We are in John chapter 20. It's kind of human nature to figure this out over the years, but especially in athletics, when you push really hard for something in basketball, you get to a tournament or something, you train for this tournament and you give all you can. for the tournament and play hard as you can. Boy, Monday is the most pathetic practice there ever was that ever existed. It's like, I already did everything. It's like, I can't even get back in the gym on Monday. It's like this lull. Everybody's like, really? We're dead, right? But over the years, I've learned this, that on those particular Mondays, just enjoy the ride. It's the same way a lot of times spiritually. I don't know if this has anything to do with the sermon, but spiritually, it's like you plan all year for Easter. We do all these things and come every day, we eat, all the stuff we do. It's like the climax of the year, and rightfully so. It's like the next Sunday, you're like, do we have to go back? I mean, really? I mean, we've already done it all, and so it's kind of like a lull, and everybody's just kind of going through the process. Well, if I could say anything to you this morning, just enjoy the ride. You say, man, we had the resurrection last week and now we're preaching John 20 and the resurrection again. Yep, that's what we're doing. I'm not going to skip it. No matter how you feel today and no matter how I feel today, the resurrection is still good. And so, you know, I did a little race yesterday, and if I ride tomorrow, it'd just be relax and look at the scenery ride. So, I don't know, this morning, relax and look at the scenery. Try not to go to sleep, because I'm going to call you out and say, hey, wake up. But let's look at the text this morning. This is John 20, verses 1 through 10. I tried to twist the title and the points a little bit to make a different application today. The title of the sermon is The Ongoing Responses. to the resurrection. We're always responding to it in some form or fashion, so ongoing responses. John 20, 1-10. Now, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early. while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, notice she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb And we, you notice the change, she's there by herself and then she speaks plural, we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running, so we have running again, they're running together. But the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and you'll note he saw and believed, saw and believed. For as yet, they did not understand the scripture, singular reference to scripture, having something to do with the containment of all of the Old Testament. They haven't comprehended it all together at this point. that he must rise from the dead, meaning the Old Testament scripture taught the resurrection of Christ. They just hadn't understood it all and got it all together yet, but it's happening. Verse 10, then the disciples went back to their homes. Classic case of I don't know what to do. My Lord has risen and I don't know where he's at, and they went back home. Well, I know the introduction is going to sound like regurgitated mumbo-jumbo, but it's all right. Let me at least have the liberty to glance through this again just to introduce where we're at. But Jesus has finished what was required for Him in the Scripture. He's accomplished it, fulfilled it perfectly. He did not leave anything lacking that was necessary to fulfill the law. That's good news because we can't keep it. But He fulfilled every aspect of it, all the commandments. He never sinned in word, thought, or deed. And then it's important for us to know nobody took His life. bowed his head, the subject in control of the action, the subject Jesus bows his head and he willingly gives up his spirit. So death comes when he tells death to come. He dies a bodily death, he didn't feign, he didn't swoon, he didn't pass out, he died. He was pierced with a spear, blood and water came from his body. His body was taken down from the tree by Joseph of Arimathea, assisted by Nicodemus in the preparation to honor the Lord's body at his death and to give him an honorable burial in the tomb that Joseph of Arimathea had cut out for himself. His grave was sealed with a large stone, the Roman authorities. He was guarded by Roman soldiers until the third day. You often wonder a little bit about those guys guarding the tomb. I don't know what went on, but they're guarding the stone and now the stone's not in front of the tomb. I don't know where they went. The rock moved, and they panicked and took off running. I have no idea, but it moves. The seal is broken, and Jesus is resurrected. Now it is called the first day of the week, and Jesus is no longer in the grave. All right, so let's recap a bit. Now for John, if you understand John's writing and understand what he's been doing over however many years we've been preaching through this book. For John to stop with chapter 19, it would just be ludicrous. You can't talk to John without talking about the resurrection. You can't divorce death from resurrection. They have to stay together. Nothing is more certain to John than the route that Jesus is taking to go to his Father, which is going to be via the cross, but the cross is not the end. He's never going to divorce cross from resurrection. For John, the climax is always going to be, as grand as the cross is and all that it means, justification, adoption, atonement, propitiation, expiation, all these glorious words are all there, but there's this resurrection. We've got to keep this connected together. It's upon this immutable fact, resurrection, I just want you to hear it. Like I say, enjoy the ride, but it's this immutable fact that all of Christianity is founded on. resurrection truth. You just let it sink in. Here are grown men who hide in a house because of fear of the Jews. Here are grown men, when their leader is nailed to a tree, they can't be found. And then, like a day later, right in your face, standing in Solomon's portico saying, repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and I don't care who tells me to do this or do that, you judge whether it's right in the sight of God or man, but we cannot help but to speak the things of God. What happened? Resurrection. Resurrection happened, and upon that immutable fact, they were willing to die. and did a martyr's death, many of them for sure. They no longer hid in fear, but they boldly stood in the public. Make a note of that. Not all preaching goes on in the church. They stood in public and declared the truth of the resurrected Christ. A short thesis statement, the resurrection was the catalyst for immediate verbal communication. The resurrection is a catalyst for immediate verbal communication. Process this. Mary Magdalene did not go to seminary. None of the other ladies went to seminary. They're not preachers and they can't hold the office of pastor. But immediately they want to talk about the resurrection. The disciples, same way, they could not help but speak of these things. This is immediate logical response. If that doesn't, you don't get it, let me help the men in the room. When you hook a 12 pound bass and you land him in the boat, your mouth opens. It's just what happens. Nowadays you take a picture and immediately what? Send to friends. Post. You want everybody to know and you never say, well I'm not very good at communicating. You never say that because you're caught up in the reality of the fish and you just want the world to know. I'm thinking Christ is bigger than a 12 pound bass. We just can't help but to talk about this one who's in the boat. Okay. Initial response, verse one and two, specifically Mary Magdalene. Not a lot of information about Mary Magdalene, but we do know something. She is the one who was possessed with seven demons. May this be an encouragement to you. I think it's great. The first person who sees the resurrected Christ is not Peter. It's not John, but Mark bears it out very clearly. The first person to behold the resurrected Lord is Mary Magdalene, a demon-possessed woman, at least in her history. Isn't it marvelous that God is so gracious? He first reveals himself to this demon-possessed woman. She had seven demons, and the Lord had cast those demons out of her. That's about all we know of her. But she's there, and if you read these accounts, you start getting a little bit confused. But nevertheless, it seems to me like Mary Magdalene was there before the sun came up, because the text says it was still dark. Then in Mark, you're going to find out that these other ladies joined her, but the sun had already risen. So she sees the Lord, she gets the other women, the other women were on the way. I don't know, but they all end up at the same place, at a tomb, and there's no body. She went to the tomb early. I'll just give you a shout out. It's not healthy to sleep a lot. Go to bed when the sun goes down and get some sleep. Get up early and seek the Lord. It's just a simple application. Go to bed early. Go to bed at 8 o'clock. Go to bed at 9 o'clock. You'll have no problem getting up at 5. That's 8 hours of sleep. You get up at 5 a.m., you open up the word of God, and you look for Jesus. It's just a good way to live. You say, when do you do that? Every day. Your whole life and then what happens is it becomes a habit and you just can't break it. You travel and you'll come all the way back from Honduras and you'll get in at one in the morning, five o'clock you're waking up because you're looking for Jesus. Your body becomes conditioned that way. For heaven's sake, go to bed. I just say it, there ain't nothing good that happens on planet earth after nine o'clock. That's just your position. Yeah, but I'm going to live with it. All right, she was the first person to see the resurrected Lord Jesus. It's worth getting up early. She observed that the stone had been taken away. I've come here to see this stone, here it is, and now all of this is moved, something has happened. And I love this, her initial response is to quickly run. No delay here, I have to tell somebody. Got to do it now. Now, it's kind of similar. When something's just so exciting that it grips you, you run, especially if the thing that grips you has something to do with love. Let me give you another example. There's this story in the Bible called the prodigal son. Remember this story, and the son goes off and squanders all these things and lives among the pigs and eats all this stuff. It's terrible, and he finally comes to himself and says, you know, my father's house, they got food. Well, the verse in Luke says, he arose and came to his father, this prodigal. He's coming back to his father. But he's a long way off, and his father saw him. He felt compassion and he ran. You see a picture of the Father running and embracing and kissing the Son. This is love, this is compassion, causes the running. I'm saying to you, if you don't have some level of excitement, some level of zeal about the resurrected Lord, you might want to check your love bank. How much love do you have for Christ? Because when there's true love for Christ there, there's an urgency about the things of Christ. I was a little bit humbled even yesterday as I met a man from Australia, had that classic Australian accent. It was a joy to talk to him. And here I am, the preacher, trying to figure out how to turn the conversation to the gospel. And he goes, He just starts talking, he says, you know, it's hard taking the gospel to people in Australia, because they're all atheists. So when you're preaching the gospel in Australia, and I'm like, okay, look, dude, I was going to get to the gospel. And he started talking about missions, and he started talking about Ukrainian refugees in German concentration camps, and I'm like, I never got a word in, because all he wanted to talk about was the gospel. I'm like, dude, I want to have a love like that, that I don't have to figure these things out, and just be natural. So it was a great joy to meet him. The miraculous truths, which the resurrection is, has a way of affecting the lips. It has a way of affecting them. Then we find Mary Magdalene, she says, we do not know where they laid him. So the singular is turned to the plural. In the Gospel of Mark, you can look there if you want or just note it, but Mark 16 verses 1 and 2. And we read there in that text, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Siloam brought spices so they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, now note in Mark, when the sun had risen, In John 20, before the sun came up, but now the sun has risen, they went to the tomb. So she's there by herself, and then she's there with the other women. And then also in Mark 16 verse 9, now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out the seven demons. So church history has always held Mary Magdalene to be the first to see the resurrected Lord. She came when it was dark, and these other ladies joined her. She went and told them, and they all came back. I'm not sure, but they all end up there, and so we do not know where they have laid Him. Now, it may not interest you. I don't know. Again, just enjoy the ride. Just think these things through. But this is a problem, this much I've told you of this text, this has become a large problem in Mexico. I assume it may be a large problem in other places of the world, but in Mexico it is a problem. Because they've read this text and they have concluded that we ought to have women preachers for the resurrection. So on the sunrise services in Mexico, most every sunrise service you go to is done by a woman preacher. You can ask Felipe about it. He's not happy about that. He's not giving up his preaching in that sense. But they've read this and so they've concluded that you ought to have women do your sunrise services. However, I would say to you this, there are only two words used in the Greek language here and all the other synoptics, there's only two Greek words used to say what these women did. One of them is the most basic word for speaking, which is lego, which is any kind of communication, and the other one is opengelo, which is kind of like when you make an announcement about something, like, hey, we're having a baby. It's an announcement about something. Okay, fine. Neither one of those two Greek words are ever used to validate the office of pastor, and they're never used to validate the gift of preaching. Look, there's nothing wrong with a woman communicating news about Jesus being resurrected from the dead. Communicate it all you want, not in the pulpit and not at the sunrise service behind the pulpit there. That's not it, but yes, freely talk about the Lord and look at text in a proper way. If you want to know about pastoring or the office of pastor, don't get your theology from Joyce Myers. Get your theology from the Bible and what Paul says to Timothy and how elders are to be qualified in order to lead in these positions. Alright, application to these things this morning. The lack of communication today about the resurrection of Jesus, I think it's very near to us having doubts about the resurrection. So we start doubting it to a certain degree, and when you doubt, you stop communicating as clearly. Take that to heart. The other thing, when something, this is the one I think is where we're at, this is where we are by the word Baptist Church a lot of times. When something becomes common, when something becomes common, communication dries up. Heard it all, seen it all, done it all. I already know this text. I already know that. I already know this. I've already heard about the resurrection. What time are we eating? Blah, blah, blah. And we just go through the motions because we're good church people. When something grows common, Communication dries up. We're not mesmerized. We're not marveling anymore that the tomb is empty. We moved on. We got over it. It's like, here's how conversations work. Do you remember? There was this thing, it's the alphabet. You got alphabet for everything, but here's the alphabet. There was a time when everybody had this COVID stuff. And it was spreading, and people are shutting down. And it's like, I could not talk to anybody on planet Earth without speaking about COVID. I'm like, I want to go somewhere where I can talk about something else. It was everywhere, everybody, the internet, blah, blah, blah, everybody's talking. Then there comes this turning point where people are like, I'm sick of talking about this. It got worse and it got worse. Then all of a sudden, I go to the airport and nobody mentions the word. It's like, where'd the conversation go? We're done talking about it, let's move on. This is a danger that we have, even with the resurrection. We talk about it at Easter. That was last Sunday, preacher. Move on. I don't want you to ever move on. When you lose marveling or being mesmerized at the miraculous victory of Christ being raised from the dead, there's lots of things going to happen in your heart. I don't want you to ever get over Christ being raised from the dead. You see the same things in sports. I mean like, you remember that year? Do you remember 29 years ago, 30, when the Cowboys made it to the Super Bowl? Come on, anybody listening? It's like, and then somewhere in the process now it's always next year. It's like we don't talk about this, I don't even remember who played, you might remember, but we don't talk about it because there's been like 30 other champions since then. You pick any team, it's the same with all teams, same with the Steelers, anybody, the conversation grows old, the victory's over, let's move on. The church can never move on from the resurrection. We can't do it. If we move on from this, where are we going? What are you going to do? You have to go down. So we need to be mindful of that. And so simply one other point of applications comes in a form kind of a question. But you would ask, in light of that, ask the Lord. It's simple. Lord, would you overwhelm me once again with the miraculous nature of Jesus' resurrection from the dead? I want to be stirred up about that once again. All right, point number two is the investigative response. By the way, if you missed it on point number one, the immediate logical thing to do was to tell someone. Number two, investigative response. You get Peter and John now, verses three through seven. You see there in your text, Peter went out, the other disciple, they went towards the tomb, somebody told them something, they responded to what they were told, they ran, they came there, The other disciple outran Peter, he looks in, he sees the linen cloths, he sees the napkin laid there folded by itself. Peter then goes in, he sees the same account, the same things, and so the linen cloths, and makes note of this twice, the linen cloths being folded up in a place by itself. So I would invite you this morning into an investigative response to the resurrection. Peter and John, I would say hope has a way of motivating action. We're over here hiding in this house, this woman who was demon-possessed, whom the Lord kicked out seven demons, comes in and says, hey, they resurrected our Lord. Something in their heart has hope. that it's true. Whether they believe it or not, at this point, maybe it's not the issue. But something in here says, I hope it's true. How do you know that? Because hope has an effect. And hope causes these two men to get in a foot race to go and investigate the claims. Because deep down within, they really hope It is true. So they run to the tomb. Hope has a way of motivating action. Hope has a way of stirring zeal and abandoning carnal fears. I'm hiding in this room for fear of the Jews, but hope came knocking and now I don't have fear. I don't care anymore about fear because hope has overwhelmed fear and now I'll run out in the public to confirm whether or not the tomb is empty. So church, fears in our world, fears of all kinds of things, but when hope is increased, carnal fears are decreased. Just gotta have hope in the right thing, or maybe hope in the right one. Cemeteries, that's where they go. Cemeteries and empty tombs cause different reactions. Say if you watch Monk, I shouldn't, yeah, but you know, somebody impersonating his wife and they don't know if his wife lied and she's alive or she's dead, so he goes to the cemetery. He's standing over the grave of his dead wife and he just stands there and he finally, he's convinced she's still in the grave. So whoever this other lady is can't be her because his wife's in the grave. So he's walking out and there's another lady standing there and he asks this lady, what are you doing? She goes, I'm just here visiting my husband's grave. And he goes, don't worry, great cemetery. They'll keep him here. Yeah, so different reactions come at cemeteries, but John, he comes and John freezes in the place. He doesn't enter, he just freezes, and he looks, but it's like he can't move. Peter, he just runs on in. It kind of reflects both of their characters, and Peter's got to go in and lay his hands on it and see it up front, and so he goes in, but different reactions to the cemetery, but they find The thing that's neat about the text, they find the exact same thing. No differences here. The linen cloths lying there. So many things could be said by a writer, and he says, the linen cloths, the ones they wrapped his body with, with the spices, just lying there. Neat, orderly, in place. Why is that important? Thieves don't function this way. Grave robbers don't function like this. Something, just the vision of these grave clothes lying there is communicating something to them. And then, they wrap the head, and there's this face cloth, and it's folded nice and neat, and it's placed by itself. These two things the text brings out is enough to radically impact Peter and John. Now, you'll remember another resurrection, but it's a little different, right? You remember Lazarus, and it says in John 11, 44, the man who died came out. John 11, 44, the man, Lazarus, who died, he comes out. And when he comes out, his hands, and his feet are bound with the linen strips. He comes out, but he's still wrapped up. That's different than whatever went on in this tomb. In this tomb, all the strips are laid there neatly, and the face cloth is folded over here by itself, and whoever's come out of here walked out in bodily form with no binding. You see, with Lazarus, you have to say, loose him and let him go. With Jesus, you just believe in the reality that he's loose. They found, John and Peter found, order. They found precision, not the work of bandits, thieves, and rebel rousers. What an amazing sight they beheld. You think about application. When you investigate, I hope you will investigate, when you investigate the resurrection, how do you respond? You can read this same text, you can memorize this text, you can meditate on this text, you can look into the resurrection, there's tons of books, there's tons of scripture, and you can read and investigate. How do you respond? Man, I read a lot of texts this morning. Is that your response? How do you respond? Yeah, I already know that's stuff. It just gets all over me when somebody talks about the gospel and they call it stuff. The Gospel's not stuff. It's not just some thing I learned intellectually. The Gospel is our life. It's the very heart of who Christ is. It's the good news of God that He can save sinners. It's not stuff. You say, I already know all that stuff. You're a liar. You don't know all that stuff. Look, I got 2,000 books in my room, and I haven't found the bottom of all of those, and they haven't scratched the surface of Christ. You don't know all this stuff. There's so much, it'll take you all of eternity, and you still won't find all that's there. You think you've reached the bottom, you haven't even scratched the top. Maybe I should ask it this way. Have you investigated the truth of the resurrection? If not, why not? You know what people will investigate? They'll buy these stupid pieces of cardboard that got this film on them, and they'll take a quarter, a dime, nickel, or a penny, and they'll investigate by going like this to see what's under the cover. They investigate every day. Throw money away, throw money away, throw money away, and say, oh, the church just wants our money. What's wrong with you hypocrites? You scratch and investigate. Why won't you investigate the resurrection? Maybe because you know what you'd find. Maybe you understand that all the great minds in the world have investigated this, and even atheists acknowledge the body's missing. You investigate enough, it may change your life. By the way, just as a note of hope, every single problem you have and I have, to me, is solved by the resurrection. Every one of them. I could go on and on forever. I'll just list a few. I'm afraid to die. Jesus is alive. Oh, praise the Lord. Condemnation of sin. Condemnation of sin. Jesus pardons all believers. Hallelujah. Insecurity. I don't have any self-confidence. I'm insecure. Jesus is my security. Loneliness. Nobody loves me. Nobody cares. All my family's abandoned me. Nobody cares about me. I'm lonely. Jesus is the friend of sinners. Hopeless. I have no hope. I have no reason to live. I have no reason to go on. Jesus is the substance of eternal hope. I'm unloved. I have no wife. I have no husband. I have no friends. I have nobody that cares for me. Nobody loves me. Jesus loves believers unmitigatedly. He never breaks his love with them. We go on and on and on. Everything you need for this life and the life to come, you find that if you investigate the resurrection and by faith believe. And lastly, this morning, verses 8 through 10, the individual response. So we had, first of all, the initial response by Mary, then the investigated response by Peter and John, and now individually. John, what do we know from this text, this specific text about John? Two things. He saw and he believed. But note, he saw no body. He saw the linen cloths. He saw the face cloth. He didn't see a body. He saw the evidence as what had happened, and he believed. I would say John might be like us. I saw the evidence. I didn't see a body, but I saw the evidence, so I believed. because it's true, all right? So that's John. This is a thing with John, seeing and believing. He's the one that reports about Thomas, right? Thomas says, you remember he says, my Lord and my God, after he touches the hands and the side. And Jesus says, have you believed because you have seen? Believed and seen. And then Jesus says, blessed are those who have not seen But yet, they believe. This is us. I have not seen the resurrected body of Christ, but I believe. Ah, then I am blessed. And everybody in the room, you can be blessed if you'll believe Christ. We see by scripture, we see by preaching, we see by changed lives, in the spirit of the living God, opens our eyes and shows us the beauty of Christ. I'll give you one quote by D.A. Carson this morning because I can't word it this way primarily, but D.A. Carson says, most of the early Christians, early witnesses, most of the early witnesses came to faith in Jesus as the resurrected Lord, not because they could not find His corpse, but because they found Christ alive. They didn't come to him because they couldn't find the body. They came to faith because he was right there before them. But John testifies, he came to such faith before he saw Jesus in resurrection form. He took this step not simply because the tomb was empty, but specifically because the grave clothes were still there. Now that's the response of John, the individual response, and then we think about the Jewish authorities. Surely, if they could have produced a dead body, they'd have done it. In no doubt. It's like, even if you bring up a dead body, okay, so you come up and you bring up a casket and you've got to open it up and say, here's Jesus. It's really difficult to pull that off when Jesus is sitting over there eating fish. Here's Jesus, he's dead and he's over there eating fish. You can't pull this stuff off so there's no attempt made because Christ is so evidently set before people. When you have 500 people see him in bodily form before them at one time, it's really hard to make a lie that he's not alive. Then you have Peter. You don't have to take my position. I'm not even sure I have a position. It's just the way I see the text. He didn't believe yet. I'm talking about coming to the full awareness like John. I think John's a step ahead of him here, and that's fine. He didn't believe. If you go to Luke 24, verse 12, and this is what he says in Luke 24, 12. Peter rose, he ran to the tomb, he stooped, he looked in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves. It doesn't say he went home believing. But he went home marveling at what had happened. What's the difference between believing and marveling? Marvel, in this text, means to be extraordinarily impressed or disturbed by something, to wonder at. The events are so shocking, this is the way we say it in our generation, it blew his mind. Blew his mind. What has happened here? That's different than a resolute conviction of belief in the resurrection Christ. Now, he's going to come to that, and that's fine. I just want to say to you this morning, if you can get any encouragement out of that, each person is different. Eight years old, my teacher says, you're gonna go to hell if you don't believe in Christ. Oh, then I need Christ. That's the way I came. My brother came this way, my other brother comes this way, my dad comes this way, my grandfather's 86 when he comes to know the Lord, and some come fast, some come slow. Sometimes you preach the gospel and the first time it's heard, they say, I believe. And then you get another case, I've preached to you for 20 years and you still don't believe. Look, everybody's different, and we have to trust the Spirit of God to do the work in the heart of the believer. We don't stand here and say, well, you should have already believed. Look, this is God's work. We need to be patient. We need to be kind, consistent, keep sharing the gospel. There's so many in this church, pastor, what about my kids? What about my kids? What about my kids? Five years old, seven years old, eight years old. They already know memory verses. They know this, they know that. You think they're saved? Do you think they're saved? Look, the Lord will get them there in His timing, and when He does, you're going to know. You're going to know. You're going to know. It's going to happen in His timing and in His way. Just trust the Lord and His work. That does not mean quit doing what we know we ought to do, just continue to present the gospel and set it before them. Now, in this last little part, knowing or understanding the Scripture is something that's wrought or done by the Holy Spirit. You can be the most intelligent brainiac in the world, but unless the Spirit of God gives understanding, you know nothing. Scripture is clear. I don't think Scripture is complicated, but I do know this. It's really complicated without the Spirit. With the Spirit, I think a little child can understand it. The Spirit can show them and they can understand. By the way, sometimes children understand the scripture better than the adults. It's got a childlike faith and it's belief. So, but we are dependent. You think about at the end of Luke, it's a classic text, but you think about the end of Luke and they're walking down that Emmaus road. He said, these people know who Jesus is. They know all the events. They know Old Testament scriptures. They've been taught this stuff their whole life. Very oral traditions. They're not distracted by all the goofy internet stuff we have today. And they know all this stuff, but with all their knowledge, they're like Nicodemus. Then Jesus says, you're the teacher of Israel and you don't understand rebirth? What have you been reading, dude? Without the Spirit of God, you can't understand. Think about what he says in Luke to these guys. Luke 24, 25. He said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. We're talking about resurrection of Jesus. You don't believe what the prophets have been saying. The prophets spoke of the resurrection. He says, was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And notice, this is Jesus beginning with Moses and all the prophets. He interpreted them, all the scriptures. All the Old Testament, he interprets all these things to them concerning himself. He says, look here at Isaiah 53, that's talking about me. Look here at Psalm 22, that's talking about me. Look here at Genesis 22, that's talking about me. On and on he goes, one after another after another. All of these things were pointed to me. Go back to Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. You look at all this system, yeah, the lamb, that's me. The blood, yeah, that's me. All of these things were me, and I am the one that has fulfilled all of that." And he interprets that to them, and the Spirit of God grants understanding, and they see. Jesus' words in the same text now even to his disciples. He says, oh, by the way, those two guys on the Maestro, they go, did not our hearts burn within us when he was saying these things? And then you have Jesus to the disciples, Luke 24, 44. These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. He says, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, like Psalm 2, Psalm 22, Psalm 69, all these Psalms, he says to them, that they must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written, that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. Understanding is a gift to them. You say, okay, fine. Can you give me just a little bit more? Sure. New Testament confirmation, just briefly. This is not the end of the list. This is a long list, but let me just give you two. You read the New Testament and it says this in Acts 2 verse 30. Peter says this of David. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, talking about David, David foresaw, David spoke, about what? About the resurrection of the Christ. Acts says David spoke clearly about the resurrection, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. David had faith in the resurrected Christ. I love this one. This is the Apostle Paul. I would have loved to have been there that day. As much as I hate electronics, I wish they had recorded the sermon. Paul says in Acts 28, there at the end of the book basically, and he's preaching about Christ from the Old Testament. This is what Paul says, or this is what's said about him. They appointed him a day. They came to him and had all these numbers, large numbers of people gathering. Think about this. Some of you are struggling to make a 40-minute sermon. He says, from morning till evening. That's a lot of time. Morning to evening, what did Paul do? He expounded to them. What did he expound to them? Well, he was testifying about the kingdom of God. What do you mean? Well, he was trying to convince them about Jesus. How so? From the law of Moses and from the prophets. For a whole day, teaching the Old Testament about Christ. Somebody send that to Andy Stanley and tell him to wake up. I mean, look, you can't find Christ in the Old Testament. You're blind. In form of application, I would say to you this morning, ask the Holy Spirit to grant you faith. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you understanding of the scripture. Ask the Holy Spirit to save you. Ask the Holy Spirit, here you go, to revive your joy in the supernatural reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I kind of got in a funk. I don't know if funk's a word. I got in a funk. I plateaued. I'm just going through the motions, preacher. I mean, I just don't have any zeal, any excitement. It's kind of like I'm in Bloville. Here's an idea. Ask the Holy Spirit to get you out of Bloville. Ask the Holy Spirit to revive your love for Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to stir you and cause you to love Him more. Maybe you need someone greater than yourself to help you have the right position you ought to have daily. You say, I'm the same way. Do you think somehow tomorrow when I wake up, I'm going to be like, yee-haw. I wake up on Mondays contemplating whether I should go into depression or whether I should go forward. I'm human just like you are. Instead of saying, I need help. So we ask for help, so the Holy Spirit does. Well, finish things up. Men love to talk about what stirs their heart. You know it's true. Talk about our sports, our hobbies, material things, personal accomplishments. Oh yes, the weather, everybody got to talk about the weather. Politics, money, gardening, houses, yards, cars, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But when it comes to Christianity, people say, I'm shy. I'm an introvert. I don't know the Bible well enough." Those things never bother you on the subjects you love. Never bother you. Perhaps your lips are locked because you're like the church of Ephesus and you lost your first love. Maybe you've lost your interest. Maybe, I hope not, that you've not lost your faith. So maybe this week, I've said this before in some fashion, ask the Spirit of God to open your mouth. You want an example? It's really easy. I'm pretty sure this happens to most of us somewhat on a regular basis. Tomorrow at work, somebody says, how are you? It's pretty common. How are you? Just think now. Get ready. Give me that question. Call me tomorrow and ask me how I am. Give me a softball. I can hit this thing. Really, slow pitch it to me. How are you? Man, I'm great. You won't believe how good I am. Christ rose from the dead and he gave me eternal life. What a response. Here's one. Let me ask you this. How was your weekend? It was the best weekend I ever had. Really, what happened? My preacher preached on John 20 and reminded me of the greatest event in all of history. I've just been happy ever since. I'm not crazy. That's what Mary Magdalene would do. And for you that still remain unrepentant and unbaptized, the gospel's clear. The work Jesus did as a substitute is perfect. The resurrection vindicates all that He claimed. The only thing left, you must believe. You must believe. What does that mean? Belief. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. People believe in all kinds of junk. They believe in doctors, teachers, parents, friends, electronics, on and on it goes. You'll believe in Google or some kind of junk like that. I don't think we should force our faith upon our kids. You gave them a stinking iPhone. You'll force that on them. Oh, well, they wanted that. You'll force them to take a bath. Let me just set Christ before them. You have to have faith in Christ. Until you do, you're going to remain spiritually dead. Repent of your sins and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Arrita! Right now! before it's too late. As we pray, Brother Jeff comes to close us in song. Father, thank you for the day. And Lord, help us to never allow the resurrection of Christ to grow common. Help us, oh Lord, to never move on to lesser things. Always keep us alive to the great news of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Help those in this room today to believe and help the church not to fall out of love with you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.