Christ is risen

[0:00] Well, good morning everybody and happy Easter. This is a pre-recorded meeting for Easter Sunday 2021, still unfortunately in a semi-lockdown situation.

[0:19] ! We're an independent Baptist church on the south coast of England, just south of London. I'm going to be introducing this service this morning and I'll be speaking later about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[0:49] I commend to you the five Easter questions, which are little videos answering some questions that newcomers to Christian faith might have about Christian faith. And I commend that to you and there will be a link somewhere around for you to look at those and perhaps recommend them to other people as you wish.

[1:08] So today is Easter Sunday and having introduced myself and welcomed everybody, let's say the traditional Easter greeting, which the churches have been saying over a thousand, two thousand years, I guess, in which a person at the front says Christ is risen and the people in the congregation say he's risen indeed.

[1:33] So let me say Christ is risen. And I didn't hear you reply, so we'll try it again, shall we? I'm going to say Christ is risen and you're going to say he is risen indeed.

[1:47] Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Let me read the vision that John had of the risen Christ when he heard a voice like a trumpet.

[2:04] And I turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his waist, sorry, round his chest.

[2:23] His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

[2:37] In his hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun, shining in all its brilliance.

[2:48] When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last.

[3:00] I am the living one. I was dead. And behold, I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

[3:14] As the risen Christ described, not in a literal appearance, but theologically, all his divinity and power and dignity and fullness of life.

[3:32] And fullness of glory that the risen Christ has. I just pause to remind us that he has risen as a human being. There is resurrected flesh in heaven.

[3:44] And he has risen. And one day we shall rise and be like him. And we shall see him as he is. But now let's sing 458, a resurrection song.

[3:56] I'll just look at the words on my screen here, which says, Christ the Lord is risen today. Hallelujah. All creation joined to say, Hallelujah. Raise your joys and triumphs high.

[4:07] Hallelujah. Sing you heavens and earth reply. Hallelujah. Love's redeeming work is done. Fought the fight. The battle won. See our sun's eclipse has passed.

[4:19] See the light returns at last. Vain the stone. The watch. The seal. Christ has burst the gates of hell. Death in vain forbids him rise.

[4:29] Christ has opened paradise. Lives again our glorious King. Where, O death, is now your sting? Once he died, our souls to save.

[4:40] Where's your victory? Boasting grave. And it says that we will be with him. We will soar where Christ has led one day.

[4:51] Ours the cross, the grave, the skies. Hail the Lord of earth and heaven. And praise to you by both be given. Every knee to you shall bow. Risen Christ, triumphant now.

[5:03] So let's sing 458. Christ the Lord is written today.

[5:15] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. All creation join to say.

[5:26] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Raise your joys and triumphs high. Hallelujah.

[5:41] Till you hence and earth reply. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Love's redeeming work is done.

[5:57] Love's redeeming work is done. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Fought the fight, the battle won. fight the battle won.

[6:14] Hallelujah! See, a sun's eclipse has passed. Hallelujah!

[6:27] See, the light returns at last. Hallelujah! Rain the stone, the watch, the seal.

[6:47] Hallelujah! Christ has burst the gates of hell. Hallelujah!

[7:02] Death in vain forbids him rise. Hallelujah! Christ has opened paradise.

[7:17] Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Lives again our glorious King, Hallelujah Where all death is now your sting, Hallelujah Once he died our souls to save, Hallelujah Where's your victory boasting grave, Hallelujah So we know where Christ has led, Hallelujah

[8:22] Following our exalted head, Hallelujah Made like him, like him we rise, Hallelujah As across the grave the skies, Hallelujah Hail the Lord of earth and heaven, Hallelujah Praise to you thy vote begin, Hallelujah Every knee to you shall bow, Hallelujah

[9:28] Risen Christ triumphant now, Hallelujah And let's pray We come on this Easter day to acclaim, to rejoice in, to glorify the risen Christ We bow before you, risen Saviour In your mighty power In the fullness of life that you have In the glory that is now yours The glory that you had with the Father before the world was made And we lift our hearts to you in acclaim We praise you for your work upon the cross That you faced the full penalty on sin and paid it in full That you bore the wrath of God

[10:32] You drank the cup and said it is finished We thank you for your work upon the cross We thank you for your work upon the cross That all his powers and schemes came to nothing And you have shown him to be a defeated enemy The one who does not have all authority and power But you have all authority and power We praise you that now the Prince of this world is cast out And he does not have power to condemn your people Nor to hinder the work of the Gospel But is a defeated enemy We praise you that you have conquered sin And we praise you that you have conquered death Lord, all our lives are lived under the fear of death And we know that it brings an end to even the strongest and most youthful One day, but we thank you that you have conquered death And you have made it so that we can look forward to eternal life in your presence

[11:38] We can look forward to resurrection life in your presence And the fulfilment of all that being human was meant to be Please deliver us from making this world our heaven From setting all our hopes on the things and occupations and people of this world Whereas we should be setting our hope so clearly and fully upon you Forgive us that we don't do that But enable us to do it as we should And on this Easter day lift our hearts in praise to you Help us to appreciate afresh the victory that you've won The glory that is yours And help us to anticipate with genuine anticipation The day when you will return in glory And you will take the acclaim that rightly belongs to you And you will be shown to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords And you will put all things into their right place And make all things new

[12:40] So help us to look forward to that day And help us to live now In the light of that Seeing that these things shall be What manner of people ought we to be now Forgive us for our small pettiness of concerns Forgive us for our earthboundness But help us to take everything in this life that you've now given us As being indicative of what shall yet be And cause us to be looking forward to your coming And the renewal of all things in your resurrection power We also pray that as Christian people our lives now might reflect resurrection power Pray that we might have power to put sin to death And to put on Christ in the way we think and act and live and feel So grant us to live in the light of your resurrection as we lift our praises to you We just add a prayer for our world in all its lostness

[13:44] The nations that are still suffering with the virus The people who are passing from this world into eternity without knowing you Have mercy, O God Have mercy and lead Bring about your kingdom Bring about your purposes Bring glory to yourself May the name of the Heavenly Father be hallowed And we pray these prayers in Jesus' name Amen We're now going to have a children's slot Which has been recorded specially So I hand over to the children's slot Which I think this time is Mark Thanks Mark Happy Easter Calvary Kids It's Mark here Calvary Kids online And I'm back from the Caribbean I'm in the garden Yes, I'm in the tomb Where Jesus was laid Today is Easter Sunday He is risen Hallelujah And we're looking at the narrative from Mark's Gospel

[14:48] So, please have your listening ears on We'll be reading from Mark, Chapter 16, 1-8 When the Sabbath was over Mary Magdalene Mary, the mother of James And Salome Bought spices So they could embalm him Very early on Sunday morning As the sun rose They went to the tomb They worried out loud to each other Who will roll back the stone from the tomb for us?

[15:17] Then they looked up Saw that it had been rolled back It was a huge stone And walked right in They saw a young man sitting on the right side Dressed all in white They were completely taken aback Astonished He said Don't be afraid I know you're looking for Jesus the Nazarene The one they nailed on the cross He's been raised up He's no longer here You can see for yourselves That the place is empty Now, on your way Tell his disciples and Peter That he is going on ahead of you to Galilee You'll see him there Exactly as he said They got out as fast as they could Beside themselves Their heads swimming They said nothing

[16:19] To anyone Well, children This story is fantastic news today This is the best possible news we could imagine The fact that Jesus rises from the dead Means that the cross really did make a way for us to be friends with God It means that death is not the end For those who trust in Jesus Death becomes a doorway into eternal life with Jesus I would like you To look at these questions on the screen And ask them with your parents Ask and answer them So the first one Is imagine going to the tomb with the three women

[17:23] What would you have been feeling? Explore the mixture of emotions they would have felt What would you feel? Being told by an angel that Jesus is risen And children Ask your parents What difference has knowing Jesus is alive made To your life And afterwards Praise God that Jesus is alive God bless you today Bye from me So we've been able to do this children's slot for these past four or five weeks And really would value feedback as to whether the parents have found that helpful I mean it takes time to put it all together and I hope it's helpful But would value feedback on that We're now going to have the first of two readings quite for me so we've been able to do this children's slot for these past four or five weeks and really would value feedback as to whether the parents have found that helpful i mean it takes time to put it all together and i hope it's helpful but would value feedback on that we're now going to have the first of two readings and ray's going to read to us from luke 24 verses one to twelve this is the story of the resurrection with the women going to the tomb and getting their reaction so thanks ray luke chapter 24 verses one to twelve on the first day of the week very early in the morning the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb they found the stone rolled away from the tomb but when they entered they did not find the body of the lord jesus while they were wondering about this suddenly two men in clothes that green black lightning stood beside them in their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground but the men said to them why do you look for the living among the dead he is not here he is risen remember how he told you while he was still with you in galilee the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men be crucified and on the third day be raised again then they remembered his words when they came back from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the others it was mary magdalene joanna mary the mother of james and the others with them who told this to the disciples but they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense peter however got up and ran to the tomb bending over he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves and he went away wondering to himself what had happened and now we've got another resurrection song this one is a graham kendrick in the tomb so cold they laid him death its victim claimed powers of hell they could not hold him back to life he came christ is risen death has been conquered he shall reign forever christ is risen death has been conquered he shall reign forever in the tomb so cold they laid him death its victim claimed powers of hell they could not hold him back to life he came

[21:25] christ is risen christ is risen christ is risen christ is risen he shall reign forever he shall reign forever hell had spent its fury on him left him crucified died died died died died died died died Yet by blood He boldly conquered sin and death defied Christ is risen, death has become good Christ is risen, He shall be forever Now the fear of death is broken, love has won the crown

[22:25] Prisoners of the darkness, listen, walls are tumbling down Christ is risen, death has become good Christ is risen, He shall be forever Raise from death to heaven ascending, love's exalted King Let His song of joy unending through the nations ring

[23:29] Christ is risen, death has become good Christ is risen, He shall reign forever Christ is risen, death has become good Christ is risen, He shall reign forever So thanks for that song And now we're going to have a second reading, a second resurrection reading and Brenda's reading to us from Luke 24 verses 13 to 35 This is on the road to Emmaus, the risen Christ appearing to these two disciples who have been so disappointed and He makes Himself known to them

[24:33] Thanks Brenda Luke 24 beginning at verse 13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem They were talking with each other about everything that had happened As they talked and discussed these things with each other Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them But they were kept from recognising Him He asked them What are you discussing together as you walk along?

[25:11] They stood still, their faces downcast One of them, named Cleopas, asked Him Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem Who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?

[25:26] What things, he asked About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death And they crucified Him But we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place In addition, some of our women amazed us They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find His body They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels Who said He was alive Then some of our companions went to the tomb And found it just as the women had said But they did not see Jesus He said to them How foolish you are And how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken

[26:29] Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things And then enter His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets He explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning Himself As they approached the village to which they were going Jesus continued on as if He were going further But they urged Him strongly Stay with us, for it is nearly evening The day is almost over So He went in to stay with them When He was at the table with them He took bread Gave thanks Broke it And began to give it to them Then their eyes were opened And they recognised Him And He disappeared from their sight They asked each other Were not our hearts burning within us While He talked with us on the road And opened the scriptures to us They got up

[27:29] And returned at once to Jerusalem There they found the eleven And those with them Assembled together and saying It is true The Lord has risen And has appeared to Simon Then the two told what had happened on the way And how Jesus was recognised by them When He broke the bread And in a moment I'll hand over for the talk But let's pray as we do so We thank you for the risen Christ Thank you for the resurrection of Jesus Help us as we contemplate it To have deeper conviction in our hearts Deeper reassurance Deeper devotion Stronger hope And stronger faith So bless the speaker And hear us alike As we come to your word Amen Well let's come to think about this subject Of the resurrection at Easter

[28:32] We've been thinking that in this pandemic This prompts us to raise issues Of our mortality Of our fragility Issues of life and death Of our relationship to our Creator And what it is to be In the presence of the God who made us The need we have for contact with Him Which is built into us As being essential to our humanity And at Easter we look back And remember the death of Jesus And particularly on Easter Day His resurrection If that's for the first time It's a good thing to think about Thinking about spiritual realities Of God and eternity Maybe with a new relevance Looking forward to Whether there is such a thing Well there is Of life after death Perhaps it has a new interest for you So in order to work that through We've been thinking For the past few weeks About who is Jesus And this is such an important matter And here's another reason Why we should bother with it Because if He is raised from the dead

[29:33] If that really is correct This affects each one of us Now the Apostle Paul Spells out the logic of it And it works a bit like this If He is not the risen Christ And if we align ourselves with Him We are of all people most to be pitied That's a huge mistake and disappointment If He is the risen Christ And we align ourselves with Him Then we are on the winning side And we are safe But if He is the risen Christ And we don't align ourselves with Him We put ourselves in a position of no hope Cutting ourselves off from hope Of refusal and rebellion And there's no way out of that That's a permanent lostness That we're headed for So this really is an important subject And we were looking at Who is Jesus And answering in these ways You can look back on the YouTube And find the different talks on this

[30:33] We looked at His person Who is He? The Son of God The Son of Man Lord We looked at His work To reveal and to redeem and to reign We saw He was the Christ Who prayed in the garden If possible let this cup pass from me The Jesus who triumphantly Entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday Which we thought about last week Who died on the cross Not as a random mistake But in a substitutionary Sacrificial way And what we're going to look at today Is that Jesus is the one Whom the Father raised from the dead In a physical body And in scriptural fulfilment Whom the Father raised from the dead In a physical body And in scriptural fulfilment So let's look at that I'll take it in this order We'll look at first of all The physical body Then we'll look at the fact That this is Jesus Whom the Father raised And then we'll look at

[31:34] The scriptural fulfilment And that's really what I want to do today I know it's a rather At an imperfect treatment Of a huge huge subject But at least let's think about These three things As God helps us today So in introduction I need to say that the resurrection Of Jesus All it's celebrated At Easter Day It isn't confined to Easter Day So we might enjoy saying Christ is risen He is risen indeed At Easter But really it's completely illogical Not to say that every day It's true every day It's true every Sunday And presumably the early church Met on Sunday The first day of the week In commemoration of Christ's resurrection So every Sunday meeting Is a resurrection affirming meeting And the resurrection of Jesus Is fundamental to everything In the Christian faith I know the liberal scholars Try to sort of make it into a myth

[32:39] And say well we can have Christianity Without having to believe This difficult thing That Christ rose from the dead But if you take that away You're not left with anything very much It's not an optional extra I mean where is forgiveness If you take away the resurrection Justification Being right with God If Christ was not justified Because his resurrection is a justification It's saying he's right If Christ was not justified Then how do we know we can be justified What's the basis for that And the Christian life If Christ's risen power by the Spirit Is not at work in the believer Then what is the Christian life It's not much better than just trying one's best Is it That's pretty vacuous and miserable If we have no help from the life of Christ's risen power And the future If Christ is not risen into what you might call life after life after death

[33:44] Then what basis is there for us hoping that there is life after death If we belong to Christ When we go to the graveside We just weep without hope If there's no If Christ is not risen What hope is for the future And proclamation If Christ is not risen Then there is no living Lord to turn to And there is no dispenser of forgiveness There's no forgiveness to aspire to What is there to say?

[34:17] There's not much point in preaching anything, is there? But putting it the other way round Christ is risen There is forgiveness Christ is risen There is risen power For each believer Christ is risen There is a future hope Which is strong and certain Christ is risen And there is a message Which is worth proclaiming And worth Putting ourselves out To proclaim So that was the introduction So my points were Number one A physical body So this is important Just to establish this It's not a very subtle point It's just an important point When we say Christ is risen We're not saying He is just an idea Or a memory You know like Robin Hood lives on in our hearts Or Princess Diana Lives on in our hearts Or something like that And we're not talking about A disembodied Floaty Flying person Looking down on us

[35:17] John Stephen's Rather helpfully As the national director Of the network of churches That we belong to The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches Made this observation Our culture has a view Of heaven As being disembodied You know Floaty people Looking down on us And our culture Has a view of hell Which is very physical And fleshly And our culture Doesn't believe Either of them Exists or have any relevance But what I'm Asserting here Is that The future If you like Heaven Is going to be A resurrection place With physical bodies In some sort of Physical environment So we read In Luke 24 And in Luke 24 Doesn't make all the points That could be made But it certainly Talks about The body They couldn't find The body Of the Lord Jesus His corpse Was not present there

[36:19] And his corpse Isn't present anywhere In this part Of our fallen world His corpse is not there There are no bones To bury No flesh decaying Because it's been Removed from this World And in Luke 24 Again In the appearance On the Emmaus road Jesus himself Drew near It says in verse 15 In our English translation And he walked with them And he asked them things And he sat down At the table Verse 30 And he took bread Verse 30 And then What does it say He disappeared From their sight So that's There's some very Ordinary things As well as something Rather extraordinary Also the fact That they didn't Originally recognise him So this is This is describing A physical body But actually A physical body With If we put it this way Without some of the Limitations that our

[37:19] Physical bodies have But a physical body Nevertheless And that point is made In Luke 24 Verse 36 Which we Didn't read But it says While they were still Talking about this Jesus himself Stood among them And he said Well he stood there And he said Look at my hands And my feet Verse 39 It is I myself Touch me and see A ghost does not Have flesh and bones As you see I have And he showed them His hands and his feet And then They were amazed And he said Do you have anything Here to eat And they gave him A piece of broiled fish And he took it And ate it In their presence And then it goes on To say in verse 51 This Jesus Was taken up Into heaven So it's a physical Jesus And if you Want to Research that a bit I recommend to you The five Easter questions Which are somewhere Available on this channel Where I go into

[38:20] The What's called The historicity Whether you Can actually believe This Anyway A physical body And the Christian hope Is tied up With this physical body That we will That's how he is We will be like him And if we belong to him There will be a physical body For us In union with him And a physical environment For that body to work in And the classic passage Of this Is 1 Corinthians 15 Which I won't do in detail But in verse 42 It says Talks about the resurrection Of the dead The body that is shown Is perishable And will be raised Imperishable It is sown in dishonour It is raised in glory It is sown in weakness It is raised in power Let me click through those Sown in dishonour And raised in glory It is sown in weakness And raised in power And he says There is a natural body Which is psichikos

[39:21] And there is a spiritual body Nevmatikos In other words A body that is operated By the powers of the soul That's what the psichikos means The ordinary human powers Of will and energy And gumption And blood sugar And those sorts of things And there is a spiritual body Nevmatikos He's not meaning That this body Is made of wispy Floaty stuff In the same way When we say a steamship A steamship is not made of steam But it is empowered by steam And the physical body Of the future Is empowered Not by just the normal Human powers But by the spirit And there is something Of a different dynamic In the new physical body Which was first present In Christ And Romans Says something very similar We who have the first fruits

[40:22] Of the spirit Grown inwardly As we wait eagerly For our sonship Our adoption of sons Which is The redemption Of our bodies The future Redemption Of our bodies That's what we look forward to So we will be like him We will have a physical body In a physical environment And 1 John 3 2 puts it like this Dear friends Now we are the children of God And what we will be Has not yet been made known But we know that When he appears When he appears We shall be like him For we shall see him As he is It's a glorious prospect We will see him as he is And we will be like him We will be like him If it was physical for him It will be physical for us And that implies The physical nature Of the world to come And that's the hope

[41:24] Of Christianity And so strong a hope Is this That it means That we ought to be prepared To run at a loss In this world For the gain there will be In the world to come That's a bit of a reminder Isn't it Not to be so Setting our thoughts Our hopes Our dreams In this world Pleasant though it is Rather than Hoping in the world to come And that's a reminder For all of us I take that to heart myself So first of all We talk about the physicalness Of this resurrection body And the second thing Is raised by the father So my question is A little bit of a technical question Who does the resurrectioning Who does the resurrection Because this is an act Of mighty power It is a great miracle To raise someone from the dead In this way It's not a resuscitation

[42:24] But a moving of this person Into deathlessness Lazarus was raised from the dead But we presume that he died again It was just sort of Putting the clock back A few days as it were But Christ puts the clock forward Into a completely new realm This is an act of mighty power Well Who does it?

[42:53] So let's look at some quotes In our Luke 24 In verse 7 It says On the third day Let me try and find my place Luke 24 Verse 7 The son of man Must be delivered Into the hands of sinful men Be crucified And on the third day Be raised again So that makes it Something done to Jesus Like he was crucified On the third day He will be raised It's something that he Has done to him In Luke 24 Verse 44 It talks about Everything being fulfilled That is written about me So I suppose that Implies Something Done to him Shall we say Maybe not In Luke 24 Verse 46 This is what is written That Christ will suffer And rise from the dead On the third day So that's saying

[43:54] Something that he does And in John chapter 10 It says The reason This is verse 17 The reason my father loves me Is that I lay down my life Only to take it up again No one takes it from me But I lay it down Of my own accord I have authority To lay it down And authority To take it up again This command I received From my father So that's Put in terms of Something that Christ does But he does that Because he's been given Authority To do it From the father This is a command From the father Now there's some other text That's a little bit more definite That it is something That God does To Jesus So In Luke's second volume In Acts Acts 2.24 You Citizens of Jerusalem Put him to death But God raised him From the dead Freeing him From the agony

[44:54] Of death Because it was impossible For death To keep its hold On him So there it's God does the raising In Acts 2.32 God has raised This Jesus To life And in Romans 6 Verse 4 End of the verse Christ was raised From the dead Through the glory Of the father So some of the texts Make it Something that Christ does Or has done To him And some of the texts Are more emphatic That this is Predominantly A work of God God the father Upon Jesus Now of course It is a Trinitarian thing And all the actions Of the trinity Are indivisible The father Son And holy spirit Are involved So let's understand That this is Trinitarian There's no question That the father Does something Apart from the son Or the son Does something Independently

[45:55] Of the spirit Or so on But I do want to Try and pull this Thread a little bit That this is done At the father's Initiative He raises the son He gives the command He gives the authority And as Paul says He was raised Through the glory Of the father And just to say That Christ is raised By the father In this sense It's not an isolated Disconnected Random event In other words Christ doesn't Raise himself Separately From the father He is in the grave And he is raised And this is An act of God The creator Acting upon Jesus To raise him From the dead And the more You think about it The more One realises What a mighty act This is This is What seems to me To be

[46:55] Of the same order Of magnitude As making the world Itself To raise someone From the dead In this sense Is of the same order Of magnitude As making the whole world This is an act Of world World making Creative power Reversing death Taking something That's built in To our fallen world By God himself And reversing that Undoing it Recasting it The mighty power Of the father It was God Who said The wages of sin Is death And making our world Subject to futility And he In the resurrection Of Christ Massively reverses that Loosing him As it says From the agony Of death The complications The chains The currents

[47:55] The power That is at work This very strong Power that holds The rest of humanity And indeed The cosmos In its grip So this is a mighty Act of God And of course In saying this God is saying A huge yes To Jesus So in all the history God looks down And this one man He says He doesn't deserve To die He said he would Rise from the dead And that's absolutely Right And I'll back him On this 100% And raise him From the dead People said He was guilty And deserved to die And I say No he is not guilty He did not deserve To die And I'll vindicate him By raising him From the dead So it's a saying Yes he is innocent He is not Condemned He is Justified He is declared Innocent In a mighty way And yes He is worthy He is not The despicable

[48:56] Condemned Christ But the worthy Blameless Noble Obedient Courageous Christ Yes he is worthy And it's saying Yes he is instituted To the highest place He came down In humility To be a servant But he's not A servant Sort of In a permanently Servile mode He's served He's humbled himself But he deserves To be in the highest Place At the right hand Of the father And that's where He's headed And the resurrection Says yes to that So he's raised By the father In this glory In this Affirmation And it says Something wonderful About Jesus Which I hope In your hearts You'd say Yeah absolutely That's totally Right That's totally What he deserves And my third point

[49:57] Is that it's in Scriptural Fulfillment Now Some of us Use WhatsApp And Facebook Messenger And These sorts of things I don't think It's only young people Who are allowed To do that But there are These emoji things And I'm trying to learn Which are the right ones To use On right occasions So this one It's an upside down face So there's the visual symbol I can see it's an upside down face And I have to look And see what it actually means And I looked it up And it says Irony Sarcasm Joking Or a sense of goofiness Or silliness And I use it for the last few When something's goofy So I think I got that right I think I got the meaning of it right And this one The sort of Grrr Sort of Grin like that It says It's a range of negative Or tense emotions Especially nervousness Embarrassment Or awkwardness

[50:57] It's like Saying Eek Like that So that You've got the visual thing And now we've got the words That tell us actually what it means Which is actually quite helpful And words are needed To interpret the visual Visible sign The sign by itself Is rather ambiguous Could mean a number of things And likewise And likewise Words are needed To interpret both the cross And the resurrection Words are needed To interpret the cross And the resurrection That's why That's why when Paul Is summarising the gospel He puts it like this Christ died For our sins According to the scriptures That he was buried That he was raised On the third day According to the scriptures And that he was seen Etc Etc But you notice What is being said there I remember Roy Clements

[51:58] Saying this Way back when I was a student And I found it so helpful Here is the gospel What is it? It is first of all A statement of history Christ died for our sins He was raised On the third day And there's an interpretation Why did he die?

[52:14] He died For our sins Sorry I should have just said He died He was raised Interpretation He died For our sins That's why he died That's the meaning of it And then how do we know That that's The meaning of it According to the scriptures History Interpretation And basis For interpretation So we find that Going back to the passages That we had read Luke 24 verses 1 to 12 They find the body Oh I'm sorry They don't find the body They couldn't find the body And they're baffled So in verse 4 They were wondering about this They were perplexed And two men in clothes That gleamed like lightning Stood beside them And then in verse 12 Peter ran to the tomb Bending over He saw the strips of linen Lying by themselves And he went away Wondering to himself What had happened So there's bafflement Just the The visual

[53:15] Appearance of things Doesn't interpret itself It leaves people baffled Now admittedly They had They had reference To the words of Jesus And the angel said Don't you remember What he said If you think about that That would help you a lot That the Son of Man Must be delivered Into the hands of sinful men Be crucified And on the third day Be raised again Then they remembered his words So that helps them But if we go to Luke 24 13 And following This is the disciples On the road to Emmaus So a similar sort of thing They discuss the facts And this stranger Comes and walks with them And asks them These sort of Rather innocent questions What are you discussing And don't you know What things have been happening And the visitor says Well what things are those And they explain the facts Jesus of Nazareth He was a prophet He was sentenced to death And this is the third day

[54:18] And some of our women Went to the tomb And couldn't find his body But there were angels Saying he was alive And they have these facts But they can't put them together Into a meaningful pattern They have disappointment They're downcast And they can't quite get past that And what does the risen Jesus do Now you notice He doesn't say This is me I'm alive He doesn't do that First of all He takes them back To the Bible And in verse 25 He says How foolish you are How slow of heart To believe all That the prophets have spoken Didn't the Christ Have to suffer these things And then enter his glory And beginning with Moses And all the prophets He explained to them What was said In all the scriptures Concerning himself So they're Had this fantastic Bible study With Jesus Who takes them through The whole of the Old Testament Presumably not verse by verse

[55:19] Says Don't you realise This bit Is about the resurrection Of the Christ And this Points to the resurrection Of the Christ And this only makes sense With the resurrection Of the Christ And this If you put it in the light Of the resurrection Of the Christ This is how you interpret it And how it all fits together So wonderfully And he says In all the scriptures Concerning himself Moses and all the prophets And all the scriptures Have I got that right?

[55:47] What was said in all the scriptures Concerning himself And they sit down To eat And he's recognised By them And then he disappears Job done Verse 32 They say Were not our hearts Burning within us While he talked with us On the road And opened the scriptures To us And the risen Christ Did not show himself Directly But showed himself Via The scriptures And it's an important Principle here And he says Isn't this Verse 26 Didn't the Christ Have to suffer these things And then enter his glory That's the sort of subject Matter of the Bible study You get the same thing In verse 46 He opened their minds So that they could Understand the scriptures That's verse 45 He told them This is what is written The Christ will suffer And rise from the dead On the third day And repentance And forgiveness Of sins Will be preached In his name

[56:47] To all nations Beginning at Jerusalem He opened their He opened the scriptures In verse 32 And he opened their minds In verse 45 So in scriptural fulfillment And here's the key thing That it is through The scriptures That we fully comprehend The significance Of the resurrection And it is through The scriptures That the risen Christ Makes himself known The risen Christ Is of course The absent Christ He's no longer Walking on roads To Emmaus Or Worthing Or Burgess Hill Or anywhere He has gone into heaven He is absent But that he can be known By us Known to us The bare facts Are not enough The tomb is empty Yep

[57:48] The cross is empty But we need more than that And he doesn't Make himself known Just by As it were Naked spiritual presence Imposed Upon our spirits He could have Done something like that With the people On the road to Emmaus And just said It's me Look But he didn't do that What he does do What he did do Is open the scriptures And thus To know the Christ He is raised In fulfilment of scripture And without That fulfilment Interpretation We don't get to grips With his resurrection And you know What a wonderful thing To have the risen Christ Perhaps unknown to us Opening our minds And opening the scriptures And our hearts Burning within us As we say Yes I can see this I can see it It's true It makes sense It goes right home

[58:49] Into my heart And into my life And I say Absolutely yes This is absolutely right And may we know him With burning hearts As the risen Christ Reveals his presence To us And opens the scriptures Of the Old Testament And the New Testament To us That's something to pray for Every Sunday Isn't it And may that make us Believers And worshippers May we be in union With the risen Christ Knowing his presence So that we can say In a sense He walks with me He talks with me Upon life's narrow way And may we have A sense of the future hope That we will be raised with him And share his glory And we will see him as he is For we will be like him In fulfilment of scripture So Those were the three things And I've said that The resurrection is fundamental

[59:50] To everything And without it There is no Christian faith And there is no life Through this We have forgiveness Because Christ is risen We have new life Because Christ is risen We have a future Because Christ is risen We commune with a living saviour Even as we pray We're in communion With a living saviour At the throne of grace And I said To try and just spell it out a bit This resurrection Is in a physical body Physical For him And so In future Physical For us And so For the world to come And that gives us A future hope Which we need to deploy For today's battles If we don't deploy that hope We shall surely stumble Number two It was The Jesus Whom the Father raised And I tried to say that This is a mighty action He's the object of the Father's mighty

[60:52] World creating action And most enthusiastic approval And then thirdly I said It's in scriptural fulfilment So as I've just said There's forgiveness And justification There's the Christian life There's hope for the future And there is a message To proclaim now That is what the scriptures teach Christ had to suffer Thus to enter his glory And that this be preached In his name To all nations Repentance and forgiveness of sins Will be preached in his name To all nations In fulfilment of scripture So That's a very Brief Thoughts On this Huge And Wonderful Subject of the resurrection And Perhaps we can Conclude by saying Hallelujah What

[61:53] A salvation He has Wrought Father Son And Holy Spirit Through the cross And resurrection Of Jesus And hallelujah What a saviour And one day We shall see him As he is And be like him And that Is what Fires our hearts Amen Amen Christ is risen He is risen indeed And For our last song We will sing Stuart Townend's song Just looking across At the words See what a morning Gloriously blight With the dawning Of hope In Jerusalem Folded the grave clothes Tomb Filled with light As the angels Announce Christ is risen See God's salvation Plan Wrought in love Born in pain Paid in sacrifice Fulfilled in Christ The man For he lives

[62:53] Christ is risen From the dead Let's sing this See what a morning See what a morning Gloriously bright With the dawning of hope in Jerusalem Posted their grave to cook with light As the angels announced Christ is risen See God's salvation plan Roar to love, mourn in pain Pain in sacrifice O build in Christ the man

[63:56] For he lives, Christ is risen from the dead See Mary weep, where is he laid?

[64:15] As in sorrow she turns from the empty tomb Hear us a voice speaking, calling her name It's the Master, the Lord, raised to life again The voice that spans the years Speaking like stirring hope Bringing peace to us Will sound till he appears For he lives, Christ is risen from the dead One with the Father Ancient of days, through the Spirit Christ is risen from the dead And we are raised with him

[65:16] Glory and praise to the King Love with the Lord, the Lord, raised to the Lord And we are raised with him Death is dead, love is won, Christ has conquered And we shall reign with him And we shall reign with him Christ is risen from the dead And we shall reign with him Christ is risen from the dead Christ is risen from the dead And we shall reign with him Christ is risen from the dead And we shall reign with him For he lives, Christ is risen from the dead Christ is risen from the dead Well, time has gone and it seems far too short to celebrate such a great theme and such a great saviour

[66:26] But let's draw to a close with these words from Scripture Grace and peace to you From him who is and who was And who is to come And from the seven spirits before his throne And from Jesus Christ Who is the faithful witness The first born from the dead And the ruler of the kings of the earth To him who loves us And has freed us from our sins By his blood And has made us to be a kingdom And priests to serve his God and Father To him be glory and power For ever and ever Amen And you might say Amen That's the end I wish you all a happy Easter And hope that we will be able to meet together Meet together before too long Just in case you're not aware We're planning to open on the mornings From April the 25th

[67:26] So I hope we'll be able to see As many as possible From that time onwards But just for the moment It's goodbye from me Bye bye Amen