Locked Up, But Not Down

0:00All right. Good morning. Hey, it's either spring break or the rapture happened. Okay. I'm hoping it's spring break. That would really be bad. If you're sending out a table with very few guys, join another table, at least for discussion because you're going to get tired of talking to yourself. So this is the next to the last week. Next week is the last week. So we're going to wrap this thing up next week. Then we're going to take a break for the month of April because of all the Easter things going on. And then we'll start back up in May with a series on the Book of James. And just so you know, it's going to be a little bit different this summer because we're going to do something we've never done before. We're going to have live teaching at every campus. And not that I'm not alive. It's that on this campus, it's going to be Matt and Michael Furnahue and Mitchell. And

1:01they're going to do the six six weeks live here. Out south, it's going to be Michael Barnum and Ben Garcia and Larry Smith are going to teach live out there. And then I'm going to be the teaching team at the Fort Worth campus. So we're kind of dividing it up. And we're going to do that through the summer. We're all going to do the Book of James. We've divided it out the same way. We're just going to each teach it differently. And so that's going to be what happens out here. And then in, let's see, August or really the end of July, we're going to take our, I think our 16th trip back to Brazil. If you're interested, we have seven spots open. And we're taking 25 guys. We go to the same fishing village. We've been going to for years and we disciple men. We're going to take the Book of James and teach it to them. And you're going to sit at a table with some, some Brazilian guys and through an interpreter, you're going to have discussion time just like we do here. So if you've ever wanted to go in a mission trip, hey, consider this one. It's a great trip. And it's a fun time to be with a bunch of guys. I love the Lord. So it's the July

2:0422nd, which is a Wednesday through July 29th, which is a Wednesday. So we're going over a weekend. And so anyway, if you're interested, talk to me, talk to Mitchell. And we'll go from there. Well, I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump into it. Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the fact that we can come together as brothers in Christ and study your Word together. And I pray that you would speak to us through not just the Book of Acts and this last chapter of the Book of Acts, but through your Word as we look into the Old Testament. And we see how Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of every promise you have ever made. And I pray that we would see that, and especially as we prepare for Easter, to understand, again, the incredible nature of the resurrection, all that it means, all that it stands for, the hope that it should give us as we live in this world. So Father, speak to us this morning. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. All right. So we're going to dip into that last chapter. We're in chapter 28, very last chapter of the Book of Acts. And we're going to look at what happens to Paul. But we're, again, going to look

3:09at it a little bit differently. I'm going to kind of pick up where we left off last week, talking about the resurrection, because we saw that that's his hope. That's what drives everything about him. But I want to start with something he wrote to the Corinthians. You know, he took all these trips, three different trips, and on those trips, he would write back to the cities he had been through. And one of the cities he wrote to was Corinth. Over there in, you know, Greece, called a K at that time. Here's where he writes, we think you want to know dear brothers and sisters about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. Now he's probably referencing Ephesus, the city of Ephesus. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure. And we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. Now, when we study the life of Paul, it's very easy to paint him in such a picture that he's just his incredible godly man who, who just went against all odds, beaten stone, left for dead, whipped, shipwreck, all this stuff that happened to him. And I've even portrayed

4:15him as the energizer, buddy. He just keeps going and going and going. That doesn't mean he didn't have doubts and fears, right? So we see here, he writes to the Corinthians and he says, hey, we were overwhelmed, crushed. And we thought we would never live through it. We expected to die. This guy knows what it means to suffer. He knows what it means to go through difficulties and trials. So he's not an iron man. He's not just impervious to pain and suffering and sorrow and doubt and fear. He's not a robot. And I think sometimes we take these biblical characters and we turn them into robots. Even Peter, we're preaching through the life of Peter from the pulpit and we can take Peter, who we know denied the Lord, said, no, Lord, may it never be that you go to the cross. This guy, once he gets transformed by the Holy Spirit, we kind of put him up in a pedestal. He's just amazing. He's incredible. No, they're men, just like you and I.

5:16Full of doubt, full of fear. But as we saw last week, he had hope. Paul had hope. Hope in what? The resurrection. And he's going to bring it up again in this last chapter as he finally gets to where he wanted to go. He wanted to go to Rome, right? He said it over and over again. But in the book of Corinthians, he says this, as a result of what? Fearing death, fearing persecution, all those things happening to me, we stop relying on ourselves and learn to rely on God who raises the dead. There's that statement again. All of his hope, everything that drives this guy is based on the resurrection. And he says, and he, God, did rescue us from mortal danger. And he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him and he will continue to rescue us. Now, what you got to understand is this was written before what? Before he went to Jerusalem, before he got almost killed by the Jews outside the temple, before he had to be rescued by the Romans, before his interrogation, before Felix and Festus and

6:21Agrippa, and before he set foot on that boat and went through a shipwreck and all those things that happened, he said he did rescue us and it will rescue us again. What's it based on? He's the one who raises the dead. Paul knew that even if he dies, he's going to get resurrected one day. He's going to get that glorified body. He lived it, breathed it, and it drove everything he did. Still had fear, still had doubts, but he had hope. And that's what I hope you get out of this lesson this morning is that the resurrection should drive everything about us. So we see in chapter 28, he finally gets there, right? He wanted to go to Rome, he finally gets to Rome, not quite the way he expected it. It's 114 days after he left the port in Caesarea and it's going to include some heartache along the way, right? We talked about that last week, but he finally arrives in Rome and what he does is he's going to meet with the Christians. He's gone through 90 days

7:22on Malta where they were shipwrecked. That's a long time. That's three months sitting on an island not knowing if you're ever going to get to your destination. Now his destination is Rome. He wants to go to Rome, but we know what happens when he gets there. He's going to go on trouble for Nero. Not the most fun thing to expect and to anticipate, but that's what he asks for. I want to go before Caesar. Luke writes, it was three months after the shipwreck that we set sail on another ship that had wintered at the island and Alexandria ship the twin gods as a figurehead. Our first stop was Syracuse where we stayed three days and he's just giving us a little bit of a tidbit of how they got from Malta all the way to Rome. From there we sailed across the reggae, a day later, a south wind began blowing. So the following day we sailed up the coast to Patulio. There we found some believers who invited us to spend a week with them and so we came to Rome. He gets to Rome. And I love to think about the fact that this is the guy that wanted to go to Rome. He said it

8:24multiple times. I want to go to Rome. I want to go to Rome. Why is he in Rome? It's not a sight scene to a right. He's not there to see the Colosseum and to see all the wonderful things that are in Rome. It's in Magnificent City at this point in time. He's there to stand trial before Caesar, Caesar, who happens to be nearer. That's why he's there. That's the whole purpose for him being there and what's his crime we talked about this last week. His belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He said it over and over again, right? I am on trial for that reason. Acts 23, it is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I'm on trial. That's why I'm here. That's why I got arrested. That's why I got shipped because I believe that Jesus Christ died, the resurrection of the dead. Now, he says the resurrection of the dead. He doesn't mention Jesus in this sentence. But in order to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, you have to believe what? That there is a resurrection of the dead. That it's possible. And we talked about this last week. The pagans,

9:28the Roman world had no concept of resurrection of the dead. They didn't think it was even a possibility. It wasn't in their economy. It wasn't part of their religious upbringing. The Jews had a concept of the resurrection. It wasn't that well formed at this point. The Sadducees rejected it. The Pharisees believed in it, but Paul is counting on it. There is a resurrection of the dead. He said the same thing in chapter 24. This I can trust you that there will be a resurrection about the just and the unjust. Now, I brought this up last week and it's interesting how many guys have come up to me and said, what does this even mean? Are you telling me that unsaved people are going to be resurrected? Well, yeah. But think about it. If there is eternal judgment for all those who reject Jesus Christ, in order to undergo eternal judgment, you have to have an eternal body. Because this body can't go through eternal judgment, right? Any more than it can go through

10:30eternal life. So even unredeemed people, unsaved people are going to get resurrected bodies so that what? They can live for eternity under judgment. Man, if you can't think of a reason to save your lost friends or to share the gospel with your lost friends, that should be it. They are literally going to get a glorified body that will undergo the judgment of God, separation from God for eternity. So that's what this is referring to. He goes on and says it's respect to the resurrection of the dead that I'm on trial before you this day. He repeats it. This is why I'm standing here in Rome. This is why I'm going to one day stand before Caesar because I believe in the resurrection. Then finally in Acts 26, I stand here on trial because of my hope and the promise made by God to our fathers to which our 12 tribes hope to attain is they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope, I'm accused by the Jews, O King of Grapa. He's telling this to the

11:32King. Now this guy is not really a Jew. He's a need of might. But he knows a lot about the Jews, so he gets it. Festus didn't get it. Felus didn't get it. They were Romans. This guy gets it. That's why he appeals to him. He says, why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? Why do you struggle with this? If you believe in God, Yahweh, the Creator, God, why do you have a hard time believing that he can take these bodies and resurrect them or make new bodies? Basically, why is that beyond our imagination? We can believe that he created the earth. Most of us, I think, believe that he created in seven days. Maybe you think it took longer. But if you believe he created all that we can see, why do you struggle that he can raise the dead? He's appealing to a Grapa, but he's also appealing to the Jews who are standing there in that room with a Grapa, because he says, my hope is in the promises made to the God of our fathers. It's like he's saying to the Jews,

12:33you believe the same God I believe in, you worship Yahweh, you have the same Old Testament that I have, you were steeped in the same scriptures that I was steeped in. Why don't you believe the promises? Why don't you have the hope that I have? Remember the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection. So if they don't believe in the possibility of resurrection of the dead, they certainly don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus from Nazareth. The Pharisees believe in the resurrection of the dead. They just don't happen to believe that the rabbi who died and Jerusalem was resurrected, and is the Messiah. But see, Paul keeps going back to this hope. He says it again, and for this hope, I'm accused by the Jews. The reason I want to go back to this is because this is how the book ends. It's interesting how if you look at those last chapters, 27, 28, Luke doesn't give us a whole lot of details. He doesn't provide a whole lot of information about what happens, but he keeps bringing up and recording what he says, what Paul says about what, the resurrection. That seems

13:35to be the emphasis of Paul most certainly, but it's also the emphasis on Luke is that it's the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we find our hope, our hope for now, but also our hope for the future. So he's going to stand trial before Nero, and Nero is not a fan of Jews or Christians, but he knows that's ultimately what's going to happen. But before he meets Nero, he meets believers. Remember, he wanted to go there. He wanted to meet the believers. There's already believers there. He didn't start the church there. Somebody else did, but he wanted to meet them, and he meets all these believers who come and gather. And remember, he has said, multiple times, what, I can't wait to meet you. I'm longing to meet you. I'm dying to meet you. Romans 1, one of the things I always pray for is the opportunity God willing to come at last to see you. For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. We've looked at this verse before, right? This is the letter he wrote to the Romans

14:37after his third missionary journey, and he's telling them, this is what I want. I want to be there I want to see you. He says it again later in the same chapter, I want you to know your brothers and sisters. I had planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. So I'm eager to come to you in Rome to preach the good news. Now, what he didn't know is that he was still willing to get there. Because what had to happen in between, he had to go to Jerusalem, deliver the money he had raised for the famine relief, and then he got arrested, and then he had to get on a boat, and then he had to spend 114 days trying to get from Cessaria to Rome. He had to spend 90 days on malt and a shipwreck. He had to get bitten by a venomous snake. All these things happened to him long before he ever got there, but he did get there. Remember God said, you're going to, you're going to go. Don't worry. You will get there, and you will minister to the Christians there. So we pick it up. Chapter 28 verse 16, and when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

15:40He's put under some kind of house arrest. He's got one guard, but it's still house arrest, right? He can't go anywhere and everywhere. He can't do what he wants. He's under arrest. And after three days, he called together the local leaders of the Jews. Now, this is important because what he's talking about here are non-believing Jews. He's calling them to him because he wants to get ahead of Caiaphas and Ananias and the Sanhedrin who are most certainly going to send dignitaries, representatives to make accusation once he goes before Caesar. So he calls the local Jewish community. And when they had gathered, he said to them, brothers, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner. A prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of what the Romans. He's telling them what happened back in Jerusalem 114 days earlier. He's hoping they don't know. They haven't heard yet. So he can kind of make sure you get my side

16:41of the story, not what Caiaphas and Ananias and his representatives are going to say. He said, when they examined me, they wished to set me at liberty because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. Who's they, the Romans? When they examined me, they found no reason to put me in jail or no reason to execute me. He had done nothing that was worthy of death because he had done nothing against what the Romans. But, verse 19, because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, though I had no charge to bring against my nation. He says, listen, they had a lot of accusations, but they could find no reason. The Romans can find no reason to keep me locked up. But, what happened? A gripper goes, well, do you want to go stand trial before the Jewish, the Jewish leadership, the Sanhedrin? And he goes, no way. I'll go to Rome because I'm a Roman citizen. So he's explaining to these Jews what, what happened?

17:42This is the reason why I'm here. So he says, for this reason, I've asked to see you and speak with you. I was compelled to appeal to Caesar and now that I'm here waiting trial before Caesar. And he has no idea when this trial is going to take place. He says, I want to meet with you and I want to tell you. I think there's something else going on here because he longs for them, his Jewish brothers and sisters, to know what he knows, to know who he knows. Jesus Christ. He says, I've asked to see you to speak with you since it is because of the hope of Israel that I'm wearing this chain. Here he goes again. Why am I here because of the hope of Israel? Who is he talking to? Israelites, non-believing Israelites, those who don't believe in Jesus as their Messiah, they're living in a foreign land. They're from Israel, but they're living in Rome, and they are in the minority. They're not necessarily persecuted. The one thing about the Romans was they allowed most nations they conquered to keep their religion. That's why the Jews had the Sanhedrin in

18:47Jerusalem. This is why they're able to worship in the synagogues. They're able to do what they normally do. Keep their laws, their festivals. They can do everything, but yet he wants them to know Christ. He wants them to know the one who he hopes in and the one he's there in chains for. He says, that's why I'm here, the hope of Israel. But this should raise a question in your head and in my head. What's the hope of Israel? What's he talking about? How is the resurrection the hope of Israel? When some of them don't even believe in it like the Sadducees, and they're not alone, some believe in it, but they don't believe that Jesus Christ was resurrected. Why is this the hope of Israel? What he's telling him, and this is so significant, and I know we're not Israelites and we're not living in the first century, but we have to understand that God has not finished yet with the nation of Israel. There are things yet to be done for the nation of Israel,

19:50and what a time to be living in when we see all that's happening in the Middle East right now. He says, I know Israel's hope. I know what needs to happen. So what does he mean by Israel's hope? Now we know he's talking about Jesus, right? The Messiah. They don't know it. They don't get it. But he's going to tie Jesus, the resurrected Jesus back to every hope they've ever had in God from day one. All the way back to the creation, all the way back to Abraham, the calling of Abraham, all the way back to David. He's going to link them all together that Jesus Christ, the dead rabbi from Nazareth, is alive. And because he's alive and he's your Messiah, he has fulfilled every hope you've ever had. Listen to what he says, it is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial. What's this hope? Why is he trying to convince these Jews that they should

20:52have hope in a dead rabbi? Because he's not dead. Because he is alive. He's the one they've been waiting for, right? You've wanted a Messiah for generations. Well, guess what he came. Again, I'm on trial because of my hope in the fulfillment of God's promises made to our ancestors. What ancestors? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon. You look at all the prophets, every prophet who ever wrote prophesied about who, Jesus, the Messiah. He's your hope. He says, and they share the same hope that I have that God can raise the dead. The hope and resurrection go hand in hand. You can't, you can't see your hopes fulfilled if you don't accept the resurrection of Jesus. That yes, God can resurrect the dead, but most specifically, God can resurrect a particular dead man, Jesus, his son who took on human flesh, right? This is why, again, I want to beat this drum because we're just weeks away from

21:57celebrating what the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's got to mean something to us. It's got to carry weight because it is the fulfillment of all the promises. But what's interesting is in this passage, when he talks about promise, it's in the singular. It's a Greek word that's, it's in the genitive singular now. It's, it's one promise. One promise. Who? Jesus. He is the promise. The divine assurance of good. It all gets fulfilled in Jesus Christ. See, what the Jews don't realize is that the Messiah they've been waiting for and waiting for and waiting for has come. See, the disciples believe Jesus to be the Messiah, right? That's why they said, hey, when you set up your kingdom here on earth, can we sit in your right hand and on your left? They thought it was going to happen right here right now. But they believed in to me the Messiah. They believed that he was going to somehow conquer the Romans and set them in power, put the Jews back on the map, put Jerusalem

23:03back as the center of the world, get rid of Rome, get rid of all the other Gentile nations. It would, they saw the kingdom coming right now, but it didn't happen right. Even with Jesus was about to ascend, they said, is now where you're going to set up your kingdom on earth and he goes, no, no, no. I don't know the time only my Heavenly Father knows, but I'm going to go, but I'm coming back. See, this, this is something he knew the Jews needed to know that all the hope you've ever had, every promise that God has ever made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon has been fulfilled in the one promise, the one who's been promised. See, that's significant for them to get their heads around and it's going to be hard for them to get their heads around, right? Because God has made a lot of promises to the people of Israel and I'm just going to look at a few of them this morning. I gave you that sheet of, you know, 100 prophecies concerning Christ. If you didn't get it, let me know. I'll send it to you, but we're only going to look at a handful. There are so many

24:06prophecies, Old Testament prophecies, that this rabbi, this dead rabbi who raised from the dead has fulfilled. And so starting with Abraham, remember Abraham was living in earth, the Caldys, he wasn't a Jew, the Jews didn't exist. He's a pagan worshipping pagan gods and Yahweh calls him, says, you're going to follow me. I'm going to send you to a land. I'm going to do great things with you. And what does he say to him? I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I don't think Abraham got it. I don't think he understood it. Buddy followed. He went. God went on and said, in or through you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Again, what's key here is that this guy is old. His wife is old already when he gets called and she's barren. They have no children. Then he says to your offspring, your seed, singular, I will give this land. This land you haven't even seen yet. This land called Canaan that I'm going to send you to. These are all the promises God made to Abraham. What about David?

25:11What about David? David made God made some pretty significant promises to David. One of them was this. I will make for you a great name. There's that name thing again. I'm going to make of you, David, a great name like the name of the great ones of the earth. Again, Abraham, David didn't get all of this. They didn't put all the pieces together. What David hears is, oh, you're going to give me an air. You're going to give me a lineage. You're going to keep my kingdom, my dynasty, out there for a long, long time. But he goes on and says, not only that, I'm going to raise up your offspring singular after you, who shall come from your body and I will establish this kingdom. And he goes, that's great. I'm going to have a son. And he's going to rule in my place once I die. And this got partially fulfilled in who? Solomon, right? But what happened to Solomon? He died. So God had something more in mind here than just an earthly son. He had an eternal son in mind. Because he says, I'm going to establish the throne of this person for how long forever.

26:15These are the promises that he made to David. Well, where do they get fulfilled? Of your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. See, all David could understand was somehow God's going to keep my dynasty alive. And I do think he may have believed that if one of my sons dies, like Solomon, you'll raise him back to life. He believed in the resurrection of the dead. And so he's thinking that God's going to just going to keep his dynasty alive. But what does God have in mind? No, I'm going to send my son who will be born of the lineage of the line of David and he will have an eternal kingdom. But see, David doesn't understand that yet. What about Israel? What did God promise to the people of Israel? Well, he said, you shall be my treasure possession among all peoples for all the earth that's mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. He set them apart, right? Abraham was not a Jew. But once he started having children like Isaac, from Isaac comes what?

27:16The people of Israel, the Jewish nation. God formed them into a great nation. But he says, you're going to be my treasure possession for how long forever. He doesn't renig on this promise even when they're disobedient, even when they worship other gods. You're going to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for how long again forever. What about Moses? What did he say to Moses? I'm going to raise up a prophet like you from among their brothers and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Before Moses dies, before he ever gets a chance to go into the promise land. God says, I'm going to raise up another Moses, a better Moses, a superior Moses, a greater prophet than you. All these promises and there's hundreds of them, hundreds and hundreds of them are all fulfilled in the promise, the promise of Jesus Christ. He is the all-in-one solution, guys. No matter what the promise is that God made to Israel, to Abraham,

28:19to Isaac, to Jacob, to David, to Solomon, whatever promises God made are all fulfilled in this one individual Jesus Christ. How? With his death and his resurrection and you can't separate those two. You can't just have him die, he's got to resurrect and you can't have him resurrect if he doesn't die. So every promise, and I need you to understand that every promise of God ever made to the people of Israel and to us is fulfilled in Christ. He is the promised one. He had to come. Every generation of Israelite had been waiting and waiting and waiting for this promise one to come, the Messiah to come. They waited and I don't know that Jews are waiting for him anymore. I've been to Israel. Israel is a secular nation, guys. There's a minority of Jews who are Orthodox and who worship the God of the Old Testament. And I'm not sure they're still waiting for their Messiah. I think they have more

29:22hope in their military and their politicians than they do in the coming of the Messiah. And yet, what does Paul say? He already came. He's the promised one. And because he came and because he died and because he rose from the dead, every promise has been fulfilled. He is the means to the end that all of you want. Every promise that you think God has obligated fulfill, it has to be fulfilled through him, through Jesus Christ. He's the only solution. And yet, they think he's dead. They think he was just a rabbi who is crucified, but Paul's, no, no, no. I met him on the road. He's changed my life. He can change your life. He is who he says. He's the off of the Omega. He's the beginning and the end. He is everything. And again, when I enter into Easter, that Saturday and Sunday and all the services we're going to have at Christchapel, I want to go into it knowing and thinking about that he is the beginning, the end, the off of the Omega. He is everything. Everything is based

30:23on him, every hope, every promise. So whatever's going on in Israel right now, God's got their back. Whether we do or not. Now again, I'm not talking about the political entity called Israel. I'm talking about the people of Israel. His chosen people that God is not done for all God's promises have fulfilled in Christ. I love this passage. Again, he's writing to the Corinthians. This is before he went to Jerusalem, before he got arrested, before he got put on a ship, before he got shipwrecked. He says, all God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ. How many of God's promises? All. What promises? Every one of them made to Moses, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to the people of Israel. Every one of them is fulfilled in Christ and other with a resounding yes. It's done, fulfilled, complete. Even the ones that have not yet happened, like we're waiting for. I mentioned

31:25the rapture. I believe in the rapture. I believe Jesus Christ is one day coming back for his church, the bride. But it hadn't happened yet, right? But it will. Why? Because he is the resurrected Lord who sits at the right hand of God, the Father. And one day the Father's going to turn to him and go, it's time. I believe that. He says through Christ, our amen, which means yes, it literally means so be it. It's as good as done. May it be so. Our amen, our yes, a sense to God for his glory. Yes, it will happen because he did the things he's already done. He will do the things he has not yet done. He sent his son to die in the cross. He raised his son from death. And one day he's going to send him back for the church and then ultimately what? For final judgment. The second coming. See, all of these things Paul believed in and they drove his ministry. They put his hope in him over

32:26the centuries. Here's some of the things God has promised to the people of Israel in particular, deliverance. And he's delivered them over and over again, right? From every kind of nation that attacked them, he will ultimately deliver them from Rome. Go read the book of Revelation. He will do what he says he's going to do. He's provided for them over the centuries. He has blessed them incredibly in spite of their disobedience. He's given the forgiveness after forgiveness. It's the whole reason he gave the sacrificial system, right? I gave you the law. I know you won't keep it. So I'm going to give you the sacrificial system so you can have forgiveness. But ultimately I'm going to give you salvation. A salvation you can't earn. A salvation like nothing you've ever seen. I'm going to put a righteous king on the throne of David who will reign for a thousand years. This is what God has promised and it all gets fulfilled in Christ and everlasting kingdom. Not one that lasts for a hundred years or two hundred years or a millennium. It's going to last forever. This is what he promises.

33:28And ultimately what I want to restore your relationship with me is real. I want to put you back into a right relationship with me and it all gets fulfilled through Jesus. This is amazing. But we don't think about it. We read about it. We may know it cognitively but it doesn't seem to sink into our hearts and it doesn't amazes anymore that Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise. He is the promise. All those things mean nothing without Jesus because he created all things. He will fulfill all things. He's the one who started it all. He's the one who will end it all. Look what he says in Revelation. Look, I'm coming soon. My reward is with me and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the alpha and the omega. The first and the last, the beginning and the end. I am the promise. I am the one you've been waiting for. I'm the one you're still waiting for to come back. But do you live? Do I live like I really want them to come back? I've joked

34:30about this before. When I was growing up, my dad would always say when something bad happened, when he'd see something on the news, he didn't like you say, yay, Lord Jesus come. And as a kid, I'd go, whoa, pump the brakes. I never set it out loud but I'm thinking, okay, I'm 12 years old, 13 years old. I haven't had sex yet. Just I'm not in a hurry for him to come back. You've already had all your fun. You're old. But the older I get, guess what? Yael or Jesus come. I should long for the fulfillment of that final promise that he's coming back. He's going to come back for the church and then he's going to come back at the end and he's going to set all things right because he is the promise. I love this from the gospel of John. Says the next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee, he found Philip and said to him, come, follow me. This is the beginning of his earthly ministry. Philip was from Baseda, Andrew and Peter's hometown. Philip went to look for Nathaniel and told him, we have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about his name

35:32is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Even then, they're beginning to put the pieces together. This is the guy. This is the one we've been waiting for, the prophet, the anointed one, the promise one, the Messiah. We've seen him. Now, I don't think they understood all the ramifications but they were beginning to understand that the hope we've had has arrived and it's a form of this guiding Jesus from Nazareth which probably didn't make a whole lot of sense because nobody thought much of Nazareth, right? And he didn't look like a king. He didn't look like David. He didn't come in writing on a white horse but somehow they knew he's the one. See, what's interesting is that God has fulfilled every promise he's made but he's done it through Christ. His promise to David, I'm going to make you an everlasting kingdom, right? That's what he said. As far as I know right now, there is no king in Israel. They haven't had a king for centuries, millennia. And so

36:35why is that important? Because they do have a king. He's seated at the right hand of God the Father. They just don't recognize him as king. See, he says, I will establish the throne of your kingdom forever and Jesus fulfilled the promise. He is the king of kings. He's the Lord of lords. He has seated on the throne next to his Father but one day he's going to come to earth. It's as good as done. It is fulfilled even though he's not there right now. You can go over there. Jesus isn't seated on the throne. Nobody's seated on the throne. They don't even have a temple right now and yet because Jesus resurrected and was glorified and sits at the right hand of God the Father and is a descendant of David, he will one day reign forever. But the only way that happens is if he can live forever, which points back to what? The resurrection. See, we don't, I think we have a hard time getting our head around the fact that he literally is in a physical body right now.

37:35I can't tell you how many guys have come up to me. I've never heard that before. Well, what do you think he has? Well, I just thought he was just kind of like God again just up there. He said, yeah, but he walked with him, talked with him, ate with him. They recognized him. He had nail prints in his hands and his feet. He ascended and they watched him go up in a physical body and the angel said, and he's going to come back on the same way in a physical body. He has relegated himself to a physical body for all eternity and it's huge because that's the way he will reign in a physical body from a physical place on a physical planet called Earth, the New Earth, New Jerusalem, but he had to die. He had to have a body to die. He had to have a body to resurrect, but he's going to have a glorified body or he has a glorified body all because of the resurrection. See, I want us to wrestle with the significance, the impact of the resurrection that is far greater than that you just got your sins washed away as great as

38:35that is. There's so many other things attached to it. See, here's what Peter preached in Acts chapter 2. He, David, was a prophet and he knew God had promised with a note that one of David's own descendants would sit on his throne. David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah's resurrection and he didn't even know it. Most of the prophets prophesied and didn't have a clue what they were prophesying about. They didn't fully get it. That's why it took Jesus to walk the disciples through the Old Testament and show them there's me. They're talking about me. I am the fulfillment. I am the Messiah. I did get resurrected. I am alive. Paul preached the same thing, right? He says, another Psalm explains it more fully. You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave. This is not a reference to David. For after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. We know it. He later on goes, I can take you to the tomb right now. He's in Jerusalem. When he says this,

39:37know it was a reference to someone else, someone whom God raised and whose body did not decay. Paul's like a broken record, but in a very good way because what's his main repetitive point? Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus Christ came to earth. He lived. He died. He rose and he sits on high and one day is coming back. He is the answer. He is the promise. He's the one we've all been waiting for. We just need to trust in him. He wrote to the Romans before he ever met him. This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus. Chosen my God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his good news. God promised this good news long ago through his prophets and the Holy Scriptures. The good news is about his son in his earthly life. He was born into King David's family line and he was shown to be the son of God when he raised, was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Christ our Lord. See, long before he meets the Romans, he's telling them,

40:39this is what you need to believe. This is who he is. He is the Messiah. He is the one we've been waiting for. He was raised from the dead and he's alive and he's going to come back. And we need to really preach that same thing to ourselves. We need to encourage one another. You know, when we say he is risen on Easter, I almost want us to make that a statement we make when somebody shares with you, I'm really struggling right now. I don't know what to do. My marriage is struggling. My finances are in array, disarray and my health is not good right now. Wouldn't it be cool if we could say to one another he's risen and it mean that it's going to be okay. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know if you're going to get healed. I don't know if your marriage is going to get fixed but he is risen and that means one day he's coming back. It's not something we just say on Easter Sunday so the other person can say he's risen indeed and then we walk away. No, every time we go through a trial we tell ourselves he's risen.

41:43That means he's coming back. I have nothing to worry about. I have nothing to fear. I have no reason to doubt because the good news is he is risen. See Jesus says in Revelation, I Jesus has sent my angel to give you this message up for the churches. I am both the source of David. I created him and I'm the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star. See that's who he is. That's who this resurrected Jesus is. He is the Lord, the King, God. I created David. I am the seed from David. Get your head around that. I created him but I came from him. Only God can pull that off, right? I can't even understand it. Let alone thinking of replicating it. Then he goes and I'll super seed him. I'll come after him. Everything about this statement is that I am greater than you could ever imagine. I'm not just your Savior as great as that is. I'm the the Lord, the creator of all things. Isaiah prophesies, thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his redeemer, the Lord of hosts,

42:44I am the first and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God. Jesus Christ is God who took on human flesh and who died in our place and then rose and it's coming back. How about this from Psalm? I found David my servant with my holy oil. I've anointed him so that my hand shall be established with him. I will establish his offspring forever and as strong as the days of the heavens. There it is again. I Jesus will come back and I will rule in this place. I will super seed David, the King, the greatest king Israel ever had. The one they longed for. They thought when the Messiah came, he would be David 2.0. In and away, Jesus is. He just hasn't fully established his kingdom yet, but he will. I love this when Mary was pregnant in the angel visits. Heron says, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. You shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and he will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him what? The throne of his father, David, the one who

43:49created David will come from David and he will reign over the house of Jacob for how long forever. Has that happened yet? No. Will it happen? Yes. Why? Why can we open that because he's risen because he said, see that at the right hand of God the Father because it's part of the fulfillment of the promises made by God and his kingdom, there will be no end. Well, promises to Abraham, David. Here's what he said to Abraham. I'm going to bless the nations through you. This guy from earthicalities through you, all the families of earth shall be blessed and he didn't even have a son yet. That's a pretty amazing promise, right? And it says in Hebrews chapter 11 that he believed this promise. He believed that God would do this because God has a plan. God always has a plan. In his letter to the Romans, again, here's what he writes, remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their

44:50ancestors like Abraham. He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercies to them. God will do what he says he will do. That's what the psalmist meant when he wrote, for this I will praise you among the Gentiles. I will sing praises to your name. He's quoting Psalm 189 in another place that is written, rejoice with his people, Eugentiles, Deuteronomy 3243. And yet again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, praise him, all you people of the earth, Psalm 117. What's he doing? He's quoting Old Testament scripture to show them that Jesus is the fulfillment. Jesus is the promise. And in another place Isaiah said the heir to David's throne will come, he will rule over the Gentiles. They will place their hope in him. Isaiah 1110, what's false point? Jesus Christ is the fulfillment. He is the promise. The promise for Jews and Gentiles alike. If he hadn't come, if he hadn't lived, if he hadn't died, if he didn't resurrect and he didn't get glorified, that means he's not coming back. But he is coming back because all the above is true.

45:53He's the promise fulfilled to David, to Abraham and also to Israel. He told them you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. You know, God has punished Israel a lot over the centuries. They got put into captivity, but they also got restored from captivity. But they're living apart from him right now, but God's not done. No matter what happens, God's not done. God is protecting Israel because Israel is important to God. Maybe they're not important to you, but they're really important to God. And Jerusalem is important to God. Because that's where Christ is going to come back. He's going to come back to the Mount of Olives and God is going to fulfill every promise he has made. Look what it says in the book of Ezekiel. Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the sovereign Lord Yahweh. I am bringing you back, not because you deserve it. I'm doing it to protect my holy name on which you have brought shame while you were scattered among the nations. I will show how holy my great name is, the name on which you brought shame among the nations. He

46:57goes on. I will sprinkle clean water on you. You will be clean. Your filth will be washed away and you will no longer worship idols. I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony stubborn heart and give you a tender responsive heart. I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. Has this happened yet? Has this happened in Israel? No, go visit. Well, I don't want to go there right now. Well, wait, it'll calm down because God's not done yet, but it hasn't happened yet, right? But it's going to happen because Jesus is the fulfillment of this promise. God will do what He says, and it will be done because He is the resurrected Christ. Paul says, I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourself. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ, and so all Israel will be saved. Interesting statement, right? All Israel will be saved. What does it even mean? Well, he goes on and says, the one who rescues will come from Jerusalem. He will turn

48:02Israel away from ungodliness, and this is my covenant with him that I will take away their sins. I will do what I said I will do, and I will fulfill it through my resurrected son, because he's coming back. God's not done. Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David, and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me, whom they have pierced, and mourn for him, as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as a firstborn son who has died. Zachariah promised this year's centuries earlier, and it will get fulfilled when Christ comes again. It's talked about in the book of Revelation. The people of Israel will return to Him. They will be restored. All of them know, but are remnant from every tribe of Israel, because Revelation says He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. All the tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. He is saying what took place back all the way back in Zachariah,

49:03right? Centuries earlier, this is what's going to happen when the resurrected Christ returns, because He's coming. And then John records, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds. They did not blow on the earth as a sea, or even on any tree. I saw another angel coming up from the east carrying the seal of the living God, and he shouted to these four angels who had been given power to harm land and sea. Judgment is coming. Revelation is full of the judgment of God upon the nations, but they cry out, wait. The angel says, wait. Don't harm the land of the sea of the trees until we have placed the seal of God in the foreheads of His servants. Now listen to this. And I heard how many were marked with the seal of God. 144,000 were sealed from all the tribes of Israel. Now what's going on here? This is the end times. This is when Jesus Christ returns again. Not for the church, because the church has already gone at this point. He's returning for judgment. But before judgment comes, this is during the tribulation period. Something significant is going to happen. The church is gone,

50:07right? We've been taken from the planet. That means there's not a single believer on this planet during the tribulation period. But what does God do? He redeems 144,000 Jews, specifically Jewish males who are unmarried. The Bible is real specific. The Holy Spirit redeems these Jews, 12,000 from every tribe. That's what it means when it says, and all Israel will be saved. Not one tribe gets left out. God's going to be very specific. And what do these guys do? These 144,000 redeemed Jews. They proselytize and they preach and they tell the gospel all throughout the world in tens of thousands, millions of people come to faith in Christ. And they get persecuted by the Antichrist. And they get martyred by the Antichrist. But they're spreading the gospel. Even during the tribulation, as judgment is being poured out, God shows mercy. And God redeems. I love this vision.

51:11After this, I saw a vast crowd, too great to count from every nation in tribe and people in language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a great roar, salvation comes from God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb. See, this is what Easter's all about. It's not just your salvation, my salvation. I get my sins forgiven. No, it's the culmination of all things. This is why this guy could be confident, even though he's in confinement. This is why he could praise. He's in Rome. He's awaiting trial. He's going to wait two years before he goes on trial, but he never loses hope because he believes what he teaches. He says, I ask you to come to me here today so you could get acquainted. And we could explain to you that I'm bound with this chain because I believe that the hope of Israel, the Messiah, has already come. He's here. And he's revealed this mystery, but one day he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ. That's what the book

52:12of Revelation is all about. That's what the whole purpose of Christ coming is all about. That's the plan. And I end with this. Paul says, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. He lived with the end in mind. So he tells the Colossians, since you have been raised a new life with Christ, set your sights and the realities of heaven where Christ sits in the place of honor, God's hand, you will one day share his glory. See, the reason we're looking at these particular passages are these are the letters he wrote from prison. And what's he telling them? I'm in prison, awaiting trial, possible death, but I want you to have hope because the end is coming and the end is really well. But you got to think on the things above. You got to remember where he is and that one day he's coming back. See that at the right hand of God the Father, but he's not going to stay there. So here's your questions. What do you think Paul means when he says to look forward to what lies ahead and set our minds on things above? How do we do that? How do you do that today? What does that look like for

53:15you and me as we go into the work week? Secondly, if Jesus is the promise and not just a means to an end, how should that change our outlook? You know, the sermon this week that Ryan preached, he says, we treat Jesus transactionally. I do this for you, you do this for me. No, no, no, he's more than that. He's not a means to an end. He is the promise. He is the fulfillment. Finally, why should the fact that we one day share in his glory, our glorification, motivated as we live in this world? That day's coming and why should it be an encouragement to us as we live in this world? Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this incredible reminder that the resurrection is far more than we give it credit for. Thank you that one day Jesus Christ is coming back for his bride, the church, but one day he's coming back to rectify all things to make all things right. He will redeem his people. He will fulfill every promise. He will complete what he began and Lord, all things will be made new and right because of Jesus Christ. Your Son, our Savior, and our coming King. And we

54:20pray this in his name. Amen.