Theological Implications of the Resurrection #2

Introduction: The Empty Tomb and Its Theological Implications

0:05 Now let us turn together again this morning to the 16th chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, and as we did last Lord's Day, we shall read Mark's account of the empty tomb, found in verses 1 through 8, and then a brief section from one of the epistles of Paul in which the implications of the empty tomb are very clearly articulated. Mark 16, verse 1. And when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome brought spices, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, they come to the tomb when the sun was risen. And they were saying among themselves, Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the tomb? And looking up, they see that the stone is rolled back, for it was exceeding great.

1:15 And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, arrayed in a white robe, and they were amazed. And he saith unto them, Be not amazed. Ye seek Jesus the Nazarene, who hath been crucified, he is risen, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.

1:41 But go, and tell his disciples and Peter, He goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him as he said unto you. And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them, and they said nothing to anyone. For they were afraid. Now over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 through 18.

2:25 But we would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that fall asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that, Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.

3:36 Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.

3:48 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 through 18. In the dim light of the early dawn on a Sunday morning, three women of sad countenance set out in the direction of a sepulcher hewn out of solid rock in a garden spot somewhere near a place of execution called Golgotha. They carry with them as they leave in the dim light of dawn aromatic oils that are of the same color as the oil of the fire. With which they planned to soak the linen wrappings which had been wound around the torso and the limbs of one whom they dearly loved, who had been buried in that sepulcher of stone. Somewhere along the way they remember that a large stone, like a millstone, had been placed over the opening into the tomb. And while they're discussing, the problem of what to do about that stone, so they can get to the corpse of the one whom they loved and pour their aromatic oils upon the linen wrappings that now cover his dead body. They look up, and to their amazement, they see an angel in the form of a young man.

5:12 And he speaks to them words of explanation, words of comfort, and consolation. And then after bidding them to see the place where their friend had previously been laid, he commissions them to go forth and to tell the disciples and Peter that that very one will go before them and meet them in Upper Palestine in a place called Galilee. They obey the angel, and full of mingled,

5:52 attitudes of awe and amazement and fear and dread, they leave to bear their wonderful message that he is not there in the tomb. He has been raised from the dead. Now this, in short, is Mark's account of the empty tomb and of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead as found in the passage read in your hearing. And having opened up the passage several Lord's Days ago, and sought to bring out of the passage three very practical pastoral applications, we then, last Lord's Day, began to consider the tremendous theological implications of the empty tomb and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I urged you not to be afraid, not to be afraid of the word theological, for we use it in this sense simply as a convenient verbal handle to describe what the empty tomb tells us about God and our relationship to Him and to His salvation as well as to the Savior Himself. And so last Lord's Day we considered together what the resurrection in the empty tomb meant,

7:21 to Jesus Himself. And examining several pivotal passages we noted that the empty tomb was to the Lord Jesus at least three things. It was the ultimate validation of His official identity as Messiah. It was the crowning revelation of His personal identity as Son of God.

The Resurrection Confirms a Complete Atonement for Sin

7:50 And thirdly, it was His glorious evacuation from the state of humiliation. Now this morning we want to turn our attention to the theological implications of the resurrection in the empty tomb as they apply not directly to our Savior, but as they apply to us and to our salvation. And again, we'll look at the resurrection, and we'll look at three of the major lines of biblical emphasis with respect to this subject. First of all, the scripture teaches us that the resurrection and the empty tomb are the undeniable confirmation of a complete atonement for sin. If someone were to ask you, how do you know that your sins have been completely and finally dealt with? I trust you would answer, because Jesus the Son of God died in my place upon the cross. He bore the penalty due to my sins.

9:13 But if someone were to say, how do you know for certain that He fully paid the penalty? And that the Father has accepted that payment and will not require one millionth of a penny of that debt of sin from you, the guilty sinner? If you are thinking biblically, you would then answer, I know it to be so because of the message of the resurrection and the empty tomb. For with reference to our salvation, the resurrection and the empty tomb are the undeniable confirmation of a complete atonement for sin. Now to develop this thought for a few moments, think with me first of all upon the fact that according to the scriptures, Jesus Christ was the divinely appointed, yet willing, substitute for sinners. When John the Baptist pointed to Him early in our Lord's ministry, he identified Him in the well-known words of John 1.29.

10:32 Behold the Lamb of God who is bearing the sin of the world. John is telling his hearers, however you conceive of this person, you must conceive of Him as standing in a relationship to the sin of the world that is parallel to the relationship of the sacrificial lamb to the sins of the people of Israel. You must never think of Him primarily in terms of His mighty works, His large and compassionate heart, His deeds of mercy. You must think of Him as Lamb of God who bears away sin. Again, Jesus said of Himself, I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister or serve and to give My life a ransom for many. Jesus Himself was conscious that He came not to be served, nor only to serve, but to give His life a ransom in the place of many. He would make a payment for sin

12:00 on behalf of others. And the apostolic writers pick up this theme again and again and again. In such language as this, Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. Christ was made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs upon a tree.

12:31 And while our Lord was actually there upon the cross, you will remember as we studied the earlier chapter in Mark, He said according to John's Gospel, prior to yielding up His Spirit, it is finished. More literally, completed the work of making full atonement for sin. Well then, in the language of one of God's servants, if the penalty was fully paid, it cannot have been our Lord, it must needs be broken by Him. The resurrection of Christ is thus the indisputable evidence of completed work, of His accomplished redemption. It is only because He rose from the dead that we know that the ransom He offered was sufficient, the sacrifice was accepted, and that we are His purchased possession. Let me illustrate it this way.

13:54 If Jesus went to the cross laden with the guilt of imputed sin, chariously with all the debt, of all the sin, of all, of all, than Joseph, in a figurative sense, the debtors, the debtor's prison, He went in tomb as the debtor, but when He fainted, the debtor's prison was opened to give to us the indisputable, undeniable confirmation that the debt was fully paid. And we need not simply deduce that on the basis of logic, it is explicitly stated in the Word of God. Turn to Romans 4 and verse 25. Romans chapter 4 and verse 25.

15:12 The righteousness that is imputed to every believing sinner in any administration of God's grace, we read in Romans 4, 24, but for our sake also unto whom it shall be reckoned who believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised, and you Greek students, you have a diah with the accusative, was raised so discharged to raise from

16:34 that there was no debt left for whom Christ gave His life. And so the empty tomb and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with reference to us becomes the undeniable confirmation of a complete atonement for sin. It does not surprise us then when we turn over to Romans 8 and Paul is raising a question with tremendous spiritual passion and eloquence hurling that question as it were out to the farthest galaxy in God's universe into the ears of any moral intelligent creature, devil, man, angel, seraphim or cherubim. Notice what he does in Romans 8 and verse 31. What then shall we say to these things if God is for us? Who is against us?

17:50 He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Where is the creature in all God's moral universe, beneath the earth, upon the earth, above the earth, in the heavens above and beyond and outside of us? Where is the creature who can lay one guilt next to the name of any one of God's elect?

18:28 The assumed answer is no one can. It is God that justifies it. It is He that condemns it. In other words, He has absolute, unshakable confidence that everything with reference to the penalty of sin has been eternally, irrevocably settled.

18:51 Now, on what basis does He have that confidence? Notice, it is Christ Jesus that died from the dead. In other words, the Apostle sees this close conjunction between what Christ did in His death and what He validated in His resurrection that gives Him this unshakable confidence that His sins have been fully and finally and irrevocably put away and He shall never, never, never come into condemnation. You see, Paul did not have confidence because he had ten thousand. It was because he understood the significance of the empty tomb. So when he had a thousand volts of joy up and down his spine, I am sure but when

20:10 that is my confidence that no one shall condemn me. Now child of God, when the ghost of your past sins comes to haunt you and it will, through the faculty of memory, though God can say their sins and iniquities will I remember no more, He has not given to us the ability to reach into those areas of this complex thing called the human memory and there to zap and blot out and send into the black hole of nothingness the ghost of the memory of our past sins. And when that ghost comes forth to haunt us and when along with the ghost of our past sins there are the odors of our present sins that turn our stomach, when you have grieved,

21:38 when you've confessed, when you have pleaded God's forgiveness, what are you to do? You don't feel any different. Still as it were feel the shadow of the ghost of your past and you smell the old cleanse. What are you to fear to come back to the settled sins that sin is pardoned?

22:14 My friend, you're to go to the garden tomb and there you are to stand with the women and see the stone rolled away. You are to walk within and see the linen wrappings in the form of a man but no man within them, the napkin folded to one side. You are to hear in the voice of scripture the language of that young man, the angel speaking. He is risen.

22:43 He is not here. And in those words you are to draw your consolation and say to the ghost of your past be gone. The tomb that he was raised for my justification. Say to the of your sin committed just moment be gone.

23:07 Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. A complete atonement has been made. The Father will not come back and reverse the declaration made by raising his Son from the dead. Now child of God until you learn to deal with your sin that way you are doomed to a life of vacillation, a life of doubt, a life of crippling unwarranted guilt until you learn to deal with your sins not on the basis of your feelings but on the basis of the fact of the empty tomb and the significance of the empty tomb. You will be forever crippled in your Christian life. And I plead with you to learn the theological significance of the empty tomb with respect to you as a believer. A complete atonement has been made.

24:24 All claims against you have been disproved and charged. And the empty tomb is God's message of confirmation. And likewise to you who are yet unconverted and in your sins. Why can we call you to repent and to believe?

24:44 Why can we call upon you to believe on the Lord Jesus and tell you no matter how great your sins are, no matter what the nature of your sins have been, an atonement has been made sufficient for the vilest of sinners, the one who said in Romans 8.34, Who shall lay anything to my charge? He that condemns, he was a blasphemer. He was a murderer from their past and took them to prison and even to death.

25:24 And yet he could say my sins of murder and blasphemy were so dealt with that the empty tomb of my Savior brings peace. Peace to my heart. That's the message of the empty tomb to us and with respect to our salvation. It is the undeniable confirmation of a complete atonement for sin.

The Resurrection is a Pledge of Our Own Resurrection

25:54 But then secondly, the resurrection in the empty tomb are the imperishable anticipation and pledge of our own and our loved ones' resurrection from the dead. The resurrection and empty tomb of Jesus are the imperishable anticipation and pledge of our own and our loved ones' resurrection from the dead. Now listen carefully. The Bible teaches there will be a general resurrection of all men at the last day.

26:32 John 5.28 and 29. Marvel not at this. The hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall be saved from the dead.

26:40 Now listen carefully. The Bible teaches there will be a general resurrection of all that are in the grave shall come forth, some to the resurrection of life, some to the resurrection of judgment. But you see the emphasis in Scripture when we turn to the resurrection of Jesus is upon His resurrection in relationship to the resurrection of His own people. For as we saw last week, the resurrection of Jesus was a resurrection into a new mode of resurrection of His own people.

27:13 The resurrection of Jesus was a new mode of existence. He was glorified bodily and though there was continuity between the body that went into Joseph's sepulcher and the body that came out there was not identity. Look at me see it is I He says. Yet He appeared with the doors being shut.

27:40 He ascends in their very presence and goes back to the right hand of the Father. He is the body of His glory in Philippians chapter 3. And we are told in that passage that the resurrection body of Jesus in that new mode of existence is the paradigm the model the prototype of our resurrection bodies. So Paul can say He shall change the body of our humiliation like unto the resurrection of the body of Jesus. What is the connection then between the two things? His resurrection unto this new mode of glorified bodily existence resurrection. What is the connection between the two?

28:44 Well let me read in your hearing and you may wish to follow two brief passages 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 2. The resurrection of Jesus was like unto the first fruits of the harvest in Israel. The harvest was coming into its full development. It was ripe.

29:13 And the godly farmer would take a portion of that the first fruits and bring it as an offering to the Lord. It was the acknowledgement that all was God's and that as the harvest came in it would be acknowledged as God's possession. But this is what's significant. The first fruits was of the same kind as all that followed.

29:45 Christ has been raised from the dead. First fruits of them that are asleep for since Adam. Those who are in union with Adam all die so also in Christ. Those who are united to Christ by faith by the indwelling of the spirit shall all be made alive each in his own order.

30:19 Christ the first fruits that's the empty tomb. Then they that are buried in the tomb. Then the second passage is found in first Thessalonians four. The passage read in your hearing but read without comment now notice as I simply highlight several phrases.

30:48 The believers at Thessalonica had somehow picked up the notion that their loved ones whom they had seen as second class citizens when the Lord returned and Paul writes to them saying we would not have you ignorant brethren notice it is overcoming ignorance that he uses to overcome unwarranted grief. He doesn't fight the emotion of grief by just telling them get happy he fights it with theology. We wouldn't have you ignorant if we believe Jesus died and rose again. If we believe there is a real Golgotha where there was real death a real up of his spirit a real piercing of his side a lifeless corpse upon that cross if we believe he died and if we believe to see that he is not here he is risen from the dead if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so this follows

32:17 by an inescapable logic of divine commitment even so them that are falling asleep in union with Jesus the only difference between Jesus exit from the tomb and mine is he got his exit first but mine is as sure to come as his has already come even then in Jesus will God with him from the dead because Christ is risen we no more judge that if one died for all then all died that the body of sin might be done away that having died with him we shall also live with him his resurrection drags ours in his rising we have the earnest in pledge of our rising and then he quotes first Thessalonians four had Christ

33:45 not risen could we nourish such a great hope could we believe that what is sown in corruption shall be raised within corruption what is sown in dishonor shall be the body holy determined by the spirit of God you see you and I must learn to think biblically with respect to this matter Christ is the head of his mystical body of the church one by one the members of his body die and go as simply all head what he is saying is the head member that enters one by one all ages when every last member shall exit the tombs with a body made like unto his own glorious body and then Christ in his relationship to his body shall be one in the glory of resurrection life and power go back

35:14 to the first fruits image when he raised his son from the dead God was just cutting the first bundle of the first fruits and that's the pledge that all the rest of the harvest shall be gathered in Christ being dead dies no more if we have shared with him in the likeness of his death we shall be with him in the likeness of his resurrection we shall also be true in the final day in our bodily existence as well so dear people of God by way of application let me say that our anticipation of bodily resurrection is not to be a matter of nebulous but sanctified hopes and desires we have an imperishable and indefectible anticipation based upon the true presence of our Lord in our heart it is an impossible and unbearable expectation of the resurrection so as you anticipate your own death when you purchase

36:42 your own burial plot and you know from the dead, not as a private person, but as the head of his new humanity, as first fruits of their knit sleep, and as surely as with my mind stand in Joseph's empty place where he lay. One day it'll just be the place where I lay. Hallelujah. I shall vacate it in the power of his resurrection life, as we must lay our loved ones in the cold earth, and don't anyone ever say, and I'm going to continue to carry on my warfare against this terminology, oh, that's just their shell. No, that's not just their shell. That's them. Not all of them, but that's them. It says they buried Jesus. They didn't say they buried

37:40 his shell. They buried Jesus. The only way I've known you and the only way you've known me is in a corporeal, body-soul existence. You never saw my spirit. You'd split and run real quick. It's just my spirit floated in here, started talking from the pulpit. No, you've only known me in this existence, and it is not sick and maudlin and unhealthy for loved ones to linger. They must place their beloved in the earth, and to visit that spot and to relive the memories, the life shared together with loved one, wife, husband, child,

38:34 there's nothing sick about that. It only becomes sick and sinful if we so grieve as to keep us from doing present duties, or as to give the impression that we have no hope. To visit that sacred spot where a loved one lies, and then to turn it in your mind into Joseph's tomb and say, as surely as Joseph's tomb is empty, his grave will be empty. His grave will be empty.

39:08 And the Lord Jesus comes. The resurrection was not the resurrection of a private person. It was the resurrection of the head of his church, the head of his body, the head of the new humanity. And in raising him from the dead, the Father was giving an indescribable that all who are in him shall likewise be raised in the last day.

39:53 No wonder. He says, comfort one another with these words. I tell you that's solid comfort. Comfort one another, not with little platitudes. He lived a good life. He was a nice guy. She was a lovely woman. She was, don't comfort me with words that say was, was, was. Come forth in the resurrection of the just. I tell you, child of God, don't ever poop off theology.

40:44 Comfort one another. With these words. Because the open tomb, that empty tomb, is the undeniable confirmation of a complete atonement, but it's also the imperishable anticipation and pledge of our old one's resurrection. My unsafe friend, wouldn't you love to have the kind of assurance that this preacher's got this morning? And if you're honest, you know, there's something in you that says, you know, oh, that guy's getting excited and all the rest. I don't think he's playing games. I think he really believes that. I got news for you.

41:21 I do. I do. And I believe it because Almighty God has said it. You see, you have no such hope. You try to pay. You turn up with his truth. Jesus Christ is vanquished. Oh, my

42:07 unconverted friend, wouldn't you want to have that assurance? You can. You must divorce your sin. Take the ring off. Throw it away. Get out of the way. Get out of the way. Get out of the God business. Stop running the show. Live in by your own standards. That's repentance. And throw yourself upon the mercy of Jesus. Don't look for righteousness in yourself, in the church, in anyone else, in the sacraments. And embrace this one who died for sinners and welcomes sinners and pleads with sinners. And in Christ, you too will have the same confidence. But then thirdly and finally, the empty tomb says something else to us.

The Resurrection is Necessary for a Living Savior to Fulfill Promises

42:50 As God's people, not only the undeniable confirmation of a complete atonement, the imperishable anticipation and pledge of ours and our loved one's resurrection, but this to me is glorious. The resurrection and empty tomb are the necessary condition for our having the promises of salvation made good on our behalf. The resurrection and the empty tomb are the necessary condition for our having the promises of salvation made good on our behalf. Now follow closely. The Bible everywhere makes it clear that Jesus Christ alone is the Savior of needy sinners. You believe that, I trust. He said, I am the way, the truth,

43:42 the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. He said in Luke 19.10, the Son of Man is come to seek and to save.

43:51 That which is lost, that's what the apostles preached. Acts 4.12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. But you see, the Bible not only makes it clear that Jesus Christ alone is the Savior of needy sinners, it makes it equally clear that his salvation is imparted not simply by believing some facts.

44:21 It's about a Jesus who lived and died and no one knows where he is. But the Bible that says that Jesus alone is the Savior says with equal clarity that Jesus himself saves.

44:40 That it is the living. Well, how can you have a living person as a Savior receiving a living person who's a sinner if either one of them is dead? You can't. And you see, the gospel is a living person. And you see, the gospel is a living person. And you see, the gospel is not Jesus of Nazareth who was Son of God and Son of Man, lived and died. Half of sinners believe that in all his well. No, the Bible says, believing that himself, he said him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

45:42 He is able to save you. He is able to save you. He is able to save you. He is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by him, seeing here, living. You see, the empty tomb with respect to our salvation is necessary in order that the promises of salvation may be made good, because the promises are not to a set of facts to be saved, but come to a person and be saved. And if there were no resurrection, an empty tomb, there'd be no living person to save. But thank God as we stand with those three women and hear the

46:28 angels say, he is risen. He is not here. Come see the place where they laid him. A few days later, that same Jesus, while they looked upon him, said unto him, I will give you rest.

46:44 And that's wrong, because that family of his has heaven. They commended him for their side, and they commended him for their faith. They thank him, praising him. They applauded him.

46:52 And that's all in practicing right now and all the Mus福 that you're going to get, sign of the Holy Spirit. If people, if you've come unto him, have dissolved their prayers agreement in one word, why do you not recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in them? Because you've fulfilled God's people. It's not their fault, it's their account of sin.

47:04 Now this is going to be a great response to God. He says, that we are using the seniores taxes, if they didn't have 중국 sausage, and어서 banging, our weak星 we are bringing bit of ourSNAP to them, he's going to get rid of our rôle of shipping our blood. And this In all the might and the glory of His resurrection, one that says, come unto me, I'll give you rest. Come to me, I'll break your chains.

47:29 Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. No dead Savior can receive us. No dead Savior can break our chains. No dead Savior can give us a new heart.

47:41 No dead Savior can implant within us a whole new set of motives and perspectives so that we are designated new creations in Christ. It's a living Savior who alone can make good His almighty salvation. And that's the great message, dear sinner, of that open, empty tomb. What we offer to every sinner this morning, boy or girl, man or woman, outwardly moral or outwardly immoral, churched or unchurched, it matters not.

48:19 What we offer to you is the living Christ in all the plenitude of His grace and power. I love the definition of saving faith that the late Professor Murray gives in his book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Saving faith is whole soul commitment to Christ in all the perfection, in all the glory of His person and in the perfection of His work as He is so freely and fully offered to us in the gospel. What is it to believe in the Lord Jesus?

49:02 It's whole soul commitment to this person, to this person in the perfection of who He is, the God-man, the sinless man, the God-man. And in all the perfection of His work, He died to make a full atonement. He rose to validate that that atonement has been accepted. He lives to make good all of His promises.

49:29 Throw yourself at His feet. Whole soul commitment to Christ in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He is so fully and freely offered to us in the gospel. You say, but my sins are so many. They've extended over so many years, my friend.

49:49 Go with the three women to Joseph's empty tomb. He is risen. Full atonement has been made for the vilest of sinners and for all kinds of sin. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance.

50:06 Christ Jesus came into the world sinners to save. Sinners of all shapes and hues and depths and heights of sin. Go to Christ, child of God.

Application: Grounding Faith in the Bedrock Reality of the Empty Tomb

50:21 Don't misunderstand me when I say your hope is not to be in bare promises.

50:28 Your hope isn't to be in bare promises. Your hope is to be in the living Christ, the promiser. Your hope is that a living Christ having received you will keep you and guide you and guard you and protect you. And in the language of Hebrews 7.25 says, Save you to the uttermost because you come unto God by him and he will land you safely at last on heaven's shore made into his own image. Child of God, get over living on what dear, the late Dr. Deer Tozer called the undulating sea of your titillating feelings. That's graphic language, isn't it?

51:20 He said, Some of you try to live on the undulating sea of your titillating feelings. No wonder you're as unstable as water. You've got to start planting your feet every morning inside the open door of Joseph's empty tomb. That's reality.

51:41 In some mornings, you'll feel like dancing a jig. Well, dance, that's fine. The tomb's still empty. In some mornings, you'll feel so lifeless and dead that you want to die.

51:53 You want to just lie down on the slab and say, I belong there. Fine, but he ain't there.

52:01 That's grounds for rejoicing. Rising above the undulating sea of your titillating feelings, it's beginning to get your Christian faith on the bedrock realities of what Christ has done, what Christ is. And until that occurs, you will be as unstable as water. Nobody's going to say, I'm again feelings.

52:27 You can't listen to me preach for five minutes and know I'm again feelings.

52:32 The glory I feel in my soul at times when I preach, I think for sure I'm going to split right down the middle and somebody's going to have to pick up my inners and put them in a bucket.

52:44 But when it's all over, folks,

52:47 the feelings are gone.

52:50 On Christ the solid rock,

52:54 I dare not trust my sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. The open tomb. This is what it says to us and our salvation. It is God's pledge that a full atonement's been made.

53:17 It is God's pledge of our resurrection and the resurrection of our loved ones. It is God's pledge that there is a living Savior ready to receive all who will come and who will keep and take safely to heaven all who trust in him. Blessed be God for the message of an empty tomb. Let's pray.

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Entreaty

53:54 Our Father, how thankful we are for the Holy Scriptures. We thank you that amidst all of the cacophony, the din, the confusion of the voices of men trying to figure out the ultimate questions of life and death and the world to come. Oh, how we thank you. Thank you for a sure word of prophecy.

54:21 Thank you for the Scriptures. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, that you've spoken. Thank you that we are privileged to take hold of that word and rest the full weight of our souls upon it.

54:36 And oh, God, this morning, will you not be pleased to graciously and lovingly entice sinners to your Son? May they leave their sin, and cast themselves upon him in all the livingness and power of his resurrection person and life and saving virtue. And God, help your dear children, those who've been oriented to live by their feelings, to fall by their feelings, to grovel in their feelings. Oh, God, teach them how to stomp over their feelings when necessary and make their way to the empty tomb.

55:18 There to behold the pledge of full forgiveness, the promise of future resurrection, and the certainty of a living Savior able to keep them in spite of their feelings. Lord, bless your word. May it not be preached in vain. Oh, God, help us in the moments when we most need these truths.

55:43 Bring them to our remembrance, we plead. Dismiss us with your blessing resting upon us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.