Essence of the Christian Faith – an Easter Message

Introduction: Easter and the Pillars of Christian Faith

0:03 Now I'm sure that most, if not every one of you, is aware that all around the world today countless millions of men and women, boys and girls, will be celebrating the fact that this Lord's Day has been designated in the church calendar of most, but not all, of Christendom as Easter Sunday, the day of our Lord's resurrection from the dead. And this means that in one way or another, there'll be all kinds of various ways in which there will be remembrances of the resurrection of Jesus.

0:48 However, for many, this celebration will mean very little because they could not care less about the Lord. They could not care less about the Lord. Whether the actual physical body of Jesus of Nazareth placed in a borrowed tomb was truly, physically raised from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. Rather, this day is a kind of a sentimental celebration and religious rite of the coming of spring when the death of winter gives way to the life of the body of Jesus of Nazareth.

1:27 What this means, however, is that there is no doubt that Christ, being so glowing with the holy mountain, came to this world as Christ in glory, his own Christ. Because of this, the reasons have led to the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. There is no doubt that God in the picture is still in this moment. The day after his crucifixion, the night of your Lord's resurrection, did not exist.

1:33 The sound of the face of the vereity in Jesus' face is breaking out as all the aussenium becomes his findetible cry. However, one moment, there is no need to dwell too long on the Christian faith, for there is still the light in the noi- satio u- oil, living, You're the Light. That, rather than just waiting time, the Christian faith will be granted with a new государ- being, whateverまた. Windows on rooms.

1:40 as night is from day, as light from darkness, as heaven from hell. For according to the Bible, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from a real state of death is an undeniable, empirically verified fact of history, a fact which constitutes one of the essential pillars that supports the entirety of the Christian faith.

2:17 Where the resurrection of Jesus is denied, that is, His literal bodily resurrection from the dead, the entire fabric of the Christian faith collapses, and nothing remains but the rubble, of pious nonsense and empty forms and empty rituals. And in the light of this reality, I have chosen to use this Easter Sunday as an occasion to draw your attention not just to that one pillar upon which the whole structure of the Christian faith rests,

2:58 but to six more pillars as well. And I have chosen to speak to you this morning on six pillars. These are facts which are asserted in a communicating motion with illegitimate clarity, and infallibly interpreted by the Bible, facts which, if denied, will break the foundation of the whole structure of the Christian faith.

The Seven Visual Images: Essence of the Christian Faith

3:28 Now in order to help the many children who are早已回到这里 , 가지 fachų Eipa KuluicomeBIva, seven visual images of the facts which comprise the substance of the Christian faith. And if I had a blackboard, even in my rough scrawling, some of you, when I've taught the adult class, know that when I do any drawings, no one would suspect that if I just had enough time, I could become a consummate artist. My scratchings and scrawlings are helpful, but they are certainly not seminal of latent and hidden artistic talent. But, if I had a blackboard, and I were so disposed,

4:12 I would like to draw for you these seven images which capture the essence of the biblical teaching concerning facts. Facts which, in their reality and their biblical interpretation, are absolutely essential to the very...

4:32 to the very essence of the Christian faith. I would, first of all, draw a lovely garden. Then, I would draw a pear-shaped organ tucked away in a woman's tummy called a womb. Then, I would draw a cross.

4:50 And then, I would draw something that looked like a rock-hewn tomb with a door in it. Then, I would draw a cloud. And then, I'd draw a throne. And then, I'd draw many things.

5:03 And then, I'd draw many things. And then, I'd draw many clouds and a flame of fire. And in those seven pictures, a garden, a womb, a cross, and a tomb, a cloud, and a throne, and many clouds and a flame of fire, God sets before us the very essence, the very nerve centers of what constitutes the Christian faith. And if you and I, by God, by God's Spirit, are unable to grasp the significance of those historical facts, we have a handle upon the very essence of the Christian faith.

5:48 Take away any one of those pictures. Remove the garden, you don't have the Christian faith. Remove the womb, you don't have the Christian faith. Remove the cross, you don't have the Christian faith.

6:00 Remove the tomb, the cloud, the throne, the many clouds and the fire, whatever you have. It is not the Christian faith.

6:10 It is something other than that which God sets before us as the only way of life and salvation. For some of you more knowledgeable, you've already guessed what I'm doing. I'm giving you the Bible storyline under these visual images from Genesis to Revelation. What is the Bible all about?

Pillar 1: The Garden – Creation, Fall, and the Promise of Redemption

6:35 As it is, it is God's wonderful revelation of the only way of life and salvation. So we start with a picture of a garden. Now you ought not to have any problem with that this time of the year, with the flowers bursting forth in newness of life all around us. Wherever I've been going these days with my wife, she's been oohing and aahing and sighing at all the beautiful budding of the trees and daffodils and tulips.

7:03 And I haven't seen any crocuses yet. Sooner or later, a few of those ought to pop up their heads. The Bible begins in Genesis 1 with these words. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

7:20 And throughout the remainder of that chapter, God tells us what he did in the space of seven days in order to create the entire world as we know it. And then when we come into chapter 2, God takes us, with a super zoom lens, and he zooms in upon man, who was his crowning creation on the sixth day, as recorded at the end of Genesis chapter 1. And there in chapter 2, with his super zoom lens, God gives us details about precisely how he created both the man and then the woman,

8:02 and brought them together in the first marriage ceremony, in the face of the earth, toward the end of chapter 2. And we are told these very simple facts in Genesis chapter 2. This is not myth. This is God telling us what he did and how he did it.

8:22 We read in Genesis 2 and verse 8, and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. formed. He had formed man. He tells us how he did it, and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant, etc. And then he takes the man, according to verse 15, the Lord

8:51 God took the man, put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And then God gives a most gracious permission and a profound prohibition in verses 16 and 17. And the Lord commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. A gracious permission of all the trees with all of the different sights and tastes and textures upon the tongue and in the mouth. He says

9:24 it's all yours. A very gracious permission. But then he says, a profound and solemn prohibition in verse 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. And then God

9:46 announces the only thing that up till now was not good was man in his aloneness there in his garden with this marvelous accommodation of God, the permission to eat of all the trees, the task given to him to dress the garden and keep it. And God says it's not good for him to be alone. I will make a helper answering to his need. And so he takes a rib from the man, anesthetizes him, takes a rib from the man, creates the woman, brings her to the man. The man sees his counterpart and the two are joined in marriage. But, but when we turn to chapter 3, we have

10:30 again the historical account of what happened. How long after the creation of the man and the woman, we do not know. How much time elapsed, we do not know. God has cast a veil of silence over those questions that we like to ask. And there we have the record of how the tempter came in the form of a serpent and tempted Eve. And Eve succumbed to his temptation. And then Eve gave up her life for the sake of God. And God says,

11:00 And the man in open-eyed, wide, blatant disobedience to God takes of that forbidden fruit. And then by that act, there is nothing short of a cosmic disruption in that garden. In that garden upon which God himself focuses all of our attention in the opening chapters of the Bible. He bypasses in a few words all of our attention.

11:30 Of the things that fascinate us, it says, oh yes, oh by the way, he made the stars also. Think of it. All of the galaxies and all that constitutes the cosmos, God passes it over in a little word, and he made the stars also. But when it comes to the creation of man and woman, and God placing them in the garden, and that wonderful permission to eat of all the trees, and that profound and sober prohibition,

12:01 God focuses upon this as tremendously significant. And with this cosmic disruption that comes as a result of their sin, they are turned from lovers of God to those who have an aversion to God. The next thing we see is Adam and Eve running from God, attempting to hide. They are changed from innocent, shameless creatures to guilty creatures full of shame.

12:30 And yet God, in mercy, seeks them out as they attempt to hide from him. And God comes to them, and God begins to deal with them. And he first of all deals with the serpent. Then he deals with the woman. And then he deals with the man.

12:46 And it is in the midst of his dealings with the serpent that we read these words. Verse 15.

13:02 Then you shall bruise his heel. Here the man and the woman, made for God, made to have intimate communion with God, made to feel utterly comfortable in the presence of God. They've now aligned themselves with God's enemy. They've aligned themselves with the serpent, the tempter.

13:25 And God in grace comes and says, I will break up that alignment. I will put enmity. There is now enmity between the serpent. They've aligned themselves with God's enemy.

13:41 But God comes in grace and says, I will break up and disrupt this alignment. I will put enmity. And he says that that enmity will culminate in something described as the seed of the serpent bruising the heel of the seed of the woman. But the seed of the woman.

14:04 The seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent. And while a bruised heel is a very painful thing, it is not fatal. But a crushed head for a serpent is fatal. And here God has packed into those mysterious words the very germ of gospel truth.

14:26 That it would be the seed of the woman that would ultimately bring about the total demise of all of the... The influence of the tempter and of the serpent.

14:41 So, when we try to grasp those facts and God's interpretation of the facts that are essential to the Christian message, I say the first image is a garden. For until we've grasped what happened in the garden, the rest of the Bible makes no sense to us. Man is God's creature. Made to know God, to commune with God, to obey God.

15:12 Man is now a sinner, guilty and defiled. By the time we come to Genesis chapter 6 to 9, as the race has proliferated and increased, all of mankind has become so sinful that God says I'm going to block them all out with a universal flood. And I will spare one family. And I will start a new family.

15:36 And I will start again. That's the state that man has come into. The first son born of Adam and Eve becomes a murderer. And within a few hundred years, an entire race is nothing but bloated bodies floating on the surface of the floodwaters.

15:56 Furthermore, when we turn to the New Testament, we find another profound reality and significance of the garden. And we must never forget it. Remember I said it's the fact as God's revealed it, but also the fact as God interprets it. And here's the language we find in the New Testament, Romans 5 and verse 12.

16:17 For as through one man sin entered into the world, and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned. Where and when did all sin? All sinned in Adam. For again in 1 Corinthians 15.

16:36 In 22 we read, As in Adam, all die. God had obviously appointed Adam not just a private person, responsible for his own obedience to God, but God had appointed him the head and representative of the entire human race. God had designated Adam to be the belt upon which all of humanity was hooked. Right?

17:06 Right? The shoulders upon which all of humanity rested. So had he stood, all humanity would have stood with him and in him. But in his fall, all humanity fell in him and with him.

17:23 And this would become the very paradigm by which God would fulfill the promise to bruise the head of the serpent. He would fulfill it in a way parallel to the manner in which man was plunged. He was plunged into sin. The one man sins and the entire race sins in him.

17:43 And in the unfolding of how God will crush the head of the serpent and release a people from the power of the devil, it is plain he will do it by representative headship. As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. As through the one man sin entered, Paul goes on to develop this in Romans. Romans 5.

18:08 So through the one man cries Jesus, the seed of the woman.

18:14 And so the garden is critical if we are to understand the gospel. We see not only that man is made accountable to God. Man is now a sinner, guilty and defiled. Not only do we see that in Adam the entire race has fallen but further.

18:32 We see that God had a plan to deliver men through the one who would be born of God. In breaking up that alignment, all of God's work would terminate upon the seed of the woman. To state it bluntly, Christianity begins in a garden, not on a cross.

18:56 The cross is meaningless apart from the garden.

Pillar 2: The Womb – The Incarnation of God's Son

19:02 Understanding the garden alone enables us to grasp the significance of the cross. And so we move. We move secondly then from a garden to the next essential pillar in the structure of the Christian faith. And it's under the figure of a womb.

19:25 A uterus. That pear-shaped reproductive organ in which a fertilized egg is implanted and grows into a baby. Now granted, God's work continued after the fall and after the flood. And the calling of Abraham.

19:43 And then eventually. The forming of a nation through the patriarchs. Taking that nation down into Egypt. Calling them out of Egypt.

19:52 Establishing them in the land of promise. But the great work of God was all moving inexorably to that which is symbolized by a womb. And it's captured in Galatians 4 and verse 4. Listen to the word of God from the pen of the great Apostle Paul.

20:14 Who writes, In Galatians 4 and verse 4. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. When the fullness of the time came, everything throughout the whole history of the Old Testament is part of that which is going into the heart. And when the fullness of the time has come, then we confront a uterus made of a woman.

21:00 Terminology. Born of a woman. Made of a woman. When the whole tenor of all of the Bible, Old and New Testament, when it is speaking of progeny, speaks of so and so, born of and names the male.

21:19 Who impregnated the woman. But here we are told, made of a woman. Now what's that mean? Well here's where you take Matthew chapter 1 and the familiar Christmas story.

21:35 The birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. And then we have the account of the relationship between Joseph and Mary as a betrothed couple. And Joseph discovers she's pregnant. And he's wrestling with what to do according to Jewish law and according to a sensitive heart that would protect Mary from any unnecessary public shame and exposure.

22:03 And while he's wrestling and praying and cogitating and weighing and all of this, an angel appears to him and says, Joseph, don't be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife. Betrothal was considered the taking of a wife, though the relationship had not yet been consummated in sexual intimacy. Don't be afraid to take her, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

22:35 For he it is that shall save his people from their sins. Or the account in Luke chapter 1 of Mary, the angel appearing to her and telling her that she's highly favored and that she will conceive in her womb. And when she says. How shall this be?

22:52 I don't know a man. I've not had sexual intimacy with Joseph. How can I conceive in my womb? The angel says, the power of the Most High shall come upon you and overshadow you.

23:05 And that which is conceived in you will be of the Holy Spirit and shall be called Son of God, shall be called great, shall sit upon David's throne. Here you see the next great act of God is that act performed in Mary's womb. And she's going to say, I don't know a man. I've not had sexual intimacy with Joseph.

23:20 How can I conceive in my womb? That act in which the second person of the Godhead takes to himself in that womb a true human soul and a true human body. Beautifully, simply, but profoundly stated by John in John 1.14, and the Word, the one whom John has described in the opening verses, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.

23:51 And the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that hath been made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men.

24:04 That One who is essentially God, in all the integrity of God-ness called the Word. The Word without ceasing to be what He always had been from eternity, with God, Himself God. The Word becomes flesh. He does not cease to be the Word, but He takes to Himself a true human soul, a true human body.

24:32 And there in Mary's womb, God constitutes this, that next to the mystery of the Trinity is the great mystery of the Christian faith. There in Mary's womb is One being formed, who is as much God as though He were not man. While in Mary's womb, upholding all things by the Word of His power. While in Mary's womb, creating every single human being who was being conceived and born throughout the entire Roman Empire.

25:06 For in Him was life and all life flows from Him. While in Mary's womb, He is God, developing and nurturing and giving life to millions in other people's wombs. Why He Himself is in Mary's womb. Amen.

25:23 Upheld and sustained by an umbilical cord, He is upholding the universe by His being and by His power. As much God as though He weren't never man. As much a Man as though He were never God. As much a man, passing through all of the prenatal development, being brought forth by a normal birth.

25:47 And then we read of Him as a little boy, He grew in wisdom. Learned His alphabet. Learned how to tie his shoes. Learned how to say thank you and please and you're welcome.

25:59 Learned how to make his bed and take out the garbage.

26:03 He grew in wisdom and stature in favor with God and with man. Think of it. God growing in the favor of God. Why?

26:13 It's describing the development of his holy manhood as much man as though he were not God. And if we do not grasp by faith, though our minds can never wrap themselves around the mystery, but faith must grasp the reality that the great significant act is in that womb. When deity takes to himself true humanity, he partakes, the writer to Hebrews says, of flesh and blood. That in our humanity he might.

26:54 Live and he might die. That in our humanity he might eventually go back to the right hand of the Father and be a sympathetic, tender, understanding, empathetic high priest to his people. We needed a representative head who would come into our condition as men. Live, as Paul says, made of a woman made under the law.

27:22 The very law he gave at Sinai that he wrote upon the heart. The heart and mind of Adam in Eden. That very law he submits to it. That in his humanity he would perfectly keep that law in all of its length and breadth.

27:38 Never thinking a thought contrary to perfect love to God and man. Never speaking a word contrary to truth and love to God and to man. In his motives, in his actions, in his reactions, in all his relationships, living a life of perfect conformity to all of the intensive and extensive demands of the law. That we might have credited to us, we miserable law breakers, the perfect righteousness comprised of the threads of his perfect obedience.

28:16 And that in that humanity he might die a real death under the wrath of God as man. And yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet,

Pillar 3: The Cross – Voluntary and Vicarious Atonement

28:57 and yet, and yet, and yet, in all four gospel records, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

29:37 one-fourth to one-third of those gospel records focuses on the last week of our Lord's life and death and resurrection.

29:48 Some have called the gospel records passion narratives with brief introductions about his life and teaching.

29:57 Why does God amplify that last week? Because central to his work, not exclusive, but central to his work, is the cross. After three years of adult life in which he claimed to be that promised seed of the woman, God's champion, God's Messiah, come forth to defeat the powers of darkness, and he shows his ability to do it. In his lifetime, there is this plethora of encounters with demonic powers, and when they encounter, the champion, the stronger than the strong man, he defeats them.

30:38 And all of the horrible fruits of sin, dementia, physical illnesses of all kind, and death itself, yield before the touch and the word of the champion. But that was just validating his claims. Everything is moving towards those last days and hours. Having validated his claims by his might, having validated his claims by his might, he works, having explained his identity by his own words.

31:14 Jesus is betrayed by a sniveling Judas, unjustly arraigned, condemned to death, mocked, beaten, scourged, impaled in nakedness upon a cross, further mocked. Then God himself pulls a veil over the entire creation, and he shrouds his Son in physical darkness, to demonstrate the darkness in which he was plunged in his soul. And toward the end of the three hours of the darkness, he cries with a cry that I always feel unclean when I quote. My God, my God, why have you forsaken?

31:59 Why, why have you abandoned? Then the scripture says, with various phrases, he yields up his spirit. He breathed his last. Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.

32:17 That's the fact, a real death. And God makes it plain that that death had two characteristics that you and I must grasp or we are utterly ignorant of the most fundamental elements of the gospel. He died voluntarily. He was not a victim caught in the vortex of these various forces and carried along against his will.

32:43 He himself said in John, John 10, 18, I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again. And when he's arrested and one of his disciples comes to his defense, he said, no, no, put up your sword. Don't you think that even now I could ask my father and he could send me legions of angels, thousands of angels. They could well take care of the temple guard with their swords and staves and lanterns.

33:13 No. No. He died voluntarily and he died vicariously. That is in the room and stead of others.

33:25 And if anything in the Bible is clear, this truth is clear. Listen to the text. Second Corinthians 521. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for that's the language of vicarious suffering.

33:44 God made him. God made him to be sin for us. First Peter 318. He died, but just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.

33:56 Galatians 313. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Galatians 220. I've been crucified with Christ.

34:07 Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me in the life, which I now live in the flesh. I live in faith of the Son of God. I live in faith of the Son of God. I live in faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

34:22 Or in the language of the poetical prophet of the Old Testament, Isaiah, though all we like sheep have gone astray and turned each one of us to his own way, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Galatians 321. And Paul, in that marvelous resurrection chapter, said, this is the heart of the God of God. is the heart of the Gospel, the Gospel I delivered unto you by which you are saved.

34:50 If you hold it fast as this, Christ died for our sins.

34:59 The death was voluntary. The death was vicarious. He did not die as a helpless victim. He did not die just to be an example of patience in the face of unjust suffering.

35:14 He died to satisfy the justice of a holy God who in His holiness and justice, though His love was pressuring His heart to save a multitude of sinners, He could not save them at the price of staining His holiness, His justice, and His righteousness. There had to be a way contrived where He could be just and yet still justify sinners. And the only way that could be effected was by one who died voluntarily and vicariously and brought to His work a vicarious suffering, true humanity

35:58 in which He could truly die the death we deserve to die. Yet all the virtue and the power of deity to bear the weight of a world's sin.

Pillar 4: The Empty Tomb – Validation of Identity, Work, and Future Hope

36:12 My friend, if you would know the Christian message, understand the symbol of the garden, understand the symbol of the womb, understand the symbol of the cross, and now standing right in the middle of the seven, the empty tomb, the empty tomb. All four Gospels tell us that Joseph and Nicodemus, when we bring them together, they tell us that they asked for the body of Jesus. They took it down. They wound it in cloth with a hundred pounds of spices.

36:49 They placed him in a tomb where no one else had ever been placed. It was Joseph's newly hewn tomb. The tomb was sealed and eventually a guard was set from the Jewish authorities. He was really dead.

37:05 He was really placed in that cold, borrowed tomb. But, but, with varying details that wonderfully authenticate the simple, historical account, we are told that some women came to the grave on the third day and they didn't find him there. And a couple of disciples came and peeked in and they did not see him there. We are told that the soldiers went back to the authorities and told them what happened with the appearance of the angel and the emptying of the tomb so that Luke could write in Acts chapter 1,

37:48 he showed himself alive by many proofs and by the space of 40 days was in the midst of his disciples. I say the authenticity, the empirical evidence is utterly overwhelming that the Jesus who was placed in that tomb came out of that tomb with a body that now was redolent with resurrection, life, and power. Intermittently during those 40 days he visited with his fearful and sometimes still doubting disciples

38:30 and all the other historical facts. God says there's significance in the open tomb. I not only give you the fact, here's the significance. And when you boil it all down, that empty tomb, according to the scriptures, has three great significances.

38:48 The resurrection of Jesus validates his identity. He claimed to be God's son. He claimed to be God the son in Romans 1-4 says that he is declared to be the son of God with power by the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. And that empty tomb is God's marvelous echoing, recurring affirmation.

39:16 My son is all he claimed to be. Go and stick your head in the empty tomb. Who among men can say I have power to lay down my life. I have power to take it again.

39:32 The resurrection validates his identity. Secondly, the resurrection validates his work. Romans 4-25 delivered up for our offenses. His cross raised again for our justification.

39:48 On the cross he cried Detelestai It is accomplished. I have paid all that is due to divine justice for the sins of those for whom I die. All that divine justice demands has been exhausted in my blackness and the horror of those hours when my soul was plunged into the darkness. And somehow God conveyed to the Lord Jesus that the price had been fully paid.

40:21 And as the sun began to break through and strike upon his countenance he cried It is finished. But then it says he bowed his head and he died. He said Father into your hands I commend my spirit. How do we know?

40:39 How do we know that the Father fully accepted the sacrifice? Romans 4-25 says raised on account of our justification. God's raising him from the dead is his delayed aim and to his cry it is finished. And when the Father raised him from the dead the Father is saying it is finished.

41:03 All that my holy law demands my son has paid the last farthing.

41:14 And his resurrection is not only the validation of his identity it validates his work and furthermore it assures the resurrection to life and to salvation of all who are his. 1 Corinthians 15-20 says But now is Christ risen from the dead firstfruits of them that are asleep. He rose as Adam and in him all die so all in Christ shall be made alive.

41:49 As in Adam death so in Christ life he rose not as a private person he rose as the federal head of all forces for whom he had lived his perfect life died his substitutionary death and when he rose the head rose it's only a matter of time before the rest of the body will rise. Sitting here this morning whatever your ailments whatever the reminders that the outward man is decayed tin ears aching joints whatever it is that empty tomb says he's going to come out of his grave with a body fashioned Paul says like unto the body of his glory.

42:34 No wheelchairs Tom bless God no wheelchairs David God wants us to know it. That's the message of the open tomb not just that once a year we say oh it's lovely to see spring bursting forth and somehow that has some relationship to maybe something Jesus my friend the open tomb is saying my tomb is going to be open it's going to be open not going to be open by thieves people like to desecrate graves people like to desecrate graves it's when the returning Lord comes because he was first fruits assurance of the full harvest

Pillar 5: The Cloud – Christ's Ascension and Sympathetic Priesthood

43:18 then I hasten on the cloud the garden the womb the cross the tomb the cloud what's the significance of the cloud well in Acts chapter 1 we are given the answer after 40 days of this intermittent interaction with his disciples the scriptures tell us that Jesus gives them their final marching orders and when he's done this Acts 1-9 when he had said these things as they were looking he was taken up and a cloud singular received him out of their sight and while they were looking

44:02 steadfastly into heaven as he went behold two men stood by them in white apparel who said you men of Galilee why stand you looking up into heaven there aren't many times when I'd like to criticize what an angel said to somebody well what would you have done you're standing there talking to Jesus and he's giving you directions and all of a sudden he begins to levitate I mean you're going to turn around and look at a crow flying across behind you what would you do what would I do I know what I would do I'd be grabbing onto my buddies

44:46 why stand you gazing up into heaven there's a obviously a rhetorical question but once in a while you see things like this and you say well I know I'd have been doing the same thing the same Jesus who's taken up from you into heaven shall come in like manner there's the cloud the symbol of the special presence of God throughout scripture and when God is about to receive his son back into heaven think of it with something he didn't have when he left heaven think of it he has taken something back that he never had before he may have appeared as the angel of Jehovah in temporary corporeal form

45:31 and then shed that form when he appeared as the angel of the Lord I understand that but he takes back with him sure enough real flesh and blood humanity a human mind a human soul and think of it all the reservoir of every felt experience in his human soul all of the disappointment all of the grief all of the joy all of the internal pain think of it now the memory of all the physical afflictions he experienced while here on earth nowhere to lay his head sleeping on the hard ground under the cold air think of all

46:15 of his experience in his human soul and body think of it he takes all of that with him back into glory so that now at the right hand of the father when the bible says we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our and his firm he even takes the memory of the trauma of the devil daring to parlay with him and tempt he takes it with him so when the devil is parlaying with you and you feel the agony of this horrible thought I could do that and dishonor my lord oh Jesus

46:58 look upon me in pity you know what it is to be tempted and when those you love most don't understand you and reject you it's the right thing to do and it's the right thing to do to be tempted to be tempted you know what it is to be tempted says even his brethren did not yet believe on him, John 7. Lord Jesus, you know what it's like to be a stranger in your own house.

47:22 He took it all back with him, folks. Took every bit of it back with him. As also took with him the full integrity of his divine nature and is now surrounded with all the glory as he prayed in John 17, glorify thou me with the glory that I had with you before the world began. And now in the heavens, in the glory, there's something that had never been there before.

47:48 A glorified man. A glorified God. And in the book of the Revelation, when we are given pictures of him, he's the lamb in the midst of the throne.

48:00 Apparently the only scarred body among all the redeemed will be that of the Redeemer. Apparently he's going to leave the scars on his hands and his feet that we shall ever remember. We're there. Because he was the lamb willing to be slain.

Pillar 6: The Throne – Christ's Present Reign and Authority

48:19 The cloud that receives him up into the presence of God. And then very quickly, the throne. Because when he went back to the right hand of the Father, the scriptures are very clear. Hebrews 1, 3b, When he had made purification of sin, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, looking unto Jesus, author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is sat down at the right hand of the Majesty.

48:56 1 Peter 3, 22, Who is at the right hand of God, angels, principalities, and powers being made subject to him. Revelation 3, 21, He that overcomes I will grant to sit on my throne, as I overcame and sat down with my Father in his throne,

49:17 and in that position according to Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 and Matthew 28. He reigns as the sovereign of the universe. All authority has been given unto me in heaven and upon earth. What a wonderful thing to know, meeting here this morning.

49:36 When the cloud enveloped him and took him out of sight, he didn't vaporize and go to nowhere. He went back to the throne that is now his. Not just by right of being, the second person of the Godhead, but in virtue of his obedience as the suffering servant, the throne is now his reward. And from that throne he governs the world with reference to his church.

50:04 Paul says in Ephesians 1, He has had over all things to the church, had over everything that all of his purposes, to call all of the members of his bride, unite them to himself, constitute them one body, one flock, all of those images. But then, as the capstone of it all, moving from the icon of the garden, of the womb, of a cross, of a tomb, of the clouds, and of the throne,

Pillar 7: Many Clouds and Fire – The Certain Return of Christ

50:42 many clouds and a flame of fire. It's not yet history. All the others are historical facts. The garden?

50:53 The womb? The cross? The tomb? The cloud?

50:58 The throne? That's history. It's fruit in the present. The last image is that of many clouds and a flame of fire.

51:12 But the scripture tells us, Revelation 1, 7, clear language, not speaking of a cloud singular, but now the word of God tells us, Revelation 1, 7, behold he comes with the cloud. He comes with the clouds, plural. And every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him even so. Amen.

51:40 Jesus himself said in Matthew 24, 30, 2 Thessalonians 1, 7 to 10 says, that he will come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that obey not the gospel. Know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus. My friend, listen to me. As surely as the garden of the count is history.

52:06 As surely as the enfleshment of deity in Mary's womb is history. As sure as his death upon the cross is history. As sure as his resurrection is history. As sure as the cloud that enveloped him is history.

52:25 As sure as the throne on which he sits is history. A day is coming when the many clouds and the flaming fire will be history. As God winds up human history in the consummation and ushers in the new heavens and the new earth at the return of our Lord Jesus. It is then that the scripture says, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall be manifested, we shall be like him.

52:59 For we shall see him as he is. Paul says in the letter to the Colossians, when Christ who is our life shall be manifested, then shall you also be manifested with him in glory. Think of it. Manifested in a state of glory.

53:18 The outshining of all the wonders of what will be when we have sinless souls inhabiting deathless bodies. You've heard me quote C.S. Lewis, who said if we could see now what will be then, we would find it hard to resist the temptation to fall down and worship one another as God.

53:43 And that's going to be history. Then we'll sing as we never sang here, when I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart. Then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. When I see them start and shrink on the fiery deluge brink.

54:06 My friend, will you be one of those who meet the returning Lord as one who knows not God and does not obey the gospel. I beg you this morning, the God who is faithful to all the events of the garden, who promised the seed, who sent the seed by way of Mary's womb, and then that seed died upon the cross and rose and went back to the right hand of the Father. I beg you this morning, don't trifle anymore with this Jesus. You're going to have dealings with him, eventually, either in judgment or now in mercy.

54:50 And I plead with you, my unconverted friend, this is the Christian message. It's not some kind of get your act together and somehow incorporate Jesus into it. The Christian message rests down upon these mighty historic pillars in which God has revealed himself in space-time history and told us the significance of his revelation. And that God who cannot lie has told us it will all be consummated in the return of the Lord Jesus.

55:25 And dear people of God, I urge you, soak your soul in these facts that I've tried to capture in these icons and visual images. This is the Christian message. And this is what you need desperately to feed your soul upon. These are the things you need to communicate to others in an age that believes in no absolute truth, that feels that it has the right to take even biblical facts and put its own meaning upon them.

55:59 No, no, a thousand times no. And may God grant that as we've contemplated these realities this morning, our hearts will burn within us that we have a wonderful message to proclaim to others. What a marvelous thing to tell people God has visited us in space and time history. Visited us in the person of his Son.

56:25 Left us a book that infallibly interprets what he did and why he did it. And then marvelously and wonderfully holds him forth to us as a willing and an able savior and says come to him and coming you will never be cast out. Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank you and praise you for your word, for the revelation of these great and wonderful facts of your acting in human history.

57:06 And this morning we would afresh flee to your beloved Son and confess that we look to none other for the pardon of all of our sins. We thank you that we look forward to his return when all sin will be forever banished. When the devil and all who choose to follow him will be cast into that horrible place. And yet when you will usher in a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells nothing but righteousness, even so come Lord Jesus.

57:43 Bless your word to every heart. To the praise of your grace we pray. Amen.