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CROSS TO COMMISSION | Unlikely Witnesses | Matthew 28:11-15 | Philip Anthony Mitchell
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You know, right now it's springtime in Georgia. And no matter how many times you wash your car in this season, it will be green in a few hours or a day or two if you leave it outside. That pollen is falling on everything. And you cannot deny the pollen that is in the air. You can act like it doesn't exist. You can wash your car like it does not exist. You could put something outside like it does not exist. But whatever's outside, the pollen will remind us that it's in the air. I've shed a lot of tears this week because I feel like there is a lot of. Apathy, lethargy and blindness in the Christian church that's out there. And the pollen of end time events are falling on all of that apathy and ignorance and we can't explain it away. And if you forget everything I tell you today, I want to say to my church family, locally and globally, that this is the hour for us to go past these gatherings. This. This is the hour for us to go past these gatherings into our prayer
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closets and to crying out for the
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salvation of family members and friends who are far away from God. This. This is the hour to go past these gatherings to take inventory of our
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lives
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and our walks and our activities
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and take inventory of all the things that we are doing and questioning ourselves. Are they gonna matter? Are the things you're doing, are they. Do they really? Are you with the things you're teaching your children, do they really matter in the greater scheme of what's happening right now in the earth, the things that we are busy running after, do they really matter right now, against the backdrop of what's really happening in the earth, from a war that's shaping up to be almost World War Three to Israel in the middle of conflict, which we should always be in attention, paying attention when that nation is in trouble, To
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the actions of governments. Just spilling out of the pages of
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eschatological doctrines and illiterate Christians not paying attention, driving around life acting like your car's not dirty, but the pollen of end times is all over it. And we could either be blind to that pollen or acknowledge that we are in the final hours of the church age. And maybe something would shift in the way that we pray, the way that
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we live, in the way that we're
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discipling our children and the way we
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govern ourselves in this room. I get nobody coming in here to entertain you.
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Ain't coming in here with no fancy points and no poems like who got time for that? Like, there's nothing we're hearing in this hour more valuable and more important
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than
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just the Scriptures Read. The Scriptures explained, the Scriptures exhorted, the Scriptures followed. Anybody got time to be playing no games?
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Your house is green. Your lives are green. America's green. Europe is green, Africa is green. The whole world is green. Sitting under the pollen of the end times, you can wipe away as much as you want. It's everywhere. And it's only the ignorant, the unbelieving and the biblically illiterate can't see all that pollen in the air. Lord, help us. Yeah, do that, Lord. Take the veil off. Take the veil off, Lord. Remove the blindness from our eyes. Across America and around the world. Awaken the bride. In these final hours of the church age. Be seated. If you are guests, we welcome you to what I believe is an end time movement, an end Time revival. End Time church under the banner of 2819 that Jesus has founded. And to all of our digital disciples watching live across America and around the world, we welcome you. You are our family wherever you are, across the globe, the end time agents for the Lord Jesus Christ, wherever he has planted you, The anointing and the Spirit on this house, the prayers that's prayed behind the scenes, all of it covers your life. You are brothers and sisters wherever you are. We are a global family standing on business for the Lord Jesus Christ in these final hours of the church age. I'm serious about that. We are a global family standing on business in these final hours of the church age under that United banner of 2019 created by the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're not a follower of Christ, we are glad that you're here. We are praying for your salvation. We want you to know that you could belong before you believe. We are seeking God, that you will be a part of this family before time has run out on you family. We have come now to the final two messages in a three year journey through the book of Matthew. And what I want to do today is not going to be long. I hope it is not deep. It is really just a capstone on the most important text of this entire study through the book of Matthew, which Elder Milton preached for us last week. He actually handled the most important text in this entire series. And what I'm coming today is just to put the period on that text. That's it. Not deep, not long. The bulk of that text was preached last week and a few verses I have is just a period on that text. Okay. In our series Cross to commission. This series will end Next Sunday on Resurrection Sunday, a series that began with 183 disciples, A series that has gone out to the whole world. The back half of what Elder Milton preached is our text for today. It is just the ending of the most important text in all of Matthew. Our text today is coming from Matthew 28, verses 11 through 15, the capstone on what was preached last week. Father like that iPhone that just went off with an alarm. Sound an alarm right now in America and around the world. Awaken the sons and daughters in this room and across this camera. Deliver us from our blindness, our apathy, our lethargy and our indifference. Let urgency well up in our hearts in these final hours of the church age. Deliver us from playing church across America and around the world. Praise Spirit of the living God. You'll bring revelation and insight as I cap off the most important passage
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and
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the record that Matthew left for us. Ask for help in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and all God's people said Amen. Our family My lifetime I have sat in rooms and stared at the dead bodies of men, women and children laying in boxes and many funerals in my lifetime. And every time I attend a funeral, I am reminded of our mortality and the sentence of death upon humanity. As I was thinking about this message, I recall one of the last important funerals I attended was the funeral of my own father, who transitioned out of his life In December of 2012, just three months after I entered into the pastorate. He did not live long enough to see what God would do with the life of his son. And I remember sitting in that room, staring at that coffin with my father's body laying in it and just weeping and shedding tears over the deep grief I felt at the separation of being disconnected now from my father, who I loved. And many of you, under the sound of my voice are watching across this camera. You can identify with that pain. You know what it is to sit in a room and stare at the box and grapple with the deep pain of the separation from death of a loved one, knowing that we was never
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supposed to deal with that in this life. Sin created that for us. And many of you know what it feels like to be in funeral parlors or maybe sitting in hospice at the bedside of somebody who transitioned from this life and then grappling with the pain of that separation from death. You know what that feels like if you have looked death in the eyes of somebody else who was transitioning out of this life. We, we know the pain of death. And we understand the sentence of death, we understand is a sentence that all human beings are underneath that sentence. And in all of my life, I have yet to meet anyone who has come back from a funeral to testify of what life was like on the other side. My father is not here. He is not resurrected from the dead. He is not alive in the earth. And I've never met a person yet, and I say yet, I believe a day will come when that will happen. But I've never met a person yet who has come back from a funeral and have showed up at a family barbecue to testify of what life was like on the other side. And although there are testimonies in history of men who have been resurrected from the dead, like Lazarus under the ministry of Christ and others allegedly under the ministry of men like Smith Wigglesworth, who raised people from the dead, no resurrection in history has ever been important, has ever moved world history. Like the resurrection of one man in the year AD 33, that is the only resurrection in history that has ever affected all of humanity. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in the first century AD Family. This ain't just biblical history or this ain't just some empty platitude or sermon. Understand me very carefully for everyone under the sound of my voice, who is a Christian. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. Okay, let's be honest for just a moment. The resurrection of Christ is the foundation of all Christian theology. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. Without the resurrection, all of these scriptures are in vain. Without the resurrection, Paul says, you and I have believed in vain. If Christ is not raised, all of this means means nothing. If Christ is not raised, our gatherings mean nothing. If Christ is not raised, our podcasts and conferences and books mean nothing. If Christ is not raised, I am wasting my time proclaiming the gospel to you. If Christ is not raised, then Jesus is no different than other progenitors of world religions who came, live, died, and are still dead. The foundation of all Christian theology is not just these 66 books, only family. These 66 ancient documents would mean nothing if Christ is not raised. The resurrection of Christ is the capstone of the single most important event in human history. History. There is nothing that has happened in human history more important than the resurrection of Christ.
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For if Christ is not raised, Paul said, we are amongst most people, all people, most miserable. That is, we would have lived this life. We would have attended gatherings, we would have sacrificed, we would have gave offerings,
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we would have lived sacrificially and labored all of that only to die for a lie. If Christ is not raised. If Christ is not raised, there is no gospel proclamation. The songs we just sung are empty.
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If Christ is not raised. Everything we're doing right now, we might as well just fold up and go home.
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So when we come to Matthew chapter 28. Listen to me. We're not just coming to the final chapter in Matthew's Gospel. No. When we come To Matthew chapter 28, Christians, we are coming to the apex of all Christian doctrine. We're coming to the apex of all Christian theology. There is no more, more important text in all of Scripture than what we read in Matthew chapter 28 together. For even all the accounts we read about creation and promises mean nothing if what we read In Matthew chapter 28 is a lie. So when we come to these texts,
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we come to the most important Christian doctrine in all of our Christian faith. There is nothing we're reading in all of the Bible that's more important than. Than what we have for us in Matthew chapter 28. This is the pinnacle of all Christian doctrine. And we as believers can't be running around trying to make arguments for Christianity and don't understand the significance. Of the resurrection. So I want to reread to you what was read to you last week. Matthew, chapter 28 and verse 1. When Matthew records the resurrection of Jesus, as so he says now, after the Sabbath, which was Saturday, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, John tells us that what we're about to read happened in the darkness of the early morning of Sunday. Mary Magdalene, who Jesus cast seven demons out of and the other Mary, went to the tomb. There were also other women there who are not mentioned by Matthew, who are mentioned in the other gospels.
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And behold, there was a great earthquake, which is the second earthquake in three days. There was an earthquake when Christ gave up his spirit and said, it is finished. And the world shook. And there was another earthquake on the Sunday morning three days later. Two earthquakes in three days. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone. And he saw, sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow. And for fear of him, the gods trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here. Hallelujah. For he has risen. As he said, come see the place where he lay. Another Gospel writer tells us that he folded his face cloth and left it there as a signal.
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It was finished. He was not coming back to that tomb.
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Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And behold, he is going before you to Galilee where his ministry started. We'll come back to that next week. So powerful. There you will see him. See, I have told you this. So they departed quickly from the tomb and with fear and great joy they ran to tell the disciples.
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And behold, Jesus met them along the way. He said, greetings. And they came up and they took hold of his feet. I can't wait for that day. I get to do that. I mean, I'll be envisioning that in my prayer closet.
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I'll be in my prayer closet, laid
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out, stretched out on the floor, just envisioning, just grabbing the feet of the Lord. I don't even need to see anything from knee up. I'm content to see everything from knee down.
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If I just see his feet, I will be content with that. Me, Philip Anthony Mitchell.
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Then Jesus said to him, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers and go to Galilee that I will see them there. Now, family, listen to me very carefully, okay? What I just read to you is the most important event in human history. And as it relates to the historicity of Christ, right? There is no argument there. This is why, like, it really bothers me when Jesus, when. When people be arguing whether or not Jesus is real. I want to help you as believers. Never argue with people about whether Jesus is real.
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That is, that is a dumb argument and it is an exercise of futility. Listen to the things we'd be saying. You'd be arguing with people, is Jesus real? A dumb argument? Don't nobody argue if Muhammad is real because there's historicity for his life. We know that he was born and lived in the 600 A.D. he died around 632 A.D. and there is evidence for his life. You never hear people arguing, is Muhammad real? No, we ex. We accept him as a historical figure who died in 632ad don't nobody argue, is George Washington real? You don't talk like that. You don't walk around saying, no, George Washington was real. No, because we accept him as a historical figure who died in 1799. So to argue if Jesus is real is a dumb argument. There is documented evidence for his life. And the only reason we talk like that, because we preach him ethereally like he was not a human being who lived a physical life. I never use the word Jewish, Jesus and real in the same sentence. You've never said George Washington and real. In the same sentence. You read about him in books like he lived, although you never met him. I never put Jesus in real. In the same sentence. Why? I talk about Jesus like he lived. If somebody lived, you don't, you don't argue whether or not they was real. The historicity for Jesus is undisputable. We know that he was a historical figure who lived in the first century and died in AD 33. That is a historical fact that is accepted the world over. His death by crucifixion in AD 33 is a historical fact and it is accepted the world over. But the resurrection of Jesus, also a historical fact, is not accepted the world over. But men all around the world argue about whether or not the resurrection really did take place. Although there is documented evidence for the resurrection, you will bump into people on college campuses and in chats who believe Jesus was a historical figure. They accept that. They accept the fact that he was crucified, documented evidence for that. They will not accept that he was raised from the dead. If they accept that is to accept the whole scriptures as truth. And they do not want to accept the scriptures and truth. So they push back against the resurrection. He is no greater than Muhammad. He's no greater than Joseph Smith. He's no greater than Buddha or Confucius. He's a man like them. He did not come out of a grave. And all around the world they deny the resurrection of Christ. You cannot. So in the 19th century you have. Rationalism explodes in the world where people try to explain away the resurrection. They came up with things like Jesus when he was on a cross, fell into a coma. This is all documented. Go read. He fell into a coma. When they took him down, he was in a coma, but his heart was still moving. They put him in the tomb and while he was in the tomb, he revived himself in the tomb some way somehow. He moved a stone while he was beaten, body mutilated. He got a stone out the way, came out the tomb, saw people outside the tomb for 40 days, then he died. That's one of the theories. Another theory that emerged in the 19th century is that the 500 plus people that saw him alive, they all hallucinated. They was all sniffing the same thing. They were all doing the same thing. And over 500 people all hallucinated. All of them hallucinated about Christ being alive. It's documented.
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Go read it.
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And he got all these arguments about whether Christ was really raised and they come up with all these other things
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to say he really wasn't resurrected. Now Family. From street corners to stages all around the world, people argue about the resurrection of Christ. Listen to me, we need to know this today. I'm telling you from street corners in Bankhead.
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I almost said Buckhead. From street corners in Bankhead, where the Y N's play to stages at Harvard and Yale, people argue about the resurrection of Christ. And every time they argue about the resurrection of Christ, they cite all of the witnesses. They cite the the eyewitnesses of the two gospel writers, Matthew and John, who saw him alive. They cite the 500 plus eyewitnesses who saw him alive, despite the women who went to the tomb who saw him alive. But there is another group of people who testified of the resurrection. The least likely people who can ever testify the resurrection. In fact, their testimony is probably the most important because they had the least to gain from telling the truth. This is so powerful to me. We love to talk about Matthew and John. Well, they loved him. We love to talk about the women. Oh yeah, they loved him. We love to talk about the 500 plus disciples. Oh, they loved him. But what about the testimony of enemies? Probably the best evidence for the resurrection did not come from friends of Jesus. Probably the best evidence of his resurrection came from the enemies of Jesus. People who had nothing to gain from talking about what they saw, did not love him, did not care about him, had no reason watch this to lie.
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Matthew records the eyewitness testimony of the most unlikely witnesses of the resurrection, the enemies of Christ. The back half of last Week's text, verse 11. While they were going, behold, some of
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the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. Pause. Who are they? The women? John tells us this all happened in the darkness of Sunday morning. So it's pitch black outside. They only got the moonlight and the stars. Now pay attention to the scene. It is Sunday morning in the dark. Gosh, this is powerful. A group of women went to the tomb looking for Jesus, did not believe he was raised. They was going there with spices. To finish what they started. Why? Because Jews believe if a body laid dead for four days, it will be stinking nasty. So on the third, this is so powerful. So on the third day, before the fourth day, they're going back to anoint him one more time. They get there, they see a tomb open and Jesus missing. They are worried, they are concerned. They go, listen. They see Jesus as they're leaving that tomb. He tells them, go and testify that I am raised. In the middle of the night on Sunday morning, a group of women is running through the streets of Jerusalem. Watch with the truth, with the facts of the resurrection. At the same time, a group of guards are also running through the street of Jerusalem with the facts about the resurrection. One group is running through the city with the facts for the purpose of truth, to reveal. Another group is running through the city with the same facts to conceal. Both groups running through the city of Jerusalem. They both got the same facts, but they're both running through the city of Jerusalem with different motives. See, this is how you can have facts and have wrong motives with those facts. Don't nobody know nothing about this. Husband and wives know something about this. I know what it is to have
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facts and get into an argument with my wife.
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And I'm not arguing with her just to have understanding.
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I'm arguing to win. Crushing her in the process with those facts. Have to come back later to repent, to say I'm sorry. Because you can have facts with wrong motives.
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This is like some of you who've
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been on the receiving end of facts, but the person's heart wasn't right.
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So they're giving you facts, but their motives are not pure. And then the outcome is not good. Although you heard facts, it was not received with the right motives.
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I know y' all millennials just live a little bit longer. And you, you, you'll.
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You'll run into relational tension, marital tension, tension on the job. You'll run into issues with people who got facts but with the wrong motives. And instead of producing good with those facts, they produce wickedness with those facts. No, this is like parents who manipulate children who are divorced. I ain't stupid. This is like parents who are separated and they give their children facts with the wrong motives. You giving them facts with the motive to turn them against the spouse. Yeah, your mama left me. She did. But tell them why your. Your mother. Your mother left me. She. She abandoned our family. Yes, she did. Tell them why the mother left. Cuz you were foul and a poor leader. Facts don't mean right. 2 group of people is running through Jerusalem streets with the same facts.
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The tomb is empty. A group of women running to reveal. A group of men running to conceal. They arrive at the gathering place of the chief priests, the pastors of Israel.
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And then the scripture says they tell the pastors of Israel what all that happened. Now, Matthew does not tell us what
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all means, so we have to read
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all of the accounts to fill in what this all means. The guards were terrified. Why? Because you and I, who've ever watched a scary movie, you Know what it is to be walking on your house and be terrified? You might see something in the dark. These guards were in the pit. Pitch blackness. And then out of nowhere, a being just falls from heaven with lightning all around him, lands on the to and they pass out like dead men. So afraid their heart failed them, they fall down unconscious. The ones who come to take those facts and they go straight to the house of the pastors of Israel. And then they tell them all that happened. If they told the pastors of Israel all that happened, what did the chief priests hear? They would have heard from the guards. Listen, we were sitting there guarding the tomb like you asked us to. We were taking shifts throughout the night. He had the first shift, he had the second shift. He had the third shift. I had the fourth shift. It was different watches of the night. When we least expected, we seen a flash of light fall from heaven and we were terrified. Whatever that thing was, it landed on the tombstone. It rolled away the big stone. And then we looked inside and the body of Christ was gone. The guards were the first to see the events of the resurrection. Before the women, before any disciples of Jesus saw anything. The first people to see the events
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of the resurrection were the enemies of
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Jesus who had nothing to gain by lying. They run straight to the passage of
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Israel and said, we saw an angel,
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we saw the tomb open up. We looked inside there. Either we saw a man walk out, we don't know. But that body we was guarding is not there. He's gone.
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Roman soldiers who just put him to death three days ago were the first to see all of the resurrection before anybody else. They would have told them, listen, we
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was there and the ground shook.
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But y' all gotta read. We was. I'm a pictorial person, so I put myself in the text. We was. We was there and then the ground started shaking under us.
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Something appeared in the dark. We were terrified. It opened the tomb and a man came out. We don't know what happened to him. This is what they say, but he's gone. Facts watch.
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Why didn't they go back to the. To the governor who appointed them?
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We read that in previous texts. It was the governor who gave the guards to.
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Why didn't they go back to him? They run into the chief priest because they got to figure out what to do.
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Watch with the facts of what they saw.
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The facts are Roman soldiers saw an empty tomb.
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Watch.
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They tell the pastors everything that they saw.
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The chief priests.
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Then what did the chief priest do with the information of the resurrection? Verse 12 and when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, we want you
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to go out and tell a different story. Watch. Watch how powerful this is. Quote, tell people that is, go out and preach this instead. His disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. This is so much heat. Listen to me. Everybody watch. The evidence that Christ was raised beyond Matthew, beyond John, beyond the 500 witnesses, beyond the women, was the fact that the chief priest created a lie. If they did not believe he was raised, there would be no need to change the story. These men obviously believed what the soldiers told them. If they did not believe that Jesus was raised, they would not create a different narrative. These are the same men.
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Gosh.
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Lord, help us. These are the same men who watch Jesus teach and preach for three years. These are the same men who heard about his miracles. These are the same men who put him on a cross. These are the same men that saw darkness cover the land. These are the same men that felt the earth shake beneath their feet. These are the same men who saw the temple curtain ripped from the top to the bottom.
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These are the same men who heard Jesus quoting Psalm 22 on the cross. I'm going somewhere with this.
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Watch.
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These men knew he was the Son of God.
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Watch.
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And they knew he had been raised from the dead. And now they got to make a
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decision what they do with that information.
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So they call a meeting.
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The chief priests go get the elders, and. And now all of the leaders of the church have come together. We have just killed the Son of God. And if the story gets out that he was raised because you believe it, we will lose all of our authority. We'll lose our titles. We're going to lose our position. We want to control Israel. Watch. Now that we know he was the Son of God and he raised, what are we going to do with the information now? Watch.
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Now, everybody watch. The love of God, What God was giving them in this moment was one last opportunity
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to repent.
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One last opportunity to repent. You know why? Because they got the news of the resurrection before the disciples. And now God is giving the leaders of Israel all of the facts of the Son of God and his resurrection. And what do they do with those facts? They convene a meeting and they make a decision to do three things. Watch. We will suppress the truth. I'm almost done. We will watch, engineer a false narrative, and we will Take church money, Temple money.
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Give me that camera.
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And we will take temple monies.
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To manufacture evil as we spiritually abuse these soldiers. Like the same thing ain't happening right now. Like we don't have spiritual leaders who use temple money to abuse people and engineer doctrines that are lies. Spending money to export lies. Deceiving people from the platform.
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Yeah,
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manipulating people. God said 15 of you need to bring me 150,000 now. Like we don't have corrupt priests today that work around money and lies to spiritually abuse people. But no, watch this. Like these men with no fear of the person they got to face in the judgment when they die. No fear, no fear. We only get away with that temporarily. I ain't playing no games today. We want to get away with that foolishness temporarily. They bribe those soldiers. They spend money on that bribe they manufacture. And watch. This a lie to cover the facts about the resurrection. We got people and platforms doing the same thing today. Manufacturing lies to cover the truth about God's word. Afraid to deal with the truth. And what the evidence that came to them should have done should have moved them towards humility and repentance. Instead, it moves them towards pride, arrogance, and lies. And before you critique them, you and
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I do the same thing. I'm talking to you now. Before you pounce them, let's talk about you.
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What do you do with truth when it comes? Do you push back with pride and arrogance, manufacture a false narrative above the word of God? The word says forgive, but you create your own narrative why you should not. The word says lives holy, but you create your own narrative why you should not. The word says love, but we create our own narratives why we should not. And on and on and on and on. You just love hearing sermons. But when it comes time to really deal with the truth, we create our own narratives to suppress the truth of God's word so we can live out lies. We do the same thing. Now, you don't like me. You want to pounce on them, but we won't pounce on ourselves for doing the same thing. When truth comes to you, how often the truth come to you in a conversation, in a coaching, on a phone call, in a text, in a sermon. And you suppress that truth to engineer your own narrative.
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You know who else does that? I got one more verse and I'm done. You know who else does that? He do it to you and me all the time. The devil does that.
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Look at me. No, look right at me.
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He does that to you and I all the time. Always trying to suppress truth in your heart, engineering lies in your mind to lead us astray. And we be entertaining those lives. Do this, and I'll hook you up with that. Says the devil. Ain't that what he did to Jesus in the wilderness? Kneel down and I'll give you all of the trinkets and toys of the world if you just bow down and worship me. Ain't that what he does to you? And I lie. Before I read this last verse, I. I just. I need to point this out to you. I personally don't understand how human beings could see the sun go black in the middle of the day, experience two earthquakes, Get the news of an empty
- [47:56]
B
tomb,
- [47:58]
A
and still not repent. Look at me. You know what it tells us about humanity? You see it on social media all the time. On TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Look at me. You know, it's easier for us to believe lies than the truth. I'm talking to you. It's easier for human beings to believe lies than the truth. You. You just be thumbing and seeing people saying the most craziest things. But when truth comes, they resist truth.
- [48:28]
B
That's why I'm persecuted. People call me a false prophet. How? When I encourage people to read the Scriptures for themselves. Ain't no false prophet begging people to read the Bible. False prophets don't even open the scriptures. They just talk for 45 minutes and sway you. Without the Bible. And I'm a false prophet? You. You know why they attack me in culture? Because men don't like truth. It ain't me, it's you. We. We drinking lies like water and spit out truth like it's poison. And you wonder why the Church is in the condition it's in right now and why humanity's in the condition it is right now.
- [49:32]
A
These priests told these men, look at this. Before I read this last verse.
- [49:37]
B
Look at how stupid. Look at the stupidity of this.
- [49:41]
A
Take this money, watch, and then go out and tell everybody you were sleeping. And while he was sleeping, his disciples came and stole the body.
- [49:48]
B
Okay, Watch how idiotic this is.
- [49:51]
A
First things first.
- [49:52]
B
No Roman soldier will ever be sleeping on the job. Because in Rome, men were killed for failing in mission. So because Roman soldiers were put to death for failing, there's no way they will be sleeping on the job. Then tell them the disciples stole his body. The same cowards that ran when he was being beaten. The same cowards that ran when he was on the cross. Now all of a sudden, they're going to come and they're going to overpower some Roman guards like they thugs now and open a tomb they couldn't move and stop. Steal a body. They didn't have the courage to do that. That's stupid. Oh, let's go. Even more stupid. Tell them that while you were sleeping, the disciples stole the body. How would you know they did that if you were sleeping? Come on, family. How idiotic is that? You don't know what's happening when you sleeping. The spouse was anointing you with oil while you were sleeping. You didn't even know. So while they was in a deep sleep, you know that the disciples came
- [51:18]
A
and stole the body. I think the fact that the leaders of Israel will go through such lengths to construct a lie, it's probably the greatest evidence that this really happened.
- [52:14]
B
Because watch.
- [52:15]
A
If they had the body, why not just produce it? If the body was missing, only two people could have taken it, either his friends or his enemies. The body's not there. It's forensics. The body's not there. His friends couldn't have taken it because they were cowards. And if the enemies had the body, watch. Then produce it.
- [52:46]
B
That will crush the church.
- [52:47]
A
There will be no Book of Acts.
- [52:56]
B
If you have the body, Produce the body. No book of Acts.
- [53:16]
A
I'm done, frank. The fact that the enemy will go through great lengths to crush something must be a signal to us. It must be truth. There. That's why he always attacked. 28:19 is why they use my name to make money. Flies only hang around light.
- [53:56]
B
There's no truth.
- [53:56]
A
There's nothing for the devil to attack. He don't attack what he own. The fact that these men would go through all of this work to cover what the soldiers told them is one of the greatest evidences in history that
- [54:21]
B
there was no body to found. There was no body to be found.
- [54:28]
A
That the enemies of Christ prove in their foolishness, he was resurrected from the dead. Now, while Matthew will go on to say in verse 15, the last verse, so they took the money and they did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. When Matthew wrote this, he's writing in AD 60s. Thirty years later, 30 years after the resurrection, the story is still circulating from this moment that the disciples stole the body of Jesus, although nobody was ever found.
- [55:15]
B
Three decades.
- [55:16]
A
Imagine somebody lying on you and your
- [55:18]
B
family's still talking about it.
- [55:19]
A
Three decades later, y' all still talking about this foolishness. Three decades later, this story still circulating in Israel. Justin Martyr I've read this week, read in the hundreds AD that that story was still circulating in the hundreds.
- [55:36]
B
AD you have men like Josephus, a
- [55:42]
A
Jewish historian who wrote about the resurrection of Christ in his own books, biblical and non biblical sources that testify to the resurrection of Christ.
- [55:53]
B
Or like a former atheist named Lee Strobel who investigated the resurrection of Christ and wrote in his book the Case for Christ, documented evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.
- [56:07]
A
Watch.
- [56:12]
B
The eyewitnesses testify.
- [56:15]
A
The women testify. The 500 disciples testified. Matthew and John testified. His enemies testify. It's a possibility, possibility that archaeology may have testified. Give me my picture. Control room. This is a burial cloth was found and emerged around 1300s.
- [56:55]
B
The imprint on that clothes with the
- [56:57]
A
imprint of a man who they know, unidentified man who beared all of the evidence of a person who was crucified.
- [57:07]
B
This is called the Shroud of Turin.
- [57:13]
A
So in display in glass, very few
- [57:15]
B
eyes can see it. On that shroud, they found pollen from
- [57:20]
A
the Middle east, traces of blood. And there's been arguments for decades whether or not it's authentic or not.
- [57:29]
B
But in the image, there is the image of a man wrapped in that
- [57:32]
A
cloth, a space in his hands where
- [57:36]
B
Spike would have went through. And people argue and say, well, it can't be real because the image on a cloth is 3D. And that kind of technology did not exist in those days to have a 3D image on a cloth. So how could a 3D image end up on a cloth? Well, I don't know.
- [57:55]
A
Of no other way except a burst of light. Would have left the image on the clothes. And it's very possible, possible that the Father may have left in the earth a picture of the Son stained
- [58:26]
B
on a rag to keep shutting down the
- [58:31]
A
lies of humanity that say Christ was not raised from the dead.
- [58:39]
B
I close this message with one challenge to you. Men all around the world are spending money to export lives. I would to God. The people of God all around the world would give up their own resources, their own prayers, their own whatever to export truth. That while people in the society are doing everything they can on social media to spread lies, that we will be the voices in this last days to propagate the truth. We will tell of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will pray and push forth the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will give offerings to support gospel ministry that put forth the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will be the men, women and children that give up our lives in these last days to export truth. We will say, Jesus came, Jesus lived. Jesus died. Jesus rose. Jesus is coming back again. Why? Because he is alive. If you believe that, give him praise in this place right now. He's alive. Alive. We stand on that. That the one we serve is alive. When I'm talking to a Muslim, when I'm talking to a Jehovah's Witness, when I'm talking to anybody, we stand on the truth that Christ was raised as the Son of God and that he is alive and coming. So the Scriptures are true. His promises are true, His Word is true, Revelation is true. Genesis to revelation is true. All of it is true. Because he's alive. Eternal God and of a wise Father, I pray. Something would burn in our hearts right now. A type of gospel boldness in the resurrection of Christ that makes us stand on that word, stand on the truth, stand in the face of the lies of culture. We thank you. We serve a resurrected Savior who is seated at your right hand, who has gone to prepare a place for us and who is coming back for us. And until he comes, may we labor in humility, in unity, sacrifice through our prayers, our serving, our giving, our sacrifices to push out the truth of Jesus
- [62:20]
A
to the ends of the earth.
- [62:23]
B
Asking the mighty and the majestic and
- [62:28]
A
the matchless name of our soon coming
- [62:32]
B
king, the Lord Jesus Christ. Does somebody give him praise in this place right now?
- [62:42]
A
Hallelujah.