Address—B. Conrad
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In my mind to take up.
The subject of resurrection.
Not so much rehearsing last night. We had a very comprehensive.
Coverage of the subject of resurrection. And I'd like to pick up, Lord willing, with that subject in a, in a different way with the Lord's help. And so let's look to the Lord and ask for his help. Well, let's turn back to First Corinthians 15.
Just for a verse or two.
Verse three of First Corinthians 15I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Last night our brother read, as I recall, from John 11.
In the passage where the Lord Jesus.
Presented himself to the grieving family.
And said I am the resurrection and the life.
You might think, well we have this life and then when we die.
Due to the thanks to the grace of God, will be raised, will be resurrected, but it's the opposite there.
It's the resurrection and the life, and that's what I would like to take up with the Lord's help this afternoon. Our brother very comprehensively as I, as I felt listening, I took up.
Several occasions when the Lord was here in his life of raising people who had died.
When the Lord Jesus did that here as man, certainly it was for a number of reasons.
In one sense, it was his calling card as Messiah. I am one, as the Scripture said, who has power over all flesh. I raised the dead.
It's a display of God's goodness because the miracles that the Lord carried out, including raising people from the rest of the dead, were always good. With one exception. With a fig tree, I think, if I'm correct in that.
There were also powers of the age to come when death and disease and sorrow and sickness are going to be rolled back.
So you have these multiple reasons why the Lord Jesus did that. But as the brother said.
Those ones that were raised from the dead are one who had even been dead for four days, as Lazarus was. He didn't take on a character like the Lord Jesus has now. He was resumed his natural life, and we assume that after a period of time he went the way of all flesh, gathered up his feet and died.
But the Lord Jesus, the resurrection of Christ, I see it more and more as I get older and as I spend more time in the in the things of God.
I can, I just feel we cannot overstate.
The importance of the resurrection of the man Christ Jesus.
It is pivotal.
The blessing of God's earthly people.
Depends upon it.
Because the prophet spoke about the shore mercies of David, Old Testament Saints blessings were ahead of them, and by faith they embraced embrace what was ahead of them that they didn't presently possess. And those blessings were going to be secured by one who was David's seed, also David's Lord. And so when Paul preaches in the book of Acts about the sure mercies of David, it's the risen Christ ascended positioning himself.
There to bring in the blessing for His beloved earthly people.
He's positioned himself there as well because it's the evidence.
That God is showing to man that he's going to judge the world. He's going to judge that world by that man whom he hath ordained.
He has given him power over all flesh, and he's given him not only the authority to execute judgment.
To to carry out judgment.
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And God's raising them from the dead is the assurance of that to all men. Acts 17. He's positioned him there for you and me. He's positioned him there to live for us on high. He's our great high priest, our advocate. He's the captain of our salvation. He's the head of the church, which is his body still to this present hour, as weak as we are.
As scattered as we are, which we should not have been, that's on us in our responsibility. But He's still the head of the church as arisen man, and it is God's seal with his own assessment of the work of the man Christ Jesus on Calvary's cross. What did God think of it? God showed what He thought of it because on the third day He raised him up from amongst all the rest of the dead.
The Lord Jesus had proclaimed.
I have glorified thee on the earth. And he pronounced that he was about to give his life to glorify God. And it's as if God looked down at the man Christ Jesus and said, what is my proper response? What is my he? He saw this life, displayed a life that came from heaven.
A life that went all through this world in perfection, showing every possible glory and virtue.
Man in addition to displaying all that God is in a man.
And so God, yes, he sent him in love for God so loved the world.
But he raised him in righteousness. Anything else other than raising that man up from among the rest of the dead.
And giving him a high and exalted place would not have been appropriate, would not have been righteous.
Because righteousness has to do with doing that which is right God. It wasn't righteousness that He sent him.
He didn't owe anybody anything. God, that is.
There was nothing incumbent upon him.
I think one of the participants in the book of Job says of God that if he gathered together his spirit and his breath all together together.
Then man would perish, go back into the dust.
One man went off in rebellion, God, as we all know, God could have closed the whole thing down and said, I did all that I could. I stretched out my hand all the day and no man regarded and he could have closed up shop and he would still have been righteous. But it's as we know God is love, and it was the love of God that sent the sun, for God so loved the world.
That he sent his only begotten Son.
The Sun in love to his father, in love to you and me.
Laid down his life on Calvary's cross.
And it's as if God looks down and says What is my proper response to this?
And anything other, you know, even giving him the headship of rewarding him with the headship of Israel as the true son of David, even rewarding him as son of man over all the nations, even being a head of angels is not enough. He says there's, there's only one and he seats in this man the right hand of the majesty on high. That's righteous. He raised him.
Business, that's a whole subject in itself, but I love to think of that. Gave him in love. Raise them. Yes, it was love, but He raised them in righteousness. It was the right thing to do and God has done it. And there is position there, like the nail fastened in a shore place we read about in Isaiah. And God hangs all the glory upon him. He's a nail fastened in a sure place.
An earthly wisdom says while you you don't put all your eggs in one basket.
If some of you are working in finance or business, you're investing people's money. Well, we've got to diversify. God does not diversify. He has all of his assets, if I could put it that way. Everything vital, it's in the man Christ Jesus, whom he has raised from the dead. And so it's not only Christ, but Christ risen.
Before we get and I want to take up, I would really like to speak about.
Life that you and I have. Massive subject.
I'm only halfway qualified to speak about it.
I'm halfway qualified because I have it just like you do. We share this life that has been communicated to us. But it's like Jonathan Lebend when I go out to Wyoming and see him there and he's in love with the Grand Teton Mountains. I think if I if I know properly, the Colorado mountains are even higher than the Grand Tetons. But what's majestic about these mountains is they just, you're in a plane with Buffalo and up they come.
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Majesty from the plane in those high mountain gorgeous beautiful peaks.
And when I take up the subject like life from God or even the subject of the resurrection, I feel like I feel like a little boy standing in front of the Grand Teton Mountains. So I really feel, I really feel I'm talking about things that are way above my pay grade, as we say. But there are things that we enjoy and there are things that we possess and God would have us enter in and learn and enjoy more and more of what we possess before.
Full liberty of glory.
Let me read a verse in Ephesians chapter 1.
To introduce this subject.
Of what we often call resurrection life.
The raising of the dead that our brother spoke about last night.
Was, as I mentioned, a token, a picture and evidence of all of those things.
That's all in the past.
And as he described the resurrection of the just the resurrection of life.
Is partly passed and partly future.
The resurrection of the just has, if I could put it this way. I don't want to sound mundane.
But it's got three steps to it, or three installments. The first one has already happened. It was a group of one.
Resurrection, we have to always remember, has to do with the body.
I heard a brother say that.
Years ago and it just helped me so much. It just clarifies so much to me. It has to do with the body.
Because if the Lord takes your life right now, your body is here, but you yourself, the you that lives in that body, immediately absent from the body present with the Lord, will always try to explain this again at funerals, especially if there's children there. And it's good for the children to be there.
And so the first installment has already taken place, there is one resurrected.
Human one, resurrected man. It's the man Christ Jesus, and he's in heavenly glory and God has awarded him, rewarded him with the highest place in heaven. Even seated on the right hand of the majesty on high, he's worthy of that place and no less.
That has already taken place. He's been there. He's there as a man, spirit, soul and glorified body. And the next installment of that resurrection could happen today.
When the Lord descends, as we read in First Thessalonians 4, into the clouds of heaven and gives an assembly shout, and those that have died in faith from Adam on shall be raised and be with the Lord Jesus in the air. And oh, by the way, you and I that are still here, we're not going to be left behind. And 1St Corinthians 15 teaches us that in the twinkling of an eye we shall be changed.
Not a morphine like like Caterpillar into butterfly or or or some kind of evolution.
Like that, it's going to end the twinkling of an eye. We shall be changed and we shall be caught up with them. That could happen today.
And then there will be those who are part of God's earthly people who are testifying for him, who are faithful to him with the testimony that they have to, to to spread upon the earth. Very similar to the ministry of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus himself when he was here, what has been called the Gospel of the Kingdom. Many of them will lose their lives. They will earn the martyrs crown.
And we read in Revelation, I think it's chapter 14, that they will be caught up.
And when they are caught up into heavenly glory, the Spirit of God says.
Blessed it is he that has part in the first resurrection.
And all the rest of the dead that are left in that condition of being separated from, from, from their soul and their body, all the rest of the dead are going to be kept in that unseen place, in the place of torment until the end of the 1000 years. And they will be raised the resurrection of judgment, the resurrection of the unjust.
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That will.
Also take place at the end, and so we're in the kind of in the middle, aren't we?
111 raising of the debt has taken place. The first part of the resurrection of the just has taken place, and the rest of it is future. But I want to speak to you about the present aspect of resurrection. And as we all know that in the New Testament Scriptures, the figure of resurrection, the spiritual application of resurrection, is put before us.
As part of the teaching of God, as part of our present condition and state, our brother did not touch upon that last night in the Gospel of the grace of God, and I would like to take a few minutes to speak about that.
Ephesians chapter 1 and verse.
Verse 17. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father of Glory, what a title.
May give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints. And this is the verse I'm thinking of, verse 19 and 20. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us? Word who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ.
When he raised him from the dead or from among the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might to dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world or this age, but also in that which is to come. From verse 19 we learn that the power that God used in raising Christ from the dead.
Is the power that he is exercising in your life and mine?
In the new life that we have as believers.
The exceeding greatness of his power. To me, it seems that every New Testament writer is very sparse in the use of adjectives.
Most of us, we like to pile on lots of adjectives to describe things and we use the word glorious or we we just like to add those kind of words ahead of what we're talking, the noun we're talking about.
To kind of add, the Spirit of God is very, very judicious in his use of adjectives.
It's very direct, if you've ever noticed that, but here it's exceeding greatness of his power to Usward who believe.
We had referenced this morning to the glory of God in Christ as Creator. What power was displayed when He made the world's out of nothing? Nothing material. He spoke and it was so tremendous, majestic power not only to create.
The every every aspect of the universe.
But to sustain it moment by moment, second by second.
He sustains it, He's sustaining it right now all that if we could look microscopically at the life we biological life, we have all these atoms and all these things zooming around incredible. The more science opens up what small and inward or opens up the knowledge of the starry heavens. It's exalts in our understanding the glory of God. He created all things, but as I think of it, he created.
The world's out of nothing. He spoke and it was so. It was by his word and his spirit. There was no headwind then, as I like to think of it, when we were flying recently, they sometimes put the, the, the speed, the speed of the aircraft against the land, and then they put the actual airplane speed. And sometimes there's a horrific tailwind and sometimes a horrific headwind going.
Against you. So the speed the plane is going is very different from the progress you're making on the ground. There was no head when it seems to me when God spoke worlds into existence, He spoke and it was so. But when sin came into the world.
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When when the man that was placed. When when the man that was created and placed in a position of dominion and headship over all created things on the earth? When that man fell.
Sin came into the world, and death by sin.
And the world.
Sometimes have thought if Adam were just allowed a glimpse of the sorrow.
The sorrow and the pain.
And the suffering, think of it on this world, this earth, this beautiful earth.
God created it as a platform.
Or the display of His own ways, and of that which is glorious and beautiful to Him.
In the world, he made it so beautiful.
And yet man placed in it, at the head of it, His goodness was like the morning dew, like the sparks fly upward. Man is born into trouble, and trouble we've had. You could interview every family in here and you would just weep.
With the sorrows that are known, the sorrows that have been experienced.
Brother Lundeen used to say that if you knew the sorrow in one city block, it would take away your sanity.
The sorrow in one city block.
If Adam had just the slightest glimpse of that, it would have. It would have destroyed his mind.
Think of it the sorrow. And so it's against the headwind of a world that has been now stained.
With with sin and death, and I just call that a headwind against which God, as our brother put it after the breaking of bread. I so enjoy that.
God's purpose is There's nothing that is ever going to get in the way of God's purpose. It's called an eternal purpose. An eternal purpose.
God awaited for over 4000 years to unfold it to the children of men who could receive it by faith.
But it's in you as an eternal purpose. It was not a reaction, not a mitigation. If you worked in construction business, things happen that you don't plan on. You've got to like react. You've got to mitigate a problem or a damage. The the way of salvation is not mitigation. It's not a reaction to something that was not anticipated. It was according to God's eternal purpose. Before the worlds were made, He had that purpose.
That he was going to bring into that circle.
That small intimate, I shouldn't say small, that divine relationship of a father and a son subsisting together in, in perfect light and love. They said to themselves, let's bring in, let's bring in, let's bring in somebody else. Let's share this.
And so the children of men, God had his delight in them before there were any.
And according to his eternal purpose.
He's going to fill heaven with children.
He's going to introduce into his father's house those that have a special place of the assembly of the first born ones. And if you're a believer in Christ, that's your part. You're part of the assembly of the first born ones. Hebrews 12. He's going to fill heaven with those who not only have the capacity to understand him, but who love him.
Because power. Power displays glory.
Excellence in display, but a man that's all powerful.
That feels that nobody understands him and he has no relationship or no love.
Is an empty man.
It's an empty man.
But that's why I think when we read the 110th Psalm, I think it is.
Let me just quote that first.
Verse or two.
Much quoted Psalm Psalm 110 in the New Testament.
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
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That's the present status of the man Christ Jesus.
He's sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Until his enemies are made his footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Wonderful. We all look forward, the hymn writer put it. We love to look beyond the long dark night and hail the coming day. And this upside down world will be turned right side up.
Children playing in the streets.
Love that aspect of the gospel in Isaiah. Children playing in the streets. When I was little we played in the street.
People don't play in the streets necessarily anymore. It just speaks of the absence of enemies, the absence of of, of the darkness of this world when the hair can be let down, so to speak. And even the children don't have to be watched, children playing in the streets. So it's wonderful that he'll have that authority. But beyond that, in verse 3.
Thy people shall be willing.
In the day of high power.
What do you think will be more precious to Christ?
Being the head over all the nations.
Crushing Edom needs to be done. Edom will be crushed.
Memory be no more.
Bringing the nations down to acknowledge His Lordship needs to be done.
And he will reign as Son of man over all the nations.
And Israel, the head of the nations.
For God's glory that it be. So we look forward to it. But I believe what's even more precious to Him is what's in the next first.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power to have a willing people.
To have those that finally respond to who he is and what he has done.
Because his heart wants to be. He wants to be understood.
And of course, he wants to be loved.
And in that day, those people who originally.
And we Gentiles.
Fall in the same moral category.
He could say I stretch forth my hands all the day. No man regarded. He wept over Jerusalem.
I don't know anybody in here ever weep over a city.
I've lamented things. I've never wept over a city. He wept over Jerusalem.
He wept because of the hardness of their hearts. He wept because of the degradation and the corruption that came into the world through sin. He knew He was going to lays Lazarus in a few minutes. He knew he was going to do that. But He wept nonetheless. Just the whole sad, pathetic plight of what man was experiencing in the world.
Because he said yes to a greater rebel than him.
Satan.
Man was was created to have headship to reign.
And he was given a will.
And with that will he made a dreadful, dreadful error.
And mistake indicating, as we say, he he submitted to the.
Of the devil he submitted to a desire to be something that he was not.
And he became something he never wanted to be.
He was put in that position of responsibility and authority. He listened to the lie of the enemy, and then he became a servant to sin.
And angels were designed to be servants, and one of the head angels or the head Angel decided that he wanted to reign.
And so you have the recipe for the darkness that this has enveloped this world.
For thousands of years.
Against that headwind, as I see it, the Lord Jesus has initiated.
First of all, the resurrection of his son and position him there in a place that is beyond death. It's God's trump card, if you could put it that way. I don't know where that expression comes from if it's I'm not a card player, but it's, it's checkmate for a chess player.
And I don't play chess either. It's checkmate. It's God's way of of going beyond everything that has fallen down through man's failure and through Satan's animosity. And God, who is greater than all, brings out of the chaos of death and corruption through death, He destroyed him that had the power of death.
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Even the devil delivered him through, through fear of death, all their lifetime subjects.
*******. And so the Lord Jesus now is positioned as a risen man in a brand new place that never existed before except in the counsel of God.
There's a Newman in a new place in a new condition.
And wonder of wonders, he has decided spiritually and presently.
To unite you and me in that place right now.
Right now.
There's different ways we can understand the life that the spiritual life that we have, but this is 1 aspect of it. It's what is called resurrection life. How do we get it? How did you get it?
We know in John's Gospel chapter one that it's not by the will of the flesh. Your parents couldn't will you into it, nor mine. You can't just decide. I'll read the verses. John 1.
Will stay for a minute or two, God willing, on the subject of how we get this life.
I think we see, we see them. We see the the one man.
Entered into that life risen.
But speaking about the spiritual life that God gives.
In John chapter 1.
It says verse 12 as many as received him to them gave he power or the right to become the children of God. I believe that should be even to them that believe on his name which were born.
Which have been born.
Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
God is the only one who can who can create life.
God is the only one who is capable of creating natural biological life. It is fascinating.
And, and doubly so, I suppose, for those who are trained in science, which I'm not.
But the men and women in studying the deeper parts of biology, the life of a cell, they have brought to light things in in my lifetime that are just beyond imagination in how a single, single cell operates, how complex it is. I've been around.
Some some sophisticated buildings.
Make stuff like computer chips and, and it's all beyond me and it's complicated. A human cell far beyond that, far beyond that. But the thing that I found interesting from a brother in the Lord that's a leading scientist in the world, he said, you know what's interesting? They can look and they can see a living cell and they know it's alive and they can see a dead cell and they know it's dead, but they don't know what left the cell.
You know you can take A. It's a living cell. B is a dead cell.
A -. B. What left what is no longer there? They have no idea. These are brilliant men. They have no idea. It's a mystery. It's a mystery of life. Even natural life is a mystery to man. He can put a man on the moon. We can talk on these little things and see people around the world.
But he doesn't know what life his natural life is yet. Maybe he will.
And so it is with spiritual life. We're told that it's not by the will of mind, it's by the will of God in John chapter. In John chapter 2.
Going to budget our time here.
In John chapter 2, I believe the Lord gave a picture of coming time of blessing in the wedding feast of Cana. They ran out of wine. He brought a wine that was beyond beyond good so that the governor of the feast has to acknowledge. Most people put out the good and when men have well drunk then they bring in the the more mundane wine.
You've kept the good wine until now. A picture and also of the of the of the.
The Lord scourging the temple, I think is also in chapter 2. These are pictures, I believe of this, this third day as the chapter begins, the marriage in Cana, a picture of the millennial, that which is characteristic of the Millennium. But in chapter 3, it seems like the Lord says, OK, I've I've given you a picture of this wonderful time, a blessing. How do you get to be part of it? How do you get?
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Be part of it. And so in John three we have a man named Nicodemus who comes to the Lord by night.
And he gets maybe he was coming to recruit the Lord, maybe he was saying.
This man is a teacher beyond We need this man on our on our team.
I don't know if Nicodem what Nicodemus was going on in his mind, but he got quite an education, didn't he?
Quite an education and we don't know really what the result was at that time in Nicodemus soul, because as we learn in that very chapter.
The work of the Spirit of God to produce life in a soul is something that is unknowable to us. It's like the wind in the trees. We see the leaves shaking, but we don't.
It's not a knowable process to us in that sense.
And so in chapter 3 we read that except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, it's God communicating life to one who has none. And lo and behold, as it says there as we go down in verse six, that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of spirit is spirit. And so God in his spirit communicates life.
And later on in the chapter we read.
That these are just earthly things he put before Nicodemus. And then he goes on to say, I'm going to talk to you about heavenly things and you're not really grasping the earthly things. If you were in school and you didn't grasp the first semester of calculus, they're not going to let you go to the second semester. But Nicodemus really didn't pass the first semester, but the Lord took him anyway.
Probably for our benefit into the next semester. And he told him about heavenly things.
And so we have.
As it says in verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Lamb, son of Man, be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. John doesn't really take up sins and the forgiveness of sins until it's way out in chapter 20, I think it is.
He operates in a different the Spirit of God has a different approach in using.
The apostle John is a vessel for what he communicated in this wonderful book. But I would just just before we move away from this chapter, I would just say it's sobering to think about this. And I think that I'm correct that if God didn't have a view forward to the to the man, the Son of man being lifted up on Calvary's cross, if he didn't have a view ahead to the precious blood of Christ being shed.
And an expiation for sin. He would never have given you and me new life.
Your new life is wonderful. It is is That you're born again doesn't inherently make you righteous.
You still have the flesh.
I'm born again, have been for a long time. I still have the flesh.
And what about my sins? God requires that which has passed, So just your new life.
Doesn't make you righteous before God. Stop and think about that and I think you will agree.
And so he doesn't even close the chapters. We think of it in chapters to bring out the fact that there's going to be the Son of Man lifted up just like the serpent in the wilderness. And whosoever look at the pond, you receive life. The sting is gone. And so the blood God looked forward to the blood of Christ. And as some of us were saying at lunch, there will be.
No soul blessed on earth or in heaven but.
By the precious blood of Christ, not all have known it. The baby that dies in the womb, the baby that dies as a as a one week old, does not know anything about the blood of Christ, But it's the blood of Christ that secures their heavenly blessing.
In John chapter 5.
We read.
Of the sun. I want to move on here.
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And and as we've continued in John chapter 3, we would have seen that towards the end of the chapter we have as we used to tell our children at the at the table, the B word in English, the B word to believe. That's what we press on on souls believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that thou shalt be saved. We don't tell him you need to be born again because they can't control that, but the gospel is presented to man his respons.
And God now commands all men to repent, because he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man. And so we implore souls believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out is the language of God. But here in chapter 5 we see in verse.
21 The father, As the father raises up the dead and quickens them, Even so the son quickeneth whom he will.
The Son of God has quickening has life giving power because of who he is. And if we turn to if we were to remember, well, let's turn to 1St Corinthians 515. I'm sorry, 1St Corinthians 15.
And we read there.
In verse 45, and so it is written, the first man.
Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam.
That was made should be left out. God. Christ was not made anything except sin in 2nd Corinthians 5. We had that recently before us.
The last atom of life giving a life giving spirit.
And so let's turn now to John 20.
A passage that has puzzled me for decades.
I admit.
Our brother read last night verse the wonderful verse 17.
To marry? Who was the first one that he communicated this to?
The woman through whom? Who was deceived, and through whom?
Sin came.
Under Adam's responsibility, it's touching, isn't it, that the Lord has not a disciple, not Peter or James or John has a woman out of whom he cast 7 demons to be the message bearer. It's just like the Lord to be gracious like that, isn't it? I don't know anybody out of whom 7 demons have been cast.
Do you?
You know, anybody that's 17 has been cast out of maybe I've met somebody and I didn't know that they hadn't that happened 7 Demons one would be a thing 7.
What a thing.
How this woman was.
Plowed.
Gouged that horrible demon possession out of her and made room for what? For that wonderful affection she had for Christ. And people say, well, she was ignorant, OK, she was ignorant. And Mary of Bethany wasn't, OK, I'll give you that. But there was such affection there. And she becomes the messenger of this wonderful message. And Mark's gospel tells us that she was the first one because it's complicated to tell.
Everything that was going on through the four gospels at the Gray, at the gravesite on that first day of the week.
But our brother read that I ascend unto my father, and to your father, and to my God, and your God. Subject for another day, but in verse.
Verse 21 The same day and evening first day of the week.
Verse 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, Even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them.
Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Somebody here has the new translation open. How's that read in the new translation, Nick?
Receive the Holy Spirit. Who's that? The bed. Yeah. First some verse 22, verse 22. And having said this, he breathed into them and says to them, receive the Holy Spirit. OK so in my youth I was pestering an older brother about this and.
00:45:10
I said, what does that mean? Because we've all been taught that the Holy Spirit, the Lord, when He ascended up on high as man, received the Spirit.
A second time in a sense, and sent him down, and that divine person took up his habitation on the earth.
A man in glory and a divine person on the earth is what we still have today, because the church is the habitation of God by the Spirit. And additionally he indwelt every believer, uniting them together into one body. And so I said, but what is this? He says, well, that's just a picture of the other. I said he would go to that trouble just to make a picture like that. He got a little mad at me.
We had an interesting relationship, but anyway, I have come to see that, I think why the Lord made this communication because it comes from a risen Christ, not an ascended Christ, the ascended Christ. We're we're pretty well schooled in this.
In Paul's doctrine of the one body and of the fact that the Holy Spirit.
Is.
The one who created union between us scattered.
Children of God, and He has united us together in one by the Holy Spirit.
Because the men and women of faith in the Old Testament were not one. The children of God were scattered abroad.
And they had no union that way.
You and I, all of us have a union. We're united together because of the Holy Spirit.
But that came from the ascended Christ, and we.
Read about it that in Acts chapter 2, so dramatic the beginning of the Church of God on the earth. But John 20. This seems to have I always thought there has to be some significance to why this is put before us. And I really think it has to do with this subject of resurrection life because it's Christ risen, not yet ascended as if God says I'm going to I'm going to separate this over here and you already have you're going to have this over here in Acts.
And here I'm going to, I'm going to communicate to you from the risen man Christ Jesus, the 1St man rose out from among the rest of the dead. And he's a life. He's a life giving spirit and he communicates life. You say but they were already had life. I know they did. They were already born again, but they didn't have this kind of life. I don't like. I say, I'm looking up at the Grand Teton Mountains here.
But I believe.
That he was communicating to him a life that he possessed himself, and he was empowered to communicate it to them.
And consequently, to you and me, it's a life, it's a, it's a risen life, a life on the other side of death. And you and I now possess it too.
And I believe that's why it's segregated out here in John chapter 20. We're in John, we're not in Paul, as we know, beautiful passage and beautiful to think of it that way. And so if we go now, the time is going, let's go to.
Let's go to.
Ephesians.
Let's go to Ephesians chapter, chapter 2.
And we see in Ephesians chapter 2.
In verse 10, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.
Unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
And then over in Ephesians chapter 4.
In verse 21.
If so, be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.
When it says in Jesus, I believe it's bringing before us the practical side of this life that was displayed in perfection here by himself as he walked up and down here.
That ye and I'm going to correct the verb tense in nickel. Call me out if I get it wrong, but I because I think it's important.
00:50:06
Having the Gee having put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which corrupts, is corrupt, or corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts, and being renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that she having put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness.
And holiness Truth.
And then let's go to Colossians.
For the Sake of time, chapter 3, well known verse, Colossians 2, first Colossians 2. And here we see again this character of the use of the truth of resurrection, not as it's applied to Christ personally having been raised, or to the future Saints, including us being raised.
But it's applied to you and me in a spiritual way now and I, and I think it's safe to call that resurrection life.
And so in Colossians 2. It's in verse 12. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead, and so on. And then in Colossians 3.
If ye then, or since ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.
Where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection or your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. We are dead.
And your life is hid with Christ in God, and so on.
You can see that it's not a stretch.
The Spirit of God does it in the Word of God to apply the concept, if I could put it that way, of resurrection to you and me now, because it describes the character of our present spiritual life that we've been given from God. You have a risen life. You have a life, the life of Christ. You have the mind of Christ.
You are not only have been blessed by him.
Or through him, but with him.
And he now is pleased, as we read in Hebrews 2, because of this, he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are all of one.
For which policy is not ashamed to call them brethren.
We were picked up from from the dunghill. We were like filthy lepers, but so effective was the work of Christ to pay for our sins through his precious blood, to cleanse us through the washing of the water, and to anoint us with the Holy Spirit, just like the leper, the king and the priest.
There's blood, there's water and there's oil, and that's our status now. Little wonder he has done this work in you now. This is your present condition.
In mind.
And little wonder that he's able to say he's not ashamed to call us brethren. We are all of one.
We read in Genesis that when God created the plants that their seed was in them and they were to reproduce after their kind.
In spiritual life, the last Adam is a quickening spirit. He reproduces after his kind. What's his kind? His kind is Christ. He's the model.
He's he's it.
And so we read this.
We are because we are risen. We have a risen life.
We're to seek.
We are to set our minds in certain ways. We are more to mortify or discipline the members of our body and so on. And then it goes on in verse 9 lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And so we have now.
A risen life.
And it's.
Communicated to us so that our minds in a spiritual way can grasp the present reality of the resurrection of Christ. Yes, it's true, we are literally going to be either changed or raised up. But in the meantime, we have a life that is patterned after Him. We have His life.
00:55:03
If the scripture didn't teach these things, it would be blasphemy for a man to stand up here and say them.
But this is what the Word of God teaches Christ our life, and it's a risen life.
And it's on the other side of the river. It's on the other side of death, so the other side of judgment.
And it is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
I used to think that here's me and I have the flesh.
And I've been giving the Holy Spirit to entwell me.
And that's, that's my nature and it never dawned on me for many years.
That aside from the presence of a divine person in me, I have a new life.
I am a new creature in Christ.
There's one human in this room that I am 1 flesh with. We're married.
And that's not eternal, but it's good for now.
There's another human in here that if you tested everybody's DNA, our DNA would be like, I don't know how did that work, but when your brother and sister it were like same mother, same father. I'm scientists can tell that, but it's just for now. But I'm looking out over a room full of people now that I share a life with.
That I'm going to have, and you're going to have forever. We are brethren in that sense and have an eternal connection.
And even now.
It's, I don't mean to be irreverent, but it's belt and suspenders.
We used to joke with guys in the construction business because all the gear they have to wear.
Belts and suspenders there's you're not only indwelt by the Holy Spirit of you have a divine person indwelling you and he empowers you, but you have a new life.
That's God says that's you and you're going to be that and have that for all eternity. It's a wonderful thought. That's John and that's Paul in general. And they meet together and our time is gone. I would just say that.
In Philippians chapter 3.
The very, very challenging chapter because.
There the apostle Paul who was a model believer.
He is one that the Spirit of God empowered to say in this chapter be followers of me.
He doesn't say as I also am of Christ in that chapter He says be followers of me. Period. And why is that? It's because the Lord Jesus never ran or strove to be something that He wasn't. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was always complete and completely perfect. At the age of 12? At the age of 16.
At all his life, he was who he was, the majesty.
And glory of the man Christ Jesus, so he never.
He had no flesh, but the Apostle Paul is a man of light passions as ourselves had the flesh.
And he aspired, if I could put it this way.
This inverse I'll just read verses.
8.
98 through 11 Yeah, doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And do count them but dumb or worthless, that I may win Christ, that I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him.
In the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means.
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Fascinating passage, Challenging passage. Yes, we could ask the question. Well, Paul, you already know, you taught that we believers have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. You already know that you have a righteousness that is beyond the law, separate from the law, the righteousness which is by faith. So what is it you're really saying here? I believe what Paul is saying is.
My standing is supreme and I love it. My state is not there.
I want it to be.
I want to live my life. I want to spend the rest of my time.
01:00:04
Counting, disregarding everything that's not essential, that I may win Christ and be found in Him and know something of the power of His resurrection in His life. That He wanted His state to be as close as possible to the standing He knew He already had. I have. I have pondered this passage for decades.
I wish I understood it better. I wish I could understand it in my in my practical life.
But we have an example of one here who resurrection life to him.
Was a thing was it was a centralizing part of his personal spiritual life.
And how we need that on our day.
We see around us things are are weaker than they were decades ago. It is essential for each one of us to cultivate a personal spiritual life. It's essential, essential. Let's just call some prayer.