Jesus The Son of God — John 20

0:01 My desire in giving this meeting as the Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified and might be magnified. He's the Son of God. I'm going to start off the meeting by reading one verse from John's Gospel chapter 20, and this is in the context of the resurrection, however, it refers back to the entire life of the Lord Jesus. John chapter 20 and verse 31, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. It's critical that we understand that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that we enter into it.

0:52 It's my desire that I would enter into it as a living and a bright reality, that it'd be something that would just spark in my heart, that I would just be rejoicing. It's not always that way. Sometimes I find myself not not entering into it, but I desire it, and that's what I'd like to do today is to enter into it as fully as possible, to realize that this man who came and was born into this world is the son of God. Turn with me to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one verse 31.

1:33 This is when the angel appeared to Mary to announce to her the birth of this wonderful child that was to be born to her. Behold, conceive you in your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man?

2:13 And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God, and of course that's what the witness of the virgin birth was all about. So seven hundred years before Isaiah said this, behold a virgin shall conceive, Isaiah seven fourteen, behold a virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a child, and and you shall call his name Emmanuel, and that's quoted in Matthew chapter one as validating the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus. You shall bring forth a son, shall call his name Emmanuel, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.

3:29 So when the Lord Jesus came amongst us mankind, this mankind, he was shown quickly to be the son of God himself, God with us. Well, if we if we think and go through in our minds this story of the Lord Jesus, the timeline. So he's born and we're told this in the book of Psalms, the twenty second chapter. It says, it says, you, it says, I was cast upon you from the womb. You are my God from my mother's belly.

4:15 I pondered what that means. I know it's just slightly different than the New King James. I was quoting from the old King James. I was cast upon you from the womb. Dependence.

4:31 It's an interest, it's almost a fantastic statement because we're saying that from the moment the Lord Jesus was born, he had a sense of dependence upon his Father God. None of us could say such a thing, and though the Lord Jesus in his body and in his normal man capabilities developed as a normal child, still morally and spiritually the Lord Jesus was the son of God always, and so we're told that he was cast upon his father from the womb. Just think of that little baby that Mary's suckling at her breast. That baby was cast upon God. You are my God from my mother's belly.

5:21 I believe that has the significance that that from from the time that he was born, from from that very moment, the Lord Jesus had a sense of God. There was there was a there was a dependence, a subordination to the father. None of us could claim that, but Jesus was the son of God, and so that was true of him. The Lord Jesus did grow up a fairly natural life. He he he he...

5:55 We're told that he grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man, and so his development was fairly natural. Nobody looked at him and said, oh, there's the Messiah, there's the Son of God. No one said that. He looked like a normal person. It was in the moral and spiritual line that he showed his perfections.

6:17 Imagine a child that never sinned. Mothers try to think about that. I think every parent has looked at their children and said, What a self centered little machine. Everything this little child does is for himself. So often that's true.

6:34 There's a few children that seem to have by temperament different, but I know that I certainly had observed it, and my children, and I'm sure my parents observed it, and me too. The Lord Jesus never sinned. He was not like that at all. So, was a difference in the moral spiritual revelation of Jesus as he lived here. And so so supposing you were James or one or or Julius, one of the brothers of Jesus, and and and how would you like to have a brother that that never sinned?

7:11 Mom would always say, can't you be like Jesus? And somehow or another, would shrink down and say, no, not like Jesus. But that's what it probably was like. So he grew up. We know that after the trip to Egypt, were back in Nazareth, and then they made yearly trips up to the temple.

9:00 And are you coming to me? And Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness, and then he allowed him. And when he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the waters, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. So in our in our mind's eye and our imagination, we can see John the Baptist taking Jesus and baptizing him, and as he comes up out of the water, we're told that this most unusual happening, that the spirit of God came fluttering down like a dove, and lands on the head of the Lord Jesus.

9:52 I always wondered how exactly what it was like. Did it remain on his head, did just like sink down into him? That's what I visualize it probably did, that it was the Holy Spirit, you know. And so, the Holy Spirit comes upon him, but at that very moment, what should happen but this tremendous God voice comes out of heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, and and so God himself makes this pronouncement. In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus said, says speaking of himself, Him hath God the Father sealed.

10:39 It's worded a little bit different in the New King James. So so the Lord Jesus looked back at that moment, that was God's sealing of them. What would it mean to be sealed? Well, in my mind it would be like a stamp of approval. God puts his stamp of approval, or what I like maybe even better is his stamp of authenticity.

11:05 Maybe if you see a label somewhere, it's authentic, it may say on it. And so, this visible evidence of the spirit coming down on him, and this voice from heaven, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. God's stamp of approval, God's stamp of authenticity on this one. John the Baptist tells about this. If you turn with me to the Gospel of John chapter one, John tells about this, and I think it's rather interesting.

11:42 John chapter one and verse 31. So John's speaking here and he says, I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. They had asked him earlier, why are you baptizing with water? And he's giving them the reason here. I'm doing it because this is how he's going to be revealed to Israel.

12:11 That's gonna be his introduction. And so John bore witness saying, I saw the spirit of God descending from heaven like a dove and remained on him, and I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. So John is saying, you know, I didn't really know for sure. I don't know whether it means he didn't know Jesus at all or just didn't know that he was the Messiah. I didn't know him, but I had this message.

12:53 God had given me this word that that the the one... I would know that one because I'd know him because the spirit would come down upon him. And then John adds this statement, and he said, I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. Well of course, John is the one who stood there and puts Jesus under the water and then he sees the dove coming, and his throat must have caught him and said, it's him, this is the one, and then at that very moment, the pronunciation comes out of heaven, this is my beloved son, and John, a few months later, he's talking to those that came down to ask him from Jerusalem, and he said, I've seen and testified that this is the Son of God. Doesn't it kind of thrill your heart to to try to visualize that point?

14:22 What a wonderful pronouncement. Okay, so now what I... If we... We've introduced Jesus into his public ministry, it's gonna be approximately three years long, and and so all through this public ministry does these wonderful miracles, and constantly constantly the witnesses as to who he is. One of the most interesting things I remember was at the time when the Lord Jesus stilled the waters.

14:56 So the Lord Jesus, waters come up, they're about to sink the boat. Master, save us, we perish, and he says peace be still, and he stills the waters. These mammoth waves coming into the boat, and suddenly they're just smoothed out. And the disciples had been almost in shock over the danger, and now suddenly total peace, and they stand there, and then suddenly the wheels are grinding, you know. And they look at each other, and they say, who is this?

15:28 That even the winds and the waves obey him. And I really enjoyed the way it says it in the Gospel of Matthew. There's a footnote in my Bible in the Gospel of Matthew, it footnotes, and it says, literally it means, what sort of man is this that even the winds and the waves mayhem. And so, can see that as these gears are grinding in their mind, they're thinking, woah, what did I just see? You know, they're looking, and then what kind of a person could do a miracle like that?

16:07 What sort of man is this that even the winds and the waves? So, he gave the witness of his miracle, three long years of it, case after case after case, a witness as to who this wonderful man Jesus was. Jesus is the son of God. So, now what we're gonna do is we're gonna run forward in the life of Jesus still further. We're going to going to we're going to take the Lord Jesus clear to the cross.

16:35 Okay? He's he's he's Pilate Pilate stands. Jesus stands in front of Pilate and Pilate Pilate says clearly, I find no fault in this man, and yet Pilate condemned an innocent man. Pilate asked this question. He said, what shall I do with Jesus who's called Christ?

17:06 And Pilate made the wrong decision. He sent Jesus. He condemned Jesus. But I would say that that question that Pilate asked, what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ, that that is the question for the ages. That's the question that each one of us must ask in our hearts.

17:28 What will I do about this? What will I do with Jesus? What does he mean to me? And so we're driven back to try to evaluate in our hearts, who is this man, and what should my relationship be with this man, Jesus Christ? And so, Pilate condemns him.

17:50 He's beaten within an inch of death, so to speak. He's beaten 40 stripes, and they they take him out to Calvary, and spikes are driven through his hands and his feet, and he's nailed up into a cross. People that observed it were... Many... Some wept, others shook their head, others mocked.

18:20 One of the one of the sayings that was made to him in mockery towards Jesus while he was on the cross was this, If you're the Son of God, come down from the cross. If you're the son of God, come down from the cross. I I remember a story years ago that was told, I think it was by John Lennox, of meeting up with with some atheistic Jews that that he witnessed to. But in the course of witnessing to them, he said, Well, you know of course that I believe that Jesus Christ is your Messiah, and then they said, yes, we know you believe that. So he said, so if Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and if Jesus Christ is as he said he was, the Son of God, then we have to ask a question.

19:19 We have to ask a question. Why is the Son of God hanging on a cross? And and a person could look at in faith. I actually asked that question at the City Mission one time, and someone actually had the brass to speak up publicly there and say it's because he was a fool. And I thought, no.

19:45 I corrected the man. I said, I thought, no, no, but if the Son of God would would submit to being nailed to a cross and to hanging there to the shame and the pain of the cross, then God is doing something great. God wouldn't permit that unless he had some objective that's so magnificent, so wonderful, that God the Son would permit men to hang him on the cross. And, so we have we have the manifestation of John the Baptist statement, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so so he couldn't save himself, but he could have saved himself.

20:38 He said he had... He could call 10,000 angels, but he couldn't save himself and save you and me, and so he stayed on the cross, and we praise his name for that. So so the Lord Jesus is hung up there on the cross. You... Say you're this centurion over here, and you're observing this scene, and you see him not like the others, not cursing, and swearing over, and not screaming and hollering, but quietly submitting, and and yet just as much nailed to a cross, and and you you see them pray this prayer.

21:18 You you you say, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. Father, forgive them. And so so this prayer this prayer of forgiveness, who could pray a prayer like that? Well, the son of God could. The son of God could do that.

22:13 Some of them are sobbing, some of them are frightened, probably all of them are frightened, probably the centurion himself was frightened, and they must have asked this question. Will will it ever get light again? Is is this the end? Is this the end of the world? What's going on here?

22:33 And and of course, we know it it did start to get light eventually. It got light again, And then we're told that the Lord Jesus, we're told in the two different Gospels. One says that Jesus cried out with a loud voice and gave up the ghost, and then another one of the Gospels says that Jesus said, It is finished, and he gave up the ghost. So I would take it that it means that the Lord Jesus cried out with a loud, maybe even a victorious voice, it is finished, and with that he just dismissed his spirit, and you're the centurion, you're watching this, you've never seen anything like this before, and the Lord Jesus just dies. I suppose this in the centurion puzzles.

23:25 Is he really dead? Looks at him from different angles. He appears to be dead, and then we know that the commandment came to break their legs. They came to the Lord Jesus, and they said, he's dead already. Let's not bother to break his legs.

23:40 They just took a spear, and they thrust it up in his side. We're told in the Bible that the blood and water gushed out when they pierced his side. The blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin, and praise the Lord for for the the clarity of the gospel. So you're the centurion. You've watched this whole thing, and then just as just as the Lord Jesus was...

24:05 Just after the Lord Jesus had given up the ghost, had given up his spirit, dismissed his spirit, the the centurion observes that suddenly there's this huge earthquake. It's like the It's ground's shaking, and we're told that the rocks ran. I suppose that, I'm sorry, I quote from the old King James, because it's set in my mind, those huge rocks around were just cracking. It must have been a terrible sound, they're standing there, and they're... I suppose, if you'd have been to Centurion, you might have wondered if the rocks were gonna end up on your own head, and so he's standing there, but he's he's safe.

24:47 He safely survives it. But he looks at that. He looks at Jesus, and and and he says, surely this is the Son of God. I I wonder if we could in our thoughts, in our imagination, stand with Centurion and and and see the dark... The darkened sky, and hear hear the hear the cries around, that we could have maybe even heard his prayer if we would heard his own cry, it is finished.

25:25 If we'd felt the earthquake and the rending of the rock, we might have been fearful too, but all said and done we'd stare at that man on the cross. Just like they said earlier, what sort of man is this? That even the winds and the waves obey him. Now, the centurion looks at him and he makes his pronouncement. Surely, this is the son of God.

25:53 May we make... May we say amen to that. So, you're one of his disciples. Well, first of all, what to tell... So Joseph of Arimathea and and Nicodemus, they they gather together.

26:09 They beg the... Joseph begs the body of Jesus. They they take the Lord Jesus and they wrap him up with spices, I think it said meringue aloes with spices, and wrapped up in the linen cloths, and they police him in Joseph's grave, and meanwhile, here's all of his disciples, and they're destroyed. It's done. We had hoped, we had hoped that this man, this was man with the hope of Israel.

26:47 I believe, I like the way, I like the way it's expressed in Luke 24, the two on the road to Emmaus, and this is the statement they made. Said, we were hoping that he was going to redeem Israel. This is Matthew twenty four twenty one. We were hoping that that that he was going to redeem Israel. All their hopes in Jesus had been the hope that this man, this man would be the Messiah, and he would come and he would destroy the Romans, and he would deliver the Jewish nation out of the bondage to Rome, and that was their hope.

27:29 But their hope was gone. He was dead. He was dead and put in the grave, and the disciples themselves were told that for fear they were hiding behind closed doors. They were frightened. Would the soldiers come and get them?

27:45 So, there was sort of despair mixed together with almost almost a feeling of fear that you could almost feel, and and and the whole Saturday goes by, meanwhile the high priests go to Pilate and say, you know, he said that he would rise again, you better put soldiers at the grave, and so they get soldiers, and they're standing guard on the grave, in front of the grave, so they have their weapons on hand. Nobody's gonna get that body. Nobody's gonna do it. If those disciples try to come, we'll stop them, and so, the guard was set, and Jesus stayed there in the grave, but we're told we're told that sometime early in the morning while it was still dark, it would have been, I would say, have been at least after midnight, probably, I would guess three or four, three, four, 05:00 in the morning. So, it was in the morning, but it was after, it was before it was light, that we're told that there was a great earthquake, and so you want these soldiers standing in front of the the grave, and and the earthquake occurs, and and you're startled.

29:33 Was he eight feet tall? Was he seven feet tall? I don't know. He was big enough that they were scared to death in his presence. He suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of them.

29:44 We're told that his raiment was white as snow, and his countenance was like lightning, and they were startled and frightened, and were told that they began to shake, and they became like dead men. I suppose they just collapsed on the ground there, and the huge angel just came over and easily pulled aside the stone away from the the door of the grave, and sat on top of the stone. Just just the trauma of it. And and so so the Lord Jesus had risen, but what happened? Did that that angel, did he raise the Lord Jesus?

30:28 And, the answer of course is no. He pulled the stone back and showed everybody that the Lord Jesus was already gone. The Lord Jesus had already risen from the dead. That's why we believe that he actually rose at the time of the earthquake. Okay, so so we have several different descriptions in the scripture of of the women, enough so that some people have been confused by it, I believe each of the Gospels has a little bit different twist to the women, but let's remind ourselves that we're given four of the women's names.

31:08 There was Mary Magdalene, there was Mary the mother of James, there was a woman called Salome, and there was another whose name was Joanna, and she was the wife of Chusa, we're told elsewhere in the Gospels, Chusa, c h u z a, who was the steward of Herod, King Herod. Interesting little trivia from the scriptures. And so these various ones came, and I would say since there's different stories, that what we would understand then was each one of those stories would have maybe represented some other one or two of those women as they arrived, and what they experienced in the Gospel of John, or Gospel of Matthew. We're not actually told the names of the woman there, but they are standing in front of the angel, and the angel says, Don't fear, I know that you seek the Lord. Come and see the place where the Lord lay.

32:09 So he's still sitting there on the stone. In the Gospel of Mark, they come, the stone's rolled away, the angels aren't obvious, they step into the grave, and there's an angel, it even says he was over on the right side, and the angel says, he's not here, he's risen. And in the Gospel of Luke, I believe it was similar, except that when they stepped into the tomb, it says there were two angels, and and and they said to him, them, he's not here, he's risen. And so then in the Gospel of John, we're given the one case where we're specifically told who it happened to, and that's the Gospel, that's the story of Mary Magdalene. Now what I'll do is just review the story of Mary Magdalene because I love that story particularly because we're told in the Gospel of Mark that the Lord Jesus appeared first after he was risen from the dead, appeared first to Mary Magdalene, and it adds this little statement, after out of whom the Lord had cast seven devils.

33:25 Do we do we understand this Mary Magdalene? We we hear of her often times, but do we realize that this woman had had a stage in her life where she was a demon possessed woman, that that that they were actually seven demons that that were possessing this woman. She was in a terrible state. When you when you you read the story of the the demonic man out of whom the Lord cast the multitude of demons, from when you read that story, see a man, a man that's completely under the control of the demons, he would scream. He lived out in the tombs, and he would scream and holler and holler, and he would cut himself, take sharp stones, and just gash himself, and then he would scream.

34:16 Must have been the most eerie, weird place, and and that was the power of Satan over this man. Well, I don't know exactly how it manifested itself in Mary, but we're told in the scripture she was possessed by seven devils. We're not told exactly how she she was delivered from them, but we're told this that that she was delivered, so there was some point in her life that she came into contact with Jesus of Nazareth, and and and when she came in contact with the Lord with the Lord Jesus, at some point he told the demons to leave. He cast the demons out, and and that woman who in who the minute before had been had been in agony and and in despair was delivered for the rest of her life. Is it any wonder that Mary's heart was so touched that that that she was willing.

35:22 She didn't care about the soldiers. She didn't care. She wasn't frightened. She just wanted to find her Lord. And so Mary comes early in the morning, and she comes the...

35:37 She comes to the tomb, we're told that she did not actually see, or at least it doesn't mention the angel at all. I get the sense that she did not actually see the angel. She comes to the tomb, and the stones rolled away from the tomb. What is going on here? She goes and looks in the tomb, and Jesus is gone.

36:05 Her first thought was they've stolen him. Someone's stolen him away. And so she stands up, and her first reflex was, I gotta tell the disciples. She starts running. She runs all the way into Jerusalem.

36:22 Now, I ponder how would, how long would it take her. She's here, and it's still dark, probably just dusking in, or just dawning into daytime, still dark, and she starts running. She runs all the way into Jerusalem to where they are, knocks on the door. Someone's told someone's taken away the body of my Lord. Know, she's she's excited, and and and Peter and and John, I don't know, were they up yet?

36:52 Did they have to get their clothes on? I don't know what happened, you know, but but they come running back, and so so I'm going to guess that it was anywhere from one to two hours to get way down into Jerusalem, and to come back out. Took a little while to do that, and and meanwhile, probably some of the other women had shown up at the scene of of the of the tomb. We're even told in in in the Gospel of Matthew that they left. They left the scene of the tomb.

37:24 So they came and left. So I'm thinking that there was some other activity that occurred here. So then Peter and John come running. Probably the other woman, since they're not mentioned here, they probably had already left. And Peter and John come running.

37:39 Mary's running after them. They come back to the tomb. John running, he's faster running, Peter, he gets to the tomb first and he looks in the tomb, trying to figure out what's going on. Peter just comes running up behind, plunges right past John, right into the tomb. He's looking around, and then John follows them in, and they're staring.

38:01 They're trying to make some sense of what they're seeing there, and there they say over one side there's the grave clothes, and then specifically mentions that off to one side there's the napkin that was around his head was laying over to one side. They're trying to make sense of this, and what I assume, this was described to me before, and I at least give some, I think this is probably a good explanation, that when Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were bearing the Lord Jesus, they would have wrapped these linen cloths around the Lord Jesus, and then they would have taken the myrrh and aloes. According to my understanding, myrrh and aloes mixed together form a sort of a paste, and they would smear it over the cloth, and then wrap it around, smear some more on. They'd wrap it around, and they wrapped up his whole body. Remember they brought a 100 pound weight.

38:59 I assume that's our 100 pound unless somebody knows otherwise. So they had a lot of this, and they wrapped him up and, and did it right, so to speak. Well, my understanding is once that hardens, that, that resinous spicy stuff hardens, then you basically got a shell around somebody. So here's the Lord Jesus just basically in a cocoon of cloth and spices, and then when he rose from the dead, suddenly suddenly in the power of God, he just comes out out out of it. You would have said, why nobody could get out of that without getting some scissors or something and cutting cutting it loose.

39:42 You could never get out of that, but but when when when Peter and John got in there and looked at it, was something about it that in their minds they said, oh, wow. And we're told that John came in and that John believed. Apparently he's the first one that really believed that Jesus rose from the dead. Well they stayed there for a little bit. I'm gonna say it wasn't very long, probably fifteen minutes, and then they themselves took off back towards to where they were staying.

40:44 She answered him, because they've taken away the Lord. I don't know where they've laid him. And and so then Mary stands up and she turns around and there's someone standing right behind her. It was Jesus. And she she she looks at she looks at Jesus and Jesus looks at her, but remember she's her eyes are so blurry from the tears that that she doesn't recognize him.

41:13 So she says to him... So so he says to her, woman, why are you weeping? And she says to him, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and and I will take him away. And and then Jesus just said this one word. He says, Mary.

41:30 And and that one word, there was such recognition in that one word. Just a moment, just in your imagination, be there for a moment. There she stands in front of Jesus who had just died. There she stands, and he's very much alive. Raboni, it's you.

41:54 And, and then, I guess, I think Mary must have been the throw throw your arms around her, around him kind of woman. Give him that big hug, but because Jesus immediately said to her... I've lost my place here in in my story. He he said to her, do not cling to me. Do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, and to my God and your God.

42:40 So it was a definite positional declaration that he was going, and it's my father and your father. So basically declaring to them, this is your father. God the father is your father, and not only your father, but your God, because I should say it like this, because I died on the cross, Jesus would say, he's your father, and he's your God. Anyway, Mary carries the message back. Now, I'm running out of time, so I want us to turn for a moment to Luke 24, and I'm just going to review quickly his his first appearance to the 11, Luke 24 and okay, verse 36.

43:42 Now as they said these things, Jesus himself stood in their midst, in the midst of them, and said to them, peace be be to you. We're told in the other gospels that that the door was shut, that that that was... They had shut the door for fear. I assume it was a locked door there, and Jesus didn't come through that door. He suddenly stood in the midst.

44:03 They were terrified and affrighted, supposing they had seen a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do you have doubt? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that is I myself.

44:17 Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as ye see that I have. And then he showed them his hands and feet. He says they still didn't believe for joy. It's like, I must be imagining. This couldn't be real.

44:32 And so they're standing there and looking. And so he said... So he's trying to make it more real to them. So he says, do you have any food here? And so they they gave him a a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb, and he took it and he ate it in their presence.

44:48 They must have just been like, well, he is alive. He's alive. And then I like this portion because here it gives us a couple significant purpose points that Jesus opens to them, his purpose. The first purpose is, these are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. So the Lord Jesus was saying this, He was saying throughout the whole Old Testament, it's sprinkled full of prophecies about him.

45:38 And he's saying, these prophecies all had to be fulfilled, and it's like, God said it was gonna happen. You can be sure of this. It's going to happen. So he said, that was that was the first reason why I had to die, because God had said it was going to happen. But then he gives another statement of purpose.

45:58 He said, He says in the forty sixth verse, well in the forty fifth verse he said, He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. So not only did he say it had to happen, but I suppose that he went through kind of went through a quick review through a number of scriptures and said, here's this scripture, Isaiah 53, and this is referring to why I died. I was wounded for your transgressions. So he would have opened their understanding to why it was that this happened. And then in the forty sixth verse he says, thus it was written, all these scriptures that he had just reviewed with them, thus it was written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations.

46:50 It had to happen so that you and I could be saved. That's why it had to happen. Praise the Lord for that. Well, fiftieth verse, I'll try to give it about two more minutes here, and then I'll try to close out. And led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

47:45 I'm gonna jump over to it to read the way it expresses it. It says, when he had spoken these things, while they watched, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. So he just starts going up, and I suppose that as he got further up, probably no longer could, he became like a smaller, dark object. Finally, probably became a speck as he got further and further, and they're standing up there probably with their mouths hanging open watching him, and suddenly he disappears into a cloud, and they're just like almost overcome. Suddenly, they realize that they aren't alone.

48:33 There's two men in white that are standing beside them. There's two men in white standing beside them, and they, and it says, while they stood, looked steadfastly towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. He's coming again, the Son of God. Now I'm going to read one verse in closing, and that's...

49:15 That verse is from Romans chapter one, Romans chapter one and verse four, it says that he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Now, what I believe that is saying is that the resurrection from the dead was God's declaration of something, and what was that something he was declaring? He was declaring the the the holy power that had been granted to our Lord Jesus Christ as the resurrected Son of God. He was declared to be the Son of God with power. Power for what?

50:05 You name it. He has he has all power. He says in in Mark, He has all all power is given to me. All authority is given to me. So, I like to think, well he has the power to forgive our sins.

50:18 I praise his name for that. Bless him for that. I'll quote a verse in closing. This is the whole thing. This is this is the whole thing in a matchbox.

50:30 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, the son of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Have you trusted him? Why not trust him now? We're going to bow our heads and pray just if you've ever asked the Lord Jesus to be your savior, why not just ask him now?

50:57 Father God, we do thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, our savior, the son of God, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We thank you, father, that the son of God stayed on the cross that we might be redeemed from all inequity. We thank you for this. We thank you for the blessings of this story. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray in his precious name.

51:23 Amen.