But at the same time, Jesus’ death is not just a literal death; it is also a literal resurrection. A real resurrection with a real body and a real person standing there that they could handle and touch and furthermore the kind of person who could eat broiled fish to demonstrate the reality. It was n
Fourth, I want you to see not only that death is an enemy, not only is death the ultimate enemy, and not only is there an ultimate victory over death for us. But I also want you to see that there is a present victory now because the resurrection of the Lord transformed even the kind of death that we
Death involves every part of our being. When God said to Adam in the garden, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because the day that you eat of it you will surely die,” the man ate of it and died. He died in every part of his being. He had a spirit and a s
Do we deny that death is an enemy because we think that somehow it is more spiritual to pretend that this is not so? I do not know. Try doing that with sin. Sin is not sin. See if that is more spiritual. Just pretend, because you do not want to face harsh facts, that homosexuality is alright, just a
I do not think I need to say a great deal about the importance of this chapter as concerning the resurrection. Next to the resurrection accounts as we find them in each of the four gospels, this chapter is of the greatest importance. What I have discovered to be quite interesting, however, as I have
We may be weak and utterly helpless, unable to resist temptation for a single minute. But He is strong, and He lives to give help and deliverance in every moment of our days. Victory isn’t a question of my strength, but of His power. His power is what I need. Torrey, whom I have just quoted, tells a
Second, the resurrection of Jesus Christ proves the deity of our Lord. When He lived upon earth Jesus claimed to be equal to God and that God, this same God, would raise Him from the dead three days after His execution by the Roman authorities. If He was wrong in this, His claim was either the ravin
Second, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is good news because it came after an apparent defeat. A victory is always good news. But news of victory after news that a battle has apparently been lost is even better.Let me illustrate this by the way in which news of the battle of Waterloo first came to
Next there is the evidence of the empty tomb, coupled with the evidence of the moved stone and the undisturbed graveclothes. How are we to account for these things? Some have imagined that either Joseph of Arimathea or the Roman or Jewish authorities moved the body. But not only was there no reason
When World War II was ending and General Douglas MacArthur was meeting with representatives of the Japanese government on the deck of the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay to sign the papers which were to bring an official end to the hostilities, large sectors of the world were in glad suspense. When
Now there is a great deal more to the story of Cleopas and Mary because of their meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ. For each of these three openings had an important consequence in their lives. And these three results should also occur for us when our Bibles, eyes, and minds are opened. When Jesus
Redemption means to buy out of slavery and to set free, and they had been hoping that Jesus would be the Messiah who should make them free as a nation and set them up with an earthly king much the way they had been under the line of David or the Maccabees. Jesus had died to redeem them from sin. But
What is it that accounts for a belief in the resurrection on the part of Christ's disciples? The answer is nothing but the resurrection itself! If we cannot account for the belief of the disciples in that way, we are faced with one of the greatest enigmas in world history.Yesterday, we had said that
In yesterday’s study, we concluded by saying that the first Mary that John mentions should be seen as the wife of Cleopas.For one thing, John seems to be distinguishing between two different Marys in the second part of the verse—Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. At least this is the mos
If you are ever inclined to doubt that the Word of God continues to show life-transforming power, even in the twentieth century, you ought to read a relatively new book by England’s great social critic Malcolm Muggeridge, entitled Jesus Rediscovered.1 In England, as also to some extent in America, M
I say as we end this week of Easter readings that I do not know how much of what I have presented this week is what the Lord preached that day on His walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. But it was a long trip. It would have taken several hours. And I suppose, therefore, that Jesus preached not only what
In the eighth chapter of Acts, we have another suggestive text. Here Philip has been sent to the Ethiopian eunuch. When Philip finds him, he is reading from a manuscript he acquired in Jerusalem. It turns out that it is Isaiah, and the portion from which he is reading is Isaiah 53: “He was led like
In the fourth chapter of Acts we have another of Peter’s sermons. Here he has been called before the Sanhedrin (the highest council of the ancient Jews), and he is defending himself and his teaching. We have a relatively short record of this sermon in verses 8-12, but in the midst of it we have anot
Today we look at some of the texts Jesus must have used in His sermon, which we discussed yesterday. An obvious place to begin is with Peter's speech at Pentecost found in Acts 2. Peter used three texts in that message. The first was about Pentecost itself. It was from Joel—the prophecy that in the
One of the great accounts of the appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples following the resurrection is His appearance to the two Emmaus disciples recorded in Luke 24. It is an interesting story for a number of reasons, and one is that Jesus preached a sermon on that occasion. It is ref
Mary said to the one whom she supposed was the gardener, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”Do you understand what she was offering? She was a woman, and she was offering to carry away the body of a man. Now that’s hard for a man to do, let alone
Now when the women arrived at the tomb with their spices, it suited their purpose to have the stone removed, but it wasn't what they were expecting. They were confused and asked each other what they should do. And they decided that Peter and John should be told. Either they appointed Mary to the tas
We don't know a whole lot about Mary Magdalene. We're told in Luke 8 that Jesus had done a mighty work of grace in her life by casting out seven demons. We know that she was one of the women who ministered to Jesus and the disciples. But that's about all we know until we come to the activities durin
Not only did faith die in Jesus’ disciples, but I want you to notice that hope died also. Their faith was wrapped up in Him but their hope was no less wrapped up in Him. It’s true it was a rather limited hope. It was fashioned according to their own expectations of the future. They were first- centu
