The Empty Tomb and the Risen Christ John 20:1-29

Okay, so we're gonna look, you know, Mike and I kinda look to Macaulay a lot of times, and much of the other teachers do. He just does an outstanding job of outlining a certain passage of scripture. So I'm gonna use his outline here. So he starts off in chapter 20 with the empty tomb. We see that Mary reports that to Peter and John. That's the first part. Then the second part is the Lord Jesus, and this actually, his first appearance was to Mary Magdalene.

So pretty interesting, actually I have a little comment by some men about that. The men of the times, you know, in the nation of Israel, women were not considered, they were not, you know, their opinion and their view and their testimony was not as high as men. So they many times doubted what the women would say. But in this case, the woman was absolutely right, the Lord had risen and we're going to see that account. A really cool account of her talking to our Savior.

And then finally the disciples get to talk to Him, they get to interact with Him. And then of course there's this doubting Thomas, we're going to look at that. Then after that we're going to look at a passage about the Holy Spirit's ministry in today and the lives of believers and the lives of unbelievers. Okay, so let's start.

In the first two verses it says, in John chapter 20, now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark, and she saw the stone already had been taken from the tomb, so she ran and came to Simon Peter and the others, other disciples, and just by The phrase theology, most people believe it's John, the disciple John, and that's how he viewed himself.

He called it the disciple whom Jesus loved, which is kind of cool. Jesus loves all of his disciples. And I actually have a story I could tell about our grandson, but maybe I'll save that for another time. Because his dad sings Jesus Loves Every Night He Goes to Bed, so Bonnie asked him, well, your brother, you know, you did something to your brother, and Jesus loves your brother. And he says, well, Jesus loves me. He said, amen. He got that part right. So no big deal. John called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved.

So okay, we're coming down through the account. So she goes to Peter and to John and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. Okay, so just a couple observations. It's interesting that that phrase has been taken away. In the Greek, the away is ek, or out of.

So many, and Macaulay is one of these, many have said, well, think about it. If they took the stone out of the way, they actually believe there was a track that these big, massive stones, they would roll them, they were too heavy to lift. Well, the stone had been lifted out of that track. So that's even more amazing. That stone was moved out of that track. That's what the implication is.

But interesting, Mary's concern, and you're going to see that over and over, her concern was, where is the body of my Savior? Where is it? That was her, she was focused on that, and actually the disciples were too. Where is the body? They were concerned it had been taken. Somebody had gotten a hold of it, maybe the Jews had gotten a hold of it, but they were concerned about that. They weren't really thinking about him being risen from the dead.

OK, let's go on. So Peter and the other disciples went. So Mary goes, and she talks to Peter and John. And it's interesting is that they, it says the two were running together. You know, Mary ran back to tell them, and they run back to the tomb. So everybody's running back and forth. They're excited. This is a lot of emotion here. The two were running together. And the other disciple, John, ran ahead of, ran faster than Peter. and came to the tomb first.

And stooping and looking in. Another thing you kind of pick up here, they're always stooping and looking in. So if you're stooping, it means it's not as tall as you are. You've got to get down. So the tombs, some pictures show it much, you know, high height. From these accounts, it's got to be, you've got to look down. They were down that way. So that's interesting. And we're gonna see three words that kind of show up in the original language. Bleppo is one of those words. She saw, and I'll explain that later in a bit here.

So why were they running? My thought is they were running because of the excitement and the emotion of the tomb is empty, where's the Lord's body? John saw the linen wrappings possibly intact. I have a picture in the upper right hand corner in the next slide that kind of shows You know, a lot of the pictures you'll see will just show kind of bed clothing or like sheets kind of wrinkled up and, you know, the savior's gone. Well, this, you know, if they're intact, it would be like if the body's been wrapped with oils, it's going to be like it's going to be the shape of a body.

So we'll see that in a second here. So the word blepho indicates a mere glance in regards to the grave clothes, not an examination, not necessarily being affected by the site. So we kind of see here the words are used in the original. Some will be they looked at something, some will be they looked at it intensely, they studied it, and some will be Wow, that is, that's my savior. So there's kind of three levels of different I saw words in here.

And why did John, so John actually, here's what happened. So the two are running, John gets there first, he stops right at the entrance. Then here comes Peter behind him. He blasts right on by, you know, and he goes right into the tomb, boom. And John still, And Peter, you know, Peter, we've got to get there first. He's in there. What's going on in here? You know, he's in there. Okay. So why didn't he go in? I guess he was just kind of, you know, something amazing. His body's gone. What's going on here? Okay. So here's the picture I was talking about. That's somebody's characterization of what they think that might be a mummified body, so to speak, with the head cloth separate.

And so Simon Peter also came, I got a little bit ahead, following him, and entered the tomb, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in the place by itself. So the other disciple, this is John, who first came to the tomb, also entered. So now John enters the tomb, and he saw and believed. We're going to talk about that in a second. For as yet, and here's a verse that's interesting. For as yet he did not understand the scriptures that he, Christ, must rise from the dead. So Peter arrives next and rushes into the tomb.

So verse 6 talks about this word, one of these words for saw or to observe or see is pharao and that's a word like for theater. It's like to get intensely involved with the subject. And then the other word, which is what John did, adene, it's where he sees with perception.

So John apparently believed that the resurrection had occurred. The body was not there and he believed, it says. But as verse nine tells us, he did not understand that Christ must rise from the dead. He didn't see the wonderful plan that God had. In some ways, how could he? How could he know that? He didn't have the writings of Paul like we have. He had what he had interfaced with Christ about and what Christ had told him.

Christ told him he was gonna rise again. Christ told him probably all the information, but like many times, we're not really listening. I listened to Bonnie, she said, Roger, you're not listening to me. I said, you're right, I'm not listening to you. I'm minding my message for Sunday. Don't you see I'm busy?

Anyway, okay, so now this is the cool part, but Mary so it seems like what happened here Is that so Mary sees the empty tomb she runs back and gets Peter and John? They blast out running full speed and they're running pretty fast and Mary kind of follows him she kind of shows up after and the verse I left out they go back to their homes after they They hang out at the tomb for a while. They go back to their homes, kind of an amazement.

But Mary's still outside the tomb, and this is where we start. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping, and so she wept and stooped and looked. Here we are again. She stooped and looked into the tomb, and she saw the ereo, that's the theater word, she's involved with the subject, two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. and they said to her, it's interesting, I found out that, you know, just going through that I found out, but it's there in scripture, angels ask questions a lot, and so does the Lord, when he interfaces with people, he asks them questions, and here's one of the cases, so the angels, they ask her a question, woman, why are you weeping? And her answer is, I'm waiting for the risen Lord, no, She says, she said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, if you compare my Lord, earlier she said the Lord, now this is a very personal response, my Lord, she said they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. So she's convinced that somebody has taken the Lord away, and that's her prime concern, we've gotta find him, that's my mission. So apparently Mary had returned to him after she had met with Peter and John or informed them. And interesting, she beheld the angel attentively but was not frightened. You notice many times in scripture when angels show up, people fall flat in their face, right? They start worshiping them.

She didn't do that. She answered the question they asked her and she didn't seem to be frightened because she was focused. The word, my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him, kind of show her sense of personal loss. She wants to find his body. She feels that's just, I just got to do that. It's important. And that was constable.

Okay, then we keep going with Mary. She continues still. She hasn't moved anywhere. She just, okay. When she has said this, she turned around and saw the Areo, that's that theater word again, Jesus standing there. and did not know that it was Jesus. And that actually doesn't seem to be unusual, because we have other accounts, like on the road to Emmaus, where they didn't know it was Jesus. So she didn't recognize him at first. So here, now Jesus is going to ask her the same question the angel asked her, and then an additional question. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you seeking? So this is Mary, supposing him to be the gardener, she said, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. And I was kind of telling Bonnie about this and she said, she's going to do that? She's going to take him away?

Okay, she'll need some help there probably, but anyway, her heart was in the right place. And one commentator said, we're so thankful that Mary was totally wrong. He was risen. What if she was right and she found his body? We'd be in big trouble. So anyway.

She beheld him attentively and did not recognize him for who he was. Mary would be, as I mentioned before, Mary would be the first to see the risen Lord, not Peter or John. They would see him, that would be like his second appearance with Peter and John and the rest of the disciples. And here's this, Constable points this out, he said, no Jewish author in ancient times would have invented a story with a woman as a first witness in the most important event. They just didn't do it.

I'm sorry, women were not of high rank, and actually the Lord exalted women in his whole ministry, he always did. Interestingly enough, he came to Mary first. Again, Mary was looking for the body of Christ, not a risen, living Savior. Okay, so part three of Mary. And this is the cool part.

Jesus said to her, Mary, and she turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father, but I go to my brethren. Said and say to them to go to my brother and say to them I ascend to my father and your father my God and your God Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples. I have seen the Lord and He had said these things to her so let's think about some of the words in here so she says to him stop clinging to me and And I was thinking about, have you ever been with a person, there's a few people in my life I've been around, that when you haven't seen them in a long time, they kind of grab onto you. You can't do it in the COVID days, but you know, in the old times, they would grab, and they would just want to talk to you. They'd grab your hand, I want to talk to you, don't move, you can't go anywhere, I got to tell you something. Well, this seems like that was, she was just saying, wow, I got, I want to tell him something.

And so what he says to her is basically, and this is Macaulay's kind of observation, not to delay the Lord's ascending. And if you look at the tense of that verb there, it's the idea that his ascension is in progress. He's ascending to the Father and don't slow me down. That's kind of the idea.

And then secondly, and this one I'm not quite sure I totally agree with. He says that, the colleague kind of says, well, that's, she has to learn that her fellowship's gonna change. She won't be able to talk to the Lord face to face anymore. She's gonna have to talk to him, you know, through prayer and that sort of thing. So that's, anyway, that's his observation. This is interesting.

She speaks of my God and your God, not our God. Christ speaks of my God and your God, not our God. So, you know, what this kind of indicates is, I think, and I've come across this before, he talks about his relationship, the my God part that Christ says, is that that's his That's his co-equal. He's co-equal with the Father. So he has a God-to-God relationship, whereas believers, we also have a man-to-God relationship. And even though we have Christ in us, it's a different, and Christ points it out, my God versus your God.

So I thought that's interesting. So now we move on to the disciples. So he's appeared to Mary and talked with her, and she's reported that to the disciples. So when it was evening on that day, and that day is still Resurrection Day, the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you.

And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. So we're gonna see a lot about the Lord talking about his hands and his side. And actually, one of those, Thomas, is gonna be really picky-oony. He's gonna say, you know, I gotta see that now. I just gotta see it right in his hand. I don't know, I gotta put my hand in his side. I mean, whoa, this guy, you know.

But you know, if you think about it, Rising from the dead was not an everyday occurrence. Okay, so that day is Resurrection Day and the doors were closed and locked, which in the resurrection body, so good news, you won't have to worry about doors when you have your resurrection body. You can go right through doors. Maybe you won't have to worry about doors, so anyway.

Okay, here's an interesting observation. In Shalom, which is approximately peace be with you, on Easter evening, is like it is finished on the cross. It's a complimentary statement. For the peace of reconciliation of the life from God is now imparted.

Okay, so that's the first meeting with the disciples without Thomas present. So then we have the account of Thomas doubting the Lord's resurrection, but Thomas, one of the 12, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, we have seen the Lord, but he said to them, unless I see in his hands, the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails. So he wants to put his finger right into where the nail was. That's pretty. And put my hand into his side.

I will not believe. So he just kind of, this is it. This is what I've got to see before I'm going to believe. So Thomas, he proves that disciples were not expecting a resurrected Savior. And he insists upon personal, visual, and tactile evidence. So now this is a cool section.

And after eight days, so we have resurrection day, and then we have eight days later, the disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them, and Jesus came, and the doors having been shut, and stood there in their midst and said, peace be with you. And he said to Thomas, reach here with your finger and see my hands. Okay, actually I know it's a plural, that's interesting. Reach here with your hand, so you reach with your finger and see my hand, reach here with your hand and put it into my side.

Do not be, and be is important, unbelieving but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. And Jesus said to him, he said two things, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those, blessed are they, who do not see and yet believe. So let's just look at that. So Thomas is convinced that Jesus is alive, but more than that, he acknowledges him as deity, as God, basically. My Lord and my God.

And then next, So this word be, Jesus uses the word be. He says, back up there and right above the verse 28, it says, do not be unbelieving, but believing. Using be as the word genomai, which means to become. It was invitation to come into a new state of being, a believing state. Invitation to change his mindset.

And you could say that he accepted that invitation and he did believe. entrusted him and then another thing though it says let's go back here it says blessed blessed are they who did not see and yet believe and blessed is the idea of God's favor. God is pleased. When men and women come to put their faith and trust in Christ, that pleases God. So He says, blessed are those who did not see. They can't touch the Lord. They can't verify their doubts about the Savior. They can't touch Him, but they believe what His Word has said. They believe and they did not see.

So that's pretty cool. That's us. So now, I'd like to Kind of wind forward to 2021. Real fast. So what's happening in 2021? So, you know, you say, wow, I wish I was there. I wish I could have been Mary. I wish I could have been Thomas. I wish I could have done all those things, touch the Lord.

How does God operate in 2021? So I think this verse, which was given actually before the account in chapter 20 tells us, how the Holy Spirit is going to minister to us after Christ's leave. So starting in verse 16, it's 16 verse 7, it says, But I tell you the truth, this is Christ speaking, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. concerning sin, because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. So let's go through this, hopefully we'll get some insights. I actually learned a couple of neat things along the way, and here it's just really cool. So let's start off. But I tell you the truth.

At this point, if you look at the context of chapter 16, Christ is telling him he's going to leave, he's going to go back to his father, and And they're upset. They're overcome with sorrow. So this is, he's kind of saying, hey, we've got a plan here. There's a plan in place. And here's the plan. But I tell you the truth. And he expressed this many times, this affirmation that what he's saying is true. I'm telling you nothing but the truth, says the Amplified Bible.

It's to your advantage that I go away. And you can say, imagine, I'm not sure I can imagine that being with the Lord like that. It's gonna be to our advantage you go away. I don't get this. This can't be true. This cannot be true. You're gonna leave and it's gonna be to my advantage? Huh? I know. Like Mary. Mary wasn't gonna let him go. She's gotta hold him. You're gonna stay here and we're gonna talk. Going away wasn't something they were thinking about, but this is God's plan. Advantage to the idea, it's profitable, good, expedient. Now Christ will tell them why this is so in two statements.

Okay, and the two statements are, if I do not go away, the helper will not come. And secondly, and it says, or I must leave for the helper to come. And then secondly, if I go, I will send the helper to you. Helper is this word perikletos, maybe. One who comes alongside to help. It's called Comforter in the King James. And there's a beautiful verse here in John 14. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper, that He may be with you forever. And the word helper here, and when He says that word another, this helper is another of the same kind. So we see introduced here, He's a person. He's God the Holy Spirit.

So we see the introduction of the Holy Spirit by Christ and His mission. And we'll see in all this context, I'm kind of focusing on the world or the unbeliever today, but there's a whole ministry which we read in these verses about His ministry to the believers. He's to show them the things of Christ. He's to bring all things to their remembrance. So there's so, and Mike has a whole class on the Holy Spirit. So there's a lot The ministry of the Holy Spirit to the believer is amazing. But right now I just want to focus on the unbeliever for today. And when he comes, so he's going to come, you know in scripture we see that described on Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

He will convict, this word convict, I like the word convince. It's to bring the facts to light by use of proof. So he's going to, his desire, the Holy Spirit's desire is to show people the reality of who they are and who Christ is and what he's done. That's what he wants to do. Whether you call it convict or convince, it probably doesn't matter. And in this case he wants to, he says when he comes he will convict the world concerning three things.

The world is the cosmos, the human race, mankind, etc. So the Holy Spirit has a special office in regards to the world, distinct from that which He exercises toward the believers. Concerning, this is this word peri, about, about sin, righteousness and judgment. So now the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the unsaved world. But before we do that, Before we look at those three things, sin and righteousness and judgment, let's look at this.

And this was really, this is one of the cool things I kind of came across. So Macaulay points out that if you look through Scripture, you're going to see that the ministry of the Holy Spirit in terms of, or the ministry of conviction or convincing. How does God want to convince man that he has need for a Savior? How does he want to accomplish that? Well, the first part we're just reading, the Holy Spirit is the source of conviction. Right? He's going to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. But what does the Holy Spirit use? Well, it's not, you know, He's going to use God's Word.

And we see that in 2 Timothy 3.16, all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, which is actually the same word, convict or convince. So God's Word is profitable for teaching, also for showing people, for convincing them of their need of a Savior. This is no great revelation, but just kind of all together, so we got the source of the Holy Spirit, the means is God's Word, and the third part of the puzzle, what do you want to guess? Us. Man, human messengers, and believers, is the agent of conviction.

And we see that in Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4.2. Timothy is exhorted to preach the word, to be ready in season and out of season. And here's our word again, to convict or convince. It's translated reprove here. Too bad actually in some ways. I never saw this connection until I studied this today, or this last week.

So three things, the source is the Holy Spirit, the means is God's Word, and believers, as J. Vernon McGee says, our total job is to get God's Word out. When we get God's Word out, then the Holy Spirit can use that Word to convince people of their need for a Savior.

Boy, this was just wow. It just put it together in a way I hadn't seen before. It's just exciting. I think it's wonderful. Hopefully that's exciting for you. And people that are listening on Zoom, God's word is where it's at. That's what the Holy Spirit will use to convince you of your need for the Lord Jesus. Okay, so now let's look at the three aspects.

Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. And this might be a real shock to some people. It won't be a shock to you guys, but a lot of people, if you're listening, that have never thought much about it, this might be a shock. Concerning sin, armatea, to miss the mark, the noun sin is singular, not plural. It's sin, singular, not sins. because it could be translated namely, so he's saying concerning sin namely, they do not believe in me.

So the second clause indicates a singular sin which God wants to convince us about. It's the sin of unbelief. It's the sin of unbelief about his son, about the Savior. God's not concerned. The relationship to Christ is a singular issue for the unbeliever.

Actually, I thought I had another point You know the thing here is it's not the issue of It's not a list of my sins. I'm not waiting for the Lord to Take care, you know, I'm not saying well Lord when I get all these things taken care of then I can believe in you No, he says settle the issue about my son believe in my son and that's a starting point in your life and Actually, I thought I had another point here, but anyway, okay. Concerning righteousness.

Because I go to the Father and you see me and no longer see me. So righteousness is this word, I won't try to pronounce it. The character or quality of being right or just is used to denote an attribute of God. Because I, Christ, go to the Father and you no longer see me.

So righteousness spoken here is a kind that enables Christ to go directly into the presence of the Father. Righteousness is His righteousness and therefore perfect. The Holy Spirit enlightens the unbeliever, revealing that only the righteousness acceptable to God is the righteousness of Christ, who is therefore man's only hope for salvation. So he's telling us that It's, we're depending totally upon Christ's righteousness, not our own righteousness.

That's kind of the message I take away from this. And I would agree, the last two parts of this, I find hard to, you know, the sin part is, it's just so clear. The righteousness part, I understand. But, you know, anyway, that's just my struggle with this. The righteousness part, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on concerning righteousness, but I go to the Father, they no longer see me.

It's, you know, you're depending totally upon Christ is the message. And then the third part concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. Judge here is frequently used in the forensic sense, especially of divine judgment, a decision or so. Because the ruler of this world has been judged, the ruler of this world is Satan, and his judgment is complete.

And we see that in Hebrews 2.14.

He himself, speaking of Christ, also partook of the same flesh, flesh and blood, and through death that he might render powerless, for you Greek geeks, that's our favorite word, to put offline, to put in neutral, from Romans 6, 6. So not only did he put offline to render inoperative, render powerless our sin nature, he rendered powerless Satan in regards to us, which is wonderful. Him who had the power of death that is the devil if cheap if the chief opponent of God has been judged Then then what of his followers? bringing to Christ is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. So it seems like the takeaway from this is that God has judged Satan, he's a judged being, he's still out there doing his business, but he is, in terms of the believer, has been rendered powerless. And so he wants us to realize that God is a judge, but Christ has taken our place and we will not be judged. We put our faith and trust in him. Actually, this is the part where I had this, and it's funny, I had it in my mind, and I got ahead of myself. You know how that is. Okay, so final thoughts. I have like four charts. I really got carried away here. Final thoughts is using one chart. Why? I'm taking four charts. So bear with me here.

Since only the sin of unbelief separates a person from Christ, Not good or bad actions. And most people are so hung up on this. Well, it's my bad actions or it's my good actions. I don't need God. I'm a good person. Don't you realize that, Roger? I'm a good person. I do all these good things. Well, God's not asking you to be a good person. He's asking you to believe in His Son. That's what it's all about. So what must a person believe about Christ for God to accept him and receive him and for him to have the gift of eternal life? So I have a set of three slides, maybe four. The following slides will give us the basic information to be believed about the person and work of Christ in securing our salvation. So first of all, we start off with man's condition.

And this is something that I've had the opportunity to share, the gospel, the good news about Christ, many times here at Holly Hills. And the more I do it, the more I see and I understand, wow. But you've got to start. You talk to some people and they say, well, Roger, why do I need that?

I'm good. I've got a mask. I've got a vaccine. I'm good. Hey, what's your problem? I don't need that. I'm good. Well, if you look at God's Word, you're not good. You're in trouble. So man's condition. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All mankind has sinned, literally to miss the mark, the righteousness of God. Remember our dear brother Hal with his target, big bull's eye, and the target, that's God's righteousness at the center of that target. They missed the mark. Also, they have fallen short to fall into something, not to reach it.

God's glory is His very essence. He's holy and righteous and just. All men are under sin. This is another aspect of this. All men are under sin. They're held down and subject to His power and control. Man says, oh, I'm free. I'm free to do whatever I want. They're not. They're not free. They're being held down by sin.

So what was God's response? His response to man's condition is God's love. Very familiar verse, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God's love has been extended to everyone. He took the action first. You know, that's key.

Don't wait till you get a feeling. Some people ask me, well, I don't think I can love God. I don't think I can love God. Well, you're looking at the wrong end of it. Look at, marvel at His love for you, and then your love for Him will come. Look at His love for you first.

That's what He's trying to tell us here. He gave His Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins. and their salvation in no one else, so that everyone who believes or exercises faith or trust, you know, belief, faith, and trust are all approximately the same Greek word, just variations, belief, trust, and faith, so whatever word you like, just do it, in Jesus Christ, and will not perish, but have eternal life. So what do we need to understand and believe? So it's the gospel, which is given in 1 Corinthians 15, For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried and He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. So let's just look at their, there's a bunch of action verbs here. Christ died for our sins on behalf of our sins as our substitute.

Christ was buried. He only buried a dead man. And he was definitely dead, right? They wrapped him up and all that stuff. He was dead. Okay? Christ was raised. We just saw that. Was raised up again since it was impossible for him to be held in his power. And that's the part I don't think the disciples really got. They didn't see that it was impossible for him to be held in his power. God can't die is one way to look at it. He can give us, that's kind of an oxymoron. God can die, but I can't die. Well, anyway, that's for another session. Anyway, okay, so finally, and this is a passage in Acts with the Philippian jailer.

And it says, after he, the flipping jailer, brought them out, Paul and Silas, he said to them, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said to him, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. And just a footnote, some people have asked me, well, Roger, does household get a free ride here? No, they didn't get a free ride. They had to believe too, so.

Anyway, so the message is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Well hopefully what I went through today will be helpful to you both in presenting the gospel to be excited about getting God's word out and letting the Holy Spirit convince or convict men and women of their need for a Savior. So let's just close in prayer and we'll have some music. We have some great music today. Dear Father, we thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for the blessings we have. Thank you for just our time today. In Christ's name. Amen.