Welcome to another message from the Gospel Loop. We're almost finished. We're in the last chapter, chapter number 24. We're talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is covered in 24, 1-12. The cross-reference to this chapter and verse is Matthew 28, 1-10 and Mark 16, 1-8 and John 20, 1-10. But in the first day of the week, The word Sabbath means, it means completion is what it actually means. Sometimes it's used, the word Sabbath is used to refer to the week. And this word here, Sabaton, is of the weeks, or of the week. The first day of the week, which is Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the week. The Sabbath is not Sunday. The Sabbath has never been Sunday. The Sabbath is Friday evening at 6 p.m. to Saturday evening at 6 p.m. That is the Sabbath. The Catholic Church made the Sabbath Sunday by Constantine the Great, and then later on it was enforced again. The Sabbath has never been Sunday. Sunday is the first day of the week. Now, in the first day of the week, The word, the one day of the week, is what it literally says, the one day of the week. While still very early, or through, bathios, while still very early, upon the tomb they came, carrying, now, which they prepared spices. Mary, Magdalene, and Mary. And Matthew 4 and 21 cross-reference to this. This is who they are. 24 in verse 2, Uron de ton Lithon, Apo kei lys menon, Apo tu menon meo. And they found the stone having been rolled away from the tomb, from the mouth of the tomb, from the mouth of the place of remembering. They found the Lithon, the stone, having been rolled away from the tomb. Now let me go into this for just a moment. The garden tomb at Gethsemane looks a lot like the tomb where Jesus was buried. It's got a big flat stone that rolled in a trough way and they rolled it up and they sealed it around the edge. And up to the right, you can see Calvary. And it looks like Golgotha. But historically, and probably most valid, is the tomb of Jesus which the Catholic Church has built around, the Holy Grotto, the tomb of Jesus. As far as we can see, as it would look, it would be like Gordon's tomb. Now, Gordon's tomb most probably is not where Jesus was buried. But he was buried. And the earliest of all the sites where he's buried, and even the pagans built a temple on top of that site to mark the sites in all reality. They tried to do away with it. But it's probably the holy grotto, the holy tomb there in Jerusalem. And they found this tomb having been rolled away from the tomb. That was the door. 24 in verse 3, et el thusei, dei uch hiron, tol soma tu curio esu. But having entered, not they found the body of the Lord Jesus. They did not find the body of the Lord Jesus when they entered the tomb. The Bible describes a tomb just exactly like Gordon's tomb. I have been in that tomb and I've looked at that hill where Golgotha was. And I'm telling you, it affects you emotionally. Tremendously, it did me. Now this is probably what it looked like. When you walk into that tomb and you go in, over here to the side is a basin where they put dead bodies. And there it is, just exactly like the Bible describes it. But many tombs were like that at that time. They walked in there, and they looked, and the body of Jesus was gone. 24 in verse 4. Kai agento ento apo riste. Altas perituto kai edo. Andres dio, apesteson, etes, en esthigte, astratose, that is. And it came to pass, or it became, or it happened for itself, in the to be astonished, perplexed, present infinity middle boys. They were absolutely struck out of their senses. They were astonished. They were amazed. They were shocked. Now, concerning this thing, all of you out there, I want you to think of something right now. What if you went to the graveyard to the cemetery where your mother and father were buried. And you went there and all of a sudden the headstone was gone, the bodies were gone, or whatever was gone. They're gone. I think you would be in shock. And these people were in shock when this happened to them. They were in shock. They were astonished. They were grieving. Grieving. My wife, Great-grandmother is buried out at Union Cemetery in Bakersfield, California. It's an old cemetery. And in America, in many ways, even cemeteries are not respectful of the people that are buried there. I have a student that worked for the county for many years. He went out to Kern River. And there was a truck out there, a dump truck, dumping headstones in the edge of the river. Now, they put concrete and all kinds of stuff in the edge of the river, keeping the river from washing the bank away. But he went out there and looked at these headstones, and they were all back in the 1800s, real old. And he said to himself, he said, there's only one place in Bakersfield that had headstones this old, and that's Union Cemetery. We went out there in the potter's field where my wife's great-grandmother was buried and the headstone was gone. Gone. It had been dumped. I went there and I asked them, because Joaquin Marietta's men were all buried out there. That's Zorro. His men were, several of the men, not all of them, but several of the men were buried at Union Cemetery. And I asked them the different names of these that are buried. They said, they're not here. They're not here. They're not here. They were moved. Well, when you get a long time ago, nobody's going to be alive to go back out there and even bother to go by a headstone to see if he was even there. Many cemeteries have been moved across the nation. They put in lakes. over passes, roads, right over cemeteries. They moved some of them. Billy, the kid's mother's grave was moved. These people were in shock because the most important person in their world, the body, was no longer there. They were shocked, according to this saying, and behold, men too. They stood by them in clothing shining Astra Tucson. Shining like a star. Shining like a comet in the sky. Present participle activity. This kept on shining. 24 in verse 5 now. Im phobon de genomenon auton chi clinuson ta prosopa eis te gade A-pon-pros-al-tes-ti-ze-te-te-ton-zon-ton-meta-ton-necron. And following further, that's a little weak adversity conjunctive particle day there. Page 85 if you want to look it up. Analytical Greek lexicon. And they were overflowing with fear. They were overflowing with fear. They were terrified. and having become them bending, bowing their heads, their faces unto the earth. Terrifying. About 1985, here in Fish Lake Valley, about nine miles directly that way, My son and I were driving back from the hot well out there. We had taken a bath out there. Water's 105 degrees. And it was springtime and kind of light in the evening, the stars shining, clear day. And I looked out there and I saw something. I saw a man walking. And I thought he was broke down someplace, because people get broke down here, they go to lights. That's what happens out in the boondocks like this. The restaurant down there near the dire post office is called the boonies, because we're in the boonies, people. Well, out there in the boonies and the boondocks, I was going out there, and I saw this man walking. And he was walking really fast and looked like he was going to cut me off. And the road went up like that, and then come back down around. And I said, well, he'll cut me off down there, and he must live here, because he knows where the road is. I didn't say anything to my son. I just had it in my head. We went up there and down we go. And the guy walked across the road in front of us. But it wasn't a guy. It was a Sasquatch, a Bigfoot. And I didn't believe in Bigfoot at all. I was terrified. My son was very curious. He grabbed the flashlight. He grabbed the spotlight. I had a .44 Magnum sitting in the seat that I'd been shooting coyotes and a pistol. with the coyotes and rattlesnakes and stuff, jackrabbits. And he grabbed the light and tried to shine it out. And I put it down and said, leave that thing alone. And I took off. And maybe you've heard the story before, but we went on down the road. We finally got down there seven miles. He wanted to get out and look for it. And I said, leave it alone. I didn't want to have anything to do with that thing. There was an aura around there that was terrifying to me. And I left. From that time on, I believe in Bigfoot. If you want to go look up that story, go on Google and Google it. Bigfoot sighting near Dyer, Nevada. Terrified, overflowing with fear, and having become them, bending their faces toward the earth. Their faces, their heads were hanging in grief. And they spoke to them. Why do you seek the living among the ones dead? Why do you seek the living among the dead? Now this is the women. Now let's see what happens, 24 and verse 6. Not he is here, But he was raised, the Anastasia, the resurrection. He was raised. You remember when and how he spoke to you, yet being in Galilee. Remember what he said to you when he was in Galilee? He told you, I'm going to die, I'm going to be raised again. I preach a couple of messages on the resurrection. If you want to go listen to them in there, I go into great detail. in the resurrection. By the way, historically, if you look historically in records, talk the resurrection, external evidence of the resurrection. I preached one time the external evidence, extra-biblical evidence of the life, the birth, the life, miraculous ministry, and the death of Jesus Christ. Look at all the historical evidence of his life, his death, burial, and resurrection. There's more in history than there is in the Bible, even though we've got four Gospels and Acts and all of the letters, 27 books in the New Testament, that all talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Legon ton hwion tu anthropou, hote de para delthene, eis keros anthropou, harmat tolon kai staro dolthene. Now, these angels are talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that's what they're talking about. Saying, the Son of the Man, because it is bindingly necessary to be delivered and betrayed unto hands of men sinful, and to be crucified. It is bindingly necessary. Matthew 16, 21 tells the same story here. 24B, 24-7B. Caete trite haemera anastene. And in the third day to rise again, on the third day to rise again, Jesus told Nicodemus, Behold, the Son of Man must be lifted up. If I be lifted up, I'll draw on men unto me. They asked for a sign. He said, I'll give you another sign to Jonah. Jonah was dead, D-A-A-D, for three days in the belly of that great fish, whatever it was. He was dead. A lot of people say, oh, well, you know, people have lived through being swallowed by whales and all this kind of bloating. Jonah was dead. He was resurrected and spit out on the seashores of Nineveh. On the shore, not seashore, but the shore of Nineveh out of that great river. And here's another little story you might think about, too, while you're doing that. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, which was northeast. He took off and went straight west. He was going to go to Spain, Tarsus. He got in a boat and went the opposite direction. He did not want to preach to Nineveh. They were the enemies of God's people, he thought. He went out there in that Mediterranean Sea, and he got into a great big storm, and he finally told them, he says, it's my fault, we're gonna die out here in this storm, throw me overboard, and they did, and all of them believed, by the way, all of them believed and made sacrifices unto Jehovah God. All of them believed, they were pagans, but now they believe. Every time Jonah preached, everybody believed. Boy, I wish that would happen when I preached. He was thrown into the deep of the sea. He was swallowed by a great sea monster of some sort. A great fish, a dog, is what it says. And in the belly of the fish, while he was dead, because as he said, he lifted up his eyes and shio, and he spoke out, and God heard his voice, and he went and had that fish fly through the air or swim all the way around. For three days, he was dead in that fish's belly. For three days, that fish would swim all the way from the Mediterranean Sea, around the Horn of Africa, up into the Indian Ocean, and up in the Persian Gulf. And up that river. And go up there and spit him out. This is over more than 10,000 miles of swimming. Or he put him straight up in the air, and he jumped. from the Mediterranean into that river, whichever way I believe it. But it's a lot more fantastic than what people just say. That was a great miracle, people, a great miracle. Jonah was dead for three days. He wasn't alive in that belly of that fish. And the third day to rise again. 24 in verse 8, kai em ne sason ton rematon auton. And they remembered the words, the edicts, the speeches, the prophecies belonging to Him, Jesus. 24, 9, kai hipo strep se the, opo tu menemeneu, Talta, Ponta, Tois, Indeka, Kai, Possin, Tois, Loipois. And having returned from the tomb, they reported these things to the 11, the 11 apostles that were left. And all the ones remaining in this area, they were afraid. Their savior, the king of Israel, had been killed. And there was a death warrant out on all of them. They were on the hit list of the Sanhedrin. 2410, eisandei hei Magdalene Maria, kai ewanei, kai Maria yekebu, kai hei loipei, sine altois elegon prostus apostolus tauta. And they kept on being the Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, and the ones remaining with them, they kept on saying to the ones apostles these things. They kept on repeating over and over and over again what they had seen. When I saw that Bigfoot people, I didn't tell anybody for a while. I did not have that thing settled in my mind. I did not have it settled at all. But I know I saw what I saw. Now these people kept on talking, they kept on talking, they kept on talking. Iphaneson, Enhopion, Auton, Jose, Leros, Ta, Rimata, Tata, Kai, Episton, Autos. And they seemed in the presence of them as if they were telling foolish stories, Leros. Foolish fairy tales. The words, these. And they kept on disbelieving them. These are the disciples of Jesus. They don't believe he's been raised from the dead. They saw him die on that cross. This was another supernatural power that come directly from God. Now some manuscripts do not contain verse 12, but we'll read it anyway. And the Peter, having stood up, he ran to the tomb. And having stooped down, he saw the grave close only, and he departed and left by himself. struck out of his senses, the things having become." Now, the oldest manuscript don't have this. Somebody put it in there later. But there's nothing wrong with it. Theologically, there's nothing wrong with that at all. Now let's read 24 verses 1 through 12. But on the first day of the week at early dawn, the women went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had made ready. And they found the stone rolled back from the tomb. But when they went inside, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. Now, when they went to the tomb and other ones, they were worried about how they're going to get somebody to roll the stone back. But now the stone's rolled back. In another place, they thought the men were there were gardeners taking care of the tomb area and the garden there. And they asked him, where is the Lord? Did you see where they take the Lord? And they were angels. So these are all the stories rolled up in the wall. But when they went inside, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And while they were perplexed and wondering what to do about this, behold, two men in dazzling raiment, star-gazzling, star-shining, starry raiment, suddenly stood beside them. As the women were frightened and were bowing their faces to the ground, the man said to them, why do you look for the living among the dead ones? He is not here, but He is risen. Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee. That the Son of Man must be given over into the hands of sinful men, and that is, men whose way of nature is to act in opposition to God and be crucified on the third day, raised from the dead, according to Psalm 16 and verse 10. This was prophecy. And they remembered His words. And having returned from the tomb, they reported all these sayings taken together to the 11 apostles and to all the rest of those remaining. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Johanna and Mary, the mother of James, reported these sayings to the apostles. But these reports seemed to be men, idle tales, madness, feigned things, nonsense, fairy tales, and they did not believe the women. And then verse 12, which is Suspect. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, stepping down and looking in. He saw the linen clothes alone by themselves, and he went away wondering about and marveling at what had happened. Now at another place, it said, yes, he did run to the tomb, and John was with him. Both of them had gone. Somebody entered, placed this in this area, in this gospel. I hope that you have learned something from this message. I hope that it's touched your heart because Jesus is our Lord. He died on the cross of Calvary, but he didn't stay there. The Catholics have it wrong. They have a crucifix and all their churches with Jesus hanging on that cross. Jesus is not on the cross. He's not there. They got it wrong. Jesus is risen. He died. He died once and he's risen forevermore. Our Heavenly Father, we send this message out to your children and to those that may not know you, that maybe they will hear your word. Maybe a year from now or two years from now or whenever your word is valid for centuries and millennia. Father, I pray that you convict hearts of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. and that you save souls as they hear your word spoken. Father, forgive me where I fail you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.