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  HE IS RISEN
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon delves into Luke chapter 24, focusing on the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. It highlights the initial disbelief of the
disciples despite Jesus' clear teachings on his resurrection, the
encounter with the angels at the empty tomb, and the importance of
remembering God's word. The sermon emphasizes the significance of the
cross as a prerequisite to understanding the glory of the resurrection
and the need to overcome unbelief to fully grasp the truth of Jesus'
resurrection.

Duration: 47:00 Topics: "Resurrection", "Overcoming Unbelief"
Scripture References: Luke 24:6, Luke 24:8, Luke 24:12, Hebrews 4:2, 1 Corinthians 15:3, John 20:24, Matthew 28:18, 1 Corinthians 15:20, Hebrews 12:2

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into Luke chapter 24, focusing on the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. It highlights the initial disbelief of the disciples
despite Jesus' clear teachings on his resurrection, the encounter with
the angels at the empty tomb, and the importance of remembering God's
word. The sermon emphasizes the significance of the cross as a
prerequisite to understanding the glory of the resurrection and the need
to overcome unbelief to fully grasp the truth of Jesus' resurrection.

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CONTENT
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Luke chapter 24. We're almost through the book of Luke and we're in the
last chapter. So chapter 24 of Luke and we'll read verses 1 through 12.

Luke chapter 24 verses 1 through 12. Luke 24 verse 1. Now on the first
day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women
with them came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it
happened as they were greatly perplexed about this that behold, two men
stood by them in shining garments. And then as they were afraid and
bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, why do you seek the
living among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen.

Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying the
Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be
crucified and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words.
Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven
and to all the rest.

It was Mary Magdalene, Johanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other
woman with them, who told these things to the Apostles. And their words
seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. But Peter
arose and ran to the tomb and stooping down, saw the lone cross lying by
themselves.

And he departed, marveling to himself at all what had happened. And so
we saw that Jesus is buried, he's laid in the tomb, and this is on the
preparation of the Sabbath. And so on the first day of the week, which
was after the Sabbath, and as I said, I believe there were two Sabbaths
in a row, the one being the first day of unleavened bread, and then the
normal Sabbath on the Saturday.

And so this is on the Sunday, the first day of the week. Remember that
for us the first day of the week, generally we think of it as being
Monday, but for the Jews it would be Sunday. So Saturday would be the
seventh day, the day of rest.

Sunday would be the first day of the week. And so on the first day of
the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with
them. Now when it says they, you have to go to the previous verse in
chapter 23, verse 56.

It says, then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils, and
they rested on the Sabbath. Sorry, verse 55. And the woman who had come
with him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb.

So these are the women who had come with Jesus all the way from Galilee
and had been following him, and in fact Luke gives us some of the names,
and some of the other gospel writers gives us some of the names also.
The names are not important at this stage. They had come not to see the
resurrection, but they had come to put spices on the body.

Remember we said that the Jews did not embalm the same way as the
Egyptians did, and so all they were trying to do was to make the body
smell good as it was decaying. And obviously they came to pay their
respects. They came to mourn.

That's essentially what they did. When you go to cemeteries, whether
it's Forest Lawn or any of the others around here, you'll see people
there. And why are they there? Well they're there because they're coming
to remember, they're coming to mourn those who have died.

And so they come to mourn Jesus. We can clearly see in the rest of the
chapter, and in this chapter, Jesus appears three times. We know that he
appeared a number of other times, but Luke focuses on three times.

And remember that when we began the Gospel of Luke, we said that Luke is
very specific and very particular about the details that he highlights.
While there are many other details that he does not include, when he
does include the details, there is a particular plan and a particular
pattern. And so he chooses three times when Jesus appears.

The first time is when he appears—well, he doesn't really appear, but
the angels appear, the account that we're dealing with this morning,
where they come to the tomb and the tomb is empty. The second one is the
road to Emmaus, and the third one is Jesus appearing in the upper room.
Each of these has a pattern in the Gospel of Luke, and we'll see that
pattern as we go through the passage this morning.

And it's important for us to get that pattern, because in that are very
important lessons to us. The first is that they don't believe. They
don't believe.

And so these people didn't believe, the women didn't believe, the
disciples are told that Jesus is risen, although he's certainly not in
the tomb, they don't believe. The people on the road to Emmaus don't
believe. Those in the upper room don't believe.

The second thing that happens in each one of these cases is that there
is a rebuke. First there's a rebuke from the angels in the account that
we're dealing with this morning, then there is a rebuke of Jesus of
those who were on the road to Emmaus, and then there is a rebuke of
Jesus of those in the upper room. The next thing that happens in each
one of these cases is that there is a pointing to the Scriptures.

Don't you remember that this is what Jesus taught? Don't you remember
this is what the Scripture says? And that happens in each one of the
three cases, and that then is followed generally by faith, by believing.
And so we see exactly the same pattern then in this first example. So
they come to the tomb and they bring spices that they had prepared.

I think that one of the things that is hidden is the absolute despair
that is going on. You see that a little bit in the road to Emmaus, which
we'll deal with next week, Lord willing. But you can imagine, these
women had followed Jesus now for over a year, all the way from Galilee.

They had believed him. They had followed him, served him with their
finances, and helping him, and doing the things that they could. They
believed that he was the Messiah, that he was the Christ, but now he is
dead.

And the same with the 12 or the 11, because Judas is no longer there.
All of their hopes, all of their dreams, everything that they believed
was shattered because Jesus had died. And of course the reason why they
are rebuked is because they did not believe the scriptures.

Jesus had spoken many times about his death and his resurrection. And
the problem was that they did not believe. And of course we have very
much the same problem.

And so they're coming and they're devastated. They don't know what the
next step is. They're away from home, they're in Jerusalem, the Feast of
Unleavened Bread is in process at the moment, so they can't really
travel until the Feast is done, and then they would probably go home,
but they don't know what's going on.

And so they come very early. I think that there's a sense of urgency
there. They don't wait for the sun to rise.

It seems that this is even before the sun had risen, and they're there
to see where Jesus, you know, to come and mourn him, and to come and see
the body. I think that it speaks to the need for us to have some urgency
about our service of the Lord. Generally as Christians, it's a take-it-
or-leave-it situation.

Well, if I can make it to the meeting, I'll make it. If I can't, I
can't. There's no sense of urgency.

There's no sense of saying, this is the first opportunity. And it seems
that they were champing at the bit for the previous days, as they're
waiting for the Sabbath to be over, so that they can go to the tomb. And
so they can't wait to get there.

I wonder how many times we have a sense of urgency about meeting with
the Lord, whether it be in church, or whether it be in our private
devotions, or is it just something, well, yeah, if we get around to it,
we'll get around to it. No, it seems that they really wanted to get
there, and they wanted, even though what they were expecting was a dead
body, they wanted to be where Jesus, or where his body was. And then it
says they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

Remember that the tomb had been carved out of rock, and a stone had been
rolled in front of the mouth of the cave to seal it off. And remember
that Pilate had sealed, had put a seal on the stone to make sure that no
one opened the stone, and in fact they'd set a guard. Luke doesn't go
into those kinds of details.

They were worried about how they were going to deal with the stone
according to John's Gospel, because it was a big rock. Now in the
pictures that, you know, that people paint of the resurrection,
invariably it's a big, beautiful, round stone, sort of carved like a
disc shape, which is relatively easy to roll. I don't believe that that
was the case.

I believe it was just a rock, a roundish rock that they were able to,
you know, that would fit into the hole, and that you could more or less
roll away. I don't see any reason why they would carve a beautiful disc-
shaped thing, as you see in the picture. So it's just a roundish rock,
which obviously required some strength to be able to roll in front of
the opening and to roll it away.

And so they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. And of course the
question is who rolled away the stone? There's a book written with that
title on the resurrection. Who rolled away the stone? Well, it doesn't
matter.

It was probably God who rolled away the stone. Certainly the soldiers
didn't do it, because the soldiers, they were in for the high jump. They
were probably, or they could be killed for allowing the body to escape,
because they had been given a job to guard the body and make sure that
no one stole it, because they had anticipated, the Jews, together with
Pilate, anticipated the potential of the body being stolen.

And then the tomb is empty, and they can say, well, he's risen. And of
course, for that reason, they set the guard. In fact, the Jews asked for
the guard to be set, and they asked for it to be sealed.

And so it's sealed. The re is no foul play. And of course, you know, God
overrides all of that.

And so the stone is gone. This is the first surprise. Then they went in,
and they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

Now, the absence of the body doesn't prove the resurrection, because as
I've just said, that there was that potential. And in fact, you remember
what happened is that they actually paid the guards money to say the
disciples came and stole the body. And they give the soldiers assurance
that they wouldn't be prosecuted for their negligence or for them not
being able to resist the stealing of the body.

And in fact, that lie is still perpetuated amongst those who don't
believe that the disciples stole the body. Well, the fact is, as we will
see, that there in fact was a—there was a body, but it was no longer
dead. It was alive.

It was risen. And so they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And I
would imagine this would create further consternation.

Now, we don't even have a body to mourn over. And obviously, as
Christians, we don't make a thing of the dead body, because it's simply
a temple or a temporary tent in which we dwell. And when the Christian
dies, Paul says, when I am absent from this body, I'm present with the
Lord.

And so the body is not really what it's all about. But as human beings,
we're sentimental about these things, and they just want something that
they can hold on to. And now that's also gone.

But it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold,
two men stood by them in shining garments. I'm sorry, I missed a very
important point in verse 3. Let me just go back to verse 3. They went in
and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And when I was working
through this passage a couple of weeks ago, it struck me that they did
not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

Not of Jesus, but of the Lord Jesus. And I then checked, and the term
the Lord Jesus is used a hundred and sixteen times in the New Testament.
So it's a common term in the New Testament, but here's the thing.

This is the only place it appears in the Gospels. So for the first time
in Jesus's earthly ministry, he is referred to as the Lord Jesus. Yes,
they referred to him as Lord.

They referred to him as Jesus, but never as Lord Jesus. So this is
important, because he is now risen. He's no longer Jesus, the man.

He is now the risen Lord. Yes, he always was the Lord, but now he has
been given all power and all authority. And remember that in Matthew
chapter 28, after the resurrection, Jesus says, all power, all authority
has been given unto me.

And so his position that he had as God in the beginning is restored, and
he is now the Lord Jesus. This is absolutely important, not just from a
theological or doctrinal point of view, but in terms of our relationship
with him. The problem is that for many, many Christians, probably the
vast majority of those who claim to be Christians in the world today,
they serve Jesus.

They worship Jesus. But he is not just Jesus. He is the Lord Jesus.

Jesus means God saves. You will call his name Jesus because he will save
his people out of their sins. But he is more than just the Savior.

He is also the Lord. And we cannot have him just as our Savior. This is
the problem, is that many Christians just want Jesus as their Savior.

They just want him as a as fire insurance. They just want him to help
them with their problems. But he is not just our Savior.

Yes, he is our Savior. And of course, the fact that he saved us is a
powerful and a glorious and a wonderful thing. But he is more than that.

He is also our Lord. He is also our Master. You cannot have him as
Savior and not have him as Lord.

There are a few others that have him as Lord. So they serve God. They
serve the Lord.

But they don't really know him as their Savior. He is just God. He is
just the Lord.

No, he is the Lord Jesus. He is our Master, but he is our Savior. He is
the one that we serve.

He is the one we worship, but he is the one who saves us. And so they
did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And so Luke, I remember we said
that you've got to pay attention to some of these things that Luke says
because they are very significant.

And so here Luke is indicating a change in the status of Jesus. No
longer gentle Jesus, meek and mild, but Jesus the risen, glorious,
powerful Savior. Verse 4, and it happened as they were greatly perplexed
about this, that behold two men stood by them in shining garments.

I like that word perplexed. It means they were upset. They were puzzled.

They didn't know what to make of it. They were amazed, not in a positive
sense, but in a negative sense. And so they were disturbed.

They thought at least we've got a body. Now they don't even have a body.
And while they're standing there and they're trying to figure out what's
going on, two men, and we know from the other Gospels that these two men
are angels.

And so two angels stood by them in shining garments. And as they were
afraid and bowed their faces to the earth. So the angels obviously were
just appeared.

Remember that these are supernatural beings. They can appear and
disappear. And so they're standing there and suddenly, poof, there's two
angels.

And they bow their faces because these angels are glorious, powerful
beings. And so they bow. I'm not sure that it's in worship, but it's
simply in reverence and in awe of these powerful, shining beings.

And the question is, why do you seek the living among the dead? Why do
you seek the living among the dead? The question is pretty obvious. You
don't go to the graveyard to see the living. The graveyard is where the
dead are.

So they're saying, you're looking for the wrong thing. You're looking
for the living. But you're looking in the grave.

The living isn't in the grave. And so it's almost in a sense, and it is
a rebuke, because they were supposed to understand that Jesus was risen,
that Jesus was alive. They were supposed to understand that what we're
looking for is not a dead body, but we're looking for the risen,
glorified Savior.

But they didn't understand. And so the angels rebuking them, really
saying, you're looking for the wrong thing. You're looking for a risen
Savior, but you're looking for a dead body.

But that's not what you should be looking for. You should be looking for
the risen Lord. And so, why do you seek the living among the dead? But
you know, the problem is that even today, many are looking for the
living amongst the dead.

Going to dead churches, looking for spiritual life, listening to dead
preachers. And I don't care whether they're evangelical or not
evangelical, but who profess to have eternal life to offer, but they
themselves don't have eternal life. You listen to the preaching, and
there's no spiritual life whatsoever.

There is no truth. There is no understanding. And yet thousands of
people flock to these men, and to these people, and to these churches
and organizations, hoping to find some kind of life.

And then we're not even talking about all of the the false religions
that cannot offer life. And yet people are looking for eternal life.
That's what everybody wants, is life.

And yet there is no life in them. All of their prophets, whether it's
Krishna, or Muhammad, or Confucius, the list goes on and on. They're all
dead.

And yet people are seeking life amongst the dead. There is only one who
is alive. There is only one who has risen.

And he's the only one who has the ability to impart life. To impart
life. You see, maybe many of the prophets in the world today may be
alive.

They may have some life, but they don't have the ability to impart life.
Jesus is more than just alive. He is the one who can give life, who can
give eternal life.

And that's the one we should be seeking for. And so, why do you seek the
living among the dead? We've got to look for the right thing in the
right place. They were looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place.

They were looking for the dead body in the grave. Well, I suppose if
that's what you're looking for, it's the right place to look for it. But
they didn't understand that he was not there, and he was no longer dead.

And so they were wrong on two scores. And so it's important that we know
what we're looking for. We need to know what we're looking for.

People are looking for all sorts of things in life today. Some are
looking for peace. Some are looking for joy and for happiness.

Some are looking for an assurance of eternal life. But you need to know
what you're looking for. You can't just be looking and you say, well,
I'm just looking for something.

It's like when you go into a store and you're kicking tires, and the
salesman says, well, you know, what can I help you? No, I'm just
looking. What you're looking for? No, I'm just looking. But when it
comes to the issues of life and eternal life, many people are just
looking, but they don't know what they're looking for.

The thing we must be looking for is Jesus, because he alone has all the
answers. He has the answers to this life, and he has the answers to the
life to come. And if we look for him, we will find in him not just
eternal life, but we will find the answers.

And so we need to be looking for the right thing. He is not here, but he
has risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee.

There's the clear rebuke. Don't you remember? He told you he was going
to rise the third day. And look, here's the problem, is that as
Christians we just don't believe.

And we're not unique. Israel in the Old Testament was exactly the same.
Remember in Hebrews chapter 4, it says that they entered not in because
of unbelief.

It was unbelief that kept them out of the promised land. It was unbelief
that caused these people not to understand the words that Jesus was
speaking. And it's unbelief that keeps us from enjoying the fullness of
the relationship that Jesus offers to us.

He speaks to us through his Word. We need to remember. Notice he says,
remember, remember.

That's why we have communion, is to remind us, do this in remembrance of
me. When we forget, we don't believe. Remember when David comes against
Goliath, and Saul says, what are you going to do? You're just a young
guy with a catapult, and you're going to go against this lion? And David
says, I remember that when the lion came against the sheep, I was able
to overcome the lion.

When the bear came against the sheep, I was able to tear it apart. David
remembered, and he says that God who delivered me out of the hand of the
lion and the bear will deliver me out of this Philistine also. David had
remembered, but Israel had forgotten.

Because remember that all of Israel with its mighty men and its soldiers
and its braves, they were all lying in the trenches fearing and quaking
before this Goliath. No one would take him on, because they'd forgotten
the victories that God had given in the past. They'd forgotten how that
God cleared the giants before them and brought them into the land.

They'd forgotten all of those things, but only one man remembered. Here
we find exactly the same problem again. They'd forgotten what Jesus had
said, even if they believed they had forgotten.

He is not here, but he has risen, saying the Son of Man, and this is,
sorry, let me go back to verse 6. Remember how he spoke to you when he
was still in Galilee, saying the Son of Man must be delivered into the
hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
Jesus had been very specific about what was going to happen. He would be
handed over to sinful men, to the Romans.

He would be crucified, and he would rise again on the third day. Now,
had they forgotten the part about the crucifixion? I don't know. Had
they forgotten that this was how it was supposed to be? Probably.

They'd certainly forgotten that he said he was going to rise again. And,
folk, we so quickly and so easily forget the Word of God. It's easy to
listen to him when we're reading the Word, when we're hearing the
preaching.

It's easy to understand those things, but when we're faced with a
reality, in their case of an empty tomb, in our case, the problems that
we face day by day, we forget. And we say, what now? And we become, like
these people, perplexed. We're frustrated.

We don't know what's going on. If only we would remember what he said.
And then, verse 8, and they remembered his words.

Thank God for the messengers that he sends to us that remind us of the
Word of God. And we need those reminders. As I said, that's why we have
communion, and we have it regularly, because God knows that we forget.

And so he institutes the Lord's table, that we might be reminded again
and again. That's why we need to be in church. Not so that the preacher
can have somebody to preach at, but that we might be reminded.

Peter says to tell you the same things over and over is not tedious, but
it is necessary. And you say, well, we've heard that before. And I'm not
telling you anything today that's new, I don't think.

Everything I'm telling you, you've heard before, either from me or from
someone else, or by reading the Scriptures. It's not about something
new. It's about being reminded that we don't forget.

And that's why we need to be reading the Word. That's why we need to be
meditating on the Word. That's why we need to be in church, that we
might be reminded of the truths of his words.

Verse 9, and they returned from the tomb and told these things to the
eleven and to all the rest. Notice the eleven, of course, twelve minus
Judas, and then the rest. And so we know on the day of Pentecost,
leading up to then, there was about a hundred and twenty that were
meeting in the upper room.

So whether this is the whole hundred and twenty, it doesn't matter. But
it's not just the eleven. There's the eleven plus there are others who
were followers and disciples of the Lord Jesus.

And so they returned from the tomb and they told all these things to the
eleven and to all the rest. Of course, this was the right thing to do. I
suppose it was a pretty natural response you know, what are we going to
do? Well, let's go and tell the others that we know that are of one mind
with us.

And yet there's a responsibility on us to tell others of the things that
God tells us, the things that he reminds us of, the things that we see.
That's why we give opportunity for testimonies on Thursday nights and
other times, that we might remind one another of God's goodness, that we
may remind one another of the things that God is doing in our lives. Can
you imagine what would have happened if they said, well, you know, we're
not going to tell anyone.

As it turns out, they didn't get a great reception. And maybe they could
have anticipated that and said, well, you know, they're not going to
believe us, so we may as well not say anything. No, they did the right
thing.

And whether others believe your testimony or not, it's important that we
give that testimony, because those are the things that God uses to build
the faith of others. And so they returned and it says it was Mary
Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other woman with
them, who told these things to the apostles. Here's the problem.

Their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe
them. The word idle tales here, the Greek word, is difficult to
translate. There's no direct translation, but it literally means
rubbish, nonsense.

Idle tales doesn't quite capture it. They literally said, you're nuts.
You're crazy.

This is... Now, for three and a half years, Jesus had been teaching
them, and over and over reminded them of the resurrection. It wasn't
long before this that Jesus raised Lazarus, not far from here at
Bethany, which is about 20 miles away. Jesus had raised Lazarus, and
remember that Jesus enters into a discussion with them concerning the
resurrection.

Jesus had spoken about the resurrection over and over. The Old Testament
had prophesied the resurrection over and over, and yet when they hear
the testimony that he has risen, they don't just... they're not just
skeptical. They say, this is nonsense.

This is rubbish. We need to be careful. I think that we need to be
skeptical these days, because unfortunately there's a lot of people
going around with all sorts of really crazy stories, particularly those
near-death experience things, and I'm not going to get into that in any
great detail.

Yes, we need to be skeptical, but we also need to listen to what is
being said, and what do we do with that? We compare it to the
Scriptures. That's why I have a problem with the near-death thing,
because the Scriptures don't speak to that, and in fact speak contrary
to that, and so you can say whatever you like these days. I've got a
bridge to sell you, but the claim must be checked.

You can't just discard it, and we live in a time when people easily
discard the miraculous and the supernatural on the one hand, and on the
other hand people are all sorts of... in all sorts of craziness about
angels, and gold dust, and all sorts of other nonsense. We have to
listen to the story first, and then say, what does the Scriptures say
about this? Had they asked that question, they would have remembered the
words of Jesus. They would have remembered the words of the prophets,
and they would have said, maybe there's truth in this.

Let's investigate, which in fact Peter does, and so let's be careful of
being too suspicious, but let's be careful of being too gullible. Let's
check against the Word of God. That's the answer, and so Peter arose,
and we know from the Gospel of John that John went with him.

Peter arose, and he ran to the tomb. Notice again the detail that Luke
gives us. He doesn't stroll to the tomb.

He runs. He runs. Peter wants to know what's going on, and so he ran to
the tomb, and stooping down, which tells us that the doorway was pretty
small, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves, and he departed,
marveling to himself at what had happened.

I am not sure whether Peter believed, and people argue and debate, did
Peter believe? I don't believe that Peter believed, and the reason for
this is if you go to the third account, which we'll deal with, Lord
willing, in two or three weeks time, when Jesus appears to them in the
upper room, they don't believe. They say, oh, this is a ghost. So if
Peter had believed that Jesus was risen, then he would not have been
surprised when Jesus appeared in the upper room.

So he's amazed, that he is not necessarily believing. There's an
important lesson in this for us, I believe, and I believe that there's
something that we must see in this whole chapter, and I'm going to
emphasize it again as we go along, because it is part of the evidence
for the resurrection. If the resurrection was a fabricated idea, so the
disciples came up with this plan, they're going to say, Jesus isn't
dead, he's risen, so we can build a whole religion around this idea of
him being resurrected.

You would not have seen this unbelief in their testimony. Their
testimony would have been that on the third day, we went there, the body
was gone, and we saw him, and he was resurrected, and we knew it was
going to be this way, because that's what he said. But in fact, what
happens is that they are in unbelief, and in a sense, they have to grow
in their face, which verifies their testimony, because if their
testimony was false, they would not cast aspersions on their own
testimony.

So we didn't really believe, and when they told us he was risen, we'd
know we didn't believe that. Only afterwards that we come to faith. But
the fact that the writers, all four of the gospel writers, speak about
this progression of faith, if you will, this amazement to begin with,
and then slowly the penny begins to drop, and slowly they begin to
realize, yes indeed, he is risen, is proof that their testimony is true.

And it's a very important truth, and I trust that you've followed the
argument. I'll try and explain it a bit better next time. But I think
that one of the other important things that we need to see in this, is
the way that the resurrection happens.

Jesus had been crucified three days prior in a very public way, in a
place where everybody could see it. But when he rises, it's in a very
private way. He's not showing everybody.

He only reveals himself to a few. Particularly in Jerusalem, only a few,
a handful, maybe 120 at the most. More of them in Galilee, about 500 in
Galilee, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

We would think that if you were going to build a new religion, if God
was going to figure this thing out and say, how am I going to do this?
You would downplay the cross, because that's a shameful thing. Remember
Paul says that the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews, and it's
foolishness to the Greeks. But you would make a big deal of the
resurrection.

Jesus would rise in front of everybody, trumpets, lightning. And there
Jesus rises, glorious, powerful. Isn't that how we would build a
religion? Certainly how marketing people would do it.

Now I want us to understand that God is looking for true disciples. If
you are stumbled by the cross, you will not see the resurrection. You
have to face the cross first, in order to understand and to see the
glory of the resurrection.

You can't have the resurrection without the cross. That's what people
want today. That's why in many churches on Easter Sunday, people want to
hear about the resurrection.

They don't want to hear about the cross. No, the cross was the big deal.
Yes, the resurrection was equally important.

Paul is specific about the 1 Corinthians 15, that without the
resurrection we have nothing. But the cross is public, and that's where
you have to make your stand. That's where you have to make your
decision.

Am I going to believe the cross? Having accepted the cross, he now
reveals himself to the true disciples. He doesn't appear before Pilate,
or before Herod, or before Caiaphas, or before the Sanhedrin. He never
appears to them at all.

He only appears to those who are the true disciples. Folks, unless we
accept him in his shame, he will not reveal himself to us in his glory.
Father, we pray that you'd help us understand.

Lord, we so much want to be part of the glory of the resurrection, and
of the coming again, and all of these wonderful things of you, and your
power, and in your majesty. And Lord, you are all of those things. But
Lord, unless we come via the cross, those things will remain hidden and
we'd be blind to them.

Lord, I pray this morning that you'd help our unbelief, because Lord, we
are no better than these people. Lord, we forget so easily the things
that you say to us, that you say to us clearly, not just in your word,
but by the confirmation of the spirit. Lord, the things that you have
impressed upon us, which we heard, and Lord, that we understood, and yet
we forget them so quickly.

Lord, I pray that you'd forgive our unbelief. Help us, Lord, to be those
who remember the things that you've spoken. Particularly, Lord, when
we're faced with death, when we're faced by the death of a loved one,
Lord, when we're faced with crises in life, whether they be health, or
financial, or relational.

Lord, that when we're faced by these things, we may remember your word,
your many promises that you've given us, that you'll never leave us nor
forsake us, that you'll see us through, that you'll give us to be more
than conquerors in the midst of these things. Lord, help us to remember
your word. Lord, we pray that we may be those who are not skeptical
about the truth, but Lord, that we may believe.

So, I pray, Lord, that you may help us, because Lord, just like the
disciples, you can say the same thing to us a hundred times, and yet
when the reality happens, we struggle. Help us, Lord, that we may
remember. We thank you for the resurrection, Lord.

We thank you for the glory of the fact that Jesus is risen indeed, that
we're not looking for the dead. We're looking for him who is alive and
who is alive forevermore, and we're looking for him to come again soon
and to receive us to himself. And so, Lord, I pray that you'd help us to
grasp these things, Lord, to not be so slow in believing as the
disciples were, but Lord, that we may grab hold of these truths and that
we may, like a woman, run with them, and that we may spread the good
news that he is risen, and he is risen indeed.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Go with us now, Lord, we pray, and keep us
and protect us. Bring us together again safely on Thursday.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/k8_8w_PtVNU.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/he-is-risen/
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