the reading from the gospel of Matthew. After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and going to the tomb rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and become the came like dead men. The angel said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples. He has risen from the dead, and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you. So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples, suddenly Jesus met them. Greetings, he said. They came to him, clasped his feet, and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go until my brothers, to go to Galilee. There they will see me. This is the word of the Lord. Let's return to the passage that we read with the ran just a few moments ago. From Matthew 28, we will look at verses 1 through 10. It will help you to have this open in front of you. Jesus was there, risen on the first day of the week. He was in Judea, in Jerusalem, that same Jesus Christ. risen is here this morning, less asked him to teach us. Father, some might think that there is a professional standing behind this desk, and that this is his job. And what we are about to hear is his gift, or talent, or education. Our Father, no professional, no professional, can stand behind this desk, and effectively speak so that folks hearts will be changed, so that lives will be affected from the inside out. It's not about talent, it's not about oratory ability, it's not about a gift to think and understand theology.
Our Father Paul said that all true preaching was not a demonstration of a person's oratory ability. It wasn't a demonstration of a person's talent to speak or to communicate. That all true preaching was simply a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit, a demonstration of the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Father, at this point we always pray, and I confess that I can't teach like that. And some inevitably think that that's just some nice thing to say, some bit of humble, sounding rhetoric. And Father, you know better. You know that I know that I can't teach or preach so hard to be changed. And so once more this morning on a day that we celebrate the presence of the living Christ, we pray that we will hear him speak and that he will profoundly affect our lives. That's our prayer. In Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen. Have you seen Jesus? Jim was 10 years old, he came to the table straight from the front yard. His mother told him to go wash his dirty hands. Get up right now, you know better than to come to the table with hands like that. And she tried to explain for the empty time, it's not sanitary to eat with germs all over your hands. Jim mumbled as he walked to the bathroom and he was heard to say germs in Jesus, germs in Jesus. That's all I hear about in this house and I've never seen either one. Most of the world may not say it out loud but they think like that. We can't see him and there's a reason we can't see him because he is not risen. Some use the excuse and they say we live in a modern age. We can't possibly believe it's the resurrection of Jesus. But it has nothing to do with the modern age. It was no trick to die in the first century. It was no trick to die in this century. That's not the question no one doubts his death. But folks in the first century were modern too and just as many people said no, it could not have happened. Let's say that in the 21st century. They did not believe he rose a dead man returning from the cemetery that was ridiculous. In our day, people have tried to rescue the gospel by saying the resurrection simply means that he is that he is teaching lives on his teaching lives on in folks who believe in him. That's the resurrection he didn't rise physically. We know that but his teaching lives on folks. There's a problem with saying that Jesus said I will rise from the grave and I will rise physically and you will see me. The disciples said we have seen him, not his teaching lived out. We have seen him walking and breathing and living. Saul who hated Jesus, a persecutor of Christians who said no, it's a lie. He didn't rise. He was converted. He was converted because he saw him because he heard him. The disciples wrote that he did not physically and visibly rise from the grave. Then Jesus lied and we're lying and Christianity is a lie and it means absolutely nothing. What was the message of the women that morning? We have seen him. What was the message of the disciples returning from Emmaus? We have seen him. What was the testimony of the disciples to Thomas? Thomas, we have seen him. Folks, that was and is the message that has turned the world upside down for the past two thousand years. It was not his death that shook this world. It was his resurrection. Jesus now didn't just rise from the dead. He showed himself to his disciples but didn't just show himself to disciples and didn't go right home. He hung around. He hung around for 40 days. Listen to Acts 1-3. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive and he appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God. Why did he do that? He was not only taking time to convince the disciples of his physical resurrection. They had to know folks. They had to be sure. At least ten of these men, tradition tells us died for their faith, died for their resurrection. They wouldn't have died if there was any doubt about the truth of it. They had to be convinced but that was not the only reason he stayed and appeared over and over and over again. You see, he was delivering a message. He was leaving. They had been accustomed to his physical and constant presence. They had to learn to live without that physical presence but they had to learn that he was somehow still there with them. They had to learn that the invisible Christ was there. They had to learn to see and hear him. The question of that first resurrection day was, have you seen him? Have you seen him? You can see the disciples and the women. They had seen him and they see another disciple. Have you seen him? The question of this resurrection day is still, have you seen Jesus? Have you? Let's look in this passage and see the message that Jesus had for that resurrection day and for the next 40 days as he was teaching his disciples. First, he said, I'm alive. Look for me. Let's just go back over and read a few verses of this. Matthew 28.1, I'm alive. You look for me after the Sabbath that the dawn of the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake for an angel. The Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, do not be afraid. For I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He's not here. He's risen just as he said. Come, come and see the place where he lay. Then you go quickly and you tell his disciples, he's risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. The women went to look at the tomb. We learned from the other gospels that these women were planning to annoy his body with the customary spices. They were going to a tomb to find a corpse. That was their intent. That was their anticipation. When they arrived at the tomb, they were shocked. The grave was empty. Jesus' body was not there. He left the messenger an angel to deliver a two-part message. First part, I have risen. I'm alive. The second part, go look for me. You don't expect to see someone who has died. You expect to see their body if you go to the burial. But you don't expect to see that person living and breathing ever again. And you're not looking for that person. No wonder, no wonder Jesus kept saying every time he appeared to the women and to the disciples, for the next few days, every time he appeared, what did he say? If you're not, don't betray. Don't run. Don't faint. They had the same reaction. We would have had. They had the same reaction. We would have. If we came home from a funeral to find a person who was supposed to be dead, sitting, living and breathing in our living room, that person would have to say yes. Don't faint. Don't run. Everything's alright. Some have said the resurrection of Jesus did not happen. It was merely the imagination of the disciples because they just wanted to see him. There's something wrong with that. They were not looking for Jesus. They were not expecting Jesus. In fact, they would not believe because they knew he was dead. They had seen him die. Luke records that the angels asked the women, why are you looking for the living among the dead? The answer is simple. They did not think he was living. They thought he was dead. And where do you look for dead people in the tomb where they were buried? Did he disciples were not looking for him? When did they begin to look for Jesus? When they knew, when they were convinced, he was risen. Saul, and we mentioned a few moments ago, the persecutor of Christians, the one who was behind the killing of the first martyr, Stephen. He knew it was all a lie. He knew Jesus was dead. It was only after the experience on the Damascus reddit. When he saw Jesus, and when he heard Jesus, it was only after that, only after Jesus slammed into his life. And he was proved wrong. It was only after that that he began to look for Jesus. People go to church today and they don't see him. They don't hear him. They don't expect to see him here here. Sadly, many would say, well, you know, I'm a Christian. What being a Christian means to me is that I follow the moral code taught by Jesus. He was just a great prophet. Of course, he's dead. He died on a Roman cross. He was not the son of God. The resurrection, it just didn't happen. And these people come to church, and they call themselves Christians because they try to follow his moral code. And they never walked through the church door, looking for Jesus. In fact, they never walked anywhere looking for him. The disciples started looking for Jesus when they understood he had risen. I also think that many of us who believe in the reality of the resurrection who say he certainly did rise. I don't think we look for him. I once was like that. I loved the theology of the resurrection. The profound deep theology that taught the resurrection meant that God had accepted Jesus payment on the cross from my sin. He came forth from the grave. God was said, accepted, paid in full. I loved that theology. The resurrection indeed did prove that he was the son of God. I loved that theology. The resurrection meant that because he was raised, I would be raised. I loved that theology. That's solid theology. But I was missing something. Then there was a definite time that I began to see my Christian life as a personal relationship with Jesus. It was then that I understood the resurrection meant that I could look for him, that I could see him, that I could know him, that I could hear him because he was alive and he was acting in my world. I think about it this way. Imagine, remember when Lazarus was raised from the dead, he lived over in Bethany? Remember? It's just a couple of weeks before Jesus himself was crucified and he was a friend of Jesus and Jesus went to his tomb a few days after he had been buried and he raised him from the dead. Lazarus and Mary and Martha, they were prominent family. In people, we read just flocked out of Jerusalem. They had been in the funeral, they saw his body, they were dead and they flocked down to Bethany to see Lazarus. But imagine a friend, imagine a friend of Lazarus. They grew up together. They went to school together. They threw rocks in the Jordan together. When they fished together, they played first century checkers together and that friend, he's lost his best friend Lazarus and he's hurting. He's over in Jerusalem and he hears the message. Jesus went to Bethany and he raised Lazarus from the dead. Now, this friend in Jerusalem, he gets it on down to Bethany. Now does he arrive? He knock on the door and does he say, you know Lazarus? I'm going to write a treatise on the implications, the theological implications of man rising from the dead. You think he did that? You know what he did. When those two men saw each other, they leaped into each other's arms and they cried and they laughed and they ate and they walked along the Jordan together and he said, what was it like and he asked questions. But the big thing was that their relationship had been restored and they laughed and they hugged and they laughed some more. That's how it is. The resurrection of Jesus Christ profound theological truths come from that. But also this living, a live, real relationship. Some of us who say we're Christians, as far as our relationship with him is concerned, he might as well be dead. We know the gospel. We know he's teaching, but there's no day to day relationship with him. No expectation of seeing or hearing him. Folks, Easter is not just about knowing he's risen. It's not just saying the apostles creed. Surely he rose. I know he rose. It's not just about believing he is risen. It is experiencing the resurrection because we know his presence and we see here and we hear him and we know him. The Psalmist, what did he say? This is all through Scripture. The Psalmist says, no, that the Lord is good. He did say that, didn't he? But then he said something more. He said, taste, taste. He said you can see him. You can taste him. That's why we have our senses. You have eyes to see. You have ears to hear. You have a nose to smell. You have a mouth to taste. You have fingers to touch. And what is the Supreme says? What's the best thing that we can sense in our lives that we can know, not only intellectually, but we can experience that the Lord is good. We can taste it. That's why we seek the risen and living Jesus to love him, to be with him. Jesus came forth from the tomb and he said, I'm alive. Look for me. Secondly, he said, I'm always near. You expect me. He just, well, let's reverse eight. So the women hurried away from the tomb. Afraid yet filled with joy and ran to tell his disciples suddenly Jesus met them. Greetings, he said. They came to him, classes seat and worship him. They had just been told that he was going to Galilee ahead of him. They were thinking that he was in Galilee. Then suddenly he was there with them. This happened over and over again during the 40 days after the resurrection and before the ascension. He dropped in and out of their lives. Two of them would be walking from Jerusalem to another town. He would just be there walking with them, talking. Five hundred would be together to worship and to pray and he would be there with them. They would be fishing up in Galilee and they would look over and there he would be over on the shore, cooking breakfast. Come on in, guys. He was ready and they came to think. I may not always see him, but he must be close because he keeps showing up. And that's exactly what Jesus wanted him to think. What were some of the last words he spoke to his disciples? I'm with you always. I'm never going to leave you. I'm near. You expect me. Do you know that Jesus is near you? Do you expect him to show up any given moment? I'm not expecting. I'm not talking about the second coming. I mean, do you expect to see or hear him and you're like this week? Today, during the next hour, I was reminded of how close he was this week several months ago in this sanctuary on the Sunday evening. I was sitting right over there. David Brian was preaching and he was talking about the covenant that God cut with Abraham in Genesis 15. And as he taught that evening, I saw something. He dated, said something and just sent my mind wriggling and I saw something about the covenant and the cross that I had not seen before. And I could hardly wait. I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it. And I said, you know, that's what I'm going to preach around Easter, maybe Monday Thursday, maybe Easter Sunday morning. What did I do? I promptly forgot it and lost my notes. And so the week Palm Sunday, week before Palm Sunday, I was beginning to think about the services the next week and Monday Thursday. I didn't remember David. I didn't remember the message. I didn't remember about the covenant. I didn't remember the note. But I was just looking for what I was preaching. That's quite easy for me. It comes easy. But I just, I would come to rest and the pastor said, I'm going to do this. No, I don't want to do that. Well, I'm going to do this. No. I got through the weekend. Monday was there. And I said, well, you know, I really need to do this. Bolton's got to be printed. And Monday afternoon, I just knew before I left office, I would have it done. It was nothing. I was blank Tuesday morning. I was sitting at home and I was reading my Bible early and just having a prayer. I said, Father, just getting close. We got to do a bulletin today. You know, God's really concerned about the bulletins that independent prison church. But nothing came to work. Thought through the morning. And Linda was beginning to get she was saying, John, you know, there's a bulletin we've got to do. And Linda doesn't know that God didn't care about bulletins. And so we have a prayer time at 130 on Tuesday. The staff does. It's a part of living out the legacy that we have as a staff when we just meet to pray during the week. It's a great time. I walked in that and I was a minute late. David Ryan has started and he read something about the covenant. I wasn't in there. And when I walked in, James Brown was talking about the covenant in response to what David had read. Now we heard about three or four sentences. But between opening the door of the chapel and going back to the fourth pew and sitting down, I heard three sentences. And he didn't say what I was going to talk about on Thursday night. But it was like, that's it. It was the covenant. And here was the thing. And here's how it was. And when I went back upstairs, I said, Linda, here's the bulletin. Here's the title. Here's what we're going to do. And here's a message. Now thanks in all of the years that James Brown has been here. I've never walked into a room and heard him mention the covenant one day. And as I sat through that time of prayer, I knew what the Lord was saying. He was saying, John, I knew you heard very close. You need to learn to expect me. You need to learn to trust me. I need to learn to listen. I'm risen. Look for me. I'm near. Expect me. He said, I'm not confined to sanctuaries and Sabbaths. Watch for me in the world every day. That's the third point. I'm not confined to sanctuaries and Sabbaths. Watch for me in the world every day. Look at verse seven. Then go quickly and tell us his disciples. He's risen from the dead and it's going ahead of you in the Galilee. There you will see him. Jerusalem was where they worshiped. It was the great city of David. It was the place of the Passover. It was the home of the temple. Galilee. That was just where they lived. It was every day world. It was where they raised their families. It was where they were. When Jesus came to them in Galilee, you remember that? Do you remember what they were doing? Read about the Saturday and John 21. It's a wonderful passage. They were doing what they had always done. They were fishing. I love that. What a great message for us. I'm not confined to the time you speak or you spend in the sanctuary of independent. I'm not confined to your Sunday school classes. I'm not confined to your time of personal study and in prayer. I'm in the boardroom. I'm in the kitchen. I'm on the golf course. I'm in the classroom. I'm in the marketplace. I'm on the battlefront. I'm in prisons. Go to Galilee. Where you live every day. I'll see you there. We don't retreat as Christians to deserts and monasteries and the convents to practice Christianity. Jesus sent us out into the world to practice following him. He didn't say, go out into the world and then come back here and follow me said go out into the world and follow me. William Barker in his good book, A Savior for all seasons said it this way. Quote, in fact, Jesus never pulled people away from the struggles and tensions that made up their lives. Instead, Jesus told people to shift the center of gravity of their lives to relocate the focus of their attention in quote, I love that. The bankers converted. He does not stop going to work because he's a Christian. He goes to work with a different center of gravity. He goes to work knowing that Christ is in his heart and that he will see Christ himself at the bank at work. What was the first miracle documented in the New Testament? Jesus was in the middle of a wedding feast and ran out of wine and Jesus turned the water that was there in the jugs into wine. That was the first miracle that the cycle was witnessed and they never forgot it. In fact, when they wrote the gospels, they said this is the first miracle, the very first one. Why did they include it? They understood that Jesus was at work in the parties of their lives as well as in their puppets. I will always remember what Johnny Pitt said from this puppet several weeks ago. Where did he say he was when he received an invitation to come to independent Presbyterian church and invitation by his own words that confessed that invitation changed his life and the life of his family? Where was he? He was at a cocktail party and his friend Dudley Schaefer asked him to come to church with him. What's the message? Jesus is there at work in the everyday world where we live. Jesus said, I'm alive. Look for me. I'm near expect, expect me. I'm not confined to the sanctuaries in service. Watch for me in the world every day. Fourthly said, wherever you go, I'll be there first. Look at the middle of verse seven. He's risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. You know what's odd about this when the disciples first met Jesus. They were down in Judea before the disciples at least Andrew and Peter and the family on Philip. They came from Galilee. They were visiting different John the Baptist down in Judea. And John introduced him to Jesus and Jesus was in Galilee and so he walked home with them. This time he did not physically walk with them. Nor did he say go and wait on me there. He said, I will go and I'll wait on you. I'll be there when you get there. What was the message? Wherever you go. I'll be there first. You go to Corinth. I'll be there first. You go to Ephesus. I'll be there first. You're going to go to Rome. I'll be there first. You're going to go to Crete and Danny. I'll be in Crete and Antioch first. You'll see me there. When my friend Becky Bennett crawled from her wrecked Volkswagen Beetle on a highway in South Georgia. She knew her husband Ralph who had been driving the car. It was dead. And she cried looking at the speechless crowd around her and her first words were, is anyone here a Christian? She was just saying where are you, Lord Jesus? Where are you? In a 17 year old girl from South Georgia, a country girl from a completely different world than Becky's. But for six hours. This little country girl, uneducated from South Georgia, never left Becky's side. Becky was to say, no one, no one ministered to me all through that experience like that young girl. God was there. The side of the highway before the wreck preparing anywhere where you go in this life. You can know this folks. Jesus is already there. I'm alive. Look for me. I'm near. Expect me. I'm not confined to the sanctuaries in Sabbath. Watch for me in the world every day. Wherever you go. I'll be there first and finally. He said, I'm not limited to your generation. Tell your great grandchildren to look for me. Go down to verse 20. We didn't read this in our passage, but it's there and surely, surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age. I have no idea what the world will be like when my grandchildren become parents and my great grandchildren are born. I don't know what that world will be like, but I know this. Jesus will be there. The hymn says, change and decay in all around I see. That's a profound truth, but this one thing I can tell my grandchildren and great grandchildren. Jesus will be there. That doesn't change. You look for it. The money we leave in our will and may be gone faster than we can imagine. The land can be taken. The government can fall. Freedom can disappear, but we can say to our great, great grandchildren. Jesus will be there. You look for it. At 17 years of age, W. P. L. McCay left his home in Scotland to attend a college. His mother gave him a Bible in which he wrote his name on the flyle and the verses scripture under his name. He was so anxious to get away from home, so anxious to get away from his mother. He hated church. He didn't like that life and he got to college and he lived the life that he had always wanted to live. He lived a life that was filled with immorality. He sank lower and lower into debauchery. He was successful in his studies, but his life just spiraled down. Till one day he needed some money and he saw that Bible and he said, I'll palm that Bible and get the money I need. Eventually, McCay studied medicine. He became a doctor. His mother had prayed for him until she died, but when she died, he was still an ardent, ardent, immoral, fast-living pagan. McCay was treating a patient in a large city hospital. He knew the man was dying and he knew that the man knew that he was dying. He heard the man say to his friend, go get my book. I want my book before I die. The next day, the man died. McCay was a thinker. He was curious. He said, now what book would that man want? So he went to the man's room and he found a book, only one book on the table beside the bed. He was the man's Bible. The doctor smiled at the man's navigate, but he took the Bible with him. It had been years since he had actually sat down with one and he said, I'll abuse myself for a few minutes. And so he sat down in his office and he opened the book and he saw the flight and the tears began to flow. There in the front of the Bible was his name and the handwriting of his mother and that verse she had written. McCay was astounded. Somehow, somehow, and that old man had gotten that Bible that he pawned. And somehow that man ended up in his hospital to be treated by him and somehow that Bible was back in his hands. McCay couldn't put it down later that evening, W. P. L. McCay kneeled in his office and cried out to Jesus for mercy. He later became a minister of the gospel. What happened? His mother was gone. Everything around him had changed, but Jesus was alive. Jesus was still there, answering the prayers of his mother. I'm not limited to your generation. I'll be with you. I'll be there to the end. And you can tell you can write it down on the Lord because you'll be dead and gone, but you can write it down for your great, great, great, great, great grandchildren. He's not limited to my generation. You look for him. You look for him.