Kaleo San Diego Church

INTRODUCTION

Please turn with me to Isaiah 52.

The Old Testament contains prophecy and foreshadows of Christ. It contains promises of what is to come.

The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, contain the bulk of the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospels contain a tremendous amount of dialogue that Jesus has with His disciples, the curious, and of course the religious leaders of that time.

The letters, what we call epistles, reflect back to what Jesus has done and how it should affect how they live their life subsequent to His life, death, and resurrection. How they should respond.

So it is laid out; what is coming, what has happened, and how we should live practically in response.

We looked last week at the Psalm’s and Isaiah to show that the death of the Messiah, specifically the crucifixion, was prophesied about up to, and more than 1,000 years before the events came to pass.

This was part of God’s sovereign plan, it was part of what God would do to redeem His people to Himself.

Isaiah contains perhaps the most detail, prophetically, of Jesus origin, life, death, and triumphant resurrection, than any other prophet. Some have called Isaiah, the Gospel of the Old Testament.

Interestingly enough, Isaiah is also the bible in miniature. Isaiah is comprised of 66 chapters, the bible is 66 books. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah could be considered doom and gloom, the final 27 would show mercy and compassion and redemption by God. The bible has 39 old Testament books that contain clear demonstrations of God’s power and justice within history, the final 27 books which are the New Testament, shows the ultimate victory of God over evil and sin, and it does away with the Old Covenant in replacement of the New, eternal, Covenant.

STUDY

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

13 Behold, My Servant (Jesus) shall deal prudently; He (Jesus) shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. 14 Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men; 15 So shall He (Jesus) sprinkle (shedding of His blood) many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider. 53:1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked-But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

If all we had of Jesus was contained in Isaiah 52 and 53, we would almost have the entire story in short. This is written 700 years before Christ was born, and yet gives the story of Christ.

Now let’s turn from the promise to the fulfillment in John chapter 20.

We know He has been betrayed by a friend, handed over to the religious authorities, given a false and illegal trial, tortured, mocked, and nailed to a cross. Till now in the last two studies, and for the disciples, it looks very, very, bleak.

What could be worse than losing your greatest teacher, your closest friend, your wisest mentor?

How many of you have suffered a of loss like this? Whether it be friendship, family, a mentor or teacher, by death or by moving? How many have gone through this more than once?

It is tremendously painful. It seems as though the pain may never cease, and it is tremendously intense. Not much can lift the soul of someone who has lost the person most dear to them in this life.

Pain and suffering from loss has a tremendous impact in shaping how your character and identity develop.

Some that have lost parents at a young age know all too well what I am speaking of. Others will know this feeling at some point in their life. It is a guarantee that each of us will suffer the loss of someone close, because we are all gripped by death as we live this life on earth.

This inevitability for each of us is a few more breathes and heartbeats away.

I have had the displeasure of having 3 people die in my arms, and watch 5 die before my eyes. None of which I knew beyond the few moments before their last breath’s were gasped.

When I lived in Tacoma, Washington and a roommate and I were returning from the video store to grab a movie when right in front of us, as we were about to travel through a green light, the car in front of us was t-boned by a young man in a small pickup truck, who ran his red light and plowed at 50 miles per hour into the drivers side of the small car.

I remember the man being driven all the way to the passenger side and almost being thrown out by the impact. This man was probably around 70 or so. We were the first on the scene and my roommate ran over to check on the young man, as I checked on the older man who was struck. As I helped him lay down to rest out of the passenger side of the truck, as sirens were blaring down the street, he breathed his last breath looking into my eyes with a look of fear that is difficult to forget.

The man that struck him was not injured, other than a cut on his forehead, and was drunk.

A few years later, I was working for a private, high-risk, security company called Special Services, and we were responsible for patrolling areas that the police had given up trying to fix. So they would hire us, we would come in with full swat-type clothing, full firearms, and would be given jurisdiction to question and search cars and apartments since we were hired by a group of property owners to clean up drug and prostitution infested neighborhoods in L.A.

On a patrol, as 4 of us were walking, we heard a screech of tires and that horrible sound of metal meeting metal.

We were no more than ¼ of a block from the corner of the accident and we immediately ran towards two cars that had struck one another. One was a BMW, who had an older man driving it, and the other was an old Ford Fairlane, that carried 3 young teenagers. The BMW had struck the teenagers car.

I first went to the car that where the older man was and the rest of the team went to the other car to check on the others.

As soon as I opened the door, I could smell the stench of alcohol. The smell was coming from the blood of the neck of the older man who bled to death minutes later by a cut on his throat as I tried to find a way to comfort him until the ambulance arrived.

After the first ambulance came I ran over to the other car where my friends were, but only found one of my co-workers trying to help, the other two were sitting on the curb in shock.

The two in the front of the car were already dead, and the third we were trying to find a way to get her legs out from under the seats because she was folded up in a ball.

I remember holding her under her arms as the paramedics tried to free her legs and I remember this 15 year old girl telling me over and over and over again that she didn’t want to die.

I remember not being able to give her much comfort since I could see some of the damage to her body and could not imagine anyone surviving.

I found out 2 days later that she died from internal bleeding on the way to the hospital.

I was an unbeliever, and for the first time was faced with trying to comfort someone, and couldn’t find any words to get out of my mouth to tell her.

I was old enough to know death was permanent. I was smart enough to know that someone with those injuries probably were not going to live. Yet I was so ignorant, that all I could do was lie to her and tell her “everything was going to be ok.” But it wasn’t ok for her that night. She died, a 15 year old girl, who had a life to live and her two 16 and 17 year old friends were all dead because of a 50 year old guy that didn’t quite kick the drinking habit until he took his last drink that night.

I have never really spoken to many people about this story because it gave me the worst images of that young girls face as she told me over and over again, “I don’t want to die.”

Death is so final, it is so rude, it is such an intrusion, that most of us don’t want to consider.

Wednesday night at our bible study, we agreed that death was often sudden, unexpected, and not in the way that we would have thought it would occur to us.

For many of us, we live in fear of death, and in fear of dying for most of our lives.

Not so with Jesus as we are going to see why.

Let’s turn to John 20.

John 20:1-31

1 Now on the first day of the week (Sunday was the first day of the week as the Jews celebrated Saturday as their Sabbath, for us the Sabbath is on Sunday because it is the day Jesus raised from the dead). Mary Magdalene (in Luke she was the one possessed by 7 demons) went to the tomb (a large room that was hewn out of a large hillside rock) early (3-6 am), while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." 3 Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. 4 So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. 5 And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed (two miracles, that Jesus has risen from the dead, and a single man folded his own clothes).

9 For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead (reference to Psalm 16:10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption).

10 Then the disciples went away again to their own homes. 11 But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 Then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." 14 Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, "Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him, "Rabboni!" (which is to say, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.'" 18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. 19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you (mission)." 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit (gives us life and equips us for His mission). 23 "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained (preaching the Gospel)." 24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." 26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" 27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."

 

The deaf have a sign for Jesus. Quickly, they make the sign many times during their worship: the finger of each hand is placed into the palm of the other. Jesus, the one with the wounded hands. And when they touch the place, they remember. They hear the name of Jesus in their own flesh.

 

28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." 30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

This finishes with the sum total of John’s Gospel. That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ!

We are required to believe based upon the testimony of another. This is how we take in all information. How did you learn all that you learned? From another. Why then do we have a problem when people say that we shouldn’t accept the written testimony of Jesus and God?

Would you say “I won’t believe in Abraham Lincoln unless I personally see him?” No of course not.

Christian or not, I want to ask you the same two questions that Jesus asked Mary Magdalene in the early morning of His resurrection; “Why are you weeping?” and “Whom are you seeking?”

I believe these two questions are inextricably linked to one another. They are tied to one another in such a way that the answer you give for each one will affect the other.

Now that we have seen the promise in the Old Testament, the truth about what happened in fulfillment of those promises, let’s look at how we are to respond to those truths.

1 Corinthians 15

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,

Quickly, the Gospel is about Jesus. It is simply put, the good news. It is the story of who Jesus is and what He has done. Born of a virgin, lived sinless life, died for my sins, was buried and rose on the third day and will one day come to judge the world.

The issue of the Gospel is paramount.

Everything we do should have at its center the Gospel. We’re not out to fix moral problems, we’re not out to jump on political crusades. We are hear to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The rest will be taken care of if you know Him and are trained under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit.

We want to see all of these issues dealt with and more, but the answer is not preaching morality, it is preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

All of the issues of heresy in human history has centered around who Jesus is and what He did. If you get that right, all else false into place nicely. Without, you are jacked.

Paul says that this is the Gospel which I preached to you!

This comforts me. My job is not to share and reflect. It’s not to hold hands and sing a lovely song. My job is to preach!

My job is to get up here each week and bring it to you as best as God will enable me in power. If I yell, it is out of love. If I hit the pulpit, it’s out of fondness for you. If I burst a vein, it’s because I care.

This is what God has called me to do, to preach the Gospel! Not discuss, not share, not pow-wow, not debate, not facilitate, it is to preach! To proclaim!

Because this world is filled with noise and confusion, there needs to be a clear voice saying “this is Jesus, this is what He has said, done, and does.”

We God speaks He doesn’t ask questions for input, He doesn’t give nice invitations, He gives commands, not requests!

2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 12 (Reduction ad absurdum) Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up--if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Jump to verse 30

30 And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? 31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32 If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

If Jesus did not raise from the dead, then do what you want. Be buck wild.

Do you see why people act they way they do without Christ? They are simply living out what they believe. The nice atheist is the hypocrite.

The only thing that compels and constrains is the love of God in Christ, and His defeat of sin by raising from the dead.

Verse 33 Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits." 34 Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

Jump to verse 54 and let’s finish there.

Verse 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 55 "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Stand firm, Christ is risen from the dead and is victorious. Your work is not in vain!! Praise God!!

No more tears verse in Revelation

This is what we have for you at Kaleo; a bloody cross and empty tomb. That’s it! That is the center of it all. It is the central focus for everything in our lives. It is the motivation for living, breathing, moving, loving, and dying to live again..

Come to faith in the living Christ who has died for our sin and raised from the dead defeating death, sin, and Satan.

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