Episode 200: But, God Raised Him | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

Morning. Morning. Is it still morning? Yes, it is. Is risen. He is risen. He is indeed. Amen. So this morning I opened up my Bible and I looked at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They all tell essentially the same story. They went there on the first day of the week looking for Jesus. They wanted to bring spices and finish the anointing of his body, but he was not there. He was raised.

And they said, you need to go to the mountain in Galilee where Jesus told you he was gonna go. And so, friends, the grave is empty. I actually went on the web this morning, put “webcam Jesus' grave.” What I found out is there are actually two graves in Israel. I'm not sure which one he was actually buried in, but they're both empty. They're both empty. I saw it on the camera—that Jesus is not in the grave—either one of them. So there you go.

The Resurrection and a Story from Seminary

I want to share a story now. My friend Lee Moore says, never speak ill of the dead. That's a cheap shot to speak ill of the dead. Would you agree? So we're gonna change this dude's name. I need a name. Doctor, how about Fudd? Elmer Fudd. Okay, we're gonna use Fudd.

When I was in seminary, I had many great things—like, we had singing every day. People there, they wanted to sing, and it was pretty powerful. We had some great teachers. I think of Dean Reed and David Scott, some of these guys. It wouldn't matter what they were teaching, what subject, because a great teacher, you just want to be in their class.

But then the second semester, I got this other guy. We're gonna call him Doctor Fudd. Doctor Fudd. Wow. What a unique individual God made in Doctor Fudd. He had a long, unkempt beard. In fact, I don't think the man owned a comb. I'm not sure he showered on a regular basis. He had yellow stains on his fingers because he smoked more than a man on death row. He was a crusty old man, kinda like an Old Testament prophet. It really just fit with what he was teaching.

There I am in seminary. I'd been a Christian all thirteen months, and I went to seminary because they told me you could learn the Bible in seminary. Funny, but I went there to learn. And this man got up, and I didn't have much theology or Bible at that point. But he was saying stuff, and I'm like, that doesn't sound right.

Basically, I raised my hand. I'm sitting in a class of much older students. Many of them had been lawyers and very smart, analytical types. Some were business owners, ten, fifteen, twenty years older than I was. I look like Doogie Howser. But this man was basically saying that Jesus was not raised physically from the dead. And I was waiting for one of the to raise his hand and debate the guy. They didn't raise their hand, so I'm like, well, I guess Lord is me.

I raised my hand, and he looks at me. I say, sir, I'm confused. I'm confused. Sounds like what you're saying is that Jesus was not physically raised from the dead. And there are a lot of reasons that confuses me because Saint Paul says, if Christ has not been raised from the dead, you're still in your sins and your faith is a joke. And we're to be most pitied of all people. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.

And I said, but Doctor Fudd, the thing that really confuses me is I just sat behind you in chapel thirty-five minutes ago. And during the creed, you stood to your feet and you said, he was raised on the third day. I believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. So could you please tie those two things together for me? I heard you say it, and now in class, thirty-five minutes later, you're denying it.

With all the condescension—that's the word I was looking for—this bearded, unkempt, smelly beef cheese kind of guy, cigarette smoker man, could muster, he said, well, that was liturgy. I'm like, oh, okay, that really explains it all. So you don't believe it, but you get a paycheck from a seminary that believes it, and you say it in worship, but you don't really believe it.

The Main Passage: Acts 10:34-43

Today, we're going to be in this epistle. We're not going to do one of the gospel accounts because they all tell the same story: He's not there. He's risen. The grave was empty. But now, in this reading that the church has held for years, we see Peter. Peter is giving basically a short Easter sermon.

If you have your Bible, if you have an app, turn to Acts chapter 10. I'll give you a little context so you don't just kind of come into the movie blind, okay? Basically, the Lord has just been teaching Peter that he no longer has to keep the Jewish dietary laws. Like, anything God's made is clean. He says, kill and eat.

Then, after dealing with him on the food, he's trying to teach him that God actually, the gospel, is not just for Jews. It's for people of every tongue, tribe, and nation, which really blew his mind. So, when we begin in Acts 10:34, it says:

So Peter opened his mouth and he said, Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.

Friends, this is the gospel right here. Who opened his mouth? Peter. Not Fudd, Peter. Why is that remarkable? If you were to turn to almost the end of Matthew's gospel, Peter is saying, Lord, you know, blah blah blah. I'm a do this. I'm a do that. I'm a be with you to the end. And Jesus says, Peter, I tell you the truth: the rooster crows, the cock crows, you will deny me three times. And he did.

He denied Christ three times, and yet here he is again. God did not flick him away. He didn't throw him away nor was God caught off guard or surprised that Peter, under duress and stress, would try to save his own life by denying Jesus. But isn't it gospel? It’s grace that, here, Peter is, just a short time later, declaring that Jesus was raised from the dead. Unashamedly, boldly proclaiming, Christ is risen from the dead. Wow.

So, Peter opened his mouth and he said, Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality.

You know what non-Christians hate about Christians? If you ask, go with a microphone and say, hey, what do you think of Christians? Judgmental. What do you think Christians? They hate homosexuals. What do you think about Christians? Right? They think we're just so stuck up, so narrow-minded, so whatever, whatever. But here we're seeing that God is not like that. It says here that God shows no partiality. But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right or righteous is acceptable to him.

Anyone. And so, we see this really all through the Scriptures, especially in the New Testament. John 3:16—

For God so loved the world... — John 3:16

You’ve heard of it. Yes. Yes. Yes. You’ve heard of it. So, do you see his impartiality? God so loved the world. How about in Romans 2:11?

For God shows no partiality.

It’s pretty clear. How about in Revelation, almost the very last breath of the book? It says, the spirit and the bride say, come. To anyone who is thirsty, let them come.

So you see, God is seeking those who will worship him. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Y'all come. Y'all come.

And so it says, God shows no partiality. That’s what the Bible displays. In every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable. Now, I read that and I got confused. What do you mean? Anyone that fears him and does what's right? The whole point of the gospel is that we don't do right. And so I had to look up: I looked at a verse. It’s John 6:29:

The work of God is to believe on him whom the Father sent.

So, this thing he's calling us to, this righteous living, is actually something that's given by the Father to unworthy people. It's like he covers us with a code of righteousness—it's a gift and grace that had won the heart of Peter.

And it goes on, and he’s retelling the story. Verse 37:

You yourselves know what happened through all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power.

There are a lot of preachers that have lots of words, right? I never met a word I didn't like. Words. Words. Words. Words. Words. Words. Inside of you. You remember that? Yeah. Sorta. Yeah. But they say Jesus—God the Father anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power.

And so, even when he's a little boy, he goes in the temple and they’re like, oh my gosh, we've never heard anybody teach like this—a man who preaches and teaches with authority. It’s also the same man that reached down to the little girl and says, Talitha Kumi, little girl, I say to you, arise. It’s the same one who came to the man born blind, touches his eyes, and heals them. The man goes, I don't know how he did it. All I know is I was blind and now I see. Jesus did miracle after miracle after miracle. He even raised Lazarus from the dead, four days dead. He raised him from the dead because the Father had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power.

And he continues, saying he was preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ.

What word have you gotten about God? God helps those who help themselves? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps? Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die? What message? What false message? Cults always do two things: they pull Jesus down to be less than God, and they push man up toward divinity.

Here, Jesus is preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. And God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. He was doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.

And you're like, Quig, I went to college. I don't believe in the devil. You don't. That's perfect—that's exactly what he wants you to believe. Was it C.S. Lewis who said, one of the first things the devil does is try to convince you he does not exist?

You see friends, I have seen the handiwork of the evil one, and I never saw him in a red suit with a pitchfork. He masquerades as an angel of light. He goes to and fro seeking whom he may destroy. And the devil is out to destroy our lives. In fact, my uncle, who was a New Ager and psychiatrist, told me one day—we were talking about the devil and how my bishop, a former Episcopal Bishop, had yelled at me and called me to his office because I believed in the devil. My uncle said, well, I’ll tell you this: I’ve been practicing psychiatry for almost forty years, and I can tell you if there's no devil, somebody's doing really good work for him.

You've seen it—the destruction of lives. Parents who won’t speak to their kids and kids who won’t speak to their parents. Siblings who won’t talk to each other. They get married, but their sibling won't even come. Enmity and strife and bitterness and brokenness, and they find the dead body of a 29-year-old just down the street. Who knows what happened to this poor man? Do you see it? With the drugs? The enmity?

And it's not just them. It’s in the church too—the brokenness, the ugliness, the bitterness. It's all in the story. And Jesus came in the power of the Spirit to heal those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Peter’s Witness and the Great Commission

Then in verse 39, he says: we, we are witnesses. And I’d have to say, Peter, you’re a pretty bad witness. You denied him right out of the gate. But Peter says, I’m still a witness.

The Greek word for witness is martyr—you may have heard that word. Most of these believers, because of their trust, belief, and faith in Jesus being raised from the dead, were put to death themselves—horrible, horrible deaths. Because we're witnesses of all that Jesus did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

Then it says, they put him to death by hanging him on the tree. Friends, let me get your attention for a second. When it says they, I read this week that oftentimes, on Good Friday or after people read a lesson like this, they've gone out and done violence to Jewish people. May it never be so. Who were the apostles? Jews. Right? Who was Jesus? A Jew. So this whole idea that all Jews were responsible for the death of Christ is false. I'm responsible for the death of Christ. It was the Jewish leaders, the religious leaders—not all Jews. God loves the Jews.

It goes on. It says we’re witnesses. They crucified him, the most horrible death. It’s a painful death. The Romans were sick. They tried to think of the sickest, most painful way to destroy a human—that’s crucifixion. And then it says in verse 40, I need you to underline that one.

So, all these terrible things—Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, sin bearer—was crucified and hung on a tree. But then, in verse 40, it says:

But God.

It’s always “but God.” That’s the whole point of the book. But God. We’re a train wreck, but God. We’re lost, but God. We're bitter, but God. We hate those we should love, but God. We're lost and have no purpose or way forward, but God. It’s always but God.

What do you have that you’ve not received? Faith is a gift. But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.

You know, there are many different sources—people who saw Jesus. He appeared first to the women, then to Peter, and then to the rest of the apostles. Afterwards, he appeared to more than 500 people at one time, and most of those people were still living when this was written.

Yes, Paul says: and then he appeared to me as one untimely born.

God raised him on the third day, made him to appear. Do you know even non-biblical sources reference Jesus Christ and his resurrection? They didn’t all believe it, but they referenced it. There was Pliny the Younger—no, it's not a beer, maybe a beer, but it's a person. Pliny the Younger. There’s Lucian, Tacitus, Josephus—a Jewish historian. The Babylonian Talmud. On and on. All these sources, in addition to Scripture, talk about the man Jesus and how people followed the Christ.

Application and Response

Let’s finish. It says in verse 41: not all people; he appeared not to all people, but to us who God had chosen as witnesses. Those of us who had eaten and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

Verse 42: And he commanded us—he commanded all of us who are witnesses—to do what? To preach and to testify. To preach and testify.

Don’t you understand? Like, if it’s all up to a guy in a white robe? The world is not going to be evangelized. He wants all of us to preach and testify. What are you saying, Quig? I need to go out like on the street corner and get on a soapbox with a megaphone and yell at people or hand them tracts? No. But we do need to give a reason for the hope that lies within us. It’s not that hard, people. Give a reason for any hope you have inside of you.

If you know Christ, the Bible says: Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. And so, that’s what God wants. The people who run away afraid just to tell what you know to be the truth. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. We’re to preach and testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.

Finally, verse 43: to him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

Friends, I could go on, and we could literally spend two hours looking at every passage that talks about the resurrection. You're like, I’m not sure I believe that. I’m a scientist. Okay, great. Trust me, friends, there are scientists who are a lot smarter than you. It’s not even a fair fight. There are people with three PhDs, two PhDs, their Mensa, their IQs fifty points higher than yours, and you think you're too smart to believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

I'll just tell you, you're walking in arrogance because there are people brighter than you that have bent their knee and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unlike Doctor Fudd, I think the issue isn’t really whether the tomb is empty. We could all get on a plane, go to Israel, and see Jesus' tomb is empty. We could read all the accounts, both in the Bible and outside the Bible. The issue for most people isn’t really a lack of belief in the empty tomb or the risen Christ. The problem is we don’t want to face it.

Because if we believe it, if we believe in the empty tomb and Jesus raised from the dead, suddenly a line is drawn in the sand—where now we're not Lord, but he is. That’s the problem.

That’s why Doctor Fudd, he’d say, oh, I’ll study these crazy ancient Near Eastern languages, I’ll do all this, but what he wouldn’t do is surrender lordship of his life.

And so the empty tomb is there, and I believe that if you want to go to Israel, you can see it. I don’t actually need to do that. You know how I know Jesus is real? Because I’ve talked to him.

There was a time in my life when I was so lost, and I looked good on the outside. Lost people tend to look good for a while, but inside, the wheels and lug nuts were coming off. Inside, I had no hope. Inside, there was bitterness, and I hated my dad. I hated him. I promise you, no figment of your imagination can help you love somebody you hate. It’s impossible.

No figment of your imagination can give you hope when you stand over the grave of your dead mother or father or granddaughter. Only the empty tomb and the risen Christ.

And so, I encourage you, friends, to draw a line in the sand and to believe that Jesus Christ is exactly who he said he is, and he’s proved it. His grave is still empty.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.