Living in the Power of the Risen Christ

The passage that lay before us for our consideration today has its degrees of complexity; it has its level of tension. But I believe if you would pray for me and with me as we walk through these 12 verses, I believe we will all benefit from what the scriptures are saying to us on today. Luke, who also is the author of the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostle in the book of Acts, is the author of the Gospel according to Luke. [00:07:04]

If this passage is not true, just these 12 verses, all of our singing, all of our shouting, all of our lifting of holy hands and devotion unto God would be in vain. Thanks be to God, as our children have instructed us this morning, He's not dead; He's alive. We are so far removed from the text, many of us take liberties that we should not take because this is an oriental book that we read from an accidental mindset. [00:09:17]

We do not have the culture or the social mores or the manners and customs of the scriptures. It's a different world altogether. So laying the groundwork for us, I need to say that in these 12 verses, there's no argument legitimately here for egalitarianism nor is there an argument for complementarianism. This is not a sermon or a passage that is at its core misogynistic. Neither is this a passage that is trying to prove a feminist argument. [00:10:19]

This passage is about the veracity, the truthfulness, the trustworthiness of God's word. To impose your North American mind onto this ancient Near East text at best is unfair. This passage, Lord help me, is about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage is not talking about should women be in ministry. This passage at its core has nothing to do with should men be over women. Now that I got your attention, let's go. [00:11:27]

The resurrection changes everything. We remember every seven days. We celebrate the fact that the tomb is empty. That's why we come to worship on Sunday morning. We come to celebrate the fact that God is not dead but that our God is alive. Keep reading, and early dawn, they, the three women, went to the tomb as the virgin light of a brand new day was peeking its face over the horizon. They were met with the glow of the sun. [00:13:43]

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Y'all still not feeling me. They get up early on Sunday morning. They've rested Saturday night. They prepared spices to further embalm his body, and when they get there, they find, according to Luke, that the stone had been rolled away. The tombs are made of like a cave, and the body would go in the cave, and to close the sepulcher, they would use a large stone that would roll in front of the mouth of the cave. [00:16:01]

What looks like devotion is really doubt. What looks like fidelity or faithfulness is really faithlessness. Read the passage: first day of the week, early in the morning, they show up to the cemetery. They have embalming fluid, and they are expecting to further embalm the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The stone is rolled away, and He's not there. Y'all still leaning on me? See, if this was real faith, if this was real discipleship, they wouldn't have showed up with embalming fluid. [00:17:48]

They would have showed up with grits and eggs. They would have showed up with a cup of coffee. No, they were not expecting to find a living Jesus; they were expecting to find a dead Jesus. Verse four: while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. Let me hear you say dazzling apparel. I don't know; it's in our culture. Maybe this is where we get dressing up for Easter from. [00:18:43]

The resurrection of the Messiah. Let me hear you say resurrection. Resurrection. He got up. Oh, bless His name. Here is the doctrinal truth. Here's the doctrinal truth. This passage is about the resurrection. Let me hear you say resurrection. It lays as the foundation for this passage, but built on the resurrection foundation is faith in God's word. Let me hear you say faith in God's word. God's word. [00:21:00]

You're not going to grow, you're not going to develop, you're not going to cultivate a genuine, authentic faith, and you are not going to become a fully devoted follower of the Lord Jesus Christ if you do not take seriously His word. Verse six: He is not here but has risen. Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee. For those of you that are writing and making notes digitally or manually, make friends with verse number six. [00:21:47]

Verse six says, "He's not here." Oh, y'all don't feel that. I just told you He's everywhere, but these men are saying He ain't here. And I believe this spiritual conundrum, this oxymoronic statement made by these two men, are for our benefit. I know we thank God for where He is, but this passage forces me to thank God for where He is not. Y'all still got that look on your face. I'm so glad that He's not there. [00:24:21]

It has become a world tourist attraction. People from all around the globe fly to the Holy Land just so they can peek their head in the place to where His body laid. Uh, He's not there. Thank God that the tomb is empty. Watch the reference to the word, "but has risen." Let me hear you say, "Has risen." Remember how He told you. Let me say this: you cannot remember how He's told you if you've never heard Him tell you in the first place. [00:25:04]

You can't remember what you have not heard. This is why you come to Sunday school. This is why you come to Bible study. This is why you come to church on Sunday morning, so you can hear what God is saying. He can't bring it back to your mind if you've never given Him your mind in the first place. Verse seven: that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified on the third day rise. [00:25:57]

They remembered His words, they being the women, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the 11. Let me hear you say 11. You know Judas killed himself and to all the rest. Now it was, I told you, He was going to give us the names. He has eyes and ears for detail: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. [00:27:10]

But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. They did not believe them. Principle number one: the resurrection of the Messiah. Principle number two: the rejection of the gospel message. These women are not lying. They are right in their report, in their testimony, in their eyewitness. They find the apostles, and they tell the apostles what they have discovered, and the apostles essentially respond to them by saying, "Y'all better get on away from here with that." [00:28:08]

How can two people sit on a pew and listen to the same sermon every week? One grows, and the other one dies. How can two people go to the same church? One is maturing, and the other one seems to be regressing. What is happening? It's all of your receptability to the scriptures. Even in this sermon, either you receive it or you reject it. There's no middle ground. Do you believe God? Do you take Him at His word? [00:34:32]

Authentic, genuine faith is demonstrated in receiving the word and repenting of your sins and living righteously before our holy God. You got to receive it, you got to respond to it, repentance, and then you must live there by it. You must walk and seek to walk uprightly before our holy God. Y'all ask some good questions this morning. Well, Reverend, you know I can't live righteous like that. What am I to do? [00:36:18]

You are to depend upon the Holy Spirit to lead you and to guide you in every step of the way. Listen, you don't eat an elephant all at once, just one bite at a time. You start today right where you are. Just make one step, and He'll give you the energy, the strength, the endurance to make two more steps, and you keep walking with God, and you'll discover I'm not what I used to be. I'm not where I used to be. [00:37:02]

Peter goes to the cemetery, and he pokes his head in, yeah, and he sees the grave clothes in the tomb. No messengers, nothing but the grave clothes, and it caused Peter to marvel. He was so astonished. He was so amazed. He was so overtaken. I hate the fact that we've heard this story so much that the resurrection has become old hat for us. We no longer marvel at the resurrection story. [00:38:32]

When it says that these clothes were lying in the tomb, these are linen swaths of clothing. See, in the ancient Near East, when they would put a body in the tomb, they would mummify the body, and they would wrap the body with strips of linen cloth. Y'all not with me. And when Peter stuck his head in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, he saw that the mummified cloth was still intact. Y'all not with me. [00:39:36]

The clothes were not neatly folded; they were still in the outline of the body of Jesus, but there was nobody in the linen. Y'all not feeling me. Jesus, when He got up on resurrection Sunday morning, uh, He passed through the linen cloth, and if He can pass through linen, if He can pass through walls, if He can pass through doors, God, He can pass by your house. Yes, He can. He can pass through your heart. [00:40:48]