The resurrection

Let's turn to the book of Revelation, please, chapter 1. Now, it's been mentioned a couple of times about keeping your eyes on the risen man, and I want to try to bring a practical level from what we've heard and link the Bible study into it from this morning. And I will not be taking all of that time, so we'll leave plenty of time. Revelation chapter 1, I am thinking about the resurrection and the fact that we have a resurrected, glorified Savior and just what effect that should have upon my life.

So, we'll start in Revelation chapter 1 and look at verse number 18. Now, these are tremendous words that the Lord Jesus says. Revelation 1 and verse 18, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.

Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. I'm just going to read that first part again, verse 18.

I am he that liveth and was dead. I honestly think sometimes we get so used to reading these things that we don't stop and really let it sink in what is being said. Nobody else ever could talk like this, okay? You will never live your life long enough to hear anyone else ever say these words.

I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore. Now, I find it very hard for a Christian to read that and that not to have an effect upon me. You see, that's going to link into our Bible study in the resurrection.

Really, what are the implications of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus? Sometimes we have our Bible studies and they end up staying all at the theory level. I'm not saying it was this morning. I want to try to take that theory and I want to try to bring it right down into your hands today so that we go away from this conference, I go away from this conference, not just having been temporarily moved by what I heard.

I love hearing Mr. Hall preach. He does. He causes me to kind of laugh out loud sometimes and get a little Pentecostal and go, woo, hallelujah.

But wouldn't it be something if that little temporary bump of excitement just kept going Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday? And when I got with the boys and I got with the girls and I got into the university and I got into all of these different companies and things to bring me in contact with and I was different. Wouldn't that be great? Well, what's going to do it? Keep coming here every weekend and we'll whip you all up and send you off like a spinning top? No. You have to get your eyes on the risen man.

That's where they've got to be. Your heart has got to be on the man that's gone up and the effect of him up there. What effect is that going to have upon me? So with that being said, let's go to 1 Corinthians 15.

We were there this morning. I just want to look at a couple of comments because the Apostle Paul, we didn't take time to do it this morning, but the Apostle Paul goes into a number of different things. If Christ has been raised from the dead, well, then he tells you a number of different things.

So we're just going to quickly look at them. And then we're going to take a very practical, simple look at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Now, look at Revelation 15, and it was brought out this morning that there were people that were contending the resurrection, the literal resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

And look what is said here. Chapter 15 and verse 12. Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, empty, and your faith is also vain or empty.

Another reason is given in verse 15. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he was raised from the dead. Then you come down to verse number 17.

Here he comes to another point. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Isn't that an awful expression? For those that are saved here today and you enjoy your salvation, can you imagine for just a split second being back in your sins? Under the dread of meeting God because of your sin.

Under the bondage of that sin. We've heard it already today. Isn't it wonderful to be liberated from that? Isn't it wonderful to actually know consciously, my sins are forgiven.

Why? Because of the resurrection of Christ. But if Christ is not raised, look what he says, ye are yet in your sins. Look, here's another one, verse 18.

Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. I often think of those words at a graveside, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. It's wonderful to be there knowing that that person saved, they died in the Lord, in Christ. And that's not where it ends.

But then my mind can't help but think of people that die in their sins. No hope. That sounds like a very short sentence.

But if you could just try to understand what that means. The only thing that a sinner in the grave has to look forward to is being called up for that. It's not a wonder the Spirit of God, it's almost like He wants us to stop and just think about it.

No hope. Think of the blessed hope of those that have perished. They're going to rise to be glorified, to be of Christ in heaven.

Well, he says here that if Christ hasn't raised, well, that doesn't happen, but we know he's working to a point. Look at verse 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ.

I find this kind of amusing. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. I don't know about you, but I enjoy being a Christian.

I enjoy life with Christ. And I've often thought if God saved me, and so far as I'm sitting here today, let's say I've been saved now 23 years. And let's say I live until I'm whatever, 40 years in the Lord, and I die.

And if that's all God saved me for, wouldn't that be wonderful? I was able to know the Lord Jesus for 40 years of my life. And the grave was the end of it. But look what the Apostle Paul says.

If Christ hasn't raised from the dead, and if you only had Christ for time, you're all men most miserable. You see what the resurrection is going to do? It's going to bring us out of this very short, very temporary period called life. And it's going to take us into the future.

And a comment I made this morning in the Bible study, what the Spirit of God wants us to do is to take truth with the future and bring it into today. And live my life in light of that truth. And that's why it's been emphasized over and over again.

Dear child of God, our lives are only so short. And you hear this all the time. Oh, I'll get living for the Lord when I'm older.

Or when this is done, and when this is done, and when this is done. Do you realize sometimes that an awful lot of us we're sitting on the wheel with the hamster. And we're just going around in a circle.

I agree 100% with what Mr. Hall said about a crisis. I can take you to a crisis in my life. I can remember when I came to the point where I said, no more will I give myself to this corporation.

I am not going to climb any higher on this corporate ladder. And I don't care if it means me losing my job. And I sat in a seat across the desk from my boss and I said, I want you to know something, sir.

I will work 110% for you, but do not invest any more money or time into me because I want to go no higher in this company. I have other things. The gospel, so on and so forth.

He just sat there like, I don't think anybody's ever that honest to him. And you know what he said to me? I appreciate your honesty. Of course, in the back of my mind, he never fired me.

Okay, great, I got a job. But sometimes you've got to be brought to point because listen, there is a world out there that will just keep drying. That's what it will do.

It will just keep getting you focused on time, just very temporary. And to think, we're going to touch it in a minute, all the while, there's a resurrected man. And this little brief thing here is not where it ends.

An awful thing to die as a Christian with regrets. And we've often heard that many times when it comes to the judgment seat of Christ. I wish, I wish, I wish.

Do you know what I find? I mean, I'm not old and I'm not young. I'm in the middle somewhere, 47. And you do start to think a little different.

And you start to look at your assembly a little different and other little assemblies you visit. Do you know what just breaks my heart? To see people with potential. And the old corporate world's got them.

Won't let them go. And they've been in so long, they can't see the trap that they're in. And you're just sitting there wishing that this person would just go a little further.

Get going. Get up. Get up.

Unshackle the world and get going. I can't do that. You individually will have to get that between you and your God.

It's not going to get easier as you get older. I try to stress it so much. I know my father, I remember just newly saved going to visit with my father.

I remember one time coming out of this house and as a young person, I was a little overcome by all the negativity and the criticisms and the problems. And here I was just a little tiny Christian, my little boat was swamped. I thought Christians were all happy and everybody was going on for the Lord.

That was the honeymoon period where I thought every Christian had halos. I thought I had a halo too around my head. And I said to my father in the car, I said, Dad, what just happened in there in that house? You know what he told me? Bad habits when they were young.

Bad habits when they were young. And those bad habits, they stick with us. So I could look over this audience today and you know where it's going to start, dear child of God? A systematic consumption of this book.

We've got more gadgets on us. We can put this Bible into MP3 form on so many things. And we've got everything built.

Do you utilize it? For those that are interested, for those that are very busy, I have a website, thegloriousgospel.ca I have the Bible on MP3 broken down into 365 days of the year. And if you're in a rush, you just go to my website, click on the month, click on the day, and there's the four chapters right across the top. And if you have enough time, there's the four chapters underneath it to read.

There's really no excuse in this world of technology why we can't get just literally swamped by this book. But you know what we've got to do? You have to take time. Get this book into your life.

Now with that being said, let's go quickly over to Matthew chapter 27. I got a little off the track there, but I'm going to go quick here now. Matthew chapter 27.

And one thing, I never noticed this before until just recently I was studying the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We're going to go now to the practical aspect of the resurrection here, but just quickly, this is what we often all get occupied with in chapter 7, the Lord Jesus on the cross at Calvary, verse number 50. Matthew 27 and verse 50.

Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. Sorry, your page is going. Matthew 27 and verse 50, verse 51.

And behold, the veil of the temple was rent entwined from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake. There was a massive earthquake. And the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose.

Now we're not told how many. And came out of the graves after His resurrection. So that would have been on Sunday.

And went into the holy city. That would be Jerusalem. This is not something spiritual.

This is physical. And appeared unto many. When was the last time you thought about that? I just sort of put myself back into this little city of Jerusalem.

And all of a sudden, everybody was taken with this tremendous darkness that took place in the world. And maybe they heard the big shout, and they felt the earthquake. And we're all familiar with those events.

And that veil was rent from the top throughout. And there was a tremendous thing happen when the Lord Jesus uttered that cry, and His soul and spirit went out into death on His own will. All of a sudden, the hold of the grave was broken on many, many Christians that had died in the past.

And all of a sudden, there's a period of three days, and now Sunday comes, and out of the grave comes the Lord Jesus. But, did you ever stop to think that as a result of the Lord Jesus coming physically out of the grave on Sunday, throughout Jerusalem, there were these people coming up to their homes that they once lived in, and they knocked on their doors, and people went to the door and went, We buried you! How can this be? And the Bible says many. Do you know really what God was doing? God was marking this world with so many proofs of the resurrection of His Son.

I was thinking of my grandfather that had died a number of years ago, about 18 years ago. I can remember the funeral. I remember the graveyard.

I remember where he was buried. And can you imagine the shock if I was to go to the door, and all of a sudden, Grampy! This must be a vision! This can't be real! You see, that's what this world does to its friend. I think sometimes we're talking about the resurrection of Christ.

A real man in heaven. Do we understand that? This is not just some church language that we use. There is at this moment, the only man that willingly went into death.

He didn't swoon. He didn't go unconscious. He literally died.

And he lay there for three days. And death couldn't hold him. And we call it Resurrection Sunday.

And the world celebrates it, doesn't it? But does the truth of it grip us? On His own voluntary will, He just simply took His soul and Spirit and came right across the boundary again into time. Do we believe that? I mean, you met someone down in Charlottetown. I think I'm back home, Charlottetown.

Sorry. Stout. And all of a sudden, they stop you and say, Hey, guess where I was yesterday? I was in death.

What would you do? Nah, come on, man. That's crazy. Stuff like that doesn't happen.

Well, listen. Do you want to know the shock that it was to the disciples? They were afraid. Remember, they were in the upper room and the doors were closed.

And He told them many times that He was going to raise from the dead. And here they were. And all of a sudden, into their midst appeared the Lord Jesus.

You know what the Bible says? They were fearful. They were full of unbelief. I would be no different.

Now, listen, we're going to read another one. I'm going to come back to that again. Look at chapter 28.

Here's something else I want you to see. Chapter 28. We're going to get a little more information here.

I've got to go quick now. Matthew 28, verse 1. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn. Now, the verb there is the idea that the sun, the physical sun, is starting to come up on the horizon.

Okay? Toward the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene, the other Mary to see the second. And behold, there was a great earthquake. Listen.

For the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. You know, I never noticed this before. I was thinking of the angel's involvement in the life of the Lord Jesus.

Must have been quite a thing, you know, when the angels were given the message from heaven. When the birth of the Lord Jesus, go and fill the skies and just start to proclaim the birth of the Savior. We know from Hebrews chapter 1 that angels are created by God and they're His ministers that are sent on duty.

Then I was letting my mind go and I thought of the time when the Lord Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness. And God the Father dispatched an angel. Go down there and strengthen him.

Down he came. Then I thought of the time when the Lord Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. And there was another angel from heaven dispatched by the Father.

Go down into that world and encourage Him in the Garden. What a thing! And I've often heard preachers, and rightly so, as they were preaching about when the Lord Jesus was arrested and think of men then when they were beating Him. And I've often heard preachers say the angels must have been almost having to be strained, withheld by God.

Should we not go down there and help Him? No word is given by the Father. And there the angels watch in horror as their God, their Creator, is being so mutilated. You know, I thought about this angel.

We now come three days he's been buried. And all of a sudden the Father looks at an angel and says, you go down there and you roll away that stone. I thought of the lightning speed that that angel would have went.

Right down to earth. I thought the earthquake. Maybe he broke the sound barrier.

And there was that big sonic boom. Boom! And there was a massive earthquake. And that angel grabbed onto that big stone.

And the Greek is he rolled it uphill. Was it to let Him out? No, it was to let you and I in. So we could see that He wasn't in there.

And our brother touched on this just the other night. I love the napkin by itself. You ever wondered about that? Do you know what it shows? The Lord Jesus, no struggle.

Calm, collected, everything in order. The Lord Jesus literally, physically just came right up out of that grave. Isn't that tremendous? Oh, dear child of God, that truth should just drip ahold of me.

There it is. I'm going to say it again, okay? We have a real man in heaven. He's real.

And He's coming back. And this little thing called life is not all there is. There is a great beyond.

Now, let's get to that great beyond here. Let's go to Luke, Luke chapter 24. That clock is going to beat me, so I've got to go quick here.

I was quite impressed with Scott Hayes last night, how fast he preached the gospel. I didn't know anybody could talk that fast. But I talked to him after, and he was quite slow.

So obviously he has a couple of gears. Okay, Luke chapter 24. Now, I want you to try to take yourself and put yourself into this room here, okay? Because this is quite interesting.

Luke chapter 24 and verse number 36. Now, let's be really simple, and let's take our meeting this morning, which we enjoyed, and let's take it back and put it right here, okay? Let's read this. And verse 36 of Luke chapter 24.

And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and afraid and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Handle me and see. For a spirit hath not flesh and bone, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.

What would you do? What would you do? You know, I'd be rubbing my eyes. I would be checking my pulse to make sure that, oh, heck, you were living. Right in your midst all of a sudden appeared the Lord Jesus.

I thought, I'd be going against the wall. I'd be so terrified. I'd be trying to get away from this thing in the middle, if you allow me to use that.

And the Lord Jesus looks at them and he says, No, no, no, he says, I'm not a spirit. He says, I actually possess flesh and bone. Did you hear that? Substance.

It's not wavy where you can misty. You put your hand right through it. Do you realize at this moment in heaven, Jesus Christ can take his left hand and he can go... He's got an arm.

It's real. It's not mystical. It's real.

Does that grip us? He's the first man in heaven glorified. And if you go on about Elijah and those men of the Old Testament, listen, their body did not go to heaven. Their soul and spirit did.

Because my Bible is very clear. Christ is the first fruits of them that slept. And he's the only glorified man in heaven.

That's why Hebrews is so important. Because into heaven, the angels witness the Son leave. Spirit.

And now they're standing in amazement as a man is stepping over the battlement of heaven. And what does the Father say? Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. You know, these people here, he showed them his hands and his feet.

Now look what else. Let's go to the Gospel of John. John chapter 20.

For what else he showed them. Look at this. We'll have to end here.

Maybe one more if we've got time. John chapter 20. Still put yourself in the room.

Of course, it's a week later. We understand all that. Look at verse number 24.

They talk to Thomas. And Thomas, of course, is the doubter. Verse 25.

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails. And put my finger into the print of the nails.

You only get that expression twice. The print of the nails. And listen to this.

And thrust my hand. Not my finger. Thrust my hand into his side.

I will not believe. Then we have eight days passed. Look at verse 27.

I should read verse 26. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the door being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Then said he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands. And reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side. You know what that tells me? You know what I was enjoying from this? That spike that was nailed through the hand of our Savior left a mark big enough for you to take your finger and put it right through it.

Now he still has that. And that sword, that spear that went into his side. You know what the Lord said to Thomas? You take your hand.

Look at the size of that hand. That's a small hand. We're in Sweden.

We've got a really big hand. That's a small hand. And do you know what Thomas could have done? He could have walked right over to the Lord and taken that hand, that whole hand, right in.

Now my Savior still has that. Do I believe that? I said it this morning and I want to say it again. Whatever imperfections you or me might have when it comes to the effect of the resurrection upon me in a coming day, I will stand in heaven absolutely perfect.

Think of the myriads of perfected saints, their bodies, their soul, their spirit. I know the body and the spirit and the soul by salvation, the body finally. Do you know what will make him stand out so unique? He's the only glorified person, allow me to say it this way, not perfect.

In this sense, the marks of Calvary, the prints, are still there. Notice they're not wounds. They're not in the process of healing.

They are marks. You need blood to heal. And I believe that is something that will be so unique to his glorified body.

And throughout eternity, dear child of God, I will look at him and my mind will automatically go to Calvary where he died for me. Now let me ask you something. Do you think I could live for him? He died for me.

He's raised for me. He's living there for me. Okay, I'm going to give you one more verse.

Go to Ephesians real quick. Oh dear. Ephesians chapter 1. I've got just two other little quick things.

I'll leave them quick and then you can take them home and go and look at them. Just to help us to live for him. Ephesians chapter 1 and look at verse number 19.

And I know this has been said many times but it's nice just to sort of think and meditate upon it. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 19. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead? Do you know what that verse means? Here I am today in 2013 in the month of April.

The very same power of God that reached into death and brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus is the very same power that is toward us. Very same. Think of it.

How could you ever not do something for Him with that much power? Now let's go to Romans 8 for the last one. Romans chapter 8. And this will be really quick and then I'm down. Now look at this.

That's power toward us. Notice this. Verse number 11.

Verse number 10. Romans 8 verse 10. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Do you realize as I look at you and you look at me, do you realize that the very same Spirit of God that took Christ from the dead is actually residing right in here. Right in there.

Do you know what's going to happen the moment the Spirit of God hears the Lord Jesus start to come for His people? That power that took the Lord Jesus out of the dead, glorified Him, is right resident right here in me. And as soon as the Spirit of God hears Him coming to rapture us home, do you know what's going to happen? That power is going to be unleashed into this body. I will be glorified, perfected.

That, dear child of God, is when you lose the wicked heart. Never to sin again. Do we have so much? May God help us to be encouraged by the man that is risen.