Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 It was great. Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at village church, he said is a privilege to see all of you this morning. He is risen that wasn't any louder than the first time, but that was good. Did you know, 75% of Americans still believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead now is that shocking to 10 years ago, it was 78%. And through the years it has fluctuated, but Rasmuson just did a poll and 75% actually still believe that Jesus rose from the tomb. So my big question is big deal. If so many people believe that Jesus rose from
Speaker 2 00:00:40 The tomb, what difference does it make to my everyday life? Apparently
Speaker 1 00:00:46 It is a popular thing to believe that Jesus made these claims to rise from the dead and he pulled it off.
Speaker 2 00:00:54 And I gotta tell ya if
Speaker 1 00:00:55 It's true that 75% of Americans actually believe that Jesus rose from
Speaker 2 00:01:00 The dead, they actually are going against the grain. I don't
Speaker 1 00:01:05 Know about you, but I've been to numerous different funerals and I've never seen anybody like show up the next day. It's an unusual thing. And yet when people are asked, did Jesus raised from the dead
Speaker 2 00:01:18 They're like on board with it.
Speaker 1 00:01:20 And it seems to me that's a really odd thing, because if that many people believe that one guy pulled it off, you would think that guy would have an enormous following
Speaker 2 00:01:31 Wouldn't you? I would think so.
Speaker 1 00:01:34 Like if somebody could pull off raising from the dead, you think that would be like the conversation to have, especially if you're sick or you're afraid you're going to have surgery, or you're afraid you're going to die for one reason or another, you would think to yourself, I better get, I better get on board with the one guy that pulled this off because nobody else I know
Speaker 2 00:01:54 Has pulled this off death visits us all. If I really
Speaker 1 00:01:59 Believe somebody rose from the dead, I would think that I would have a passion to get to know that individual. Uh, have you ever been to escape rooms? Like these are really popular nowadays, right? So you go to an escape room and the goal I've never actually been to one, but I've heard that when you're in there, you gotta rely on each other and figure out all of these different clues and figure out how to get out of the room. And you have a time limit. And after the time limit, like they burn the room with you in it, from what I hear. So you really want to get out of the room on time. Now, escape rooms are very popular because you got to work together and you've got a time limit. And if you don't make it out, you lose the game. Now you don't get burned up in the room afterwards, you get released afterwards. But every one of us ends up in the graveyard. Every one of us ends up at the end of life. We're going to give up unless Jesus comes and rescues us all, which hopefully will be very, very soon. But unless that happens,
Speaker 2 00:02:56 We, I hope we're close. We headed for one destination. You've
Speaker 1 00:03:02 Already experienced it with loved ones and friends that you've had to say goodbye to.
Speaker 2 00:03:08 If we
Speaker 1 00:03:08 Are in this together, it would seem to me like we're in this big escape room, looking for somebody that will help us get the right clues
Speaker 2 00:03:17 To get out of this deal. Because the
Speaker 1 00:03:20 End of the escape room is the same
Speaker 2 00:03:23 For all of us. When your time is up, you die. Listen, Jesus escaped death today. That
Speaker 1 00:03:31 Is a really big deal. And if you've been with us singing this morning, and you're wondering, why are these people hooting and hollering about these songs about Jesus raising from the dead? You need to understand this is a big deal to us. Jesus rose from the dead. That means that he has a key, the key to get us out of our predicament. The key that we have to get out of death
Speaker 2 00:03:57 When it comes for all of us,
Speaker 1 00:03:59 The apostle John is one of the last people in scripture that saw Jesus Christ. If you go to the end of the book of the end of the Bible, you will find a book called revelation. And at the beginning of it, John sees Jesus. And when he sees Jesus, he has a conversation with him.
Speaker 2 00:04:17 And here's a little bit of
Speaker 1 00:04:19 How that goes. Revelation one verse 17. When I saw him, John said, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying fear not
Speaker 2 00:04:31 I am the first and the last I am. The living one. I died
Speaker 1 00:04:37 And behold I am alive forevermore. That's, that's a big deal in itself. But look at the next phrase and I have the keys to death and
Speaker 2 00:04:47 Hades. You would think
Speaker 1 00:04:50 You would want to know the guy who has the keys to get out of the room, right? How many people would like to stay in an escape room for the rest of their lives? That sounds pretty awful. You want somebody and if somebody's hiding the keys, it's like, that would take you off after a while, right? The five of you, six of you are working in there to get out of this escape room and you know, some jokers in the room, he's got the key and you're trying to figure out your way out. And he's just hiding. I'm not telling anybody eventually you're going to kill that guy. Right? Jesus Christ has the key
Speaker 2 00:05:20 To get out of this situation. We are in, he literally says I have the keys to death and Hades and
Speaker 1 00:05:29 Church. I want you to know one thing today. That is why the stone was rolled away on Easter. Sunday
Speaker 2 00:05:34 Morning, this
Speaker 1 00:05:36 Big stone that Rome put over the tomb to keep Jesus in was ruled away by God. The father, this stone was rolled away. For one reason, it was not rolled away to get Jesus out. It was rolled away so that we could see
Speaker 2 00:05:54 In Jesus
Speaker 1 00:05:55 Was already gone by the, that the stone was rolled away.
Speaker 2 00:05:58 Did you know that he was gone?
Speaker 1 00:06:01 And when the women came there to the tomb that morning, they were able to look inside the tube and see something that would change
Speaker 2 00:06:10 Them forever. This
Speaker 1 00:06:12 Is what amazes me about this whole story, because it wasn't enough that Jesus rose from the dead goes, God goes to the extra lengths to roll the stone away so that we human beings who feel the oppressive hand
Speaker 2 00:06:28 Of death daily could see in. And when we look into the tomb brothers and sisters, when, when we look in the tomb, a nothing, there it is empty.
Speaker 1 00:06:44 The story is incredibly laid out for us. And so I have entitled this message.
Speaker 2 00:06:50 See something, say something. And you'll love that. Somethings
Speaker 1 00:06:56 That have you heard that before? That's like, if you see something suspicious, you better say something. And in this day and age, you want to be careful who you say something to, cause that could get you in trouble too. But if you see something you're supposed to say something, same, the methodology
Speaker 2 00:07:10 Regarding Jesus and his
Speaker 1 00:07:12 Resurrection, this resurrection, God knew had to be witnessed by people. This is the reason the, these witnesses seeing the resurrected Christ, seeing the empty tomb, seeing the angels, seeing Christ after he rose from the dead. These witnesses after seeing this
Speaker 2 00:07:29 Were impacted, and this is how the church grew and their witness
Speaker 1 00:07:35 Has not stopped after 2000 years. In fact, it's impossible to stop. In fact, the gates of hell can't even stop it. Here's how it goes. Matthew 28, verse one. Now, after, after the Sabbath, you can't go visit the tomb on the Sabbath. You know that right? Good Jewish people. Can't go to unclean places during Passover during the Sabbath, because that's a whole ceremonial cleansing. You want to go through, you want to kind of avoid that. So these ladies went to the tomb. As soon as the Sabbath
Speaker 2 00:08:03 Was over toward the Dawn of the first day of the week today, Mary Magdalen and the other Mary went
Speaker 1 00:08:11 To see the tomb church who did these ladies
Speaker 2 00:08:14 Go see? Nope, they did
Speaker 1 00:08:19 Not go see Jesus. What does the scripture say?
Speaker 2 00:08:24 They went to see a tomb. Is that not depressing? These
Speaker 1 00:08:30 Ladies had no intention of seeing Jesus alive. Again, he was gone. It's like, when you go to a graveside, you, you, you don't go to the graveyard to see anybody. You go to see a headstone. You go to see a cold concrete, granite slab.
Speaker 2 00:08:48 These
Speaker 1 00:08:49 Ladies, we're not going to see Jesus. They went to see a tomb, the stone dots that re patter over our life landscape, remind us in these graveyards of loss and grief, mourning and suffering reminders, we can hang on to those. We love reminders. Death
Speaker 2 00:09:08 Takes us all reminders.
Speaker 1 00:09:11 No matter how hard we try and cling onto this life, death catches us all. That's what graveyards remind
Speaker 2 00:09:17 Us of. And when we go to a graveyard, we don't go to see anybody. We go to see stone. Interestingly enough, graveyards are reminders that death wins. Win by graveyards, lie to you.
Speaker 1 00:09:35 Every time I do a funeral or every time I, I I'm with somebody that I know is going to be passing away. Or if, if, uh, if, if it's obvious that this person is probably not going
Speaker 2 00:09:46 To make it and their next destination is Jesus face to face with him. I never say goodbye to them. I, in my ministry,
Speaker 1 00:09:57 I've never made a practice of saying goodbye at those moments. Instead, I usually will lean in and whisper in their ear.
Speaker 2 00:10:03 I'll see you again. When
Speaker 1 00:10:06 I go to a graveyard, I go to see stone, but the people that know Christ as their savior, aren't there anymore. They are with their savior face
Speaker 2 00:10:15 To face. And I will see them again. Sunday, verse two, after
Speaker 1 00:10:23 Two long nights of waiting, they finally make their way before the sun rises.
Speaker 2 00:10:28 And there was a great earthquake for the
Speaker 1 00:10:30 Angel of the Lord, descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. Don't you love that? Just
Speaker 2 00:10:36 It's done. I'm sitting right here.
Speaker 1 00:10:38 Like angels don't need to sit down. Right? Don't you think this is really interesting. It's like, I wonder if he crossed his legs, this duty dude, like who's going to show up.
Speaker 2 00:10:48 Cause appearance was like lightning, his clothing, widest snow. And for
Speaker 1 00:10:53 Fear of him, the guards trembled and
Speaker 2 00:10:55 Became like dead men. Jesus
Speaker 1 00:10:58 Situation was a little bit different. This stone was covering the tomb. Do you know why the stone was there? Rome was afraid that people would steal the body of Jesus and they'd make him a martyr. They'd steal it. And they'd they make this Christian thing
Speaker 2 00:11:10 Go like, like hay, wire and Rome would lose
Speaker 1 00:11:13 Their power. So they put a stone across it because they said, no, one's going to steal this body. And then on top of that, listen, you don't seal a tomb. Why who's coming out. And on top of that, they put a Roman seal on the stone. So this is I got, I got a wax seal on the stone. So you could see if somebody jiggled with it as messing with it, you could see that it's been messed with nobody messes with Roman seals.
Speaker 2 00:11:37 Oh no, no, no, no. That
Speaker 1 00:11:39 Means you and your family and everything you have
Speaker 2 00:11:42 Gets burned to the ground. Rome covered it. Rome sealed it.
Speaker 1 00:11:46 No one touched it up, except for God. He can do whatever
Speaker 2 00:11:49 He wants. God rolls a stone away with an earthquake.
Speaker 1 00:11:55 Why God graciously did this before
Speaker 2 00:11:58 The ladies arrive.
Speaker 1 00:12:01 One thing you don't pick up unless you really look forward here is that these ladies, when they came to the tomb, they were literally coming to see rock.
Speaker 2 00:12:10 They were,
Speaker 1 00:12:11 They were coming with spices to dress the body of Jesus, but there's no way they're getting into
Speaker 2 00:12:15 That tomb, this huge
Speaker 1 00:12:18 Stone covered. And they can't move it or Rome's coming after them and their family. So they were not thinking clearly, all they wanted to do was get next
Speaker 2 00:12:27 To Jesus. And then in Mark's
Speaker 1 00:12:31 Gospel, we even have not in Matthew's gospel. But in mark, we have conversation with one another. And do you know what they're saying to one another? This is what they're saying. Uh, I forgot about this. There's a big stone in the way. Who are we going to get to roll the stone away so we can dress the body. They don't even remember this. It's like, they're so grieved.
Speaker 2 00:12:52 They forget about the details. This
Speaker 1 00:12:55 Is why God graciously rolls the stone away for them because they, these human beings, these ladies needed to see something. Jesus. And just so you know, in the gospels, when you study the story, Jesus passes through his grave clothes. He has the ability to go through closed doors. He shows up in the upper room with the guys, eight days later that are gathered there. So Jesus has this ability. He could have went through the stone somehow in his spiritually raised physical body that could eat and drink and has holes in it. He could also transport transport through things, but he did not do it at the grave. Why? Because
Speaker 2 00:13:32 We needed to see it, see something. So we could say something verse five.
Speaker 1 00:13:40 But then angel said to the women, don't be afraid for. I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. Say it with me because it's just too good. He is not here for, he has risen. As he said, say it, come see the place where he lay. Do you understand? Now the angel is there waiting for them to show up after God moves a stone aside. So the angel could give the invitation to the ladies. Listen,
Speaker 2 00:14:08 We went to all this trouble so that you could walk in and take a look, look for yourself, come see the place where the one you loved, used to be. God is so gracious to help us in our unbelief. Did
Speaker 1 00:14:23 You know that Jesus hung around for like 50 days after the resurrection to show himself to multiple people? One time the Bible says he showed himself to 500 people. At one time, Jesus has constantly appearing to people. After the resurrection. On the resurrection day, he shows up to multiple people on the very day he rose from the dead. The reason he did is because he wants to help us in our unbelief. By letting us see something. Because if we can see something,
Speaker 2 00:14:52 We can say something.
Speaker 1 00:14:58 Humans are meant to do something with this kind of information. What are we meant to do while the angels tell the ladies right away in verse seven,
Speaker 2 00:15:04 Then go quickly and tell his disciples. He has risen from the dead and behold.
Speaker 1 00:15:11 He's going before you into Galilee there, you will see him. See, see, see, see, I've told you, can you see all the seas in this passage of scripture, you will see him there. See, I told you, so they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. Have you ever had fear and great joy? Those are, that's a weird combination. Don't tell they, they had fear and great joy and they ran to what church
Speaker 2 00:15:39 They ran to tell. They ran to tell the disciples, see something, say something.
Speaker 1 00:15:45 The attitude of the women has completely changed. They went with burdens with sorrow, with grief, to the point where they weren't thinking straight, how will we roll the stone away? How are we going to get to the body to dress it with all of these expensive spices and perfumes? They didn't know.
Speaker 2 00:16:02 Now that has turned to fear and joy. Why do you think it's fear and joy? Like joy. I get right? Like our loved one is back. That's pretty
Speaker 1 00:16:12 Cool. I get the joy. Why? The fear?
Speaker 2 00:16:16 Fear, because it's real. And nobody comes back from the dead. Now Jesus has pulled this off with other people. He
Speaker 1 00:16:23 Raised Lazarus from the dead. He raised a young child from the dead. Jesus pulled this off before, but to brag about the fact that you're going to raise from the dead and then
Speaker 2 00:16:31 To pull it off, that's a pretty big deal. They were going to a graveyard to see a headstone. And now they're
Speaker 1 00:16:41 Faced with some new information. He is not here.
Speaker 2 00:16:44 He has risen. Let's play a little game. Who is for
Speaker 1 00:16:50 Those of you that know your Bibles a little bit. And those of you that are home, who is the most famous person that would not believe until they saw
Speaker 2 00:17:00 Something. Oh my goodness, you do know this story, John 20, 25. So the
Speaker 1 00:17:07 Other disciples told him, Thomas, who was a wall, by the way, when the women showed up, they told Thomas, we have seen the Lord, but he said to him, unless I see his hands, the mark of his nails and place, my finger is a gross into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side.
Speaker 2 00:17:27 I will, can you believe he says this? I will never believe
Speaker 1 00:17:34 He wasn't the one who ran to the tomb. He was a wall. And the first thing he got when he heard the story is you guys
Speaker 2 00:17:41 Are dreaming. You
Speaker 1 00:17:43 Guys are crazy. You didn't see anything. This happened eight days after Jesus rose from the dead. And he is appeared to a lot of people by now. And Thomas has heard the stories, oh, you appeared to you to Kaisa rasa. Oh, he appeared to you too. He must really like you. He doesn't like me. I don't know what games he's playing, but for eight days, Thomas has gone. No, I'm not going to believe it. I'm not going to believe it until the point where he actually says the grossest thing until I stick my hand in his side where the spear went through, I'm not going to believe it.
Speaker 2 00:18:15 Verse 26, eight days later,
Speaker 1 00:18:18 The disciples were inside again. And Thomas was with them. Although the doors were
Speaker 2 00:18:22 Locked, Jesus came and stood
Speaker 1 00:18:24 Among them and said
Speaker 2 00:18:26 Of all the things that you want to say to the people who you're going to show
Speaker 1 00:18:33 Death has no power over you. Would you say peace? Be with you? Jesus says peace. Be with you. I don't know why don't ask. I don't know. He just says peace. Be with you. Maybe those are they're dying or fright at this point. Peace be with you. And then he turns any talks to guests who
Speaker 2 00:18:53 Then he said to Thomas, Hey Tom, put your finger here right here and see my hands and put out your hand
Speaker 1 00:19:02 And place it in my side. I wasn't there when you said this, but I know what you said. And you know what you said,
Speaker 2 00:19:07 And Thomas don't disbelieve any longer, but belief,
Speaker 1 00:19:13 Do you think, do you think Jesus was picking on Tom
Speaker 2 00:19:15 Here? It seems
Speaker 1 00:19:17 Like it, right? It seems kind of cruel almost.
Speaker 2 00:19:21 I don't think, I don't think Jesus is being cruel to Thomas.
Speaker 1 00:19:25 I think he simply knows. Thomas
Speaker 2 00:19:27 Has to see in order to believe. I think he knows. He knows. Thomas can
Speaker 1 00:19:33 Only believe if he actually sees the tomb with the empty gray, the, the empty concrete inside
Speaker 2 00:19:40 The empty stone where Jesus used to live. He used to be, I'm constantly amazed
Speaker 1 00:19:46 At how God bends to our unbelief. Aren't you?
Speaker 2 00:19:50 How many of you lived your lives for so long? Not believing in Jesus Christ and how long was God good to you? How long did God pursue you? All the time? I'm amazed at how God condescends to our unbelief. And Jesus
Speaker 1 00:20:11 Shows us this path. When he speaks to Thomas here, he doesn't
Speaker 2 00:20:15 Rebuke him. He simply says anything. You need Tom, check it out right here, check it out. What do you do when you see a dead man talking to you, you believe and you worship. And in verse
Speaker 1 00:20:35 28, Thomas answered him and said,
Speaker 2 00:20:37 Look at this church. Thomas answers him and says my Lord and my God,
Speaker 1 00:20:45 Jesus says something about those who never see the empty tomb right after this. Jesus knows none of us can visit the tomb where Jesus used to blow you out of Jerusalem. And you could see the place where they say that he was laid and you could see this empty tomb there. And it might be the place, or it might not be the place.
Speaker 2 00:21:03 None
Speaker 1 00:21:04 Of us will ever get our chance to shove our hand in his side or it put our hands in. And it's figured out until we see them face to face, which I still don't think I'm going to do it for any of us that are not like Tom. They're not lucky enough to have Christ condescend to our disbelief.
Speaker 2 00:21:22 Do you know? Jesus
Speaker 1 00:21:23 Talks directly to us right after he talks to Thomas.
Speaker 2 00:21:26 He says, in the next verse, Jesus said to him, have you believed because you've seen me church, bless it. Or those who have not seen me and have yet believed that's us. That's us. Jesus is talking to us. This is the kicker Thomas.
Speaker 1 00:21:46 You believe me? Just because I showed up was the empty grave. Not enough. You've been there. Dude was all the teaching. I gave you these last three years. That wasn't, it wasn't good. Enough was all a prophecy that I fulfilled in my lifetime that wasn't believable enough. Some people don't believe in this. Yeah. It comes along with a kick in the pants.
Speaker 2 00:22:04 Thomas was one of them. Jesus said there are many to come
Speaker 1 00:22:09 Who won't see me in person. And yet they will
Speaker 2 00:22:13 Believe. And that's the church that's us today. Because
Speaker 1 00:22:19 Church, when you find the truth, you can't help. But believe it, when you hear the truth, you can't help, but turn your back on it. And when you, who Jesus is that he has died and he has risen from the tomb. You can't help, but say something, you see something, you say something.
Speaker 2 00:22:36 And that's why every Sunday we can't help. But be here. We just talk about this pretty much all the time. Because if Jesus
Speaker 1 00:22:45 Has the key to the escape room, every one of us is locked inside.
Speaker 2 00:22:50 I would venture
Speaker 1 00:22:51 To say the message of the gospel of his, the gospel of Jesus
Speaker 2 00:22:54 Christ should be said, preached spoken of just as much as humanly possible.
Speaker 1 00:23:03 This brings us to the final part of Matthew 28. I want to tell you one thing before we read this verse, what it shock you to know that some people saw Jesus
Speaker 2 00:23:14 And still didn't believe would that shock you Matthew 28. This is
Speaker 1 00:23:20 The end of the verb. The end of the chapter, where the, the women come to the tomb. This is the end verse 16. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain. Jesus had directed them and he said, meet me here. So they go there. And when they saw him, they worshiped him. But
Speaker 2 00:23:36 Some what'd he say, church, are they insane? Like,
Speaker 1 00:23:42 Do you read this? And you go, I can't even begin to comprehend what these people they're literally talking
Speaker 2 00:23:48 To a dead man. How can you still doubt? But some doubted two groups, those who see him and believe and worship him and the other group that sees him and doubts.
Speaker 1 00:24:01 And to me, this sounds crazy. How can you look at Jesus once dead? You've seen him beat to a pulp. If you were with us on Friday night, we had an amaz. I don't know if you were
Speaker 2 00:24:13 There, but we had an amazing, good Friday. We did over
Speaker 1 00:24:17 Zoom. And it was just, for me, it was just, I couldn't even sing that
Speaker 2 00:24:20 Final song. It was powerful night. Jesus had six trials on Friday night or
Speaker 1 00:24:29 Thursday night, whichever way you want to go. But either way, Jesus had six trials. He was beaten at least three times
Speaker 2 00:24:36 Almost to death before they crucified him. If you've seen somebody go through that kind of anguish, that kind of horror, and
Speaker 1 00:24:48 You see them hung on a cross beaten to the point where in the old Testament it was prophesied. He would be beaten so bad. You don't even recognize him. If you see somebody like that. And then he shows up a few days later on a mountain where he tells you to meet him. And you're talking to him to me, I don't know. I'd have a hard time,
Speaker 2 00:25:08 Not believing him what he knew, but there were still some who doubted even
Speaker 1 00:25:16 Through this incredible miracle that could not be denied some still doubted. And do you know why they still doubted church?
Speaker 2 00:25:26 You know why they still doubted because you can't beat death.
Speaker 1 00:25:33 Nobody beats death. Death has such a stranglehold on our lives that it makes us doubt. What's right in front of us, the reality of losing somebody and never getting them back, no matter how hard you love them, no matter how many chemicals you give them, no matter how hard you pray over them. The reality of that steals away. The reality that Jesus died and rose again and has the keys to death and the grave. The reality of our sorrow overcomes the reality of the truth. That those who believe in Jesus will one day rise. Again, someday you see the reality of what we feel in the graveyard, overcomes the reality of what we know to be true deep down in our hearts. Even if we saw Jesus for those people that are overcome with sorrow because of death,
Speaker 2 00:26:24 They still don't believe. I don't know about
Speaker 1 00:26:27 You, but I've thought many times in my life, you know, Christianity and all the other religions, maybe it's not right, man. How do we know Christianity is right? You know, what would solve it? If Jesus walked through the door and sat down, then I would
Speaker 2 00:26:38 Believe, apparently not. Apparently I
Speaker 1 00:26:42 Could still see Jesus with that kind of anxiety over death. The belief that lie, the lie that death beats us all and still
Speaker 2 00:26:50 Doubt the one who beat death.
Speaker 1 00:26:59 Jesus is the one who has conquered everything. We fear about this life
Speaker 2 00:27:03 And has given us a promise of the life to come. That's why he says in verse 18, Jesus said
Speaker 1 00:27:10 To them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me all authority to a humble carpenter from Galilee. He alone has the keys to death in the grave. Jesus has conquered everything. We fear about this life and every anxiety about the life to come for those who still know for those who know Jesus, they wonder how can other people still doubt this? If you know Christ as your savior, probably on a regular basis, watching the news or hanging out with your friends and thinking yourself, how can people not know Jesus is alive and living at the right hand of the father? How can people not know that the holy spirit in dwells those of us that know him as our savior? How can they not be sure of heaven someday? If we believe in Jesus Christ,
Speaker 2 00:27:56 Not everyone who sees Jesus will believe him for who he is. So Jesus
Speaker 1 00:28:01 Simply tells us what comes next for those of us that do.
Speaker 2 00:28:05 And it's called the great commission. And it goes along with our theme, see something, say something, verse 19, get out of your seat,
Speaker 1 00:28:20 Get, get out of your normal way of life.
Speaker 2 00:28:25 Get up from where you're at and go, go
Speaker 1 00:28:30 There for and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the father and the son of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that. I've commanded you and behold, I am with you always
Speaker 2 00:28:41 To the end of the age, the bottom line churches, have you seen something, then you should say something. Make disciples, baptize, teach of Jesus to others. If you see something in Jesus, you should say something about Jesus. If Christ has been risen from the dead. So what we always
Speaker 1 00:29:04 End our messages with a big SOA and the biggest SAR. What is this? If 75% of Americans believe that Jesus rose from the dead. So
Speaker 2 00:29:12 What to most people, they go, oh no, Jesus
Speaker 1 00:29:18 Rose from the dead. Sure. I believe that. Has it changed your life? I don't know what you mean by that. How would one guy raising from the dead 2000 years ago have any impact on my modern 20, 21 day
Speaker 2 00:29:29 That I live today. First Corinthians 15, 17. If Christ is not raised, your faith is futile. You're still in your sins. And all
Speaker 1 00:29:40 Those who have fallen asleep in Jesus Christ
Speaker 2 00:29:43 Are gone.
Speaker 1 00:29:45 Christ. We have hope in this life all only we're to be above all men
Speaker 2 00:29:51 Pitied. Oh, you believe in Jesus. Yeah. That's a quite a fable, quite a fairy tale.
Speaker 1 00:29:57 Your faith is in vain. This is Paul. The apostle saying that yes, without an empty tomb, we worship a fraud.
Speaker 2 00:30:06 But in fact, Paul goes on to write. But in fact, Christ has
Speaker 1 00:30:11 Been raised from the dead. He is the first fruits of those who fall asleep. Do you know what that means? First fruits. It means because he rose from the dead. You will follow. He is a first fruits of those who have fallen asleep for as by one man came death by one. Man also comes a resurrection of the dead who brought death to all people.
Speaker 2 00:30:29 Adam, thank you very much, Adam. Can't wait to meet that guy. So Adam brings death by
Speaker 1 00:30:36 One. Man also comes life. Who's that as in Adam, all die. So in Christ shall all be made alive. If you know Christ as your savior, you don't have hope of heaven. You have certainty of it to be absent from the body is to be
Speaker 2 00:30:52 Present with the Lord. If
Speaker 1 00:30:54 We this life, we go immediately into the presence of God. And I can't tell you how many verses in scripture, because
Speaker 2 00:31:00 There's a whole lot of them. Talk
Speaker 1 00:31:03 About the hope that we have that when we die in this life, we continue in the life to come. Your favorite verse of all John three 16 for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only son that whosoever believes in him be not perish, but have eternal life. You know this, the guy at the football game with a big green sign knows this.
Speaker 2 00:31:27 Jesus did not rise in order for
Speaker 1 00:31:31 Our lives to stay the same. He rose so that we could have purpose. See something, say something. Do you know this very passage of scripture in first Corinthians 15, where it says, if you don't believe Jesus, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, your faith is in vain. Do you know where you might be familiar with this phrase, eat, drink, and be Merry for tomorrow
Speaker 2 00:31:52 Die. That's in first Corinthians 15. And it says
Speaker 1 00:31:55 That because if you don't believe Jesus rose from the dead, that's pretty much
Speaker 2 00:31:58 The rest of your life, right there. Eat,
Speaker 1 00:32:01 Drink, and be Merry for tomorrow. We die. You use, but if Jesus did rise, you can be forgiven of sins
Speaker 2 00:32:10 And you can be guaranteed a place in heaven. He has the keys. He came to give you forgiveness, a new start, a fresh life and heaven. When you die, come and see that's the invitation on Easter. And the mission is go Intel, come and see. Now go until he is risen. He is risen
Speaker 1 00:32:42 Enough to let this truth enter into our cognitive gray matter. This truth is meant to change our lives. Listen, if you know the way out of the escape room, why would you
Speaker 2 00:32:51 Hide the key? We got to get busy
Speaker 1 00:32:54 Telling people, and I got to tell ya, I'm not sure how much time we left God left
Speaker 2 00:32:58 Here. It seems like
Speaker 1 00:33:00 The clock is going a little faster these days. Maybe because I'm getting older.
Speaker 2 00:33:03 I don't know, but the clock is moving. Nothing's slowing down. If I know the way out
Speaker 1 00:33:10 Of this room, my, my job is to tell as many people as I possibly can,
Speaker 2 00:33:16 Without
Speaker 1 00:33:16 This, there's nothing more to this life than to eat, drink and be
Speaker 2 00:33:18 Married. But the stone was
Speaker 1 00:33:20 Rolled away so that we could look in and contemplate the purpose
Speaker 2 00:33:23 Of our lives. Do you know? Baptism is like the virtual
Speaker 1 00:33:28 Biggest thing we have. I have
Speaker 2 00:33:31 Of see something, say something.
Speaker 1 00:33:35 That's why we backed. That's why, that's why we baptized in the church. That's why Jesus installed this as a part of what we do. We do communion. We do baptism. These are the things we do over and over again. As often as we can, baptism is a moment where somebody has given their life to Jesus. And now they want to say something. They can't hold it in any longer. They want to say. So there's a virtual reality. That takes place where you get to see this person who's being baptized, confess Jesus Christ, confess that they follow him.
Speaker 2 00:34:04 And we get to do one today. People are listening,
Speaker 1 00:34:07 Listening for the witness of God today. And baptism is, is carrying out Matthew 28, 19. What we just read, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. See something, say something, go make disciples doing what? Baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. You can't baptize somebody in Jesus until they are a disciple of Jesus.
Speaker 2 00:34:30 So we baptize
Speaker 1 00:34:30 People in the name of Jesus Christ, who confess that they are about Jesus. They have seen something
Speaker 2 00:34:38 And they got to say something and you
Speaker 1 00:34:40 Get to be invited to the place where you get to hear their
Speaker 2 00:34:42 Testimony. Let me tell you a little bit
Speaker 1 00:34:44 About what baptism is and then we're going to do one right here. Baptism is a public declaration of a private decision. When you decide to fall to follow Jesus Christ, you can do that in the quiet of your hosts. You can do it in a, in a, in a group like this. Or you go to a Billy Graham crusade and come forward with thousands of people, you can do it in a variety of different ways. I was a youth pastor. I had a kid, he came to me one day and he said, well, I did it. And I said, oh, I was scared. I asked him what what'd you do Johnny? And he said, oh, you got here last night. I accepted Christ. Sarah said, well, what were we watching? Some on TV? Did you hear a song? Did it click that way? He said, no. I woke up in the middle of the night. I remembered everything that we and you and I had been talking about. And I decided to give my life to Jesus. Christ said nobody was around. He said, no, I was just in my bed. Just me and the Lord. I said, well, how do you know? You're safe? Said, well, you've told me if I accept Jesus as my savior, I would be saved. And I said, yeah, you got me there. Good for you, Johnny.
Speaker 1 00:35:37 You can accept Christ anywhere. You can decide to be a follower of Jesus. Anyway, you've seen something in Jesus.
Speaker 2 00:35:44 Let him change your life. There's
Speaker 1 00:35:47 A kind of comes a time to make that private decision, a public declaration. And that is what baptism is all about. It's a verbal declaration. That's why we have everybody. When we baptize them, they share their testimony. This is what Christ means to me. This is how my life changed because of Jesus Christ. I have to say something. It is a visible declaration. We usually dunk them. We can't do that now because of COVID. So we can't push them under. So we, we, we dumped the living daylights out of them with these buckets here. That's what we do here. And it's a verbal declaration or it's a virtual declaration. It's a verbal declaration. It's a visible declaration. And it's virtual declaration. The word baptism literally means submerge is what it means. Jesus, every time you read in scripture about somebody being baptized and it gives the details of when they're baptized, it always says, there's like a body of water. There's like a lake. There's like a river. Jesus was baptized in the, yeah, there's always a body of water for that. And it's not like the sprinkle sprinkle stuff we S baptism means push under and bring up again. We can't do that. So we, we do a virtual thing. We just re you, you'll see, we'll get her plenty wet
Speaker 2 00:36:55 In the Bible. God says that we should be about making this
Speaker 1 00:37:00 And baptizing because baptism is a virtual line in the sand. It's a visual line in the sand. It's a, it's a line in the sand that you draw and you say, I'm not the person once was anymore. I'm crossing over and there's no turning back.
Speaker 2 00:37:12 It's an identification.
Speaker 1 00:37:13 The message of Jesus Christ. It is. I've decided to follow Jesus, turning back,
Speaker 2 00:37:19 No turning back. And for those who have been
Speaker 1 00:37:22 Baptized, you know what I'm saying? Right now,
Speaker 2 00:37:25 It becomes a powerful moment of obedience in our lives with Jesus Christ. Now what better
Speaker 1 00:37:31 TISM does not do? Let me make this very clear. Does baptism does not make us more? Holy, Carrie's going to give her testimony. We're going to dunk the living daylights out of her, but it doesn't make her any more holy than she was. When she walked in here, Carrie knows Christ as our savior, she couldn't be possibly
Speaker 2 00:37:47 More. Holy spirit of God lives inside of her. Does it make her more holy she's cleansed from all sin, all sex
Speaker 1 00:37:56 Past, present, and future. Now she needs to ask for forgiveness of sin, not just you, Carrie, but the rest of us. We need to ask forgiveness of sins forward.
Speaker 2 00:38:03 Absolutely. But if we were to
Speaker 1 00:38:06 Get hit by a Mack truck on our way home today, we simply show up before God. And we say, ah, I forgot to say, I'm sorry for this, this and this. And God will simply say to us, I have no idea what you're talking, talking about.
Speaker 2 00:38:19 Those sins are gone. When Jesus
Speaker 1 00:38:22 Forgives you, you are forgiven them sins past
Speaker 2 00:38:25 Present church future. Doesn't make God love you more either. God couldn't love you more than he right now. If that
Speaker 1 00:38:39 Cross does not prove God's love for you. I don't know what does, and that's available to everybody forgiveness through the death of Jesus
Speaker 2 00:38:47 Christ and death or
Speaker 1 00:38:50 Baptism does not give you a ticket into heaven just because Carrie's getting baptized today. Doesn't mean this guaranteed tease her place into heaven. There's nowhere in scripture that talks about that. Baptism is always a public declaration of a private decision. It's always a virtual reality of an inside reality. It's when we declare who we really are so that everybody can hear it's a, I have seen something. I
Speaker 2 00:39:15 Must say something now, like I said, we usually do this in a pool, big pool,
Speaker 1 00:39:25 But we can't do that now. And so the method, you might not like the method and, uh, that's between you
Speaker 2 00:39:31 And the Lord. But for me, I, I
Speaker 1 00:39:37 Waited a long time during COVID to get back to
Speaker 2 00:39:39 Normal and I'm not waiting any longer. So when somebody
Speaker 1 00:39:44 Decides they want to be baptized, I'm done saying just wait. Now we say sure,
Speaker 2 00:39:50 Because of the method, doesn't matter. What matters is the change of the heart and the declaration of that person in Jesus Christ.
