt and despair are
43:03
Speaker 2: the order of my day. It seems impossible any longer
43:08
Speaker 2: for me to believe in the permanent greatness of man,
43:12
Speaker 2: or to give life any meaning. And he died. The
43:19
Speaker 2: other was doctor Robert Ingersoll, the American lawyer, the Attorney
43:24
Speaker 2: General of the state of Illinois, who traveled as a
43:28
Speaker 2: lecturer promoting his agnostic beliefs, or maybe the better word
43:35
Speaker 2: is unbeliefs. He was the man who would sway audiences
43:41
Speaker 2: many times this size by standing on a stage in
43:45
Speaker 2: a performance saying, if there is a God, let him
43:49
Speaker 2: strike me dead. I'll give you ten minutes, and God
43:58
Speaker 2: graciously let it pass. Until one day Ingersoll became ill.
44:11
Speaker 2: Sitting by him was an Emmanuensis, who wrote his last statement,
44:20
Speaker 2: life is now a narrow veil between two cold and
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Speaker 2: barren peaks of two eternities. I strive in vain to
44:30
Speaker 2: look beyond the heights. I cry aloud, and the only
44:36
Speaker 2: answer is the echo of my wailing cry. And he died. Yes,
44:51
Speaker 2: you can choose to reject the evidence. Durant did, and
44:56
Speaker 2: Ingersoll did, Morrison tried. All three have died if there
45:05
Speaker 2: was some way to bring them back from beyond. I
45:11
Speaker 2: wonder what their counsel to you would be. No, I
45:16
Speaker 2: don't wonder. I know, so do you. That's about our heads.
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.
45:45
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
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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. Don't 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 did not.
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Speaker 1: Delay, Gracious Father and loving Lord. We are reminded by
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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.
48:00
Speaker 2: And so, dear Lord, enlighten.
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Speaker 1: Us in our dark areas and give truth where there
48:07
Speaker 1: is now ignorance and superstition and fear. Replace our doubt
48:15
Speaker 1: with full assurance, increase our faith. May our faith not
48:20
Speaker 1: be dependent upon the flimsy web of feelings, but upon
48:26
Speaker 1: the rock, the granite of your truth. And then Having
48:32
Speaker 1: 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 rswind All Ink. All rights are
49:07
Speaker 3: reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is
49:13
Speaker 3: strictly prohibited.
50:52
Speaker 4: Oh bad, the.
54:21
Speaker 1: End, The end
54:41
Speaker 4: In