Raised Him from the Dead

In this part of the sermon: Martin emphasizes that the resurrection is a historical fact, not a metaphorical or spiritual event. He defines it precisely: Jesus' spirit left His body, His body was lifeless in…

An imaginative dialogue with a slab of stone in the tomb illustrates the physical reality of Jesus' death and subsequent disappearance, emphasizing that He truly left the tomb alive.

It was joined to the body in Joseph's tomb, and that body was raised up from the dead, body had all of its vital signs return, and the same Jesus that went into that tomb as a lifeless body came out, a living man. If the slab of stone could speak, we would have come to it on that ominous Friday and said to it, Mr. Slab of Stone, who's on you? And he'd say, I can feel someone, but I have no eyes, I cannot see, you tell me who's on me. And we'd say, Mr. Slab of Stone, you have upon you right now the lifeless form

12:35 - 13:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When death reaches out its hand and lays hold of a man, death's grip is a death grip.

The metaphor of death's 'foreboding finality' and 'death grip' is used to emphasize the absolute power of death over humanity, making Christ's victory over it all the more significant.

In negating and breaking the grip of death upon our Lord. You see, there is a foreboding finality about death's intrusion into the life of a man.

24:28 - 24:40 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When death reaches out its hand and lays hold of a man, death's grip is a death grip.

The example of calling the undertaker, not the physician, when vital signs cease, highlights the irreversible nature of death in human experience.

When the heart stops, the vital signs are gone. You no longer call for the physician. You no longer call for the rescue squad. You pull up the sheet and you call the unarmed.

24:54 - 25:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When death reaches out its hand and lays hold of a man, death's grip is a death grip.

The story of Lazarus in John 11 is referenced to show the human despair and finality associated with death, even among those who knew Jesus.

You call for the great undertaker. Death has come. The foreboding finality. Look at it in John 11 in your mind's eye.

25:04 - 25:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: When death reaches out its hand and lays hold of a man, death's grip is a death grip.

Enoch and Elijah are cited as the only two who bypassed death, underscoring death's universal dominion over humanity.

Death is that great, common denominator of all humanity it's appointed unto men once to die of the billions who've lived only two have bypassed death in that radical severance of soul and body, Enoch and Elijah, all the others from infants born the moment after their birth to old Methuselah 969 years of age they die and you will die now once in a while there have been some who've escaped its iron grasp once they were in it death had its fingers pried open for a time Lazarus is one of them

25:35 - 26:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins exploring how God's exceeding power was exerted in Christ's resurrection, first by negating and breaking the foreboding, final grip of death. Unlike other…

Lazarus, the widow's son, and the saints after Christ's resurrection are given as examples of those temporarily raised, contrasting with Christ's eternal victory over death.

but you see it was only a matter of time and death's fingers wrapped around him again the widow's son in the Old Testament the saints that came out of the tombs after the resurrection of our Lord recorded in chapter 24 of Luke, there are some you see who went into the icy grip of death, who were healed it up for a time only to have death come back and claim it's prey again but now look at the Lord Jesus look at the Lord Jesus look at the Lord Jesus having been raised he was raised with a power that put him outside of the reach

26:18 - 27:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins exploring how God's exceeding power was exerted in Christ's resurrection, first by negating and breaking the foreboding, final grip of death. Unlike other…

Comparing admiration for a physician's skill or a mother's love to the awe inspired by someone dead living again, Martin argues that only power can break death's grip, not love or wisdom.

of death's icy grip and that for eternity you see when the physician is used to heal we admire his skill and his wisdom when a mother nurses a feverish child back to life with sleepless nights we admire her love and her patience when an individual fights against death against all odds we admire his will to live and his determination but listen, when someone who has been dead lives we don't admire love for as warm as the heat of intense love may be it never melts the iron bars of death death is impervious

27:01 - 27:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I've wrenched the keys from the hands of the destroyer of men's souls there's a sense in which my father put the keys in his hand even for my death but in my resurrection as I pass from the tomb I wrenched them from his …

Lazarus's life is described as a cycle of joy at his birth, grief at his death, joy at his raising, and grief at his second death, illustrating the temporal nature of his resurrection compared to Christ's.

but then in the second place behold the mighty power exerted in imparting a unique quality of life to the body of our Lord it was not only power manifestly in breaking the grip of death but power manifested and exerted in the impartation of a unique quality of life to the body of our Lord all other resurrections as I mentioned earlier were but a temporal measure death opened its vice grip for a time only to close again so the cycle of Lazarus was an interesting one joy at his birth grief at his death joy at his birth grief at his death joy at his birth grief at his death joy at his birth

29:11 - 29:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I've wrenched the keys from the hands of the destroyer of men's souls there's a sense in which my father put the keys in his hand even for my death but in my resurrection as I pass from the tomb I wrenched them from his …

Jesus dangling a 'key chain' with the 'keys of hell and of death' in front of John illustrates Christ's absolute authority and victory over death and the grave.

of the glorified Christ eyes as a flame of fire feet like unto burnished brass and at the sight of the glory of Christ he doesn't snuggle up he doesn't pick up his pen and write a little gospel ditty about I'm in love with the lover of my soul he says I fell at his feet as a dead man then Jesus put forth his right hand and said fear not behold I am he that was dead and I'm alive and I'm alive forevermore and then these words he pulled out a key chain a key ring and he dangled it in front of John's face and he shook it and he said and I have the keys of hell

31:24 - 32:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: in a real sense the garden tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was the womb in which all the elect of God would either be stillborn and never see the light of day or be born again or out of which they would come in the person of…

An imaginative depiction of Satan calling an emergency meeting in hell to prevent Christ's spirit from rejoining His body, illustrating the spiritual warfare surrounding the resurrection and the power required to overcome it.

with some of the fantasies and some of the weird mental processes that happens to people in the point of death when he said it is finished how do we know that it's true can you picture what it must have been like in the invisible world of spirit reality when the Lord Jesus in his lifeless form was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and those spiritual beings that dwell in the heavenlies Paul says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principality's powers they beheld the spirit of the Lord Jesus whether it was carried by other spirit beings we do not k...

36:30 - 37:15 Read in full sermon