Automated Transcription:
Good morning. It is always a privilege to be back here at the Florida school of preaching place that is shaped who I am so much and just appreciate my time here so much. Good to see old friends and, and make new friends and everybody in between, I guess. So whoever that would be go ahead and be turning in your Bibles to Matthew chapter nine.
It was spring time when Tommy and his dad were driving down the road and a bumblebee flew in the window and Tommy was deathly allergic to bee stings. And so he was terrified. And so his dad reached out and grabbed the bee and, and squeezed it in his hand and let go. But Tommy was still afraid because the bee was still swarming around until his dad reached out his hand.
And he showed him where the stinger had stuck in his hand. And he said, see, Tommy, you don’t need to be afraid anymore because I’ve taken the sting for you. And I thought that was just an amazing illustration of what our Lord has done for us. We get so caught up in the worries of this life. We get so caught up in the troubles of the day and,
and we forget sometimes as children of God, we don’t have anything to worry about anymore. We don’t have anything to worry about because Christ has taken the sting for us through the resurrection. Our focus this morning is not on the Lord’s resurrection, but it is on those. He resurrected in his life where at least three accounts that he resurrected in his life and in the passages that we’re going to be looking at it as a time in Jesus’s ministry,
where he’s become very popular. There have been crowds that have gathered. They’re following him all over the place. He is, he is, he is teaching and he is, he is doing his miracles. And, and again, large multitudes are beginning to sort of press upon him. And, and it’s also a time in his ministry where he, he does some of his greatest miracles.
Resurrection. Our focus again is not going to be on the Lord’s resurrection, but these, these three resurrections starting in Matthew chapter nine, you know, we’re all plagued with the same problem. I hope it doesn’t shock anyone here, but the mortality rate in this country is what 100%, right? We’re all going to die. If Jesus doesn’t come back first,
we are all gonna die. And because we’re all gonna die, men have tried to come up with ways to, to figure out how to live longer. We have diets and pills and formulas that you can follow, just so you can eat out a few more days on this earth, right? There are movies and books where the main theme is the character.
If somebody’s being risen from the dead and those are all fiction, but what we’re talking about this morning is true, are true. Miracles of Jesus. Somebody has obviously been dead for some amount of time, and Jesus raises them from the dead they become alive again. And so let’s look at these accounts starting in Matthew nine, we’re going to look at gyrus his daughter.
We’re going to look at Matthew and Mark’s account, and then we’ll talk about it. So Matthew chapter nine in verse 18, if you’re following along While he spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped him saying, my daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her. And she will live. So Jesus arose and followed him.
And so did his disciples look at verse 23. When Jesus came into the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, he said to them, make room for the girl is not dead but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. But when the crowd was put outside, he went in and took her by the hand and the girl arose.
And the report of this went out into all the land. Let’s go ahead and turn over to mark five. And let’s read a few verses there. And then we’ll talk about it. Mark. Chapter five in verse 21. Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to him. And he was by the sea and behold,
one of the rulers of the synagogue came gyrus by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death, come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed and she will live. So Jesus went with him and a great multitude followed and thronged him.
Okay. So gyrus was one of the rulers of the synagogue. He was a holy man. He believed in God. And even though these massive crowds are surrounding Jesus, he still comes up to him. He’s able to get to him. He falls down and he worships him. He understood Jesus was more than just a teacher. Jesus was more than just,
just a profit. There was something more significant about this. Jesus, no doubt. He heard about the miracles. And so he came and he begged Jesus that he might come into his house and heal his dying daughter. He, he pleaded with him. He begged. And I want to focus on that for a second because if have you ever begged for anything,
that’s kind of humiliating, isn’t it? I used to beg my parents for my allowance. So I go buy some more baseball cards. I begged them. So a friend could come over and stay the night. I begged him for all kinds of things, because I couldn’t do it by myself. I needed their help. I might, you might beg a friend to forgive you if you’ve done something wrong to your friend.
And, and, and, and it’s very humbling that you have to have humility to go and do that because you need their help. You can’t do it without them and friends. This is the idea that Jesus is looking for in each. And every one of our lives has, as we ought to be begging for him to come into our life, begging to have that relationship with him.
But, you know, we, we serve such an amazing God. We serve such an amazing God where Jesus is the one that’s oftentimes pictured begging us in revelation three, in verse 20 behold, I stand at the door and knock. Jesus says, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door to him, I will come into him and dine with him.
And he, with me, have you ever focused on that verse? What a powerful, powerful verse that, that, that Jesus Christ, the king of Kings, the Lord of Lords is standing there knocking on our door. We sing songs like who at my door is standing patiently drawing near entrance within demanding. Whose is the voice I hear lonely without he’s staying lonely with NMI while I am still delaying Willy,
not pass me by all through the dark hours dreary. And here it is knocking again, is he? Jesus Arthur. Now we are waiting so long for me. What an amazing thought, what a wonderful thought, but the everlasting king steps off his throne and he comes down from heaven and he begins to knock and beg for me, for me to come to him rather than the way it ought to be,
which ought to be me, always coming to him, begging for him to want to have any sort of relationship with me. But it’s often pictured the other way around what great mercy, what great love we see in our Lord. Jesus himself said in Luke 19 verse 10 for the son of man has come to seek and to save that, which was lost in first Timothy one in verse 15,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all, acceptance, that Christ Jesus came to this world to save sinners. He came to us, he’s done it all. And he’s begging us and gyrus had it right? Gyrus gyrus had it right when he came down and he begged, he fell down and worshiped and he begged that’s the way it ought to be.
He begged Jesus to make a difference in his life to make a difference in his daughter’s life. Because he knew of Jesus, his power, he knew of Jesus is concerned. He knew that Jesus could provide a healing. And so that’s what he begs for. What a powerful lesson for us, that Jesus Christ is concerned. He is the all-powerful. He is the almighty.
He doesn’t have to care, but he does. Let’s finish the account and talk about something else here for a moment. Let’s look at verse 35 in mark chapter five, while he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house. Who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher? Any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken,
he said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be afraid. Only believe. And he permitted no one to follow him. Except Peter James and John, the brother of James. Then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw tumult of those who wept and wailed loudly. When he came in, he said to them, why make this commotion and weep?
The child is not dead, but sleeping first 40. And they ridiculed him. But when he had put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with him and entered where the child was lying. Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, to lift the Cooma, which is translated,
little girl, I say to you arise immediately. The girl arose and walked for. She was 12 years of age and they were overcome with great amazement, but he who commanded them strictly that, or, but he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given to her to eat. This girl was 12 years old.
My oldest daughter is 12 years old. And I’ve got to tell you, there is not much I wouldn’t do to keep her alive to. There is not much I wouldn’t do to try to save her life. And I doubt I’m alone in that, for those of you who are parents out there, don’t you think gyrus had probably exhausted every possibility to try to save his daughter’s life.
Up to this point, he would have gone to all the doctors he can afford just as any loving father would do. He would have, he would have tried everything that was medically possible in those days to try to save his daughter’s life as any of us would do you know, my best friend or my sister’s best friend growing up was named Jennifer and Jennifer had a rare lung disease.
She was born with it. And her parents were always having to take her the hour and a half trip from where we lived down to the Indianapolis children’s hospital. And she would wake up in the middle of the night and have coughing spells. And she would oftentimes cough up blood and things like that. And they would have to run down there in the middle of the night to,
to get her treated. And those, she outlived her estimated lifespan. She lived, she died at the young age of 18. Where do you think her parents were when she took her last breath? Right by her side, where any of us would be right by her side, trying to squeeze out those last moments with our precious daughter, trying to,
trying to eke out every last, every second would count. Every moment would count as exactly what I would be doing as well. What was gyrus doing? He was going to find Jesus. Death was imminent for his daughter. It was going to happen in the next few moments. And he left her side to go find what some might think was just another doctor.
I mean, can you imagine being gyrus his wife or, or being one of the family members? I mean, where are you going, gyrus? What are you doing? What kind of deadbeat father leaves his daughter on her death bed. This is not a deadbeat father. This is faith. It’s the type of faith that Jesus is seeking the type of faith that leaves the world behind because they know that there is something greater because even if Jesus does not make this better in this world,
he’s going to make it eternally better in the end. And Hebrews 11, verse six, without faith, it is impossible to please him for he who, who comes to God must believe that he is. And that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. What type of faith do we have? Do we have the type of faith that gyrus had to leave his daughter on her death bed?
Justin, just for maybe this last ditch effort might work. I mean, what if it didn’t work? We need to have that type of faith that leaves everything for Jesus. The power is in him first Corinthians two in verse five, that your face should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God and gyrus, his faith was in the power of God,
because nothing is impossible with God. I want to mention one more thing about this healing before we move on, look at verse 43, again, of Matthew chapter, mark, chapter five, it says, but he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given to her to eat. I think it’s amazing that so many times in scripture,
when Jesus heals people, he tells him not to tell anybody else. And I just always have found that fascinating. Obviously, for the most part, he didn’t want to be overrun with people. It wasn’t his time yet, right? He didn’t want to be overwhelmed with people. But as we see again, in this situation in Matthew chapter nine, verse 26,
it said, and the report of this went out into all the land. And here’s my question. Really? How could it not, if somebody healed your dying daughter, how could you not go tell everybody, right? Let me tell you about this guy. Who, who healed my daughter. She was dead. Now she’s alive again. And here’s this guy who did it.
Jesus did it. Now. Let’s relate that to us for a second. Every single one of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, right? All of us deserve to die a sinner’s death and eternal condemnation in hell. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus, my Lord,
the gift of God ought to be what makes us go tell everybody about Jesus Christ. The gift of God is eternal life. How through the resurrection and because of that, resurrection, we should not be able to stop ourselves from telling people about Jesus and how they can have access to that resurrection as well. All right, let’s look at another one. Matthew 27,
turn over to Matthew 27. This one’s a pretty fascinating one. Matthew 27 in verse 45. Now from the sixth hour, until the ninth hour, there was over all the land and about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli Lama. SubAQUA NAI. That is my God. My God. Why have you forsaken me?
Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, this man is calling for Elijah immediately. One of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a Reed and offered it to him to drink the rest said, let him alone, let us see if Elijah will come and save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit verse 51.
Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earthquakes and the rocks were split and the graves were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the graves after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many well, let’s back up for a second.
And first of all, can you imagine being a priest at this moment? You know, the temple would have been busy with the evening sacrifice. Those priests would have been, there would have been a lot of priests in the temple. And maybe that lends to the idea of acts six and verse seven or seven or six. I get it wrong either way,
where many of the priests obeyed, and maybe that’s kind of the idea there, but, but all of a sudden this miracle from heaven occurs and it occurs at the exact same time that our savior died on the cross. The veil is torn into that tipple veil, that veil, that separated God’s dwelling place on earth with the rest of the temple, that,
that, that holy of Holies, where only the high priest was allowed to go in once a year, what a remarkable illustration of God demonstrating what he’s doing for us, that there’s no longer this need for these earthly high priest, because our true high priest is now seated at the right hand of God in heaven. I don’t have to go to make that daily sacrifice anymore because I’m a priest.
And you’re a priest, as we’re told in first, Peter two in verse nine, we are priests. Those of us who are children of God, but all of this is connected. This veil being torn into because at the same time of Jesus’s death and this veil being torn into two, the earthquake, you know, we sort of take for granted the dirt under our feet,
right? I mean, I’ve never questioned. I’ve never questioned the dirt under my feet remaining sturdy, have you, I’ve never lost sleep over it. I’ve never worried about that at all. I saw some sort of Facebook thing that said something about, I thought quicksand was going to be a bigger deal than it is you ever seen that? I thought that was kind of funny because I thought that as a child too,
but anyway, I’ve never been in an earthquake, but I imagine if you’ve been in an earthquake, that that’s a pretty scary thing. A pretty scary thing to be part of. And those who witnessed this in verse 54 feared greatly. Now, how do we know that this is, is not an ordinary earthquake? How do we know it’s an earthquake from God?
Well, for starters, it caused the graves of the saints to be open and nobody else, I mean, that’s enough right there, right? I mean, that’s enough evidence right there that we could stop right there. Yes. This is from God. But even more than that, this earthquake repre, what it represents. If you look back at well,
you don’t have to look, but I’ll read it to you here in Exodus chapter 19, Exodus, 19 verse 17 as the law of Moses was being given to the people. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire it’s smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and listen.
And the whole mountain quaked greatly. There was a, there was a earthquake when the law was given and now there’s another earthquake signifying its removal. I think that’s, that’s significant. And not only is it removed, but it’s being replaced by a new law, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And I think that’s just an amazing illustration,
but let’s get to what we’re really, after here, the tombs are opened. Now we can oftentimes get caught up and confused about this passage in its meaning. It’s not really that difficult to understand when we understand all of God’s miracles in the old Testament. And when we understand all of Jesus’s miracles in his mystery ministry and all of the things we’ve already read about so far,
it is what it says. It is the graves of the saints were open. People get all kinds of twisted up and confused by that. But the graves of the saints were open. And these people who had been dead are now walking on the earth. And it says it happens after the resurrection first Corinthians 15 and verse 20. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who fallen asleep.
Christ is the first of those who were resurrected. But what was it like? What was it like for those who were dead to be alive again? What, what was it like for those people to see them come alive again? Did they stink? Did they, where they decade did they eat? Did they sleep? Did they have to die again?
I mean, all of those questions kind of come up in my mind and maybe we should just be warned not to seek out those answers. Jesus, hasn’t God, hasn’t revealed those in the scripture. And, and he’s revealed what he wants us to know. And sometimes we get caught chasing all these, all these trying to read between in between the lines and things like that,
of scripture, of what might’ve happened instead of just focusing on what God had said and trusting him for the rest. But what does this miracle tell us? Well, it means first of all, so those who have fallen asleep were raised. First of all, it means that when a Christian dies, he’s really just fallen asleep. And I love the wording there.
I love, I love that so much because that means the death of a Saint is just as temporary as, as sleeping for the living just as temporary sleeping. It’s time for the sermon again. So Brian’s over there sleeping, right? We know he’s going to wake up when it’s lunchtime, but it’s just as temporary as sleeping. You understand what I’m saying?
Sleep is temporary equally. So as the death of a Saint, as a matter of fact, Jesus used the same wording in John 11, verse 11, when he said our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up. I just love the way he words that. I think it’s just wonderful because it gives me so much comfort that when I leave this life,
if I’m a faithful of a faithful child of God, that I’m just sleeping on, the other side of that is waking up and he turned blue. I love a good night’s sleep, right? I love going to bed at night when I’m tired. I love, I love a good night’s sleep. I love waking up in the morning. I say a little prayer every morning when I,
when I wake up thanking the Lord for the day and, and all of that. But can you imagine waking up that day when you will wake up in eternal glory, being with the Lord, what an awesome thought. We’re just sleeping. I think that’s a wonderful and comforting passage to all of us, or it should be something else that comforts me about this passage is that God knows where we are.
He knows where we are all the time. He knows where you are when you’re living. He knows where you are when you’re dead. You’re saying, well, wait a second, Brian, you don’t understand. My grandpa died in the war. And they never found his body. God knows where his people are all the time, the same God that spoke into existence life.
As we know, it is the same powerful and all knowing God who knows exactly where his people are in job, 36 in verse seven, he does not withdrawal his eyes from the righteous in Psalm 33 in verse 13, the Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the sons of men from the place of his dwelling. He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth.
He knows. He knows where we are. He’s got a GPS on every single one of us, even when we’re dead. When I was 25, I thought it’d be a good idea to drive from Muncie Indiana to, to the grand canyon. And back in a four day weekend. That was, that was, that was such a good idea that none of my friends wanted to go with me,
but it was 4,000 miles and 60 hours of driving. Yeah. That’s not the brightest crown in the box, but anyway, it was an adventure, but it was the days before I had a GPS. So it was just MapQuest. Remember that? Print it out. And you go step-by-step. And maybe every once in a while, pick up that old map,
but now we have GPS and I use that to even get around the town. I currently live in and we use it in aviation and we use it in road trips. And we, some people put them on their children so that they always know where their children are or valuables are. We love that technology, that technology a GPS is absolutely amazing. But what happens when the battery dies and what happens when you go out of satellite service and then you get that dreaded recalculating,
right? Friends, we need to understand that no matter where we are, God knows that should comfort you and me this morning. Maybe you feel invisible this morning. Maybe you feel like nobody cares about you or sees you or anything like that, but God sees you. And he cares and Psalm 1 45 in verse 20, the Lord preserves, or some version say watches over all who love him.
What? Great comfort. That is one more thing I want to mention about this one before we get to the last, the last resurrection is that we will rise again. And I don’t want to take over anybody else’s lesson on this lectureship, but what a wonderful foreshadowing really of what this is, we will rise again, heat because he was raised. And because the saints on this occasion were raised,
it confirms yet again, that what he says is true, that we are going to be raised as well. The saints here is just a glimpse of that day. When all of us we’ll be raised. All of this, all of us will be raised to meet Jesus in the air. First Thessalonians four and verse 16 for the Lord himself will descend from heaven,
with a shout, with the voice of an Archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, and I love this part. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord.
I love that last verse right there. That last phrase that we will always be with the Lord, that we will never not be with the Lord. What a tremendous comfort Jesus Christ, as a true Redeemer of all men, he is the true and only high priest. He’s the mediator, as Kaufman said, his work on the cross was the center and climax of a saving mission to man.
And what we learned here from this passage and from these, the death of these are the saints being raised rather is that we too will be raised and we will always be with the Lord and amazing thought for if we have been United together in the likeness likeness of his death, Romans six and verse five. Certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
Listen, if, if that doesn’t excite you, I don’t know how to get you excited about the faith. If that doesn’t, if that doesn’t show you the power of God and the love of God, I don’t know how else to do it. If that doesn’t get you excited and provoked to go and tell others about how they can have this saving grace of Jesus Christ because of the resurrection.
I don’t know how to do it for you, but here’s a story that we can take and it can get us excited if we love it. All right, let’s look at the last one. Turn over to Luke chapter seven. That’s right after Luke six, Christian, just in case you didn’t know, alright, Luke seven verse 11. Now it happened the day after that,
he went into a city called Nane and many of his disciples went with him and a large crowd. And when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out the only son of his mother. And she was a widow and a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her,
do not weep. Then he came and touched the open coffin. And those who carried him stood still. And he said, young man, I say to you arise. So he who was dead set up and began to speak. And he presented him to his mother. Then fear came upon all and they glorified God saying a great prophet has risen up among us.
And God has visited his people. And this report about him went throughout all Judea, excuse me, and all the surrounding region. Well, what’s going on here. Jesus comes into a large city. It’s a four to five city walls and gates. And I think there’s, there’s some remnants of that, that they found, but, and he and his entourage,
and he sees this dead man being carried out. So what people die all the time, right? I’m sure. I’m sure funerals were just as common then as they are today, but something different. There was something different about this funeral. This woman was a widow and she had lost her only son. We, as Christians are called to take care of our widows.
Are we not? If we’re not doing that in our congregations, we need to start doing that because it’s scriptural. And first Timothy five and verse three on our widows who are really widows. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first show learn to show piety at home and repay their parents for this as good and acceptable before God James 1 27 pure and undefiled religion before God.
And the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. When was the last time you visited a widow? Just for the sake of visiting. When was the last time you helped a widow with the basic need? Just a question to think about. Let’s go back to our story though. Here’s this woman through some time in the past,
lost her husband and now her only son is dead and here comes the funeral procession as Jesus is walking by. And this, this son again, is perhaps the only means of support for this widow. How she going to live? Is Medicare going to step in and social security? Does she have that to fall back on? I don’t think so. And so as Jesus,
so often did he had compassion on this woman. He saw that this moment of sorrow was truly going to be a lifetime of sorrow for her and through his compassion and through his power, he acted, he goes over to the open coffin where this wrapped body is laying. And all he does is simply commanded him to arise. There’s no performance about it,
nothing like that. There was no look at me, look what I’m doing. He threw his power and he threw his compassion. He just did what he could. And when Jesus does what he can, he does some amazing things. And he raised him from the dead and the report of Jesus went out everywhere. But what I want us to understand about this particular story is that we need to have compassion to just like Jesus had.
And just like he had throughout all of his ministry, he looked at the people and he had compassion on them. If we don’t have compassion, we really can’t do anything for Christ. We’ve got to care about people. We’ve got to care about souls. We’ve got to care about our brethren. I often refer back to the passage in Ezekiel chapter three.
I guess we can look there. Let’s go ahead and turn there just for a second. It’s one verse is eco chapter three, and I’ll just read it to you because I just love the way his EQL words, this and Ezekiel three in verse 15, it says then I came to the captives at tele beam who dwelt by the river key bar. And I sat where they sat and remain there astonished among them.
Seven days, he sat where they sat. What does that mean? That means he’s put himself in their shoes. He’s, he’s looking at life the way they’re looking at life. He’s having compassion. What I guess you might say is empathy, but he sees their pain. He sees their trouble and he tries to give them a message of hope. And that’s what we’re trying to do.
We, as Christians are just trying to find, to find people who are suffering without the cross, without the resurrection in their life. And they’re trying to give them a message of hope and that’s, that’s all we’re trying to do. The fear of death. The fear of this life being all that there is, does not have to be fear any longer because of the resurrection and great fear.
Going back to our text, great fear came upon all who were present. They correctly identified Jesus as a prophet from God. And just imagine seeing these miracles, what would that do for your preaching preachers? What would that do for your preaching that next Sunday, if you saw somebody being raised from the dead because of Jesus, how bold would you get up there and preach the gospel that next Sunday,
Hey, let me tell you what I just saw. Jesus Christ raised this man from the dead. Maybe he is the Christ. I know he’s the Christ. He’s the savior. Come see for yourself. And as we close friends, as children of God, we don’t have to wonder if God is concerned about us. We don’t have to wonder whether God can provide for us or not.
We don’t have anything to worry about because God has already shown his magnificent power and his compassion, his power over death, through the resurrection. And he’s also shown how much he deeply deeply cares for us. And again, going back to where we were in the first point, I don’t think one of the greatest ways that he has shown that he cares for us is the fact that Jesus is the one pictured as the beggar.
Jesus is the one begging us to see the resurrection, to see what he has done for us. And to accept it, to obey, do not Marvel at this for the hours coming in, which all who were in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who are, have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
And so I just want you to think about this this week. I want to, I want you to think about how many billions of people in this world, and maybe even however many people are in this community or the communities where you live, who don’t have the resurrection in their life. And we need to think about how we can reach them for the cause of Christ.
And we can be bold about it because of the resurrection. Thank you so much.
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Good morning. It is always a privilege to be back here at the Florida school of preaching place that is shaped who I am so much and just appreciate my time here so much. Good to see old friends and, and make new friends and everybody in between, I guess. So whoever that would be go ahead and be turning in your Bibles to Matthew chapter nine.
It was spring time when Tommy and his dad were driving down the road and a bumblebee flew in the window and Tommy was deathly allergic to bee stings. And so he was terrified. And so his dad reached out and grabbed the bee and, and squeezed it in his hand and let go. But Tommy was still afraid because the bee was still swarming around until his dad reached out his hand.
And he showed him where the stinger had stuck in his hand. And he said, see, Tommy, you don’t need to be afraid anymore because I’ve taken the sting for you. And I thought that was just an amazing illustration of what our Lord has done for us. We get so caught up in the worries of this life. We get so caught up in the troubles of the day and,
and we forget sometimes as children of God, we don’t have anything to worry about anymore. We don’t have anything to worry about because Christ has taken the sting for us through the resurrection. Our focus this morning is not on the Lord’s resurrection, but it is on those. He resurrected in his life where at least three accounts that he resurrected in his life and in the passages that we’re going to be looking at it as a time in Jesus’s ministry,
where he’s become very popular. There have been crowds that have gathered. They’re following him all over the place. He is, he is, he is teaching and he is, he is doing his miracles. And, and again, large multitudes are beginning to sort of press upon him. And, and it’s also a time in his ministry where he, he does some of his greatest miracles.
Resurrection. Our focus again is not going to be on the Lord’s resurrection, but these, these three resurrections starting in Matthew chapter nine, you know, we’re all plagued with the same problem. I hope it doesn’t shock anyone here, but the mortality rate in this country is what 100%, right? We’re all going to die. If Jesus doesn’t come back first,
we are all gonna die. And because we’re all gonna die, men have tried to come up with ways to, to figure out how to live longer. We have diets and pills and formulas that you can follow, just so you can eat out a few more days on this earth, right? There are movies and books where the main theme is the character.
If somebody’s being risen from the dead and those are all fiction, but what we’re talking about this morning is true, are true. Miracles of Jesus. Somebody has obviously been dead for some amount of time, and Jesus raises them from the dead they become alive again. And so let’s look at these accounts starting in Matthew nine, we’re going to look at gyrus his daughter.
We’re going to look at Matthew and Mark’s account, and then we’ll talk about it. So Matthew chapter nine in verse 18, if you’re following along While he spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped him saying, my daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her. And she will live. So Jesus arose and followed him.
And so did his disciples look at verse 23. When Jesus came into the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, he said to them, make room for the girl is not dead but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. But when the crowd was put outside, he went in and took her by the hand and the girl arose.
And the report of this went out into all the land. Let’s go ahead and turn over to mark five. And let’s read a few verses there. And then we’ll talk about it. Mark. Chapter five in verse 21. Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to him. And he was by the sea and behold,
one of the rulers of the synagogue came gyrus by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death, come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed and she will live. So Jesus went with him and a great multitude followed and thronged him.
Okay. So gyrus was one of the rulers of the synagogue. He was a holy man. He believed in God. And even though these massive crowds are surrounding Jesus, he still comes up to him. He’s able to get to him. He falls down and he worships him. He understood Jesus was more than just a teacher. Jesus was more than just,
just a profit. There was something more significant about this. Jesus, no doubt. He heard about the miracles. And so he came and he begged Jesus that he might come into his house and heal his dying daughter. He, he pleaded with him. He begged. And I want to focus on that for a second because if have you ever begged for anything,
that’s kind of humiliating, isn’t it? I used to beg my parents for my allowance. So I go buy some more baseball cards. I begged them. So a friend could come over and stay the night. I begged him for all kinds of things, because I couldn’t do it by myself. I needed their help. I might, you might beg a friend to forgive you if you’ve done something wrong to your friend.
And, and, and, and it’s very humbling that you have to have humility to go and do that because you need their help. You can’t do it without them and friends. This is the idea that Jesus is looking for in each. And every one of our lives has, as we ought to be begging for him to come into our life, begging to have that relationship with him.
But, you know, we, we serve such an amazing God. We serve such an amazing God where Jesus is the one that’s oftentimes pictured begging us in revelation three, in verse 20 behold, I stand at the door and knock. Jesus says, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door to him, I will come into him and dine with him.
And he, with me, have you ever focused on that verse? What a powerful, powerful verse that, that, that Jesus Christ, the king of Kings, the Lord of Lords is standing there knocking on our door. We sing songs like who at my door is standing patiently drawing near entrance within demanding. Whose is the voice I hear lonely without he’s staying lonely with NMI while I am still delaying Willy,
not pass me by all through the dark hours dreary. And here it is knocking again, is he? Jesus Arthur. Now we are waiting so long for me. What an amazing thought, what a wonderful thought, but the everlasting king steps off his throne and he comes down from heaven and he begins to knock and beg for me, for me to come to him rather than the way it ought to be,
which ought to be me, always coming to him, begging for him to want to have any sort of relationship with me. But it’s often pictured the other way around what great mercy, what great love we see in our Lord. Jesus himself said in Luke 19 verse 10 for the son of man has come to seek and to save that, which was lost in first Timothy one in verse 15,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all, acceptance, that Christ Jesus came to this world to save sinners. He came to us, he’s done it all. And he’s begging us and gyrus had it right? Gyrus gyrus had it right when he came down and he begged, he fell down and worshiped and he begged that’s the way it ought to be.
He begged Jesus to make a difference in his life to make a difference in his daughter’s life. Because he knew of Jesus, his power, he knew of Jesus is concerned. He knew that Jesus could provide a healing. And so that’s what he begs for. What a powerful lesson for us, that Jesus Christ is concerned. He is the all-powerful. He is the almighty.
He doesn’t have to care, but he does. Let’s finish the account and talk about something else here for a moment. Let’s look at verse 35 in mark chapter five, while he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house. Who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher? Any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken,
he said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be afraid. Only believe. And he permitted no one to follow him. Except Peter James and John, the brother of James. Then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw tumult of those who wept and wailed loudly. When he came in, he said to them, why make this commotion and weep?
The child is not dead, but sleeping first 40. And they ridiculed him. But when he had put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with him and entered where the child was lying. Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, to lift the Cooma, which is translated,
little girl, I say to you arise immediately. The girl arose and walked for. She was 12 years of age and they were overcome with great amazement, but he who commanded them strictly that, or, but he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given to her to eat. This girl was 12 years old.
My oldest daughter is 12 years old. And I’ve got to tell you, there is not much I wouldn’t do to keep her alive to. There is not much I wouldn’t do to try to save her life. And I doubt I’m alone in that, for those of you who are parents out there, don’t you think gyrus had probably exhausted every possibility to try to save his daughter’s life.
Up to this point, he would have gone to all the doctors he can afford just as any loving father would do. He would have, he would have tried everything that was medically possible in those days to try to save his daughter’s life as any of us would do you know, my best friend or my sister’s best friend growing up was named Jennifer and Jennifer had a rare lung disease.
She was born with it. And her parents were always having to take her the hour and a half trip from where we lived down to the Indianapolis children’s hospital. And she would wake up in the middle of the night and have coughing spells. And she would oftentimes cough up blood and things like that. And they would have to run down there in the middle of the night to,
to get her treated. And those, she outlived her estimated lifespan. She lived, she died at the young age of 18. Where do you think her parents were when she took her last breath? Right by her side, where any of us would be right by her side, trying to squeeze out those last moments with our precious daughter, trying to,
trying to eke out every last, every second would count. Every moment would count as exactly what I would be doing as well. What was gyrus doing? He was going to find Jesus. Death was imminent for his daughter. It was going to happen in the next few moments. And he left her side to go find what some might think was just another doctor.
I mean, can you imagine being gyrus his wife or, or being one of the family members? I mean, where are you going, gyrus? What are you doing? What kind of deadbeat father leaves his daughter on her death bed. This is not a deadbeat father. This is faith. It’s the type of faith that Jesus is seeking the type of faith that leaves the world behind because they know that there is something greater because even if Jesus does not make this better in this world,
he’s going to make it eternally better in the end. And Hebrews 11, verse six, without faith, it is impossible to please him for he who, who comes to God must believe that he is. And that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. What type of faith do we have? Do we have the type of faith that gyrus had to leave his daughter on her death bed?
Justin, just for maybe this last ditch effort might work. I mean, what if it didn’t work? We need to have that type of faith that leaves everything for Jesus. The power is in him first Corinthians two in verse five, that your face should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God and gyrus, his faith was in the power of God,
because nothing is impossible with God. I want to mention one more thing about this healing before we move on, look at verse 43, again, of Matthew chapter, mark, chapter five, it says, but he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given to her to eat. I think it’s amazing that so many times in scripture,
when Jesus heals people, he tells him not to tell anybody else. And I just always have found that fascinating. Obviously, for the most part, he didn’t want to be overrun with people. It wasn’t his time yet, right? He didn’t want to be overwhelmed with people. But as we see again, in this situation in Matthew chapter nine, verse 26,
it said, and the report of this went out into all the land. And here’s my question. Really? How could it not, if somebody healed your dying daughter, how could you not go tell everybody, right? Let me tell you about this guy. Who, who healed my daughter. She was dead. Now she’s alive again. And here’s this guy who did it.
Jesus did it. Now. Let’s relate that to us for a second. Every single one of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, right? All of us deserve to die a sinner’s death and eternal condemnation in hell. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus, my Lord,
the gift of God ought to be what makes us go tell everybody about Jesus Christ. The gift of God is eternal life. How through the resurrection and because of that, resurrection, we should not be able to stop ourselves from telling people about Jesus and how they can have access to that resurrection as well. All right, let’s look at another one. Matthew 27,
turn over to Matthew 27. This one’s a pretty fascinating one. Matthew 27 in verse 45. Now from the sixth hour, until the ninth hour, there was over all the land and about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli Lama. SubAQUA NAI. That is my God. My God. Why have you forsaken me?
Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, this man is calling for Elijah immediately. One of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a Reed and offered it to him to drink the rest said, let him alone, let us see if Elijah will come and save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit verse 51.
Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earthquakes and the rocks were split and the graves were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the graves after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many well, let’s back up for a second.
And first of all, can you imagine being a priest at this moment? You know, the temple would have been busy with the evening sacrifice. Those priests would have been, there would have been a lot of priests in the temple. And maybe that lends to the idea of acts six and verse seven or seven or six. I get it wrong either way,
where many of the priests obeyed, and maybe that’s kind of the idea there, but, but all of a sudden this miracle from heaven occurs and it occurs at the exact same time that our savior died on the cross. The veil is torn into that tipple veil, that veil, that separated God’s dwelling place on earth with the rest of the temple, that,
that, that holy of Holies, where only the high priest was allowed to go in once a year, what a remarkable illustration of God demonstrating what he’s doing for us, that there’s no longer this need for these earthly high priest, because our true high priest is now seated at the right hand of God in heaven. I don’t have to go to make that daily sacrifice anymore because I’m a priest.
And you’re a priest, as we’re told in first, Peter two in verse nine, we are priests. Those of us who are children of God, but all of this is connected. This veil being torn into because at the same time of Jesus’s death and this veil being torn into two, the earthquake, you know, we sort of take for granted the dirt under our feet,
right? I mean, I’ve never questioned. I’ve never questioned the dirt under my feet remaining sturdy, have you, I’ve never lost sleep over it. I’ve never worried about that at all. I saw some sort of Facebook thing that said something about, I thought quicksand was going to be a bigger deal than it is you ever seen that? I thought that was kind of funny because I thought that as a child too,
but anyway, I’ve never been in an earthquake, but I imagine if you’ve been in an earthquake, that that’s a pretty scary thing. A pretty scary thing to be part of. And those who witnessed this in verse 54 feared greatly. Now, how do we know that this is, is not an ordinary earthquake? How do we know it’s an earthquake from God?
Well, for starters, it caused the graves of the saints to be open and nobody else, I mean, that’s enough right there, right? I mean, that’s enough evidence right there that we could stop right there. Yes. This is from God. But even more than that, this earthquake repre, what it represents. If you look back at well,
you don’t have to look, but I’ll read it to you here in Exodus chapter 19, Exodus, 19 verse 17 as the law of Moses was being given to the people. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire it’s smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and listen.
And the whole mountain quaked greatly. There was a, there was a earthquake when the law was given and now there’s another earthquake signifying its removal. I think that’s, that’s significant. And not only is it removed, but it’s being replaced by a new law, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And I think that’s just an amazing illustration,
but let’s get to what we’re really, after here, the tombs are opened. Now we can oftentimes get caught up and confused about this passage in its meaning. It’s not really that difficult to understand when we understand all of God’s miracles in the old Testament. And when we understand all of Jesus’s miracles in his mystery ministry and all of the things we’ve already read about so far,
it is what it says. It is the graves of the saints were open. People get all kinds of twisted up and confused by that. But the graves of the saints were open. And these people who had been dead are now walking on the earth. And it says it happens after the resurrection first Corinthians 15 and verse 20. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who fallen asleep.
Christ is the first of those who were resurrected. But what was it like? What was it like for those who were dead to be alive again? What, what was it like for those people to see them come alive again? Did they stink? Did they, where they decade did they eat? Did they sleep? Did they have to die again?
I mean, all of those questions kind of come up in my mind and maybe we should just be warned not to seek out those answers. Jesus, hasn’t God, hasn’t revealed those in the scripture. And, and he’s revealed what he wants us to know. And sometimes we get caught chasing all these, all these trying to read between in between the lines and things like that,
of scripture, of what might’ve happened instead of just focusing on what God had said and trusting him for the rest. But what does this miracle tell us? Well, it means first of all, so those who have fallen asleep were raised. First of all, it means that when a Christian dies, he’s really just fallen asleep. And I love the wording there.
I love, I love that so much because that means the death of a Saint is just as temporary as, as sleeping for the living just as temporary sleeping. It’s time for the sermon again. So Brian’s over there sleeping, right? We know he’s going to wake up when it’s lunchtime, but it’s just as temporary as sleeping. You understand what I’m saying?
Sleep is temporary equally. So as the death of a Saint, as a matter of fact, Jesus used the same wording in John 11, verse 11, when he said our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up. I just love the way he words that. I think it’s just wonderful because it gives me so much comfort that when I leave this life,
if I’m a faithful of a faithful child of God, that I’m just sleeping on, the other side of that is waking up and he turned blue. I love a good night’s sleep, right? I love going to bed at night when I’m tired. I love, I love a good night’s sleep. I love waking up in the morning. I say a little prayer every morning when I,
when I wake up thanking the Lord for the day and, and all of that. But can you imagine waking up that day when you will wake up in eternal glory, being with the Lord, what an awesome thought. We’re just sleeping. I think that’s a wonderful and comforting passage to all of us, or it should be something else that comforts me about this passage is that God knows where we are.
He knows where we are all the time. He knows where you are when you’re living. He knows where you are when you’re dead. You’re saying, well, wait a second, Brian, you don’t understand. My grandpa died in the war. And they never found his body. God knows where his people are all the time, the same God that spoke into existence life.
As we know, it is the same powerful and all knowing God who knows exactly where his people are in job, 36 in verse seven, he does not withdrawal his eyes from the righteous in Psalm 33 in verse 13, the Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the sons of men from the place of his dwelling. He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth.
He knows. He knows where we are. He’s got a GPS on every single one of us, even when we’re dead. When I was 25, I thought it’d be a good idea to drive from Muncie Indiana to, to the grand canyon. And back in a four day weekend. That was, that was, that was such a good idea that none of my friends wanted to go with me,
but it was 4,000 miles and 60 hours of driving. Yeah. That’s not the brightest crown in the box, but anyway, it was an adventure, but it was the days before I had a GPS. So it was just MapQuest. Remember that? Print it out. And you go step-by-step. And maybe every once in a while, pick up that old map,
but now we have GPS and I use that to even get around the town. I currently live in and we use it in aviation and we use it in road trips. And we, some people put them on their children so that they always know where their children are or valuables are. We love that technology, that technology a GPS is absolutely amazing. But what happens when the battery dies and what happens when you go out of satellite service and then you get that dreaded recalculating,
right? Friends, we need to understand that no matter where we are, God knows that should comfort you and me this morning. Maybe you feel invisible this morning. Maybe you feel like nobody cares about you or sees you or anything like that, but God sees you. And he cares and Psalm 1 45 in verse 20, the Lord preserves, or some version say watches over all who love him.
What? Great comfort. That is one more thing I want to mention about this one before we get to the last, the last resurrection is that we will rise again. And I don’t want to take over anybody else’s lesson on this lectureship, but what a wonderful foreshadowing really of what this is, we will rise again, heat because he was raised. And because the saints on this occasion were raised,
it confirms yet again, that what he says is true, that we are going to be raised as well. The saints here is just a glimpse of that day. When all of us we’ll be raised. All of this, all of us will be raised to meet Jesus in the air. First Thessalonians four and verse 16 for the Lord himself will descend from heaven,
with a shout, with the voice of an Archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the, in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, and I love this part. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord.
I love that last verse right there. That last phrase that we will always be with the Lord, that we will never not be with the Lord. What a tremendous comfort Jesus Christ, as a true Redeemer of all men, he is the true and only high priest. He’s the mediator, as Kaufman said, his work on the cross was the center and climax of a saving mission to man.
And what we learned here from this passage and from these, the death of these are the saints being raised rather is that we too will be raised and we will always be with the Lord and amazing thought for if we have been United together in the likeness likeness of his death, Romans six and verse five. Certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
Listen, if, if that doesn’t excite you, I don’t know how to get you excited about the faith. If that doesn’t, if that doesn’t show you the power of God and the love of God, I don’t know how else to do it. If that doesn’t get you excited and provoked to go and tell others about how they can have this saving grace of Jesus Christ because of the resurrection.
I don’t know how to do it for you, but here’s a story that we can take and it can get us excited if we love it. All right, let’s look at the last one. Turn over to Luke chapter seven. That’s right after Luke six, Christian, just in case you didn’t know, alright, Luke seven verse 11. Now it happened the day after that,
he went into a city called Nane and many of his disciples went with him and a large crowd. And when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out the only son of his mother. And she was a widow and a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her,
do not weep. Then he came and touched the open coffin. And those who carried him stood still. And he said, young man, I say to you arise. So he who was dead set up and began to speak. And he presented him to his mother. Then fear came upon all and they glorified God saying a great prophet has risen up among us.
And God has visited his people. And this report about him went throughout all Judea, excuse me, and all the surrounding region. Well, what’s going on here. Jesus comes into a large city. It’s a four to five city walls and gates. And I think there’s, there’s some remnants of that, that they found, but, and he and his entourage,
and he sees this dead man being carried out. So what people die all the time, right? I’m sure. I’m sure funerals were just as common then as they are today, but something different. There was something different about this funeral. This woman was a widow and she had lost her only son. We, as Christians are called to take care of our widows.
Are we not? If we’re not doing that in our congregations, we need to start doing that because it’s scriptural. And first Timothy five and verse three on our widows who are really widows. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first show learn to show piety at home and repay their parents for this as good and acceptable before God James 1 27 pure and undefiled religion before God.
And the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. When was the last time you visited a widow? Just for the sake of visiting. When was the last time you helped a widow with the basic need? Just a question to think about. Let’s go back to our story though. Here’s this woman through some time in the past,
lost her husband and now her only son is dead and here comes the funeral procession as Jesus is walking by. And this, this son again, is perhaps the only means of support for this widow. How she going to live? Is Medicare going to step in and social security? Does she have that to fall back on? I don’t think so. And so as Jesus,
so often did he had compassion on this woman. He saw that this moment of sorrow was truly going to be a lifetime of sorrow for her and through his compassion and through his power, he acted, he goes over to the open coffin where this wrapped body is laying. And all he does is simply commanded him to arise. There’s no performance about it,
nothing like that. There was no look at me, look what I’m doing. He threw his power and he threw his compassion. He just did what he could. And when Jesus does what he can, he does some amazing things. And he raised him from the dead and the report of Jesus went out everywhere. But what I want us to understand about this particular story is that we need to have compassion to just like Jesus had.
And just like he had throughout all of his ministry, he looked at the people and he had compassion on them. If we don’t have compassion, we really can’t do anything for Christ. We’ve got to care about people. We’ve got to care about souls. We’ve got to care about our brethren. I often refer back to the passage in Ezekiel chapter three.
I guess we can look there. Let’s go ahead and turn there just for a second. It’s one verse is eco chapter three, and I’ll just read it to you because I just love the way his EQL words, this and Ezekiel three in verse 15, it says then I came to the captives at tele beam who dwelt by the river key bar. And I sat where they sat and remain there astonished among them.
Seven days, he sat where they sat. What does that mean? That means he’s put himself in their shoes. He’s, he’s looking at life the way they’re looking at life. He’s having compassion. What I guess you might say is empathy, but he sees their pain. He sees their trouble and he tries to give them a message of hope. And that’s what we’re trying to do.
We, as Christians are just trying to find, to find people who are suffering without the cross, without the resurrection in their life. And they’re trying to give them a message of hope and that’s, that’s all we’re trying to do. The fear of death. The fear of this life being all that there is, does not have to be fear any longer because of the resurrection and great fear.
Going back to our text, great fear came upon all who were present. They correctly identified Jesus as a prophet from God. And just imagine seeing these miracles, what would that do for your preaching preachers? What would that do for your preaching that next Sunday, if you saw somebody being raised from the dead because of Jesus, how bold would you get up there and preach the gospel that next Sunday,
Hey, let me tell you what I just saw. Jesus Christ raised this man from the dead. Maybe he is the Christ. I know he’s the Christ. He’s the savior. Come see for yourself. And as we close friends, as children of God, we don’t have to wonder if God is concerned about us. We don’t have to wonder whether God can provide for us or not.
We don’t have anything to worry about because God has already shown his magnificent power and his compassion, his power over death, through the resurrection. And he’s also shown how much he deeply deeply cares for us. And again, going back to where we were in the first point, I don’t think one of the greatest ways that he has shown that he cares for us is the fact that Jesus is the one pictured as the beggar.
Jesus is the one begging us to see the resurrection, to see what he has done for us. And to accept it, to obey, do not Marvel at this for the hours coming in, which all who were in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who are, have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
And so I just want you to think about this this week. I want to, I want you to think about how many billions of people in this world, and maybe even however many people are in this community or the communities where you live, who don’t have the resurrection in their life. And we need to think about how we can reach them for the cause of Christ.
And we can be bold about it because of the resurrection. Thank you so much.